Beautiful and absolutely amazing! 4 different people working on the same digital canvas at the same time. This is something to sit back, relax and take in. Very enjoyable.
I bought some fresh blue berries but I was afraid they might go bad before I had a chance to eat all of them so I decided to try a recipe I found for scones. It was really easy to make and they came out delicious!
Here’s the recipe:
Blueberry Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
1 cup heavy cream (I didn’t have heavy cream so I substituted half & half)
1 cup fresh blueberries
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Sift together the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the dough. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough.
Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches. Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown.
After you take them out of the oven sprinkle powdered sugar on top.
So, the other day my sister emails me with this five minute chocolate cake recipe. The title of the email? We’re doomed! LOL!
I looked it over and thought, “I’ve got all that stuff.” So I went into the kitchen and made the concoction in a large coffee mug. You know, the kind that could suffice as a BOWL? Yep, the kind of coffee cups I like to use. In the back of my mind I’m thinking about the times my doctor asks me how many cups of coffee I drink a day and I say, “Just one.” I leave out the part that my coffee pot registers 4 cups to fill that one cup. LOL!
So, back to the cake recipe. I mixed my ingredients in that coffee bowl and put it in the microwave and viola! I had myself a nice little chocolate cake. I didn’t have any chocolate chips and boy they would have been dreamy delicious melted in that warm chocolate cake.
It was really good.
See how nicely it fits on a saucer? I bet it would be good with a sauce drizzled over it or maybe some powdered sugar sprinkled over the top. As for this baby, it was gone in no time. Yep, my sister was right, we’re doomed when we have the ability to cook something like this up in five minutes.
Here’s the recipe:
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (Microwave safe)
Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix well. Mix in chocolate chips if you have them and mix thoroughly. (The recipe she sent actually says to add the egg first and stir before adding the rest of the wet ingredients, but I just added them all at once.)
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
Don’t be alarmed if the cake rises over the mug, it will settle back down.
Allow to cool for about 30 seconds. =) Tip out onto a small plate. Eat.
It can be cut in half for two if you’re feeling generous. Tastes best warm.
Adam Lambert is one of the best American Idol contestants ever. He brings to the stage a charisma like Elvis Presley. Not, like Elvis, not like an Elvis impersonator, but instead the same quality in his performances that attracted people to Elvis. I also see in Adam a style that is like Freddy Mercury of Queen. He has that vocal range and many of Queens songs were ballads which is Adam’s forte. I think Adam is headed for a huge and successful career in the music industry.
I expect to see Adam, heading some Broadway stage shows as well. But not before he goes on tour to sell out auditoriums across the United States. I think he is going to be bigger than Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood or David Cook.
If you didn’t catch Adam’s performance on last Tuesday’s American Idol (they ran over schedule) you can watch it at this link or going to http://www.rickey.org/?p=13956
This is probably why I have always felt the need to have access to bodies of water. I don’t think I have ever lived beyond a few hours drive of the ocean in my life. When I think about the states in the middle of the USA, I often feel this dreadful feeling of being boxed in. I’m sure they have lakes and rivers that if I were to live there, I would go to, but there is just something about the ocean that relaxes me. The sound of the seagulls, the salty air, the waves crashing along the shore or onto the rocks. It mesmerizes my spirit and frees my mind.
When I lived in San Francisco I would often take my lunch hour and get a sandwich and drive down and sit in my car facing the ocean while I ate my lunch. It relaxed me. Then I’d head back to the office.
Now that I live in Sacramento, it takes an hour and a half drive to get there from here. I moved to Sac because the cost of living was cheaper but I do miss the bay.
I do have a huge aquarium in my living room. =) Oh, and candles. I MUST have candles. The mood of the room feels so good when there are candles. My husband drives me crazy because he could sit in his recliner in the dark with just the tv going. Sometimes I wonder what the hell I’m doing with this guy because we have NOTHING in common. It frustrates the shit out of me. We are like night and day. He’s a good man though and treats me exceptionally well. I probably am more of a pain in the ass to live with than he is. He thinks I’m silly with my candles.
The main strength of the Water types is feeling. The second element indicates the most probable focus for this emotional expression.
Emotional? Am I emotional? LOL!!! I run on emotions baby! I drive myself and everyone around me crazy with my emotional ups and downs.
Chimera
Water with Fire
Astrologically associated with Cancer and the Fourth House
Chimera types are motivated to achieve and maintain emotional closeness between themselves and those they are close to. They are among the most outgoing of all the types. They have a strong sense of community harmony and cooperation. They are devoted to their family whether this is an actual family or a specially chosen group of like-minded individuals.
This is true. I may not always see eye to eye with my relatives but I do consider my friends as my family. They have been with me more over the years than my relatives have.
They thrive in company and are rarely alone.
I do like my alone time though, but even when I am secluded on my computer, I have many online friends who keep me company.
They find personal fulfillment in supportive nurturing and caring roles but they emphasize self-reliance for all. They are intensely protective of those they love and are both perceptive and intuitive regarding their needs. They can seem at times to be in a world of their own because of a capacity for reflection. They are very emotionally expressive which can seem like “gushing” to other more restrained types.
"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes. I am out of control at times and hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." -- Marilyn Monroe
If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." -- John F. Kennedy