butter.

For the past 7 years, I have enjoyed a baking day during the holidays with my friend Bethany.  We used to bake ginger snaps and other fun sweet treats, but this year we got together with a couple more friends and decided to make pumpkin butter and apple butter.  The pumpkin butter ended up with a better consistency, but they both had a great taste.  Here's how the canning went...

Robbie and put the butter in sterilized jars.

The jars go back into super hot boiling water... ouch!

I got the hiccups so I stopped to breathe deep and slow... it makes your hiccups go away instantly!  Has never failed me.

All done and ready to label and give away!

Let's pose for a picture...

I look like a sleepyhead... wait, I am!

give me your scrabble tiles!

Since NaNoWriMo is over, I can finally blog again!  Whew!

I've been seeing these little scrabble tile pendants all over Etsy.  I like them so much, I figured I'd try to make some myself!  Here's what I ended up with...

they look better in person.  I need a better camera... or better lighting.

How can you resist a fat cat, nonetheless?

I won!

After some intense writing today, I completed my novel.  

53,436 words.  69 pages.  whew.  Now I can blog again!!

where is my camera cable cord?

I am having blogging withdrawals.  I lost the cable that connects my camera to my computer so I can't blog about anything fun... until my boyfriend sent me this link... click here.

His friend found this site and said she immediately thought of me! 

If you're not much of a clicker, here's something to possibly make you want to click even more...

NaNoWriMo!

It's November!  National Novel Writing Month.  

I've been thinking about doing this for the past couple of years and then November always sneaks up on me.  Then I think, "maybe I'll just do it on my own during another month." Another month keeps passing and I keep procrastinating.  I think I have so much to do but I might could swing it.  So the goal is to write a 175 page novel with 50,000 words in one month.  Crazy, frantic writing... taking risks... making it all up as you go (well, I will be anyway).

Let's see if I can get it done by November 30th at midnight!

witch fingers... yikes!

Tonight my friend Ashlee Jean came over and got me to help her make a Halloween treat for her to take to work tomorrow.  We decided to make witch fingers.  They taste similar to a sugar cookie or a tea cake but they have almond extract in them.  yum!

here's our creations...

fingers ready to bake... creepy!

baked... ready to serve.

grab a band-aid, our witch started bleeding!

peas and curry

Sometimes I just need some spice in my mouth... so that's when I decided to smell up David's house with the flavorful aroma of curry. I found a recipe for chickpea curry a long time ago that I love and decided to pull it out of the archives and make it happen.... here's what went down.

sauteed onions.


spice.


chickpeas... and yes, Bush's contributed to my Indian recipe!!!


rice, more spice, a totally 80's plate, and a fork.

Indian food makes you drink plenty of water... so when dehydrated, eat more curry!!!