Christmas Cheer!

Christmas is upon us once again. It’s always a wonderful time of year; presents and food, what’s not to love about that?

I am always mindful that Jesus is the reason for the season and don’t get caught up in the extreme commercialization that has taken over Christmas, so I try not to get sidetracked too much. I did send a box of pressies home to my sister and nieces which I loved doing. Giving gifts always makes me so happy. Receiving them isn’t bad either.

I managed to weasel my gift from the Colonel already. I couldn’t wait until the 25th. As December’s birthstone is Turquoise, I have always been fond of that stone. It’s hard to find it in designs I like because mostly it’s set in silver, Native-American style. No offense to anyone, but I flipping hate that type of jewelry. Southwestern style and all that—it’s ugliness makes me gag. I like my turquoise in gold thank you very much. I had a pair of 18kt gold roman coin style earrings with robin’s egg blue turquoise years ago, a gift from a wealthy aunt in Italy. I lost them. They were perfect and I am still upset 20 years later about that.

My new ring is a Carol Brodie and as a Brodie piece it is perfect of course. The stone is set on a hand-carved Philippine wood, genius! I am now nuts about wood rings—the comfort and feel is amazing. As usual, Brodie has excelled herself. I love my Christmas present.
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I made some Christmassy florentines yesterday. I have made them before using cornflakes, but this time I followed a Nigella Lawson recipe which used chopped almonds instead. They are exquisite. I have knocked off most of them myself, in fact I had 2 for breakfast today. How naughty.

Nigella Lawson always comes up with recipes that even an idiot like me can make work. I added a whole lot more glace cherries than the recipe called for, simply because I love them. The result is biscuits that look like a technicolour yawn. They taste scrummy though.

I have to work Christmas Eve and Boxing day at an (expletives deleted) retail store. Can you believe the misery? Oh this working in retail caper was meant to be a nice break from teaching. A lovely low-stress job for a bit of fun; a way to get out of the house and meet people, but as far as management are concerned, the song "Ship of Fools" keeps coming to mind.

Nigella’s Florentines.

4 ounces whole, blanched almonds
7 tablespoons mixed candied peel, in
Whole chunks, not ready chopped
1 ½ ounces glace cherries
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (dark)
4 ounces white chocolate
2 baking sheets, greased.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Chop the almonds so that you have some fine pieces and some chunks of nut. Chop the candied peep and cherries into fairly small, even pieces. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter and sugar without letting it scorch. Add the flour rather as if you were making a roux for a white sauce; it should form a ball of paste. Take off the heat and whisk in the cream. The mixture should be smooth, so put it back on the heat briefly to beat out any lumps. Stir in the fruit and almonds.

Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of this Florentine mixture onto the greased nonstick baking sheets. It will look quite liquid and will spread, so leave generous space between the blobs. Place the sheets in the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes. They’re ready when they’ve spread into larger circles and the edges are golden brown. Take them out of the oven and leave for 2-3 minutes to firm up; at this point you can ease them back into shape if you need to, as they will be very malleable. When you feel they can be lifted, slip a metal spatula or palette knife underneath them and transfer to q wire rack to cool, ensuring you leave them flat.

Melt the dark and white chocolate in separate bowls in the microwave, and paint the flat side of each Florentine; I used a pastry brush for this. Be prepared to paint over and over to get a good thick coating.

Using a fork make wavy lines on the chocolate on each Florentine and leave to dry.

Makes 30.

Recipe taken from Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess.

Bright sun-shiney day!

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December 4th, my birthday, 28 years old: again. Well not really, 41, but I swear I don't look a day older than 50. :)

After what felt like an eternity of unbearable gloom, the sun finally came out on the 4th and there was no new-snow. What a birthday present indeed. I desperately needed to see some sunlight, being completely exasperated with the seemingly endless procession of dark, miserable days.

The snow looks pretty but is an endless source of work. Each time it snows I have to get out there and start up the snow-blower, making sure we have clear pathways to walk on. What a flipping chore that is. Being outside in sub-zero temperatures is an ordeal on it's own, add having to do manual labour in it and I am one unhappy camper.

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My nose drips like a tap in the cold, how undignified is that? "No dear that is not water on my face, it's something altogether much more disgusting and yes it is everywhere, encrusted all over my scarf, the one I bought in Florence in a little store on my way to the Palazzo Pitti." How far that elegant Florentine scarf has travelled, all the way from a glamorous, cosmopolitan Italian city, to the mountains of Idaho to be unceremoniously covered in my snot. I apologise to the Florentine scarf-makers for this atrocity.

The snow is a metre deep in parts so unless the blower comes up, we can't walk anywhere. It is motorized so no significant physical effort is involved, unless I go into uncharted territory and it gets stuck in the powdery snow, what a nightmare it is for me to get it out. My poor back. It's codeine-laden pain relief and constant hot-water bottles for me.

Having had a horrible cold, I have not left the property for 2 weeks. Having to go out into the cold to snow-blow has undoubtedly caused the cold to linger but I had little choice. On the plus side, I have found that being a recluse is quite desirable. No having to wash my hair everyday, heck washing my face became optional. The Colonel did all the grocery shopping. Sitting at home, where it is warm having my food bought to me, this is something I could quickly get used to. Alas, life goes on and now that I am better, it's back to work this week.
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The Colonel insisted I go out for my birthday. We went into town and gallivanted. I went to my favourite store in Sandpoint, Coldwater Creek and scored a new top. The Colonel sat on one of the "man-chairs" where all the poor suffering husbands sit and look completely bored while their wives tear around the store trying on clothes. The Colonel had the good sense to bring reading material, some other poor bugger occupying another man-chair, looked like he wanted to shoot himself in the head to end the misery.

Afterwards we had a lovely lunch in the upstairs wine bar. They make excellent cappuccino but I get so frustrated with the naked froth on American cappuccinos--that is white froth with no chocolate powder on top--a travesty! I need to start going around with a little shaker filled with chocolate powder to complete my own 'cinos!
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Later we went out for dinner at a really good Italian restaurant, Ivano's. I had the chicken parmigiana, of course!
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When does a cupcake have Zero Calories? When it's made of soap!

Freezing and snowy weather means I have come down with an inevitable cold. The first, and hopefully last one of the season. How is it simply called the "common" cold, when it packs so much punch, I have lost the will to live?

I did manage to crawl out of my sick-bed and make some soap the other day, right before crawling back in with a box of tissues, cough-lollies and a huge load of misery.

Lavender and lemon seems like a nice combination so I made a loaf in which the two scents were layered. I also used my cupcake soap mould for the first time and created a lavender-lemon confection that looks and smells good enough to scoff.

I really like silicone moulds, one can make the most ornate soaps with them, and I do like a fancy soap you know. I make them with all natural ingredients, well except for the colour. I sometimes make soap without added colour but at other times I just want something pretty. I mostly use essential oils, keeping my soap natural, moisterizing and smelling beautiful.

I plan on making cupcake soaps with chocolate bases, and caramel toppings, trouble is, I may find the temptation too much and end up with a mouthful of soap. As a child I had my mouth washed out with soap for swearing. It was horrible, and let's be frank, it really didn't help. If only my mother had used creme brulee scented cupcake soap to enact the punishment, it would have been a much more pleasant experience and who knows, I might not have ended up with the tendency to swear like a flipping sailor!

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Let it snow...or perhaps NOT

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November, and I am dwelling in a winter wonderland--if by wonderland you mean snowy, cold pain in the butt-land. Technically it is still Autumn (they call it Fall here) but the temperature is making me feel as though it is the depth of winter.

Using the snow-blower just to make walking paths around the property is an everyday occurence, how very annoying. The dogs seem to love the snow, especially Big Suze. I suppose they have only ever known a life which included the existence of snow, unlike me. When we use the snow-blower, a tube at the top sends out a spray of it and the silly dog runs around trying to eat it. Personally, I think snow is a useless bugger who should knick-off and leave me alone. What good is white powder to anyone if it's not Colombian one must ask.

Let them eat snow

The ski fanatics would probably like to throttle me for that comment, perhaps If I were into the sport--if by sport you mean suicidal desire to hurtle down perilous slopes towards certain death--I might think differently. My one experience skiing lead to a nasty incident that had a touch of the Sony Bono about it. Never again!

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The snow covered trees are very pretty, but I could easily put up a picture on the wall of a beautiful snowscape scene and be happy; without the icy botheration.

Oh and it's -5 Celcius outside now. Yep, it's BELOW zero, lovely Autumn weather. Mercy!
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The Wetlands

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We have some loggers on our land at the moment, cutting down dead trees and thinning out some areas where the trees are too dense. They estimated it would take 3 weeks to complete the job but they have been here for a month and will be here for at least another. We have a lot of trees out there!

They are making logging trails everywhere which I am loving. The logger made one through the wetlands for me because I love it down there but found it pretty inaccessible. I call it the wetlands trail and it is magnificent. The trouble is that the dogs romp in the mud and then come home to dirty up my floors.

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There are so many huge old trees and lots of moss covered logs. It's dense and lush and reminds me of a National Park. It gets a little scary in there though and sometimes I hear strange animal noises. The Colonel bought me a leg holster for my gun which I think is uber-cool. Funny how I once thought Prada scarves were the zenith of fashion, now it's black gun holsters with my pimp guns.

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I heart Cadburys chocolate!

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A care package from Australia arrived here in Idaho last week.

My second cousin Emma Qualye sent me a huge parcel containing blocks of Cadbury chocolate. It does not get better than that.

I love the Wiggles postal envelope the goodies arrived in. It was quite a hit at the UPS store where I collect my mail.

Inside there were scrumptious goodies galore. Cadbury Peppermint is my favourite ever, and I got to try the new bubbly white one; no photos of that have been included in this post because the entire block is LONG gone.

Today we cracked open the Rocky Road and I was nice enough to share a square each with the builders who are doing the renovations at our place. I didn't want to give them too much, that stuff is precious and not to be wasted on uneducated palates. By uneducated I mean Americans who are used to Hershey's and therefore have no idea what good chocolate is meant to taste like!

I have had fine Swiss Chocolate in Switzerland, but as far as I am concerned, nothing beats good old Cadbury.

Thanks Emma!

Lavender Truffles: Tasty treats that smell like your nanna

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The Lavender bushes are doing extremely well and are flowering profusely. I have been drying out the flowers and using it in soap; making Lavender essential oil; even those little sachets that go into one's drawers to make one's drawers smell nice. Now I have turned to using them in food.

I found a whole lot of recipes online that use Lavender, including Lavender and Limoncello cookies. Being excessively fond of Limoncello; in fact all things booze, I am looking forward to trying that one.

I started out with a chocolate truffle recipe. It tastes excellent, if you can get past the old-lady smell that Lavender often evokes. I had some problems with the melted chocolate that I had to dip the Lavender and cream part into. For some reason it just firmed up too quickly so instead of smooth Lindor looking balls, I created dumpy blobs of frumpy chocolate. Not nice looking enough to sell in a shop but certainly tasty enough to stick in my gob.

Chocolate Lavender Truffles

Ingredients:

12 fresh Lavender flower heads
10 ounces of high-quality bittersweet and semisweet chocolates.
1/3 to 1/2 cup of whipping cream. (more makes the center softer)
2 tablespoons butter.
waxed paper

Procedure:

Break about 12 flower heads off of your Lavender bush. They should be at least partially in bloom. Add to the whipping cream in a microwave-safe glass bowl. Heat up the whipping cream/flower heads in a microwave carefully (10 -20 seconds at a time) until just beginning to show a little steam (or hot to the touch). Remove from the microwave, stir and crush the flower heads a little, and then let sit for a few minutes. Repeat the heating and stirring procedure two more times. If you taste the cream, you'll be able to taste the lavender in it by the time you're done.


Heat only 5 ounces of the chocolate carefully in the microwave for a minute, stir, and heat again in 20 - 30 second increments and stir until melted. Pour the whipping cream/lavender mixture through a wire strainer (to catch the flowers) into the melted chocolate.Chill for an hour or so, until somewhat firm but not hard.

Melt the remaining chocolate with the butter for a minute, stir, and heat again in 20 - 30 second increments and stir until melted and blended. Make balls of the lavender-flavored chocolate and dip them into the melted chocolate to coat them, and then place them on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. Chill for at least two hours.

I have no idea where I pilfered that recipe from so sorry, no namecheck. I cut and paste the recipe and could not be bothered converting the measurements into metric, I'm too busy scoffing truffles to to do that. :)
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Had a little accident; nothing too serious.

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Today I had intended to regale my readers with more tales from my boring life. A little bit of banter about living in the country, perhaps throw in a recipe and some quaint stories about my bucolic country existence to round it off.

I have some pictures of the strawberries we grew organically and the plump and juicy cherries weighing down the trees.

Even a picture of my latest batch of soap I made from scratch with a few creative touches like a sprinkling of dried lavender on the top.

That is all quite mundane and uninteresting compared to my day's very surprising adventure. Some of you may know I did myself a mischief at my workplace and have acquired a very nasty and painful back problem.

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The dogs needed walking today but I am in so much pain; I literally cannot get off the bed unassisted right now--imagine the shame of having to wake the Colonel up everytime I need to go for a slash during the night--so I rode my ATV and let the dogs run along beside me. Why should my pampered pooches miss out on their daily perambulations because their Mummy is a pain-riddled old lady?

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I ventured up an old logging road; long since fallen into disrepair, thinking it was a quite an adventure. The bumps were murder on my back but that was nothing compared to what was to come.

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I got to the end of the road and attempted a 3-point U-turn when the machine went down over the side of a steep decline. A large pile of wood debris was piled up and I rolled right over it; still on the machine and hanging on for my life. Lucky I didn't get an eye poked out by a branch as they were sticking out all over the place.

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I tenaciously clung on to the quadrunner as it rolled over twice. I finally came off and it landed on me, then slid down behind me, resting against some trees. I was jammed in between the woodpile and the ATV. My leg was under the machine but luckily I was able to get it out. I had NO MOBILE phone signal down there so I couldn't even call for help.

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I was cut to shreds, bloodied, bruised and with more scratches on me than a Smith Street transexual hooker after a vicious bar-room brawl. Not a pretty sight.

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Fortunately no bones were broken, no limbs lost, and I was able to crawl my way back up the hill and walk far enough to get back into cell phone range. I called the Colonel and like a knight in shining armour, he came to my rescue and managed to winch the ATV that was on it's side and wedged between trees and the wood pile out, and ride it home. My hero.

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Two days ago, I wrote off our brand new ride-on mower. Had I destroyed the ATV I think the Colonel may have killed me and buried me out on this deserted road.

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I think an Angel was looking over me today.

Country Crafts

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The country-fication of Countess Chichi continues. Living out here in the country is leading me astray in all kinds of weird ways. My city ways are constantly being challenged. I think nothing of slowing down the car when I drive to avoid the bears, deer, moose and so on as they run across the road in front of me. It's a long way from having to slow down to avoid drug-addled drunks stumbling across the road as anyone who has ever driven along certain Melbourne streets has had to do on a regular basis.
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Now I have developed an interest in making my own soap. Store bought stuff is full of all kinds of chemicals, in fact many of those bars are mostly liquid detergent. By making my own I get to control what goes in, while being creative and perhaps a bit artistic at the same time.

http://www.handmadesoapwholesale.com/images/5-soaps_hzb0.jpg

I had to accumulate a whole lot of ingredients and utencils before attempting my first batch. It is a little daunting, especially because lye, (Sodium Hydroxide) is used. I am way too ADHD to handle something that dangerous, without doing myself a mischief.

http://www.festivals-and-shows.com

I wore goofy googles and gloves and tried my best not to be careless and cause some kind of catastrophic harm. Fortunately all went well. Lye used to be available on grocery store shelves, nowadays it is quite difficult to get. In fact, many stores don't stock it. We found a country Co-op store that does, then had to undergo the Spanish Inquisition as to the reason for the purchase before we were allowed to buy it.
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Apparently the store refuses to sell it to many people. Why you ask? It seems that lye is used in the producation of crystal-meth. Yet another product, useful in so many ways, is now difficult to get thanks to those druggies. I'm so sick of them ruining things for the rest of us.
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I used Shea butter, coconut oil and olive oil for my soap. I added some violet colouring and used an English violet fragrance. I eventually will make some unscented soaps but to start with I wanted something pretty and lovely smelling.

I used a milk-carton for a mould as I didn't want to invest in a fancier mould until I had made a batch. I get sick of things so easily and if they don't turn out the first time I normally just move on. No point investing a pile of cash until I was sure I would continue on with the activity.

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The soap sliced easily to make chunky bars. They are going to be left to dry for a few weeks but I had to try one. It lathered beautifully and left a delicate violet fragrance on my skin. I think I will be doing this again. Maybe I could turn it into a business and become a soap-mogul. Not a bad job, I would always be clean and sweet smelling but possibly a little scarred from the lye.
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I plan on experimenting with different recipes until I can eventually make fancy artisian stuff like goat milk, cow milk and buttermilk soap.

Looks like everyone I know will be getting gifts of soap from me from now on. I usually send jewelry gifts to Ms Patrice, so it may be a bit disappointing to get a bar of soap instead of diamonds. Sorry Ms P!
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July 4th, 2010

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Yesterday was Independance Day here in the States. We went over to Hope to enjoy the fireworks on the lake and have dinner at the Floating Restaurant.



It was all going so well. Good food, beautiful view and all that good stuff. Quite suddenly the sky darkened and it started to rain. How nice, considering we were sitting at an outdoor table and the indoors part of the restaurant was already quite full.

Many of the other patrons scurried indoors like rats fleeing from the rain and huddled in the overcrowded room like storm refo's. We were already wet and cold so getting a little wetter was not going to matter really.

We got pretty wet before one of the staff came and put a sun-shade umbrella over us. I may have had dripping wet cutlery but at least my tucker didn't drown. I did however manage to look like a drowned rat, the mascara running down my face really completed the look.

A barge on the lake put on a 40-minute fireworks show. The really fun part was the massive bolts of lightning mingling with the display. I sat there hoping I would not die from a lightning strike as we sat at our metal table, on our metal chairs, floating on the lake; at least not until I had finished my dinner and desert please!

As I sat there watching the colours bursting in the sky I realised that this place is now home.

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Independance Day Cake.

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Hope

.Sunday drives through the country were one of my favourite things to do as a child. My mother would load us kids into the car and set off, often on aimless wandering drives to no-where in particular while we gawped out of the windows at all the sights.

The Colonel and I went for such a drive yesterday and visited a town next to ours; situated on Lake Pend Oreille. It reminds me of Lake Como and of course I love that. It even has hillsides with quaint houses dotted all along.
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We had dinner at a floating restaurant which sits on the water at the marina. The food was so-so but the view was amazing. It was not exactly as grand as the Jumbo Floating Restaurant I went to in Hong Kong, actually, it was more like a pontoon out the back of the Jumbo, but around here it was pretty exiciting.

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Dragon detail from the Jumbo Restaurant.

On the way there we got up close and personal with a Moose and some deer. It's not quite the colourful scenery that Ms Patrice gets to see down Smith Street; if by colourful scenery you mean prostrate druggies, but it certainly was exciting.

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Grammar Files: Headlines

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I have been working on some headlines for articles recently. Not quite the easy task one would imagine.

One of the pitfalls headline writers can fall into is the perilous double entendre.

A copy editor friend provided me with the following list of actual headlines that were published, but that contained some unfortunate double meanings. Personally, I think they are brilliant and that there should be some kind of award for writers who manage to convey the information contained in the story, and provide us with a raucous laugh at the same time.

My apologies to anyone offended by some of these headlines but I assure you, they were actually published!

Student excited father got head job

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Gators to face Seminoles with Peters out

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Messiah climaxes in chorus of hallelujahs

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Governor's Penis busy. (meant to read Pen is)

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Something went wrong in jet crash, expert says

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Long island stiffens for Lili's blow

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Organ festival ends in smashing climax

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Include your children when baking cookies

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Iraqi head seeks arms

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Panda mating fails, veterinarian takes over.

Brilliant stuff I say.

Dirty pretty things.

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My neglecting this blog for so long is a total disgrace. That little bit of space floating around in the around cyber-realm that belongs to me and my surprising adventures must feel quite abandoned.

Forgive me world wide web, for you have tolerated my lackadaisical approach to blog writing for way too long. I shall--with this post at least-- address my woeful neglect.

It turns out that there is not all that much of interest to write about here. Back in Tampa there was always some new place to visit: galleries, museums, beach-side cafes, beautiful views, you get the picture.

In Northern Idaho life is a lot less glittering. I am always busy with this or that: work, study, copy editing, planting, lawn mowing --all 8 bleeding acres of it--weeding and whatnot. Boring I know.

I do get to enjoy panoramic views, a bucolic existence and see majestic wildlife on a daily basis, but that is just not the stuff thrilling and interesting blogs are made of. Sadly, my poor sister in Australia who would read my blog to catch up on my ex-pat adventures, is bombarded with pictures of bears, trees, mountains and the odd flower; instead of fancy hotels and trendy restaurants.

In this post I will try to liven things up a bit. Yes, there is a picture of our new ATVs, I cannot ignore the country stuff completely, but there are some pictures of new baubles just to bring back some fance my dears.

The ATVs are completely cool. Mine is the blue one, I named it Psycho Paul after a crazy character from the TV show Ideal. The Colonel has called his vehicle: The Crunch.

Dirty things

I recently bought an amazing black onyx and gold ring that is very sleek and cosmopolitan from the Italian gold by Stefano Collection.

Pretty things.

Kenneth Jay Lane makes some beautiful Lucite danglers that I just had to have. They are enormous but light and I hear they were featured in the first Sex and the City movie. I have not seen the film, but hope that it having been worn in a film does not mean that every Carrie copy-cat has a pair. Well, let's be real, the folk in my town hardly go in for the whole fancy schmancy thing so I need not worry.

More pretty things

I hate Knick-knacks, but this rotund little glass bird was so sweet and porky, I had to buy him. How cute is he?

Speaking of birds, I rescued one today. It had flown into my front door and I think it was in shock. I nursed it until it opened it's little eyes and started to look better. When trying to get it near the water and food I had placed on the patio, my dog promptly stepped in and killed it, what a sad little circumstance. I rescued one a few weeks ago only for my cat to step in and kill it. Perhaps I should stop trying to rescue small birds, it seems to end very badly for them.
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