Tuesday, April 20, 2010

today is brought to us by the letter...

B.... as in busy! LOL  I know I'm behind (another B) on my alphabet swap, and I do apologize.  I'm gearing up for my church's Women's Retreat, so there is "much to do and less time to do it in" (know the movie?)

I at least have taken the pics, just not enough time to get them cropped and posted.  Most of my computer time right now involves getting song lyrics plugged into PowerPoint.  Hopefully will get all caught up tomorrow!

Friday, April 16, 2010

P is for petals

I have no idea what the name of this plant is, but the flowers make me think of popcorn.  Why?  Because they start off in a hard, red shell, pop out when the weather gets warm, and they smell delicious (but not buttery)!

P also stands for Photo Geek (HI DAD!!! LOL)


Thursday, April 15, 2010

O is for... O!

well, what else would it be?  I heart my dictionary.  I asked for this for Christmas several years... possibly even a decade ago.  Words are awesome!
Find your local linguist or your very own dictionary and hug them/it. :)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

N is for New

I'll admit to having some trouble thinking up something "N".  But I thought, since these are new buds, it would work.  :)  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!


Anyone else dreading the letter "Q"? LOL

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

M is for Moggy

'Cause he'd be mad if I didn't put him as a feature somewhere :)



Sunday, April 11, 2010

L is for Lacrosse

I know, I know... Monday is brought to us by the letter "L", and I am posting this on Sunday night.  Whatever :)  Thought I would take a moment while I had it. 

My nephew is a senior this year, and is a captain on his school's lacrosse team.  Now this picture isn't of him, but it's pretty much what you see all throughout the game.  These kids are tough!


Here's my nephew (number 25).  I'm such a proud aunt! :)



K is for ketchup

Before going to my nephew's lacrosse game yesterday, we met my sister and her hubby for lunch.  If you have a Five Guys anywhere near you, and you have not been... go.  They make the BEST hamburgers.  And you get tons of fries, so if it's less than 3 of you going, order a small fry (or regular, I forget which they call it).  If 4 or more then, and only then, order a large.

So, since today is brought to us by the letter "K", what better than to have a picture of that most scrumptious sauce, the king of condiments:
ketchup (BTW- Heinz is the best, hands down).

Saturday, April 10, 2010

H-I-J

Ok, catching up on the alphabet :)

H is for... Hosta (thanks, Mom, for the proofreading!)!

 I is for Ipod (best invention ever)


J is for Joelle (my niece, who had her 4th birthday party tonight)


If you haven't checked out the other ABCers, please do!  They are very creative folks :)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

G is for Goal

This is a pic of the front page of the Breast Cancer 3 Day website.  This is my goal, and the goal of every person who walks or volunteers or donates; it's one worthy of attention.



Tuesday, April 6, 2010

F is for...

Frappucino (or however you spell it) LOL  It's unseasonably warm here in Penna, like it's still in the 80's and our overnight low is the same as what the daytime high should be.  But I LIKE it :)  So I stopped by Starbucks tonight and got a nice peppermint java chip frap.  It comes highly recommended.


F also stands for frisky kitty.  My cat likes to play in boxes.  I rather like this shot :)


Monday, April 5, 2010

E is for early morning

Ok, so maybe some of you don't consider 7:45 early morning, but it still is according to the Sun :)  I took this shot with my cell phone camera.  There is a gorgeous flowering tree of some sort in bloom by one of the buildings on campus, so I was trying to get the blossoms in the early morning light.  Here's hoping it worked :)



Sunday, April 4, 2010

D is for Daffodil

Ahhhhhhh, I love Spring!


From Inside the lens


C is for CAKE!

I took these on Saturday.  I made Bakerella's Red Velvet Cake w/ cream cheese icing as dessert for Easter dinner (and it was oh-so-yummy!).  While I prepared the cake, I had a lot of fun taking different pics.  I promise there are only a few in this post (I mean, I took a LOT).  Red wrecks havoc with my camera, though :-/




From Inside the lens
Pouring the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients.




From Inside the lens
Mmmmmmmmm, cake batter!




From Inside the lens

 The finished product! (grumbles about having to use the flash)

B is for Bird!

There were several of these little fellows in the shrub outside of my kitchen window (driving my cat absolutely crazy, mind you).  Isn't he cute?  So at-the-ready.  He flew away as soon as I took this; guess he wanted his privacy and didn't appreciate the paparazzi invading his afternoon :)




From Inside the lens

Isn't he "tweet"?

Ab-ca-def-gi-jekl-manop-qr-stuv-wyxz

And if you don't know the title, go here and Big Bird will explain it all :)

So I have joined with 6 others in doing an ABC pic-a-day for the month of April.  And yes, I'm a little behind in posting.  Give me a break, it started at the end of Holy Week and that's busy enough ;)

And, since it is Holy Week, here is my A picture: A is for Alive




From Inside the lens


1 down, 25 more to go!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Frabjous

Saw Alice in Wonderland last night, and it was very enjoyable.  I loved the little throwbacks to the animated classic, and thought the new visuals were just stunning.  And Christopher Lee as the Jabberwock??  Ohhhhhyeah.   All of the voices were perfect for the characters... Stephen Fry = best Cheshire Cat ever.  And Johnny Depp made a fantastic Hatter; he seems to switch into different people throughout the movie, which goes so well with the character.  They didn't touch on the mercury poisoning, which is the reason the Hatter is mad, but I have a feeling there was much that was cut between pre-production and now.  The actress who played Alice was good, just the right mix of uncertain, innocent, and "much" (you'll get that reference when you see the movie).  So go and see it.  The funniest part is that the movie is listed as PG because of a smoking catepillar (among a few other reasons).  A smoking catepillar.  Right.  Because that is somehow worse than the 5 or so shots of someone getting stabbed in the eye by a dormouse.  Honestly.

It's a glorious morning here, and now it's time to gear up for some awesome praise and worship at church.  So I leave you with this:



Saturday, March 20, 2010

Spring has sprung!

And it's lovely :)  I know, it's like 15 -20 degrees above normal, but I don't care.  I love Spring.  I love the flowers pushing out of the dirt, the gauzy green color that is draped over all of the trees and shrubs, the smell of growing things... ahhhhhhh :)

Hope you all get to tiptoe through the tulips today!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Butternut squash muffins...the recipe!


From Inside the lens


Butternut Squash muffins
Ingredients
14oz butternut squash, skin on, deseeded, roughly chopped
2 1/4C light brown sugar
4 large eggs
pinch of sea (or other coarse) salt
2 1/2 all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
handful of walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 C extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper cups.
Whiz the squash in a food processor until very finely chopped; transfer to mixing bowl. Add sugar and crack in the eggs; beat slightly. Add remaining ingredients and beat until well mixed, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary. Everything should be just combined, so don't overmix.
Fill the muffin cups with batter (about 2/3 full. I used a small scoop). Bake 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick; if it comes out clean, they're done! If the toothpick is sticky, bake a few minutes longer. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Frosty Topping
Ingredients
1 clementine (or orange), zested
1 lemon, zested
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 C sour cream
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out (or use 1tsp vanilla extract)

Place most of the clementine zest, all of the lemon zest, and the lemon juice in a small bowl. Add the sour cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla; mix well. Taste and adjust as you like. Store in fridge until muffins have cooled. Spoon onto muffins, or dip cooled muffins into the topping.

Enjoy!! Oh, and you remember how I said that the dipping part was the second best thing about these muffins? Eating them is the best thing about these muffins!  And I want you all to know that "whiz" is apparently an official culinary term.  I took the class at a culinary school and the recipe was printed on official culinary school paper, ergo it is a culinary term.  :) 

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Butternut squash muffins

From Inside the lens

Six and a half dozen mini-muffins, and two loaves of bread later, I give you these scrumptious little bites of squashy-citrusy goodness.  This was my first time actually using a vanilla bean, and I gotta say, they're messy little buggars and I'm not sure they're worth the cost. LOL  Maybe they are, I don't know. 


From Inside the lens
See?  Aren't they adorable?  So light and moist.  Mmmmmmm.  Must resist the urge to go break into the container I am sharing with the coworkers tomorrow.

This here is the best part (ok, second best):

From Inside the lens

From Inside the lens
Dipping the muffins in the frosty topping.  There were a few times that the topping didn't really want to give the muffin back to me, and only once did I actually drop a muffin into the bowl (Daddy helped me out by eating that one, since the paper was just slopped with topping.  What a guy!).


From Inside the lens
Ta-Da!

Recipe to follow tomorrow.  I figured this post was long enough (and I hope to entice you to come back!)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

no picture, but...

had to announce that I saw 5 robins hopping around the grass in MD today!!!!!  AND AND AND I have green things pushing their way up from the dirt around my house.

Spring is coming, it is, it is!

So, this past Saturday I attending a cooking class at a local culinary school.  The subject:  CUPCAKES!  And Muffins, actually, even though they're two different things.  The group I was in made lemon meringue cupcakes and these awesome butternut squash muffins with this citrus topping.  I am going to make them this weekend and take them to work, just so I can eat more LOL  Will post pics and the recipe at a later date.

oh heck, here's a pic from last year to celebrate my robin sighting:


Sunday, March 7, 2010

Cat, I'm a kitty cat!

But he doesn't dance.  Just playing around with the camera today and annoying my cat by constantly pointing the camera at him :)