a brisket and a chocolate pie...

Old photo of house in snow

You know, I planned to take a picture of both the brisket and the pie... and then forgot.  Must be age. Both are totally gone now... and were very good. The brisket was 'fall apart' tender and DH and the boys loved it.  I thought it was a bit salty, but I'm not fond of salt... and I had used a BBQ rub (as well as BBQ sauce, Lea & Perrins, and Soy Sauce recipe - all salty). I will use less of these if I ever cook this again.

The dark chocolate cream pie is one of my favorites. And I don't make it  often. The recipe calls for only dark unsweetened chocolate, but I usually use half unsweetened and half semi-sweet.  Then I use real whipping cream on top. My neighbor when we first moved to Texas made the *best* chocolate pie.  She past away a long time ago and I never knew her recipe (back then I was 27 and had 3 babies and no time to bake). But I've tried several over the years and this one is the closest I've come. Some chocolate pies are more like chocolate pudding in a pie shell, others are like brownies in a pie shell.  This one is the consistency and flavor I like.  I found it in my King Arthur's Flour cookbook a few years back.

Well, we woke up to snow this morning here in Texas. It always surprises me. Luckily we haven't had any long lasting cold so far this year, just a few snowfalls and drops to below freezing days. It will stay cold today, so I suspect the roads will be icy tonight and tomorrow.  Hate that.  But... one of the good things about being retired... I don't have to go out in it!  When the weather is especially cold and nasty, I can stay cozy and warm by the fireplace with the cats and a good book.  THAT is one of the joys of retirement!

And yes, I'm still 'considering' the Alaska trip.  Haven't made any decision. I'm letting it 'ruminate' around in my head for a while.

My mom and a friend in my kitchen taken a few years ago - both deceased now and dearly missed

Just wanted to try this.  I did the 'resize thing' here where I resized the picture in Microsoft office manager and then downloaded it into blogger.   I think you can click on it and it will enlarge... thus keeping my google photo capacity lower... ??

One more 'blogger type' question.  If I should decide to 'change' my template to another form now... will all my old blogs be changed to the new form or will it save the old posts in the old template?  Just curious...

the cutest thing...

the cutest thing...

Isn't she the cutest thing?  I'm sorry, but she really is (IMO of course).  I know all grandparents feel this way.  It happens the minute you set eyes on that tiny new life... or hold her or him in your arms.  It's an amazing feeling.  She has lost most of the red hair she was born with and looks like a little Q-ball these days.  And don't you just love that tiny foot...

It's Sunday morning and we have been up since about 7:30, had coffee and biscuits, read the paper, played games on grandson's Meep, watched some soccer and football (at least the boys did), made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and prepared a brisket for marinading.  I've not had much experience with cooking brisket.... so this is an experiment. I found a recipe in a magazine that looked fairly easy and delicious, so I thought I'd try.  I will marinade it today (in BBQ rub, onions, onion soup mix,   Lea and Perrins, and Soy Sauce) and cook it tomorrow in the low oven (250) of my Aga for about 10 hours.  We'll see...

I'm going to bring up something here that has come up only recently and I've got to make a decision about it in the next week or so.  A good friend is going on a cruise to Alaska and wants me to go with her. Neither her husband or mine is interested in going. I originally told her that I really couldn't afford it at this time. But her argument is that we can't afford to wait - which I agree to some extent (She's 70 and I'm 67). It is a special fare cruise where IF you book now for the end of April, you get the 2 for 1 fare.  The whole trip from what she says on the discounted rate (her son & daughter have checked it out) shouldn't cost me more than $1000.00.  That's hard to believe, I know.  Anyway, she's already booked and really really wants me to go with her.  I would like to go and probably won't get another chance, but I keep thinking that I would need clothes for the trip which would cost $, and I tend to get seasick (don't want to ruin her trip), etc. But she is a very dear friend, so I said that I would 'think about it'.  I probably should mention that she and I have taken great trips in the past to England, Paris, Ireland... and still take local road trips now.  We get along great and the trips have given us wonderful memories.  I think its just that with retirement, we have to be so careful that I feel guilty even thinking about it.

On another note, I noticed on someone's blog that they had a "live feed" which told them that 'someone from where-ever' was visiting their blog.  I thought that was a neat fixture.  How do you get that on a blog?

And one other question, is my font big enough?  I use the normal default font, but it looks a little small to me.