Coffee and chocolate...

Thought these posters say it well...

I read in a book somewhere that one should allow oneself one forgivable  sin.  I have 2.... coffee and chocolate. Could be worse, right?

This seems to be where my thoughts are this morning... certainly nothing deep or philosophical. I guess I think about it being aware that too much coffee isn't good for my kidneys and too much chocolate can affect my migraines. However, having almost 74 years  under my belt, one cup of coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, and a bar of Lindt salted dark chocolate (that lasts me a week) does no harm... and certainly helps my moods.

If I do run out (DH shares this bar with me), I can always make us "chocolate in a mug"  to go with our afternoon tea/coffee -which is such a simple recipe that can be done in 5 minutes and is ready in the microwave in 90 seconds. Easy peasy and very good!

Oh... and you know I love chickens! Well, after my visit to my daughter's last weekend and watching her chickens and baby chicks, I came across this chicken coop (which is sold at William Sonoma's). It's just the perfect size for our yard. Costs too much of course and don't know if it could possibly be 'feral cat proof'.... but one can dream.

I could even grow herbs in the top planter....

*Cats and chickens (as well as coffee and chocolate) do seem to make me happy. But it may be that my clay cheeky chickens will have to suffice.*

Ghost

Hugs,
Rian

the fun of traveling... and the pitfalls of flying

Tea at The Peach Tree

Just back from a week in the Hill Country visiting my daughter and her family. Must start at the beginning... which was a bit shaky.

Tuesday I arrived at the airport at 2pm with a 3:20 departure schedule. 

First thing that happened was for the first time in a long time I didn’t get TSA preboarding on my boarding pass... so I needed to do all the ‘remove shoes, liquids in plastic bag, etc’. OK, I can handle that. 

Then they sent my plastic cartons containing my stuff (carry-on, purse, cell phone, etc.) down one aisle and made me and the rest of the people behind me move to another line! 

Then when I went to retrieve my cartons, my carry-on bag was missing. Well, apparently they confiscated it because the X-ray showed 2 cans (one Godiva dark chocolate pretzels and one tin of Kona coffee flavored macadamia nuts from Hawaii). I was bringing these to my daughter. So the TSA agent had to unpack my bag and check out those items (but didn't confiscate them).

Then... my flight was delayed (twice).

Finally- we boarded and were on the plane seated about 5 minutes when they came over the intercom and said that there was a maintenance problem and we needed to deplane (Great). 

Then we waited in the terminal until they took the first plane away and found us a new plane which we reboarded (of course - from a different gate)

I'm really not complaining about it all... (although it does sound like it). It's just that an hour's quick trip to San Antonio turned into a 6 hour ordeal. (not anyone's fault - just did). But I have to say that the next day I unexpectedly received an email apology from Southwest as well as a $100.00 voucher to be used at a later date. (How about that?)

Wednesday - I got to watch my grand daughter ride at an indoor arena where they're boarding one of their horses and 

Thursday - we headed out to Fredericksburg to spend the night and walk the cute little shops and restaurants there. 

me in our airbnb in Fredricksburg

Visited my favorite German kitchen store (Der Kuchen Laden) and had lunch at the Peach Tree Cafe and Tea room! Visited more shops, then back to our Airbnb to rest. Then off to the Fredericksburg Brewing Company for dinner. After dinner we headed to Old Tunnel State Park to watch the bats emerge from their cave (old railroad tunnel). The Park Ranger gave us the history of the old railroad tunnel and general information on bats while waiting for them to fly out... which they did around 8:30pm.

Friday morning - we hit Java Ranch coffee shop (really cute), walked town a bit, back to pack up and check out... then brunch at The Herb Farm - toasted faccacia bread with butter and jams, biscuits with white gravy and sausage, and English tea with cream! 

Then back home to daughter’s house (about an hour away).

daughter's house and land

Sunday - we visited the little German town of Gruene... just to walk the shops and have coffee... too hot outside to stay long. Home again to nap!

Her mama chicken and baby chick (lone survivor of rat snake that got her siblings) are very friendly. Mama jumped in my lap to get some French fries...

Pushy mama and her chick

And Moose (daughter’s new Great Dane) is a sweetheart.

Moose

That's Moose sitting on grand daughter's lap. He has a very nice profile....

Flight home was delayed also, but only once... and the rest was uneventful (thank goodness).

Cats are happy for me to be back home!

See how excited they are to see me back...

Now catching up on all the blogs I missed...

new recipes, favorite books, and playing with pottery...

Ingredients for Chicken Alfredo

This weekend I decided to try the Chicken Alfredo recipe from Marguerite's Cajun Delights at www.cajundelights.blogspot.com . She has so many wonderful Cajun recipes that are so similar to the food I grew up with in New Orleans that I love just looking at her pictures and listening to the music.  But this recipe was not something my mama made and it sounded wonderful, so I gave it a try.  Easy - yes! Delicious - yes! It was a big hit with DH and the boys.  Sorry that I didn't think to take a picture of the finished product.

a handy dandy little book to have...

And this book is one of the best purchases I ever made.  You can look up almost anything in this little gem. When you come across something in a recipe that you've never heard of.... it's here! It will tell you what it is (how to pronounce it), where it originated, and how it's used. The inner page says, "more than 6,700 A-Z entries describe foods,cooking techniques, herbs, spices, desserts, wines, and the ingredients for pleasurable dining."  Of course with the Internet, you can probably look it up online these days... but I still love this book!

playing around...

Lastly I'm posting the end result of me playing around with clay the other night while watching TV. I suddenly felt the urge to make something and was mad at myself for not bringing home my clay tools.  Having left them in my locker at the studio, all I had available was a kitchen knife and a small bit of  clay in the garage. But despite being a little rough around the edges, I still think he's kinda cute.  As for our current chess game project, I have completed the pieces, underglazed the bases, and am in the process of firing them to bisque. After that I hope to stain them lightly with blackbird stain and refire. This week I have to decide the best way to approach the 'chess board' itself.

 







Daughter's new chicken coop

 New baby Cochin Chicks

An image of what a grown Cochin Chicken will look like... (colors vary)

One of the chickens (or possibly rooster?) they have now...

Another chicken (possibly rooster?) that they have now...












They already have dogs, cats, horses, and turtles/tortoises...   This 'chicken thing' is new.  Hopefully it will work out well.  I like chickens!