Hot Toddy

Hi there, in Pennsylvania here and we have had some cold weather. My husband seemed to be getting sick and feeling achy so I made a toddy.

Now I’m from North Carolina and the area where I come from we make everything from scratch like gravy, meringue, whip cream, cole slaw, french fries, and flour bread, and of course a cure for a cold; hot toddy. Although it’s not really a cure, it sure does help it along.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Now this recipe has been doctored up. Back in the day we used dark liquor, 1 lemon squeezed, a spoon full of honey, a splash of water and a fireball candy settled in the bottom of the glass.  Now that I’m older I prefer it a bit smoother.  Here’s what to do:

Boil a 16oz bottle of water and add a tea bag of Chamomile tea (I chose Honey Vanilla Chamomile)  Now in a large mug, like a soup mug, add a tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 table spoon of apple cider vinegar (trust me it brings out the flavors) and a shot and a half of spiced rum (or any dark liquor like brandy) then break off a stick of peppermint and place in the bottom of your glass. (you can use a fireball candy if you like. If so, you could omit the cinnamon and if you add clover honey you can omit the ground clover)

If you choose ground cinnamon and clover, add 1/4 spoon of cinnamon, 1/4 spoon of cloves (you can add a little more if you like) to a coffee filter.  You can place the filter in a drip coffee maker. This way when you pour the tea directly into the filter.  The cinnamon and clover will flavor the tea as it drips into the pot. Or you could put the filter over your mug and strain it that way, it will take longer, but straining it will make it so much smoother.  I also like to add DaVinci’s liquid vanilla syrup to my cup.

Once you taste your toddy, you can tweak it to your taste. Enjoy!

 

Note: you can use a fireball candy or ground cinnamon…or both if you like

And you can use clover honey, or ground clover… again you can use both if you like)

Our Tree for Christmas

This is not a post about how to pick out a tree or even how WE picked out our tree. I just wanted to show off a little, that’s all. 😁

Growing up with my mom and dad and 3 other siblings (me being the 2nd oldest) there wasn’t a lot of money so we had the same fake tree from the time I was maybe 8 until I moved out. And by the time I moved out it was skinny. You could see an entire person all the way through the tree. We also had the same ornaments and lights. Now that was a problem because there were only 3 bulbs that worked on the strand and they were neon orange, blue and yellow. All the Christmas colors had burned out and the bulbs were huge.

Since there were only 3 that were lit, we made sure those 3 bulbs were facing the window and spaced out enough so they were seen and so it looked like there were many.

As a single divorced mother of 3 we also had a fake tree and we loved it every year we had it. Now that I’m married and my kids are older, moved out and have their own places, I told my new husband I wanted a real tree. This is our first year being married and we moved in together the week after we got married so this is our very first Christmas together under one roof. He was happy to take me to pick one out.

He wanted to make sure it was snowing because where I come from in NC, we rarely get snow and I love snow.

I was excited!

So we picked one out and I was ecstatic!

My husband did a great job decorating the tree while I hooked the ornaments. We listened to Christmas music and enjoyed the easy night.

We love our tree.

I hope everyone is happy, healthy, and gets your hearts desires this season. Enjoy your friends and family every chance you can.

Idaho Falls

Here are some pictures I took on our honeymoon. This is at Idaho Falls and I also got a picture of my husband in there.

Homemade Lasagna

I’ve been at it again. Pinterest is my love when it comes to recipes and that is where I found myself earlier this week.

I have always made my lasagna a certain way, but one day when I was making it I found myself breaking spaghetti noodles over a pot instead of lasagna noodles. I realized that my lasagna sauce was too similar to my spaghetti sauce and during the course of making it I thought I was making spaghetti.

I found this recipe:

Brown 2 lbs ground beef, add a diced onion and 2 cloves of garlic. (don’t worry, the potency cooks out of the garlic) Add salt, Italian seasoning (2 tablespoons) and stir. When the onions have softened add 2-6oz cans of tomato paste and a can of diced tomatoes. Instead of the diced tomatoes, you can add a large can of stewed tomatoes just crush them with your hand. (Lasagna sauce made with hand crushed tomatoes) Add a half cup of chicken or beef stock. (Chicken stock is tastier). Let the sauce simmer for at least 30 to 45 minutes. I know this is a lot of tomatoes and it at bee acidic for some, so what I do is add 3 to 4 Heresy’s kisses to the pot. The sweetness tames the acid. You can use a tablespoon of sugar if you like, my husband loves milk chocolate so I keep kisses around.

Optional: You can also change it up and use 1lb and a half of ground beef and half a pound of sausage, or a pound each of beef and sausage. Make it your own.

Next is the Cheese mixture

15oz container of ricotta cheese, 2 large eggs, 16oz whole milk mozzarella, half a cup of shredded parmesan, some sprinkles of parsley and black pepper.  Mix and place in the refrigerator until you are ready to spread it.

I took the picture before I added the parsley and pepper. When you are finished it will look like cheese dip.

Putting it together

 

I spoon some sauce on the bottom of the pan and then I spread the cheese mixture on the noodles with a knife as if they were crackers, I use the oven ready noodles. After laying the noodles on the meat I sprinkle some sharp cheddar (or whatever you prefer) and then start over.

Then I bake it on 375 for about 25-30 minutes then remove from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes.

It will hold it’s form pretty well, but this picture is what happens when your husband attacks it with a fork when you are not looking.

Our lasagna was amazing all thanks to Laurie McNamara. You can find her awesome recipe here at Simply Scratch and she does an amazing job.

 

Writing. When Is It time For The Next Step?

NaNoWriMo Winner 2017

I have always wanted to write a book and always said I would do it, even though I really didn’t know where to begin. I always had ideas of what I wanted to write about, and would put those ideas in the back of my head for “just the right time”.  A few years ago I began researching on the internet, whenever I had a free moment, and I would look for things to write about, or how to write a book, what format is best, should I self-publish or seek an agent. Then it occurred to me I needed to sit down and write first and even then I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing.

One day as I was looking for a pattern to crochet on YouTube and I accidentally stumbled upon a video about writing. I’m not sure who the person was or what exactly it was about, but I do remember it was a video and I was so excited that there was someone in front of me telling me what to do and not just a blog I had to read through maybe 10 paragraphs before I found the information I was looking for, no it was a video.

But the more I researched “writing a book” the more I ran into people saying the same things over and over. They would give their advice, but in the end it was always the same, “Just start writing”. It wasn’t until 2016 (I was a Registrar at a Bible College in NC) I had an idea during Chapel and had to write it down, it was an idea for a non-fiction book about stepping into the life God has planned for you. That weekend I wrote just over 12,000 words and it kept flowing but it was short lived. Work got busy with registration, I got engaged and I just lost track of time, so it all was put on the back burner for another time. Later this year (2017) I found National Novel Writing Month and started looking up how other people did NaNoWriMo and eventually began looking up how to start a book again. And again I ran into the same thing, “Just write”.  So I began thinking of a story I had wanted to write for years and I began writing down ideas of where this story would go, plots, and characters and I remembered people saying to write down everything. So I did, everything, and I am glad I did because I look back at some of those ramblings and they are good as gold! Some of the things I wrote surprise me even today at how insightful they were and some I look at and they are just plain bad, but that is ok.

A couple of months later I decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo and not only did I write 50,000 plus words in November, but I now have a first draft that I will begin revising in January 2018.

My advice is this, stop researching what you should do, how to do it, when, where and why and just do it. Just start writing, that is the next step. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know where to begin your story, once you have started writing you may say wait, I need to add a scene before my original beginning. This may happen several times and that’s ok, it’s your story. Once you have researched something to the point that everything is saying the same thing, just stop, and do it, that’s how you know what the next step is. I know it can be scary because you’ve never done it before or maybe started and stopped, but trust me, you have to start somewhere, so start with your idea and then start filling in the blanks.

I will share more on my journey to writing my book so stay tuned.

First Draft Finished

Well hello everyone let me start off by apologizing for skipping out on you for a month in November.  So what do I have to show for it you may ask? I won National Novel Writing Month 2017 #NaNoWinner2017 YEAH!!!

My novel on November 30th was 55,317 words, but my characters have taken on a life of their own so I am still writing. I do see an end in sight.

To win National novel Writing Month you need to write 50,000 words in the month of November.  This may sound like something that is far out of reach, but believe me, if you have a plan you can do it, and enjoy every bit of it.

When I say “Have a plan”, I simply mean to know what you want to write about. Some people want to have an idea and on day one, follow that idea and see where it takes them.  These people are known as pansters because the write by the seat of their pants and following where their ideas lead them.

The way I chose to write this year is I had an idea and began to develop that idea before I began writing. I would think about where I wanted my story to go and how I wanted it to end.  This would allow me to fill in holes and add things in the beginning that would foreshadow events in the end.  I planned each scene with one or two sentences all the way to the end and it is important to have a plot. I am a planner.

December is going to be time with my family but I will start revisions on my book in January and February and I know things will be changing. Once I am finished, I will start blogging about my book more.

Thank you for sticking around.