Sister Vacay - Day 2

At this rate it will be next summer by the time I get all of our sister vacay photos posted. I swear, summer days are at least 5 hours less than other days of the year.

This first one is another one from Day 1 of the Sister Vacay on our visit to the Dillon Cemetery. Can't believe I forgot to do the Woodman of the World grave. Ever since we did the article on them for our Tale of the Tombs, we find at least one in every cemetery we have visited:



On Day 2 of the Sister Vacay we went to Frisco. Their main street is filled with cute little shops and cafe and only a few blocks, which made it perfect for a morning stroll. Of course we had to start our day with our morning lattes. When I did a Google search before our trip of coffee shops in Frisco, Abbey's Coffee came up. There was no picture of the shop but it resonated with me because one of my sister's beagle's name is Abby, but in no way thought they coffee place was named after a puppy, because that would just be too big of a coincidence. Well guess what? IT WAS named for their puppy and by far our FAVORITE coffee spot of the trip, good coffee and great folks. In fact we even had to go back the next day to begin our story boarding of Issue #2 of the Edible Raven (okay, we even stopped there on Day 4 on our way back home). Can't go wrong with lattes and puppies.




After we strolled main street of Frisco, we found a nice cafe where we ordered black bean, pepper and hummus wraps for our picnic at the Breckenridge Cemetery. How excited were we that right inside the gates of the cemetery was a picnic table waiting for us? Very excited.

The Breckenridge Cemetery appears to be much older than the Dillon one we visited the previous day (and still not the one we can remember from vacationing in Colorado as kids). Besides being set amongst the lodge pole pines, it was interesting because there were several fenced in small plots and they didn't necessarily appear to be family plots. They also had one section for just Masons, unfortunately my picture of the fancy entrance way to that section did not turn out. Then at the back of the cemetery they just had several small metal stakes that barely peaked over the tall grasses. We are guessing that these were old pioneer graves who did not have any family in the area or left to identify them or were never identified in the first place. We are also guessing that this was not the original resting place for them but had to be relocated due to flooding in the cemetery. We also were fascinated by all the fire rings in a densely wooded section also at the back of the cemetery. We were guessing it must be quite the happening place after dark...

Another Woodman of the World, you can read about their history on the web page, Tale of the Tombs. I will have to get these additional pictures added to the Woodman collection.

After our cemetery jaunt we went back to our condo and collapsed for the evening. Yes, we are true party animals.

Weekend in the Mountains

Lakeit after a hard game of chuck and chase

Tasha decking it after her evening walk to the trail head.

Sunset at the trail head.

More sunset at the trail head.

Playing around with Photoshop.

Win a Free Copy of the Edible Raven Contest

The Edible Raven Magazine is having a contest to win a free copy of their debut issue, The Curious Debut. All you have to do is leave a comment on the Edible Raven blog or on Facebook, which you prefer, Ravens or Owls.

Tough decision as I find both to be magestically eerie.

Happy Mother's Day

Does our Mom love us or what when it comes to accommodating her daughters' whims with showing off her Mother's Day gift.

Thanks for being such a great sport (and LaKeit too).

We love you Mom!

Poem In Your Pocket Day

Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day where you carry around a poem in your pocket to share with friends. You can read more about it at Poets.org.

I can't decide which one I want in my pocket, The Raven by Poe or Winkin, Blinkin', and Nod, or Hat by Silverstein, Instructions by Gaiman or perhaps A Bowl of Dead Birds by Catman.

If you celebrate Easter and need some last minute gift tags for your Easter baskets, All Us All the Time has some free printable bunny gift tags. They are reproduced watercolor paintings that Pamela McCarville painted, illustrator of the Edible Raven. I think they are pretty cute, you can find them here at All Us All the Time's Free Printable Gift Tag Page. Happy Spring!

Cool Purple T-Shirt with a Raven

Just a quick post to let you know today is the last day to enter to win a cool purple t-shirt with a raven. Remember, Mother's Day is just around the corner and nothing says I Love You Mom, more than a purple t-shirt with a raven.

Head on over to All Us All the Time on Facebook for more details.

Edible Raven T-Shirt

All Us All the Time, the publisher of the Edible Raven magazine, is having a Pre-launch Contest where you win yourself an Edible Raven T-Shirt (I know I am prejudice, but I think they are pretty darn cool).

Just go to their event page on Facebook, RSVP that you are attending their contest (no physical attendance required), then leave a comment on that page naming either your favorite Edward Gorey Story, Neil Gaiman book, or Tim Burton movie. A winner will then be drawn on Tuesday morning, 3/30, naming the lucky recipient of the cool purple t-shirt with a raven on it. The contest runs through midnight 3/29.

It sounds like they are getting close for the release of the first edition of the Edible Raven magazine (available through MagCloud), with stories from yours truly, Icats Nitram and another voice in my head, Iris T. Catman, featuring awesome eye candy from Pamela McCarville. Getting so excited!!!

Earl Grey Infused Cranberry Sauce

This year for our after Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner I thought it would be cool to add an eclectic Mediterranean twist. Okay wasn't meaning for it to turn out eclectic, just ended up that way.

The appetizers included hummus with whole-wheat flat bread, honey Greek yogurt with figs and a relish tray with assorted cheeses and olives. For the main course, we served Greek-style lemon potatoes, garden tabbouleh and Mediterranean barley salads, grilled eggplant, artichoke parmesan stuffing, Earl Grey infused cranberry sauce along with the whole-wheat flat bread and Mediterranean garlic butter. Now it would have been neat to had as the main dish, fish, but the invitees included my father and brother-in-law and we did not want to face their reign if we had not have had a turkey. However we did season it with a Mediterranean herb rub. Then we washed it all down with sparkling pomegranate cider with lemon ice-cubes.

For the main even, i.e., desserts, of course we had to have the traditional sour-cream pumpkin pie with whole-wheat crust and made enough so each guess could take their own pie home with them. This year since we weren’t doing sweet potatoes as part of the meal with did sweet potato cupcakes in addition to ginger-pumpkin bread and gingerbread baklava.

The two surprised hits of the meal were the tea-infused cranberry sauce and even more of a shocker, the gingerbread baklava.

The reason I chose this particular cranberry sauce recipe is because it called for Earl Grey, my mother’s favorite tea. Oh, I should probably mention that in our household, my husband is the Executive Chef (his true profession and why we can’t have our Thanksgiving on the actual day because he is busy serving up dinner to 200+ at the restaurant). I am the Pastry Chef (just because I like to play with my food...trust me, no formal training has been involved). Thus, the version of the recipe below is after my husband does that thing that he does that makes food amazingly good.

Earl Grey Infused Cranberry Sauce

• 2 bags of fresh cranberries
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar in the raw
• 3 to 5 cinnamon sticks
• 1 orange cut into wedges, leaving peel on
• ¼ cup lemon Juice
• 5 to 6 bags of Earl Grey Tea

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to boil. Turn down heat and simmer 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat to cool. Take out tea bags before serving.

Gingerbread Baklava recipe to follow....

Thanksgiving Centerpieces and Place Settings (Kind of)

The initial plan for the place settings was to make leaf impressions from a baking powder and baking soda clay recipe I found online, poke a hole at the top of them, string them with ribbon and then tie to a mini-pumpkin. Hmmm, what is that saying about best laid plans of mice and men?!?

Yeah, obviously our leaves here in Colorado don’t like to leave big impressions, or at least in a baking powder and soda clay. Thus it was on to plan B. Did I have a plan B?

Since we were celebrating our Thanksgiving on the following Sunday, plan B became me quickly grabbing my tin of cookie cutters. My sister decided that candy canes would look oh-so-much more festive hanging from mini-pumpkins than leaf impressions would have any way.

We cut out the candy cane shapes with the cookie cutter and then with a skewer made a hole at the top of each of them. It took at least 24 hours for them to dry and they never really did firm up and were very brittle. In hindsight, my sister said that air-dried clay would have been much better and if we do something similar next year will definitely go that route.

Since candy canes tend to cry more Christmas than Thanksgiving, we decided to paint our mini-pumpkins. I didn’t want the traditional red and green colors so chose a burgundy, forest, and of course, with making my sister help me out on them, purple.

We used a floral spray paint that gave them a neat translucent effect, but after letting them dry overnight, we thought they were lacking a bit. Never fear I told my sister because I have, that’s right, glitter spray paint. Thus after a shot of gold glitter, we were quite pleased with them.

Meanwhile, after letting our candy canes harden up, we chose 3 coordinating paint colors for them: burgundy, purple, and mustard. Why mustard? That would be because I didn’t have any of that type of paint in green on hand to the dismay of the sister, but we were able to work through it. After the base coat dried, we, okay my sister, painted pokka-dots on them. Again, after they dried, we thought they were lacking a little something something, so yes, out came the glitter spray paint, this time silver. Excellent.

Then the wonderful part of having an artist as a sister (well there are actually too many wonderful parts to mention) is that once the mini-pumpkins were completely dry, she wrote each of the guests’ names on them in a very fancy manner. I believe she used a micron pen, but don’t quote me on that.

We let everything dry over night, then the day of the dinner we, okay, okay, again, my sister, cut ribbon and threaded it through the holes of the candy canes and then hung them on the pumpkins. Now, I would have helped with that part but the only down side to having an Executive Chef as a husband is that he is use to having a kitchen staff, which then at home ends up being me.

For the main centerpiece I had gathered up some pinecones and evergreen sprigs from the yard. There was some left over glitter paint, so I took a few of the pinecones and gave them a coat of glitter. Then I sprayed the evergreen sprigs with the green floral paint to give a more vivid color. Once dried, I took a glass fruit stand, placed some sparkling pics I had bought at Michaels on the bottom, then on top of those I placed the pinecone and evergreen sprigs. Finally gave it a splash of burgundy color with a few fresh cranberries. We had some left over mini-pumpkins so decided to do another centerpiece using them. We put them in a glass bowl with fresh cranberries and a few evergreen sprigs and pinecones.

I thought they turned out pretty cool. A HUGE thank you to the sis for helping me out on that creative endeavor.

Happy National Punctuation Day

What's today? Drum roll please...National Punctuation Day!! Dust off all your apostrophes, colons, semi-colons, commas, brackets, quotation marks and other fun-filled punctuations and get out and party hardy with them.

To find out more about this festive day, you can visit the National Punctuation Day website. Though I was disappointed when I found out it was meatloaf vs. a cake.

Free Holiday Gift Tags

The All Us All the Time's Day 5 of their 12 Blog Postings of Christmas is free gift tags...and they are pretty cool.

Hop on over to their blog if you would like to check them out.

A Belated Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss

I had every good intention of posted this on the 2nd the anniversary of one of one of my beloved authors 104th birthday, Dr. Seuss, but somehow it got to be the 5th? I have no idea how that happened. However, it is my mother's birthday today...a very happy birthday wish to her.

Most celebrated the good Dr's birthday on the 3rd by participating in Read Across America. You can read more about this event and ways to participate on the NEA website. I must be honest; I was totally bummed the Cat-a-Van tour was not coming through Colorado.

If you haven't visited Seussville you should go check it out, the music alone is worth the trip. You will also find games, Dr. Seuss's bio, a list of events and "books n' stuff".

I also stumbled upon these for those of age who are still children at heart and want to drink a toast to the author favorite of most:

Cat in the Hat Martini
Red Fish Blue Fish (plus green) Martini

Loving the illustrations they have with the recipes!