What Can We Do?

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My husband has been glued to all the news stories on the internet about the earthquake in Japan.  Of course I watch or listen to most of it too.
What can we do to help?  I feel so helpless, being so far away.  It goes without saying that we can pray and send money but I want to really do something tangible to help.  Does anyone have any ideas?

 Here, we go about our everyday ordinary lives and it seems as though something like this could ever touch us.  It does though.  It touches our hearts.

Birthday Girl.

Happy Birthday Beautiful Daughter!

Please visit her blog and wish her a happy birthday.  You will also pick up lots of makeup tips and other fun posts.

Monkey Tails Part ll.

Due to popular demand, I have decided to share my secret Monkey Tail recipe with the world you, my Gentle Readers.

I apologize to my international readers, but the recipe is not metric.  Some of the ingredients are not measured, just eyeballed.  Alas.
 Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl:

2 cups flour                                           
4 tsp baking powder                                
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 400F

Cut in 1/2 cup shortening with pastry blender.  Add 2/3 cup milk all at once and stir until dough is easy to handle.  Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and press down gently with heel of hand 8 or 10 times.  With a rolling pin roll dough out to a rough rectangle shape.

Spread lashings of butter over the dough.  Then sprinkle lots of brown sugar.  On top of that, sprinkle a good amount of cinnamon.  Starting with a long side, roll up dough tightly.  Slice the roll up into approx 1-2 inch slices and place cut side down onto ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for approx 12 minutes.  When done, immediately put rolls on a cooling rack.

For drizzle:  Let rolls cool slightly.  Mix up some powdered sugar, milk and a dash of vanilla to a thickish consistency.  Spoon over rolls.  Done!

Note:  I used soy products instead of dairy and the tails were just as delicious.

Monkey Tails.

Have you ever eaten a monkey tail?  I can assure you they are delicious.  Really.
My husband adores them.


These are monkey tails.  You didn't think I'd eat a real monkey tail did you?

I was making these bad boys the other night when I broke my bowl.

I told Hubby to enjoy them because I'm never going to make them again.  I was cranky.  I'm still not over losing my poor bowl.

However, monkey tails are decadent and delicious.

I might make them again after all.

Broken Item of the Week

It's that time again!  I was making some biscuits for my hubby this evening and a catastrophic event occured as I was cleaning up.

My huge pyrex blue bowl!

As you can see, I nearly forgot to photograph the event, I was that upset.

It was the largest bowl in this set.  My mum gave me these when I got married nearly 30 years ago.  Daughter #1 is going to be very disappointed as she claimed these for her own. On a more positive note, I rarely used the blue one anyway as it was very large.  I also believe it's a sign not to bake anymore.

Cats and Dogs.

It's raining Cats and Dogs here people!

http://amrcycling.blogspot.com/2010/09/it-rainned-cats-and-dogs-and-i-need-tt.html

Seriously folks, the rain is coming down in sheets.  You can hardly see out the window for the rain.  I am so happy.
Avalanches of snow and ice are sliding off the roof as we speak.

Aaaand the oil delivery truck was here bright and early!  They only deliver in this area on Thursdays.  Guess I put the fear into them.  Who knew?

I'm Really SIck of the "S" Word

Gentle Readers,

I hope my last couple of posts haven't mislead you to believe we lead a totally bucolic existence here at the LC.  Some commenters have had dreams of a Winter Wonderland here and they are packing their bags up to visit as we speak.

Here's a photo taken last night at around 10pm.

My husband had to brave through the drifts to care for his beloved Sassy.

Here is Sassy in happier times:

Oh, wait, that's not Sassy.  That's some New York police horse I happened upon.

Hi Sassy!  I haven't seen you for a while.

This is my husband all geared up to make the trek to the barn to care for Sassy:

Then he went out the door carrying two buckets of water.

I feared for his life

I'll see you when the snow melts, Sassy.