Blinky Lights and Shiny Objects

Here is a re-run of what I put into the Christmas cards last year. It is a side-dish recipe that was very popular with the whole group at Thanksgiving dinner. The results are almost sweet-and-sour, with lots of fiber and nutrients to make up for the butter and sugar! (I did submit it to Ocean Spray's recipe contest this year - no love from that...) I created this recipe for Thanksgiving 2006, because I wanted to make something related to Candied Yams, just not so sweet. I also was tempted by the display of fresh cranberries at our local produce store. Eventually my brain put the chocolate and peanut butter together, and I came up with this. It is a great dish for when there is a lot of activity in the kitchen, because you can just turn off the heat if you need to ignore it for a while, then come back later. It will turn out fine. It also only takes one pot and one spoon. I still don't know what to call it; how about CRandied Yams? zest of 1 large orange (I used a Navel...

Another thing I accomplished yesterday was reading "Our Former Lives in Art" by Jennifer S. Davis. Again, I checked it out from the local library. It is a collection of short stories about people, but with some fantastical elements showing up amongst the realism. Nothing that totally separates the stories from the actual world we live in, it is more just showing how we don't understand everything about the actual world. There ARE adult themes. There are Christian themes (for and against). People in the stories make some bad choices, or redeem past bad choices. The writing is good - detailed enough to understand why characters are doing what they do, sparse enough that you use your imagination to fill in the rest. Each story goes quickly, and I found myself looking back at the title of each chapter after the vignette was finished for one more clue. Here is one of my favorite passages: "You never asked me about my eye," Alfred says. "I don't t...

4065_lowres_20071020 , originally uploaded by prismglass . Crossing a big item off of my to-do list today, I post-processed all of the pictures I took at the reunion and posted them on Flickr. I even set up a group, which I thought would be visible to all at http://www.flickr.com/groups/hhs_1997/ but that may not work the way I expect? I don't know, Flickr just seems so much more complicated than it has to be. Anyway, this is a photo of Abby Skillman and me, towards the end of the night. By taking photos, I think I got to talk with everyone, but not for very long.