Blog Posts

Symphony Bar/Brownies

2/7/2022

Basic Ingredients

A good friends passed on to me this idea/recipe for a brownie...or bar. It is excellent. The basic ingredients are your favorite packaged brownie mix (8x8 pan size) and two Symphony bars...plus oil, eggs and milk per brownie mix instructions.

Mix together the brownie batter per the directions on the package. Pour 1/2 of the batter into a greased 8x8 baking pan. Top this with two Symphony bars. Pour the remaining batter over the top of the bars...smooth to edge of pan.

Bake per directions on brownie mix package. In my case it was 30 minutes and 350 degrees.

Enjoy. Really, enjoy!

!/2 of batter in bottom of pan/baking dish...topped with the two candy bars.

Other 1/2 of the batter...smoothed to the edge of pan/baking dish.

Done! You can frost if you wish. I did not.

CJ says "Hi!"

This is from 2/2/2022...

2/5/2022

"Dinner is Served" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

What's for dinner tonight? Well, that is a long story. CJ was scheduled for a 3pm grooming appointment in Lindstrom (a good Chinese name). I'd had his carrier out for a couple of days so he would get used to it. My routine to trick him into his carrier is to leave the house for a hour or two, then come home, pick him up and put him in the carrier. Trust me, it will never happen any other way. So...in my hour out of the house I stopped at the Frederic Market where they had a sale on chicken breast halves...and I bought a package. I then returned home, picked up CJ and put him in his carrier according to plan. While on the way to the groomer, the groomer called me and said he was sick. Appointment cancelled. We returned home. CJ is napping and I have been cooking. The glaze on the chicken breasts is a combination of Lunardi's Thai Ginger Sauce and Orange Marmalade. Dinner tonight will be chicken and a simple salad of greens, chopped red pear, toasted walnuts with a red wine vinaigrette salad dressing. Pic attached is of the finished chicken breasts.

BTW, there is no recipe attached for this meal...it was complete improvisation using whatever was in the cupboard. For instance...the Thai Ginger sauce is Lunardi's own recipe and cannot be found anywhere but at a Lunardi store.

"CJ Says 'Hi"" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

Thoughts are powerful...

2/5/2022

"Motivation" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

It is my conviction that thoughts are powerful tools. Our thoughts create our reality on a daily basis. When these thoughts are put into the spoken word, they become even more powerful. And lastly, when these thoughts are written down they gain a strength and a permanence.

I've been thinking about the direction in which I want to take my blog. This thing...this blog...is the reason I get up in the morning. Consequently because it is so important to me, I want to add to it...to make it perhaps even more interesting those of you that come upon it.

As Mark Twain said: "Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life."

So this area of my blog..."Residual Thoughts" is going to become an area of comment about life whether is be a story about the day...or a commentary on the interesting world in which we live.

I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do...

"My November Guest..."

11/30/2021

"November's Gray Haze" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be...
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky...
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow...

~Robert Frost, "My November Guest,"

"Cosy fire a-burning bright..."

11/29/2021

"Cold Outside Warm Inside" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

Cosy fire a-burning bright,--
Cosy tables robed in white,--
Dainty dishes smoking hot,--
Home! And cold and snow forgot!

~Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron

"We seldom think of November in terms of beauty..."

11/28/2021

"A Stand of Birch Trees" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

"We seldom think of November in terms of beauty or any other specially satisfying tribute. November is simply that interval between colorful October and dark December. Then, nearly every year, come a few November days of clear, crisp weather that make one wonder why November seldom gets its due.
There is the November sky, clean of summer dust, blown clear this day of the urban smog that so often hazes autumn...
There is the touch of November air, chill enough to have a slight tang, like properly aged cider. Not air that caresses, nor yet air that nips. Air that makes one breathe deeply and think of spring water and walk briskly."

~Hal Borland

“The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.” ~Khalil Gibran

11/27/2021

"November Fields" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

"November is Native American Heritage month..."

11/26/2021

"Ice Forming" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

"November is Native American Heritage month, and a good time to honor the legacy of our ancestors, but every day we should stop to think about our country's beginning and that the United States would not exist if not for a great deal of sacrifice, blood, and tears by Indian Tribes across the country."

~Deb Haaland

"This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before." ~ Maya Angelou

11/25/2021

"Happy Thanksgiving" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

"November woods are bare and chill..."

11/24/2021

"Rare November" (Image Courtesy of Wylddane Productions, LLC)

November woods are bare and still;
November days are clear and bright;
Each noon burns up the morning's chill;
The morning's snow is gone by night...
November woods are bare and still;
November days are bright and good;
Life's noon burns up life's morning chill;
Life's night rests feet which long have stood...

~Helen Fiske Hunt Jackson