BooksRule

I've already deleted the episode from my DVR, but can anyone post the text of the exchange between the new vet and Francois about the poor dog's continuing flatulence? Something about how the dog was doing and Francois said something about the odor making him want to go back to France. 'But France has been invaded'. 'Exactly' (but in French).

Thanks! I'll look for the Astoria book. As for fiction, I like mysteries (cozy mysteries or those with some humor ('Cat who...' mysteries, Janet Evanovich). or those where the main characters has an interesting job (and gets mixed up in murder and mystery) such as the Anna Pigeon mysteries by Nevada Barr. And 'medical fiction' (Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell, Michael Palmer, etc.). Adult situations are fine, but I'm not a huge fan of most detective, police fiction or courtroom books (with the exception of Tess Gerritsen). I also like historical fiction if it's the 'epic' type such as 'Lonesome Dove'. I like the ones that span generations.

I made a New Year's resolution to read at least two books that each have a setting in each U.S. state plus Washington, D.C. (so 102 books minimum). I want to read one fiction and one non-fiction book for each. I know I can find some recommendations online at various sites, but I wanted to check with all of you fellow readers for your recommendations. I know it will narrow the choices a little, but I'm partial to mysteries for fiction and true crime or biographies/autobiographies for the non-fiction.

I decided not to wait for Jan. 1st to begin my healthy eating regimen for the new year. I started on Saturday. So far, so good. I'm tracking my food and am trying to become more active as I'm able.

I love collards and turnip greens (but not the roots), but cabbage has gotten to be a go-to for New Year's because it's so easy to get at the store. Sometimes the other greens look a little wilted and sad at the store and I don't always have access to a local farmer's market (where you can get the good ones). Our Christmas ham was almost too salty to eat (I've never gotten one that was that salty), but the leftovers are perfect for seasoning pots of things (I plan to cut up the last bits and pieces later today and freeze them for future use). I had the flu the week before Christmas and still wasn't quite myself for the actual holiday. Luckily, it was just me and immediate family and we kept it low-key (we didn't even exchange gifts this year). I mainly took it easy.

I had a banana and some peanut butter for breakfast. Since it's New Year's Day, I'm going to cook up a big pot of black-eyed peas (seasoned with some Christmas ham bits) for lunch and some cabbage (again seasoned with ham) for dinner. This should take care of my luck and prosperity for the New Year.

It turned out that I have the flu. Today is the first day since Friday evening that I feel more like myself (although I still look like death warmed over). My fever is gone too. The idea of coffee sounds good, too, which is a good sign. When I'm sick, coffee becomes unappealing to me.

I used Betty Crocker brand, but mainly because that was the only one I saw (although the store might have had Krusteaz brand). The recipe I found online didn't specify.

Well, Friday evening I realized that I had developed a cough and a scratchy throat. It turned into a real barking cough and I had fever last night (just over 100), that seemed to come and go. Today I feel better (I got a little sleep), but the cough continues and the fever just came back (once again, 100). I made an appointment at a local drugstore to get a Covid and Flu test this afternoon.

Here it is. (Please excuse the condition of the card. I've used it for many years and it's gotten grimy. :) )

It's a few years old now, but every now and then I have to pull up this Cartier commercial to watch. It's so beautiful!

I just took a Sour Cream Pound cake out of the oven. And then put an Eggnog Pound cake and a pan of brownies in to bake. The Sour Cream cake was the hardest because it was totally from scratch. The Eggnog one and the brownies both start with a box mix, so they were easy to mix up. The scratch cake is for a luncheon tomorrow and the other two are for an open house at my local museum tomorrow evening. After these two events, the only other holiday-related party I have to get ready for until Christmas is a lunch on Friday (and I'm making deviled eggs, so I need to remember to boil the eggs tomorrow morning so I can 'devil' them tomorrow night). Here is the Eggnog Pound Cake recipe: 1 box pound cake mix 1 1/4 C. eggnog (I use bottled or the kind in the carton) 2 eggs 1/2 t. vanilla 1/2 t. fresh grated nutmeg (I throw in a little bit more for good measure) Mix until fully combined, about 2 minutes. Pour into a greased large loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. (you might have to bake a little bit longer. Check after one hour). Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out on a rack to finish cooling.

I'm not sure about where I got Maggie May's name from. Maybe 'wake up Maggie...', but I'm not positive. She was actually named Olivia for about a day until I realized that she didn't look like an Olivia. She was a Maggie. As for Alice, there was a commercial for something running on TV at the time (probably cat food) and there were cats named Ralph and Norton. A tiny new kitten was added to the family and they named it Alice. When I got Alice she looked just like the kitten in the commercial, so I named her after that cat.

Here are two more pictures of my babies. I still miss them so much! Alice was lounging on one of the dining room chairs showing me her bunny paws, and Maggie May was stretched out on my computer desk (she loved napping there when I was at the computer). I just noticed what site I was logged into when I took the picture! LOL!

The back of the pound cake mix does have directions for baking it in a bundt pan, so you would probably be okay. You might just want to watch the time, since it is a revised version and not the one that's on the box (substituting eggnog for the butter). I'm not sure about the glaze, but a little cream cheese never hurt anyone, in my opinion (I think that's why my deviled eggs are reasonably popular. I put about 1/4 block of softened cream cheese in every batch I make).

Yes, that's a lot of eggs. They'll get used up by Christmas, what with extra baking and cooking that I don't usually do. I used 18 of them for deviled eggs for a party today and plan to use 2 more for the eggnog pound cake tonight. I will use 6 more for a sour cream pound cake for a Thursday party and another 18 for more deviled eggs for Friday. Eggs that are left will get used up in another cake or two for family Christmas stuff and I plan to make more deviled eggs and potato salad as well. I got one of my eggs this morning, but the rest were gone soon so I didn't have any leftover to bring back for myself (which is a good thing, I guess. I guess I make a decent deviled egg). The Eggnog Pound Cake is easy because although I like to bake pound cakes from scratch, this one uses a box mix as the base: 1 pkg. Pound Cake Mix 1 1/4 C. prepared eggnog (I just used name brand in bottle or carton) 2 large eggs 1/2 t. fresh grated nutmeg (if you use powdered, you might have adjust the taste and check online for how much to use) 1/2 t. vanilla Beat all ingredients together until combined. Then mix a medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into a greased loaf pan (I use a fairly large one), and bake for 1 hour (or maybe a little more) in a 350 degree oven. Check after one hour and bake a little longer if necessary. Cool for 10 minutes in pan and the turn out of pan to fully cool. (I also found one that had an eggnog glaze on it, but I haven't made that part yet. It was just confectioners sugar and eggnog. And probably some more nutmeg. Just enough to make a pourable glaze.)

I never was a huge O'Neal fan, but 'What's Up, Doc?' is one of my favorite movies and I have to get out the DVD now and then to give it a watch. I think my favorite scene was the mad chase through the streets of San Francisco. ('I can't see!' 'There's nothing to see actually. We're inside a Chinese dragon.') I also liked his character as Brennan's father on 'Bones'.

I have three work-related holiday parties this coming week. I did have one other potluck on campus last week, but it wasn't technically work-related. I brought deviled eggs to that one. I planned to bring deviled eggs to my Monday event, so I picked up two dozen eggs at the store on Friday (I usually get the 18 egg carton, but the store I went to didn't have those). When I got home I looked in the fridge for more eggs, because I remembered (duh!) that had a sour cream pound cake to bake for a Thursday lunch (which requires 6 eggs) and more deviled eggs for the big campus luncheon on Friday. I didn't see any (although I could have sworn that I picked some up), so I went back to a different store on Saturday to get more eggs (and a few other things). In anticipation of more baking and cooking as we get closer to Christmas, I picked up three (!) 18 egg cartons. I don't think I've ever bought that many eggs at one time in my life (not even for Easter to dye eggs for something). To top it off, when I got home I spotted the 18 egg carton that I knew I had bought sitting in a grocery bag on the top of the microwave. So, now I have enough eggs to feed the neighborhood (LOL!). I should be set for holiday cooking/baking, though. Today's chore is to boil the eggs for tomorrow's brunch and to assemble the deviled eggs before I go to bed (I won't have time tomorrow morning to get them done). And if I can find the energy (I'm also doing some major deep cleaning of my house) I'm going to bake an eggnog pound cake to take (that's easy though, since it starts with a boxed mix).

I posted back in August about losing my Alice and again several weeks ago about losing her sister Maggie May. Here is a photo of them (I hope it posts okay). Maggie is the pale one on the left (her fur was the color of saltine crackers) and Alice was the darker one on the right (she had a chipmunk stripe down her back). (ETA: This photo was taken when they were just a few months old--way back in 2004 or early 2005.)

I see the 'sock exchange' listed as a party activity now and then. This is the first year that I've been involved with this group, and I think they did it last year. The lunch was actually today and I think it went well. We had about 30 people participate. I first picked a gift bag that had the cutest pair of socks with raccoons on them (wearing Santa hats) and another pair with opossums and ornaments. But someone 'stole' them from me and I had to choose another gift. I ended up with a cute pair of red and white striped socks and because we had one extra gift bag left over, the party organizer gave it to me as a 'thank you' for running the game. It had a pair of socks with different colored Christmas trees all over it. I've also seen notices about parties where people are asked to bring a Christmas ornament to exchange. I'm guessing that these are decided on for gift exchanges because you don't have to really think about what to get. It's so easy to find socks or an ornament instead of trying to find a gift that would please everyone. It was fun (and the food was good, too).

We didn't put a cap on it, but most of the attendees are retirees (this is a community group, not work-related) and have been known to comment about the cost of things, so I don't think we're going to go too fancy with the socks (at least I hope not). Personally, I got a cute pair at Target for well under $10. Our work-related lunch where we play Dirty Santa has a limit of $10 for the gifts, since all library employees are invited and some don't make very much money at all (not that us faculty librarians are rolling in the dough! :) ). I picked up one of those cute little mini skillet/noodle cookers for my contribution. I lucked out one year and found a Crockpot -- not one of the little ones, but a full-sized one -- at Walmart for $9.98 to bring. I'm guessing it was a 'loss leader' (I think that's what it's called) priced low to entice people to buy other stuff. That gift was 'stolen' a couple of times before someone got to keep it that day!

I saw that online as well, but these will be just plain empty pairs of socks. No goodies.

I've been asked to organize and run a 'Christmas sock exchange' game at a luncheon. Everyone is asked to bring a wrapped pair of Christmas socks. I'm used to how we run our 'Dirty Santa' exchange at the library's Christmas party, but this one probably has to be a little different. The way we do it in our department is that everyone who is participating brings a gift and puts it under the little tabletop Christmas tree. When we are just about ready to begin, the person organizing it asks for everyone who will be participating to raise their hands (so he/she can get a count). Then slips are numbered from 1 to whatever (depending on how many people are participating) and each person draws a number. Number one goes first and chooses a gift (and has to open it so everyone can see what they got). Then number 2 can either choose a gift from under the tree or take an opened gift from that first person (one rule is that they are not allowed to choose and open a gift and then decide to exchange it). The other rule is that once a gift has been chosen and 'stolen' once (or maybe twice, I can't remember) it is 'retired' and can't be stolen again. It's a lot of fun when you have about 30 people in the group. But, with all gifts being socks, I'm not sure if this would work, since part of the fun each year is looking over the array of gift bags, small boxes, larger boxes and deciding which one might have a great gift. But these packages will likely all be about the same shape and size (whether in a bag or a box). Do you think I can follow the usual way of doing this exchange? (Part of the fun is looking over the array of gift boxes, bags, large and small, and trying to guess which one might have a great gift in them. These will likely all be similar wrapped items in shape and size.) People could still choose to 'steal' a pair of socks from someone if they really like them and that person could then get another gift from the table. Mainly I'm just wondering if 'sock exchange' games are run differently than the usual Dirty Santa game.

I made a pot of red beans (to serve over rice) and I think it was one of the best batches I've ever cooked. Maybe it was because I added extra chopped onion and garlic (or maybe I was just really hungry--I skipped lunch). I have enough for several more meals.

Up until last year, I was able to fine whole nutmeg. Then, for some reason I haven't been able to find any in my local stores. I know of at least two chains that would probably have it, but none are in my area.