Choice Morsels

  Greetings! It's Christmas Eve---the night of magic, when "visions of sugar plums" will be dancing in everyone's heads! (And because Mama Kat's Prompt this week is "Share a Holiday Recipe," this post is doing double-duty!) Today's favorite holiday recipe from my recipe box is: Pumpkin Cake But don't let the name fool you---this is actually a dutch pumpkin pie done in a 10 x 13 cake pan--thus the name "cake." It's great for feeding a crowd, since you cut into 24 cake-size squares! Plus no messing around with pie crusts and less work, since you can feed dessert to 24 with one pan! And it's soooo delicious! It's best made one to two days in advance and just stored in the frig until the festive serving occasion! My sister sent me this recipe years ago and it's my go-to holiday dessert for Thanksgiving & Christmas! The recipe calls chopped nuts. I prefer the flavor of walnuts in this recipe, but y...

That's today's blog prompt topic: "A trend you can't stand"   There are a number of fashion faux pas trends I can't stand:   #1) The Super Skinny Trend :    This look is NOT beautiful. And it's definitely NOT healthy. I don't think the "Nazi death camp survivor look" is a cool image. It's also become quite trendy for actors to lose excessive amounts of weight just to attain an under-nourished look for some role. That can't be good for a person.       #2)  Too Low Cut Tops Trend I see this exposed clevage look all over and, to me, it's just soooo unclassy---an unnecessary. I don't want to see that when I'm walking around the mall.         #3)  Using Leggings Like Pants Trend This, too, looks sooo unclassy and generally  unflattering. Leggings are supposed to be worn under something like a long sweater. I hate the whole "pornific...

  Welcome to another Good Eating Monday of my December baking series! I've just made some Norwegian Christmas Bread and letting it rise while I do my blog today. However, instead of loaves, I plan on making individual buns with a biscuit cutter and muffin pans. Easier to serve that way. Sometimes it's just fun to knead & bake bread dough the old fashioned way! Today's featured recipe is: Chocolate Clouds!   These are basically a chocolate meringue cookie, similar in appearance to those in this picture, though I don't even try to make a curl on top on mine! It makes a melt-in-your mouth chocolate delight! Chocolate Clouds   3 egg whites, at room temperature 1/8 teaspoons cream of tartar 3/4 cup granulated sugar (no substituting on this one; must be sugar!) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 Tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa 2 cups (12 oz package) semi-sweet chocolate chips (or Special Dark ) Directions: Heat over to 300 degree...

Welcome Back! I had to mow up the leaves in the back yard before I could sit down and write! I have a Maple and a couple Bay Laurels that are real leaf litter bugs! I also pulled out my stash of Christmas cards. (I buy them on sale and have quite stockpile!)  When I looked in my storage closet, I was pleasantly surprised to discover I'd already cleverly marked with post-it's the ones to be used for this year, saving me the trouble of hauling them all out to sort through! That was a rare stroke of genius!    Today's Mama Kat Prompt is: "Something you learned in college."   Now that took something thinking, considering it's been so many years---but I finally came up with something, something I still use today! After 5 years in the Air Force, I went home to Indiana to attend Vincennes University. At the time, Vincennes was just a 2-year school. I lived in the dorms the first year---but being 25, quickly decided I hated that! So ...

             Welcome to the first week of December! "Are you ready for Christmas?" seems to be the question on the tip of everyone's tongues! Every Monday this month I'll be featuring a Christmas baking goodie--favorites I use every year! First up, my favorite Banana Walnut Fruitcake recipe! I think fruitcake in general has a bad rap. Unfairly so. Historically, the most traditional form of fruitcake was a whiskey, bourbon or rum-soaked fruitcake. This is the one that has the reputation of being petrified and is the butt of fruitcake jokes. It involves making the cake 6 weeks in advance of Christmas, usually with an Old English mix of all candied fruits types and nuts. Then wrapped in cheese-cloth, it gets a weekly dousing  with a cup of bourbon, whiskey or rum. It packs a taste bud wallop, no doubt. Having had bites of this as kids is probably why a good many adults are turned...

    Uh, not the Star Ship---the Navy Aircraft Carrier. LOL. The Enterprise is notable for being the world's first nuclear powered Aircraft Carrier. She is destined for scraping, however, because removing the nuclear stuff will require knocking large holes in her. So a retired to the life of a floating museum is impossible. A time capsule including memorabilia and bits of scrap will be put together and stored until a new "Enterprise" carrier is built and that will be handed to the new captain at the launching ceremony. A new USS Gerald R. Ford and USS John F. Kennedy are slated first. In Star Trek IV, which was about the whales, Uhura and Chekov are detailed to find a nuclear source for recharging their Kinglon ship's dilithium crystals. Thus the famous line of Chekov asking a police officer with his Russian accent, where to find "Nuclear Wessels." There can be no mention of Star Trek IV without some Trekker immediately quoting ...