Chocolate Macaroons

Hey, I found this fairly easy macaroon recipe. Thought you all might like it :-)

*-=*=-*Chocolate Vanilla Macaroons*-=*=-*

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
3 large egg whites2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Heat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Reduce heat, & allow it to simmer. Place chocolate in a small bowl, & set over saucepan. Stir until chocolate is melted, & set aside to cool. In a large bowl, combine cooled chocolate, cocoa, sugar, coconut, egg whites, vanilla, & salt. Use your hands to mix well, completely combining ingredients. Dampen hands with cold water. Form 1 1/2 tablespoons of mixture into a loose haystack shape, & place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining mixture, placing macaroons 1 inch apart. Bake until just firm to the touch but still soft in the middle, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven to a wire rack, and let cool on baking sheet. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Festival of Extraterrestrial Abductions

First question: Who thinks up these weird holidays?

Second question: So what exactly are we celebrating? Being abducted? The fact that someone else has been abducted? I dunno.

Like many others, I hope there is other life in the galaxy. It seems a shame that Earth would be all alone. But I'm not so sure I want to be 'abducted'...unless the abductor is as handsome as Eric in my book HEARTSTONE. From all accounts, however, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Most of the alien encounters have been with the 'grays'. Now I won't be silly enough to suggest that all alien life form needs to look like us with our standards of beauty but someone with gray skin just isn't my cuppa. No abductions please.

I wouldn't mind a nice sit down, however. A chance to talk...which seems sorely lacking in most of these abductions cases. Instead, we have abductees being examined, painfully poked and prodded and pretty much treated like lab rats (I have issues with that too but that's another post). It seems to me that a civilization intelligent enough to cross the vast expanse of space would recognize intelligent life (umm, okay, so in humanity's case that might be asking a lot still...)

After all, we have buildings, roadways, autos and airplanes and unless these 'grays' are on the stupid side, they're bound to have heard the endless chatter we send out via radio. All this stuff might not mean we're as 'smart' as them but it surely represents a civilization composed of sentient life forms. So, if these painful experiments are indeed taking place, that tells me these are folk I probably wouldn't like a whole lot.

Nope, I'm not celebrating any abduction day. Unless the abductor is like Eric, or Mel Gibson, or Liam Neeson or...well, you get the picture.

This is a day I can handle

Today is National Potato Chip day. How cool is that? :-)

But, you know, potato chips aren't as good as they used to be. Way back when, people and manufacturers weren't so concerned about the health attributes of a snack food. Way back when, potato chips were greasy and salty and, man-oh-man, they tasted good.

Were they good for you? Hell no!

Are potato chips good for you now? Hell no! Regardless of what the one chip maker indicates in their television commercial, potato chips are not healthy and eating them is not a good way to lose weight. Sheesh, how dumb do they think we are?

No, today's potato chip might be half as unhealthy as they were in days past. But they also only taste half as good.

Weird Holidays

Today is JEWEL Day...Show me a woman who won't appreciate that! LOL My dear husband is always after me to tell him what I want for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas...I tell him that jewlery is good anytime of the year!

Now if I could convince him of that.

Yesterday was Alfred Hitchcock Day....if I'd known, I'd have gotten the video of The Birds out and watched it. That was a truly scary movie but had a neat little love story too. But it always left me wondering if the love birds had anything at all to do with the bird attacks.

Saturday was Johnny Appleseed Day and Worship of Tools day. I ate an apple. My dh did a mantra to his power drill.

There are 7 days to Spring. I am SO ready.

HEARTSTONE -- The cover

Woohoo! I just got the cover for HEARTSTONE and it's beyond gorgeous!

Now to figure out how to add it to my website, which is also undergoing a little revamp, LOL. Fun stuff!

Life Explained

This just made so much sense I had to share it.


On the first day God created the cow.

God said, "You must go to field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer. I will give you a life span of sixty years."

The cow said, "That's a kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. Let me have twenty years and I'll give back the other forty."

And God agreed. On the second day, God created the dog.

God said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. I will give you a life span of twenty years."

The dog said, "That's too long to be barking. Give me ten years and I'll give back the other ten."

So God agreed (sigh).

On the third day God created the monkey. God said, "Entertain people, do monkey tricks, make them laugh. I'll give you a twenty year life span."

Monkey said, "How boring, monkey tricks for twenty years? I don't think so. Dog gave you back ten, so that's what I'll do too, okay?"

And God agreed again. On the fourth day God created man. God said, "Eat, sleep, play, have sex, enjoy. Do nothing, just enjoy, enjoy. I'll give you twenty years."

Man said, "What? Only twenty years? No way man. Tell you what, I'll take my twenty, and the forty cow gave back, and the ten dog gave back and the ten monkey gave back. That makes eighty, okay?"

"Okay," said God. "You've got a deal."

So that is why for the first twenty years we eat, sleep, play, have sex, enjoy, and do nothing. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain our grandchildren and for the last ten years we sit in front of the house and bark at everybody.

Life has now been explained

NOW IT MAKES SENSE

National Frozen Food Day

Woohoo! Now here's a holiday I can get onboard with! When a woman works outside the home and works from the home and works IN the home, she needs all the breaks she can get. You can get pretty tasty frozen meat entrees (with gravy if applicable), frozen veggies, frozen bread, even frozen dessert!

I wouldn't want to use them everyday, of course, because the better ones can be a little expensive. But when you're in deadline hell on a writing project or have a lot of after work appointments that take up your precious time, these quick meals come in very handy.

So YEA for frozen foods!

TGIF!

Yes, thank God it's Friday! Even though I've got probably the best day job in the world, I always look forward to Fridays...just like the rest of the country.

But Today is "I want you to be Happy Day". Now, I've no idea whose very generous idea this was but you've got to admire someone so selfless that they'd want you, a total stranger, to be happy. Most people have the "I want to be happy. You're on your own" attitude. With the fast paced lives we all lead, I can understand how so many people fall into this but I do think, while we're not responsible for another person's happiness, we can at least NOT do things that would make them unhappy.

Today is also Peach Blossom Day and National Anthem Day. Peach Blossom Day coming on the heels of the nasty weather we had yesterday (ice, freezing rain, snow) is more of a dream than a reality but it does make one think about spring....and that makes me happy :-)

I'm not into songs (and if you heard me sing, you'd be thankful!) but I do like to hear our National Anthem sung with pride. Just leave the personal embellisments off. No one needs to hear your voice waver up and down scales while you sing a SINGLE NOTE. Especially when that note and those scales are not part of the song to start with!

Huh. Now I've gone and left my happy place. Bummer.

Here's a deal. You buy my book, HEARTSTONE when it becomes available at www.TriskelionPublishing.net in July--that will make you happy and it will sure make me happy :-)

National Pig Day

Yep, that's today. Pig Day. How do you celebrate Pig Day? Do you take your favorite pig to the local salon? Get her nails done? Maybe a new 'do? I can see Miss Piggy being real happy with that (and maybe a nice sparkly gift or three) but most pigs...well, most of 'em just aren't salon-types, right? No, they aren't. Most pigs would probably like to hang at their local pig pen with all the other pigs and squeal and grunt their little piggy songs to each other. That might be cool for them, but for us? Mmm, if you've ever heard a pig squeal, you're probably not hearing much of anything else. Those babies are LOUD! So what can we do to celebrate Pig Day? This is really hard, isn't it? Having bacon or ham for our breakfasts seems a bit cruel. I'm at a loss.

It's also Peanut Butter Lover's Day. For this, I can have a peanut butter sandwich. That's a whole lot easier to celebrate!