Decadent Dark Chocolate Fondue

My local store had bars of Green and Black's Organic Baking Chocolate bars for a whopping 88 cents. How did I find such good fortune as they are usually $4.50 or more? I guess after Christmas they had an overabundance.

My MIL's kitchen yielded a few goodies as we cleaned it out...one was a NordicWare double boiler. I plopped 2 1/2 broken bars in the vessel, and added around a half cup of half and half. Usually I guess you're supposed to use cream, but I just did that because that's what I had on hand. I also added some demarara cane sugar. A double boiler insert isn't necessary, but I do think that double boiler is a better way to gingerly handle chocolate so it behaves well.

As everything melted, I added some more half and half to get the consistency I wanted, and you will probably need to add a fair amount of the cane sugar to get the taste you want. But this means you will get to enjoy more chocolate samples as you make your fondue, so why not? :-)

When it was ready, I put it into our tealight warmer (yep, I actually have a fondue set, I guess I'm a child of the seventies) and served it with bananas and strawberries.

This made more fondue than three could enjoy, so it might be best suited for a group. When it cooled and was refrigerated, though, it made a very nice chocolate spread for a chocolate/peanut butter bagel. Ask me how I know. ;-)

Well, I took a break from posting.

The last minute buzzer beater that sent Drake home was a bummer. It was nice to see that Western Kentucky, the team that beat them at the last minute, won their next game and gave UCLA a tough fight before losing. I'm still very proud of the Bulldogs, and proud of the school's focus on academics. Last Friday wasn't much fun. But hey, it's only a game.

After the game, I took kiddo bowling, and hubs was able to come too as Good Friday led to an early end of the work day for all the folks over there at the big monolithic company. This was the day I started making yoyos. (The fabric kind.) I always said I wouldn't do it, but it was strangely comforting. I made them all afternoon and even made some DURING church while I tweaked the sound board. Okay, admittedly I mostly tweaked the sound board and only made a few yoyos (during the sermon there isn't much tweaking to be done), but I did make yoyos. I'll do a different post about that later.

Several posts ago I mentioned that having laryngitis for almost two weeks was not all bad. For a while there, I used a little notebook to communicate. Someone I know said "laryngitis, for a woman, is a fate worse than death." I wouldn't go that far, but it was amazing how many things I couldn't do. I was supposed to call my doctor's office. I couldn't. I went out in public in the latter days of my malady, and hoped beyond hope that no one would try to carry on a conversation with me. I whispered sometimes when I needed to communicate, and only exacerbated the problem.

The best part of having laryngitis, though, is being forced to listen. That's not all bad, AT ALL. There are real advantages to talking less in the car with kiddo. It was my experience that kiddo talked a whole lot more when I couldn't. This has motivated me to listen more and talk less. I grew up in an interruptive (is that a word), get-a-word-in-edgewise house. This is a good lesson/change in tack for me to learn. I'm grateful for that part of laryngitis.

Hokay, here we go

Pins and needles

I'm an old school dog.
'Worried about our game tomorrow. It is NOT going to be easy. I'll have to watch it on the 'net...as Tennessee has a game at the same time. :-P

You know, that's a nice thing to be worried about instead of all the things we have been wrestling with as of late. Truly, I can see God's hand in healing us little by little, giving us a little rest. Some good stuff for kiddo...at least it appears that way. I assume nothing.

I'm getting some help healing from some dear folks and I am grateful. All this abuse and bad patterns are hard to replace with good stuff...I don't even feel worthy to do so and definitely don't know much about how to do better. But step by step things are improving.

Lord, thanks.

And now off to the basketball madness yet again. :-) Lots of stuff that needs to be made too. Farmers market isn't long from now, and accounts need stuff too. Plenty to do. It's spring break so I have a little more time than usual to work. What we really need though is a REAL vacation. I'm praying for that.

Which mid-major is most likely to pull a George Mason '06?
Bilas: Drake Bulldogs
Davis: Drake Bulldogs
Fraschilla: Kent State Golden Flashes
Gottlieb: Drake Bulldogs
Rankin: Drake Bulldogs
Vitale: None

March Madness!!!!

Usually we don't give a lick about the NCAA tournament since our alma mater hadn't been in it for 37 years. Well, we're back and in a big way. Scary game on Friday and if we win it we will probably be playing UConn. Not getting ahead of myself, as Western Kentucky University is not going to be easy.

Still, it's a heck of a lot of fun to see Drake get all these props.

We were even in USA Today in a flashback article today...ironic that UCLA is in our bracket. It's a story of the 1969 run...party like it's 1969, bay-bee!!! :-)

Our coach has won a couple coach of the year awards. Considering they thought Drake would finish ninth in the conference and is instead rated #14 overall, that's probably a good call.

"Missing Zach: Drake's basketball team will be missing one fan when it's in Tampa, Fla., for the NCAA Tournament. Reigning Masters champion and Drake grad Zach Johnson, who now lives in Florida, won't be able to attend. "It stinks,'' Johnson said."

As I've said before, we'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Overheard at our house...

Me: "When I die, I would like black gospel music played at my funeral, I think."

Hubs: "Well, THAT will make everyone sad."

*L*

Somehow, this is just my style...

Earlier on this here blog I told you pardners that I had signed up for a western mini apron swap. Well, hubs didn't call a shrink and I'm not in a psych facility, so now that I'm mostly not sick I finally finished the crazy things. If you know me, these won't strike you as out of character. *L*

And of course, dear little feline Mandy was nowhere to be seen until it was apparent that one of her slaves was going to take some photos. Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my closeup...*L*

yet another quote o' the day...

ah, to aspire to this...I'd like to be considered this way...got quite a ways to go, but hey, maybe I'm a baby step or two closer...

But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
Job 23:10 (New International Version)

But he knows where I am and what I've done.
He can cross-examine me all he wants, and I'll pass the test
with honors.
Job 23:10 (The Message)

Don't stop believing...

...time to announce my return from the dead. Whoa, that was some nasty stuff. I'm not completely over it yet, but mostly. Ten days later! Arrgh. ;-P

Drake treated us fans to an awesome game on CBS. Yeah, CBS with Dick Enberg gushing about our team. I know some of you people are used to this, but it has been a long, long time since Drake has had such basketball notoriety.

Although I should mention that in 1969 we went to the Final Four and lost by three points to Lew Alcindor (yep, that's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to those of you who aren't that old) and UCLA. There was a third place game in those days and we beat North Carolina by around 20 points.

So we're saying...

buff em to a gloss!
wax em to a shine!
party like it's 1969! :-)

The best quote we heard on the TV show was at halftime...Mitch Holtus said, "Cinderella is turning into Godzilla...and Godzilla is on the honor roll!"

I was PROUD, yep, PROUD, when Drake abandoned its Division I football program years ago and joined the Pioneer League instead. They took the money saved and wired the entire dorm complex for the internet, and made sure each student had a computer. This was quite a number of years ago, maybe 15.

And the proudest moment for us is that this is a team that demands a HIGHER GPA than the NCAA requires in order to participate, that there is a double major and a quadruple major on the team, and that we have the winner of the Academic All American Award for universities. Yep, the number one Academic All American.

Hey, how far can they go? Who knows. But we will continue to enjoy the ride while it lasts.

And if you like Seinfeld, here ya go...

If there's a new video on Al Jazeera...

...with some dude claiming success for spreading a terrible virus over America, I would only be half joking that I'd believe it.

Six days later, I haven't seen really any improvement in this awful stuff and now hubs has it too, I think.

I've done what the doctor told me to do and then some, and none of it seems to offer any relief. Arrgh.

Well, later when I don't feel like crap I will talk about the positives of this time. And I'm not joking at all about that part. :-)

Not really a quote

But a paraphrase from Brian Houston of Hillsong, someone I don't usually listen to, but happened to swoop through briefly on the remote control "wow, there really isn't anything on" wanderings...(I think he's a little out there, but the quote seems very wise)

"Sometimes it doesn't seem like following God makes sense, but it is true wisdom to do so."

not a quote, but close enough for jazz ;-)

Dog poo poo

probably feels better than I at present. ;-)

But it hasn't all been bad. I've learned some cool and healing kinds of stuff. Let me get to feeling better, and I'll spill the beans. Until then, peace out.