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Quick question:

It's the early 1590s in Venice. Two gentlemen, old friends, have gotten together in the evening for a friendly chat and a drink. I can default them to wine, but I'd like to give them something a little stronger. Can they have grappa?

Thanks!

i think this is who i wanted to be when i was little :D

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/07/does-this-cake-make-me-look-fat.html

Attn parents: the last photo in today's post is not appropriate for the little ones.

So you're making a Doritos-run to your local grocery store, and you see this:

And for some reason many of you are convinced by this chipped, yellowing, choking-hazard of a cake that photo cakes are a "grrrr-reat!" idea. So you run home, rifle through the blackmail folder, and order up gems like these:



Photo cakes are also a great way to remind friends what happened during their last black out:


Or why their new nickname is "the dragon":

I think that I would rather like the Heavy Red 'Victorian Misfit' gown.







In other news, I have been booked in to be sedated at the private Bristol Anaesthetic Clinic on the 27th August. I feel like a bit of a fraud as I only need a couple of very shallow fillings, that would apparently be a doddle to perform without the need for anaesthetic but so be it. Am looking forward to the recovery period afterwards when I get to sleep it all off. Mmm sleep. :)

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my little backyard vegetable garden! This is my third year with this garden, and I'm definitely learning a lot (though I still consider myself pretty clueless!). My house came with this lovely garden plot, and my husband and I didn't think twice about growing our own summer crop. We've grown tomatoes every year and have changed things up beyond that.

This year we're growing LOTS of tomatoes (8 plants total), lots of leafy greens (romaine, red leaf, arugula, and spinach), zucchini, cayenne peppers, eggplant, and basil! We also just started two small containers of herbs - including more basil, chives, lavender, oregano, and parsley!

We also have a large rose bush in the back of the garden that has been doing quite well, although I'm not thrilled with how it's looked the past few weeks. Traditionally we've been terrible at growing flowers. So much so that this year we've not planted any... we like having hanging flowers on the front porch, but last year we killed three sets, so we've kind of given up this year. We just haven't found the right balance of watering for flowers, apparently.

Anyway - I'll be keeping up here and no doubt asking questions - but if you want to follow our progress week-by-week, we post about it on our blog, here: http://lifeatnumber71.wordpress.com/category/gardening/

Looking forward to learning from all of you.

Happy Bastille Day!




I wish that I was in Paris right now but alas am stuck in Somerset! Might make some cupcakes later on in honour of the day, although really I should be doing some work instead. ;)

Writing not going well as am stuck on a crucial plot point and can't decide what the hell I am writing about. Am possibly spending more time on my writing blog than I am on the actual writing. The writing blog also has the drawback of making me increasingly excited about going to Paris later this year as I now have a long, long list of places that I really need to see as um 'research'.

The boys have a new game that involves them screaming at each other as shrilly as they can manage, while giggling like maniacs. The little monkeys!

Have started thinking about Oscar's birthday. We don't 'do' parties here (hideous, stressful and they involve other people's ghastly children) so I think we will take him to the Zoo for the day as he loves animals, fish and birds then come back for sandwiches and cake. Right, that's sorted then. He is getting a Bee Wheely Bug as his present.

Last night was a good one. The dreams started with one of those where I played multiple characters - I was both the doctor performing the autopsy on the baby boy, and his mother. And the little girl whose autopsy was next.

Then there was the one about a series of murderers who had all killed me before and were going to do it again, strangling me, and whatever I did in the dream I couldn't change the outcome. Still, there were no babies in that one, me or mine.

Hi again! My tomatoes are doing well but what about my cabbage? This is my very first vegetable garden ever and I have no idea what cabbage is supposed to do. Mine looks healthy with nice thick purple leaves but I don't see them making a head. Is that normal?

I'm in Boston and after a few weeks of non-stop rain, we're finally getting some sun. My tomatoes are covered with fruit and finally are getting some color on!

Yesterday it was brought to my attention by someone here that I’ve had my Sorting Hat Cake featured on Cake Wrecks Sunday Sweets this week! It was a Harry Potter theme this week thanks to the opening of the new film "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price".

See here. http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

I have submitted another one of my Harry Potter cakes to include in next weeks continuation of the Harry Potter cakes on the Sunday Sweets. I don't yet know if it will be included but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The comments about the cake have been wonderful so far. And to be placed in the company of such talented cake decorators such as Mikes Amazing Cakes and Duff and the rest of the crew from Charm City Cakes is truly a thrill.

Thanks to anyone that commented there, and to the ones that let them know who I was and how to find me here on LJ.

I know this has probably been asked at some point before, but I was curious. What are some of your favorite foods/drinks that you only have (or mostly only have) around Christmas?

For me...

- those $1 boxes of chocolate covered cherries from Walmart
- homemade candy, like chocolate covered peanut butter balls
- red velvet cake
- eggnog
- apple cider (I do drink this other than Christmas, but not during the summer usually)

That's about all I can think of right now.

Hi guys, I'm new here.  I'm an amateur gardener.  My first botanical experience occurred when I was nine.  For a school project, my class planted watermelons, but I thought that stuffing four seeds into one little sterofoam cup was blasphemy, so I pinned all my hopes on one little seed.  I gave the little guy the moon and the stars (not to mention a prime spot on my windowsill), but he let me down.  I never even saw a sprout.  I like to think that hasn't scarred me too much though :)

Anyway, does anyone know what this is??  I see them frequently at the park near my house, and they go through a few different stages I've noticed, but it looks more like an alien than a plant to me. 

NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

( SPOILERS )

My mother and I have been put in charge of landscaping around my grandmother's new house. The problem is that we live in a rural part of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The deer eat everything except for blackberry brambles, apparently.

We have looked up lists of deer-proof plants, but we have personal experiences with many, many exceptions to all of them.

What works for you? :)

I have finally been "busted" for (i.e., very politely asked to clean up) my covert attempts to compost. Additionally, my tomato had issues (not blight issues, thankfully) that led to my needing to cut off some big shoots.

So, a few days ago, I put my more promising-looking tomato cuttings into jars of water. Today and yesterday, there were lots of roots coming out, so I built a raised bed around the compost with rocks I found under the porch, planted the tomato shoots, a basil plant, and some started peppers in it, and covered the top with leftover orchid potting medium (world's most expensive mulch, but it was totally left over anyway, so :P).

Pictures after cut. I hope it develops, it'd be nice to have some little veggies! ( Read more... )

This is a better image of H. Pacific Moon than I was able to get of H. Watermelon Moon.  The colors of the two cultivars are similar, but Pacific Moon actually isn't as consistently pink-y as the Watermelon Moon.