About Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil has been at it for 122 years and says that winter will official end on March 16.

Count ’em… Tom and I have been married for 12 years. Do you have any idea how many times two people can laugh in 4,383 days? Some people complain about marriage giving them gray hair… or high blood pressure. My marriage has given me smile lines — lots of them — and I cherish each and every one of them.

I went Googling a few months ago looking for hot sauce recipes and kept coming across comments from people who were raving about Inner Beauty Hot Sauce. You’ll find numerous recipes on the web, some claiming to be the original, with all of them getting a broad range of reviews as to whether they’re authentic.

If you’re into making your own hot sauce, I’m not sure it matters which one you try… but the only thing that turned me off was that it calls for mangos. Number one, I’ve never been all that fond of mangos. Number two, I live in a small town and mangos just aren’t something we can buy at the local grocery store — not to mention the fact that for a few months of the year, we have access to wonderful local produce… like the apple orchard down the road that has a few peach trees.

So I decided to swap out the mangos for peaches. It’s absolutely awesome. If you like mustard-based hot sauces, it’s definitely worth trying a few recipes and experimenting. You might want to be a little cautious, though… the recipe I used called for ten habaneros — I learned that six is plenty.

Almost forgot… The Swede posted a wonderful photo of himself on our other blog. He’s the father of our Leonberger puppy, Dakota. What a magnificent animal!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot,
Sin auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

References:
Auld Lang Syne

Another great Christmas day is almost done. Ma Bell’s flight arrived 30 minutes early. We had a wonderful dinner of grilled shrimp and prime rib. We enjoyed a night of playing Euchre (Tom and I lost). We have three very tired but happy dogs.

Life is good!

I got home from Edmonton, Alberta around 3:00AM this morning, new Leonberger puppy in tow. He was absolutely amazing on both flights, capturing the hearts of everyone who saw him and bringing smiles to the faces of weary travelers whose flights had been delayed.

His first encounter with Kisa and Larkin was cautious, but encouraging. By the end of the day, he was going out of his way trying to get them to play with him. Kisa’s not quite convinced yet, but Larkin managed to get up enough energy to spar for a minute or two.

His unofficial name is Dakota. No pictures of our own yet, but our breeder sent me a lovely shot taken on his last day in Canada.

I’m going to meet our new Leonberger puppy for the first time on Sunday morning at 9:00AM. I can barely stand the excitement.

Kisa and Larkin spent the morning at the groomer’s so they’ll be all clean and pretty when they meet their new brother. Although asking Kisa to stay that way for two days is probably a little much considering we’re supposed to get 10 inches of fresh snow this afternoon.

With all the last minute planning too close to the holidays, the breeder wasn’t able to ship him via normal means, so I’m flying to Alberta to bring him home. This is after spending all week in Ontario and jumping on a 6:00AM flight to get out of Buffalo before the storm hits.

So I guess you could say I’m dog tired and dog happy all at the same time!

I hate to sound like an idiot, but after making myself an evening “coffee drink”, I decided it was time to hit the Internet Ouija Board and figure out whether I made myself a cappuccino or latte. Turns out it was neither — I use proportions that are pleasing to me and that’s all that really counts, isn’t it.

But I was surprised by the number of people who are not only interested in this subject, but terribly confused by the definitions. From Coffee Geek:

Cappuccino: The undeniable classic and darling of the espresso world. It is the perfect example of milk and coffee done right. The cup itself should hold 5 to 7oz and no more. Sharing the space in the cup in one-third proportions is one shot of espresso, one-third steamed milk, topped by one-third foam.

Latte: This is a wildly popular drink in North America. Large quantity of milk, small quantity of coffee. Something the Italians might serve to their children.

If you just Google for cappuccino vs. latte, you’ll find numerous blogs where people don’t understand how you can make a drink of thirds in a 5-7 oz cup with a single shot and end up with a full cup of coffee.

So consider this: take a classic cappuccino cup (which is much smaller at the bottom than it is at the rim) and dump in a single shot. What you have is a cup that’s 1/3 full by height — not by volume. If that’s an inch of coffee, then add an inch of steamed milk and top it off with an inch of foam.

Makes perfect sense to me.

References:
* Coffee Geek