Quiet Appreciation of Life

Hi My birthday dinner with my daughters and family was great. The dinner was just wonderful we drank 5 bottles of wine(threw the entire evening) in Italy there dinners can last 3 hours and longer. Beautiful birthday cards and gifts and the knowledge that I have raised 3 wonderful children. My daughters Jody and Jessica with my brothers wife Debbie spent the evening with me. I am a blessed person to be able to live and be as healthy as I am. I love walking outside and just marveling at the sky how blue, the crisp morning air, and the quiet of the country. My Mother lives in the country I go out every other day and see her and when your outside with no cars or noise the birds sing to you and you can just marvel at the magnificent world we have.
God didn't start the war man did we have lost a great many good people trying to defend what we take for granted. A Mother's love is a wonderful thing and to take her children away from her is awful I couldn't stand it.
Kinda melodramatic right now just thinking of life and death. Guess some birthdays do that.
Just wanted to pass on a few thoughts I have been having. We need to enjoy every day we have in what ever way we want to. Talk to you later have a new recipe I'm going to put up!

My Birthday

HI hinging on a new dimension for me in a couple days i wonder what it will feel like! Not really wanting to change numbers it's a lot better than the alternative of not being able to do so. So I am approaching it with the outlook that life will change but for the better. My daughters always have me a Birthday dinner just them (there's 2 of them) and me and a good friend. Last year it was Pauline she's a sweetie but a lot older and just doesn't enjoy the wine thing like we do. This year it's Debbie my brothers girlfriend she's younger and enjoy's different things. We have Italian because all 4 of us want to go to Italy very much. I want to travel Tuscany there's so many cities I really want to see. The country is so laid back kinda like we are here in West Virginia. I watch the travel channel and have read books on it and one day we are going to go. WELL BE SUCH A HIGH!!!! I thought the cruise this summer to Alaska was great but this will be better than anything.
Anyway back to the dinner we have cheeses and wine a different main course each time I think this time there doing a shrimp and pasta --Pasta Puttanesca--with Spring Salad w/dressing--Bruschetta which is very good--Wine--Marinated Fresh Mozzerella and Olives--for dessert Deep Fried Wantons just this sound divine or what? YUMMY!!!
It's great just having the girls a while without the kids or husbands where we can talk and spend some mommy time. If you have any great Italian dishes you would like to share feel free to respond with them. Have a great day after Thanksgiving day!!!
Blackberry Wine is a great wine to have for dinner it's dry and I like mine at room temperature.

ALASKA

I went on a cruise this summer to Alaska it was so wonderful if you haven't ever taken a cruise what are you waiting for? You get waited on taken on shore cruises. Seen some wonderful sights had icebergs floating around the ship not huge ones but icebergs. The seafood was divine I love lobster and Shrimp Crab legs are to die for. I had Alaskan King Crab legs HUGE. YUMMY!!!
We rode a train up the mountain to the gold rush area looked like we were hanging on by the track but it was beautiful up there. I saw vast Glaciers that are melting the guides showed where they used to be and where there at now and they have went down a great deal. There's a lot to Global Warming because it's happening NOW.
When I figure out how to post my pictures I'll put up some from Alaska it was truly BEAUTIFUL there. Hope all had a great Thanksgiving we did and I have put up my Cranberry Tart Cake recipe for you.
Since were all women let me know what you think of Hillary for president. I would like to hear your views on it. Talk to you tomorrow....

Cranberry Tart Cake Recipe

Your Dry ingredients
21/2 cups Self rising flour
1 cup walnuts
2 cups Cranberries fresh in bag or add entire bag of cranberries it will just make it better
2 oranges (juiced) reserving liquid add 1 cup sugar to it and sit aside i use more than 2 oranges
ground up orange rind about a cup
small box date's cup them up smaller
1 cup sugar
Your Wet ingredients
2lg eggs
3/4cup oil
1 cup buttermilk
Mix all dry ingredients together
Mix all wet ingredients together it's better if you beat the eggs first them add them
Add your wet ingredients to dry ingredients mixing good by hand
Grease and flour tube pan it's what I use make's the cake look great
Pour mixture in pan and bake for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven
Cool-Remove
Take orange juice with cup of sugar and heat in saucepan don't boil when it's good and hot drizzle over cake and wrap in aluminum foil.
You'll have a cake that is just WONDERFUL it will become your Holiday special Cake.
Remember it's the CRANBERRIES that make it special!!! ENJOY!!!

View from a Woman on Thanksgiving Day Cranberries

When you stay up late on the night before Thanksgiving making your own personal Cake's and Pie's. You want your family to enjoy what you fixed but you also want them to remember those special recipes MOM fixed each year. How the cranberries had to be good fresh cranberries for her Cranberry Tart Cake she fixes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well this year our local supermarket I guess found a good deal on some kind of cranberries (other than Ocean Spray) that left in the fridge 2 days would turn into weeping soggy little mounds of disgust. Where you had to go to the supermarket that evening and buy the same weeping soggy little mounds of disgust for your cake recipe. If fixed and cooked as soon as possible the cake came out great but don't let them sit!
Everyone loved the cake as I hoped they would again. Everyone enjoyed Dinner and Dessert we always have a lot of good food for Thanksgiving. When all the dishes are cleaned up and everyone has leftovers, and all go home you can sit down with a cup of coffee and think what a great thanksgiving it was and what we all have to be thankful for. You can think about what could have been a mess if the cranberries hadn't worked out. I'm blessed that all my family was here this year I know there's a lot of people that didn't have family members home to worry over a bunch of soggy cranberries, and I wish all there loved ones well I hope all of them can come home soon and be with loved ones, but also I wish the guy selling the lousy cranberries at a low price had a great big bunch of them dumped on his head we'd see how long they lasted. If you want I'll put my Cranberry Tart Cake recipe here and you can try it you'll love it. Talk to you later.