It's a sunny day in Seattle, which means summer might be over in less than 24 hours. Summers are short here, you know?
The Salish Lodge at Snoqualmie Falls
And so, my happy Rancourtesans, Noni & I decided that today we'd drink a toast to the sun. I asked Noni for her favorite cocktail recipe, and she agreed to share. I know (from personal experience!) that it's a good one. Here's Noni...
Okay: this is possibly my favorite cocktail ever, and I made it up myself. I came up with is as part of an auction donation for Choral Arts, so chose to call it the Altini. Which, also appropriate for you and me and how we met, no?
*Yes! squeels the uber-choir-geek*
This involves some special ingredients, but they're readily available...and the Pama will last a really long time and is also fabulous in champagne, or just with fizzy water.
2 parts regular vodka (I like Ketel One if I'm feeling flush, Monopolowa if I'm not)
1 part Stoli Vanil (I'm kind of a snob about this; the cheaper brands are too sweet)
1/2 to 1 part Pama (pomegranate liqueur -- and again, don't buy the knockoff, because it's disgusting)
1 part fresh lime juice
Put in a shaker with lots of ice, shake it like you mean it (possibly even involving your moneymaker), and serve up with a lime wedge in a pretty princess glass. If it's too tart, add more Pama.
And there you have it. The lemon garnish in the picture should be a lime (darned public domain!) but you get the general idea. I hope it's sunny and warm where you are, and that there's a cool beverage (maybe an Altini?) by your side.
I’m just checking in to tell you that Friday Fun will be moving to Saturday this week. Liv’s alter ego has worked approximately eleventy-hundred hours at her real-world job this week, and she is, as she put it, “somewhere beyond tired.” So now she’s going seepy night night for a while.
But never fear, Rancourtesans. Tonight she and I will sit down over (wait for it) a cocktail or two, and craft a razor-sharp, painfully witty blog post for your Saturday morning amusement.
Failing that, we’ll sit around and eat chips and giggle like fools at stuff the 12-year old says and find something to throw onto the blog at the eleventh hour.
But there’ll be something for you to see. Pinky swear.
Have a lovely Friday, dear ones, and thank you for your continued support of my darling Liv.
A week or so ago I joined a new Triberr Tribe, one that's focused on science fiction and fantasy. For those of you who aren't familiar with Triberr, it's a blog networking and promotion site. It's been a lot of fun getting to know a bunch of new bloggers, but today I realized something. Since joining this new tribe, I've done posts about my kids and romance blogs and salted caramel. Not much sci-fi going on, unless you count my kids. They are teenagers, after all.
**waves at members of the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books and Writing Tribe**
In order to prove that my paranormal cred is intact, I decided to do a post featuring a couple of my favorite vampires - Bill and Eric - along with Sookie, and, well, the whole True Blood gang.
I have to confess I'm not a huge fan of the show (except for the pix of a certain blond viking vampire) but I love the books the series is based on, and last weekend I read Deadlocked, book 13 in the Southern Vampire Mysteries. I don't really do book reviews, so I'm making an exception for this one. The hard part will be avoiding spoilers, and maybe this won't be so much a book review as just a collection of my impressions. I have a feeling that if you've made it this far in the series, you'll read Deadlocked regardless of what I say. And if you've given up on the series, this probably won't make you want to jump back in.
Impression 1: Deadlocked unwinds at a leisurely pace, as if Ms Charlaine and I were
sitting down with a couple glasses of sweet tea while she told me the
story. There's some action over here and then some banter over there.
There's time for Sookie to run to the grocery store to pick up a few
things to make dinner for some friends who just had new baby twins.
There were times when I wondered if we were ever going to get where we were going. On the whole, though, I liked that aspect of it.
Impression 2: Towards the end she dropped in a couple of surprising details that left
me feeling like I didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle. Either I've
missed a short story or she's fired her continuity editor. It wasn't a deal-breaker, by any means, but I ended up
with the same sense of dislocation I felt while reading Definitely Dead, when I came to the place that refers to events that happened in the short story One Word Answer.
I've read all the Southern Vampire Mysteries - some of them multiple times - and there were things in this one that I thought came out of left field. Or perhaps
another short story. Or maybe I'm just getting forgetful in my old age.
Impression 3:It was like going out for cocktails with a guy you used to have a huge
crush on and maybe dated for a while, but now think of as a friend. It
was fun to catch up and hear the news, but there was a sense of sadness
too because so much of the excitement was gone.
Impression 4: She sure is wrapping things up! By the end, so many story lines had bows on them I could barely see the words on the page.
I cannot even imagine how hard it is to create thirteen books about the same bunch of characters, and I have a great deal of respect for what Charlaine Harris has done. I liked Deadlocked, and if you're a Sookie fan, I encourage you to read it. But you probably already have.
;)
Couple more things...Noni couldn't be here this week, because she has a new job where they expect her to be in an office from 9 - 5 Monday through Friday. Sadly, there'll be no more working from home in her slouchy slacks and Rocket Dog sandals. It's seriously cut into our white-wine-and-salad lunches, let me tell you. So, since I was left to my own devices, I picked the video trailer for True Blood Season One - the only season I really paid attention to. Oh, and then there's the gratuitous SPIKE pic. Because, um, you know. It's Spike.
Peace,
Liv
So the other day I was playing around on Pinterest and found the picture to the right. It's linked to a recipe for Salted Caramel Shortbread. A good friend of mine who goes by the name The Freeway Diva (The FWD) commented that it was like she and Noni got together and made a love baby. I laughed because she was right. That recipe plays to each of their strengths.
The FWD is an expert baker who takes care of all of our birthday cake needs, and Noni is a very fine cook who specializes in creative combinations. Lately Noni has been playing around with salty and sweet, recipes similar to the one below, for Cheesecake with a Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel Sauce. Noni didn't make that one, but she could have. Maybe I'll ask for it the next time she offers to make dessert...
The idea of combining salty and sweet is very popular right now, and it's easy to find recipes based on that principle. I looked around the internet and found a recipe for Honey-Marinated Goat Cheese with Lavender, and one for Crispy Chocolate Peanut-Butter Cups. Even something as simple as the bag of Kettle Korn you buy on the way in to the baseball game is based on this concept.
Our girl Noni, well, she's got to push the envelope. She grabbed salty and sweet and took it to 11. Wanna know how?
She added bacon.
OMG does she rock or what?
So here, for those of you with adventurous palates, is Noni's recipe for Ginger-Bacon Cookies a Butter Glaze. Go on. Try 'em. They're all kinds of yum.
Noni speaks...and you're going to love what she has to say...
Ginger-Bacon Cookies with a Butter Glaze
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup dark molasses
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
4 strips thick cut bacon (maybe more?)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in molasses and egg. Fry the bacon SLOWLY so it doesn't burn. chop it superfine. Add bacon and the remaining ingredients and combine thoroughly.
Form tablespoons of dough into balls and roll in sugar. Flatten on ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Cool.
Butter Glaze
Brown the butter on medium heat (no higher!), then add a pinch of salt and enough powdered sugar to make a drippable glaze. Dribble over cookies.
And other thing that's based on the principle of salty and sweet is the book Go The F*** To Sleep. If you've never seen this book, it looks an awful lot like something you'd read to a baby. Personally, I wouldn't, but, as you can see from the following video, some people do.
(The language in this video is quite, um, salty. Consider yourself warned.)
Thanks for playing along today. Leave a comment with your favorite salty/sweet recipe, and definitely let me n' Noni know if you try her recipe. Also, let me know what you think of the blog's new look. Is it too busy? Happy Weekend!
Peace,
Liv
Happy
Friday! I'm happy it's Friday, although it means my week of vacation is
almost over. And since I've had a week off, my brain isn't working
right and I'm having trouble thinking of funny things to say. Noni, save me! Well,
actually, she already did. She sent this video over a day or so ago.
Come with us on a little trip to Mother Russia. Or Alabama. One of the
two. And as you watch the video, ask yourself whether those hairstyles
are supposed to look like Elvis or if they're just happy to see us. ;) Liv
Noni came home from Hawaii all excited because she'd found a new video for this week's post. Are you wondering why she was trolling the internet looking up videos during her week in Maui? So was I, but then I decided we should just be thankful that she had our best interest in mind.
Last Saturday night she came over for dinner. Noni's a helluva cook, and we're always happy when she shows up with her apron on. She keeps the husband from getting too Lutheran with the barbeque. While the coals were getting hot she and I sat down over the laptop so she could show me her discoveries.
The hands-down winner of the Friday-Fun sweepstakes shows what happens when a toddler has one too many. In addition to being painfully funny, it's in keeping with our recent tropical theme. Real alcoholic beverages were not consumed in the making of this video, but it's hard to remember that as you watch it. In fact, it occurs to me that Noni and I might occasionally resemble this kid by the end of the night. Not really. Well, maybe when we were younger. We've got more class than that now. Right? Anywhoodle, enjoy the video and have a great weekend. If you have an extra minute, take a look at my Team Sophia page to keep up to date on our fundraising progress. Peace, Liv
I should know better than to try to write a blog post after working all night. Just because I should know better doesn't mean I won't do it anyway...
Last week I told you my girl Noni (and yes, we're back to the original spelling) was on Maui. Sigh. She posted pictures of beaches and sunsets and swimming pools, the brat. One picture showed a table in the sun with a Manhattan frosty beverage and a travel Scrabble game on it. Clearly she was suffering.
Not.
She emailed me last night in a panic because she hadn't helped me pick a Friday Fun video. It was okay, though, because I had two in mind. While she was working on her tan, I spent the week keeping the kids pointed in the right direction, getting to work on time, and oh yeah, visiting Honolulu my own way.
I worked on the X-teenth revision of a short story Icall Honolulu City Lights. It's about a girl and a boy and a beach - well, and this iteration had a hula dancing doll in the mix. It's a fun little read, if I do say so myself. And in honor of sending it off to see if it finds a home, I'm posting Bing Crosby's version of the song the doll dances to, The Hukilau Song. This particular version works for me on a couple of different levels, and I hope it makes you want to jump on the next Hawaiian Air flight out of town. Peace, Liv
Oh, and for good measure, here's the song that inspired the title of my short story...
Well hey now! It's time for another Friday Fun video. This week Noni and I (and she requested I spell it with an 'i' instead of a 'y') sat down over a couple beers - well, she was drinking Manhattans - and looked for an appropriate video for today. She's taking this very seriously, and we both want to make sure you are seriously entertained. ;) Fortunately, the internet is bounteous in that regard. Noni suggested we revisit Eddie Izzard but I said I didn't want a repeat so soon. We had Eddie on the brain, though, and thought we'd try Eddie Murphy. She typed in his name and there were a bunch of hits, including one called "The First Black President", from his Delirious show back in 1983. "That sounds good. Let's see what they thought about a black president back then."
Now I gotta preface this by saying that I REMEMBER watching the Delirious show on TV (and I actually went and saw him when he brought his Raw tour to Seattle). And I thought it was ALL funny stuff. I remember his First Black President bit, and I remember laughing.
We were ready to go. Noni clicked 'play', and ol' Eddie started in. Ef-ity Ef-ity Ef Ef Reagonomics. And then that Ef-ity Ef-fing Harold Washington got elected and people were like Ef-ity Ef-ity Ef Ef and Ef it some more. Beyond the fact that every other word started with the letter F, we figured only a small percentage of you would remember Reagonomics, and NO ONE (including me) would remember who Harold Washington was.
We didn't make it half way through.
So instead of Eddie doing stand-up, we found a clip from Saturday Night Live, from before he made a gazillion dollars raining Ef-bombs on his fans, or singing Roxanne in the jail cell, or talking to animals, or running around haunted mansions. You rock, Mr Murphy, but I gotta wonder whether your stand-up show in 2012 would contain a greater variety of adjectives. Peace, Liv
Oh, and just fyi, this month I'm taking part in the Proudly Paranormal Blog Hop. If you've got a minute, check out tomorrow's hop stop, Gabrielle Bisset, author of Blood Avenged. I get my turn later in the month. Thanks!
