Archive for 2007
olive’s 108 years young!
As you probably know, yesterday was my birthday. Thank you all *so* much for all the wonderful wishes and e-cards; I will respond as soon as possible, but my Internet connection is still not letting me on most pages (and when I can access something, it’s taking forever). Pazienza.
Should be fixed by tomorrow, they say! What’s that? You have a bridge you want to sell me?
Anyway, continuing with the birthday theme, now it’s time for me to pass along some very special wishes to one of my most favorite bloggers in the whole wide blogosphere:
Most Mature Blogger in the World
Ms Olive Riley of The Life of Riley turns 108, tomorrow October 20:
I first introduced you to Olive here, and her adventures have only gotten more interesting with time. She is truly an amazing woman, and I hope that you’ll also post a birthday greeting for her on your blog (and then go comment on her latest post to let her know) or simply go over to Olive’s place and leave a birthday wish.
Let’s make 108 Olive’s best birthday yet!*Special thanks to Time Goes By for organizing this e-party for Olive.*
**Also a very happy birthday to my partner in crime across the pond Jenn;
hopefully we’ll get to celebrate together again one of these years!**
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[tags]birthdays, olive riley, world’s oldest blogger[/tags]
Birthday Carrot Cake Recipe
Perhaps some of you thought I was off tending puppies yesterday or maybe even early birthday celebrating. Don’t I wish.
What I was really doing was nearly pulling my hair out over the inexplicable continued crap Internet connection I have. Ever since it went out about 10 days ago, it’s been on and off — and yesterday was completely off. Right now it’s touch and go (can’t access many pages), but I’m keeping positive.
And aside from causing me stress regarding work, it’s *completely* thrown off my blogging schedule. Argh.
Guess you’ll have to wait another year for today’s originally planned post. Or I’ll just save it for NaBloPoMo . . . with which I sincerely hope Telecom Italia cooperates.
So here is What’s Cooking Wednesday: the Birthday Edition — a day late for Wednesday, but just in time for my birthday! Woohoo!
For anyone who’s curious, I’m 31 today. So send any e-cards in large font please. Hah!
Now, back to the originally scheduled post:
For my birthday, I always have this chocolate cake. It’s my absolute favorite cake in the whole world — especially when my mom makes it.
But I’ve been feeling a little daring lately, in the mood for something different. And that, for me, means carrot cake.
I love carrot cake, haven’t had it in at least four years, and besides, isn’t it just a great autumn cake, spicy and orange and brown and cream cheese icing and yum?
I have never made a carrot cake before, and I’m not entirely sure why not. Probably because my mom isn’t particularly fond of it, so she never passed on a recipe, and goodness knows I stick to the recipes of experts around these parts.
So I turned to these Internets and went for the first recipe that came up. I know. Really selective right? Well you see, I had been going over what I thought would go into a carrot cake in my head, and this recipe fit that, especially with the adjustments listed in the comments. So I made my own tweaks, and below is what I came up with.
This cake is delicious. It’s a subtle carrot cake, and by that I mean it’s not at all like some store- or restaurant-produced cakes that make me feel like I’m eating a scented candle. I like my spices subtle, so if you like them stronger, you might want to adjust. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if you think you don’t like carrot cake, you should give this one a go.
Also, the original recipe had pecans. Some people in the comment section switched to walnuts, but I didn’t add any nuts at all; I’m not a fan of nuts in my cakes in general. But this would’ve been *fabulous* with raisins so I’ll make an effort to find them before I make this again.
My Birthday Carrot Cake
4 eggs
1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 ¼ c vegetable oil
3 tsp vanilla 2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp nutmeg
3 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
3 c grated carrots
1. Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C). Grease and flour 9 x 13 inch pan (or, as I did a 6 muffin/cupcake pan and a small loaf pan).
2. Blend together eggs, sugars, oil, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt and add to mixing bowl a little at a time. At this point, the mixture will be really thick, almost pasty. Now you’re ready to stir in the carrots.
4. Pour into pan(s), and put in the oven. The original recipe says 40-50 minutes for a full-sized cake. My muffins took about 20 minutes, and the loaf pan about 40. Just make sure to always test with a toothpick in the center—if it comes out with no batter, you’re good.
For amateur bakers, the other trick is the “spring back to the touch test,” which says, not surprisingly, that the cake should spring back to your touch. I find this one a big dangerous though as you can sink the top of your cakes and muffins/cupcakes pretty easily, so I always use a toothpick.
5. Remove from oven and let cool before icing.
Cream Cheese Icing
The measurements in the original recipe looked really off to me so I used a tried and true cream cheese icing recipe that I’ve made before. You might want to play with this too according to your tastes and how much icing you like (I don’t use much). In fact, on the cake, I just sprinkled some confectioner’s sugar on top. Look it’s snowing in October in southern Italy!
8 oz softened cream cheese
4 tbl butter
1 ½ c powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla
Beat everything together until smooth and to your desired consistency.
Grating the carrots makes this one a little labor intensive, but it’s worth it, especially if you’re making it for someone special — like for yourself. Come on, show yourself a little love this Love Thursday!
Happy Love Thursday and buon appetito!
Edited to add a request:
If you leave birthday wishes for me,
please leave the date of your birthday too (no year required!)
so I can return the wish.
all hail my camera fairy!
Remember when I told you that something not so good happened to my camera a few months ago?
Soon thereafter a fellow blogger with whom I’ve shared quite a few email exchanges started asking funny questions…”What kind of camera were you thinking of getting?” and the like.
Turns out that my truck-driving, photo-taking, toenail-painting blogging buddy Salena from The Daily Rant had just bought herself a new camera and had the “old” one just sitting on a shelf, hoping and pleading to go to a nice home.
And Salena thought that nice home could be mine. Can you believe it?
I couldn’t either, and yet my new toy arrived yesterday. Via the Italian postal service. And I didn’t even have to pay customs.
To be perfectly clear, the idea of her donating the camera to a good cause (me) came up on September 11. A couple weeks later, Salena mailed it to my mom in Pennsylvania, my mom then mailed it to me, and I was holding it yesterday, October 15…and just in time for my birthday (Thursday) to boot!
This may not mean a lot to those of you who haven’t dealt with Poste Italiane, but trust me–this is nothing short of a flipping shipping miracle. I don’t know what other fairies are on my side other than my Camery Fairy Salena, but I like them. I like them a lot.
And I *love* the camera. LOVE THE CAMERA.
It’s a Canon PowerShot S1 IS, and my Camera Fairy also threw in a special Macro lens (that I have yet to play with) and a 1 GB memory card.
I am so beside myself with glee, appreciation, and excitement, I thought I’d share some of the first photos I took with the new camera.
Here’s a morning shot from my balcony:
This is the opposite side of the village,
taken a few minutes later while on my morning walk with the dogs:
And here is proof that my roses are still blooming:
And finally, on Puppy Watch, Stella growled at me this morning when I went near her box, so I think we’re getting close! Can’t you see the concern in her eyes?
I didn’t do anything to touch up these photos so you’d be able to see what the camera does all on its own. I’ve already discovered that the zoom on this thing is amazing compared to my old camera–all the photos above except for the rose were taken on zoom. Incredible if you saw what my old camera used to do with a zoomed photo!
Now I implore you–go to The Daily Rant, check out Salena’s fabulous photos (doesn’t matter which camera she’s using, obviously, as they’re always wonderful), and read about her fascinating life on the road in an 18-wheeler with her boyfriend Eddie; also be sure to check out Due Amici Designs for gorgeous, unique custom made cards.
Please go show my Camera Fairy some blog love, and thank her again for me.
Grazie mille Salena!
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[tags]digital cameras, dogs, medieval villages, southern italy, calabria[/tags]
Blog Action Day 2007: The Environment
Today October 15th, bloggers around the world are uniting to put a single important issue–the environment–on everyone’s mind.
Here are 3 ways to participate in Blog Action Day:
- Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
- Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
- Promote Blog Action Day around the web
I’m not going to recount statistics and figures to try to convince you that global warming and environmental damage are real and that we all need to do something NOW to save our wonderful planet–if a Nobel Peace Prize winner can’t do that, well I really don’t have a chance.
So I’m just going to ask that you think about what you can do to make the world a little cleaner–and make it last a lot longer.
If you want an idea of how much of the Earth’s resources you’re using up, take the Earth Day Footprint Quiz. If you’re curious as to my results, you can find them here.
Now I would love for you to throw out suggestions in the comments–small things that we can all do that will make a difference. And I’ll start.
I realize that SUV owners probably aren’t going to be tossing aside their keys just because of Blog Action Day (although good for you if you do!) but can I convince you to switch from using plastic bags to reusable shopping bags?
If you remember my blog contest from a while back, you’ll also remember Marcia and her gorgeous handmade Bella Bags. She kindly sent me one of her organic shoppers as a gift for hosting an online party.
Can I tell you how awesome it is? It is much stronger and larger than I thought it would be, and it’s getting *a lot* of use at my house. Even if you don’t order from Marcia, please do consider making this one small change in your daily routine if you aren’t doing this already.
Plastic bags are killing our planet.
Now it’s your turn…
What else can we do to be just a tad (or a lot) more Earth-friendly?
excuse me, you’re in my light
A little over a month ago, Frances, mastermind of She Who Blogs (insert evil laugh here), wrote that she was like a modern day cave dweller who prefers the dark to the light. And it got me thinking about how I feel on the subject.
And this photo came to mind.
(check out more great photos for Phoctober at The Moon Topples!)
Aren’t these trees spectacular? I’ve never seen others like them around here–just these three standing tall, together, meters above their closest rivals. It’s hard to tell from this shot, but this is actually very high up, and the trees below these must’ve been here a mighty long time–so imagine how old “We Three” (as I call them) have been around.
I love the way the light streams through the tallest one, as if he’s protecting his smaller companions behind. Don’t worry lads, I’ll take the sunshine! I like it best anyway! Or is he selfishly hogging all the light? Hmm….
Frances’s post has been resonating with me since then, and I’m sure the change in season has something to do with that. I don’t know about where you are, but here in southern Italy, the weather can change quite quickly. One moment sunny, bright, and cloudless, the next dark, grey, and threatening.
Don’t you just love that?
I do. Except when I have laundry hanging out.
But I find that the autumn weather seems to somehow know what I need. Just when I’ve had too much sun, too many sunny days in a row, I wake up to a foggy, cloudy, dull morning–and yet gleaming with possibilities because I know it’s going to be a good writing day.
I have to admit that I easily tire of the sun, which can make a day at the beach sheer torture for me.
And yet I also love waking up to a sunny morning–works better than caffeine!–and for my working area, it *must* be well-lit. My mother wouldn’t have it any other way. Ah, and no fluorescent!
But when it’s time to wind down, I and my eyes are relieved to see the moon rising higher in the sky and the sun resting for the evening, exhausted after all that shining. And then a candle flickering or a fireplace glowing is the best lighting imaginable.
After the sun disappears and the fires are out, I love to sleep in pitch black, where even an innocent goodnight kiss can be exciting because of the sheer surprise of it. If it’s a little cool so I need a warm blanket and a willing cuddling partner, all the better.
I used to be afraid of complete darkness, but thank goodness I’ve gotten over that because now it’s one of my favorite parts of the day, er, night.
Tell me, what is your relationship with the light…and dark?
Buon weekend!
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[tags]light, dark, light and dark, black and white photos[/tags]
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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