When our daughter drove in last weekend, she brought some bars of dark chocolate with her (bless her... we love dark chocolate). This is a picture of one of the bars:

And I have to say that this is really good dark chocolate. It's 70% and that's about the highest percentage I enjoy. Once you get past that, it can be a bit too bitter for me. But this one has a good buttery taste and although slightly bitter for those who might not like to go there, I think it's pretty great. Just thought I'd share. The bars are a little expensive (somewhere between $12 and $20 each - but then it's not the type of bar that you would eat right off... just take a small piece every day or so).

I guess I think of really good dark chocolate like really good coffee or even good whiskey... in that you don't eat or drink it right down, but savor it. 

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Some pics of the kittens sleeping. Three are in the basket and the one little Siamese looking one is sleeping under the birdcage.

She is an awesome mama... watches over them constantly while they play, still nurses them although they do eat from the outside bowls, and cleans them while nursing.

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My back is still giving me trouble. It's not something I can't deal with - as I do think it's my Spinal Arthritis - which is going to act up occasionally. However, it's going on 2 weeks now. One day it seems better, then it comes back. So I have made an appointment with my Spinal Specialist next week to see if he has anything else he can tell me.

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Planning on making a blueberry/strawberry custard pie this afternoon. Will post a pic when done!

White chocolate coconut macadamia nut cookies

Yes, I'm baking again.  On DH's birthday (since we seldom give gifts these days), I picked up some new Lindt Chocolate bars. We always get the dark chocolate with sea salt, but this time I picked up a dark chocolate with sea salt and caramel as well as a white chocolate coconut.  Both are very good!

I'm not a white chocolate nor coconut lover, but I have to say that this white chocolate coconut is so buttery and flavorful that I decided to try using it as a base for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. So this morning being the typical Monday morning... nothing special... I decided to cheer it up with my cookie try-out!  Needless to say, it was a success.  I only made half a recipe... so maybe just a little short of 2 dozen cookies.  Baked half of that and left the other half of the dough for tomorrow. So-oo good (even the dough is good).

new find: white coconut ! Another reason that this cookie try-out went over so well this morning is because I spent the better part of the morning paying and organizing bills.... (putting Medicare and Supplement papers together, etc.). So I think I needed a treat...

Old photo of house in snow

You know, I planned to take a picture of both the brisket and the pie... and then forgot.  Must be age. Both are totally gone now... and were very good. The brisket was 'fall apart' tender and DH and the boys loved it.  I thought it was a bit salty, but I'm not fond of salt... and I had used a BBQ rub (as well as BBQ sauce, Lea & Perrins, and Soy Sauce recipe - all salty). I will use less of these if I ever cook this again.

The dark chocolate cream pie is one of my favorites. And I don't make it  often. The recipe calls for only dark unsweetened chocolate, but I usually use half unsweetened and half semi-sweet.  Then I use real whipping cream on top. My neighbor when we first moved to Texas made the *best* chocolate pie.  She past away a long time ago and I never knew her recipe (back then I was 27 and had 3 babies and no time to bake). But I've tried several over the years and this one is the closest I've come. Some chocolate pies are more like chocolate pudding in a pie shell, others are like brownies in a pie shell.  This one is the consistency and flavor I like.  I found it in my King Arthur's Flour cookbook a few years back.

Well, we woke up to snow this morning here in Texas. It always surprises me. Luckily we haven't had any long lasting cold so far this year, just a few snowfalls and drops to below freezing days. It will stay cold today, so I suspect the roads will be icy tonight and tomorrow.  Hate that.  But... one of the good things about being retired... I don't have to go out in it!  When the weather is especially cold and nasty, I can stay cozy and warm by the fireplace with the cats and a good book.  THAT is one of the joys of retirement!

And yes, I'm still 'considering' the Alaska trip.  Haven't made any decision. I'm letting it 'ruminate' around in my head for a while.

My mom and a friend in my kitchen taken a few years ago - both deceased now and dearly missed

Just wanted to try this.  I did the 'resize thing' here where I resized the picture in Microsoft office manager and then downloaded it into blogger.   I think you can click on it and it will enlarge... thus keeping my google photo capacity lower... ??

One more 'blogger type' question.  If I should decide to 'change' my template to another form now... will all my old blogs be changed to the new form or will it save the old posts in the old template?  Just curious...