Hammock House

So, I walk into the house this afternoon and smell some good smells coming from the kitchen, well of course I had to go and investigate what it was.

There, on the counter, hanging upside down is an Angel Food cake in its cake pan. Cool, that is my favorite cake - plain, no sauces, no whipped topping, nothing but the cake please!

Hmmm, I know that bottle underneath it - no, she didn’t use that bottle, she wouldn’t dare. If that breaks, I am so not going to be happy!! (She, by the way, is my mom.) I know, you are probably saying “What bottle did she use that could cause such a fuss?!”

Well, it was my bottle of Courvoisier Cognac that I use when I cook certain dishes. Yes, I know, it is just a bottle, but come on, my Cognac?? The olive oil bottle was there, use it!

That really did happen, but in all seriousness, I wasn’t worried as much about the bottle breaking per se, but that my animals would be drunker than Cooter Brown for the next week from the cognac. Okay, maybe I was worried about it being that particular bottle a little bit, I mean, hellooooo, that is some good cognac! :D

So, yes, I am now a year older than I was yesterday, although I don’t feel it, pray that I don’t look it, but according my birth certificate, it says that I am. Isn’t it funny, that when we are growing up, we strive to look and act older than we are, but once you hit a certain birthday, it is a compliment when people tell you “You don’t look or act your age”.

Now that I’ve had my fish and chips with malt vinegar for dinner, a nice slice of delicious angel food cake, I’m ready to relax with hopefully no more phone calls and watch The Secret of Roan Inish, then I get to look forward to part of my present that isn’t even due out until tomorrow, which of course (I know you just are waiting to know) is the newest cookbook by one of my alltime favorite people, Ina Garten, called Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients. She has class, style, smarts, wit and much more, how can you not love her?

Wishing Ina all the best with the newest book as I head of to get lost on an island off Ireland. :)

May all of your birthdays be as wonderful as mine…

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Just have to give a shout out for a book that I received Thursday evening when UPS dropped it off. Opened the package this afternoon and put it down tonight. Finished. It is, Storm Chaser, A Photographer’s Journey, by Jim Reed.

Have no fear I’ll definitely be picking it up again, and again to go over it, but going beyond the images, which are mesmerizing, fascinating and sometimes downright scary, it was the author’s writing that had my attention. Especially when he spoke about hurricanes. Having lived through Hurricane Andrew, then within 2 months time, Hurricanes Charley, Francis and Jeanne, his telling of his thoughts while going through hurricanes brought back many memories. And I just kept nodding my head as I read his ‘journal’ of Hurricane Katrina, as if he could actually see me agreeing with him and encouraging him to continue on ’speaking’! While Katrina was certainly no laughing matter, I did have to chuckle, because as I read the journal, I kept thinking, that could have been me writing that as I remembered my journal I kept for the 2004 Hurricane season. No, the words aren’t the same and the circumstances are different, but for me, my journal was a stress-reliever. I would write by the light of a hurricane lamp in the middle of the night, as I sat on a couch next to the open windows praying for a breeze after the hurricanes. Sure couldn’t sleep afterwards, it was too hot, too muggy, too humid… you get the picture. So, to be able to read what someone was thinking while in certain situations is almost calming to me. It may not make sense but that is just how my logic or illogic if you may, mind, works.

So, if I haven’t scared you off, order this book or go to bookstore and get it. You will see hurricanes, supercells, dust clouds, tornadoes and so much more. But you will also get an inside look into the thinking of a professional storm chaser.

One day I hope to meet Jim and his chase partner, Katherine Bay, who knows, maybe even get to learn from them by tagging along on a chase. That would be the ultimate for me.

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