Amy Currioman

One of the things that I really enjoy reading through in cook books. I’ve heard that cook books are the biggest money maker in the retail book business. I guess that makes sense; most of the other books that one would want to read could easily be borrowed from a library, but when you find a cook book that you really like, you would want to keep it.

I love to look at the pictures of the recipes and imagine how great they would taste. I wish that I had time to fix most of them; but reality is that I’ll probably never have the time or energy to even prepare one tenth of one percent of them. I probably really should stop buying them. But it is so hard to resist!

Many years ago I used to go to a frozen yogurt store that sold a frozen yogurt that they called “Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake.” That flavor was a specialty flavor that they only had once in a while, and it was my favorite flavor. And by my favorite flavor, I mean that I LOVED that flavor. I CRAVED that flavor. If it is possible to be addicted to a frozen yogurt flavor, then I would have been a hard core addict of that frozen yogurt flavor.

When that little store closed up shop, it nearly broke my heart. Where was I ever going to experience such a divine taste again? Lo and behold – I found the Cheesecake.com website and they have a recipe for white chocolate cheesecake that sounds like it is something I could actually make from scratch myself. Drizzle a little bit of raspberry sauce over the top – well, okay, a LOT of raspberry sauce over the top, and I’ll bet that I’ll be able to recreate that flavor that I have been missing these many years. Maybe I’ll actually drag out that springform pan that I bought twenty years ago and never used and finally put it to use!

One of my all-time favorite ice cream flavors is the Caramel Praline Crunch made by Breyers. Whenever I go to the grocery store, I look for it. More often than not the store does not have any. Not that they are out of stock, there usually isn’t even a space on the shelf in the ice cream freezer. Months go by and no Caramel Praline Crunch in sight. So tonight, when I had to swing by the Food Lion on my way home to pick up milk, when I saw that the store had it in stock AND it was buy one get one free, well I just HAD to buy two of them. Never mind that there is no room in my freezer for it – I will MAKE room!

With my prize tucked safely in the car, getting ready to head home, I called Chad and told him that I was on my way home with the Caramel Praline Crunch ice cream that we love so much, and he cheered “awesome!” I asked him to please be ready to help me bring groceries in the house in twenty minutes (I ended up buying some porterhouse steaks on sale and some hamburger and some pork tenderloin too.) He was ready and waiting to hustle the food into the house and dish us out some of the coveted ice cream. Tonight, life was good.

Thanks to Lemuel Craft

I’ve been researching satellite internet in my area because getting internet at the house is the last thing I haven’t done yet. I moved in about a month ago and I LOVE the place but it needed a lot of work so I basically spent the last few weeks of my life, nights and weekends, doing renovations and fixing the place up, you know? So anyway, I think it’s great so many people tried to buy this place and I won the bidding war but at the end of the day is it okay that I paid so much for it? I don’t know. Only time will tell if I can get out of it what I’ve put in but I really love it here and I can actually see myself living here for a while to come which makes me think it’s worth it regardless. I know it’s all about whether or not you’re comfortable in your house and I can honestly say this place really does feel like home.

My sister bought some lollipop candy molds and wants me to take some time later this week to practice melting some candy melts and fill the molds so she can have some lollipops to give away in the near future. I’ve never done anything like that before, it sounds like it could be fun, but I’m a little bit worried about having to use a frosting pastry bag to squeeze the candy out. I’m not quite sure that I have the strength in my hands to be able to do that.

I don’t even have any pastry bags, and I’m wondering if I should go out and buy some, or if there is a quick and easy way to make one ourselves from parchment paper or coffee filters. I’ll have to spend some time online to research that. Have you done anything like that before? How did you do it?