JHP

Friday, January 16, 2009

16 JAN 09

Driving to Panera Bread in Fayetteville, Becky and I came across the amazing sunset. You don't get to see it often in the winter in Upstate NY.

Happy New Year! New Year's Resolution...a picture a day.

January 2009 - Picture a day
2 Jan - 15 Jan
My New Year's Resolution is to take a picture OR write a poem everyday. I may not share every poem I write, but I will share all the photos I take no matter how bad and/or last minute they might be.

Laser tag with Carrie-lani

Teasing Mickey with a treat

Cutting ribbons at the flower shop in preparation for Valentine's Day

Deer in our backyard

Lizard in the window of my new little office

Bath time!

Part of this complete breakfast

Mmm-mmm...strawberries and blueberries

Winter decor

Sun shadows

Orange tomato soup (SOOOO GOOOOOD!!)

Recipe: put ~1/2 small onion, 1/2 red pepper, 1 stalk of celery, a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, 1 clove garlic, a sprig of thyme (leaves picked off), and fresh ground pepper in a food processor. Blend together until very fine. Heat some olive oil in a small pot, and once warm add all the veggies. Cook on med-low until the veggies are tender. Add ~1/2 cup of beef broth until the veggies are just slightly covered with the broth. Put the heat on simmer and let the flavors simmer together for ~10 minutes. At this point add whatever spices you like (I added some Adobo and paprika). Once the broth has simmered for a while, add one can of Campbell's Tomato Soup. Stir in until smoothly integrated. Take half and half (or any other dairy - I used fat-free Half and Half) and add slowly while stirring. Once the soup is the "right" consistancy stop adding dairy and bring to a boil again. I took out the handheld blender and blended the soup more to get it really smooth, but if you prefer it a little chunkier you don't have to blend it. Let it simmer together for a few minutes. Take off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes before serving. Enjoy!!

Catching up!

Catching up with photos....Here are some pictures from our Christmas 2008.

Maryann got a camouflage skirt that she was very happy about!

Mom loved the little manger scene she got!

Since we let the dogs in the living room while we opened presents, Carrie had to watch the festivities from a safe distance.

Early Dec - I went to NC to help Becky move out of her apartment. On my way back to NY, I stopped off in Gettysburg, PA. What an amazing place! I wish I had had more time to explore, but I only had about an hour to drive around.

Small grave marker. To be honest, this is the only single grave marker I saw there. This poor guy must have done something really important to get his own grave marker. The rest were large monuments to entire brigades that had fallen or done something significant during the 3-day battle.

A long wooden fence along one of the many large farm fields there.

One of many canons and still-standing houses in the battle field.

A lone tree and many monuments.

Smokey Mountain National Park

It is very obvious once you enter the Smokies why they would have thought to call the mountains that...

As I was driving home, I drove through an area that had been hit with an ice storm the night before. The sun was out and made for very intense pictures.