If the shop is a rockin'.........

Every once in awhile, when I feel I am totally disenchanted with England........I stumble across something like this. And I just get enchanted all over again! We were driving back from our last visit to Wales, when we happened to pass this shop. Needless to say, I was tickled pink, and had hubs stop so I could take a picture. If or when, I ever leave England, I will totally miss these small villages, with their unique pubs, shops, churches with gravestones stood around the front like sentries, and the total surprise when coming across a shop with a funny name.

Speaking of funny names, there's a salon in a small town near us.......it's name is BLOW. Trust me, I did a second take when we passed THAT shop!

It sometimes seems that, although something keeps tugging at my heart, and wants to pull me away from where I am, life has a funny way of sticking something totally interesting in front of your face, telling you, you're ok, stay put for a bit. Enjoy. And that's what I'm trying to do. Enjoy, and find the funny, of course!!

Experiments with leftovers.

Can you say YUM! I had a bit of a dilemma, a BIG bowl of leftover biryani that all the meat had been picked out of, and nobody was going to eat. If you aren't familiar with biryani, you can check it out here.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Biryani

If you don't want to follow the link, basically I had a huge bowl of spicy basmati rice.

We hate to waste food around here, so I decided to turn it into chicken soup. I used frozen chicken left over from a grill we'd done, the rice from the briyani, chicken stock, a few dashes of flour, to make it thicker, a bit more seasonings, and a splash or two of milk, for creaminess. Then I topped the whole thing off with homemade dumplings. Really interesting result! Because the rice had loads of flavor, and a bit of oil in it, the dumplings soaked up all the briyani yumminess. Not something I had expected, but the whole thing turned out delicious!

Leftovers RULE!!

Oh, wonder, where art thou??

Not wonder, as in awe......but wonder, as in I wonder........? Perhaps having a six year old is leaving me wondering.....no pun intended! How did I get started on this? Woodstock. Ok, Ok, I was like, two! But I was recently viewing some newly surfaced photos, and one of the comments made about the photos was, 'Just hanging out and waiting, that's what everybody was doing. No texting, no instant gratification.' THERE. THAT THERE. No instant gratification. No wondering. When I was little, if I wondered about something, I would wait to go to the library with my mom, or I'd ask questions, which would lead to me going to the bottom of the bookcase, that was reserved for TONS of Encyclopedia Brittanica, and browsing through several volumes for the answer. However, because of my curiosity, I was often led astray and ended up reading about something else, not at all related to my original wondering.
That's gone, isn't it? Nowadays, with just a click, we are left with no chance to wonder, no small flicker of imagination creating fun, sometimes goofy answers to our questions. Before we can even finish the 'Why is/does/' .......we've googled the answer. (I hate that term, google, I rarely use it, so from now on I'll refer to it as a search.)
Every once in awhile, I have a wonder question......now mind you, this is rare, and a search can't instantly gratify me. Let me for instance you. When I lived in Florida, Tampa Bay area, I remember once hanging out by the bay, waiting, and saw something curious in the shallow water. Thinking it seaweed, and watching it gently sway back and forth, I reached down and touched it. SLUUUUUURRRRRRRPPPPPP!!! It quickly sucked itself under the sand. Ok, never having seen anything like this before, I reached out to touch another one. While this one was slurping under, the first one was sneaking back out. Well, I never said it takes a lot to amuse me, so I had fun WONDERING what this was, and generally poking these thingys back under. They are hard to describe, sort of reminded me of bamboo, in that they were tubular and hollow in the middle. Ok, now what were they? How to search? Tubular, underwater, hollow, seaweed thingys that suck back under the sand when prodded?? Google THAT, my friend! (ok, I know, but 'search that' just doesn't have the same effect.
So now, ten years or so after the wonderous discovery of some weird sea life under the bay, I am still left WONDERING what they were. Are. Whatever. I'm pretty sure they are still there. And I don't know if I want to know what they were. Are. I might just leave it alone. Keep that sense of wondering, not knowing.....
After all, it's very little that we have to wonder about today. I think I'll leave the searches alone for a bit, get out my imagination, wipe off the cobwebs, spruce it up, and let it run for awhile.

When Will These Holidays Be Over??

Oi, not only are the holidays getting to me, my biscuits won't rise, and I can't keep two children entertained at home. My chinese balls went missing, (daughter's favorite toy), I keep doing the same things over, and over, and over.......and my photo printer crapped out after just printing a handful of pictures.....with a brand new cartridge, no less. I'm fed up with Epson.

On the plus side, we are all healthy, the sun is shining, (whoa!! it is?? better double check, may be wishful thinking...) and my favorite craft store is opening in our town tomorrow!!
The kids are eating the flat biscuits, so am I for that matter....hey, when one gets desperate....

Talk about wishful thinking........and I don't even have a cast iron skillet. Knew there was a reason I keep thinking I need one! For perfect biscuits!! (if I have a cast iron skillet, they will rise, If I have a cast iron skillet, they will rise........)