Sunday Food and Pets Post - Thanksgiving Poutine!!

Hi Everyone :)

I hope you're all comfy at home on this chilly Sunday...at least it's chilly here! I was scraping ice off the car's windshield this morning. And I just discovered my automatic car starter isn't working! At first, I was kind of worried now that the cold weather is arriving fast, but you know what? Life can go on without gadgets lol...I never had an automatic car starter before and I can certainly survive without one!

Last Thursday, Alex and I had our belated Thanksgiving celebration and YES I DID IT....I made a Thanksgiving Poutine! 

Here is the luxurious close up! For those who don't know, a poutine is basically fries topped with cheese and drowned in gravy. It's a Canadian dish so I figured, why not eh? 😊🍁😊 I made a traditional, mostly vegetarian dinner with Stuffing, mashed potatoes, Cranberry Sauce and Cauliflower Gratin. On top of the fries, I put a little of each dish, topped it with a mix of Mozzarella and Cheddar, then slathered it with Chicken Gravy. It was SO DARN GOOD. And we had leftovers for days! 😊😊😊 

Here is my centerpiece including the ONLY two teeny weeny little sugar pumpkins that grew in the garden this year. I planted about 30 seedlings and a few handfuls of seeds directly into my patches...2019 will be the worst year yet for my garden harvest - but I did learn a lot so it's never a total waste!

For dessert I made my Creamy Pumpkin Pie. This is very good for breakfast the next day by the way! 

To go with dessert, I made Spicy Apple Butter Old Fashioned's with bourbon. This was like drinking a dessert.

The day before our Thanksgiving dinner, I made the Spicy Apple Butter to go in the cocktails. It slow cooked for 8 hours and the house smelled divine!

Now that I can eat again, I went on a cooking spree! I made Goat Cheese and used it for my Goat Cheese Popovers. These are so delicious! I only make small batches because they're best eaten within 24 hours.

I'm still on soft foods mostly but NO MORE PUDDING AND SOUP!!! I made a nice Four Cheese Pasta Penne - so comforting.

This is a nice snack - Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Pesto. I'm not a fan of pine nuts and I don't add them to my pesto - you really don't need them! This is great on bread or on crackers with a little shaving of Cheddar cheese. We also use this as a pizza sauce.

Alex and I did some taste tests yesterday! I opened my 3-Month Cheddar and the Cherry Bounce we made in July. What a treat!!! The Cheddar tasted just like it was supposed to taste like - a mild, young cheese! (I video-ed a taste test on Rainy Day Cheese Making if you're interested!). The Cherry Bounce was lovely with the cheese, it tasted like a cherry port. Very delicious!! :)

Clockwise: Baby Oscar stretching as he wakes up...curious Dana on the mantle...Charlie longing to run like a wild coyote in the woods...yawny Leo...snuggly Jack...insecure Marlene...I'm not leaving you EVER Marlene!!! 🐶 It may be cold outside, but it's warm and cozy and full of love here at home! See you on Thursday for our art date, the theme is Jack O' Lanterns! 🎃🎃🎃

Thursday Art Date: Creatures In The Night & Paint Party Friday!

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Creatures In The Night! What type of creature have you created today? Is it animal, human or supernatural? Bugs is learning to fly as Dracula, he's trying to expand his range so he can get more acting roles in the horror genre. 😊

By the way, I've added more themes for future art dates, click here to check them out! Also, I'm going to change things up a bit - the link widget will be open for more than one day. Cathy, you suggested that a while ago and I think it makes more sense!! From now on, anyone who wants to contribute will have up until Sunday night to post their link for the theme. 😊 

Ever since I had such success with my Frankenstein's Monster watercolour, I've been using a layering technique in my watercolours and I'm loving the results! I used the same technique for Bela Lugosi as Dracula. This is just the beginning in a series of portraits I intend on doing - for Halloween and beyond!! 

Here's my watercolour take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. These creatures are definitely not pleased after finding their porridge eaten and their beds slept in! What was Goldilocks thinking??? 😲

I've been wanting to join Paint Party Friday for a long time now, but didn't think I could do an art post on Thursdays and on Fridays. But my friend Laurie suggested that I link this Thursday post to the Friday party tomorrow so that's what I'm going to do from now on! 😊

For Paint Party Friday, I decided to try to paint Alex, my hubby. He's a musician and we do photo shoots at home and around the village for his artwork and blog. I painted this from a photo we took over a year ago. I used that same watercolour layering technique - I love how it turned out, so does Alex! Please visit  Paint Party Friday  for more wonderful artwork!

I'm eating again!!! Nearly 3 weeks on soup and pudding doesn't make a person's insides very happy...I'm on soft foods, but at least it's FOOD. My mouth is still sore but improving every day. Thanks for your wonderful wishes of health everyone! I don't want to see another dentist for the rest of my life...Alex and I missed our monthly "anniversary" fondue last week, so we had it last night. It's SO yummy...Smoked Cheddar and Apple Cider Fondue. It's a perfect fall fondue! But...I feel those pounds I lost crawling back up to my waist lol!

That's all for now folks, please check out the link widget below to see more Creatures In The Night artwork! And please join me on Sunday for my food and pets post - there will be some good eats on that post!! 😋

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Last year's paper maché Jack O' Lanterns

October 24th: Next Thursday's theme is Jack O' Lanterns. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! 😊

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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Sunday Food and Pets Post - Sore Tooth Diet

"Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" 😕

Hi Friends :)

How is your Sunday going? I finally had a great night's sleep and I'm going to try to eat some solid food today, yippee!

🍁🍁Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends🍁🍁! 

Alex and I have decided we are postponing Thanksgiving dinner for a few days until I can really eat again. I've been on the "sore tooth diet" (coined by Joyce!) since September 25th. It's been brothy soups and milked-down pudding with the occasional herb tea - I haven't had cheese for 19 days...oh, the humanity... ME without cheese... on the plus side, so to speak, I lost 9 pounds, but I know I'll gain it all back as soon as I get back to my regular diet of comfort food!!! :) I hope next Sunday's post will be filled with delicious goodies!

This whole ordeal got me thinking about those crazy fad diets from my youth. I know these types of diets started many decades ago, but I remember a lot of them from the 1980's.

Hmmm...I would totally follow the "Wine and Cheese" diet if I could get away with it! Did you ever try any of these fad diets? 

I never did these diets, but I did eat Slim Fast bars for breakfast and lunch and Snackwells cookies for dinner! I did this a few times a week to keep my weight down. Gosh how unhealthy! Now I eat whatever I want and I cook much healthier meals; but limit my calories a few times a week to keep my weight at a healthy level.

I'm so glad I never fell for these! They are dangerous!

I was aerobics-obsessed too. I had every Jane Fonda workout, either on cassette or on video tape!

Does anyone remember the "20-Minute Workout" that ran on television in the 1980's? It was a Canadian show, so I don't know if it made it to the U.S. networks or not. I did this workout nearly every day. I have to say, it was a great workout but these women lol...they were exercising AND selling sex as they say! They were scantily dressed and the poses were so provocative! They often had that "come hither" look on their faces as they stretched out, it was a riot!

I have a gentler approach to fitness now though - walking, rebounder jogging, gentle stretching and yoga. I had to cut out the dumbbells while my sciatica was flaring up, but after my mouth is all healed, I intend to restart a weight workout three times a week. What do you do to keep healthy and active?

Marlene, Jack and Baby Oscar - is it me or do they look like they're up to something???

Another secret conference with Baby Oscar and Jack! These two are joined at the hip, it's adorable.


See you on Thursday for Rain's Art Date - our theme is Creatures In The Night!

Thursday Art Date: Horror and Scary

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Horror and Scary! What keeps you tucked tightly under the covers on a dark and scary night?? :) Tweety Bird was just minding his own business, heading downstairs for a midnight snack when he heard a little creak behind him. Do you believe in the Boogeyman? Though it very well could be Sylvester trying to frighten the poor little bird!!!

Sitting in a dentist chair is a scary thing. Monday's procedure went very well with my new dentist.  I'm still not eating anything solid...but my seven and a half weeks of pain are almost over. I feel like slugging that first dentist for not noticing the infection last month. How can you trust anyone these days??? Doodling helps to displace the need for vengeance lol! 😉 I'm a slow healer though, so I'm still taking pain killers. The antibiotics are finally done though. My body needs a break from pharmaceuticals.

When I was a kid, I used to watch Scooby Doo cartoons every Saturday morning. This episode scared me so much that I refused to go swimming that summer. I had nightmares! Reading Nancy from Little Homestead in Boise's post about her visit to a Maritime museum sparked this memory! (Don't worry Nancy, he doesn't scare me anymore!! ) 😊

I thought I'd create a scary looking deep sea diver in watercolour...maybe the ghost of one who was lost at sea! I took some time to look up the history of underwater diving and this contraption is called a "diving dress". They were used all the way back in the 1400's up until the early to mid 1900's. I'm still afraid of what's under me when I'm swimming in the lake though...

Here's a scary fella! The Wolf Man - I tried to recreate Lon Chaney's 1941 character in watercolour. Alex and I have been watching a scary movie every night so far this month and we intend to keep it up until Halloween! The movies vary from the old 1920's and 1930's classics to some very awesome B-movies from the 1960's and 1970's! We're saving the latest Halloween movie (2018) for October 31st! That's all for today folks! :) Please see the link  widget below and visit our friends to see what they've created for today's art date!!

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Riding Hood - Acrylics September 2017

October 17th: Next Thursday's theme is Creatures in the Night. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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Sunday Food and Pets Post - Who Wants Cookies?

Who wants cookies? Who doesn't??? :) Dana at the very top doesn't like to mingle with the pack, so this was a rare shot getting them all together! I took about 30 photos in "burst" mode and made a little animation gif! :)

Frost on the ground means Jack is now wearing his winter jacket!

Poor Charlie...she was out running like a maniac in the backyard and she somehow tore her dew claw...shudder, right down to the quick. We are healing her at home with hydrotherapy, antibacterial solution, Polysporin and bandages. She's doing well. :)

To try to keep myself distracted from my tooth pain, I've been making more cheese - a Colby and another Jarlsberg. Other than that, the only food I'm eating is still just soup and pudding. The antibiotcs finally kicked in yesterday and my molar is sore and sensitive, but I no longer have thoughts of Hari-Kari. 😉 Wish me luck tomorrow for my appointment!

See you on Thursday for some horrific and scary art!! :)

Thursday Art Date: Ghosts and Ghouls

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Ghosts and Ghouls. Daffy was bragging to everyone he knew that he had this Super Hero audition "in the bag" - that the producers would see how courageous he was and he'd make the perfect Super Hero! Then Bugs showed up, the stinker! I did this with Sharpies, Prismacolor Pencils and a little watercolour for the background. What did you come up with for our Ghosts and Ghouls theme?

I was inspired to paint this ghost ship after reading the legend of The Flying Dutchman - a ghost ship that is cursed to sail the oceans forever. It's said that any sailor who sees this ghost ship is doomed to the sea.

This was fun to paint! A ghoulish Reaper seeking his next victim! I painted this with watercolour.

My Old Dentist

Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who wished me well in the last post! Between going back and forth to the dentist and just the general upkeep of the house and taking care of the pets...I'm just pooped and haven't had a free moment to answer comments! But I read all of them and my heart is full of gratitude for such a wonderful community of caring people!!  💖

I basically have had nothing else going on in my life but dentistry, antibiotics, painkillers and lots of sleep. I saw the new dentist again and all should be resolved next Monday! Gosh I can't wait to be out of pain. You want a prisoner to talk? Mess with his teeth! 😧  Now that's torture...I'd sing like a canary! See you on Sunday for my weekly food and pet post (minus the food probably, I've been living on soup and pudding!)

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My Favourite Fictional Characters: The Headless Horseman, The Raven, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (January 2018, acrylics)

October 10th: Next Thursday's theme is Horror and Scary. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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