Chocolate Chess Pie

My grandmother use to make chocolate chess pie at the holidays, because I hate nuts and would not eat pecan pie.  Any time she made any kind of dessert she would leave a corner or side nut free just for me.  After she passed away I made it my mission to make a couple of the desserts she made at least as well as she made them.  My chocolate no-bake cookies nearly always turn out perfect and my mom thinks I make them better than my grandmother.  My pineapple chess pie is the same way.  My chocolate chess pie seems to have a will of its own.  Sometimes it turns out beautiful sometimes it does not.  Generally when I make it using a kitchen aid mixer it turns out correctly, but when I make it by hand I don't tend to know till I pull it from the oven. 

During Spring Break I made the Pioneer Woman's flat apple pie, using her pie crust recipe rather than the standard recipe I had always used.  I did not have my copy of her cook book so I pulled it from the food network website.  It turned out beautifully and both my parents loved the new crust.  So today I decided I would make the pie crust and sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon.  It is a favorite dessert in our family and we always make it with the scrap pie crust. 

When I got started I realized that the recipe in The Pioneer Woman cookbook was different from the recipe on the food network website.  I went on her blog and found the recipe she had posted and it matched the cookbook so I decided I would follow it, rather than the food network version.  I made the crust and froze the rest.  The crust tasted fine but it crumbled the second you touched it.  I ended up throwing most of it out because I could not pick it up without it falling apart. 

I decided I would try to make a pie with some of the rest of the crust.  I got it rolled out fine but it broke apart when I tried to put it in the pie pan.  I ended up reforming it inside the pan.  Then I made the filling for the pie by hand.  Even when it does not turn out right it still tastes great so I don't worry much when I am making it for myself.  The filling is perfect!!!  The crust still crumbles easily but it is easier to eat in this pie form.  I think I will be printing off the food network version of the recipe to tuck into the cookbook.  Now I just have to limit myself to one slice a day (or maybe meal). 

Another positive is that I used up several ingredients that were getting old, so I was able to clean up some containers and pick up fresh ingredients. 

The Moon Tonight

I am obsessed with the moon and when the dogs go out for the last time each evening I go out with them and admire the moon.  I am determined to finally get a good picture of it but yet again my pictures are more artsy than realistic.

Changing things up

This past week I have gotten ready to make some changes to the decor in my house.  It all started with the desire to change out my sunset pictures with some of the wild flower pictures I had taken.  I thought they would help represent a new beginning.  I am all about Feng Shui and using pictures to help brings things to happen.  So I changed out the sunset pictures for pictures of spring.  I am now thinking of adding another picture collage frame to the hall, so that I can have more family pictures hanging up.

In my master bathroom I have had a picture of the aurora borealis for the last several years.  I liked the picture but it never really fit in with everything else in there.  Most of the room is decorated with ornate objects and this picture was in a very simple black frame, glued in since the frame had trouble staying together.  I loved my sunset pictures from the trip to Llano over Spring Break so I chose one of them to replace the Alaska picture.  Since I ended up just moving the Alaska picture to my front hall, I got a new frame for this picture.  I decided to choose something that would compliment my sunset picture and fit in with everything else.  Hobby Lobby has such great frame sales.

I also chose to have prints made of a couple of favorite western pictures I had saved on my computer, though I did not know what I was going to do with them.  Originally I was thinking of framing them for my office or to go around my closet door.  Then I found these very cheap wooden frames from Ikea.  They are suppose to be plain so that you can decorate them any way you choose but I liked the simplicity of the wood, especially with western pictures.  After they were framed I went around the house trying to find a place for them and decided to have them across the top of my closet above my shoes.  I have decorated my entire closet with items I love that don't really fit anywhere else.  It is probably one of my favorite rooms in the house.

Next up I am getting started on some serious Spring cleaning and organizing.  I already got started by organizing under the master bathroom sinks.  I also found a light for above the master bathroom sinks while checking out the Habitat Restore.  I purchased a couple lights from them last spring when I began to replace the lights around my entire house.  The only area I did not get done was the master bath and bedroom, mainly because I could not find lights I liked and could afford.  This light needs cleaned up a bit, but is the perfect size for the bathroom.

Random Pictures

So for the last two days I have gone around my house and yard taking random pictures of mainly plants but also my pet fish, Vino. 

First up are my roses.  I love my roses, the pinkish/red one was originally planted at my old house, but when I bought my new house I pulled it up and brought it with me.  It is thriving and has tons of flowers on it now.

Last spring to celebrate living one year in my new house I planted two Christmas Crepe Myrtles, two Privet Drive Shrubs (in honor of Harry Potter) and two more roses.  They were suppose to be a yellow rose and red rose, however the red is actually pink.  The yellow rose almost died last summer and I was very close to just pulling it up.  This spring the plant looks great and will soon be covered in yellow roses.  Now it is the "red" one that is sick.

I love my roses!!!!

This is one of the tall shrubs in my front yard, it is really more of a tree.  It is covered in white flowers and these tiny bee-like insects are taking care of pollination this year.

The oak tree in my backyard was there when I moved in, but last year it got sick during the drought.  The sickness I think it may have is fatal to trees but I am hoping that I was wrong and whatever it has is something it can survive.  So far so good, it is covered in beautiful green leaves.

Now on to the inside plants.  This is my money tree, that I have had for the last two years.  I bought it right after moving into my home.  I have had two previous money trees but had zero luck in keeping them alive.  I thought this one was not doing great but after transplanting it to a bigger pot, it has been thriving.  The key for me has been using a few ice cubes to water each week, it keeps me from over watering it.



This is a tiny plant my mom got me for Valentine's Day.  It is one of those self-watering plants, which I love because I can usually keep those alive.



My prize plant is the Basil in my kitchen window.  I adore Basil and use it in as many dishes as I can.  I have tried growing Basil from a potted plant but it always dies within days.  This plant I started from a seed and it grows like crazy.

The plant I have incredible luck growing is aloe vera.  It is probably genetic, because my grandmother had several aloe veras too.  I had one for several years in college but one of the foster kittens knocked it over and I did not replace it for a long time.  My mom started this one for me, so that I could have it at school.  I never managed to get it to the school and kept it with me instead.  It is now five aloe veras and there are always babies popping up.  I will probably be dividing it again after Easter.

This is not a live plant but one of those decorative balls that are used to fill a bowl or vase.  I just thought it looked cool.



Meet Vino the Betta fish.  I got him the same week I moved into my house, so this May he will be 2 years old.  He is starting to show his age and has become a bit senile (he has trouble finding his food).  I keep him in my wine themed kitchen, which explains his name.  He use to have several "pets" of his own in the form of snails names: Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, and Pinot.  I had read that bettas could live with snails.  The first one died within a couple of days, so I got three the second time thinking that it would be a better match against my very aggressive Vino.  After a couple months though they started to die from their attraction to the heater, in the end Merlot was the lone survivor but last Spring he also died.  So I decided Vino was better off a solo fish.  Bettas are very smart and they can recognize their owners, so I make sure to interact with him daily.

Of course Vegas got jealous so I took her picture as well.  I don't think Vegas, Memphis, or Lacy even know the fish is there.



Look What I Found

I was getting ready to head to bed, when I remembered I wanted to check the front porch to see if I had any HOA letters or whatever.  I usually try to check the front porch at least once a day, since I normally come and go from the garage.  I opened the door and saw something moving on the ground out of the corner and my eye.  While I hoped to God it was a earthworm, I knew it was much to long and thin to be a earthworm.  It was a baby snake!!!

This completely creeps me out and I wish I lived with someone that would have no problem going out there and removing it.  Yes I know I will probably never see it again and yes I know this kind is probably one of the "good" ones (in my book they are only good behind glass).  What would be this baby snakes predator and I will encourage that animal to hang out near my house?  Raccoons, opossums, cats, birds, large lizards, toads (I include the last two because those already live near my front porch)?????  Right now I am looking up what it may be, I am thinking some kind of rat snake, since that is what was found living in my tree last spring.

Jane Eyre

One of my all-time favorite books is Jane Eyre.  This past winter I decided I was going to watch every movie made that was based on Jane Eyre.  Tonight I decided to watch a couple of videos on YouTube and it brought those couple of months all back.
The first one I watched was the one I have loved for years which is the 1996 version.  I saw part of this movie the summer before my 10th grade year, and decided to read the book.  When the school year started I found out that we would be reading Jane Eyre during the year.  However, it was one of those books that only a handful of us liked and most my class considered it the worse book of that year.  This version of Jane Eyre I always thought was well done as far as costumes, make-up, and casting a woman to play Jane that was much younger than the actor playing Mr. Rochester.  It was my favorite until I started watching all the other versions.  Now it is number 2.

After watching the 1996 version, I started to reread Jane Eyre and watched the newest version from 2011.  This version while not the worse version I saw, it was also not a favorite.  It was very dull and I zoned out several times while watching the movie.

One of the next versions I watched was one from 1934.  This one was the version that took the most liberties with the story.  This was one you can describe as loosely based on the original story.  It was also only one hour long.

This version I had high hopes for since my mom recommended it.  It is the 1944 version staring Orson Welles.  When the opening credits ran and I saw all these big names I was familiar with, I thought it had to be a great movie.  I found it pretty boring and Orson Welles played Mr. Rochester kind of scary. 

The 1997 A&E version I was originally going to skip but I changed my mind when I saw the great reviews it had.  It was pretty short from a Jane Eyre movie and I was yet again not impressed with the actor playing Mr. Rochester.  Mr. Rochester is one of my favorite male characters from literature and I want someone great to play him.  After watching this version I was about ready to stop watching Jane Eyre movies all together.  See I had found one I loved right after watching the newest version, but I will talk about it below, all the movies after it were having to live up to it.

Since I had watched several versions I was not fond of, I moved on to another movie/book that is a prequel to Jane Eyre and centers around Mr. Rochester and his marriage to his first wife.  It is called Wide Sargasso Sea and is written by Jean Rhys.  I was not sure if I would like it since I prefer Jane to Bertha and also, because my mom told me the movie was depressing.  I looked for them on Netflix and there were two versions, one was a lot longer than the other and with a R/NC-17 rating.  I watched that one first since it had more stars and it actually is the better version.  Since I read the book as well, the longer movie follows the book perfectly and is well cast.  The other version is pretty much the same but cuts out the beginning and some of the middle.

After watching/reading Wide Sargasso Sea I decided to watch one more version of Jane Eyre.  The 1983 version of Jane Eyre, a BBC miniseries.  I had seen lots of great reviews for it and I like Timothy Dalton, so I thought it could be pretty good.  First watching it was a bit of a drama in and of itself.  There are two BBC versions of Jane Eyre and when I should have gotten disc 2 for this miniseries they were actually sending disc 2 for the new version.  It took 3 tries before Netflix finally sent the correct version.  It was worth it though, of all the versions this one follows the book the best.  Every important scene was in the movie and it was very well done.  However it is not my favorite.

My favorite is the 2006 BBC version of Jane Eyre.  It is beautifully done and I adore how Toby Stephens played Mr. Rochester.  He gives him a more playful flirtatious nature than the previous Mr. Rochesters.  I purchased this version from eBay but got a copy, where the second disc was badly cracked and ended up returning it for another.  It was the longest 3 weeks of my life.  Prior to getting the DVD I was watching videos from it nightly on YouTube.com.  I rank it higher than any other version, but it you are die hard that it has to be exactly like the book you may not like it as much. 

This was the first scene I watched when my sister recommended this version to me and it got me hooked.  If you love romance and Jane Eyre once you watch this you will be looking for all the other videos.

The moon tonight..

I loved the moon tonight and the sky was full of stars and planets.  I was hoping to get a good clear picture but instead I have several artsy looking ones.

Then I turned my attention to taking pictures of my beautiful tree in the backyard.  I thought they looked kinda cool.

Then, since I was on a roll taking pictures of things in the dark, I decided to take a picture of Vegas, in her favorite hiding place.  She looks kinda scary under there.

Growling with your Mouth Full

During Spring Break I filmed this video of what my cat, Lacy had to put up with several times a day.

 Memphis is great about giving Lacy some space and just patiently sitting beside her while she eats.

 My mom's dog, Daisy is mostly fluff and is pretty fearless so she on the other hand tends to just push her nose in, until she has pushed Lacy out of the way.

 No matter how much Lacy hisses or swats at Daisy she can't get to her past all that fluff. 

 I hope you can hear Lacy in this video.  She has always had this habit of growling with her mouth full, if another animal is near her.  I usually can't catch it since, Memphis sees the camera and runs, but I had Daisy this time.

I HATE being sick!!!

When I get sick I am sick for at least a few days and then I have a cough for at least a week afterwards.  I had planned to do some Spring Cleaning this week, on top of babysitting and job searches.  I got in the job searches but ended up not making it to babysitting and only getting a couple of chores done. 

Today I woke up feeling pretty good so I thought I would take care of a few chores.  However my brain was not functioning fully and I spent a few minutes this morning just standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what to do first.  When I finally left the house I only made it to the end of the street before I had to turn around because I remembered I was going to take the gas can.  It turned out the gas can was full, I had forgotten I filled it up in late summer.  I left again and made it almost to the light when I started to wonder whether or not I had shut the garage door, so I turned around again.  After driving past and seeing that yes I had shut the garage door, I was finally able to start errands.  I picked up my reserved books from the library first, and then headed out to get groceries.  My fridge, freezer and pantry had gotten pretty bare.  The pantry was mostly because I checked expiration dates and had quite a bit that had expired.  I was doing pretty well and then the coughing started, loud coughing.  I finished up and left fully intending to spend the rest of the day resting at home. 

When I got home I had so much energy that I decided to attempt mowing my front lawn.  It really needed it (so does the back but I knew one was enough for the day).  I am proud of myself because not only did I manage it but I don't think it made the cough worse (I have Reactive Airway Disease and anything can set it off).  Normally working in the yard would be all I do before settling in for the evening but I then decided to bath both dogs and Lacy.  Lacy was not going to get a bath, since she got one before Spring Break, but she snuck outside while at my parents' house, so I knew she had pollen on her as well.  After taking care of the pets I was still wired so I dusted and vacuumed my bedroom.  I know I will sleep great tonight, just from the fact of knowing I got all these things done that got put off by me being sick. 

Now I just have to get through tomorrow.  Tomorrow is my babysitting job, that I adore and it is also the date of a (UN)HOA meeting.  We have a poor excuse for a HOA board and we are now working hard to get a new board put into place.  This meeting is to inform the homeowners what has been going with the board.  It could be full of drama and threats of lawsuits (should the board show up).  I will have to leave it early but it will be interesting to see how everything goes.  There is even talk of inviting people from the local media. 

It is time to sign off for the evening.  I am watching Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which I have just realized I have never seen from the beginning.

Bad couple of days

I occasionally have a string of bad days or events that happen back to back. 

You know like getting pulled over for running a stop sign and getting home only to have my Westie choke on stuffing  or getting sick while helping with TAKS, losing your job, and then getting really sick.  The last couple of days have been a string of bad days. 

 First, I have been having allergy problems due to all of the pollen in the air. 

Second, my pup Memphis had a choking incident and then somehow hurt the bottom skin of his eye (he is my baby so that counts too). 

 Third, I end up driving home in a horrible storm (granted that one was my decision, but I was eager to get home, I just did not know I would drive through the worse part of it). 

 Fourth, I get distracted and leave my house for the first time in years, sans make-up or doing my hair (it may sound vain, but I strive to look at least decent when I leave the house, because you never know who you will run into). 

Fifth, I slam my ring finger in the door while dropping off my library books; it hurt like the devil. 

Sixth, I show up for babysitting only to find out minutes after driving the 20 minutes to get there, that the job is cancelled  (luckily the pay for travel). 

Seventh, I start to develop a small cough (I have asthma and a little cough can turn bad fast). 

 Eighth,I decided to stop by the library to see if I can pick up the books I reserved late in the day, I was hoping they had not been pulled from the shelves yet, but they were no where to be found. 

 Ninth, I wake up congested and figure it is just allergies. 

 Tenth, I am having trouble seeing clearly so I cancel my babysitting job for the evening. 

 Eleventh, I begin to start sneezing and nearly throw out my neck,  this one has not stopped. 

Twelfth, I start to have chills despite having warm skin, "Great Now I am really sick and have no insurance!" 

Thirteenth, I find out I locked Vegas out of the house; I never let them out my themselves (guilt).

  Fourteenth I am now burning up but because I was sick I did not get laundry done and only have winter pajamas left. 

 Fifteenth, I have to mow soon, and I can barely breath.  

 Sixteenth, my toilet flusher broke and now I need to repair it, I know how but it means venturing out into fresh air. 

Seventeenth, there is a HOA meeting Sunday and once again it is on the same night as my Sunday babysitting job, which means missing the last hour to hour and a half of the meeting (the meeting is Three Hours Long.  This one is important because we have a poor HOA board and we have had a fight on our hands getting a new board in place.

I really hope things start looking up soon.  I could really use some good luck. 

Here is to a better day tomorrow!!

Before the Storm

I was originally going to leave my parent's house after seeing my sister when she got in Monday afternoon. This year our Spring Breaks were on different weeks. However my mom invited me to stay for dinner and since I have never had trouble driving at night I agreed to stay. While my sister and her friend napped during the afternoon I took pictures of the pets.

This is my old cat, Oliver. He is named for the the kitten in Oliver and Company.  However, he no longer claims me, since my dad saved his life as a kitten.

My sister brought her two pets with her, this is her dog, my nephew, Thatcher.  I actually call him Nephew and he gives great hugs.

Then Vegas saw the camera and gave me this look that said "I am over here, Mom!"

Then my mom's dog, Daisy, she wanted me to focus on her for a bit as well.  Daisy is cute and not camera shy but she tends to get distracted easily so I am glad I got some pictures.

Now this is amazing.  Vegas and Daisy, who are both puppy mill mamas, do not get along at all.  However most of my visit they were both well behaved and I think Vegas only growled once.  Here they are sharing a couch.  Vegas usually prefers a couch to herself, so I am proud she was willing to share.

We also had our family friends' two dogs hanging out with us.  This one is Cyrus, he loves toys.

Then I got distracted watching, Frozen Planet. I loved learning about the Tundra in school so I enjoyed watching it. When it was over I figured that since my sister and mom were not in the room, I could watch my normal local news (they object to the station). The second I turned it on they were talking about the preparations being made for a horrible storm that was heading directly for the hill country. I convinced everyone it was time to leave for dinner so I could get home before the storm. I left at 7:20 and was fine for the first 40 minutes and then hit horrible rain and hail. I spent the next 40 minutes driving slow with the windshield wipers on high and straining to see more than a few feet in front of me. I knew I could not wait this storm out. The last 30 minutes I managed to get ahead of the storm again. The rain was crazy after I got home. I ended up staying up till 4:00AM, while I waited for the storm to calm down. When I woke up this morning I expected to see tree limbs down, chairs blown over, flooding, or the fence blown over, but everything was where it should be and I had 3 inches of rain. It made for a pretty good morning.