Rural postcard scene along one of our walking routes. Cold and windy, but not bad considering it’s almost January.
Monthly Archives: December 2018
Wordless Wednesday
Partly Sunny Sunday
A little holiday cheer. Yes, despite being totally cow-handed, I made this with a wire hanger and a box of ornaments.
Other People’s Recipes: Flourless Cookies
It’s almost Christmas, and Jim has been talking about cookies. Most years, I’ve baked chocolate chip cookies. I use the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. They’re easy, and they don’t require refrigeration or rolling or fancy cutters. Or–shudder–icing.
But this year, we eliminated wheat. So what to do about cookies? I thought about making macarons, but they can be testy. Or coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate, but why not just go buy one of those candy bars? You know the ones I mean.
In my search for Jim’s holiday cookie, I ran across King Arthur Flour and the Flourless Fudge Cookies.
All the recipes on their website look amazing–except we eliminated wheat. They do offer a generous array of gluten-free recipes and products.
As for this recipe, it’s suspiciously like a macaron. Still, it turned out splendidly. My one caution–I had to add the extra egg to get the dough right, which may be due to our dry weather. My advice is to mix before you add the fourth egg white. I also added a cup of chocolate chips, and baked the enhanced cookies for exactly ten minutes.
Jim liked them and declared them one of the best cookies ever. I found them too sweet, but maybe because I stopped eating sugar back last summer.
If you like fudgy sweet, this cookie isn’t too time-consuming.
Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, and here’s hoping that 2019 is peaceful and prosperous for all.
Wordless Wednesday
Sunny Sunday
Pink sky before sunrise this morning. Just another fall day but next week … winter. Not that we haven’t had our share of winter already.
Wordless Wednesday

Frosty Sunday
Four years ago, I planted bittersweet against the garden fence. Now, it’s a bright spot on this frosty Sunday.
Still fall–officially–but the temps are in the teens.
Wordless Wednesday
Haunted
I’ve been reading a lot of dark fiction lately and it’s starting to affect how I see the world.
We passed this old barn driving from Spring Hill to Louisburg, and I had an instant picture of two young and star-crossed lovers–call them Erik and Bodil–dead by Erik’s hand. Living in the late 1800’s, Bodil was promised to another by her parents. She begged Erik to take her away from wherever-that-was Kansas. Instead of eloping, Erik killed her and hanged himself.
But maybe the story isn’t about murder/suicide. What if it’s a hundred years later, and 9-year-old Maria plays in the creepy barn because Momma, busy with the new baby, doesn’t have time for her. Maria discovers the ghosts of Erik and Bodil, and …
But we arrived home at that point, and there the story ended. At least for now.
People sometimes ask where the ideas come from. For me, it’s a matter of looking for the possibilities in the world. Dark possibilities.