Tomorrow

I'm so excited! I haven't torched since November (gasp!) and I am finally going to get to play with glass tomorrow. My friends Darby and Janien have a studio in Indiana and are having an Open Torch. We all bring our own tools and glass plus something for everyone to munch on and have a great time. I've already got my glass packed up and my tool box ready to go.
My favorite color combos are still opal yellow, rubino and copper green. I just love the spready thing that happens with those colors.
I have some of the new curdled ivory too but it's buried under a pile of stuff that I don't want to have to move. That's OK. It's been so long since I've made a bead I'd hate to waste it. It's a totally cool look too. I'll just take some regular dark ivory along and some black and play with those. Got my silver foil and wire so I'm set.
Ofilia will be there too. I hope she makes a fish. Her fish are so amazing! She makes it look so darned easy too. I could just sit and watch her all day.
I'm actually going to take my camera along for a change and may even remember to take a few pictures. It usually never comes out of my tool box.
Wish me luck at making a few good beads!

Freckles

One of the great loves of my life passed to another plane on Monday morning. This is my FaceBook tribute to him.


Ten years ago this long, lean magnificent kitty walked into my garden and my heart. At first his idea of really snuggling with me was to give my leg a headbutt as he walked by me. Purr? Not a chance. But as he got older and fatter, he realized that gettin' love was what life was all about. Well, love and food...he wasn't a 20 pounder for nothing. He did like his 10 squares a day. He realized that he wouldn't explode if he actually purred for us and started doing it loudly and often. He discovered the TV room couch and turned into the biggest lover ever.

We laughed when he snored while he was sleeping. He was a bit of a porker and I always figured it was just that. Unfortunately, it wasn't. It was the tumor growing in his trachea that was slowly restricting his breathing more and more. He spent last week in Northbrook Animal Hospital being diagnosed and on Friday I got the news that there was basically nothing left to be done. I brought him home that afternoon determined to spoil him rotten for whatever time he had left.

Over the weekend his breathing got worse and worse. By Sunday night I knew that Monday would likely be the day I had to say that final, horrible good bye to him. Monday morning he looked me in the eye and told me it was time for him to leave me.

He passed to his next plane swiftly and peacefully. There is a giant gaping wound in my heart right now but I know that he is free. He was a blessing in my life and I know he will be waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge when it's my time to make that journey.

Run free my friend, run free.

Limoncello

What better way to start a new blog than with a recipe for something I absolutely love to drink and love to make. Limoncello--the drink of the gods!

1 750 ml bottle of decent grain alcohol
3 750 ml bottles of inexpensive vodka
40-50 nice lemons
4 C sugar
4 C water (use bottled if you don't have good tasting water)
1 5 liter jar with a well fitting lid

Soak your lemons in hot water for about 5-10 minutes. It will help get the wax off them. Dry them and then carefully peel them with a new veggie peeler. You don't want to get any of the white bit from the inside on the peel if possible. Since it's pretty impossible to not get any, just get as little as you can. Put all the peels in your big clean jar and dump in the booze. Give it a good stir, close it up and put it in a cool, dark place for the next 40 days. During that time, give it a good sloosh every once in a while just to stir the peels up a bit.
At the end of the 40 days, strain the peels out. I get coffee filters just barely damp with water when I strain it because I don't want to waste the yellow lusciousness on a coffee filter. It take some time and more than a few filters. I've got 2 jars and just strain it from one into the other.
While you're straining it, measure out the sugar and water and bring it to a boil. Don't let it keep boiling, just to a boil. If you don't do that, the sugar will crystallize out into the limoncello. Not a good thing. Let the sugar water (simple syrup) cool to room temp and mix it in with the lovely yellow booze. Now close it back up and stash it back in that cool place for at least 2 weeks and up to another 40 days.
I save Sangria bottles with that little swingy hinge lid and then just bottle it up into those. You can buy bottles too if you need. Make some cute labels and you're set. I always keep a bottle in the freezer. Keep a couple of small glasses in there too.
After dinner, take the bottle out of the freezer and my chilled glasses and pour about an ounce. It needs to be absolutely chilled. Sip it and enjoy your lemony goodness. Be sure you start your next batch before you're close to running out because you really won't want to be without it.
All that lemon juice that you'll get from those 40 or 50 lemons gets put to good use too. I freeze it in ice cube trays and then use it in lemon martinis or vodka lemonades in the summer. Yummm, yummm, yum.