Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Pan-Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato-Cream Sauce

A touch of cream gives the slightly tangy sauce a silky-smooth finish. Be sure to serve this dish with bread so you can savor every drop of sauce.


Ingredients:
1 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup minced shallots
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup chopped seeded plum tomato
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups hot cooked linguine
Cooking spray
3/4 pound large sea scallops
1/8 teaspoon salt
Chopped cilantro


Preparation:
Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium skillet; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 5 minutes). Drain mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, reserving liquid; discard solids.
Return wine mixture to skillet. Add cream; cook over medium heat 1 minute. Add butter, stirring until butter melts. Stir in tomato, 2 tablespoons cilantro, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Add linguine; toss well. Cover and keep warm.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Sprinkle scallops with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Arrange scallops in pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Add scallops to pasta mixture; toss gently to combine. Garnish with cilantro, if desired

Monday, February 11, 2013

M&M's Recipe Cards





Review: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Sixties Cookbook: More than 100 Retro Recipes for the Modern Cook

Review: More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives


More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives by Guy Fieri

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Not bad...typical Guy :c)

Lots of good recipes though!



View all my reviews

Review: Etched in Silver


Etched in Silver
Etched in Silver by Yasmine Galenorn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This isn't a full-length novel...it's a novella...that said:

It felt a bit rushed! I wish there was more back-story! I am thinking that there will be a lot more in the first, full-length book (Witchling) which I will be starting soon :c)

A good introduction & hiya to the characters though...I just really want to read their full stories :c)

3/5 stars :c)



View all my reviews

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Banana Bread


Moist and tasty!

Total Time: 1 hr 10 mins
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 1 hr
Servings: 12

3 bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup natural applesauce
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a mixer, mash bananas, add Splenda and mix.
3. Mix in rest of ingredients.
4. Pour ingredients into a bread pan sprayed with non-stick spray.
5. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes; cake tester should come out clean when done.
6. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.


*If using a dark coated pan, bake at 325 degrees and bake a little longer; cake tester to should come out clean when done.

Banishing Spell To Stop Harm


This will protect without causing the person bound any harm.

It is not a dark spell but a very potent protective one.

You may use a different oil if you wish to use as a banishing oil.

Rosemary may be substituted for Rue.

Materials:
1 black taper or image candle (gender depends on who you are trying to bind) nail
black cloth a large piece of black cloth red ribbon cotton needle and thread
Banishing oil (see below) loose tobacco
A small mirror that can stand by itself
If you can obtain hair or nail clippings from the person or a picture, you can use it in this spell.

Fold the felt in half and cut out a rough shape of the person you want to bind.
Make the figure large enough so that you will be able to stuff it after you have sewn it together.
Sew the pieces of the poppet together, leaving a hole through which you can stuff the poppet.
Fill it with cotton and tobacco, and if you have the hair or nail clippings of the person, add those to it.
Once it is filled, sew the opening closed. If you have a picture of the person,
staple or sew it to the front of the poppet.
Next, care the name of the person onto the black candle with the nail and add these runes:
Thuraz, Isa, Eihwas, a dark filled in circle to represent the dark moon,
bars like you will see in a jail, and a widdershins (anticlockwise) spiral.
Anoint the candle and the poppet with the oil.
Cast a circle, invoke the elements, God or Goddess you are working with.
Light the altar candles.
Light the black candle and adjust the mirror so that flame is reflected in the glass.
Hold the poppet out in front of you and say:
"Creature of cloth thou art,
Creature of flesh and blood you be.
I name you (name of the person you are binding).
No more shall you do me harm.
No more shall you repeat false tales.
No more shall you interfere in my life, nor in the lives of my loved ones.
By the power of the Gods and by my will, So mote it be!"
Draw an invoking pentagram over the poppet.
Now take the ribbon and begin to wrap the poppet like a mummy,
leaving no space unwrapped. Say:

"I bind your feet from bringing harm to me.
I bind your hands from reaching out to harm me.
I bind your mouth from spreading false tales to harm me.
I bind your mind from sending energy to harm me.
If you do so continue, let all negative energy be cast and reflected directly at you!"
Tie off the ribbon and hold the poppet in front of the mirror while you visualize all negative
energy this person has sent to you being reflected back at them.
Wrap the poppet in the black cloth and tie with another length of ribbon. Say:
"Great Mother, I have bound this person
from harming me and my loved ones.
By the powers of three times three
By Earth and Fire, Air and Sea
I fix this spell, then set it free
Twill give no harm to return to me
As I will, So mote it be!"

Let the candle burn out while the poppet sits at its base, then take the poppet
and the remains of the candle far from your home and bury it deep in the ground
or toss it in the ocean and walk away without looking back.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

60 of the World’s Happiest Facts


1. A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.

2. If you fake laugh long enough you’ll start to really laugh, really, really hard.

3. The book cover to the prize winning short story collection, Spellbound, was chosen because author, Joel Willans, bought his wife’s engagement ring with poker winnings.

4. The Beatles used the word “love” 613 times throughout their career.

5. The chances of you (as opposed to someone else) being born is about 1 in 40 million.

6. Every year, millions of trees grow thanks to squirrels forgetting where they buried their nuts.

7. On the day of his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. had a pillow-fight in his motel room.

8. The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We’re all made of star dust.

9. Cancer death rates are down 20% in past 20 years.

10. The miles traveled by the Apollo 11 crew to the moon were greater than every single exploration mission to the New World combined.

11. Penguins only have one mate their entire life and “propose” by giving their mate a pebble.

12. Cows have best friends.

13. Despite high infant mortality rates and lower life expectancies, not one of your direct ancestors died childless.

14. Cuddling releases Oxytocin which helps speed healing and recovery from physical wounds.

15. Otters hold hands when sleeping so they don’t drift away from each other.

16. Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon, wrote his daughter initials there. They’ll last at least 50,000 years.

17. There’s a type of jellyfish that lives forever.

18. Wayne Allwine (the voice of Mickey Mouse) and Russi Taylor (the voice of Minnie Mouse) were married in real life.

19. We now have less crime, a lower death rate and longer life expectancy than at any other time in human history.

20. The clitoris has 8000 nerve fibres, double that of the penis, and is the only organ in the body, which has evolved purely for pleasure.

21. Butterflies can taste with their feet.

22. For someone, somewhere in the world, today is the most amazing day of their life.

23. When you die, your body decomposes, and the atoms that contained “you” are recycled into Earth to be used again.

24. Every year the Netherlands sends 20,000 tulip bulbs to Canada to thank them for their aid in the Second World War.

25. Rats giggle when you tickle them. Their voices are so high-pitched you need special equipment to hear them, but when you do, their laughs are immediately evident.

26. Sea horses mate for life, are completely faithful and travel together by holding on to each others tails.

27. The guy at the end of this video exists.

28. If you say “my cocaine” you sound like Michael Caine saying his own name.

29. Male puppies, when playing with female puppies, will intentionally let the female win.

30. The next Star Wars will not be directed by George Lucas.

31. It takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown.

32.The kingdom of Bhutan use ‘gross national happiness’ as a key national indicator.

33. The majority of European children born in 2013 will live to see the year 2100.

34. There’s an animal called a Dik Dik. And it’s the cutest antelope you’ll ever see.

35. Neurologically speaking, seeing somebody else smile actually makes you happier.

36. Every human being spent about half an hour as a single cell.

37. There are people, ombrophiles, who have a passionate love for rain.

38. Once your brain realizes that you’re dying, it releases DMT, one of the most powerful known psychedelics. This dilates your perception of time and allowing you to live inside your own mind for hours or even days.

39. No matter how long you live there will always be an amazing new food for you try.

40. A group of porcupines is called a prickle.

41. Aside from a sample in a lab, Smallpox is completely extinct. No one else will ever die from it again.

42. A pig’s orgasms last thirty minutes.

43. We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.

44. Sloths only leave their tree once a week, to pee and poo.

45. Spinner dolphins sleep in pairs, one with the left hemisphere asleep, the other with the right. They each keep watch with one eye and half a brain. They are known to sleep-mate for life.

46. At the time of your birth, you were, for a few seconds, the youngest person on the planet.

47. Cows produce the most milk when listening to the song Everybody Hurts by REM.

48. Somewhere, someone is losing their virginity right now.

49. If you spell out numbers in order, the first time you get to the letter “a” is at one-thousand.

50. We've all been here forever. Every bit of matter we see has been here since the beginning of time and it always will be.

51. A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.

52. Happiness is a skill. You can learn it and it’s not hard.

53. Except when breeding, the Common Swift spend their entire lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in flight. They drink, feed, and often mate and sleep on the wing

54. Baby rabbits are called kittens.

55. Baby puffins are called pufflings.

56. Costa Rica is statistically the happiest nation on Earth.

57. Worms communicate by snuggling.

58. 2013 is the first year since 1987 that consists for four different digits.

59. With our horseless carriages, flying robots, space travel, long-distance communication at the speed of light, cloning, lasers, connection to people all over the world, we are living in the future people dreamed of.

60. If you blend a sea sponge, it will re-form back into a sea sponge.

Learn something new every day!


A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds.

Dogs only have about 10.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt."

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand; "lollipop" with your right.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The Bible does not say there were three wise men; it only says there were three gifts.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Life-Changing Ideas







Recipe Card: Skyline Chili Dip


45 Life Lessons (written by a 90-year old)


1. Life isn't fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short not to enjoy it.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.
5. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for things that matter.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye… But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful.  Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to be happy.  But it’s all up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words, ‘In five years, will this matter?’
27. Always choose Life.
28. Forgive but don’t forget.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give Time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d
grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you think you need.
42. The best is yet to come…
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Moments in Time


Affirmations




Rooms & Decorating 2/1

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Rooms & Decorating 2/1, a set on Flickr.

Review: TekLab


TekLab
TekLab by William Shatner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The third book in the Tek series...

I absolutely love these books! I first read them in high school in the '90's and loved them then too!

They are a bit campy and over the top...but so much fun :c)



View all my reviews

Review: TekLords


TekLords
TekLords by William Shatner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The second book in the Tek series...

I absolutely love these books! I first read them in high school in the '90's and loved them then too!

They are a bit campy and over the top...but so much fun :c)



View all my reviews

Recipe Cards