Barbara's Meanderings

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First of all, if you didn't read the comments on the last post you are missing a real treat! For anyone who didn't read the last post, I am giving away a free book to the first six people who commented on the last post. I am also giving away two more books. One for yesterday, Friday, and one for today. So the first two people to comment on this post will each win a book. It's my Chanukah present to everyone who visits and shares with me.:) So if you didn't comment on the last post you have a chance today.

"I grew up Catholic and my husband grew up Jewish. Our children got to celebrate both holidays as they grew up so they are more aware of the diversity of different cultures. We also have friends who celebrate the Solstice, so we've been fortunate enough to experience that as well"

"Once a week I make soup for 10-12 folks who live here in my senior apt complex. Last week we had matzo ball soup, latkes, kugel-a big hit! I taught the history of Hannukah.

Until the next time, thank you to my new readers and to the ones who keep reading. Everyone please remember that next Tuesday is my radio show: Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages. I hope many of you will get a chance to listen. It's going to be a great show with the writers of Milspeak, a group of service people who write, and Sally Drumm the editor of the book Milspeak. Remember, it is aired at 3PM Central Time and the date is Tuesday, December 22nd. Happy Holidays everyone!!! I am so getting into the Holiday spirit this year!!!

I have some great news!! I have been chosen to be the NY Examiner for Literature at Examiner.com. I was very excited to find out this afternoon and I am planning to start writing for them very soon. I learned about it from one of my friends. You will see this is a very reputable site and several of the writers from here have been on TV too.:)

So December 15th was National Cupcake Day and I didn't get a chance to bake cupcakes. So I did it today, though it's a day late and I baked two dozen, half white cake and half chocolate cake. But I frosted all of them with chocolate icing and to tell them apart I sprinkled some powdered sugar on the white cake cupcakes. My daughter adores them even though she is grown, so I wanted to make her happy and I did. She loved the cupcake she ate.:) Please go here to this awesome blog I found that is totally devoted to cupcakes. It makes me drool to see the pictures at Cupcakes Take the Cake. I love the look of this blog too and so glad I found it.:) Hope you like it too. I think there isn't anything that makes people smile more than offering them a cupcake.

But researching the last topic I found an even better day and I celebrated it without even realizing it.:) It's National Chocolate Covered Anything Day. So covering my cupcakes with chocolate icing was perfect for today.:) I even topped them with a chocolate chip and drizzled melted chocolate on them. But think of all the things you can cover in chocolate. Only please don't use yucky things like bugs. I saw one of those Food Network shows where they had to eat insects covered with chocolate. Yummy. I mean yucky!!! But I love chocolate covered strawberries.

That reminds me about walking around the mall around Christmastime when the economy was better and passing Godiva chocolates. They had someone in the window with a big bowl of melted chocolate and a huge bowl of gorgeous, luscious strawberries. The person was dipping the strawberries in the chocolate and I think they were giving away free samples. Ah, Godiva at Christmas with the golden boxes full of delicious goodness. Ah chocolate!! You can never go wrong with a box from Godiva even if it's only a few of their goodies. Of course, you wouldn't want to give them to someone allergic to chocolate, but even then they can give them away to someone else.:) There is nothing better than a piece of Godiva chocolate melting in your mouth! I just love the chocolate and no one is paying me to say this.:)

My husband was working the first part of this week, so we didn't do much together. I lit candles for Chanukah with my two daughters and though I think that my mother if she were alive would probably be horrified, I bought store bought latkes from Stew Leonard's for the first night. After warming them in the oven they got crispy and they were just as delicious as if I had made them at home. I do have latke mix and may make my own tomorrow night. I will never forget two years ago when I had to make latkes with my daughter who was bringing them into her office. They have an International Day once a year and she and I were going to make them together. However, though we prepped the night before and had the mixture all ready, neither of us had taken the amount of time to fry them into account. So I got up early and started frying them. You know that frying latkes means you can't put too many in a pan or they won't brown. So you can only do a few at a time and that's what bogged us down. I had to go to work, because I was actually working then and didn't have a chance to take a shower before I left. When I got to work I smelled like fried latkes and unfortunately my boss had no idea what they were.:) The latkes my daughter brought into work were a big hit, though.

Thank you to any new readers and thank you to the readers who continue to follow me. I hope to be able to give away a lot of books today for the holidays. Also please remember that next Tuesday is my Christmas show on Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages. My guest will be the writers of Milspeak and Sally Drumm, who is the editor of the book by the same name. I am pleased that at least six of them will be participating. They are members or former members of the armed services and they will be talking about how they have celebrated the holidays in the service. They will also be reading from their own writing. I think this is going to be a fantastic holiday show. Until the next time if you celebrate Chanukah, have a happy holiday. For all others, hope you are not too stressed by holiday shopping.