My Life, my photography, my passions
The sun finally came out after three days cold winter weather and this cat took full advantage to sun bathe in the middle of the street. Took several of them, but I liked this one the best. There was something that I like about the back of the cat’s head rather than her looking at me.
I’m not sure of this her name, it’s my neighbors cat and just another photo opp on the way to the mailbox.
There is nothing better than hot chocolate on a cold winter day. Ok, hot chocolate with Reddi-Whip, that makes it better. Tell you a little secret, I will often sneak a squirt of it right on my fingers, but I always get caught, last week by my son. All I could do was give him a guilty look and a smirk.
Anyhow, back to the hot chocolate. My kids like Ovaltine, and I normally have it in the cabinet. But, this year I was given two bags of instant milk. I thought, what in the world am I going to do with all this powdered milk? So I put it in the freezer until I could think of something. It didn’t take long. As Christmas approached and I was thinking of what I could make as gifts an idea came to me.
Hot Chocolate mix! Perfect. Not only did I have lots of powdered milk, but I had three tins of Herseys cocoa. Every Christmas I buy a new container for holiday baking, totally forgetting I had some from last year. Perfect! I looked on my favorite recipe site Allrecipes.com and found the recipe below. It was a hit in my gift bags.
Ingredients
In a large mixing bowl, combine milk powder, confectioner’s sugar, cocoa powder and creamer. Stir thoroughly.
For one serving place 1/3 cup cocoa mixture in a coffee cup or mug, add 3/4 cup boiling water (or milk for a richer taste). Stir to dissolve.
Although the recipe doesn’t call for it I would definitely sift the mixture. Almost all the ingredients have little itty bitty tiny chunks that don’t dissolve well and will sometimes give the final product “texture”.
Not too much to say about this, except it just gives the impression of the cold, barren winter. Just a picture coming back from my mailbox. I wonder how long it will take before I run out of photo opportunities between the house and the mailbox.
Icicles aren’t as easy to photograph as I thought. I tried to get the glistening of the sun and the drops melting off, but just couldn’t get it right. I do like the stained glass window of the church in the background. This was taken at the Christian Church in Elmwood, Nebraska. Between Elmwood and Murdock (6 miles away) we’re a community of less than 1000 people, but we have five churches which are a crucial part of our lives.
This was a day that I went outside to take pictures of frost on leaves and found a better subject. “Mr. Cardinal at your service, thank you very much. But, you’ll have to be patient. I won’t pose for you. You’ll have to be quick, because I don’t stay in one place very long.”
My fingers froze as I waited behind the tree near the feeder. I tried not to move and could hear this little guy flying around me as he tried to find a secure place to land. Most of the time he was too far away for my camera to zoom in and get a really good shot. I was lucky with this one. I looked up and there he sat about fifteen feet above me in the tree. I had time for one picture before he was gone again.
