Come to me...2010

Aw, so it's coming, and coming fast. The new year, 2010. A time to make new decisions, to make a fresh start, to make your life better. I didn't care much for the '09. There was nothing very special about it. So to make '10 better than '09, I have some...drum roll please.....NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS!!!!

1. To become healthier, as in eating better and exercising. More fruits and veggies, and less junk. Goodbye junior mints and pizza, hello apples and bananas. Bring on the wii fit.

2. Become more active in school functions. I need to join more clubs and be on at least one sports team. I love to run, so I'm thinking along the lines of track.

3. Blog and journal more often.

4. Develop better speech habits. a.k.a. lose the curse words.

5. Start doing yoga.

Goodbye 2009, and welcome the big 2010.

Curry Powder

I just love the smell and taste of Curry. It has got to be my number one favorite spice. I could eat curry dishes anytime and I would never get sick of the taste. One time when we were prepping for a catering, the chef made Curry chicken salad, and it was absolutely delicious!

Stuffed mushrooms

I'm making them as an appetizer for Christmas Eve, but I had to look up a recipe online. It came down to two choices. One had crab meat and the other didn't. I asked my mom and my sister what they thought I should pick, but all they said was, "It's up to you," and, "You're the chef, use you're best judgement."


Hello? I'm a chef in training. I've never had stuffed mushrooms before. I don't know what one would taste better! Crab meat or cream cheese?


Anyways, I finally exited out of the crab meat and stuck with this bad boy.


Ingredients:

12 whole fresh mushrooms
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.
2.Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool.
3. When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick. Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.


Hopefully, he won't disappoint.

Untitled.

My great-grandmother came down from Pennsylvania. She's so hilarious! She's 'in a relationship' with my sister's boyfriend's grandfather. Old people are funny when they date. My great-grandmother is talking the guy's ear off as I'm sitting here typing this. <3

Alexis is a fantastic knitter! I haven't started yet, but tomorrow my mom is going to teach me.

I want to ride

The more time passes by, the more I feel like I'll never go riding again. I want to go so bad, but we moved and we don't have the horses in our reach so I can never go now. We're boarding them at this lady's house, that my mom works with. And it's so far away!

I've literally only gone out there once in this past two months.

This is why I need to drive! That way, right as school got out I could speed on down there and spend time with Jewel and Red.

Royal Blood

The 6th book in the Vampire Kisses series. It was really funny, and slightly cheesy. But for some reason I still end up reading and loving the books.

Christmas wish list

Alright, Santa please listen up while I make my list.

• Straight As and As on my exams.
• Books, books, and even more BOOKS
• The kindle
• New stockings
• cheese making kit
• Clothes, of any sort, as long as they're cute and stylish.
• All the White Stripes albums.
• Some bins for me to start composting.
• More time to ride.

Actually, half this stuff I would be fine with not getting, but the books, grades, and riding are a must.

Creamy Tomato Soup

I made it last night for dinner. I didn't particularly like it, although Alexis seemed to. I thought it was too rich, which made my stomach rebel.

All it took was tomatoes, onions, carrots, parsley, and butter. You throw it on the pot and after 20 minutes you mash it up in a vegetable mill (Which I don't have). Don't forget the half and half and the heavy cream.

Oh, and thyme, but we didn't have it so that was out of the recipe.

Again, this recipe = Not good!

Gaylord Palms

Monday the ice carving club took a field trip down to Orlando, Florida, to the Gaylord Palms hotel. We bought tickets for the ice carving event that the hotel was hosting. It was amazing.

Forty Chinese ice carvers came from China to carve 200,000 million tons of ice. They created a multitude of different sculptures, and everything was life size. There were polar bears, statues of people, angels, snow flakes, even a giant slide that you could ride down. It was nine degrees. You had to wear parkas. My fingers were burning. I had an amazing time!

Decalgirl.com

My mom showed me this website and they have the cutest Kindle covers.

Ice Carving.

My very first ice carving, that a girl named Kristan and I did. Okay for my first time, right?


This was a Cornucopia Cup that an ice carver demonstrated for the class. He only got as far as the basic structure so I was finishing it. I love ice carving, and I'm determined to become very good at it!

Flyleaf's new album!!

Memento Mori. It's fantastic. If you haven't listened to it then go to youtube!



1. Beautiful Bride 2. Again
3. Chasm 4. Missing.
5. This Close 6 The Kind.
7. In the Dark 8. Set apart this Dream.
9. Tiny Heart 10. Melting
11. Treasure. 12. Circle
13. Arise 14. Uncle Bobby
15.Break your Knees 16. Enemy
17. Have we Lost 18. Who am I.

Check out this stud.

'79 Corvette. I looove this car, but only the vintage Corvettes, the new ones, in my opinion, are quite ugly.

Hello NEW bee yard.

My bees need a visit. But it seems as if that will never happen, everyday we pick has terrible weather. We need to go out soon to check on them, I think mine needs a Super put on, the pollen flow is fantastic in the new house. We have wild flowers growing in the back, and if you go out and sit in them you can see about a million bees pollinating. Here's some pics Alexis took:

I got to get!

The Kindle!

• This saves space (Which I need, hence the room overflowing with books)
• You don't have to waste paper, which ultimately saves the environment
• no flipping pages! Woo for the lazy people (i.e. me)
• Books on the kindle cost less money! Double Woohoo!!

My Sister's Keeper

This movie had me crying the whole time, well except for when the girl died and my mom broke out sobbing, then I had to stifle a few giggles. Because the sob was out of nowhere, and at first I couldn't figure out what the noise was. Oh, I love you mom!

Fanfiction.net

Very wonderful site where you can read many great stories from manga, books, movies, etc.

http://www.fanfiction.net/

I even wrote a couple stories, but no way am I giving up the link.

Books, Book, and more Books

Massive book sale for the library a few weeks ago. Me and Ashley stayed in line for an hour, since 8 a.m. Everyone was crowded into this small warehouse, shouting and pushing at anyone in their way. Tensions flared. It was awesome.



I purchased many great books.

• A new cook book about soups and stocks. Yay! Now we can make all kinds of soups, from chilled avocado to orange puree soup. (The orange soup is actually a recipe, although it seems a bit odd. Never had orange soup before, never even knew it was possible to make. You learn something new every day.)


• A lick Of Frost - The continuation of the NEVER ENDING Meredith Gentry series by Laurell K Hamilton. Haven't started it yet but I know it will be good. Anyone who wants to read it be warned that it's mature. (Shh, don't tell my mom. Haha, just kidding!)


• Cold Mountain. I saw the movie when I was seven, and I never even knew it was a book until I happened upon it in my search.


• Interview with a Vampire. We were also going to get Queen of the Damned but we ran out of money.


• Sweep.


• Herbal Almanac. Even though it's the 2004 addition, it looked so interesting and there was nothing else in the section of gardening that looked good. I had to get it.


• Volume one of manga series Fruits Basket, which is still somewhere in Ashley's car.


• And last, but definitely not least, Dances With Wolves. It was unbelievably amazing and better than the movie.

Honey Bee

This book is absolutely divine. It has everything I love in it, a great story, information on flowers, recipes, and of course Honey bees. And the amazing thing is? This woman is the founder of Red Bee Honey Company, and she got involved with beekeeping by accident.

Honey Bee, by Marina Marchese.

Read it. Learn it. Love it.

Santa Fe Game

This was the first I went to. Yep, that's loser status....never been to a football game, psh. It was Santa Fe vs. GHS. I had Mack and Alexis drop me off, and then I got to hang out with Shelly, Ashley, and Alexis M. It was really great, because I haven't seen them in a long time. I also got to see so many of my other friends that I had to leave behind. Like Savannah and Kaitlin and Wayne. Our time was spent laughing, swapping stories, throwing fries at people, and walking over to GHS's side and shouting out how much we luurved Santa Fe.

The funny thing was that we so thought Santa Fe was going to dominate...but they lost 41 to 7.

Perfection.

You know that saying that goes "Practice makes perfect"? Well, I don't like that saying because nothing is ultimately perfect, especially when it comes to my ability to cut perfect straight lines and angles in Culinary. My hand must be a tad bit mentally off because my Juliennes need a ton of work. And I mean A LOT. Chef D seemed to think so too because when I asked her for help she replied with a "oh yeah you do." She then proceeded to throw my cuttings in the trash bucket and made me tart over, which I didn't object to at all because they were indeed utter failures for Juliennes. In fact, I remember myself laughing when she threw it out, not in the least offended. I mean, I'd rather have a teacher like her that will let me know straight up if something I do is wrong instead of a teacher who sugar coats my mistakes.

Since I'm left handed Chef D thought that Chef Morris would be better at helping me, and she did. By the end I got a "not too shabby." But still, I've been practicing at home and it wasn't pretty....

My weekend.

A weekend spent with a friend. Eating tacos, swimming, and taking a lot of pictures, as you can already see some of them. That's right, there was more!

Pretty Kitty

I was going through some pictures on my computer and guess what I found? Isn't she adorable? Laying in one of my empty flower pots.

Reutrn of the bee keepers.

Yesterday I went out to the hives, the first excursion to the hives in a few months. Yes, it might seem like neglect, but honestly it's not! They can survive on their own just fine, just as they would in the wild. my mission was to cut down the weeds around the hives because they're out of control, growing like crazy. Anyways.....yeah, the weed whacking? Didn't go so well...The clippers sucked! But I did get a good peak at my girls! Tons of foragers were flying in and out and hovering around the hive entrances. My girls, hard at work. =]

I also went out another day, just to make sure that everything looked okay out there. As I was walking along the path to the hives, which have a large vegetation growth, I saw some of the bees pollinating the wildflowers. It was a truly beautiful scene. I was content to stay out there for hours. One of the girls got stuck in a spider web so I reached out and gently plucked her from it. Ah, they are such fascinating creatures...My girls.

Hm, school. I was so nervous before. And now? Piece of cake! Lmao, but there's this Chinese proverb that says whatever is good in life may turn out to be bad....

Anyways! I joined two clubs. Ice sculpting and hero, even though I really don't understand what hero is.....but it's the effort of joining that counts, right?

Culinary is awesome! Did my first catering today. One word: magnificent....and then it ended when I had to take my exam. That exam in Culinary determines whether or not I'll be able to cook in the next few weeks....I hope I passed it!

On the plus side? It's the weekend, and I learned how to fan strawberries. Thank you Chef. D. =]

Jitters.

Ah! School's starting and I'm barely ready for it! I wish I could start in....a million years.


*sigh*

I'm going to East Side High, for the Culinary program. Which is awesome....the only problem is that they messed up my schedule. I took Alg 1 Honors last year in 8th grade, completed the high school course with all "A's" and then they go and tell me that I'm taking Alg. 1 for 1/2 a semester and then switching over to Geometry. So I was like, that's crazy! And it was even worse when we went to the front office and explained it to the lady and she said, "Oh Lord. I'll be right back, I have to ask someone about this."

So I was freaking out. I knew it would be hard to switch my schedule to where I take geometry because all the freshman have 80 min. periods and the rest of the school doesn't so if I took a class with a 50 min. period everything would be messed up. Confusing, right?


Anyways, the lady called us back and asked my mom if I could be in I.B. - This extremely smart academic program. Ever heard of it? I guess they really wanted me because I remember getting an offer to do it in the mail once and now they were pulling strings to let me do Culinary and I.B., Which isn't allowed under normal circumstances because you aren't allowed to take both magnet programs at the same time. We accepted the offer, I mean how could I say no? It's a great opportunity. And I get to take French. =] Plus in my book.


Now I'm only scared because I don't even know who my teachers are, let alone how I'm going to find my classes on Monday. Good lord this is frightening. And I'm scared I won't be able to keep up my straight "A's". Now I am tremulous..... and sad.

Oh heart, stop acting naughty.

I went to the cardiologist. I've been having some heart palpitations for about three weeks, and so now I have a heart monitor on me for 30 days. I can only take it off when I take a shower. Every time I feel a palpitation, I have to call this number and let the people on the other end of the line listen to the recording of my palpitation.

Day Of Photography

Yesterday it was too hot and humid to ride, so my sister and I decided that we would take pictures with the horses, and then blow the pictures up and hang them on our walls.

We groomed the horses, making them look mighty pretty, and then gussied ourselves up a little too. And with that, we went outside to take the pictures....only to find that the horses had escaped! Those little tricksters ditched us and went off to graze!

Anyways....we still got in some pics. *winky face* Here they are:

Me and Jewel --

Aren't we cute?? She got itchy so I was scratching her ears for her. She loved it!

Alexis and Red -

And we also took some pictures with some of our cats! But I must say that Sushi HATED it. She was about ready to claw our eyes out, growling like a dog at us!

Back in the Saddle.

I've been lazy with the horses! There, I admit it. I haven't gone out to ride for a few weeks. I just didn't feel like it.

But yesterday, I came upstairs to see Alexis talking on the phone with one of her friends- actually it was my friend, but not the point here- and I decided that enough was enough. I was so frustrated, and I was dieing to get outside.

"Alexis," I said. "Let's go on a trail ride."

She completely agreed with me, so we got up, got dressed, and took off down the road on a trail ride. I loved every second of it.

Mystery worms?

Well, they're not actually worms, but caterpillars. Black, icky caterpillars with yellow stripes and a red head, who eat everything in sight, even the poisonous and most dangerous Angel Trumpet that is in my yard. Seriously! All it's leaves are gone. How sad...

These caterpillars are very annoying. They're all over my tomato plants. There has to be just about a million of them crawling in the grass, resulting in me not being able to go barefoot when I'm outside.

There is so many of these bugs that my sister, upon feeding the horses, found one crawling it's way up her shorts. It even bit her. Yikes, talk about scary!

And the worst thing about this is I have no idea what kind of caterpillars these are....although I have my suspicions...I think they might be Army worms...hm.

Glowing Sunflowers.

A few months back when we had some food in our bird feeder, and it started to rain non-stop for days, the seeds in the feeder started to sprout. I didn't notice at first so everything that sprouted just kept on growing.

When I did notice, there was a ton of grass growing out of the feeder, and also some newly sprouted sunflower seeds. So, curious as I was, I wanted to experiment! I grabbed a few of the sprouted seeds and planted them in some pots, and before I knew it, I had myself some sunflowers growing. There wasn't a lot that I planted, which I regret greatly because I could have let them grow near my bees! (Not that they would have any problems finding the sunflower if it wasn't close to them. I see at least one bee every day in my potted lavender, which is right by the spot that the sunflower is planted.) Oh, how the bees would have just loved the sunflowers planted right near them!

It turned out that two out of the four that I planted died once in the ground because my horses, the nosy creatures, got into the garden patch. (And no, we have not fenced the garden off. It's a wonder that everything else hasn't died from our number of cats and dogs that come and go by the garden each day, unaware of the destruction they are causing.) So, two were trampled. But the other two are still in good condition! In fact, why don't you see for yourself?

I don't know 'bout you, but I think this little darlin' is mighty fine. She's nothing big, although I wish she was! Only about two feet tall. I guess I shouldn't be so sad about her size. I mean, you can't really expect to grow a giant ten foot sunflower when you're getting the seeds from a bird feeder. Haha, I'm also just glad to go through the experience of planting her. And check out that glow on the picture I snapped off? I don't even know how it got like that. Maybe from it being so humid outside, and some condensation got on my lens? Anyways, it sure does compliment her!

Someday I would definitely like to grow giant sunflowers. I saw the GardenGirl do it and now I just can't get it out of my head.

I would also like to plant some sunflowers in my bee yard. That would look pretty and sunflowers are easy to maintain so it wouldn't be any trouble taking care of them over there.

My Crazy Cat.

Penny Lane, sister of Mary Jane (May he rest in peace.) is very loving, but also a bit insane. Well, all my cats have their quirks, but I'm writing this for Penny Lane because she was just so cute yesterday, and so funny, that I felt like I had to share it. Her silliness just tickles me pink!

I grew a sunflower and it recently bloomed, so I went outside to take some pictures of it. And every time I go outside an animal always comes up to me, which I really wish they wouldn't do sometimes because they never realize when they are sitting on the plants and I am forced to yell at them. I was snapping off some shots when she came up to me, purring as usual, and also rubbing against my leg. I couldn't resist her so I forgot about the plant and started cooing at her and petting her.

When I was petting her, the string hanging on my camera was dangling down and she looked up at it and then proceeded to hook her claws right into the string, her eyes locked onto mine. It was just so funny because her tongue was also out and the whole time she was still purring! And of course little old me couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of her, which she probably enjoyed greatly.

The art of making sushi.

One Saturday, a long time ago when I was a mere third grader, my mom brought home sushi for lunch. I don't know what kind of roll it was, or where she got it from. All I know is that it was raw fish...and I loved it. I loved every little part of it;from the slimy-goodness of the raw fish and all the way to the salty soy sauce that made my mouth water. I Loved it so much it's bordering on obsession.

From that day on, I was completely hooked on sushi. I could eat it anytime, anywhere. My whole family likes sushi, even though my mom has begun to dislike it on account of her getting sick from eating sushi once. (I still love it though! Even if she doesn't!) I've eaten at multiple sushi restaurants but my ultimate favorite is Miya sushi. It's phenomenal eating! And when they bring out the sushi it looks so pretty laying there on the sushi plate that I almost don't want to eat it..... But I do eat it....every last piece!

On one of our many excursions to the bookstore (I believe it was Borders) I discovered that you could actually make sushi yourself,at home. How cool is that?? It came in this little kit that included--

• Two sets of chopsticks.
  
• Two chop stick rests (I had no idea what they were at first. They're just little side dishes that you place your chop sticks on when you're not using them.)


• A book on how to make sushi.
  
• Two soy sauce dishes.


• A bamboo rolling mat.
  

Everything came in this cute green box, which we still have to keep our sushi making materials in when we're not using them. (I tend to be very organized when it comes to the kitchen.)

Once I purchased the kit, I got everything else I needed to make the sushi from the grocery store. I only wanted to make a California roll-which is just crab meat,cucumbers,and avocado- because for two reasons.

1) I don't want to try making anything involving raw fish because I'm scared that I'll do something wrong that could make me sick.

2) I still need to look at other recipes,which I haven't gotten around to doing yet. Hehe. (i.e. the book about sushi that came in the kit,which explains many sushi recipes.)

The first time I made sushi I felt so sick afterwards because I was very impatient and couldn't wait for the rice to cool down. I was just so eager to roll my sushi I couldn't stop myself.

I also did not use the necessary rice vinegar that you're supposed to put in the rice. But the second time I did, and I think it made a world of a difference on how the sushi tasted!

Recipe for rice vinegar. (For two cups of rice.)

Ingredients.

• 2 tsp. salt
  
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar


• 1/4 cup sugar.

Directions.

In a small sauce pan add in the rice vinegar,salt,and sugar. You need to mix it on a low heat until the sugar and salt dissolves. Be careful not to let it come to a boil or that will spoil the vinegar.

After you have mixed it, slowly pour it over the sushi rice, when the sushi rice is cooked, and mix it together, gently folding the rice over. Do this for about five minutes and then place the rice in the fridge until it's cold, maybe for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Making sushi is a great adventure for me and everyone should give it a try! Of course, you're not going to be perfect at first. Failure is gonna happen. But as the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

Ant Control

Today, after swimming at the Y with my brother and sisters, I came home and decided to water my tomato plants, which I've recently planted in the ground. As I go out I see this giant ant pile right next to one of the plants. One of my plants was completely covered in dirt from the ant pile.

I wonder if that could become a problem, and so I go inside and look it up online. This other person had the same problem as me and got advice saying to drown the ants out.

I did that. It back fired. The ants are now moving on to the other plants because I demolished their old home with water.

I'm going to wait to see what happens tomorrow and if I see that the ants have taken over my other plants, I will put them back into pots and wait until I can get a new location for them.

Maybe I could build some raised beds that I've been dying for?? I was out searching for a fly mask that my horse lost, and in the neighbor's yard I saw that she had some raised beds... Unfair, it is.

Well hello, world.

Wow, finally I'm starting my blog. It took me a while to work up the courage to do so. But here I am. Writing. *Smiles.*

So I guess I should start off with an introduction,of sorts. My name is Abby. I live in Florida. My family owns five acres that we live on, although we are now officially looking for a new house to live in because our current household is a very old farmhouse that would need a lot of repair work done on it if we bought it.

I have a big family, not ginormous like some of those people you see on T.V. that have 13 kids. For my family, it's more like 6 and 1/4. The 1/4 being Adalae, because she's so small.

You see, It all started with my mom. She's like, the most amazing woman on Planet Earth. She's a very open labor and delivery nurse that loves to spin. She's a fantastic chef- I learned most of what I know from her, and for that I will always be thankful. She has a great sense of style, totally retro hippy. She understands most things that I tell her and can only be described as a "cool but protective parent." I know that she loves all of her chicks. And I love her just as much.

Here's a picture of her:




So after my mom came my sister, Ashley. The first born, and also the "experiment" child,because my mom was still learning the do's and don'ts of motherhood when she had her. She's very nosey like my mom, and can sometimes think that she knows everything. But we love her. She's really smart and beautiful. She's a new mommy that's going to school to become a nurse. So Kudos for her.

Here's a picture:



And then Alexis was born. She's practically the golden child, if you know what I mean. She's good at everything she does! She's an excellent student. Wants to become a vet. In a serious relationship with a guy. Beautiful. But slightly dingy, almost to the point of transforming into Jessica Simpson. But don't worry, she's hanging in there. And sometimes she actually has one of those rare moments of complete genius. Lol, well that's a little over the top. She's not that stupid! And I love her so much. I can never say no to her. My weakness.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of her, completely stunning:


After Alexis, I arrived. I really don't know what to say about myself. I can be a royal bitch, but sometimes I'm actually a nice person. I have straight A's in school. Have a slight case of OCD. I love to garden, ride horses. I hate going out in public. I'm embarrassed over stupid things. I'm really shy... at first. I love spending time with my family and friends, and also riding bikes in Target with my brother. My mom says I'm different, but in a good way. My style is completely unique. I'm a bookworm. I love to cook.

Here's a picture:



And then my insane brother, Noah, was born. He's such a little weirdo, that I love, but I always give him a hard time. He's shy. He's into video games. Eats junk food. And is so funny. He's the family comedian.

Here's a picture of him:



And last but not least, is Adalae. My little niece. She's the most beautiful baby with the longest and thickest eyelashes I've ever seen. And she's worked her way into our hearts.

Picture:




So that's my family, not including the animals....