desserts

L-APC: Large to Small

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Lens-Artists host this week, Patti, has given us an interesting challenge: Pick a color and choose photos with objects of that color from large (like a wall or a building) to small (like a mushroom or an earring). I picked two colors: White and Pink.

WHITE

Largest: a snowy landscape

Large: a round white barn…

…and its door

Medium: Our niece’s wedding dress (with blue embroidered flowers!)

Smallish: Styrofoam chest with ribs and intestines

Small: Flower – hydrangea blossoms

PINK

Large: Pink building façade

A little less large: Pink ice cream truck, “The Original Rainbow Cone”

Medium, whole: Andy Warhol cat

Medium, in pieces: Bridal Shower Jeopardy

Medium, Pretty: frilly dresses & Medium, Patterned: 60s dresses

Medium, delicious: Birthday cake

Smallish: Umbrella

Small: Orchid

February Love Me 1&2

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Paula Light has a new challenge for the month of February, to post something we love for every day of the month! I’m a day late on this so I am going to post two things!

Feb. 1: I love…flowers. All colors, shapes, and species – and I love to photograph them too!

Feb. 2: I love…chocolate! Although I am trying to lose a little weight and watch my diet, I cannot resist ordering chocolate desserts! I keep a stash of fancy candy bars in a drawer of my desk, and every once in a while, I break off a small chunk to savor! I have made it a rule that this sweet treat does NOT count toward my calorie count for the day – although my regular dessert does!

Countdown to Christmas: Lights, Love, Colors, Candy, Candles, Creature, Desserts

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Due to pressing tasks related to the holidays that have taken up much of my time, I really got behind in Tourmaline’s Countdown to Christmas!

Days 12 & 14: Lights and Colors
Holiday decorations in many colors

Our former house in Des Plaines is decked out for Christmas far better than we ever even attempted to do! I’m proud of our daughter & son-in-law (who live there now) for putting so much effort in it! Notice the moving colored lights projected onto the second floor dormer!
Christmas tree elegantly decorated in blue & gold, in the lobby of our senior community’s main building. I like the way the lights on the tree reflect onto the dark blue of the sky outside!
Close-up of one of those decorations

Day 13: Love
Who doesn’t love Christmas? Here’s a bouquet of mostly roses (symbol of love) in our house earlier this week.

Day 15: Candy
Today we walked the halls of the apartment building in our community, for several purposes: exercise (too cold to walk outside!), taking photos, and working on a scavenger hunt. Residents not only decorate their doors, but also the ledges outside their apartments. Sometimes there is candy set out for anyone to partake of!

FRANGO MINTS!! How could I resist this traditional Chicago treat?

Day 16: Candles
Candles make me think of Hanukkah, which we celebrate every year because my husband in Jewish. Since I have no photos of the menorah we use every year at Hanukkah (which ended last night), here is another of those ledge decorations outside someone’s apartment.

Day 17: Creature
Creature?? What does this have to do with Christmas? Oh yeah – elves!

Day 18: Dessert!
Dessert for me means some concoction involving ice cream. But right now, it’s Christmas cookies! Having a box of them in the house makes it hard to resist them! So each night, I have one or two cookies with a cup of tea and a piece of fruit. Christmas isn’t Christmas without cookies!

Back in the days when we could have parties and take cookies from a common plate, a friend of mine gave a holiday party in her apartment, including this delicious variety of cookies!

Kinda Square #20: At the Market

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I haven’t participated in Becky’s October Kinda Square challenge for awhile, so to make up for it I’m going to take a little shopping tour at Vienna’s Naschmarkt to see different kinds of things you can buy there!

Various kinds of vegetables

Various kinds of candies (and very different from the ones you usually find in the USA)

Various kinds of fruit – and being summer when I took these photos, there is a great variety of succulent, delicious fruits!

Many kinds of spices

This being an organized walking tour, there were various kinds of goodies for us to sample!

You can buy a variety of non-edible things there too, such as these dishes with different colors, shapes and kinds of decoration.

Markets are fascinating places to visit because you can find all kinds of things at them! So I think my next post for this challenge will feature other kinds of markets!

5 Things: Summer Desserts

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Dr. Tanya is back with her Five Things Tuesday. The topic this week is favorite summer desserts. That is one of my favorite summer topics!! 😀

  1. ice cream, especially hot fudge sundaes! My favorite ice cream is peppermint but Hershey’s has a superb flavor called Roadrunner Raspberry! It’s vanilla with raspberry swirls and chunks of chocolate. A similar one, although I don’t know who makes it, or whether it’s strictly a Christmas holiday flavor is peppermint bark moose tracks – peppermint with chocolate swirls and pieces of chocolate!

2. Frozen yogurt – it’s almost like ice cream, really, but there’s a frozen yogurt chain here where you can serve yourself from many flavors and then add whatever toppings you want. They charge by the weight (which is a problem – mine ends up being expensive by the time I’ve loaded it up with toppings!).

3. Sorbet (is there a theme here???) – to me, sorbet, or sherbet, is a non-dairy but ice cream-like frozen treat made with fruit. I love raspberry, mango, passion fruit, and coconut the best. Passion fruit is the hardest to find here in the U.S. but I used to eat it often when I lived in Brazil.

4. smoothies – I like my own version of smoothie, although others are good too. When I make smoothies, I get out the blender (which I don’t use for anything else!) and put in fresh and frozen fruit – preferably something compatible. Usually I make it with fresh and frozen raspberries, blueberries and whatever other berries I have on hand. I add a cup of yogurt – preferably nonfat, and either vanilla or raspberry flavor, a little bit of milk – about 1/4 cup max. If there is no frozen fruit, the substitute would be crushed ice. This berry smoothie is my favorite – I even use special glassware, metal straws and long handled spoons when I serve it!!

Doodle of a half-slurped smoothie

5. fresh fruit and/or fruit salad – my husband makes a great fruit salad, using only fruit, no juice, etc. that would add calories. Fresh fruit in the summer is a wonderful treat! I like the strawberries and raspberries, but I look especially forward to cherries (in June-early July), fresh peaches (July-Aug.), and crisp apples in the fall. I buy most of my summer fruit at a farmer’s market. There is nothing like a ripe, fresh peach on a day like today! (about 90º F/33ºC) Fresh mangos are available here in the summer also, but not at the farmer’s market because they are imported from Mexico.

See the source image

Photos of ice cream and fruit salad downloaded from Bing images.

5 Things Tuesday: Food Combos

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Dr. Tanya at Salted Caramel has a new weekly challenge: 5 Things Tuesday – this week the theme is food combos.

1. Pizza: Sausage & onion, or Hawaiian (pineapple and Canadian bacon or ham) – I always try to remember to order it with no barbecue sauce!
hawaiian-pizza-5320182. My favorite dessert is a schaum torte, which is a combination of a meringue with ice cream on top and then covered with strawberries and/or hot fudge sauce (preferably homemade!). My niece makes the meringues every year at Easter and her mom, my sister, makes the homemade hot fudge sauce and everyone assembles their own schaum torte according to their particular taste! Because of the quarantine, there was no Easter celebration at my sister’s this year, so I’m posting this photo from last year! (By the way, my favorite ice cream is peppermint and with fudge sauce it’s sublime!)
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3. Snack or lunch side: Hummus with either pita chips, pretzels or veggies – my favorite snack or lunch accompaniment! To drink, I prefer Bai Strawberry Lemonade!
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4. My two favorite breakfast combos: Hot hard-boiled eggs, chopped up with a little butter, salt and pepper, and an English muffin with honey. When I am having breakfast alone, this is what I will have if the ingredients are available. Otherwise I will have instant oatmeal with raspberry yogurt, and pecans, blueberries and raspberries mixed in!

5. dinner side: miniature potatoes, boiled, then marinated with balsamic vinegar, a little olive oil and chopped onions

Farewell April Squares: To Top It Off…

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Today is the last day of Becky’s April Squares! To top it off, I show you my favorite dessert:
Schaum torte!

If you don’t know this delectable delicacy, it consists of a meringue at the bottom. The meringue should be prepared with a depression in the middle to put a scoop of ice cream.

Then to top it off – add strawberries and/or hot fudge sauce (homemade, hopefully!)

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Easter 2019: Just looking at this photo makes my mouth water!

I look forward to having this dessert every Easter, because that is when my niece Maria makes a batch of green meringues. She brings them to my sister’s house, and there, after enjoying an Easter meal, my sister brings out the ice cream and has a homemade recipe of hot fudge sauce on the stove…and a bowl of strawberries waiting for consumption!

We could not have schaum tortes this year, since physical distancing forced us to stay home and not have our traditional Easter dessert. But I look forward to next year!!