Monthly Archives: February 2020

55 Things #6 – A Sweet Treat

55 Things, Candy, homemade, Recipe, Reflections

Click here to learn more about my “55 Things” series and here to view previous posts in this series.

With Valentines Day just around the corner I thought I would share my secret candy recipe with you. Up until this point it is only a secret because I have not told it to anyone so now my secret will be out.

If you are a chocolate lover like me then you probably get excited when you hear or read reports about the health benefits of chocolate (cocoa) – right up to the point that they add something like “but all that sugar (and potentially other ingredients) in that candy bar are still bad for you so be sure not to eat too much”. 😦  What a let down!

So I decided to make my own chocolates using what I believed to be better ingredients.

Here’s my recipe:

1/2 cup dark cocoa

1/2 cup raw honey

1/2 cup cold processed coconut oil

Since coconut oil has a melting point of 76 degrees F (24 C) I put the whole jar in a bowl of hot tap water to melt. I then measure the amount of liquid oil I need and pour it into a bowl. I add the cocoa and honey and stir until they are combined. The mixture will be smooth and as the coconut oil cools it will become firmer. I line a pan or plate with wax paper and drop by teaspoon on the wax paper. I then pop them in the frig or freezer for a while. Once they are set I remove them from the wax paper and store them in a dish with a lid in the frig (because coconut oil melts at 76 degrees room temperature might be too warm for them).

To change it up a bit raisins, dried cranberries, coconut or chopped nut can be mixed in.

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I won’t make any claims about these being healthy but if you research the ingredients you can draw your own conclusions. I will tell you that they are rich in flavor and have a creamy texture that melts in your mouth. Yum!!! I also find that just one is enough to give me my chocolate fix.

I haven’t really given them a name but the first time I made them my husband told me they looked like turds so I told him they would be “the best s**t he ever ate”. 🙂

Are you a chocolate lover?

 

 

There Was A Farmer Had A Dog…

Dogs, Reflections,

And Bingo Ranger was his name-er.

While Ranger is the name we gave him, it seems The Pup has already acquired a few nick names.

Maybe you already guessed the first one is The Pup or Pup. This one just seemed to come natural. He looks like a puppy and acts like a puppy and I often find myself referring to him as The Pup. Sometimes when talking to him I call him Pup as well.

More often when addressing him I find myself calling him Mister. I’ve noticed my husband does this as well. I think I began calling this because when he sits down and looks at me he looks like a little gentleman.

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As we know looks can be deceiving, hence another nick name. It was pretty early on when I began calling him Dennis, as in Dennis the Menace. He has that type of personality. Young, cute, innocent, always wanting to be right where we are and finding ways to get into trouble. He can be lovable and annoying at the same time. If Ranger is Dennis I think Trooper is his Mr. Wilson. LOL!

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The other nick name he has is Zippy. This is what my husband calls him, which refers to both his energy level and his speed. This one may get a little confusing because my husband had called Trooper Zippy since he was young. As a young dog Trooper had the same type of energy and speed that we now see in Ranger.

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So it seems Ranger has become Zippy too or should I say Zippy Two. 🙂

Do you use nick names for family members or pets?

55 Things #5 – You Never Know What You Will Find On The Internet

55 Things, Reflections

Click here to learn more about my “55 Things” series and here to view previous posts in this series.

Imagine scrolling through a website filled with random funny pictures and coming across a picture of yourself – a picture that you had never seen before and perhaps didn’t even realize existed. How would you feel?

This happened to my husband. He likes to visit a website called Dump A Day and one day he came across this photo.

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It was captioned “Men Are Crazy”.

When he showed me the picture I immediately recognized the guy standing up as my husband even though he was much younger and this was taken long before we met. He proceeded to tell me the names of the other guys in the photo and the name of the guy he remembers taking it (Dom says Hello Randy).

It was taken in 1979 while he was serving in the US Coast Guard. They were on a trip from Milwaukee, WI to Greenland on the USGC Westwind (WAGB 281).

It brought back memories of his Coast Guard days and those he served with, but it also begs the question “How did this end up on Dump A Day?”.

P.S. This is not the craziest thing he has ever done.