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Froggy Bottom Cafe
Welcome newcomers! Please introduce yourself
Come on in!
Militarytracy got good news! Katiebird’s taking suggestions for a poll tomorrow! And it’s a snow day here at the cabin!
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CDs are in their regular spot next to the stereo
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Please recommend (and unrecommend the Cafe/Lounge from yesterday)
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Very smooth pass of the baton, m’dear. I love that cartoon!
All we need is katiebird’s current list of suggested website names, and we’re golden…oh katiebird! where are you?
huh? wha? (shaking head) Me?
Yikes!!! I’ve never been so far up in the comments in a cafe. Such responsibility! Can I stand up and meet the challenge? I’ll try.
My comment deals with the poll. I am the first person to vote in the poll. I know this because I voted and lo and behold there was only one vote….ergo, it was mine!
I LOVE fruitcake. Yes, I truly do love fruitcake. I’m not kidding or being facetious. It has everything in it that I like…..dried fruits, brandy flavored dark molassesey cake, dense texture because of all the goodies. You know you’re eating something when you munch on it, not just some light, high caloric, fluff.
It’s a wonder of culinary art. AND it’s not cheap to make. It’s a sign of wealth just to be able to afford the ingredients.
I have been sorely disappointed the last couple holiday seasons because I couldn’t find ANY in ANY stores!! …..and I’m too busy to make one for myself.
AS I re-read this, I sounds very tongue in cheek….but I REALLY do LOVE fruitcake.
My father adored Claxton’s fruit cake. I did not, however, inherit the fruitcake gene.
Hmm, I feel like no one likes my poll if only one person has voted in it. Am I a fruitcake?
No! No! It’s a great poll. Five have voted now and it’s increasing rapidly. I just got to be first for the first time. Yippee!
Greetings from your friendly neighborhood fruitbat:
with a mouth full of mango, ummm good!
Later yawl…
Peace
Num, num…have a good one dada!
That’s so funny!
Hey, you liberal wusses … how about a FREEDOM FRIDAY for once ?! Oh, I suppose you’ve had lots of French Fridays, Franco Fridays, and Foo-Foo Fridays too, right?
(My head is full of fuzz from a mild cold and I can’t be held resopnsible for anything I write today.)
P.S. LOVE YOU ALL! I come here to read your posts and to feel mentally healthy again. You do that for people, you know.
For the week you’ve had, you deserve a shot – of cuteness. This might be a little big, but I, selfishly, think that we could all use a some baby love.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?”
I just want to pick that little guy up and give him a little squeeze…I’ll just have to go hug a Cabin Boy instead…
HAve a fun day off!
Are your boys out in the snow?
CtY has been popping in and out the door all morning, but CtE has been firmly planted in front of the computer, talking on the phone…I just can’t imagine who he got those characteristics from…not for a minute… 🙂
The serenity in the face of that absolutely beautiful child brings joy to my heart, Toni. Quite seriously — thank you!
You’re quite welcome.
I mean that his cuteness isn’t an extra — it’s a built-in. Sorry if that didn’t come across right.
I was being a smart ass – sorry.
So the both of us can be today’s textbook example of the limitations of internet communications 😉
This is a good place for people who are feeling fuzzy…glad you dropped by!
What a great image, dada. Fruitbats are the greatest.
Fruitcake, however, makes me gag — or at least it did when I was forced to sample some as a wee tyke. Haven’t touched it since.
Well now that’s two people I know who love fruitcake, you and my sister…maybe you should start a fruitcake clique…I would almost bet it would be a small and exclusive clique..then again as an official FenceSitter maybe not.
And I much prefer the really yummy dark/heavy pumpkin bread I make with some nuts and raisins in it to fruitcake any day.
Darcy and I went to Costco last night. They’re selling fruitcakes and Darcy teased me about getting a fruitcake for the raccoons.
Then I spotted these: Aussie Bites
Ever had one of those? Holy cow. They’re good. And I got a huge box of them for just over $3. They’re not organic, but have no trans fats. So yummmmmmmy. (There’s a kind of a butterscotch-y flavor to them.) Yeah, I gave the raccoons a couple. Gone in a heartbeat.
Blegghhh!
And I’m not on the fence about that one! Only for fruitcake-dislike will I come down off the fence 🙂
(I hope this doesn’t get me kicked out of the FenceSitter clique)
Well there do have to be exceptions to every rule..doesn’t there?
You know three now. I adore fruitcake. Absolutely love the stuff.
I never had it until my parents made it when I was in high school. Their recipe is filled with fruit, nuts…and alcohol. In addition to the stuff in the batter, It’s wrapped in wine-soaked cheesecloth for at least a month, and it gets wonderfully moist and tasty. <wipes drool from mouth> I keep one in the fridge and ration it all year.
This year, they’re using Southern Comfort instead of wine, so I can’t wait. My mom sent me picutres of my dad making the fruitcake this year; he’s quite elderly, and I was so happy to have them.
Also, for those of you who don’t have my parents, Walgreen’s is selling a fairly decent fruitcake. It’s called Premium…something and is in a gold tin. Their serving size is an enormous chunk, so I like them!
I’m down with fruitcake, too. Though not all fruitcakes are created equal.
Gooserock’s and my wedding cake was a fruitcake. It was made by my Scottish mother in the tradition of Scottish wedding cakes. She made it six weeks ahead of the wedding, wrapped each of the three tiers in clothes dripping in brandy for the six weeks. The aroma in her house was absolutely heavenly.
She then added a 1/2 inch layer of marzepan on the top of each tier, and then a hard white English icing (you could tap on it with a spoon after it hardened), and finally another Scottish friend topped it all off with soft icing decor of blue bonnets and heather.
Ahhhhhhh, sigh. Better than chocolate covered cherries.
We froze the top tier for our first anniversary and it was just as miraculous then.
for eating the cake 1 year later: good luck with children.
Which, of course, came true, and with a most Scottishly absurd twist:
And lovely children they are!
The wedding cake description is so delightful, it actually sounds like I would have to try it…just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything!
OMG. That sounds incredible.
Do you have the recipe?
Hey, we like your day’s off if they mean you get to come hang out with us!
I had it before we moved. I’ll see if I can find it. A lot of my “things” have disappeared in the move. 🙁
That does sound rather good … hmmm …
Please ignore my earlier statement about disliking fruitcake. What Puget4 has described is making my mouth water, so I can’t dislike it that much.
<jumping back on the fence>
🙂
back up the fence, eating fruitcake. Whew! All’s right with the world again.
What’s that over there, Olivia?
(Snatches piece of fruitcake.)
Come back w/ that … I can’t get down off this fence for the rest of the day or CI will kick me out of the FS clique!
Well, shoot, I can’t let you go hungry all day. Here. . .Just eat around the place where I took a bite out of it, okay?
Sounds like you’re doing fine..first you hated fruitcake/now you might like it soooooooooo your FS status seems in good standing or good fencesitting to me.
I knew you kept an open mind. That’s great! Welcome to Fruitcake Land, land of happy nuts.
Down here in Texas, we are completely mystified by the fruitcake-bashing. There is general agreement that the reason for it is because you guys have only been exposed to bad fruitcake, and it is very easy to screw it up and make a bad one.
Here we eat fruitcakes from Collin Street Bakery. At this time of year they have to hire a traffic cop and make a drive through just to handle the hordes waiting to get one. Corsicana is a small town and not really on a route between major cities, but folks will drive there just for fruitcake.
Puget – try one of theirs, since you haven’t been able to find one up there! I will personally refund your money if you don’t love it (offer good for Puget only, since she is the first to declare her love of fruitcake here).
The Collin Street Bakery fruit cakes look beautiful, but you can see what I mean about being costly. However, you make a very tempting offer. I wonder how they are for fat? Probably off the scales on the glycemic index. I’m on this darn diet right now to lower cholesterol and triglycerides….
Thanks for the link and the offer… 🙂
Those look like they could make me rethink fruitcae…apricot pecan looks especially good…
[…]have only been exposed to bad fruitcake[…]
There’s such a thing a “good” fruitcake? Is this like “good” brussel sprouts?
I will take all of your unwanted brussel sprouts, they’re one of my favorite veggies. 🙂
Well, I like weird veggies too. Kale and asparagus are my favorite. But ever since I was a kid I’ve hated brussel sprouts. So, the next time I buy a batch, they’re all yours! But wouldn’t you prefer some Burdick chocolate instead? (It’s snowing like hell and I’m craving a hot chocolate!) –M
Aha, then I will trade you my kale for your brussel sprouts, and we can share some chocolate for dessert.
I love being a liberal, with all the peace and the bartering and the kindness. A conservative would shoot us both, steal it all, and then sell it for a profit.
I will fight to the death for some baby brussels sprouts, which we inexplicably grew up calling “spragglenuggies”….I guess because it was easier to say? Everyone laughs when I tell them that, but families have their own secret language that no one else knows.
Pass the butter.
That’s how I eat ’em, too. In a big bowl with a little butter and salt. Yum. I will be stealing the word “spragglenuggies” forthwith, btw.
Sometimes I forget they’re not really called spragglenuggies and people look at me weird. We have other strange words that I’ve never heard before but they sound faintly old german/yiddish. Like “schnipple”…which doesn’t mean what you think it means. My mom used it mostly when she was picking the remaining meat off a chicken or turkey for leftovers… as in “I’m going to schnipple the chicken”…which actually sounds worse now that I type it out. What can I say?…we had a weird family.
My dad’s family calls stuffed cabbages “halupkis”, which is straight up Polish, but no one ever knows the word so they always look at me funny when I say it. The family recipe is damn good, though.
I work in a town that was, for a long time an enclave of Polish immigrants. There, cabbage rolls are call glomki. Your pronunciation looks more like the Ukrainian pronunciation that I grew up hearing – “halupchi.”
Well, Dad’s family is all Ukrainian, but Gram always said that word was Polish. Of course, Gram told me a lot of things that later turned out to be…creative interpretations of reality, so I’m sure your version is correct. 🙂
You know something? I love Fruitcake to and so does my hubby. Although in this area they have a fruitcake hurling contest in Feb I think it is. Some people don’t know a good thing when they get it.
If you don’t make it sound like the typical Republican dessert.
Now wonder I hate the stuff!
STILL waiting for stupid IKEA to show up…I hate these four-hour windows. Watch, they’ll show up at 11:59am… 🙁 (Was expecting Comcast in the same window, but was able to cancel the appointment because my Internet came back on yesterday morning.)
Just skimming through the TV channels — on Maury Povich it’s “Stop My 14-Year-Old From Having A Baby!” Happy happy joy joy… sigh
I hate that 4-hour window thing. Especially when it turns into 6, and you could have gone and done other stuff in the meantime.
That 4 hour window thing sucks. I had to wait for the gas guy last Saturday morning to come install an automatic reader on my (indoor) gas meter. He had until 12:00 and he showed up at 11:59. But … at 11:45 he called to tell me he was almost there. He started out by saying “hi, I’m Sam, the technician who is coming this morning to install your new gas reader” and before he could get anything more out of his mouth I said “not unless you’re here in the next 15 minutes.” Yes was bitchy but I felt better. (Then I felt bad when he showed in his corporal form (not just audio) and I had to face the fact that he was a human being just like me.
it got me up and showered and dressed by 8am…and the spouse and I got part of the apartment cleaned up so there’d be a place to put all the stuff.
Maybe I could at least work on a few more cleaning things, at least within the apartment — I’m worried that if I go to the laundry room or dumpster, that’s when they’ll show up…
Back to work but stopping by with a giggle….oh and I think fruit cake should be used as retaining wall bricks…
Have a great weekend everyone…watch out for those puppies and snowmen!
Retaining wall bricks, an excellent use of fruitcake…
(I have more cartoons for later!)
I say use it to construct the levees in NOLA. It’s gotta be waterproof, too.
We have a winner here! That is the best idea for fruitcake I’ve ever heard! (But not that Colling Bakery kind)
And the prize for this year’s winning entry is. . .fruitcake.
Yes! Aren’t you excited?
And feeling like one.
Good thing it is Friday, the snow has actually stopped coming down in large white sheets – in fact, the sun is now shining. TGIF.
Don’t have a lot of input about fruitcake, but to celebrate my modest return to blogging (as well as my new 19″ monitor), I have a little musical something for y’all: ‘Zine Zina’ by Khaled, the King of Rai. He’s a superstar in France and North Africa, but unknown, I gather, in the States.
This track belongs to his latest album, ‘Ya-Rayi’ from 2004, but was omitted from the US edition, so I don’t feel so bad about the copyright infringement (though I’ll probably take it down after a while). It’s a fusion of rai and Antillean zouk; the groove is inhuman. I you don’t feel the urge to dance, you’re probably dead!
192 kbps wma (5,22 MB)
128 kbps wma (3,49 MB)
160 kbps mp3 (4,32 MB)
Enjoy…
Hi Sirocco,
Good to see you back. Noticed a little lurking the past couple of days. Khaled is great – had an early album, lost in divorce.
those are awesome beats! I’m heading to my favorite band’s concert on Sunday to see them for the sixth time (not my last, I assure you: Ozomatli
Latin, hip/hop, middle eastern, raggae, everything. AND, they are peace activists.
See you around the pond!
I love Ozomatli!
When I’m up before sunrise Mrs NDD says, “Do you know what the strange glow in the sky is?”
Mr NDD (the nightowl) says, “Yes, I believe it is a sunrise.”
Well, ha ha, but I did manage to catch a few of them over the TurkeyDay weekend. Here’s one for ya!
Sunrise
I’m posting from the city now, but this guy came for B&B at the out-in-the-boonies location that weekend.
Truly lovely photos, NDD.
I’m especially appreciative of the buck deer image, as here in white-tail country it’s rare nowadays to see one. They seem to take to the higher elevations once their antlers have grown to this size — no doubt to avoid attracting the notice of hunters, some of whom are reduced to mistaking one another for game (with unfortunate consequences).
I also find that the sound of antlers clacking together in mating jousts have gone missing from our springtime concerts. Strange.
Actually, once we get into consistently below zero temps here on the plains the Whitetails leave the “higher” elevation of the relatively flat plains and hang out in the river and creek valleys out of the wind.
This year, due to global heating, hardly any temps have been below zero, so “our” little heard of around 8 is still in what we call shelterbelts, (the trees the pioneers planted to keep with NW winds out of the yard.)
Thanks for the compliments folks!
We have a good sized buck that I always see in the field down the road…the deer don’t like my dogs, so he doesn’t come too close to the house.
Great sky picture!
SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness. I’ve worked a whole 9 days – I needed a break:)
We’re catching up on some badly needed chores. Jeez, we’ve got to stp cooking, the range is just filthy.
Jim’s got a snow day today and so do the Cabin Boys.
Did Andrew let you sleep in?
I slept in a little bit. He has a bit of a cold, so we’re even getting a long nap.
I bet your woods looked beautiful this morning.
mmm…nap sounds good. Oh, you meant Andrew!
Must write chemo paper instead. ungh.
Didn’t Khaled used to be Cheb Khaled (I think that just means he was young)? One of my faves. Unfortunately most of what I have of his is on vinyl.
I’m not big on fruitcake, but my mom makes a killer cranberry bread!
Hey Everybody,
I am so glad to know that Military Tracy got good news. Have been feeling rather concerned about her health. So this is excellent news to wake up to in the morning.
What’s Katiebird’s poll all about? I feel thoroughly uninformed…. Was that mentioned in the last cafe? That one is now too big to open.
If you think this looks cold, you would be right. But Jim doesn’t care because there’s no school today.
Jeepers, Andi — that’s what I call idyllic! What a truly lovely place to be.
Based on your picture the other night and your description of where you live, I’m guessing your place is really pretty — I especially love the idea of being close to a river.
We have at least 8″ of fluffy new snow here today — though terrific winds make it less than tempting to head outside, what with blowing whirlwinds of white out on the field & great clumps of snow falling from the trees upon the humble.
I’ve got to go out there, however — will see if I can’t capture an image or two with shovel-weary mits.
That’s pretty much what we had yesterday with the winds lingering until late morning today. They’ve died down now but it definitely is staying cold.
I’m amazed at how relatively warm it feels here, despite terrific wind. Then again, when winter air temperatures can reach -10 as a matter of course, 20 doesn’t seem so bad.
Images of my driveway & a cautious neighbor follow. I’m headed back out for firewood anon.
and I can see that you have something a lot bigger than my hills there in the background (I love mountains). As for your neighbor, I’d say the caution is very wise.
My drive is much more closed in than yours but they have a similar look and feel (2004 photo).
What a stunning photo! Just beautiful. Thank you for sharing it.
Very thankfully, most of my driveway (just beyond what I’ve shown you) has a similar sheltered feel –which I quite appreciate as a psychic buffer between my corner of the mountain & the open valley road.
Frankly, I truly love the woods — wouldn’t live elsewhere, even as a NYC native — & I never tire of the imagery it inspires.
We’ve been out here since 1979 and I feel that every single day I live some place different from the day before — the forest is always changing. Like you, I don’t think I could ever leave.
IKEA just called — the delivery guys got stuck at the last place longer than planned (about a half hour) so won’t be here till about 12:15pm or a little later. Grrrrr….
Did anyone else read this diary on campaign financing? Or boran’s photo essay?
It’s 30F above the donut, bright sunshine, with a little zephyr out of the south, (17mph).
I’d go make some snow angels, but the 1/2″ layer of ice embedded in the snow drift would prohibit that.
Why, that’s positively tropical! (and with that, it’s time for me to go bring in the chicken’s water bucket to thaw again…)
The Canadians used to have battery warmers, a little 75w warm-plate for under the battery that you plug into regular AC outlet. I used to use one in the chicken coop under the waterer, worked great.
I’ve been swapping 2 waterers back and forth forever because I don’t have electric anywhere near the henhouse. Maybe I’ll have to fix that.
ieee!! chihuahua!!! that’s starting to sound like WORK!!
Well, ya could do like the old timers, and carry a couple of warm bricks to and fro.
They used to wrap them up in some cloth and take along for the sleigh ride to town, although my aunt had a bad burn once as a child from a hot iron rod of some sort that evidently didn’t have quite enough layers around it.
Don’t intend to be rude, disrespectful or too much of a prick — okay, just a little.
But it was 80 degrees F. today, bright sun, balmy breeze, cooling late afternoon sprinkle, and the windows and sliding doors are open.
Spent the day getting a working BooTribber’s tan riding on the lawn tractor. First time I’m able to get back in the grove since hurricanes’ visits. Had to wait for the water to go away. Grass only 18″ tall in places; weeds only 3′ tall in other places. Wish I had a bush hog.
Lotsa dead citrus and lychee trees, several laying over, but oddly, some tangelos are blooming — smells heavenly. So much shock, they must think it’s Feb. The pink tabebulia thinks it’s spring , too. It’s in heavy bloom and fallen flowers carpet the grass underneath its branches.
Can these events be a sign that the magnetic poles are getting ready to reverse themselves?
Shutters are down from the sliding glass doors off BR and family room. Ahhhh. We emerge from the cave. Still got southern and western windows to go.
Okay, I’m ready for my banishment, Mr. DeMille.
pfft. I have a beautiful 6-inch layer of pure white crystalline snow decorating my cabin, giving it that lovely, christmasy, hansel-and-gretel house in the woodsy look. You just can’t get that in a citrus grove too often, can you? And I have a new exercise program, hauling water out to the henhouse several times a day, because it keeps freezing. At this rate, I will be looking positively anorexic (or frostbitten, not sure which) by Monday morning.
Banned? Not even close. Try harder next time…like, say, surfin’ in Costa Rica all day… 🙂
Just looking up from my screen, wrapping up the week. Never been a big fruitcake guy myself. Actually, I recognize quite a few of you from other places in the neighborhood. You might recognize me, too, except that I’m using a different alias over here, just for yucks. IRL I spend most of my work time thinking about people’s investments, and I posted a diary last night on pensions. It stayed up for a decent interval, and some folks actually read it, so I’d say I’m feeling right at home.
Today’s idiotic news report is from the briefing.com stock market summary that Yahoo! Finance picks up. The lead remark: “The equity market hurdled the flat line after lunch, boosted by a rise in the Financial sector that countered Energy’s session-long, crude-inspired drag effect.” Well, I’m often inspired to be crude, but I never have trouble hurdling the flat line, even after lunch.
I do feel sorry for people that need to think of something to write every half hour every day.
Sixty and sunny here. I’m enjoying everybody’s snow pictures.
Ha! I spotted your diary this morning, and thought…this person seems quite familiar! Welcome to the FBC, growthrate!
I just opened up the lounge…if anyone wants to head over, it’s waiting….