Living in Long Beach

Whew! What a crazy month it has been. Sorry that I haven't posted but did I mention that it has been C R A Z Y ?!?!!  Unfortunately, I missed one day of my 365 Project and didn't take a picture. However, this was the day that the cats and I moved from the west coast from the east coast. So to me, it is fitting that this day is blank. Now this day really stands out on the calendar that is my daily life in pictures. I'll always remember THE DAY. I am hoping to get into a semi-routine shortly and start blogging again to catch everyone up with my life. And I have another cookbook challenge entry to post about that Karen picked. I'll give you a hint...it is gelatinous...

Here are my pictures for December. I still haven’t missed a day but some of the pictures aren’t great. I definitely need a new camera. If you have no idea what my 365 project is, then you can read about it here in my original post.

My cousin Scott (aka Ford) came down to Long Beach to spend Christmas with me. As soon as it got dark, we made the trek to Naples (it’s about a mile from me) to see all the holiday lights by the canals. As usual, some of the homes went all out with a crazy amount of lights. Many homes had several decorated trees. I forgot my tripod and just took very quick pictures as we walked by the homes. However, there are a few that turned out okay so I thought I’d share them with you…    Although this one was very pretty, it reminds me of a display window for a shop.  This one had lots of fake snow in their display. I guess that’s the closest thing to snow that  Long Beach will ever see!!   This one had several disco balls and disco Christmas music   playing and a bubble machine. Steve Rubell would be so proud. Of course, there were lots of animals. Pictured above are some polar bears (that remind me of the coca ...

I love collecting and reading old cookbooks. So last month I created a challenge for myself to make one recipe a month for a year from old cookbooks. You can read my original post here . I also said that if anyone wanted to send me an old cookbook, then they could chose the recipe for me to make. Well, a few days after that post I received a cookbook in the mail from my aunt. Here she is with me and my cousin (her son) on a vacation we took to Savannah, GA in the 70’s. The book she sent is the ABC of Gourmet Cooking that she got as a present from a close family friend back in 1963. The book is copyrighted in 1956. She selected the Quiche Lorraine recipe for me to make. She says she has made it (and many variations of it) many, many times throughout the years. (Click on picture to bigify it.) I was very pleased that she picked a recipe with few ingredients and that looked relatively easy. Plus, I have never made a quiche before! But before I get to the quiche, I’d like to...

If you haven’t noticed, I have a link to My 365 Project to the left. I will be taking one picture a day, every day, for 365 days.  I try to post the picture the same day but sometimes it gets posted later. However, I do take a picture every day. Some days it is hard to squeeze in a picture and others it is so hard to chose only one. I am trying to pick subjects that are not covered in my blog. Each day is like a short online diary entry but with a picture. My life is in such flux right now and I don’t even know where I’ll be in a month. I hope this project will be a nice way for me to really appreciate each day and to look back at where I’ve been.  So, here’s the link to November’s pictures . When you get there, you can look at each picture individually if you want (or not). Most of them come with a description as well. Note that I started on November 4th so it’s not a complete month but I did not miss any days.