Purple Haze

Flaurella has headed south to get her head screwed back on and be pampered in some hotel. I am in control now, people! Whoo-HOO! I know her passwords and I suspect she is too cheap to pay $15 a day for wireless internet access at the hotel so I have free reign to do as I please. She won't even know. Bwahaha!

A housesitter here has certain perks. In the fridge I found a cute wheel of white Stilton with blueberries. YUM! White Stilton is often mixed with dried fruits and it's mild and creamy and doesn't have the blue veins of regular Stilton that makes English Stilton taste much like bleu cheese. Flaurella has Blueberry Stilton in her fridge. This stuff is seriously delish!



I am eating this lovely cheese with some Carr's water wafers as I sit beneath the wisteria that hangs off the fence around the pool. (That Flaurella must drink like a fish.) The liquor cabinet is extensive but alas, no Port. (So much for class.) Flaurella would say it is too hot to work outside so I am not going to do a thing but nibble cheese and sip the icy grape vodka I found in the freezer.



Anyway, it is warm and lovely here today but the pool needs scooped. They don't seriously expect moi to do that, do they? All of these blueberries, grapes and wisteria puts me in a giddy lavender-purpley mood. I wonder if she has any dried lavender or bath salts?

Until next time - if I don't get caught.
...

The Way We Were

Thank you all for noticing that Flaurella hasn't been here lately. I know for a fact that she appreciates your emails and phone calls and gifts, yessiree, especially the gifts.

Flaurella has been dealing with some health issues of the third kind. Even when Ms. Chickie is free from the influence of the others, it seems lately she's dealing with pollen allergies or food poisoning or a virus. It's always something with that broad. I think she likes it in her own little world where the E.T's float around and the voices do not allow her to blog. I insisted she go to the doctor today but so far, she hasn't budged out of that leather chair of hers.

Now, I don't think she's in danger of buying new Nike's, a purple cape and trying hitch a ride on the Hale-Bopp but The Flaurella is seriously stressed and it is affecting her health. So, here I am, stepping in to fill the gap until her next shipment of Acai Berries arrives from the Amazon. I'll try to keep you posted as time permits and forward any messages or photos as deigned by Her Grumpiness.

In the meantime, today, I am here to wish Flaurella a Happy Two Year Blog Anniversary. Frankly, not only did she look and act a lot younger two years ago when she started this thing, she seemed far more mentally competent to yours truly. But, what do I know? I am only the messenger who promised to help out for a while.

Happy Blogiversary, Flaurella.
You used to rock.
Snap Outta it!

Pickle Ballerina

This is Pickle Ballerina.



She is Tucker's favorite toy.

He goes nutzoid, totally frenzied when I waggle her shapely, pale pinkish ballerina legs in his face. She has a green cotton body and a pale pink nylon tutu and she's about 10 inches long.

Nana gave Pickle Ballerina to Tucker's Uncle Bubba 16 years ago. Pickle Ballerina is one tough broad who has out-lived half of us.

I can tell Tuck to go get Pickle Ballerina and he will search for her for hours until he finds her. The Bubba was the same way.

Never doubt the power of Pickle Ballerina.

Kick Some Ice

I have a nasty cold.

I am grumpy.
I have been in a foul mood for the last week.

Every time W4D sees the Will Ferrell trailer for his new movie about ice skating and Will chants, "My hump, my hump, my lovely lady hump," W4D bursts out laughing.

I can't begin to tell you how irritating this is.

I am married to a closet Will Ferrell freak.

help me.

Adventures in Alcohol

We mixed ice cold French Ciroc snap frost grape vodka 3 to 1 with the Finlandia Wild Berries Fusion.



Two vodkas, pure and simple. I like the colors embedded in the glass in the bottoms of the bottles. Here is the blue Ciroc bottle bottom. This is the Finlanndia bottle butt.



Garnish with a ripe Florida strawberry. Cocktails are served.

CIROC

Last night W4D brought home some Ciroc. His buddy Fred, told him we'd love it. Fred is always right.


Red and green fruit on the kitchen island
shining through the bottle

Ciroc Vodka is distilled from snap frost grapes rather than grains or potatoes and it is delicate, smooth and ever so lightly vinnish. One sip of it and I knew it should be served icy cold without anything at all to diminish the crisp, ever so faint, grape essence. This is a vodka you should keep in the freezer. Since I couldn't wait that long for it to get cold, I shook a few jiggers over ice in the toonie shaker and served it straight up with cold seedless white grapes from the crisper.
Excellent!


Garnish with iced or frozen seedless grapes

Wine drinkers must try this lovely vodka. Ice cold and straight first, please. Never olives, nothing salty. Look at the pretty bottle. It has beautiful grape colored glass at the bottom.


Grape Glass

Tonight, I am going to mix it with a little Wild Berry Fusion vodka from Finland. I'll let you know how that goes. Wish I had some Blueberry Stoli but there's always next week. Besides, I am still on an Absolute Pear kick.

So many vodkas, only seven cocktail hours per week.
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Need a Vacation

I really and truly hate Mondays.


Pic of azalea by the back door

Naked Woman Serving Shrimp

Shrimp cocktail in vintage icer.

I have a lot of old-fashioned serving items and implements. This is a shrimp icer. You fill the stemmed bowl with crushed ice and then set in the crystal sauce holder, fill it with cocktail sauce (I like a lot of horseradish in mine) and then hang the shrimp on the rim so it will keep the sauce and shimp icy cold.

I always crave shrimp in the spring, and come to think -- all year long. I could live on a diet of just seafood but I digress. Once in a while, it is nice to serve shrimp in pretty icers like this one with the iridescent glaze. I had a set of 8 of these and back when I used to fuss over my cooking, I would tint the crushed ice pastel colors. Nowadays, I am lazy, or tired or too busy. For this serving, I just added some chopped celery leaves to the ice in the bottom.

I did add a couple of camellias (yes, they are still blooming) to the service plate and some cold asparagus glazed in vinaigrette. I also took the olive out of my martini and put it there intending to eat it later.

By the way, shrimp icers make good caviar servers, too. Email me for my shipping address in case you want to send me some Osetra or illegal Beluga. Did you know that you cannot import Beluga into the USA any more? That's okay. I'll settle for any kind you want to send.

The most popular search pharse on Flaurella is "Naked Women Cooking Fish." I wonder if any of them are interested in a naked woman serving shrimp?
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