Ivory-billed Woodpecker Found!

The story of the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to be extinct in the United States, is inspiring. Read about the expedition, along with the report in Science, at the website of the Cornell Ornithology Site. 

Another terrific bread pudding recipe!

Cinnamon-Encrusted Bread Pudding

1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 & 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 whole French bread loaf, 1/2 inch pieces
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl whisk together sugar, vanilla, eggs, cream and milk.

Arrange bread cubes in a well-buttered 10 inch round glass baking dish. Pour custard over bread, covering completely, and let stand 20 minutes.

Combine cinnamon and extra sugar; sprinkle evenly over the custard.

Place baking dish in a larger pan; add enough water to reach halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake 45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

NOTE: I baked this in a larger glass baking dish (to get greater area of crusty cinnamon topping) and I also just baked without putting in a larger dish of water (but I only needed to bake for 30 minutes). Came out HEAVENLY!

 

A Good Tale

(Photo above is of an endangered clouded leopard...)

Elderly dog story

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company.

One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that she's lost. Wandering about, she notices a leopard heading rapidly in her direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old poodle thinks, "Oh, oh! This is not a good situation I'm in..!" Noticing some bones on the ground close by, she immediately settles down to chew on the bones with her back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap, the old poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this, the young leopard screeches to a halt in his attack mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!", says the leopard, "That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!"

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard so off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.

The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!"

Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?", but instead of running, the dog sits down with her back to her attackers, pretending she hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says: "Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!"

Moral of this story.....Don't mess with the elderly...age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! 

Michael nearly 2 months old!

Here we have an updated photo of Michael W. Somerville, soon to be 2 months old! 

Bread Pudding

Yesterday we had our friends Paul & Sharon, and their kids Joshua & Hannah, over for dinner. We made roast lamb and potato & sweet potato casserole for the meal, with bread pudding as the dessert. Here is the recipe (definitely an improvement on the diet coke recipe....):

Easy Bread Pudding
INGREDIENTS:
• 6 slices day-old bread
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread. If desired, sprinkle with raisins.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

 

Recipe of the Day

Things you could not get me to eat, even if you put a gun to my head:

Ground Pork Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 lb Ground pork
1 c Lard
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 Eggs; well beaten
3 c Flour
2 ts Soda
1/2 ts cinnamon
1/2 c Peanut butter
1/2 c Nuts
1/2 c Orange rind; shredded

Brown ground pork; drain. Cream lard, white sugar, brown sugar and eggs. Add flour, soda, cinnamon. Blend in peanut butter, nuts and shredded orange rind. Stir in ground pork. Shape into small balls on greased cookie sheet. Press down with fork dipped in sugar. Bake at 350 for 10 min. Makes 5 doz. cookies. Keep refrigerated.

FROM THE HEART OF IOWA COOKBOOK, Lisa Crawley/Cedar Rapids  

Cats Recovered!

Well, it looks like the cats are recovering well after the snake incident... they have started sleeping and eating and being cute all over the house again (although there is some residual sniffing around where the snake was hanging out). And little Zamboni is even over his cold! 

Experimenting!

Well, last night we tried several experiments with the cats, who were still hiding out in the basement. First, we gave them a plastic snake to see what they'd do. They were very interested in it and immediately came down and batted it (as gromit is demonstrating). 

Angel is too dignified for this!

Angel, as you can see from this close-up, would not be dragged into any such shenanigans... 

Play-time!

Audubon, on the other hand, was very interested in playing with Mr. Plastic Snake. 

Devil-Eyes!

Darwin is particularly fond of his new plastic friend! Afterwards, I brought them all upstairs and they seemed more comfortable on the first floor (where the non-plastic snake was). BUT they still all slept in the basement... 

A Big Adventure

Well, we had been having a nice weekend on the Gold Coast, and we came back Sunday afternoon to a bit of an adventure. We had noticed on Friday night the cats had knocked over lots of stuff from shelves in the living room, but had not thought much about it. Then, we noticed MORE stuff knocked over when we came back on Sunday... AND they had not eaten any of their food (which is on the first floor)... AND they would not come up out of the basement, even for treats. And this photo shows why... we had a large-ish carpet python (non-venomous) snake curled up next to the power converter by the stereo.  

A 6 foot Carpet Python Called Phinneas

We were a little unsure how big the snake was (we thought about catching it ourselves) so we called the local city council, who put us in touch with the local snake removal service... and he came and quickly caught our 6+ foot python (who we named Phinneas, although we don't know if it was a girl or a boy). 

Wicked Cool!

Needless to say, I thought it was WICKED COOL that we had a snake in the living room... 

Phinneas Goes Outside

We took it outside, as the snake man said it would feel better out of the house. And Phinneas did seem to feel much more at ease in the sunshine... 

Quite the Placid Snake!

He was fine to let us hold him and touch him - he was a great snake! I think the snake man appreciated the fact that we were not hysterical, but seemed to really like the snake. He said he has removed bats, possums, monitor lizards, all sorts of bats, brush turkeys, and of course a lot of snakes, from people's houses. It is his full-time job... 

A Good-looking Snake

As you can see, Phinneas is quick the good-looking python... 

A Snake in the Bag

Unfortunately, after a few dozen photos, Phinneas had to say goodbye. The snake man planned to relocate him in a nice patch of rainforest up in the hills... AND, best of all, if we get another snake, the snake man says we have a life-time "frequent customer" discount!  

BYE-BYE PHINNEAS!

BYE-BYE PHINNEAS! Hopefully, when guests visit they will be treated to an exciting event such as this! (Get Tim's version of this tale on his blog.)  

Gold Coast Weekend

Today (Saturday) we are off to spend the weekend on the Gold Coast. We do this every couple of months, as a break. We're off to Surfer's Paradise this time, which should be good because it has the highest concentration of excellent restaurants... 

Overlooking the Beach

Here we are in our 16th floor room at the Marriot overlooking the beach at Surfer's Paradise. 

Nancy as a South Park character

Tim has found an amusing program which lets you create your own South Park characters. Here is Tim's creation of me - any suggestions for the name of my character? 

Joann as a South Park character

Here is Joann as a South Park character... again, suggestions for names? 

Craters of the Moon

It is good to be back home after being away - I love Rotorua but it is much more fun to travel when Tim is with me! Here we are on one of our very first trips to the geothermal areas around Rotorua in 1997. This place, one of our favorites, is called "Craters of the Moon." 

Long delay in Auckland airport....

Spent an entirely unfulfilling 5 hours at the Auckland airport waiting for my flight to finally leave for home. Cause of the delay? Faulty toilets on the plane (and in the end, only toilets on the right side of the plane worked...).