Saturday Vittles: Christmas Sweets

 

Last month I made this Cinnamon cake. It has a cinnamon streusel topping. 

My grandson loved the cinnamon cake. It has a center of cinnamon sugar as well as the streusel topping. 

To Make Cinnamon Cake: 

INGREDIENTS

CAKE

1 stick butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 cups flour-sifted

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

1tsp. cinnamon

1tsp. pumpkin pie spice

FILLING

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp. nutmeg

TOPPING

5 tablespoon butter, softened

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In the bowl cream together the butter and sugar, scraping down the sides occasionally. Add the vanilla, egg, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon, mix in.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add one half of it to the mixer, and when mostly combined, add the milk. Once the milk is mostly incorporated, add the rest of the flour.

To make filling: in a small bowl, pinch together all of the ingredients until soft crumbs form.

To make topping: add the butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon to a food processor and pulse until coarse crumbs form or you can mix it by hand which is what I did.

Grease a 8x8 baking pan. Pour in ½ of cake batter, spread to all four corners. Sprinkle the filling over top, then pour in remaining cake batter, and spread carefully across the top, disturbing the filling layer as little as possible.

Sprinkle the topping over the top. If you want less of the topping, just use less of it. I love cinnamon so I used it all.

Bake in preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

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This month I made Chocolate Chip Cookies

You will need: 

 Chocolate Chip Cookies

 1/2 cup (room temperature) butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 cups (1 bag) Dark Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix wet ingredients together in a medium bowl. Sift dry ingredients together, then add to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chips. Put mixture in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.  Drop by rounded spoon full onto greased cookie sheets. 

 Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

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I also made some pumpkin Bread. This is Libbys Pumpkin Bread recipe. My mom used to use this recipe to make all of us pumpkin bread each year and I loved it. 

Ingredients

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon Nutmeg

2 Eggs

16 ounces Libby's Pure Pumpkin

14 ounces Evaporated Milk

¾ cup Brown Sugar -packed

4 cups Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

1 cup Oil

What to do:

 Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices. Add in sugar and mix until well combined.

 Mix the dry mixture with the oil and pumpkin. Stir until well incorporated.

 Add eggs one at a time, blending thoroughly until you achieve a thick batter.

Grease or align a parchment paper on a 9 ½ inch baking pan and pour in your bread mixture.

Bake at 350F on a preheated oven for about 1 hour. Insert a toothpick at the center and if it comes out clean the bread is ready.

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Are you doing any Christmas baking this month?

Christmas Decorations

 

The Christmas tree is up.

The corner shelf is decorated.

My daughter even put some lights and garland on my fake plant. lol 

Another shelf.

Some stockings.

I made a bunch of these snowmen years ago. 

Stockings.

Snowmen

I painted this Christmas tree on this candy jar a few years ago. 

Some things on the living room shelf.

The living room shelf is packed

Santa and an Angel are on the cabinet

A small Christmas village on my computer shelf.

The living room.

Living room

Some garland over the hallway.

I made these Christmas trees out of terracotta pots, pinecones and painted them. Glued some beads on them. 

Tope shelf of corner shelf.

Puppies in baskets.

My daughter and I made these angels years ago. 

Salt and Pepper shakers.

My daughter made this wreath for the door.

The window.

Close up of some of the things in the window.

Living room table.

Book Review: Psy by Cara Bristol

 

Book Description

Can an alien mind reader free her from a prison of silence?

Cassie Steward has not spoken a word. Ever. A congenital defect robbed her of the ability to speak. Craving independence from her overprotective, well-meaning mother, she gets a job at the antique store in their small town. Then she meets Psy, an alien with telepathic abilities. From the moment his mind touches hers, the universe seems within her grasp, and she envisions fulfilling all her dreams with Psy at her side.

Soon after encountering the beautiful, shy Cassie, Psy realizes she’s his genmate. It doesn’t matter she can’t talk—he loves her as she is. But as their telepathic connection deepens, he begins to suspect her inability to speak is more than a congenital happenstance. Something far more sinister appears to be keeping her a virtual prisoner.

He’s certain his psychic powers can unlock the secrets in Cassie’s mind.

But will revealing the truth liberate her…or destroy their love?

My Review

Cassie works in an antique store, she loves her boss who is so understanding about her disability. Cassie can't speak. Her mother is incredibly over protective, and has guardianship of her so she really has no free will to get on with her own life. 

Psy and his other alien friends landed on Earth when their space ship crash landed on Earth after their world was destroyed by bad aliens. They try to blend in so that the bad aliens never find out they survived, because they would come after them and kill them if they knew. Psy has telepathic abilities so he can speak to Cassie and she has telepathically speak to him. Soon enough Psy realizes that Cassie is his genmate, meaning she is his perfect match and mate. 

While they are getting to know one another, Psy and his friends do some digging into Cassie's life and realize that there are things about her and her mother that she doesn't know. This throws some drama into the story but it was interesting to see Cassie get some of the answers that she didn't know she needed. 

I thought I knew where this story was headed but I was wrong. There are a couple of great twists that kept me guessing along the way. The ending brought tears to my eyes, it was so sweet. I'm so glad that Cassie got the answers she needed and a happy ending. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

It's been so cloudy and sometimes rainy here lately. I love this type of weather. 

When I walked next door to get a few groceries this week it hadn't rained yet that day. But it looked like it might, you just never know. And that's not the sound wall, that's the off ramp to the freeway you see there. 

It did rain a little while after I got home.

And then it got dark.

The rain came down pretty good for a while when these clouds got to us. I was in the grocery store parking lot when I took this one. 

No rain this day but lots of clouds.

It's neat to see the bright blue sky behind the dark clouds.

You'd think we would get rain from these but nope.

Just lots of dark clouds, no rain.

I would love it if it stayed dark, cloudy and cooler like this most of the time.

Some low clouds.

Book Review: Of Thorns and Ice by Kenzie Skye

 

Book Description

Every year, one girl from our village is chosen to be sacrificed to a demon. It’s a brutal tradition, one that ensures the rest of us are spared. This year, that girl is me.

Two demons rule this land—fire and ice. And my fate? It’s sealed with ice.

When the ice demon arrives to claim me, I’m ready to fight. To run. To do anything but submit. But he’s nothing like I expected. With his jet-black hair and piercing blue eyes, he’s more darkly mesmerizing than monstrous. And beneath his cold, unyielding exterior, I sense something... more.

If I can melt his icy defenses, maybe I’ll discover the truth behind the sacrifices—and the secret he’s hiding in his frozen chest. Because if he has a heart, it just might beat for me.

Warning: This story is frostbite-hot and packed with darkly possessive vibes. If you love a wickedly protective demon and a fiery heroine who brings him to his knees, this one’s for you. Read at your own risk!

My Review

Gwen is this year's virgin sacrifice to the demon. Each year a female is sacrificed to the demon is exchange for favors, but what are the favors? Who knows. The ice demon appears while Gwen is fighting the men holding her and takes her away.

Bastian and his brother were cursed a long time ago by the high priestess for some unknown reason. Both were put into their own hell prison and Bastions was an Ice prison. Each year they are required to accept a virgin sacrifice from the villagers, if they don't, they both get extremely sick and since they can't die, it would be eternal torment. 

Gwen is different right away because she talks to Bastion, and he starts to have feelings for her, something that's never happened to him before. Bastion tells Gwen everything, including what has happened to all the other sacrifices so she'll know. He tells her he'll do everything he can to save her from a same fate and they think that she might just be safe. But then the high priestess shows up and complicates things. 

This was a short, sweet novella. I liked how it ended and am looking forward to reading Bastion's brothers book now. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Everyone Has A Story, Here's One of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood and into adulthood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.

Uncle Popeye

Uncle Popeye's real name was Lee but for as long as I can remember we all called him Popeye. He was my grandpa's brother so not my direct uncle, but a great uncle. He was always around when I was a kid. My grandpa (moms dad) had 6 brothers and sisters, but Popeye was the closest to him, they hung out all the time even when my mom was little, she said he was around all the time. 

I've told you a lot of childhood stories, but this one is from when I was in my 30's. Uncle Popeye moved out to the desert with his nephew, Johnny and while I wrote to him pretty often, he stopped writing when Johnny passed away suddenly of a heart attack. I didn't realize it at the time that Johnny had been writing the letters when Uncle Popeye would dictate to him what to say because his eyesight wasn't very good anymore and he had a hard time writing because of it. His hearing was darn near gone so calling him became really difficult. At this time, he was 80 years old. The neighbor who lived down the road from him wrote to me trying to get a hold of my mom. So, I told my mom, and the neighbor told her he really couldn't take care of himself anymore. So, they made arrangements for him to come live with my mom. 

When he was settled with my mom, she took him to the doctor and got him hearing aids and a motorized wheelchair like she had. One night she called me after her and Uncle Popeye had ridden their motorized wheelchairs down the street to the grocery store to get his bacon, potatoes and eggs that he wanted to eat every day for breakfast. 

She was laughing hysterically when she told me that Uncle Popeye could not drive his motorized wheelchair at all. He kept running into the back of hers, slamming himself into the fence, hit a mailbox, bounced off a chain link fence when he was going too fast and all the while was cussing up a storm. My mom said she couldn't stop laughing as they drove down the street to the grocery store. She said it was like bumper cars.

Once in the store he was once again going too fast and took out a display of cookies that was piled pretty high. He ran into the back of a few carts and almost took out a guy who was walking down an aisle. My mom said she had to turn down the speed he was able to go so he could maneuver easier and not knock anything else over. 

While my mom was on the phone with me, Uncle Popeye asked her what they were having for dinner and she said steak. He heard, "Snake" and had a fit saying he was not eating snake! Even with the hearing aids his hearing wasn't great so she had to show him the pack of steaks before he would stop yelling about eating snake. 

I laughed so much on that phone call. 

He passed away in his sleep at my mom's house just a few years after he moved in with her. But I think they were both happy he was there for a while. 

This is me and Uncle Popeye in the back and my mom in the front. lol She liked to ham it up for the pictures.

Apartment Life #397

 

*Click on pictures to enlarge them*

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

The gate to the freeway that I told you about a while back now has a new lock and chain on it. So the gate is closed again for now. 

More address numbers fell off the building and are on the ground. 

This is not my address. There should be a few more numbers on the building but they're on the ground and I doubt these will be replaced either because none of the others have been, smh

There's a person sitting in front of the bicycle and he's bent over which is why it's hard to see him. I don't usually post the homeless people unless they've been doing something. This guy had been really high and walking up and down the street most of the day. I saw him several times and he kept walking in the middle of the road in front of cars. It was obvious he was really high on drugs. He finally crashed out and passed out right here for a couple of hours. The drug problem around here is so bad.

The police were back again to do a Welfare Check on my missing neighbor, Xavier. This time they talked to my other neighbor, and she told them the same thing I did a while back, that's he's been gone a month. She asked the police if they knew where he was and the told her no one seems to know where he is which is why they keep being called out to do a welfare check at his apartment. I wonder if it's a family member who keeps calling for a welfare check?

Over the weekend the homeless people broke into Xavier's apartment. They must have known it was empty because of all the eviction notices on the door. The back bedroom window was broke out and that's how they got it. Maintenance boarded up the bedroom window but the very next day me and 2 other neighbors saw the homeless people entering his apartment again somehow and so we all called the police. They came but just like all the other times, they could do nothing. They knocked on the door and since no one answered and the door was locked they said they couldn't break down the door, for us to call our apartment manager and let them know. I sent an email to my apartment manager and she wrote me back. She told me to call security if I see anything. LOL They didn't even come out and check the apartment! The apartment door was open and the homeless people kept coming and going.

I crossed out personal info. I shared the number for security with a bunch of neighbors in my courtyard so if we see anything we're calling them.

So Monday night I called the security number the manager sent me. They said they couldn't do anything because the manager never sent over a list of vacant apartments. So I emailed the manager again and right away she said she sent security a list of vacant apartments to call them if I see anything suspicious. So I called them back right away. The lady from security said that they were on the phone with the apartment manager and they were going to handle it. I said thanks. I thoughts that meant someone was going to come out and make sure no one was in Xavier's apartment. Guess not! No one ever showed up that night and I saw 2 homeless people walking out of Xavier's apartment at 7:30AM the next morning.

Saturday afternoon I saw two people going into that apartment and they had the air conditioner on so I called once more. Security actually came out and I talked to them. But there's no manager here to let them in and so they could do nothing and they left. Why does the apartment manager tell me to call them when they can do nothing?  

I'm not calling again. What's the point? The homeless people have been coming and going from his apartment for days. Not once had the manager or maintenance been to his apartment since I informed them that homeless were taking over his apartment. I give up. 

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Monday morning I got an email safety alert from the Nextdoor app. It said there was a shooting and then an active shooter in my area. Turns out it was less than a block from me. It was the apartment complex directly behind the Mariana's supermarket that I walk to next door. 

My daughter works in a store right next door to Mariana's and she was at work so I sent her a text.

Thankfully her boss took it seriously and they locked down the store. The police helicopter was flying over my neighborhood too so they heard that and knew something was happening. 

I was glad they took it seriously since her work is so close to what was going on.

That street was closed off. I kept getting alerts. 

And then a little while later I saw on the Nextdoor app the people who were there were updating what was going on and said the person surrendered. The police helicopter left so I told my daughter the guy was in custody and they opened the store back up. My daughter texted me a few minutes later when detectives walked in her store and asked her manager for the camera footage from behind their store because they have a camera pointed right where things were going down. 

Here's the link to the news report about it. 

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Wednesday morning I was about to take out Falcor and we heard the police helicopter hovering above us. When we got outside my daughter noticed smoke so we went to check it out. One of our dumpsters was on fire. 

The police helicopter.

Before I could get out my phone to call 911, I noticed the fire department already driving up our alley. 

I don't know who called in the fire but they got here pretty fast.

So we stood there and I got some pictures of them putting the fire out.

Then I noticed a police car coming up the walking path. he's on the left behind the wall.

The firefighter came over and asked us if we saw who did it. We had no idea. That's my daughter drinking coffee watching the drama unfold. LOL Too bad we didn't have popcorn.

They got it out pretty fast 

Dang guys, it's only Wednesday as I'm updating this post. Hopefully the rest of the week will be quiet. LOL 

Thanksgiving was quiet! I thought for sure there would be some drama but nope, all quiet.

The high this week was 63F/17C

The low this week was 46F/7C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.