Dragon's Orchid Garden

Hershey's Special Dark makes a superior s'more.  The new fire pit works great.  We spent hours last night talking, imbibing and making s'mores with our neighbors, Rick & Melinda.  In case you've never made s'mores, roast a couple of marshmallows to your preferred level of doneness.  We used some bamboo sticks cut to a point and soaked in water so they wouldn't catch on fire easily.  Take two halves of graham crackers and place a generous piece of dark chocolate on one.  For a special treat, use peanut butter to glue the chocolate onto the graham.  Smash the roasted marshmallow on top with the other graham cracker.  Enjoy. We're going to do it all over again tonight.  The weather is calm and warm.  Happy New Year to you and yours. fire good. xmas tree parts make it sizzle.

Shopping list: marshmallows (chocolate ones, too) hershey bars graham crackers There's nothing like a toasty fire on a cold Florida New Year's Eve.  Thanks, Dave and Kim, for the fire pit.  Purchased at Home Depot , this fire pit comes with a pivoting ceramic grill (not pictured).  We'll post pictures of the first good blaze.

From Blogger Pictures Things have been a bit hectic of late, what with baking and knitting and putting up the holiday bling.  I haven't had time to check in here.  I will have a new bookmark design up after the holiday.  In the meantime, here are pictures of what we've been doing around the homestead. From Blogger Pictures From Blogger Pictures I found these beautiful little boxes at Pier1 .  They're a perfect size for a gently rolled up bookmark. From knitting This fun dish or wash cloth is from KrisKnits . From knitting I baked six loaves of Zucchini Bread and six loaves of Cranberry Orange Nut Bread as well as dozens of Pistachio Pecan Cookies  this weekend.  The breads are from Beard On Bread  by James Beard.  They are delicious and make the house smell fantastic.