Saturday, February 23, 2013

MY YOUTUBE FAMILY

Now aren't I lucky to have such friends who are artists and also have excellent taste in yummy food?  I will write later about the crafting site I have joined. It is just fascinating that you can have a hobby, any hobby, go on YouTube and find hundreds of others who love the same thing.  You can share your work, learn from tutorials, and make friends. 

Yes, silly as it sounds, friends can be made thru the Internet. We share our craft, it is true, but we also share our lives, our dreams, our families and even our hurts and sorrows.  With so much in common to begin with, it is easy to understand how close we can get. This is different than neighbors or PTA groups, for most of us have never met each other. And, unlike over the back fence relationships, we come from all over the world. I have friends in the Ukraine, Australia, South Africa, Nova Scotia and the UK. I could go on and on, but you understand.

Some videos are not related to our craft, but could be something as wonderful as a walk to the store, in a small town in the Ukraine, a beautiful view of some mountains in South Africa, a weekend mini vacation in the UK to a beautiful home town and Cambridge. That was outstanding, she took a river tour of Cambridge, and we all got to join her thru the video. 

I am also thankful,  for the friends here in the US, we had better views of the winter storms on the East Coast than the TV news had. I got to watch a little alligator playing in the yard of a Florida friend. Share the canning experience with a friend in Ohio and hear tales of her first deer hunting experience.

It is no wonder I just take care of email, check Facebook and make any comments I want and hurry away to YouTube to visit all my friends.

I am blown away by the talent of these friends, most of whom, have had no formal training in their chosen type of art.  This can range from photography, scrapbooking, card making, mixed media, water color, sewing, knitting and crocheting and cooking.  I just know I have missed some areas where my friends excel, but think you see the picture.  Many pieces of art, if they had the inclination, could be sold for 3 figures.  But, most have home, family and maybe a small store on Ebay, Zibbet or Etsy.  What they miss in having their work on exhibition in a gallery, they gain in doing all the things they love and sharing it with family and friends.

And, I am all the better for these friends!

Hope this post finds you all happy and healthy,

Barb aka Tilly



Join me at

My store: http:// www.zibbet.com/tillysbridge


or YouTube: hisblp





BETTER LATE THAN NEVER


I promised, several days ago to post the recipes from Creating the Crafty Life Recipe Swap.  Here it is Saturday the 23 of February, and I am just getting the deed done.

Beside, being beautiful cards, the recipes are delish!!  The first is:

                                        Romantic Lemon Cheesecake Pancakes for 2 
                                                         From CraftnCorry

8 oz cream cheese, softened                               2 t. butter, melted-divided
2 eggs, beaten                                                    confectioners' sugar for dusting
5 t. all-purpose flour                                          1 t. lemon juice
1 1/2 t white sugar                                             1/2 lemon, cut into wedges

Beat the cream cheese together with the eggs in a bowl until the mixture is almost smooth.  Stir in the flour, sugar, and 1 tsp. of melted butter to make a batter.  Heat the remaining 1 tsp. of butter on a griddle or a heavy frying pan over medium heat.  Drop the batter into the griddle in silver dollar sized dollops, cook until lightly golden brown, about 3 minuted.  Turn the pancakes over and cook and additional 2 minutes. 
To serve, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and drizzle with lemon juice.  Serve with lemon wedges


                                                 1 Million Dollar Bar
                                                    Made by Randi


32 caramels                                                     1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup butter melted                                     3/4 cup brown sugar packed
1 cup flour                                                       1 cup rolled oats
1 t. baking soda                                                6 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips

Combine caramels and cream in a small sauce pan over low heat, stir until completely smooth, set aside.  In a separate bowl combine melter butter, brown sugar, flour, oats and baking soda.  Put half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of an 8x8 pan.  Bake at 350 for 10 min.
Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust.  Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips.  Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramels.  Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 min., until the edges are lightly brown.  Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.  Maybe put into the fridge for a few min.  Store in a container at room temperature.  (You man double recipe in a 9x13 pan)



                                                  Molten Lava Cakes
                                           Johnna, youtube: sdcowgirl


2 sticks unsalted butter, plus more for                12 ozs. semisweet chocolate, chopped
for the ramekins                                                 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, plus
4 t. granulated sugar                                          more for dusting
1/2 t. ground cinnamon                                      1 c all-purpose flour
Pinch of cayenne pepper                                     6 large eggs plus 6 egg yolks
pinch of nutmeg                                                 1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
                                            1/4 t, almond extract 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Butter 8, 6 oz ramekins and sprinkle each with 1/2 t. granulated sugar.  Combine the butter, cinnamon, cayenne, nutmeg and chocolate in a saucepan, over low heat, stirring frequently.  Do this until melted and smooth.  Cool slightly.  Whisk the flour, confectioner's sugar, eggs and yokes, vanilla and almond extracts in a bowl until creamy.  Whisk in the melted chocolate mixture.  Divide among the prepared ramekins.  Bake the cakes until the tops are stiff and edges darken, 12 to 14 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool 5 mins.  Loosen the edges of the cakes with a small paring knife and transfer to plates while warm.  Dust with confectioners' sugar



                                                       Chocolate Dipped Bing Cherries
                                                 YouTube: CraftyJo106


1 c. white sugar                                              24 Bing Cherries with stems
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract                                    8oz. semi sweet chocolate, chopped

1.  Pour the sugar into a shallow dish, Drop two drops of Vanilla at a time into dish in 24 separate places to form lumps of vanilla sugar, allow to harden
2.  Pit cherries from the bottom.
3.  when the lumps or sugar hardened, insert into cherries where the pits were.  Melt chocolate in the microwave stirring every 20 seconds until melted.
4.  Hold cherries by the stems and dip into chocolate leaving the very tops uncovered.  Set on wax paper to dry.  Refrigerate over night to allow the sugar lumps to dissolve.



Tuesday, February 5, 2013

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BOER WAR?

Just how much do you know about the Boer War?  I believe I was napping when this history lesson was discussed.  It really was a shame, because my Grandfather (father's father) was a part of the Boer War.

I never met my Grandfather, Vincent Cerny, he died before I was born.  The largest reminder of him is a photograph of him that hung at Grandma's.  He was in uniform and when I would ask, was told it was taken when he was in the British army fighting in the Boer War.

Now, in my mind, I saw him and the British army, in Africia, fighting large pigs with tusks.  I really never new what this was about till in my 30's when I read :
 
 
Just how, as a child, was I to know it was between the Dutch and English, in Africia?
 
Now how did this happen, you say?  A young Bohemian man, from the US ending up in the British army, in Africia, seems like a tall tail.  Well, the tall tail comes before, and started with a young man off to make his fortune.  Traveled to South Africia and worked as a manager of miners, in the diamond mines.  And, the managers must have been much hated by the miners, probably many under paid and over worked in awful conditions.  Grandpa was the 'inbetweener' inbetween the rich mine owners and the poor miners.  At one point he was attacked and made it out alive, but decided this was not his best option for making it rich.  He was paid with a little bag of diamonds and was off to make a change.
 
Now just how much more happened, I will never know, because all of Daddy's family is gone, so I will get to the end of the story.
 
He met another American and between the 2 of them, they bought and ran a restaurant.  I believe this was a more prosperous venture.  But the Cerny luck, which continues today in myself, was present, when the whole area was swept by cholera.  Grandpa's partner was a casuality of the disease and the restaurant closed.
 
If you can imagine the US and the many states, with no problem going from state to state or driving thru many states unincombered.  Now, imagine the country of Africia and the little 'states' are really not states, but each a seperate country, got the picture?
 
Yes, Grandpa was driving from one place to another, that took him from one country to another country.  He was stopped and arrested for entering a country without the proper papers.  At this point, he contacted his brother, my Uncle John, who then contacted the US embassy, which in turn contacted the British embassy and, after a little dealing, was offered his freedom from prison.  But, only, if he would agree to serve one year in the British army. 
 
Thus, his story of ending up in the British army fighting the Dutch, in Africia.  Isn't he a handsome fellow?  Needless to say, I am grateful he made it thru and home where he met and married Barbara and started his own insurance business, raised 3 children, the youngest being my father.   Wish I had, had the opportunity to meet him.