New Traditions

It appears that, in addition to keeping alive the Christmas tradition of sausage cake, I have inadvertently begun a new tradition.

Both this year and last year, I had to run out and purchase an ingredient last-minute. Both years, it was a vital ingredient for the brown-sugar glaze (although it hasn’t been the same ingredient I was missing). Both years, I attempted to buy the ingredient at the Quik Mart just down the street, but was foiled and had to drive seven minutes to Kroger instead — for one singular ingredient.

Hopefully, I can maintain the tradition of the sausage cake not sucking.

Oh, and in case you aren’t privy to the joys of baking with meat, it’s apparently a Welsh recipe handed down through the Cook family. As far as our family recipe goes, I’m sworn to secrecy, but this one will give you an idea of what it’s all about. It tastes kind of like a heavy spice cake. With a thick glaze / candy coating of brown sugar, reminiscent of maple candies. Except made with brown sugar instead of maple syrup.

OMG, so good. Sausage cake IS Christmas to me.

Thoughts on Flickr

I had mentioned earlier that I wasn’t sure how often I would actually use Flickr, being that I have my own MO for posting pics.

Tonight, I discovered the Flickr Groups.

This is going to be a treasure trove of project ideas. I’ve joined groups like Nikon D50 Users, “I love my cat,” the Tips From The Top Floor podcast group, Night Images, Bowling Green OH, Toledo OH… and, finally, one for which I WON’T be using my D50 to take photos, “Camera Toss.”

If I ever run out of ideas for things to photograph, I need only pick a group, and I’m on my way.

Portraits of Christmas Past


Since Aaron and I moved in together and bought ourselves our very own plastic prelit Christmas tree, I decided to initiate a new tradition: Christmas family portraits. This year, with the arrival of the new Nikon D50 digital SLR (read: fancy camera), I decided it might be fun to look at the photos of our Christmases so far.

It’s interesting to see how we’ve changed, and how my craft has improved over the years.

I do have to mention, though, that one thing remains constant. After witnessing my mother trying to pose the two of us for portraits way back in ’97, I know that the basis of getting a good portrait with Aaron is making sure he is comfortable. Mom can pose portraits well — she worked for Olan Mills for 10 years or so, and continues to work in a portrait studio — but Aaron’s back doesn’t deal well with the kinds of sitting and twisting she requests sometimes. Make sure Aaron’s comfy, then fit me and the cat in the picture, and everything’s on it’s way to being good. 🙂

My Grandparents, May 2003

As promised, a photo of my grandparents at my wedding. I think they look pretty damn good for being 70-whatever years old.

Aaron and I, on the other hand, were 50 pounds overweight. Yeesh. Too bad the wedding photos had to be the “before” pictures.