What I’ve been up to…

It seems as if I’ve been starting a lot of posts by apologizing that I haven’t been here for a while. And here it is over two weeks since the last post. *sigh* Honestly? I’ve been soaking up life (with a good dash of sunshine) lately, taking a small break from working on Anywhere as my betas and editor go at it. Apparently I’ve also been taking an unintended blog break.

So. This is what I’ve been up to:
:: I made these amazing cocoa brownies a couple of weeks ago as a fail-safe in case the other sweet treat I made didn’t work out. It did, so I got to eat these all by myself share them with Steve. I sprinkled toffee bits and mini chocolate chips on top before baking.

Oh. My. God.

I HIGHLY recommend. You know, if you happen to appreciate fudgy chocolatey brownies. (Oh! I do! I do! I do!) I’m resisting making them again this week (at least, I resisted TODAY, can’t say what tomorrow will bring) because I ate the last one out of the freezer last night. (Don’t tell Steve.) I used to make brownies with unsweetend baker’s chocolate and I have a kick-ass recipe thanks to my mother-in-law…but the last time I went to pick some up, I discovered they’re selling them in smaller packages (fewer squares/ounces) AND raised the price. O_o  So I went in search of a good cocoa recipe and found a FANTASTIC one instead. Me, for the win!

:: I’ve started making dill pickles and dilly beans. I did this last year for the first time and while one batch of beans turned out with AMAZING flavor (though not as crisp as I’d like), I did the next (and, unfortunately, larger) batch a little differently, and all the beans and pickles ended up the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of crisp. Which is a BIG disappointment when you have twelve jars of them. But the beans were the consistency of canned green beans, and the pickles were pretty close to the same. Great taste, but not even a hint of crisp. (They all just got dumped in the compost pile today to empty out the jars for this year’s attempt.)

I’ve got HIGH hopes for these babies…

So I have a different plan this year, and have all my fingers and toes crossed that things will be delicious AND crispy. I got started on this because a friend brought over a jar of dilly beans she’d made and I COULD NOT STOP EATING THEM THEY WERE SO DELICIOUS. So I had to make them the next year because I needed MORE. Very excited! Very optimistic that they’ll turn out better this year.

:: I’m growing tomatoes and pepper plants that are the healthiest-looking plants I’ve ever grown and that excites me much more than I should probably admit. :-)

I tried to garden the first few years we lived in this house, but the spot I’d chosen (which was really the best place in terms of space in the yard) didn’t get enough sun, so my plants were always weak and spindly, not producing much. This year, after many years hiatus, we said “Let’s grow tomatoes and peppers in buckets!” And we went out, bought the plants, and then realized we’d have to drill holes in the bottoms of the buckets to make that work. Of course, we didn’t want to drill holes in all of our buckets, so I ended up ripping out a bunch of ground cover at the one end of our house that gets tons of sun and planting them there. Right next to the azaleas, looking absolutely ridiculous. But seriously? Who cares? They are big, beautiful and healthy.

And we are all enjoying watching them grow (I swear they’re bigger every day), anxious for the gift of their sweet bounty.

:: Book-relatedly, I’ve hired a cover designer (the ridiculously talented Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations and I’m so excited about that I can’t even tell you!) so I don’t have to stress over the cover (which is exactly what I would have been doing these past couple of weeks since the book left my hands). It’s a HUGE relief…I mean, I liked designing the Intangible series covers, but it’s STRESSFUL and I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m thrilled to have someone who DOES know what she’s doing handling this book cover.

:: I’ve been polishing up the blurb for Anywhere and will share it with you at the end of the week. :-)

What have you been up to lately?