People are always making New Year's Resolutions. To make a resolution you need a plan.

How will you go about accomplishing the goal? What are your long range plans after (if) you accomplish the goal?

I make resolutions that I know I can keep.

Here they are along with how I plan to accomplish them.

1. Quit smoking

I don't smoke anyway so that should be easy.

2. Stop dieting.

self explanatory

3. Exercise more.

Getting out of bed counts.

4. Spend more money.

Why leave it for someone else to spend?

5. Volunteer

Not yourself but, your 38 year old son who lives in your basement and is out of work every three months but, finds the funds to buy beer.

6. Stop using credit cards.

An overdrawn checking account is just as good as an over-the-limit credit card.

7. Bury the hatchet on sour relationships.

Dig it back up and use it when things go sour again.

And there you have it. There's nothing wrong with making a resolution just as long as you have an idea as to how to make it work for you.

THAT'S IT***

Pear Cobbler

AFTER having pear cobbler at Gabriella's I decided to try my hand at it. Naturally I used a store bought frozen crust since I have never in my life even attempted to make a crust from scratch. I didn't expect my concoction to be as good as Gabriella's and it wasn't. But it was edible.
Here are the ingredients:
4 Bosc pears, cored, peeled, and cut in wedges (I used canned and cut them in chunks)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 lemon juiced
1/2 stick butter
1 store bought piecrustI followed the label directions for the pie crust and allowed it to cool while I made the filling.

DIRECTIONS: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all of the ingredients except the pie crust in a saute pan. Saute for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and pour cobbler mixture into medium ramekins. For topping, put pre-made piecrust over cobbler and bake in oven for 15 minutes.

THE REAL DEAL: I didn't have another crust to put on top so I made a crumbly Brown Betty type topping to put on top. As you can see, I also didn't use ramekins. I also didn't do any sauteing

Here it is before I put it in the oven.

Here's the finished product. Edible but not that great. First and last attempt.

THAT'S IT***

HALL OF TREES

Some photos removed 11-4-12

These are more pictures from last year's Nashville trip.

The Hall of Trees display was located inside the Gaylord Hotel. Each tree is sponsored by a business or celebrity. Silent bids are made on the trees and the person with the highest bid gets the prizes associated with the tree. The money from the trees goes to charity.

Click the photos for detailed views and captions.

The tree below was decorated by Special Olympics participants. They made the decorations.

St. Jude Hospital


Regal Cinemas featuring Madagascar.


Louise Mandrell. We also had tickets for a dinner and show that next night to see her perform.

  

Soldiers tree. The Soldiers Prayer is on the easel.

Animal Cruelty





The Rockettes were performing and we had tickets to see them that night. It was spectacular. The dancers have such precision. The costumes were so colorful. It kept my interest. Pure entertainment.

The "snow" on this tree would light up.

THAT'S IT***