I LOVE Anything Ch
ocolate and Easy to make. For a quick dessert or treat for your favorite Valentine anytime of the year, try the Pioneer cook, Ree Drummond’s—
CHOCOLATE CAKE IN A MUG 
In a standard coffee mug, measure 3 T. each: flour, sugar, cocoa. Add ¼ t. baking powder and stir with a fork. ADD 3 T. milk and 3 T. vegetable oil and a splash of vanilla extract and a good handful of chocolate chips. Stir and microwave for 90 to 120 seconds. Top with ice cream or whipped cream, fruit or nuts as desired.
PUPPY LOVE SAGA from the Twilight Zone?
After the devastating death of our furbaby, Hannah, just 12 days before Christmas, I was heartbroken. My daughter manages the local Humane Society and regularly takes in dogs from a state that euthanizes about 200 dogs a day. Within minutes after
our Hannah took her last breath, my daughter was called about a
white Schnauzer in a high kill impound in Texas. We both thought of the recent movie,
“A Dog’s Purpose.”
A month later, after being driven over a thousand miles with several other caged dogs, we adopted that very frightened little 6 yr. old Schnauzer. Tessa was used as a breeder dog. At first we thought she was expecting, but it turned out she had a hernia that was fixed when she was spayed a week later. She still trembles when scared, cold, or she needs to do her duty outside. She has designated the sofa as her “safe spot” and sleeps or naps lightly 22 hours a day. She eats well when I bring her food to the safe spot, and is still learning how to climb steps—to scoot inside after being carried out to a snowy yard. She cuddles with me OR a new stuffed Anxiety Pup with a beating heart. But she has yet to respond to her name or check out her new home beyond the sofa, and has yet to bark or make
ANY noise.
Does PTSD exist in dogs? Hmm. The kind of life a breeder dog has will be added to my list of novel research worth investigating.
Stay tuned.
WIN A PUPPY LOVE CHALLENGE!! Paul Anka was first
to sing a hit song
(while dating young Annette Funicello in 1960), Donny Osmond recorded the song a decade later, and ten years ago, Celtic Thunder recorded it once more. But what famous American songbird actually
WROTE the song when SHE was barely a teenager?
FIRST few readers to email me the correct answer wins an Ecopy of my novella, “Hot Stuff”—A Candy Heart romantic comedy between a cop, a crime and a klutz in small town, Menomonee Falls, Wis.
CROWNED READER BIOS return next month! I've noticed how many AVID readers are also multi-taskers who manage a family or education, work, volunteer, and STILL make time to READ several books a month or year? It’s heartening to know relaxing with a good book is giving "some competition" to social media. Reading for me is armchair time travel—a great way to re-focus when life sometimes needs a “break in perspective.”
Reading by the fireside--with a mug of hot chocolate, a plate of Snickerdoodles, and a new lap dog helps re-focus when weather temps break records at -27 degrees below zero!! Gotta love MN Tropics--Home of blonde hair and blue ears! Cj
