Welcome to New England!!! No More Snow!!!

I would love to share some photos of beautiful White Sands but, unfortunately, I can't seem to do that. I'm not sure why ... I was able to do it before my little hiatus ... so, I am a bit puzzled as to why I am unable to post images now. Well, I hope you have a great imagination ... unless, of course, you've already had the opportunity to travel here and there. Here we go, then ...

WELCOME TO NEW ENGLAND!!! You would think that for those of us who were born and raised in New England we would be used to all of its' weather wonders by now. Well, we are ... sort of ... but, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in a climate that is temperate year round and doesn't have to deal with the colder weather like ours or, rather, rarely deals with the likes of our colder weather -- that is, mountains and mountains of SNOW!! Some people just love the snowy weather while others hightail it off to sunny Florida to get out of the blast of cold and tedious shoveling. NO MORE SNOW!!!

I hear that San Diego, California has temperatures that are always near or in the low to mid 70's. I don't know how true that is, since I really don't know anyone from that part of the West Coast.

Also, there are warm climates in parts of New Mexico. Speaking of New Mexico, I had the opportunity to spend a long weekend in Las Cruces (The Crosses) around 1989 because my hubby was on a temporary assignment at the White Sands Missile Range. I 'loved' the parts of New Mexico that I was fortunate enough to visit and often think that it might not be so bad living in that part of the Southwest. In Las Cruces it was like being on Cape Cod (in Massachusetts) during the summer months. People walking around in shirt sleeves and enjoying the warm, inviting sun, and just biding their time -- never so much as in a great hurry to get to anywhere in particular. However, we would travel 10 miles north out of Las Cruces -- near Alamogordo and/or Sunspot (or Sun Spot?) -- and it reminded me of being in Vermont with its tall pine trees and cooler temperature -- but, not too cool -- and I was amazed at how different things looked in this Southwestern state.

I was there in late September/early October -- Septober? -- the climate was moderately warm and the people were easy going and laid back sort of folks. They were kind and polite and made you feel very welcome in their neck of the woods. In Las Cruces, it was interesting. You knew you were someplace different -- almost like being in another country -- at least, that's the way it appeared to me.

During that weekend, my hubby said that he was going to take me to see the White Sands National Monument. "Okay." I said while, at the same time, thinking to myself, why do I want to see some great, huge, concrete column sticking up out of the ground? As we were driving through the gate, onto the property, I was looking around and wondering where that monument was that he was talking about? Little did I know that the 'national monument' was staring me right in face ... affirmative! The 'White Sands National Monument' was the GORGEOUS WHITE SANDS surrounding this great, huge national park! I was in AWE at this bright white sight and the abundance of cacti and other greenery popping out here and there from amongst these mountains of sand. Hubby stopped the car and we got out to investigate these grains of pure, white, shimmering, rippled sand dunes.

I was wearing stockings but, not for long! They came off quickly and I ran through these grains of rippled sand that were just so breathtakingly beautiful and soft... soft... soft and COOL to the touch! The amazing thing that I learned was that this 'sand' was actually called Gypsum -- yes, the same ingredient that's found in drywall -- and that when the night winds blow, the mountains of sand change their shape and they are never the same as when they were seen the day before. For instance, foot prints, shapes drawn in the sand, the next day one would never know that anything was imprinted in the sands at all! We even saw people picnicing on the mounds of sand. My hubby is a camera aficionado and he enjoys taking pictures and, while we were there, he took a very cute picture of blankets, buckets, and spades that children had put down while off on their adventures in the dunes of sand!

This is one of the most beautiful memories in my mind and it's strange to imagine and see a giant beach with beautiful white, glimmering sands and no water ... who needs the water? What a beautiful beach, indeed!

Red Velvet Cake

Hello, again. The last time I wrote was Friday, November 23, 2007. To some, it would almost appear that I was so heartbroken by the loss of our little Phoebe that I opted not to write ever again. However, that is not the case and there is no point in relenting over the situation. Whenever I have the chance, which might not be on a daily basis, I will write a few words. So, then, let's start afresh ...

Red Velvet Cake

This fun and pretty cake has been around for decades and is always quite popular, especially around Valentine's Day or Christmastime. Some would liken it to a Devils Food Cake but it doesn't have a great amount of chocolate (in this case, cocoa) in it. As a matter of fact, there is very little cocoa in the recipe, but there is red food coloring to give it that "reddish" look.

There are all kinds of stories about the birth of this cake. Most of them are similar to the one that reveals the "famous Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie" -- I'm sure you know that one by now. However, the recipe that I have was given to me by a friend in the early 1970's and I was told that it was given to her by an aunt who had gone to a classy restaurant in New York City, where she was served this gorgeous red cake with fluffy whipped cream-like frosting. Well, there was no doubt about it ... auntie had to have the recipe! She summoned the chef and begged him to reveal his secret recipe. She was told that he would be happy to give her the recipe if she "promised" not to give it away. {Yeah, right!} Well, she did give it away to her niece, who, in turn, gave it to me. BIG SECRET ... shh ... shh!

Would you believe that for years, I guarded that recipe and would not give it away to anyone. Now I'm finding so many versions of the cake -- many are similar to the one I have and, depending on who is doing the writing, the ingredients and measurements can change. So, I guess there are several versions of this gorgeous cake and various frosting recipes, as well. Some of the cakes have a cream cheese frosting while others use a creamy vanilla frosting. So, what it comes down to is this -- make the cake and frosting recipe which best suits your taste!

I made one the weekend of February 10th because in our church, we have an annual potluck luncheon following our worship service. Anyone who brings an edible, must prepare it in the colors of red or pink (Valentine's colors) or in the shape of a heart. Of course, "yours truly" made a heart-shaped cake. The day was also the birthday of one of gals on the committee so I decided that making her a heart-shaped Red Velvet Cake would serve the purpose.

HOPE YOUR VALENTINE's DAY WAS HAPPY!