Well.. Here's to Best Friends

It's Monday evening.  A very exciting Monday evening IF you are an Antiques Roadshow watcher like me.  This evening's shot is called Jackpot!  I just know, and hope, that the most expensive item ever to hit the Roadshow is going to be on there... I just know it.  On the downside, my other favorite show and Shaun's, Dancing with the Stars also begins tonight and they are both aired at the same time.  Boy.. these networks really know how to torcher a gal! 

I have already made chili.  But not just any chili.  Chili made with a fantastic mix made by friends of ours at Tennessee Hills.  It is a Black Bean Chili Mix which only requires the maker to brown one pound of meat and have water and two cans of tomatoes on hand.  The first time I made this chili I knew I had to have more.  I made it with ground venison and tomatoes canned fresh from our garden.  You absolutely cannot beat it.  It has dehydrated black beans for crying out loud!  That part really stumped me until I could ask J.T. how all that happened at the Dove hunt.  You can find them at http://www.sulfurforkstation.com/  or give me a hollar and I'll put your order in for you and make sure you getcha some girl!

Luckily I was the "Good Girl" at work today which means I got to leave at 1:00.  So I went to the library where I checked out seven new books, three of which are Christmas books because I am pouring over what I am decorating my Christmas Tree with this year.  I'll let you in on a little secret.. it is going to have a Bird theme.  Saturday I collected eighteen feather from a woods and creek walk on our farm.  That was a good haul!  I did however have to finally return a book that I have had a hard time letting go of.  It's so good I found one on Amazon and sent it to my darling sister Marty who promptly ordered it for me for my birthday.  As I was giving the cover of the book a soft goodbye pat I made my mind up to take my sister up on her offer of an early birthday gift.  I called her and popped by to get my very own copy of the 1974 book A Naturalist's Guide to Cooking with Wild Plants by Connie & Arnold Krochmal.  Remember the May Pops story?  Did I tell the May Pops story here?  If not I will another time.  Point made it was simply fate that brought this book to me... sniff, sniff.

After  I picked my fabulous new, perfect condition, with dust jacket in tact, book I headed to have my fifth round of fertility acupuncture.  No it doesn't hurt and if you want me to tell more about that... well just let me know.  I don't normally get that personal here but I know there are more people that have and could benefit from this.  I will say that it sure is waking up my thirty seven year old reproductive system... I know that much. 

With the smell of County Fair Cake battling Black Bean chili in my kitchen I have forty one minutes to eat and get situated, remote in hand, to flip back and forth for an hour between two awesome shows.

Good Night and Good Luck!
Laurie