Camy Tang's Blog, page 122

Becca’s Scarf

I usually knit a graduation gift for the girls graduating high school from my youth group, and one of them, Becca, asked for a chunky circular scarf. So I picked this neat Tanis Gray lace scarf pattern from Vogue Knitting and used Knitpicks.com Full Circle Bulky Yarn in Latte.











It’s a lot heavier than I expected it to be, but it’s absolutely beautiful! It’s long enough for her to loop twice around her neck and will be toasty warm. I hope she likes it!

Turkish coffee

I’m currently writing about a woman who spends a lot of time traveling to exotic places, and for some reason I thought of having her enjoy Turkish coffee. Except I really didn’t know much about what Turkish coffee was! So I turned to my trusty friend, Google.



WOW there are a lot of different ways to make Turkish coffee, but I think I’ll choose the simplest for my book: Fine grind the beans, put them in the cezve coffee pot with cold water and sugar and spices, stir, then heat slowly over medium heat. When it boils, distribute evenly in all the tiny coffee cups and wait a minute or so for the grinds to settle on the bottom before drinking.



Some recipes call for pouring only some of the coffee at the first boil, the returning the pot to the heat for a second boil, and then pouring the rest into the cups. Some recipes call for spices like cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves.



So naturally, I had to try making this, right? Except I don’t have a cezve pot so I decided to use a small regular pot. I have a burr grinder that Captain Caffeine used before he bought his massive grinder for his espresso, but alas, the burr grinder failed me and did not grind the beans as fine as I needed them to, no matter what settings I tried, so I will need to wait for the Captain’s input before proceeding further. I’ll keep you updated.



This is one of a set of four cute espresso cups that Captain Caffeine had in the cupboard. Isn’t it adorable? I want to make espresso just to be able to use it. Yes, I am such a girl.

Hibiscus from my dad's garden

16th century French queen's pin found in toilet

Catherine de Medici’s pin found in a communal toilet??? Now that’s the start of some story, don’t you think?

The Young Ladies’ Room by Elizabeth Ford

I just finished this book yesterday and it was WONDERFUL.



What was interesting about it was that it was published in 1945, so it was probably written in 1943 or 1944 in Great Britain during World War 2. So although it’s a “contemporary” romantic novel, the setting and characters and dialogue are straight from the 40s and very authentic. It reminded me a bit of some of Grace Livingston Hill’s novels in its calm tone and slang-ish language.



The plot was a little predictable, but it made me cry at the end anyway (and at some points in between). What I especially liked was that I thought that each character got what they deserved (mostly). It was a terribly satisfying ending.



Unfortunately, it’s mostly available in the UK and hard to find in the US. I had to special order it from a UK used bookstore. But it was SO worth the extra money and hassle. It’s become one of my favorite books.



I really love Elizabeth Ford. I read one of her books by accident and enjoyed it so much that I went out to find her other ones. Elizabeth Ford is a pseudonym, and she also wrote historical romances (Victorian and Regency) under the pseudonym Mary Ann Gibbs.

Carb cycling

I found this article on carb cycling. Has anyone done this? I’m not entirely sure how healthy it is to go low carb and then binge.

Exercises for migraines

Funny that I read this article today, because I woke up with the beginnings of a migraine around 3 this morning. My migraines are usually hormonal because of my peri-menopause, so I drank soymilk (to even out my fluctuating hormones) and this time I took some willow bark pills rather than Tylenol. They seemed to work well so I’ll try that again next time instead of Tylenol.



Do you think the stretches in the article are useful? What do you do for your migraines? Any tips for me?

Facebook games!

I admit to loving Zuma Blitz, which is a Facebook game. There’s also a version you can download on your iPad/iPod/iPhone and a computer game version, but I like the Facebook version best since I get to compete against my Facebook friends. (If you play Zuma Blitz, friend me so we can play together!) You can see above that I enjoy playing with authors Vickie McDonough and Rhonda Gibson. Usually it's just the three of us on the leaderboard that shows on my screen.



I also tried Words With Friends and I completely, utterly SUCK at it. No, I am not being modest.



I was also playing Packrat for a while but stopped because it just didn’t interest me as much anymore.



Any Facebook games you like to play?

Gyros

Captain Caffeine and I love going out to lunch after church on two Sundays each month. It’s kind of like our special date lunches each month. One of his favorite eateries is Yiassoo, a Greek restaurant that has some of the BEST gyros on the planet!!!!







Plus their french fries are really good too. :)



Any of you like Greek food?

How was your Father’s Day?

Any cool gifts you gave/received?