oh lorchen, will certainly be thinking of you - and aim to take lots and lots of pictures - just for you - i'll make sure and lug the big fat camera with me as well - to get a decent zoom - not much use at night - but hope to make use of it during the day

don't have any "biological" sisters either - but i've been picking them up along the way since i was 5 years old... i always say the family you're given you take as they come and love just the same - but there is a very special family which we can accumulate throughout our lives

Please, please, Lotti, share your Dresden experience with us, Lotti! My family was split between East and West before the reunification of Germany. I lived in Hamburg (West), and my maternal grandparents, who I adored, lived in the East (Brandenburg). I visited regularly during my childhood (needed special visa and had to fill in endless forms - that was the time of the cold war and the iron curtain). My late grandmother took me to Dresden when I was about 9 or 10. But that was in summer, so no Strietzelmarkt. I can't remember much of Dresden itself, but a lot of my grandmother. All my memories are centred on her and what a great time I had with her - just us two girls let loose.

I'll share the salmon and whisky pate, but not tonight, Lotti. It's getting a little late. Sharing with sisters is always fun, especially seeing that I haven't got any 'real' ones.

MMMMhhhhhh smoked salmon pate with laphroig - sounds very very good to me
is that recipe a family secret or can you share it with one or two sisters ???

lucky for me i'm not really into sweets and most of the other stuff is still fine - when i was taking 6 tablets a day i couldn't handle spicy, hot, anything alcoholic (very logical that one...), couldn't wear ANY metal - i even had problems with my titanium watch... no fabrics except soft cotton... no soaps, detergents, etc. but with a dose of 2 a day i'm good on almost anything except the red wine (don't know about white because i practically never drink that anyway)...

first thing thursday morning i'm off to dresden for a long weekend's explore - yeah - the strietzelmarkt, the old town (although much of it has been newly made), am so so so looking forward to it, and just after i get back i want to start my new diet - we're hoping it will also help with the thyroid - in combination with the homeopathic treatment i'm getting - so hopefully i'll be off the chemicals by next summer or so so christmas is going to be rather interesting foodwise for me - but i'll be able to do some cheating by new years'
probably will do a heck of a lot less baking this year though - not that i generally eat much of it - but what with moving offices, trying to get the end of the year done by the 16th and get our january exhibition on its way before x-mas i won't have much time anyway - and the x-mas parcels for canada are still not finished either... oh well - will have to ship first class
i think i'll have to write a blog one of these days and get everything up to date - hopefully will have some dresden pictures for you all next week

Forgotten to ask...... Lotti, will you be ok by Christmas, so that you can enjoy all the seasonal treats?

I take full reponsibility for the sidetracking!

Rosemary, single malt won't get mixed with anything in this house. For boozy sauces I keep a bottle of Famous Grouse at the back of the cupboard. Thanks for the tip about the blackberries. My homemade speciality that's always appreciated by family and friends is a smocked salmon pate that contains a little Laphroig - very tasty on a slice of toast.

Maybe we should all make a journal quilt size piece with a food or drink theme sometime next year.

And to bring this back to Anna's original question: I wonder what would happen if we shower the dvd editing team with our favourite foods and drinks..... Would that speed up the process??

however did we manage to get so sidetracked?

rosemary: i'll definitely have to try this - as i don't have to share my single malt with a hubbie, i get to use whatever i feel like...
my favourite dessert: a scoop of really really really good vanilla ice cream with a generous splash of your favourite single malt mmmmmh - this fits in even after the most generous meal

lorchen: i'm with you - i personally do not like any of the socalled "ladies drinks", i.e. liqueurs, sweet brandies, sweetened and flavoured beers or wines, etc. etc.
for me it's generally either a good single malt, sometimes a good gin and after a nice dinner a digestive such as a vieille prune, vieille pomme, williams or an abricotine, mmmmmmh
if it's not good enough to enjoy on it's own - it's not worth drinking

except on a rainy sunday afternoon: a nice mug of mulled wine (preferably with some hot charcoal roasted chestnuts and a handfull of fresh seedless grapes)
of course once my thyroid is back to an acceptable speed and the meds won't mess up my senses, the mulled wine will be replaced by a really nice glass of red wine )

Have you tried soaking blackberries in your malt? It is very good (although my DH who is a SSM only lets me do it with blends)

I very much appreciate all the suggestions for what to use as 'additives' for my hot drinks over Christmas. But I'm a single malt girl.

As for watching TQS... I use them as reference ... when I piece I always have them going on the DVD in the background... much nicer because I get tired of listening to bad news. I also like to watch my DVDs with a cup of tea and slices of cake... Italian cream my favorite.

Right now I am getting my quilting fix via T.Q.S. as my machine and equipment is put away while the house is being painted.


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That sounds dreadful - especially the alcohol abuse (spilling it or throwing it away ) Hope the reason for the meds calms down (or preferably goes away) soon. And well done for finding away around the problem with the mulling

yup - with all the medication i'm taking at the moment - it messes up the flavour of wine (and other stuff too - but the red wine is the worst), but it's still yummy if converted into mulled wine - especially good with the weather we've had this weekend - although the sun did make an appearance for a little while this afternoon. you really do not want to know how many bottles i emptied down the sink before i realized it's not the wine but me (well actually, the meds...) but i'm due to lower the dosage soon - so that particular side-effect will hopefully also disappear soon

:shock: you have left-overs from last night's bottle :shock:

i'm very very partial to hot fruit and spice tea mixed half-half with red wine (the leftovers from last night's bottle will do quite well....
mulled wine in a flash )