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What I'm writing in YEAR OF THE DOG

I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
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Rooibos Pecan Turtle @adagioteas #teaadventcalendar #adventcalendar2021

Today’s tea from my Tea Advent Calendar is Rooibos Pecan Turtle, which sounds scrumptious! I’m not overly fond of rooibos, but many of the rooibos teas I’ve tried from Adagio have been rather tasty, so I’m looking forward to this one. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the packet.)

The tea is made of rooibos tea, apple pieces, cocoa nibs, cinnamon, dark chocolate chips, chicory, pecan flavor, caramel flavor, chocolate flavor, and marigold flowers. It smelled like caramel when I opened the packet, with a hint of nuts.

I steeped it for 5 minutes in 8 ounces of 212ºF hot water.

The tea tastes delicious unsweetened. There’s a hint of sweetness from the tea itself, and I could totally see how this would be a good tea to drink with dessert like pecan pie. :) I almost didn’t add milk and sugar, but decided to do so anyway. WOW that made it taste fantastic! It was like a caramel steamer (a latte without the coffee). The nutty flavor is there but subtle and rounds out the sweet caramel. I don’t quite taste the chocolate, but it might be there at the back of my tongue. Absolutely delicious!
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