There is a line in Pride and Prejudice where Mr. Bingley is talking about the ball he plans to host at Netherfield: “If you mean Darcy," cried her brother, "he may go to bed, if he chooses, before it begins—but as for the ball, it is quite a settled thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I shall send round my cards.” I then found these two fascinating articles on white soup from the Jane Austen Centre and the Austenonly blog . I decided to try making it! I followed the recipe from the book by John Farley, published in 1811, The London Art of Cookery and Domestic Housekeepers' Complete Assistant : uniting the principles of elegance, taste, and economy : and adapted to the use of servants, and families of every description . You can download the scan of the original book from the link. Here’s the original recipe: White Soup. PUT a knuckle of veal into six quarts of water, with a large fowl, a pound of lean bacon, half a pound of rice, two ...

It’s cold here in California! We need the rain but my poor dog is getting older and seems to feel the cold more this year. I’m making her a dog sweater using 3-color Tunisian crochet and the general dimensions of this dog sweater pattern on LionBrand.com . On the writing front, I’m working on the 2nd book in my Lady Wynwood series and trying to figure out my villain. I find I go to movies, TV, and novels for inspiration—I think real-life “bad guys” are too complex, psychologically, for me to use as fictional inspiration. Do you have favorite villains in movies, TV, or fiction? I could use some ideas.

Yeah, it’s been a while since I last posted but I assure you, I am not dead. :) I decided to jump-start my running again, and since I don’t run consistently if I’m not training for an event, I signed up for the 2017 Honolulu Marathon. It’s going to be harder this time since I’ve gained so much weight since the last time I ran (maybe 10 pounds?) and I have to take care of my ankle, which I sprained at the last marathon in 2010 and it still has a bit of scar tissue. However, I’m going to a chiropractor about that and my ankle seems to be doing well. I’m also armed with KT Tape and Rock Tape, Phiten discs, ankle wrap, and massage cream. Please send a prayer for me that I can be consistent in my training and not get (more) injured. I’m getting The Spinster’s Christmas translated into Japanese! I was able to hire a woman from my church who is a professional translator, and she is doing about a chapter every 2 weeks. Now I have to figure out how to format an ebook in Japanese, with vert...

I had a really bad allergy attack yesterday (so did Captain Caffeine) and so I did some internet searching and found this article on cayenne pepper tea to clear sinuses from allergies or colds . However, being a wimp about pepper and also knowing that my stomach is rather sensitive to it, I knew I couldn’t take a tea like that straight even with food, so I came up with this recipe to disguise the pepper in Chai Tea, soften it with milk, and adding extra honey. Also adding the cayenne in twice the amount of hot water (from the original recipe in the article) helped make it less painful. The article also warns about this, but drink this tea with food. I ate some Snyder’s pretzels in between sips and that helped to keep my stomach from getting upset by the pepper. What also helped was drinking some baking soda in a glass of water. If you have problems with acid reflux, I wouldn’t suggest you try this recipe. Also my lips were burning pretty badly from the pepper, but my throat and t...

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com I asked God to make me a prayer warrior, and I realized I was missing out on the chance to pray for all of you, my online friends! So how can I pray for you? I will try to remember to post this at least once a month so I can pray for you. Prayer requests can sometimes be private things, so to keep your privacy, I’ve made a form you can fill out that will keep your requests just between you and me. Also please be sure to fill out the form again to update me if you sent me a prayer request in the past. I’d love to hear how you’re doing. Loading...

My favorite manga right now is Chihayafuru by Suetsugu Yuki (you can watch the anime Chihayafuru for free on Crunchyroll. , it’s also one of my favorite anime series). The series also got two live-action films (a part one and a part two), and I happened upon the promotional video for the movies which features the J-pop song “Flash” by Perfume. It’s a really catchy song and I love it! I bought it on iTunes . The cover art for the single was drawn by the manga artist, Suetsugu Yuki! Flash - Single - Perfume Here’s the PV: I so want to see these movies! Well, subtitled, since I don’t understand Japanese. :)