OUR BOOKS

Sunday, September 20, 2009

ACKKKKK! WHAT IS THAT???

No, this isn't something the dogs dragged in. A few hours ago, it was on my head. Yes, that's over twelve inches of hair that I chopped off my head.

Why?

Because for the past five or six years, I've been growing my hair for Locks of Love. This is my third donation. Locks of Love provides a free and loving way for people of all ages to make a difference! Donated hair provides human hairpieces to underpriviledged children who have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. Others have suffered burns, injuries or endured radiation that caused permanent hair loss.

It is estimated that approximately 80% of the donors are children. Children helping other children is a wonderful thing. Please read more about Locks of Love at http://www.blogger.com/www.locksoflove.org/contact.html
So folks; when I'm not writing, cooking or gardening, I'm growing my hair! Give it a try :)

EUREKA! I HAVE LILIES!


The lilies are open and are every bit as gorgeous and fragrant as I hoped they would be :)



Monday, September 7, 2009


OK, I am losing patience with these lilies!! They are HUGE! You can't tell from the picture, but they are very tall. Look how they tower above the annual to the right, and that plant is a foot tall. The buds are getting bigger every day, but not one of them has opened yet.
Horticulturists consider this the best white Oriental lily ever, I consider it....Am I gonna live long enough to see them burst into bloom? Come on already.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

TONIGHT'S BURGERS

Sorry, no pics. Our grand daughter Cassidy is here and wanted cheeseburgers for dinner. I threw a pound of ground sirloin in a bowl and sprinkled a teaspoon or two of Worchestershire sauce on top. I cooked about 6 slices of bacon and crumbled that on top. Then I fried some chopped onion, garlic, mushrooms and green pepper. Mixed the whole mess together and formed the patties. YUMMY!!

NEW PERENNIAL BED 8-11-09

At last, I have more than twigs! The monster casa blanca lillies have buds and I am dying for them to burst open!
Sadly, the Stella D'Oro lillies are done blooming for the season, but they'll come back bigger and better next year.
I'm doing an experiment with my Cosmo babies. I've pinched all their little heads off. No, not one of them screamed. I'll keep you posted by pics as to what I'm doing with them. It's pretty neat!!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

TERIYAKI MARINADE

This recipe is being added by request from a lemon goose. Here you are! xoxoxo It is in my never ending cookbook, by the way. Use this marinade for chicken, pork, beef (steak or london broil), shrimp, turkey, game hens.

TERIYAKI MARINADE

3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup low sodium soy
1/4 cup honey
2 Tb cider vinegar
3 Tb chopped onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2" piece of fresh ginger root, chopped - or 1 tsp ground ginger powder.

Now, listen to me. If you want to die from dining happiness, marinate peeled raw shrimp in this recipe for at least 8 hours. Skewer your shrimp and throw it on the grill.
The recipe is excellent for london broil, but you must marinate for a good two days before meat will tenderize.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

NEW PERENNIAL BED UPDATE

See? After only eleven days, it's beginning to look like a garden.

The casablanca lillies are amazingly 14" tall! They're possessed!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

FUN! FUN! FUN!


Oh peoples, I have to tell you that this raft is sooooo much fun! I took the picture from the deck, so I'm across the yard. You can't tell how big this thing is. It will hold 7 adults with room to spare. Look at two of my grandchildren - they look like little peanuts.
Yeah, yeah, I've been on it too, but I won't be caught dead taking a picture of myself so you all can see it! So rotsa ruck with that one :)
I hope everyone is having a good summer :)
Later, taters :)
Tika

Saturday, June 27, 2009

NEW PERENNIAL BED

OK, here it is; and no laughing. This is my new perennial bed. It's been a vision for only a few days. I ordered three bareroot subzero hibiscus and they are mere twigs; but they're in there! In the middle I planted three giant bulbs called Casablanca lilies. I saw them on a TV show and had to have them! They are currently growing about half an inch a day. Incredible.

In between I stuck groupings of my own seedinglings of purple lupines and the beautiful annual poppy that looks like a red carnation. I'll never forget when I bought my first one for $5.00. I told the lady that this price must be an error. That much money for one annual? She assured me that even though it was an annual, if you shake the seeds on the ground, they will multiply and come up every year. She was correct! I have them all over the place and have shared with many people. They tend to come up in a clump, so before they get too large, I dig them up and separate them. They barely notice it. They like full sun. I'll post pictures of this beautiful flower when they're in bloom.

That wonderful man I'm married to surprised me with the two Stela D'oro lillies that are in bloom now. I had a clump of these at my home in NY for many years until they accidentally got rototilled :( They do very well in northern gardens :)

Stay tuned for more pics as this garden slowly bursts into color! Can't wait!
(Please ignore the swimming noodles in the background. Tacky Tacky Tika!!)

Bye for now.
Tika :)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD SHOWER

A wet Keeshond is not necessarily a pretty thing.

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP


We grilled asparagus on the grill tonight. Simply brushed it with olive oil and sprinkled it with McCormick's Salad Supreme. It was sooooo good.
I just made this soup recipe up on the fly, but here's what I did. I cut off the woody ends of the asparagus and discarded them. I cut about 2" off the next section of each stalk (saving the best part to go on the grill). I probably ended up with about 1 or 1/2 cups to make soup with.
I put about 1/4 cup of onion in the food processor, chopped it up and browned it in 2 T of butter. I added approx 3 T of flour and stirred it into the butter, cooking it for a few minutes. I chunked up the asparagus in the processor and added that to the onion, then added 1 can of chicken broth and 1 chicken bouillon, a dash of pepper and a splash of white wine. I covered the pan and let it simmer until the asparagus was tender.
Lastly, I poured in approximately 1/2 cup or so of half and half. The soup looked a bit on the thin side, so I mixed a bit more half and half with another T of flour and poured it in. I cooked it for another 5 min on low heat and served.
Very yummy!!!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog Florry, Tracy, Dave, Bob and Debra!!! Have fun and enjoy the posts!


Tika :)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS ONE!

After an uneventful day, I was winding down and working on edits. My dogs Joey and Tyler began to whine and pace, so I assumed they needed to go out. Due to their barking, I let them out separately at night because one dog makes less noise than two dogs. I let Tyler out first. He went potty and ran around the house, barking like a maniac. Of course he ignored my calls. I went out the kitchen door and walked up the path and spotted him dancing around on his hind legs. I didn't think much of it and walked to the beginning of the driveway. He reluctantly returned to me. I let Joey out the back door. He went potty and came in. End of story....so I thought.

Fifteen minutes later, both dogs began barking like crazy! I heard the same noise they did and ran to the kitchen door. I flipped the light on and there stood a beautiful 300 lb black bear. I'm not sure why, but I felt it was a female -- not a huge bear, but big enough. She stood on the deck intently pawing at the recycling bin. She was after the bag of garbage that Bob had put out there earlier. She stepped away from the porch and fool that I am, I opened the door and banged on the side of the house hollering "Get out of here! Go on, get!" The bear did as I expected and rambled toward the neighbor's fence. Joey ran out the door. Luckily he's sometimes a bit daft. The bear had gone right, Joey ran to the left. By this time, Bob is up and looking for the bear too. We got Joey inside, shut the door and locked it.

OK, so we're all safely inside, Bob went back to bed and I just couldn't stand it. I wanted to see the bear again. The back of our house has an atrium door (all glass). You step out onto a large balcony with four steps that lead to the ground. I went outside and walked to the edge of the balcony, my safe observation point. I looked by the neighbor's fence and couldn't see the bear. I heard a snort and looked down - OMG she was standing at the bottom of our steps! Since she was a matter of a few feet away, she looked a whole lot bigger.

In retrospect, I think I made some kind of a noise. I'm not a screamer, so that wasn't it. I whirled around and ran to the door. In my haste to avoid becomming bear fodder, I tripped at the door and fell into the house. I scrambled the rest of the way inside, reached up and locked the door. Yes, I was still on the floor. Bob got up again to see what the heck I was doing this time! I told him what I had done and he wanted to see the bear too. He opened the door and she was gone. He went back to the kitchen door and opened it. No bear. He went back to bed.

Ten minutes later there was a noise at the kitchen door. The dogs went wild. So did Bob, as he was trying to sleep. There were cans and bottles all over the ground. Bob said "Oh my! The garbage bag is gone! She took the whole bag!" Folks, I gotta tell you, a 300 lb bear dragged an overstuffed bag of garbage up the stone filled path and half way up a rocky driveway without it breaking! The commercial on TV where the little boy drags a Glad ForceFlex bag through the house was nothing, compared to this. Bob went out the atrium door to look and there was no bear. We looked on the side yards, no bear. He went out the kitchen door and I was right behind him with a butcher knife just in case he got attacked. She was gone. How rude. Eat and run.

Bob got up at five, after a terrible night's sleep. Now that it was light out, we could see the bag over halfway way up the driveway. She dragged it seventy five feet. Gotta go now. Gonna write to Glad. Maybe they'll pay me a million dollars for my story. hehe

Tika :)

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

SUMMER IS HERE!

I think! Our weather has been so fickle, I'm afraid that summer may just disappear again. Bob and I have been very busy in the yard. I again filled the holes in the ground that that bad boy Joey dug. I put sod on them this time, so maybe it will fool the little bugger and he'll dig somewhere else (like the neighbor's yard).

Bob trimmed lower limbs from the pesky trees that shaded my gardens and limited my view across the lake. Now it looks great! The flower beds and veggie garden are coming along. All I have left to plant is cukes and watermelon. I ordered a lot of flowers online because I need to redo the perennials. I can't wait until they get here!

We've enjoyed some wonderful evenings on the balcony, bbqing, having dinner and talking about our future. Bob will be retiring soon and we're hoping to finally build our new house across the lake. We bought a nice level lot there about four years ago.

For those of you who are wondering, yes.....I'm still editing book 3 (Window to Her Soul). Sorry for the wait, but I'm too picky.

Bye for now :)
Tika

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

YOU TUBE LINK

Thank you to Florentina, who has made a new video for me and posted it in You Tube. She worked for almost two weeks and it is tremendous! If you would like to view it, please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q61BmIuQW7I
Don't forget to rate it by clicking on a star and feel free to leave comments :)

See you :)
Tika

Monday, June 1, 2009

FLOWER BEDS

The tiller isn't here yet, imagine that. However, Bob and I worked on another flower bed and got it all ready to plant. I planted some alyssum, snapdragons and celosi. Even though my poor bleeding heart baby got mowed down I found a new bonus today! I found 2 baby cyclamens in the grass next to the end garden. I made Bob dig them up and I transplanted them right away so they didn't have a run-in with the mower. I hope they survive ok :) I love my cyclamens.
Bye for now.
Tika :)

Sunday, May 31, 2009

MY GARDENS

I'm waiting for Bob to get home with the tiller. He's going to till my veggie garden and we'll yank those nasty weeds out of the rest of my flower beds. (We've only done one garden so far).
I have eggplant, tomato, bell pepper and zucchini plants ready to go in the ground. Since I've never grown eggplant before, I want to watch them closely. I have two of the seedlings planted in containers on the deck. I'll plant yellow wax beans, summer squash and spinach by seed, directly in the ground.

Someone who shall remain nameless, mowed down my baby bleeding heart bush yesterday. Ackkkkkk.

Bye for now.
Hugs to all,
Tika

Thursday, May 28, 2009

RAIN

OK, it's raining again. I don't like the rain. It's too humid and wet. It's been raining all day and what's worse, my internet was down. I grumbled a lot today.

Bob bought the most fantastic toy for the family! It's called Caribbean Island and it's a huge inflatable raft. It will hold 6 adults, so we can get Bob, myself and all the grandkids on it. It has cup holders, a center pool, 4 arm chairs and 2 coolers. Sun! All we need is sun now! Can't wait to go float around on it.

Hugs to all :)
Tika

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

AUTHOR INTERVIEW AT WORKING GIRL REVIEWS

WOW! I think this is my lucky month! I would like to invite everyone to read a new interview on Working Girl Reviews! http://workinggirlreviews.wordpress.com/ It was an excellent interview.

Even better, they are now reading my book and one of their professional editors will post a review and a rating. They use shoes for the rating system. I want 5 shoes! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

INTERVIEW

On May 13, 2009, a fellow author interviewed me and posted the interview on her blog. Her name is Malanie Wolfe. She is a great person and another very dedicated writer. Here is the direct link to the interview. I hope you enjoy it :) http://writinginthelandoftornadoes.blogspot.com/2009/05/interview-with-author-tika-newman.html

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

We have been so busy. Bob, the Keeshonds and I moved back to the lake. In three days I had everything unpacked. Just as I was settling in, we packed some clothes, dropped the dogs back in NY and left for a four day trip to Virginia. Ack! We went to celebrate Bob's son's 40th birthday. His loving wife had an awesome surprise party for him. We're back now and unpacked again. My heels are dug firmly in the ground and I am not leaving this lake until the end of June when we go to South Carolina.

My fingers are itching to start digging in my gardens. First Bob has to rototill the veggie garden and buy my tomato and pepper plants. I do everything else from seed. The flower beds will take a lot of work. Damn weeds moved in while we were away. I need to get them out before my perennials get too big.

That's it for now folks. Happy spring!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Thistlewood Publishing

Hello everyone :)

There have been a lot of changes since my last posts. Forgive me for the delay in updating you all, but to say I have been busy is an understatement. After turning down two publishers for reasons I won't go into here, I have since opened my own publishing company. The name is Thistlewood Publishing. (catchy name, eh?)

You will be pleased to know that since I am publishing the books myself, there is a new and much lower price than in the past. I wanted to bring my readers a better value and this was the way to do it.

"The Eyes of Innocence" was totally re-edited and was available for purchase in late 2008. ISBN 978-0-9821507-0-2 and is available in most online book stores and also at www.thistlewoodpublishing.com. $14.99

I have just released book 2 in the series "Forever in Her Dreams" ISBN 978-0-9821507-1-9
You may also purchase this book at www.thistlewoodpublishing.com $15.99