Peter was sure I’d enjoy Kindle Unlimited when it came out — he wasn’t wrong. I can read a dozen books in a month, and this looked like a great opportunity to feed my habit without breaking the bank.

Keep in mind that all of these books are free to read with Kindle Unlimited, but you can buy them in other formats as well. Please use the links below if any of the titles here tickle your fancy!

I downloaded a few of the popular titles to test the waters, but the first two were complete duds. Either the writing was terrible or there were so many grammar mistakes that I was tempted to drop-kick my Kindle across the parking lot. (Yeah, they were that bad.)

This recipe immediately caught my eye; there’s always been a special place in my heart (and stomach!) for pasta and mushrooms. A chance to have them both AT THE SAME TIME was irresistible.

First of all, this recipe only requires a few ingredients that I don’t usually have on-hand: zucchini, cremini mushrooms, and heavy cream. It made shopping for this dinner relatively painless, and anything perishable will happily keep in the fridge for a few days, in case you or your family decide on something else to eat that night.

That being said, once you do decide to whip this up, it’s stupidly easy and tastes incredible. I’ve made this dish twice now, and having recognized what I needed to refine after the first batch, the second batch was even better — and I didn’t think that was possible.

My tips and observations for making this ambrosia even incredible-er:

• Use just 4 cups of water. It’s more than enough, and you don’t want to have to drain anything later.
• When putting everything in the pot to boil, put the pasta in first, then the veggies.
• Everything else will work its way down into the water once it starts boiling.
• Don’t be afraid to add a little extra cream (if you tolerate dairy well).
• If you’re cooking in a metal pot, transfer everything to a plastic bowl or non-stick pot before adding the Parmesan cheese; otherwise, it will all stick to the pot instead of the food. (This life lesson cost me some elbow grease.)

My conclusion:

   Eat this dish, and eat it often.  

We picked up Mona’s cremains yesterday from Steve at Carolina Pet Cremation. He did a beautiful job and included a lovely packet of condolence and memorial material.

This, however…this caught me by total surprise and left me sobbing for a while. I was truly moved.

I will be woodburning and painting a design on the top of her urn like I did for Isis. I’m thinking a cornucopia, since she was named after the goddess of abundance.

Mona has gone to join Isis at the Rainbow Bridge, leaving Mimi as our sole remaining Guinea Goddess.

She turned 6 years old in November, and her health had been in slow decline for the past year. I suppose her age was catching up to her a bit. In July we took her to Banfield because it seemed that her right eye was no longer functional; she had a noticeable head tilt, the eye itself was glazed and a bit sunken, and there was no blink reflex. She was diagnosed with an ear infection that had likely caused pressure or damage to her optic nerve, and we were told that she may or may not regain sight in that eye. She was perfectly ok with that, going about her happy guinea pig life much as she had been. She really perked up and even gained a little weight.

I finished a couple new craft projects over the holidays, thanks to my Silhouette Portrait!

First up were gifts for friends in our building — well, actually, gifts for Lola’s friends in our building. 😉 I made pop-up cards and gift boxes for each of them:

They turned out really great!

What was in the gift boxes, you ask? Homemade dog treats! I used this recipe, which went through a revision from one commenter, and I revised it further. (You can print a copy of it from the recipe details at the bottom of this post!) By all accounts, the treats were a resounding success…and Lola loved being my taste-tester. 🙂

I also painted a festive canvas to put on our fireplace mantel. I used my Silhouette to cut vinyl stencils, which I then applied to the canvas. I used pearlescent and glittery paint to fill in the blanks, and tada!

The glittery-ness didn’t show up quite as much as I’d hoped, especially not in the low light. Apparently I’ll have plenty of chances to get it right, since Peter has decreed I must now make a canvas we can display for each holiday throughout the year. 🙂

What did YOU craft over the holidays?