Julia Barrett's World

Prescript: Captured is out in print on Amazon! OMG! http://www.amazon.com/Captured-Publishing-Classic-Rachel-Barrett/dp/1606018582/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274500727&sr=8-2

My baby girl is flying home tonight.

You know how it is. I love my kids so! They are my greatest achievement. I always knew I wanted kids, the husband was optional. Got a good one despite myself.

Anyway, she’s coming home after having two flights canceled out from under her and since she’s flying from the East Coast, she won’t have eaten for hours - maybe a pack or two of peanuts. So…

I put together a cheese plate with Petite Basque, Gorgonzola Dolce, and Brillat Savarin, sliced melon and muscat grapes. I quick cooked some asparagus, roasted a couple gigantic purple artichokes - still trying to decide if I want to stuff them with crab.

I’ve got fresh bread and I’m baking our favorite chocolate sheet cake - my great gramma’s recipe. Oh yummo!

I think I’ll chill a bottle of Prosecco.

You all have a wonderful weekend!

Oops! Here’s the recipe:

Melt two sticks of butter with one cup of water and 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder.

Mix together 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda. Set aside.

Beat two eggs, mix with 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Pour melted chocolate mixture into dry mixture. Stir in liquid mixture.

Spray a rectangular cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350′. Pour in batter. Bake 35 minutes. Remove. Let sit ten minutes and frost.

Frosting:

Mix together 1 stick butter, 6 tablespoons buttermilk, 3 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 box powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Enjoy!

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Isn’t he handsome?

This is why my hubby has to ask who do I like better? Louie is the best dog I’ve ever had!

I had this dream that Amber Skyze went to a writing conference in Mexico and she came home telling all of us that our books were being translated into Spanish and we would all sell like hot tortillas south of the border - Amber…is it true??? Say it’s so!

Here’s my question…sex or violence?

Which do you let or did you let your kids watch? Or was it both or neither? There’s an internet kerfluffle on Dear Author, Read React Review and Karen Knows Best about teens reading erotic romance.

I have this big fat rule against gratuitous violence in my house. Mommy, can we watch Halloween 987? No! Can we watch Saw 5? No! Can we watch Scream 34? No! Can we watch The Exorcist? Oh hell no! No violence, no horror. You can ride the upside down roller coaster and get your thrills, but you may not watch slasher films in my home and don’t think you’re sneaking over to Johnny’s to watch at his house either! My kids have nightmares all on their own, thank you, they do not need to see Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 101.

My own parents were the exact opposite - violence okay, sex - not allowed. I suffered nightmares for years and slept with a ceiling light on until I was fourteen. Christ, I didn’t know about sex until it was being done to me and even then it took me two more years and a wise ass boyfriend to explain what it was that happened with that nasty clergyman! I entered the 8th grade still wondering how women got pregnant. Did they like…kiss 50 times in a row? Did it have to be with the same guy? Did it have to be 50 consecutive kisses or could they take a break and then pick up where they left off? That is how naive I was.

So, I say my kids can watch normal sexual situations on TV and at the movies. Slasher and horror both have a big red line drawn through them at my house.

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