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This recipe never disappoints. If you like gingerbread and you like chocolate, bake these for a sweet and spicy chocolate fix. The recipe that I used came from the blog,  Savour Fare . I altered the recipe by using powdered ancho chile instead of chipotle.  My photos were taken with an iPhone and therefore don't really show the darker color of the chocolate cookies as the photos on the recipe blog. The cookies while cooling...before they disappeared! I used Madagascar vanilla bean paste and Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa. Using quality ingredients will give you the best results. The cinnamon, honey and ginger add so much to the flavor and if you love ginger snaps, just imagine those flavored with intense chocolate and dash of spicy chile. The chile isn't overwhelming at all, so don't let that ingredient prevent you from trying these easy cookies. One tip that I'd like to pass along is my non-messy method for rolling cookie dough into balls. Using a regular flatware spoon...

Friends: This annual posting of my favorite Thanksgiving story was inspired by my wonderful husband who passed away in May 2014 from brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme)... the reason I've been off the blogs for the last year.  It all started with Thanksgiving 2006. Expecting a crowd for the big meal, I couldn't work out a way to get everything in the oven since the turkey was so large. We had to figure out how to get everything cooked on time. The microwave wouldn't do it. Ah ha! What about using the grill? Would that work? My husband placed the turkey (in the pan) on the grill to see if the lid would close. It did. Since it was already Thanksgiving morning, I frantically searched the Web for turkey grilling instructions. After finding several versions, my husband and I created our own variation. All twelve of our guests showed up. We announced that the turkey was on the grill. Amazed, all the men went out onto the grilling deck to witness what they'd never seen befo...

Deer damage. February 2014 Well, not the entire yucca. Not yet—and there's no sign of spring around here. It's been a cold winter and food is scarce, so hungry deer seek out plants that aren't on the regular menu. The deer ignore the yucca from spring through fall. This is not the first winter when the yucca was ripped up, so I wasn't surprised. I should have put a cage around it, but I didn't. While the yucca is ragged, it will recover and bloom again this summer. The victim here is yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' but the deer will nibble the tips on any variety of yucca. For photos of this particular yucca in full glory, refer to my past post " Rays of Sun, Leaves of Yellow ." I love this yucca and am keeping it in the deer resistant garden. Not only is it an easy-keeper (ignore it except to protect it from deer in winter), it's a great evergreen companion to shrubs, annuals and perennials in my zone 7b garden. So, gardeners beware—protect y...

For the holiday season, I'm repeating this post from 2012. This Chocolate Biscotti Recipe from David Lebovitz is easy to make. Bake a delicious gift! Start out with good ingredients such as Valrhona Cocoa, demerara sugar, slivered almonds and chocolate chips. As a fan of food and bigger fan of Paris, I follow the blog of expat American  +David Lebovitz , pastry chef, author of cookbooks and one of my favorite iPhone apps,  Paris Pastry ®. I made his  Chocolate Biscotti Recipe  for holiday gifts.  Is it possible for an amateur like me to turn out great biscotti? I took David's advice and searched out the best cocoa as he proclaims it makes a big difference. At the new  +Sur La Table ® in Durham, I found  +Valrhona® Cocoa Powder   (made in France) and while a bit on the pricey side, I'm now a convert to this brand. Intense chocolate. I also picked up demerara sugar (for the glaze) and slivered almonds at the local  +Southern Seas...

The Grande Allée in Monet's Clos Normand. Giverny, France. September 2013 In Paris, the weather is anything but predictable, but you cannot wait around for a sunny day. So it was with umbrellas and raincoats that my husband and two friends left our apartments in the Marais neighborhood and descended into the Saint-Paul Métro station at seven that September morning. Destination: Giverny. Switching once at the Châtelet métro (but we prefer to switch at Concorde), we traveled to the regional train station, Gare Saint Lazare. There, we purchased roundtrip SNCF tickets on the Rouen-bound train. Before boarding, we validated our tickets in the yellow boxes on the platforms. If you don't validate, you'll have to pay the conductor a fine when he comes around to check tickets. After forty-minutes in our comfortable second class seats, we descended onto the platform at Vernon. Since there were four of us, we climbed into a taxi (instead of the buses) destined for the nearby village o...

Luxembourg Gardens, Paris.  15 Sept 2013 The fashionable color combo around the Senate building at  Luxembourg Gardens is red and purple. This is another favorite garden in Paris where I've never seen the same combinations repeated on my many visits over the years. Familiar flowers combined for a unique design. Castor bean, dahlias, petunias and geraniums dominate. Panoramic view of public section of the gardens. Pink (begonias and anemones) and blue plumbago towers (corners) are introduced. I like the use of purple fountain grass and purple spires of salvia. Add caption I'm inspired by the spires of salvia. Love this look. On a smaller scale, this would look great in a cottage garden. The color coordination of my scarf with the garden was purely coincidental. Words and photos by Freda Cameron , Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel .  All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies ...