"I See Me In Her Face!!"...Oh! To Be 17 Again!

     It's me at 17!!...That's the first thing I thought when I went over to Cathy's blog, Artsy Butterfly, the other day and saw this painting of the girl with the sweet face. It was kinda funny to have that reaction too, because Cathy certainly didn't know me when I was 17, but this is exactly how I would have drawn myself at 17...if I could draw!
    The only thing NOT me about this painting is the eyes. My eyes are not blue. In fact my eyes are such a deep shade of brown that, even in the light, people used to tell me they looked black...Of course, their blood shot look now, from lack of sleep, lets you know that I'm definitely not 17 now!! LOL
    I went through my photo albums to see if I could find a picture of me with my hair fixed like this so I could show you, but I couldn't find one. I did it like this, with my hair pulled all to one side of my head and with my one 'Indian braid' {I used to call it} going all the way down, when I was going somewhere special. I used to wrap string or whatever around it and tie it to hang slightly off the end. And on the other side, I would pull a long piece of my hair down from the main section, near the temple, so it would be like a loose wisp...I guess I was too excited about wherever I was going then to stop and take pictures!
   These pictures show me at that age though...My sister was doing my hair. You can see where I used to part it on the side.

      And I was always braiding it, in one way or another. This was my casual 'ready to go to bed' look...

    ...I had to do this so I could get my afro to look right, all big and bouncy!! ^_^ Ohh! To be 17 again.
   Anyway, I love that Cathy's painting says to 'Seek Peace around every turn', because that's what I was trying to do at 17....and now! And the fact that she's surrounded by butterflies...and WORDS!...I just had to have her!!!...I bought her yesterday!! ....Cathy didn't even have her listed in her Etsy shop, cathymariecreations, yet!
    This purchase was just one more thing to make me smile yesterday. Some of the the other things were food related! ;-) Leftovers (boneless spare ribs, broccoli, peppers, cabbage and rice) from Friday night's 'Date Night',....

     .....this cute sign I saw on like cake's younger, cuter sister blog,...

    ...and the new cooking endeavor that hubby did this weekend. He made me MY cheesecake! What I mean by "MY" cheesecake is MY recipe.....well, it was suppose to be. ^_^ In my southern drawl {which I find myself slipping into more and more now that I'm up to chapter 15 of the book "The Help"} I'll tell you that 'something went terribly, horribly wrong' with it!!...although he didn't think so! ^_^
    First thing was that he started blending the cream cheese with the electric mixer before he got my recipe...because he knew that had to be done! {I think it was because that, to him, was the exciting part of making the cheese cake...having that electric blender motor whirring loud like a car engine!!! LOL} Then, when he finally found the recipe, he realized he had a missing ingredient...vanilla.
    He didn't think he should stop there, with the cream cheese all blended, and just run to the store to get vanilla...{although that was my urgent suggestion!!} He said: "You can't just put it in the fridge and have it just sitting there all that time!!!" I said: "Why not?!" That question fell on deaf ears though...Apparently he was planning to go to the grocery store in Venezuela or somewhere, and was afraid all those HOURS in the fridge would make his creation blow up!!...{even though the local grocery store, right around the corner, is literally 3 minutes away and has tons of vanilla!!....WHATEVER! ^_^
    He substituted the vanilla with NOTHING, and decided to put 2 caps of lemon juice in it instead. I said N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!! When it came out of the oven it looked like this...

     ....after it cooled down he covered up the damage....Um....I mean.....covered the top of it with a cherry filling.

    Looked pretty good, I must say! After about 3 hours in the refrigerator, the only thing left was the tasting!

      ......Ummmmmm......let me taste a little more!

      I am pleased to report that it tasted pretty good!!! And two things have been proven. Food doesn't have to look good to taste good. And cheesecakes can be cooked without Venezuelan vanilla! ^_^
    I don't want to see my face this morning. It's probably covered with dried cherry juice and I probably have broccoli in my teeth! :-)) It's been a good weekend so far. I hope yours has been too!
{I know you've seen this poem before, but in honor of hubby...a repeat!}
***OH YEAH!! Make sure you get your entries in. The GIVEAWAY for the blanket {Click on the right side bar picture of the blanket to find the post with the details}is TOMORROW, November 15th!!!***

Cooking

Flipping, Frying,
Flambeing, Filleting,
Burning, Browning,
Paring, Pureeing.

Boiling, Baking,
Mixing, Making,
Simmering, Scaling,
Sifting, Shaking.

Cooking, Crackling,
Cutting, Coring,
Sprinkling, Spattering,
Patting, Pouring,

Broiling, Battering,
Steeping, Steaming,
Timing, Tossing,
Cubing, Creaming,

Slicing, Scrambling,
Turning, Toasting,
Melting, Measuring,
Rinsing, Roasting.

Dipping, Dicing,
Skimming, Sauteing,
Poaching, Peeling,
Mincing, Microwaving.

Gathering, Grilling
Basting, Barbecuing,
Hacking, Heating,
Scoring, Skewering.

Standing, Stirring,
Rough, Tough,
Kitchen, Ditching,
Had Enough!