When I Grow Old

As I age one thing is certain-I only have today. Just today to do what’s important. For me, making a cozy home for my husband and me is the thing I care about most. 
   Around the holidays now, instead of trying to plan around our children’s families, I have laid out a plan to bake and cook meals for only the two of us. Extra cookies and candies will be gifts for neighbors and my husband’s friends at the golf course. Special meals will be shared as luncheons for friends.
   Because I’m older the holiday decorations are put up as soon as Halloween is over and not taken down until after New Years. Since it takes us four days to decorate I want to enjoy the festive atmosphere for more than one month!
  Today I baked these White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Cookies. I found the recipe on Pinterest. If all goes well, I’ll be making ten kinds of homemade cookies, four homemade candies, three special desserts (four if I can find persimmons), seven appetizers, and five holiday meals. All for my husband and me and our friends. 
   Yes, we’ll be with children on the holidays but they’ll be cooking their own special recipes. Perhaps they’ll make one or two of mine. But if they don’t, it’s quite all right. 
   Happy Holidays!

~Nancy Jill Thames

   

Chili Hot Dogs to Die For!

If you love hot dogs as much as I do, you may enjoy this delicious recipe. It’s adaptable to your tastes, of course. When we were first married a tradition was started by having chili hot dogs every Sunday night during the cold months on a cozy little table in front of the fire. Whenever we eat them now we’re reminded of those fond times.
Our son recently shared his method for making them now for his family, so I’m sharing it with you!


Yummy Chili Hot Dogs

INGREDIENTS

8 hot dogs
8 hot dog buns
1 can of chili
1/2 an onion, diced
cheddar cheese
mayonnaise
mustard
sweet relish

 DIRECTIONS

• Line inside of hot dog buns with mayonnaise and sweet relish. (I know this sounds crazy, but the mayo did something magical to the bread! It stayed super soft and yummy!)
• Evenly add mustard (I added ketchup too). Fill with hot dogs and squish into a 13×9″ baking pan.
• Top hot dogs with chili, cheese, and diced onion. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.

See you in my books!

~Nancy Jill Thames

Autumn’s Sweet Whisper

This week finally feels like Autumn here in Texas, despite an awful tornado touching down in North Texas where my grandsons live. Still, today the air is cool and crisp as Autumn should be.
   With the change in seasons the appeal for a nice cup of something warm and soothing seems a necessary part of the afternoon, along with a good book to read. I love books! Even if I never purchased another one I have enough to last a lifetime. 
  Currently my husband, daughter, and I, are reading through the Redwall Abbey series-22 books in all. They're full of adventure, good versus evil, and lovely descriptions of food enjoyed by the goodbeasts in the stories. I even have the Redwall Cookbook for added inspiration. The books are appropriate for any age.
   If you're looking for books that are more mystery than adventure and are cozy and clean please checkout our Cozy Books page and give them a try. If you enjoy them, good reviews are always appreciated.

My new teapot and cup and saucer this year serving Grandma's Pumpkin Spice tea from East Anora, NY.

Happy Autumn!

Nancy Jill Thames

Rest Your Body While Improving Your Mind

Just as a vacation is supposed to reinvigorate, reading will improve your mind while you relax, unless, of course, you are reading something bloodthirsty or vile, which I'm sure none of you lovely readers do. And even at that, the news reports say nightmares are good exercises to help get us out of difficult situations. Great! 
   Every afternoon after completing my chores, I look forward to laying on the sofa, cuddled in a micro fleece throw, with phone, newspaper, and current book in hand. When I'm finished (after about three hours) I rise, make a cup of tea, and eat a small supper. I'm rested just enough to make it though the movie du jour with my husband. 
   I believe this routine contributes to good health and a happy disposition. Some exercise their bodies. I like to exercise my mind.
   For some good cozy mysteries that probably won't give you nightmares, check out our Cozy Book Page.
   Enjoy!

See you in my books!

~Nancy Jill Thames

Choose Books Wisely-Good or Great?

For some GREAT books check our 

           Cozy Books page.
           Have a great day, dear readers!

~Nancy Jill Thames 

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Fingerprints, Bonanza, and the Chinese

One night, hubby and I were watching Bonanza—an episode we’d seen several times. (If you’re not familiar with Bonanza, it’s a vintage cowboy-ish television show set in the 1860s. You can read about here.) In this episode, Little Joe Cartwright was arrested for murder, but at the end of the show, he was proven innocent in court.

So, what does this have to do with cozy mysteries? Well, it wasn’t law enforcement that helped prove Little Joe innocent, it was Hop Sing, the Cartwright trusty cook. Like a good sleuth, he used his own wits to prove that Little Joe didn’t handle the murder weapon by demonstrating how fingerprints work. And what was fascinating to me about this was that Hop Sing claimed that people in his country had been using this technique for years. 

The first time I saw this particular Bonanza, I asked, “Really? Are they for real?” Everyone knows fingerprints weren’t used until Sherlock Holmes. (Just kidding.) But seriously, I did wonder if the writers of the show made this up, or if they had facts to back up their story. 

Out came my trusty laptop. I looked it up, and the writers of Bonanza didn’t disappoint me. China, in fact, had a lengthy history of using fingerprints (and hand prints).

The earliest example comes from a Chinese document entitled “The Volume of Crime Scene Investigation—Burglary”, from the Qin Dynasty (221 to 206 B.C.). The document contains a description of how hand prints were used as a type of evidence. Chinese officials pressed their fingerprints into clay seals to seal documents. And when the Chinese began to use silk and paper for documents, they used hand prints as a means to make contracts legal. In 851 BC, Abu Zayd Hasan, an Arab merchant in China, witnessed Chinese merchants using fingerprints to authenticate loans.

That means that though the story of Hop Sing, Little Joe, and the fingerprints was fiction, it could have happened. I just love cool historical facts, especially when they involve crime solving.