Day by Day with Camille

  https://twitter.com/StormoftheSouth/status/1771629271892557990?s=19 Buyer beware! Do NOT let a Wal-Mart employee tell you they activated your Straight Talk phone and assigned it a number! It is not true! Hopefully no one else will be out money and without a phone like I am. 

 This morning, I finished the final cooking of a batch of mixed citrus perl that I am making into candied fruit peel. once it cooled, I drained the sugar syrup liquid off and put it into a container. It is wonderful for flavoring teas and cocktails, as we!! As sparking water. Then I placed the peel on a tray covered in wax paper to dry, and covered it with granulated sugar.  Around 11:30 this morning, I started cooking some homemade Cuban black bean soup. I had soaked the dried beans in water overnight in preparation.  I spent this rainy day inside, enjoying the company of my animal family: my terrier dog, Ellie, and my two birds, my grey cockatiel, Ric, and my blue crowned conure, Earl. Such pleasant time! For dessert tonight, I made lemon pudding with fresh blueberries and banana in it, rimmed with miniature vanilla wafers. I used the banana peel from the banana to start some banana water, which is very good for green houseplants. I made an interesting gin and tonic wit...

 I made blueberry lemon bread with lemon glaze this morning.  Next, I bagged two pans of dried, candied citrus peel(mostly clementine, but with a little lime and tangerine added).  I went to the Thomasville USPS for Global and First Class holiday stamps. Then, I stopped by the Thomasville Public Library for the souvenir book sale that they are having during November. Bought two had back books for 50 cents each. I picked up a Bookpage magazine, an Avon holiday catalog, and an events calendar for November and December.  Now, I am enjoying a cup of warm jasmine green tea with citrus sugar water that I saved from making the candied citrus peel. 

 Yesterday I made my own version of spiced sugar. I started with one cup of white sugar; the spices were added to suit my own taste. To the sugar, I added the following ground spices: cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. I stirred them until they were thoroughly mixed, and sealed them in a glass jar. They will be wonderful for cooking/baking with, as well as to add to a cup of warm black tea. Enjoy! 

 I have been reading a lot recently about fire cider, and yesterday evening, I decided to make my own version of it. It was an ideal time, as there was a full moon last night, and a good time for such concoctions. I chose a glass jar as a container for it to ripen in, and it is now residing on my kitchen counter, along with fermenting bottles of homemade blackberry and blueberry wine. I filled the jar about half full of apple cider vinegar to begin with, then I began adding the other ingredients. Fresh key lime (whole, but cut in half), whole cloves, a cinnamon stick, a few garlic cloves. fresh ginger root, dried chives, dried parsley, dried thyme, dried rosemary, a sprig of fresh rosemary, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, dried lavender buds, ground tumeric, and a dried bay leaf. I shook the jar slightly, then finished filling it up with apple cider vinegar, then closed the jar. I will now allow it to ripen. 

  I have a story to share with you about Total by Verizon and CVS. Yesterday afternoon, I purchased a cell phone at the Thomasville NC CVS on Randolph St. I also purchased a prepaid Verizon card with $30 on it, for service. Earlier today, 4 separate times, I tried to activate the phone, and was told it could not be activated. So.....I returned the phone to the CVS, and received a refund for the phone itself. Unfortunately, the $30 card was not refundable, nor was I allowed even CVS store credit for the money that I paid. I left the card with the cashier who refunded my money with the instructions to please give it to the next person who bought a phone, as I now had no use for the card. I have contacted Total by Verizon online, and all I got was some silly automated reply. #customerservice #TotalbyVerizon #CVS #thomasville # #NorthCarolina #payitforward All reactions: 1 Loretta Green

Yesterday afternoon, I made some Star Jasmine water. I learned about the benefits of jasmine online, so I decided to make my own version of a Jasmine water. I picked Star Jasmine at my patio, added a small amount of vodka, then water.  You can make water without the vodka stabilizer, but you will not have as aromatic flower water.