Meranda has assigned me the letter "N" to list my ten favorite things beginning with it, not in any order; it is a coincidence that the first three are food.

1. Neapolitan Ice Cream. Really I like Spumoni, of which Neapolitan is a copy. What's good about it is you can eat just one color or all three.



2. Nougat. That chewy stuff usually inside candy bars or chocolates, but I like it by itself, too.

One of the best was the old Mars bars: Plain nougat, almonds, caramel, and milk chocolate. They stopped selling it in the United States in 2002. I forget what is different about the current one, but don't like it as well. Not to be confused with a Milky Way, which is chocolate malt nougat, caramel and milk chocolate. Do I eat a lot of candy bars? No, but when I do pick one, I really enjoy it. We don't buy them, we get them at whichever Las Vegas casino Superbowl party we attend. I take a large knitting bag and load up for the whole year.

Cross Section of a USA Mars Bar (old style):


3. Nuts. Part of the current healthy diet. I eat a few plain walnuts every day, but I have a recipe for making them salted and oven baked:

Mix about 1/4 cup salt in about 1 cup of water. Soak raw nuts (any kind) in it for 30 minutes. Spread a towel over a rack and arrange the nuts in a single layer. Let stand 1 hour to dry. Roast in 350 degree oven until light tan inside when cut in half. You can sprinkle additional salt on the outside while they are still damp enough for it to stick, but not so wet the salt dissolves.

4. Nature. In small regulated doses. This is my favorite winter view at my home in Colorado.



5. Needlework. Knitting, counted cross stitch, quilting. This is what I'm working on now - it started as blank cloth then I used a chart to know where to put what color.



6. Newspapers. More comprehensive than TV news.

This is Newspaper Rock - the ancient Anasazi's version of a newspaper. There is a lot of this type of rock art in the area where my mother grew up, Southwestern Colorado.



7. Northern Lights. I've only seen them a couple of times, but they seem so magical. The ones I saw were pink and they had reached clear down into Colorado from the North. They come in all colors with a lot of blue and green.



8. Novels. Primarily mysteries, especially the vintage paperbacks.



9. Namby-pamby. The word itself and the way it rhymes, not necessarily the meaning. I found it in the Thesaurus while looking for more words staring with N.

10. Nighttime. Especially when the moon is full and lights up the yard. Having snow on the ground at the same time makes it even better.