At Home in the Hills

Saturday Centus - All I Didn't Know

2011-02-19T23:05:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's Saturday Centus time already. Where did the last week go??? Here's the routine for those of you not familiar with the meme. Grab the prompt, (it's in red in the body of my piece), and write a story using 100 words or less, not including said prompt. Then pop over to Jenny Matlock's blog by clicking on the 'Centus' button above. Follow the instructions to link your story and you're almost done. I say almost, because once you're there you must go read all of the other wonderful submissions. And don't forget to leave comments. Folks have worked hard here, they need a few thumbs up or they'll stop writing. And Saturday Centus will disappear. And Miss Jenny will cry. Then she'll get the hiccups and it will be your fault. You don't want that on your conscience now, do you?

Now on to my story. It's a tad dark this week, a place I usually don't go, but it just popped out! Just so you know it's so dark, that I needed a beer when I got finished. But the doctor says no alcohol, so I had a glass of apple juice instead. Just for the record, the apple juice didn't do it!

All I Didn't Know

When I said, "I'd catch a grenade for ya," I didn't know you'd be the first to toss one at me.

I didn't know that a barrage would follow in the days, the weeks, the years to come.

I didn't know I couldn't save you from yourself.

I didn't know I would become hard like the bits of shrapnel that you embedded in my soul.

I didn't know that I would stop caring whether or not you could catch as well as you could throw.

I didn't know that I would leave.

PS: I still really need a beer! Hope I haven't caused anyone else to need one...

Saturday Centus - Flames of Love - A Valentine

2011-02-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday Centus time, and this week Jenny Matlock has come up with a dilly of a prompt. Write a verse, (50 words or less), for a Valentine card to match the picture below. (Wherever did she find a pup with 'bedroom' eyes???) My humble submission is below the picture.

I want to be your super hero.

Let's not waste time, fiddling like Nero.

We don't look like swells or even like yuppies,

But between us I'm sure that we'd have cute puppies.

Come be my love, and I'll take you higher.

Together we'll start our own kind of fire.

I need to apologize for not making the rounds to read and comment on other submissions in the past week or so. I've been ill of late and have not been up to spending much time on the computer. Didn't even get to do a post myself last week...Bummer. I'll try to do better this week and make the rounds. The only thing that would prevent this from happening, would be if I'm packing for the move to Kansas City. You see, I've included this gem in my portfolio and mailed it off to Hallmark Crown Center this morning. I'm just sure I'll get an immediate response!

The rest of you

~~can~~ should read the other valentine verses by clicking on the Saturday Centus button at the top of the page. Please do that. We all live for comments.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Saturday Centus - A Respect For Words

2011-02-02T12:55:00.009-05:00

You know it's been a zooey week when it's Wednesday and you're just getting to write your Saturday Centus piece. Ah life! It can certainly interfere with blogging.

Here's the scoop on Saturday Centus. Our facilitator, Jenny Matlock, gives you a prompt. Then you get to add 100 words to that to form a story. And good luck! It ain't easy! That's a fact! (BTW: You'll want to link to the SC homepage, and then read the other entries. Just click on the button at the top of this page and you'll be guided through.)

Now, my story for the week. The prompt is in red.

A Respect For Words

Dorothy found a bundle of yellowed envelopes, tied with a piece of rough twine, in an old trunk in the attic.

She lifted the stack of letters from the ancient chest, and immediately recognized her husband's handwriting and the name on the address. These were Ben's letters to his first wife, (now deceased), that he had sent from Korea!

Dorothy's thoughts drifted to the letters from her late husband that were neatly tucked into the back of her lingerie drawer.

"Some words are written to be read by only one set of eyes," she whispered, as she placed the letters back in the trunk and gently closed the lid.

Foodie Friday - World's easiest Cherry Cobbler

2011-01-27T20:30:00.008-05:00

I don't do much microwave cooking, except for one dessert that we love...Cherry Cobbler. It's good anytime, but this recipe comes in particularly handy when unexpected guests drop in for a visit. In about 20 minutes you can have warm cobbler on the dessert table! The ingredients are things you probably have on hand. We like this best served with vanilla ice cream, but whipped cream works well too!

World's Easiest Cherry Cobbler

6 T. butter

1 C. all purpose flour

2/3 C. coarsely chopped nuts

1/3 C. packed dark brown sugar

3/4 t. ground cinnamon

1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling

2 t. cornstarch

1/2 t. fresh lemon juice

Melt butter in large pyrex cup in microwave. Mix in flour, nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a one quart casserole, combine cherry filling, cornstarch and lemon juice. Mix until smooth, then microwave for one minute on high. Sprinkle topping over filling mixture and microwave on medium-high for 6-8 minutes. Cool slightly before serving with vanilla ice cream.

My advice: grab a serving for yourself as quickly as possible, because at the end of the evening this is all you'll have left.

This post is being linked to Foodie Friday. Now please hop over to http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/2011/01/foodie-friday-100-williams-sonoma-give.html and take advantage of the Mr. Linky feature that our hostess, Michael Lee provides. You'll be able to surf tons of wonderful recipes right from the comfort of that desk chair!

Saturday Centus - Closetman

2011-01-24T21:10:00.084-05:00

Do you know the drill? On Saturday, Jenny Matlock gives you a prompt and you have to write a story in 100 words or less. Fortunately for me, the prompt is not included in the 100 words. Of course I forgot that this week, (cut me some slack I'm new to this meme), and it came up four words over! I started to pull out some lustrous locks, but stopped short once I remembered this 'gift.'

To make things even more interesting this week, your story must be Sci-Fi! Oh, Jenny Matlock! Sci-Fi??? My least favorite genre! How clever of you. How diabolical. I'm here to exercise my shrinking brain and expand my limited horizons. You've thrown me a challenge and I can't resist. So here's my submission. The prompt is in red.

Closetman

Midnight

"Mommy, the man's in my closet again."

"Oh Sweetie," she sighed. "We looked twice this week. No one's there."

Tiny sobs.

"Okay, get in bed with Daddy. I'll check."

In her sleep deprived state, she stumbled to Bobby's room, and on impulse crawled under the Sponge Bob comforter.

She never did decide if she was awake or asleep when she heard the man's voice:

"Damn it! I'm in the kids closet again. The first time I thought it was an innocent mistake. The second time I thought the coordinates weren't erased. But a third time?"

"Beam me up, Scottie...we need to talk."

*****

When I do like Sci-Fi, it has to be humorous, like the short parody Hardware Wars.

What? You haven't seen it? Ah, you're probably too young. If you have a strange sense of humor and want to give it a view, click on the title. Please do this after you click on the Saturday Centus button and read the other stories. That's what I'm gonna do. You'll really like what ya read!

Saturday Centus

2011-01-15T23:31:00.025-05:00

I've been meaning to try my hand at Saturday Centus for a while and it looks like this is the week! For those of you unfamiliar with this meme, it revolves around a writing prompt provided by our 'hostess', Jenny Matlock. Usually you have a 100 word limit, not including the prompt, but this week the limit is 25 words. For those of us who get too 'wordy' it was a challenge! This week's prompt...the lottery ticket.
So, without further ado, here's my first attempt.

Sweet Revenge

With the receipt for the lottery ticket securely in his pocket, he made the call. "Hey Darlin'," he purred into his ex-wife's voicemail. "Catch the 11 o'clock news."

Having a blogger problem linking to the button. To get to Jenny's blog just use this link for now. http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2011/01/saturday-centus-hey-wake-up-its-another.html

Foodie Friday - cocoPop

2010-04-29T21:29:00.001-04:00

When bloggers get crazy busy they don't blog. When bloggers who usually write about food get busy, they don't blog or cook. In my case, life has gotten hectic, and I've been doing minimal cooking that will leave enough left over for a second or even third meal. Oh, and I don't stop to take photos. Even though last night's meatloaf was fabulous, I didn't have time to coax it into becoming photogenic. We ate it, I dumped the dishes in the sink, and ran to a meeting. So lately food has to be simple in our house, that's why I like this new product that we recently discovered in Wegman's, our local upscale supermarket.

Let me introduce you to cocoPop rice cakes.

They're nifty whole grain 'cakes', about 5" in diameter, that are freshly 'shot' from an exotic machine right in the store. (Think puffed rice here.) The first time we heard them being made, I thought it was a gun shot! Luckily, I did not embarrass myself by diving into the cheese counter. I love Wegman's and do wish to keep shopping there.

Here's what an unadorned cocoPop looks like.

Nothing special, and rather plain tasting. (Think rice cake.)

They do look better stacked, don't you think?

And they'll look even better to you when you read this label...

That's right, only 16 calories each, no fat, no cholesterol, and only 4g of carbohydrates! I think this may be the new miracle food. With those low numbers, you can put hummus, or other spreads on these babies and not feel guilty. Put some pico de gallo on them and you're burning up all of the calories that have just entered your mouth by the simple act of chewing! (One cake + 1/4 cup pico de gallo = 34 calories...how can you beat that???)

Of course, I've discovered that they are best with Nutella. Oh my, oh my...How that changes the calories. One cake + 2Tbsp. Nutella, (no sense skimping), = 216 calories. Hey, it was dessert! Still not too shabby!

I have no way of knowing how widely available this product is nationwide, but if you spot them in your local supermarket give them a try. Oh, and don't forget the Nutella!

This post is being linked to Foodie Friday. To start your culinary adventure, just click on the link. Our hostess, Michael Lee, has Mr. Linky ready to escort you to dozens of wonderful food blogs.

Food For Thought

2010-04-10T09:38:00.010-04:00

Traveling With Pomegranates ****

Traveling With Pomegranates is listed as a 'travel memoir', but don't be deceived by that simplistic classification. Sure, there's a bit of souvenir shopping, and wonderful passages that describe foreign locales, but there are other much more complicated journeys occurring in this book.

Sue Monk Kidd is approaching her 50th birthday and has entered perimenopause with a bang. Her daughter Ann, is about to graduate from college and enter the 'real' world. Each is crossing the threshold into the unknown and both are confused, and at times depressed, about the changes that are occurring in their lives. Trips through Greece and France bring direction and revelations, while their time spent traveling together renews and strengthens the mother-daughter bond that Sue fears may have diminished while Ann was away at school.

Early on, it becomes apparent that both women are also on spiritual journeys. Sue is continuing the trek she chronicles in her earlier works. Ann's is just beginning.

After reading the book jacket blurb, I fully expected to have a strong connection to Sue, considering she's my peer and the 'mother' half of the writing team. I was rather surprised to find that I was much more in sync with daughter Ann!

I lost patience with Sue's attitude towards menopause, and her search for her 'Old Woman'. She spends far too much time contemplating her own death, instead of embracing her new freedoms. About half way through the book, I also lost interest in her obsession with the Persephone-Demeter myth and her quest for the 'sacred feminine' through the Black Madonnas. I suppose that my religious background, combined with a 'Snap out of it already!' attitude are responsible for my irritation with Sue, but those are the reasons that I dropped this book to 4 stars. (Okay, I was a tiny bit sympathetic, but not enough to go for the full 5.)

(FYI: If you ever need a Greek Goddess refresher course, click here and bookmark. It will direct you to a very clever website that's an invaluable and fun resource.)

Before I explain my attraction to Ann's travelogue, I should mention the 'edibles' encountered in the book. Remarkably, little is mentioned about the food in France, although there is a funny hamburger scene. There are, however, several meals mentioned during the travels through Greece. This made me happy. This made me cook!

Of course there was the obligatory Greek salad as shown in the first picture. Always a delightful first course!

Next up...Moussaka. Ann experiences the Greek national dish while on tour with her college history class. I read. I salivated. I created.

And last, but not least...dessert. Baklava would have been appropriate, but Galaktaboureko was something I had been craving.

Flaky phyllo dough is filled with a custard thickened with farina. Then the entire pastry is bathed in syrup that is flavored with orange peel and cinnamon. A perfect end to a perfect meal. Indeed this was food for the Gods and Goddesses! (I think Mary would have approved, too.)

Now back to Ann, and why I was so taken with her version of the story. I was only a year younger than Ann when I found myself in Greece for 2 1/2 months. My closest friend and her mother were going on an extended vacation to visit family and asked if I would like to go. I hesitated, but like Ann, I heard, "If you don't go, you'll regret it." I listened. I went. It changed my life in a way that was very similar to what Ann experiences. The tour guide assigned to Ann's college group tells her that this life changing experience is called 'the Greek Miracle.' I didn't know there was a name for it. I just know that it happened to me.

Ann was a history major in college, and was researching a paper on Athena while on her first tour. She was hoping to see this relief in the museum at the Acropolis in Athens, but the museum was closed. She doesn't get to see the piece until a return trip a few years later. When she does finally get to view the real thing, her interpretation is different. Her life has changed. She sees the relief through different eyes.

I was an English major, and except for the photos in our art history textbook, and the Parthenon made out of sugar cubes that was enthroned in a corner of the art room, I had little knowledge of Greek art. I reveled in all art that I encountered in Greece, but the statue of Aphrodite and Eros fending off Pan that is on display in the National Museum in Athens, struck a particular chord with me. I probably would have been transfixed in front of this piece for several hours if the museum hadn't closed for the night.

I thought that I was Aphrodite in this scenario, because I was the Queen of two dates. If I didn't think a particular date was 'the one', I refused number 3, sandal in hand. I was working my way through college and didn't have the time or inclination to waste on dead ends. My mother used to tell me that I was too critical.

Now, many years later, I'm wondering if I was actually Pan in the grouping. Was I afraid of being alone? (His name is the root for the word panic.)

I did start dating my husband a few months after I returned from the trip. When my mother flippantly asked me if they'd be seeing 'this one' again, my immediate answer was, "Yes. This one I'm going to marry." I had a new open heart and equally open mind, but I still wasn't willing to settle for 2nd best. Lo and behold, Mr. Right had materialized.Strange, no?

It took me a long time to write this post. I kept stopping to look at pictures and postcards from that trip, and reread the journal that I kept that summer. Honestly, I think I enjoyed my reverie more than I enjoyed Sue and Ann's memoir. Our experiences certainly do color how we feel about what we read.

(Note: If you're a fan of Sue's novel, The Secret Life of Bees, you can watch the groundwork for the book take shape during the authors travels. I also feel compelled to explain the lack of pomegranate photos in this post. Earlier this week, I scoured my corner of NE Pennsylvania for one of these exotic beauties, but alas, my hunt was 'fruitless.')

This post is being linked to Food for Thought. Please click on the link to discover more timely 'edible' book reviews.

Food for Thought

2010-03-27T13:02:00.003-04:00

Here If You Need Me ***** Kate Braestrup is not just another housefrau, and her book, Here If You Need Me, is definitely not just another run of the mill memoir. The story begins when her husband, Drew, a 34 year old Maine State Trooper, is killed in an automobile accident while on patrol. Left a widow, with four young children, Kate is led to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a minister.

After she completes her studies, Kate seeks employment as a counsler with the State Police, which was Drew's goal, but there are no positions available, and she is ultimately employed by the Maine Game Warden Service.

Drawing on her skills, (she was already an accomplished writer), Ms. Braestrup chronicals her husband's death, her experiences as Chaplain to the Warden Service, and the trials of being a single parent. She does this with a very deft hand. She also explores the spirituality of death as it relates to her family and job situations, and the healing power of love. I truly admired the candor she displays in the telling of her amazing journey through difficult situations. Her honesty is at once refreshing and awe inspiring. How she manages to pack this all into a relatively short book is downright amazing.

Food vignettes in this book center around comfort food. Right after news of Drew's death reaches the community, a neighbor brings brownies to the family's doorstep. It's just the first of many such deliveries that will be made in the weeks and months following the accident.

The Warden Service also runs on food. The Wardens fish, trap hunt and then prepare their catch. They even do all of the cooking and serving at their annual dinner.

Kate's on call 24/7, and sometimes is on extended duty during search and rescue missions. She mentions endless cups of coffee and sandwiches eaten in the cabs of the Warden's trucks, and the stews and soups dipensed by the Salvation Army canteens set up on site.

Family meals get a nod too, and are woven into the tale of balancing a life where multitasking is the norm.

The book ends with the description of a search for an Alzheimer patient who has wandered into the woods. Volunteers who are too old to search the woods gather at the firehouse and cook for the professionals and volunteers combing the area.

I really admire Kate Braestrup and I'm totally taken by this book, but I feel obliged to issue a warning. If you're the least little bit squeamish about the mechanics of death, you may want to read this memoir with a bit of caution. It's not gorey, just candid and real...very, very real.

This post is being linked to Food For Thought. For more reviews, please pop over to the website by clicking the button at the top of the page.

Foodie Friday-Thai Style Rice Noodles with Chicken

2010-03-25T21:17:00.008-04:00

I just love cooking in the wok. There's only one pan to wash, and once the prep work is done the meal goes together in a flash. This Thai style noodle recipe is one of our favorites. It's hearty and satisfying in the cooler months, yet seems light and refreshing on a warm summer day. It's truly a dish for all seasons.

Here's the cast of characters:

7 ounces rice stick noodles - 1 Tbsp. canola or safflower oil - 2 cloves of garlic, minced - 3/4 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped - 4 scallions, chopped - 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sambal oleck (or one small red chili, seeded and finely minced) - 10 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breast, finely chopped - 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced - 1 large carrot, finely shredded - 5 cups shredded Chinese or regular cabbage - 4 Tbsp. fresh lime juice - 2 Tbsp. fish sauce - 1 Tbsp. soy sauce - For garnish, any of the following: pickled ginger, cilantro, fresh mint

1) Place rice sticks in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for 15 minutes or according to package directions. Drain well.

2) Heat oil in wok and stir-fry garlic, ginger, scallions and chili for about one minute. Add chicken and stir fry for an additional 2-3 minutes just until it begins to brown.

3) Stir in the celery and carrot and stir-fry for another 2 minutes to soften. Add Chinese cabbage, then stir in the lime juice mixed with the fish sauce and soy. (Note: If using regular cabbage, you may want to cover and steam for a few minutes now. It takes a bit more cooking than the Chinese leaves. I also double the amount of liquid to accomodate the extra cook time.)

4) Add the drained noodles and toss to heat through.

Sprinkle with the garnishes. We use fresh mint from the garden in the summer and cilantro the rest of the year.

Here's a picture of the wok full of good eatin! It's also very tasty as a cold leftover next day.

For more recipes and a tour of what everyone has been cooking this week, please head over to Designs by Gollum. Michael Lee is our hostess for Foodie Friday, and she's got the tour bus, (Mr. Linky), up, running and ready to take you on a trip to some pretty wonderful food blogs.

Happy Anniversary Foodie Friday!

2010-02-18T21:34:00.003-05:00

Happy First Anniversary Foodie Friday!

In honor of this momentous occasion, I've baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies and invited a few friends to help celebrate. You're invited too, as we thank Michael Lee, at Designs by Gollum, for a year filled with fabulous recipes and wonderful Foodie ideas.

Pull up a chair, grab a cookie, then hop over to her blog and join in the fun and festivities.

And again, thank you Michael for a wonderful year of Foodie Fridays. I've met new friends, tried new recipes and learned much. I've had a ball, and I'm looking forward to year two!

Food for Thought

2010-02-13T00:15:00.009-05:00

Very Valentine****

This post is being linked to Food for Thought. Please click on the icon to the right to connect to more "Edible Reviews."
In my little reading corner 'chick lit' always has its place. Sometimes I need a pick me up, or I know I'll have limited reading time. In those cases, I need a novel that's a quick read and not too thought provoking. But most frequently, I treat myself to this genre in between 'heavier' reads.

A good piece of chick lit can serve the same purpose as a sorbet served between courses in a fine restaurant. It can cleanse the mind the way the sorbet cleanses the palate. The very best chick lit can also stand alone as dessert, and that's where I would place Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that it's part of a trilogy, and the novel ends with unresolved story lines. A fifth star will have to be earned by books 2 and 3. (The second book, Brava, Valentine, was release last Tuesday and is on its way to me now.)

The main character is Valentine Roncalli, a 33 year old, single, Italian-American woman who abandons her career as a high school teacher to become an apprentice to her octogenarian Grandmother. Together they create handmade bridal shoes in their workshop/home in Greenwich Village. Along the way, Val has a proposal of marriage from her long standing boy friend, Brett. Here's her reaction:

"...I felt the great relief that comes with being alone. I needed to seek my own counsel, to think things through. So I made a dish of spaghetti with fresh tomatoes from this garden, olive oil from Arezzo, and sweet white garlic. I made a salad of artichokes and black olives. I opened a bottle of wine...Then I sat down to eat a glorious meal, slowly savoring every bite and sip.

I realized that my answer to his proposal, upon his return, would not be the great moment; the great moment had already happened. He had asked."
Valentine is a woman who enjoys good food and she's also a thinker.

She turns down Brett's offer of marriage, because she realizes that they're heading down different paths.

Of course another love interest pops up in the form of restaurateur Roman Falco. He's a hunk and he cooks...need I say more? He prepares a meal for Valentine's family on a night that his restaurant is closed. Truffle ravioli is the pasta course, followed by roast pork with root vegetables and preceded by a fabulous sounding antipasto. Despite the sumptuous fare, the evening is ruined by a Roncalli family squabble.

Roman has issues with the in-fighting in his own family, and he is not amused.

Roman and Val are both devoting huge amounts of time to their careers and business problems, and not making enough time for each other. To make amends, Roman makes plans to meet Val on the Isle of Capri after she concludes a buying trip to Tuscany with her Grandmother.

On their arrival in Tuscany, they check in to an inn where the proprietor knows Gran from her previous trips. The Senora serves them each a crock of perfect minestrone, crusty bread, fresh butter and wine.

In Tuscany, Gran reveals a few secrets about her past and present. Val meets one of Gran's suppliers who is also a special friend, and his son Gianluca. Gianluca becomes Valentine's tour guide in Tuscany and when Roman has to cancel his trip to Capri because of problems at the restaurant back in Manhattan he also shows up on the Isle. Val is attracted to Gianluca, but basically remains faithful to Roman, despite his no show status and her subsequent anger.

Left to her own devices on Capri, Valentine spends her days working with an elderly master shoemaker, Costanzo, who is 'besotted' with her. He approves of the fine shoemaking skills that she has aquired. She learns much in only a week and she hates to leave him. He feeds her breakfasts of fresh figs and pizza alige, and makes a special lunch of fresh tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella on her final day. He calls it their 'last supper.'

Valentine falls in love with Tuscany and the relaxed lifestyle, but she has to admit that she also loves Manhattan. She ponders how to bring elements of Tuscany into her New York life. Ironically, I was reading Frances Mayes Bringing Tuscany Home while I was reading Very Valentine, and they made perfect companions.

Not too long after Valentine and Gran return home, Gran takes a fall and is hospitalized. Gianluca and his father fly to New York as soon as they hear, and in an amazing hospital room scene many things occur, including a face to face meeting between Gianluca and Roman. Roman is there because Gran was complaining about hospital food and he had specially prepared panne cotta for her.

I liked this book for many reasons. I've always loved New York city. I learned to love Long Island, (although it took a while), and I love Forest Hills where Val's parents live. (We actually have Italian family there.) We always go to Ferrara's in Little Italy for pastry, and we've been to a wedding at Leonard's of Great Neck. All of these places are exactly as Trigiani describes them. She writes with warmth, humor and great affection for her characters. You really can't ask for much more.

I love this Italian family and found it refreshing, and much more realistic, that they were portrayed as just a loud, large Italian family and not cast members of the Sopranos. The family members as written are people I've met. Gran is a very hip 80 year old, Valentine is the quintessential 30 something New Yorker, and Val's mom is the chic middle aged Italian matron that I've encountered several times over.

I also liked the fact that there were no shortage of food scenes in this book. If I illustrated them all, I'd still be in the kitchen! I even finally used the pasta machine and ravioli press that my husband bought me last year! Thank you Adriana.

Foodie Friday - A Chinese New Year Valentine

2010-02-11T21:04:00.021-05:00

This year, Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year are on the same day, and what better way to treat your sweetheart than with a few of his favorite Asian dishes. This worked out well for me, because I prepared one dinner that covered both occasions. I planned this for tonight because of this post, and the fact that it will leave us free to do brunch on Sunday! That's a nice bonus.

We started our meal with Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls accompanied by nuoc cham for dipping. Round rice wrappers, (banh trang), are soaked in warm water until softened, then filled and rolled like an egg roll. These were filled with prepared rice noodles, cooked shrimp, cucumber, carrot, scallion, snow peas, and fresh cilantro. They're a year round favorite here, but are especially nice during the summer when it's too hot to do much cooking. When the mint is over running the garden during the warmer months, we add that too.

Our main course was Thai Green Curry Chicken with Long Beans. Chicken is poached in a coconut milk sauce that is seasoned with Thai green chile paste, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, fish sauce, lime, and fresh basil leaves. This dish is packed with flavor, and can be mildly hot or very hot, depending on how much curry paste you add. We serve this over jasmine rice. The rice collects some of the sauce, which is very thin, and also mitigates a bit of the heat. This dish is simple to prepare. Finding 'exotic' ingredients is what consumed my time.
I would have made Thai Black Rice Pudding for dessert, but in my travels to local food stores I've yet to find the special rice. As a substitute, my husband requested my regular rice pudding. It's a perfect finish to almost any meal, so I'm including the recipe that an Aunt gave me years ago.

Creamy Rice Pudding

Cook 3/4 cup long grain rice in 1 quart of water. Don't let dry out. When the rice absorbs most of the water and looks creamy, add 1 quart of milk and bring back to a boil.

Thoroughly mix together 2-3 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, a dash of salt, and 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. (You can also add a cup of raisins now, if desired.)

Using a whisk, whip the egg mixture into the boiling rice mixture. Stirring constantly bring back to a boil. Pour into a large serving bowl. Chill before serving. (Note: Pudding thickens as it stands.)

This post is being linked to Designs by Gollum, where Foodie Friday is well under way. Please stop by and visit our hostess, Michael Lee, and see what others are cooking up for the dual holiday on February 14th.

Happy New Year and Happy Valentine's Day..........Nancy

Foodie Friday - Japanese Steak House Sauces and Restaurant Week in NYC

2010-02-04T21:09:00.013-05:00

If I ask my husband what he'd like me to make for dinner, 9 out of 10 times it will be some type of Asian food. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, or Thai food will put a smile on his face any night of the week.

One of our favorite dinners is a Japanese steak house style plate. Mushrooms, zucchini, and rice are the mainstays. We use beansprouts if we have them, and then we complete the meal with chicken, shrimp, scallops, beef or lobster. This past week we chose chicken, because I had some in the freezer.
While the meat or fish and vegetables are certainly delicious served as prepared, they are tremendously enhanced by the addition of ginger or mustard sauce. Years ago I stumbled upon the recipes for both. I make them well in advance of preparing the rest of the meal, so the flavors mellow a bit.

Japanese Ginger Sauce

1 small onion , sliced 1 small piece of ginger cut into small dice

1/2 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

Place all ingredients in a blender and mix at high speed for 2 minutes, until ginger and onion are finely chopped. Just before serving, strain if desired.

Japanese Mustard Sauce

1 Tablespoon dry mustard 2 Tablespoons hot water 1/4 clove garlic, crushed

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted 3/4 cup soy sauce 3 T. whipping cream, whipped

In small bowl, combine mustard and water until smooth. Place in blender and add remaining ingredients except whipped cream and blend on high until smooth. Remove to bowl and stir in whipped cream.

BTW: You don't need a hibachi table to prepare this meal. Any griddle or large flat fry pan works just as well.

Please go visit our hostess, Michael Lee, at Designs by Gollum for more Foodie Friday surprises. She'll have Mr. Linky up and ready to take you on this weeks culinary tour.

Foodie Friday Extra!!!

Restaurant Week is drawing to a close in NYC. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this event, participating restaurants charge a reduced price for full course lunches or dinners. This year the lunch price was set at $24.07. Reservations are snapped up quickly, but this year my son was able to get one for lunch at Nobu, chef Nobu Matsuhisa's trendy restaurant in Tribeca. He's wanted to go there forever, but the budget of a family of four didn't really permit the luxury. To say he was excited would be a total understatement. He kept sneaking pictures of the food with his phone and sent them along after each course! Here's the email he sent when he returned home...further proof that some Foodies are born into the fold. (BTW: He's a really good cook, too.)

The food was simply outrageous. It WAS the best meal I've ever (and probably will ever have) eaten. The portions were proper, too. We left satisfied, and didn't have to make an emergency stop at Grimaldi's on the way home (that was our contingency plan should they give us teeny-tiny bites of really nice food). If they do it next year, I want you and Dad to come - he would've been in heaven between the Rock Shrimp Tempura w. Creamy/Spicy sauce and the Beef Anticucho. The sauce on the Anticucho was brilliantly spicy with Peruvian peppers, and required the provided sticky rice to temper the heat - right up Dad's alley. You probably would've chosen entree #3 - almost every diner around us did - the broiled Black Cod with Miso. It smelled heavenly, and the fish was flaking off of everyone's chopsticks. It looked perfect.

The Sashimi Salad was pan-seared tuna with pepper crust, two large pieces, over mixed greens, with Chef Nobu's personal dressing, the best variation on a sesame-ginger I've ever tried. I tasted equal parts ginger/garlic/onion, and had a low acidity point, as to not further cook the fish. The sushi was fantastic - every piece melted in our mouths, not like what we get at places around here, which is tasty but requires some work. These were all "like butter!" M shared two pieces of her tuna roll with me, as well as the maguro (tuna) and cooked shrimp sushi. She polished off three different pieces of white fish (looked like sea bream, yellowtail, and smoked salmon), salmon, salmon roe (I identified it for her - she loved it), and 4 pieces of the tuna roll.

Dessert was Tofu Cheesecake! I was worried we'd get some variation on green tea ice cream, but they totally came through - light, fluffy, and absolutely delicious, it was served with a lemon-orange sauce, a spoonful of syrupy diced apple, and a crispy chip seasoned with cinnamon and cardamom. It made for a perfect finish to a perfect meal.

Food for Thought

2010-01-29T12:46:00.000-05:00

Consuming Passions - A Food Obsessed Life *****

Do you read cook books like they're novels? Do you enjoy a good memoir? Do you like to laugh? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Consuming Passions by Michael Lee West should fly to the top of your 'must read' list.

~~~

Author West takes us on a guided tour of the southern kitchens that she knew as a child, but she doesn't stop there. With a witty and breezy writing style, she also candidly chronicles her adventures and mishaps in her own kitchen, while sharing treasured family recipes. Stories about making breakfast for her new husband, mastering the art of making her grandmothers buttermilk biscuits, her husband's foray into bee keeping, and the quest for the best egg salad recipe are wonderful telltale vignettes of a true foodie's life.

~~~

There are also helpful hints scattered through out the book. We learn how to season cast iron cookware, what type of food to bring to a funeral, how to handle kitchen fires and what to do when you're burned while cooking. The aunts and Mama also liberally dispense advice on men folk, and some of their hysterical observations certainly ring true!

~~~

Along the way we're introduced to a wonderful cast of family characters. Aunt Dell, the family 'artiste', Aunt Tempe, renown for her coconut cake, and Ary Jean, West's mama are just a few of the colorful southern women who bring spice and life to this memoir. They're so skillfully drawn, that you feel you know them by the end of the book.

~~~

So pour yourself a tall glass of sweet tea, (if you don't have a recipe there's one in the book), and settle down for a most enjoyable read. Of course you won't be seated for long, because when you read some of these recipes you'll be on your feet, in the kitchen, and up to your elbows in flour!

~~~

This post is being linked to Food For Thought. If you'd like to read more book reviews please just click the icon at the top of this page. You won't be disappointed.

Foodie Friday - Cheatin' Pizza

2010-01-28T21:44:00.007-05:00

Meet my new best friend... Yes, it's that cute little Poppin' Fresh, and he brought me a pizza crust! That's a good thing to have on hand when you've had a hectic day, all of a sudden it's 6PM, and you need a quick, easy dinner. (This is especially true when it's really, really cold outside, and a trip to the local pizza joint just isn't gonna happen.)

My husband and I like thin, crisp crust, so first we roll the dough out with a rolling pin on a large, very lightly oiled cookie sheet.
It goes into a hot oven for a few minutes to crisp up a little,

Then my sous-chef, aka: husband, will cover the crust with sauce and toppings. This particular 'pie' is half white, which is a mixture of ricotta, grated pecorino romano and shredded mozzarella. We ran a small clove of garlic through the press and chopped some fresh basil, then tossed those seasonings into the cheese mixture as well.

Now back into the hot oven for about 12 minutes, (NB: After 5 minutes, your house will smell like a wonderful Italian restaurant. It's a nifty bonus!)

Now for the finished product...

Start to finish this only took us 25 minutes, and there's always enough left over for lunch the next day. Best of all, it was piping hot, because it didn't have to take a ride in a cold car and be carried though a 16 degree night.

Please stop by Designs by Gollum and see what else was cooking this week around the blogosphere. Our hostess, Michael Lee, has provided Mr. Linky to guide you on your way...

Waffle Iron give-away!

2010-01-23T20:12:00.013-05:00

With just a few minutes of your time, and a little bit of luck, your next batch of waffles could be baking in this hot little number...and it even comes with a box of waffle mix!

Have you seen the waffle iron give-away at Heart and Soul Cooking? Just click on the link to visit Geri and get the scoop on how to enter.

While you're there, you may want to check out the rest of Geri's delightful blog. Some mighty fine things going on there...

Foodie Friday - Simple Shrimp

2010-01-21T19:15:00.014-05:00

Here's a tongue twister for you to try - Spectacular Super Simple Shrimp Supper. Repeat continuously while you're preparing this dish, and by the time you've gotten it right, dinner will be on the table! Yes, it comes together that quickly, and it's wonderfully tasty to boot. It's one of our go to meals on a busy day. I really don't have a recipe for this, but I can give you some guesstimates and a game plan for preparation. You can, of course, adjust the amount of any ingredient to suit you or your family's tastes, and you can double amounts for a larger group. Most of the ingredients are probably staples that you keep on hand, and this makes it a perfect meal for unexpected dinner guests.

One 15oz can of plain stewed tomatoes
Olive oil
One small to medium onion, diced
One or two cloves of garlic run through a press or finely minced
A few liberal splashes of dry white wine
Minced fresh parsley
Minced fresh basil
Salt
As many shelled, deveined shrimp as you'd like to add (You can also use bay scallops, sliced sea scallops, tiny fresh clams that have been well scrubbed or any combination of the seafoods mentioned)
Hot cooked pasta of your choice - my husband and I prefer linguine
Freshly grated pecorino-romano or parmesan cheese
Freshly ground pepper

Briefly saute the chopped onion in the olive oil. (Do not let brown.) Add the garlic and saute for another 30-45 seconds. (Again, do not let brown.) Turn off the heat and add a few splashes of the wine...maybe 1/4 cup or so. Turn the heat back on, and add the stewed tomatoes. Break up any large tomato pieces with a wooden spoon. Toss in the minced herbs and a tiny bit of salt, if desired. Give everything a good stir, pop in the seafood and cover. After a minute of two, give the mixture another good stir, cover again and let the seafood cook through...this will only take a few minutes. Turn off the heat, and let rest a few minutes for the flavors to marry. If necessary adjust seasonings, then toss with the pasta. Pass the pepper mill and grated cheese around the table for each diner to add according to personal preference. Crisp garlic bread and a tossed green salad are perfect accompaniments.
I wish I had gotten clams when I made this last week. They make this dish look a little more spectacular when they're sitting on top of the pasta peeking out of their shells, and they add a nice briny flavor to the sauce.

Now please stop by Designs by Gollum and see who else may have an easy entree up their sleeve. Our hostess, Michael Lee, will have a link ready to help you navigate the internet waters.

Food for Thought

2010-01-15T22:47:00.001-05:00

The Time Traveler's Wife *****

I tend to avoid reading anything that even remotely resembles science fiction. It's a genre that has never appealed to me. That being said, I was making it a habit to avoid The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. I didn't bother reading the New York Times book review. I ignored it when I saw it on the end shelf at the library or in a book store display. I ignored it when it appeared on the best seller list. Need I say that it never appeared on my long hold list at the library? Yet, the book seemed to be presenting itself to me at every turn. Odd, no?

Then one day, it appeared in my hands, carefully wrapped in pretty paper and tied with a bow. A birthday gift...ughhh. I smiled graciously, did a little ooh-aah dance, said thank you, then tossed it in to a carton of books being packed for our move to Pennsylvania.

It was several weeks before the book surfaced again. I was rummaging through moving boxes stored in our unfinished home. I needed some books to read while we waited in a residence hotel for our house to be move in ready, so I tucked it into my tote bag.

That afternoon, I opened the book and started to read. The Walcott poem was the first glimmer of hope that I had for this being a good read. It appears before the dedication and a prologue. It was the first hook...the prologue was the second. A few pages into the first chapter, I was a goner. A love story was emerging. Sure it was a quirky love story with the time travel twist, but the characters were finely drawn and complex. With each passing page, I was drawn deeper and deeper into their story and their unique problem.

The two main characters are Clare, the wife, and Henry, the time travelling husband. Henry never knows when he'll be subject to moving though time or how long he'll be gone. He doesn't know if he'll be going back in time or forward. He starts popping in and out of Clare's life when she is only six years old. She brings him food and clothing, since he's always hungry after one of his passages, and also arrives naked. Some of the food she brings him is quite odd. She later confesses that she wanted to find out if there was anything he wouldn't eat.

Henry is due to appear on Clare's 18th birthday, and she prepares a picnic 'feast' for him. She doesn't know how to cook, and seems to have no desire to learn, so she puts together a rather odd assortment of prepared items from her parent's larder. It's all part of a seduction plan that only an 18 year old could plot. You'll have to read the novel to see how it plays out...

Henry does know how to cook, and when they meet in 'real time' and begin their adult courtship, he prepares a dinner for Clare's 21st birthday...vichyssoise and salmon. He wants to take care of Clare and cooking is one of his offerings...an expression of his love.

By the time Henry is 43 and Clare is 35, he has had a glimpse of what the future has in store, and he begins worrying about leaving Clare alone. The couple also have a daughter, and he's concerned that he won't be there to take care of them. In an effort to prepare Clare for her future, he gives her cooking lessons. After Clare prepares her first meal, and realizes that she can now cook, she stares across the table at Henry and thinks, 'Don't leave me.'

I was rereading this book when the Food for Thought meme came about, and I'm now happy that I was. It was the perfect vehicle for me to join in the fun.

And just a closing thought...the perfect book can be like an abiding true love. You can be narrow minded and refuse to allow it to enter your life, but if it's meant to be, it will somehow find you and endure the test of time.

Please click on the Food for Thought button at the top of the page. It will take you to Once in a Blue Moon where our hostess has supplied a Mr. Linky connection to help you travel to other sites celebrating food and the written word.

Foodie Friday - Muffin Madness

2010-01-14T21:53:00.000-05:00

Baking muffins may not be the way to keep that New Year's resolution to lose weight, but it's certainly keeping my kitchen warm during the terrible spell of cold weather that has been invading the hills.

Last week I made a batch of French Breakfast Puffs, which are far and away my all time favorite morning goody. An ordinary, plain muffin becomes spectacular when dipped in melted butter, and rolled in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. I limited myself to 1 1/2 of these darlings, but it wasn't easy! On a good morning, I could polish off several of these in record time.

This week I tried a 'new' savory/sweet treat. The recipe for Bacon-Cheddar muffins has been languishing on a note card in my recipe box for such a long time, that I now have no idea who gave it to me!

A sweet muffin is studded with crumbled, crisply fried bacon and a smattering of sharp cheddar. My husband really enjoyed them, and they were definitely tasty, but I think I'd prefer these with less sweet and more savory. An extra strip of bacon, a little more cheddar and less sugar would be more to my liking. Have to admit, they did photograph well though, in spite of the fact that I'm having camera problems...

You can find the recipe for the French Breakfast Puffs at The Pioneer Woman. If you're one of those rare mortals who have never been to her blog, you're in for a real treat. She's one heck of a good cook and also just published a new cook book! Simply click on the link, and you too can become addicted to these tasty little morsels. I'm gonna hold back on the Bacon-Cheddar muffin recipe until I play with it a bit. I'm thinking it needs a little tweaking.

Now scoot over to Designs by Gollum, and see who else has been firing up their ovens to keep their house warm. Michael Lee is our hostess for Foodie Friday, and she has Mr. Linky up and running.

BTW: I've got a great dieter's tip to share. Go ahead and make that recipe that's on the forbidden list, then find victims, (excuse me, I meant to say something more like friends, family, co-workers,) with whom to share. You'll be surprised how quickly a basket of warm muffins can disappear!

Foodie Friday- Soup and Bread to beat the cold...

2010-01-08T19:56:00.015-05:00

There's nothing better than a steaming bowl of soup to take the chill out of your bones, so this week I whipped up a batch of Hearty Mushroom-Barley. What can be better than this, when the thermometer is headed to the single digits???How about adding a homemade loaf of herbed french bread that's still warm from the oven? It complimented the soup perfectly!

I discovered the bread recipe in the booklet that came with the bread machine that my husband insisted I own. I loathed the dang thing until just recently, when I started using it for the initial mixing, kneading and rising. Then I shape the loaves outside of the machine, pop them into my old bread pans and set them up for the last rise the way I do for my traditional recipes.
The results are much more satisfying. The crust is now nice and crispy, and this method gives me a more aesthetically pleasing loaf without the hassle of hand kneading or constantly monitoring the temperature for a perfect rise. Now that I've achieved a certain amount of peace with the Breadman, I'll be using it more often...on my terms, of course!

You can find the recipe for the soup on The Learning Channel's website or simply click here. I did add 1/4 oz. dried porcini mushrooms that had been soaked in boiling water for about 1/2 hour. We love mushrooms, and these imparted a smoky, rich, flavor. (Don't forget to add the water in which the mushrooms were soaked. It's loaded with flavor.) I also added a small clove of minced garlic, and left out the scallions. They just didn't appeal to me!

Now for the bread...

If you have a bread machine, you can follow the instructions for your unit until the shaping stage. Then simply shape, set to rise in a greased 10"x5"bread pan until doubled, and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes until done. Couldn't be any easier!

FRENCH HERB BREAD
Ingredients: for a 2 LB loaf

Water 80º F 1-1/2 cups
Olive Oil 1-1/2 TBL
Salt 2 tsp
Sugar 2 TBL
Dried Herbs, crushed 1 tsp
Garlic, dehydrated, 1/4 tsp
Garlic, powder 1/4 tsp
Bread Flour 4 cups
Active Dry Yeast 2-1/4 tsp
Select French Cycle

(Note: I skip the dehydrated garlic and substitute a few shakes of dehydrated onion. For the herb mix I use Italian seasoning, rosemary and parsley.)

For more recipes to take the chill out of the winter weather, please visit our Foodie Friday hostess, Michael Lee. You're sure to find a recipe that will warm up your kitchen and your soul.

Foodie Friday - Simple Food for the New Year

2010-01-01T11:29:00.001-05:00

We were on the road after Christmas. Went to visit our grandchildren in New York, and then went to the Sight and Sound theatre in Lancaster to see the Christmas show. Lots of fun, but very tiring, so my husband and I had a small New Year's Eve celebration at home. Minimal cooking was the order of the day, so we bought a few prepared goodies...a round of brie, some cured meats, a jar of taramosalata, and a large loaf of artisan bread.

We followed that up with lobster tails, risotto ala milanese, and asparagus with hollandaise sauce.

For dessert there were chocolate cannoli from one of our favorite Italian stores on Long Island. They package the shells and filling separately, so they don't get soggy. That's a good thing when you drive them a few hundred miles.

I was so lazy that I didn't even take pictures of the dinner. (I also dozed after dinner and never got this post done!) We just sat to table and enjoyed!

Hope all of you had a stress free New Year's Eve, and that 2010 brings you many blessings and much joy...

Please stop Designs by Gollum and say Hi to our hostess, Michael Lee. Bet there's some fancy foods on display this week, and you'll enjoy the array.

Foodie Friday-Christmas Classics

2009-12-25T21:23:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas to all! I'm a bit late posting this, but at least it's still Friday!

Earlier today, we enjoyed dinner with some friends at their home. My contribution was a smoked ham that was given a brown sugar, orange and mustard glaze. Oh my, oh my, was it ever delicious!
I also brought chocolate-raspberry squares to share, but I left one dessert at home...a pan of gingerbread. This evening, we topped the moist, spicy cake with lemon sauce.

It was a traditionally perfect ending to a peaceful and lovely day.

I hope everyone had a beautiful and blessed Christmas.

Nancy

PS: Please stop by Designs by Gollum and see who served what this holiday. Our hostess, Michael Lee, has Mr. Linky up, running and ready to assist you.

Christmas in the City

2009-12-23T11:24:00.007-05:00

Thought I would post a few more pictures of the Christmas street vignettes scattered around our home. These buildings and accessories are from the Department 56 series called Christmas in the City. If you've ever lived, worked or just visited Manhattan, I think they may bring back a memory or two.

Perhaps you've been to a see a show at Radio City...
and have seen the lovely Rockettes.Maybe you've gone to a Broadway show and have tried to get an autograph from one of the stars.
You may have walked by this synagogue in mid-town. This building is an amazingly accurate reproduction.If you were very brave, you probably rode the subway. Hopefully you didn't fall on a patch of that famous sidewalk ice!

Walking the streets, you might have caught sight of more than one couple who were desperately in love. Looks really hopeful, doesn't she?
You may have seen a fabulous toy shop...
or prehaps you bought flowers from a street vendor.Maybe you saw a business man getting a shoeshine on the street.Did you ever see Christmas trees being sold in the middle of the sidewalk?
And there are always Policemen around, although everytime I've asked one for directions they don't seem to know where to go!I'm old enough to remember organ grinders and their monkeys...and the sidewalk newstands, although they are almost all gone now.I hope that you've enjoyed this little tour, and that perhaps it's stirred a memory or brought a smile. Everyone should see the 'City' at least once at Christmastime!

Deck the Halls - Some of everything...

2009-12-21T17:40:00.016-05:00

Not long after my husband and I were married, I decided that we needed Christmas dishes and I found some I liked at a small gift shop in a neighboring town. Problem was that they were rather expensive, so I only bought a few pieces every year. I made it to 10 settings and then the shop closed! I really wanted 12, but never found them any where else.
Except for a broken cup and chipped dinner plate, we still have them and enjoy them every holiday season.Fruitcake update...It was fabulous. I say was, because it's gone.It was moist, very boozy, and luscious.It's now a memory. I think our guests enjoyed it too.

I thought that I would share some of our glass ornaments with you this week. Some are Radko's. Some are Polonaise. Some are dime store. Our collection has grown so large that it covers 2 trees...one in the living room and one in the master bedroom.

There are kings waiting to follow the star...

Some very fancy and artistic shapes...

some funny, cute, pretty or pious characters...

and many beautiful birds.

Many thanks to Susan at Thoughts From Over the Rainbow for hosting 'Deck the Halls' this year. Please stop over at her blog and thank her for her efforts, and while you're there, check out her lovely home and the decorations that all of the other participants have posted. Thank you Susan!

Foodie Friday-Real Men Eat Quiche

2009-12-17T18:27:00.007-05:00

Real men do eat quiche. I know this for a fact, because I've seen them do it when I serve these mini quiche appetizers at our parties. They really disappear quickly. I've also seen them eat small versions of spanakopita. They can't resist the spinach and feta filling.This year we're going to find out if they'll try this.... It's sauerkraut soup, and we serve it as part of our traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner called Wigilia, (which I'll tell you about next week), but we thought it would be fun to serve at our open house this Saturday.

Just in case no one likes it, there will be plenty of other soups, salads and sandwiches on the menu, along with a large assortment of different homemade appetizers. Here's what we're offering this year...

Manhattan Clam Chowder
Butternut Squash Soup
Pasta e Fagioli
Sauerkraut Soup

Caesar Salad
Spinach Salad with Mandarin oranges and Mushrooms
Potato and Green Bean salad

Roast Beef Wraps with horseradish sauce
Chicken club sandwiches with bacon
A make your own cold cut platter for Italian heroes
Hot open face mozzarella sandwiches with roasted red pepper and fresh basil.

Desserts??? We're going to crack open the fruit cake that I showed you last week
Frozen pumpkin torte with gingersnap crust
Raspberry-chocolate squares
Pecan pie
Plain vanilla cake

If anyone leaves hungry it won't be our fault.

Now, scoot over to Designs by Gollum and visit our hostess for Foodie Friday, Michael Lee. She's made arrangements to send you on a delightful culinary adventure. Bet there's lots of Holiday cooking going on this week!
PS: About an hour ago, I had a pre-party meltdown, and declared that I'm crazy to be doing all of this cooking from scratch. I threatened to go to Sam's Club next year and just buy everything ready made. My husband listened patiently, the meltdown moment passed, and by now I'm back in the kitchen. I'm sure that's where I'll be all day tomorrow and Saturday, so please forgive me if I don't have a minute to visit until after the party. I'll catch y'all on Sunday...Nancy

Deck the Halls-Week 3

2009-12-14T16:16:00.020-05:00

Most of our Christmas decorations now involve our large collection of Department 56 Christmas houses, but we still have a few favorite items that we display every year. The Father Christmas that I made a number of years ago always has his place of honor. He's built on a large styrofoam cone and wire apertures. His gown, hat and sack are sewn, then saturated with fabric stiffener and draped on the form. Once he's dry, which takes forever, he's then given a liberal coat of gesso and painted. The final step is to apply an antiquing solution. I really look forward to bringing him out every year.
We always decorate our mantle, and with the exception of new battery operated candles this year, it pretty much has stayed the same for the last 2 years. The wreath is dotted with tiny white lights, which weren't on for this picture.

Most of our Christmas houses are in the huge wall unit in the living room. While I'm not terribly fond of this monstrous piece of furniture, it does serve its purpose this time of the year. Our builder drilled holes in all of the shelves to accomodate the wiring.

There's a city scene on the dresser of our master bedroom.
We also have a second tree in here, and it's a nice spot to watch a Christmas movie while my husband's watching hockey!

New this year is a scene on the small sideboard in our dining room. Victoria Station is a large piece, and really didn't fit any where else.

We even have city houses on top of our kitchen cabinets. The builder installed outlets up there to accomodate the plugs.

Each shelf in the living room wall unit it a complete street scene. They come alive at night when the lights go on...

We even have street lights.

There is a vignette that centers around skaters on the frozen river...

and another with a Vicar standing in front of his cathedral.

There is the obligatory English castle...and a housewife buying her Christmas turkey...or is that a goose???And then there are the pubs. We have several.All of the streets are heavily populated with people running their Christmas errands or doing their jobs. In the scene below, there are children dragging home the yule log.

I hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of our Dickens Village streets. Next week I'm thinking of taking you on a tour of the 'City'.

Now please visit Susan at Thoughts from over the Rainbow. She's our hostess for Deck the Halls, and she'll have Mr. Linky up, running and ready to take you on a fabulous tour through homes decorated for the holidays.

Foodie Friday- Fruit Cake

2009-12-11T21:05:00.000-05:00

I have a confession...I actually like fruitcake! Well, some fruitcakes, but definitely not those that are made commercially, as black as pitch and come in tins. I like the lighter variety.

I haven't made a fruitcake in a few years, but this year I had a hankerin' for one after I stumbled upon a recipe in one of my old cookbooks. The craving was lingering, so yesterday I cranked up the oven and started baking. This cake sent the most heavenly aroma through the house. It contains mincemeat, (which my husband and I both love), as well as candied fruit, and is flavored with vanilla. We did sample the few crumbs that were left in the bundt pan, and predict that it's going to be a winner. Of course we won't know for a week or two, because this little beauty is currently nestled in cheese cloth that has been doused with Grand Marnier. One more reason to love it! Oh, and once it's ripened it gets a drizzle of icing flavored with more brandy. I can't wait!

I'm not posting the recipe, because we haven't tasted this cake yet, but I bet if you go to Designs by Gollum, there will be many holiday recipes posted for Foodie Friday.

Deck the Halls-Week 2

2009-12-08T21:32:00.004-05:00

Sometimes mother nature is the best decorator. This past weekend, she dumped just enough snow to enhance our simple outdoor decorations.
The lights from the candles in the windows and the front door warmed up the crisp, white blanket at night...and some strong sun made everything sparkle during the day.

It's been lovely, except for the fact that I took the night shots in 24 degree weather. I had to defrost the camera when I came indoors.

Now please visit Susan at Thoughts from Over the Rainbow for some truly lovely Christmas decorations.

Deck the Halls - Week 1

2009-11-30T22:50:00.003-05:00

My home is still under 'Christmas construction' and we're not even close to being finished, so I thought I would share 2 photos from our trip to Bethlehem, PA in December of 2008.

One of the historic buildings in town had a simple yet elegant garland and wreath decoration. It was just charming in its simplicity. See the object over the door? It's a Moravian Star. In a post later this month, I hope to explain the Moravian-Bethlehem connection.
Below is a photo of one of the buildings in the downtown area. Oh how I wish I could tie my house in ribbon!
Now just to prove that we really are working, here are a few shots of my house. See those boxes? All of them contain our Christmas village houses and accessories, and that's only a few of them! There were dozens more...in the living room...

on the couch...

and in the kitchen and the master bedroom.

I am happy to report that all of those boxes are now empty, and 95 houses and several sets of street lights have been unpacked, wired and placed in position. Now we really start to decorate!

Hopefully by next week, I'll have tons of pictures...

Please visit Susan at Thoughts from over the Rainbow. She's hosting Deck the Halls, and if you stop by to visit her you can see her wonderful decorations and the decorations of other participants.

Foodie Friday-Turkey Tired?

2009-11-28T00:21:00.007-05:00

It's time to face the awful truth. As much as you might have anticipated Thanksgiving dinner with all of the trimmings, within the next 24 to 48 hours you will be sick of turkey. Another mouthful of dressing will put you over the edge, and the simmering carcass that you feel obliged to use for turkey soup will have lost it's appeal.

If you're feeling like I am, why not just dump that carcass??? (I finally 'fessed up last year and admitted that I don't even like turkey soup all that much!) Now may be a good time to think Italian and whip up a nice batch of broccoli rabe, laced with hot Italian sausage, garlic and sun dried tomatoes. Toss it with your favorite pasta, sprinkle with freshly grated pecorino-romano, enjoy, and be thankful all over again.
Please visit our Foodie Friday hostess, Michael Lee, to see who else may be suffering from turkey overload. Mr. Linky is up and running to help you on your way!

Foodie Friday - Scungilli Marinara

2009-11-19T20:51:00.009-05:00

I'm starting to think about holiday cooking, and for some reason, Italian Christmas eve cooking popped into my head. It's a good bet that this all started last night when my husband produced a can of scungilli from the larder. About 30 minutes later, lovely slices of mollusk coated with a rich, garlicky marinara sauce were nestled on top of hot, freshly cooked pasta. Dinner was served.

Now I'm not Italian, and I'd never tasted this delicacy until I started dating my husband. I was introduced to it at my future mother-in-laws house, where it was a staple. I have to admit, it was love at first bite, and I immediately asked for the recipe, which turned out to be pretty simple. (BTW: My husband's not Italian either, but his mom adored Italian food, and they did live in a predominately Italian neighborhood on Long Island where fresh and canned scungilli were fairly easy to obtain.)

So what exactly is scungilli??? Simply put, it's a large mollusk with a spiral shell that's found along the Italian coast line. There is also a type that is harvested in the waters off the east coast of the U.S. Sometimes, scungilli is mistakenly called conch, but it's actually a large marine snail that belongs to the whelk family. It's a pretty fine distinction.

Traditionally served as part of an Italian Christmas eve meal, it can be tossed into marinara sauce or prepared as a seafood salad with onion, celery, and a simple dressing of oil, vinegar, lemon juice and seasonings. We love it both ways.

My recipe is pretty simple. Start with a good marinara sauce. Homemade is, of course, preferable. (Scungilli is currently running about $12 a can locally, so you want to show it some respect!) Season your marinara with hot pepper flakes to taste. Open and drain canned scungilli and rinse well with cold water. Get your marinara sauce as hot as possible and remove from heat. Immediately add the rinsed scungilli, and slap a lid on to let them heat through. This will keep them tender. (NB: My husband actually likes his portion chewy, so he simmers his portion!)

These are best served over friselle biscuits, which are peppery, hard, biscotti like breads. The friselle have to be dipped in hot water before you coat them with sauce. We haven't been able to find them locally yet, so we just stick to pasta.

So, if you'd like to get adventurous, give scungilli a try. You may just find you like them!

Please visit our Foodie Friday hostess, Michael Lee at Designs by Gollum. If you're not a seafood lover, I'm sure you'll find something else to whet your appetite.

Foodie Friday - Afternoon Tea at the Library

2009-11-12T19:28:00.003-05:00

After much planning, and an aborted attempt last spring, our local library hosted its first afternoon tea this past Sunday, and I must say that it was exceptionally well received. Some red hat ladies told us that it was the best tea they've ever attended, even better than those given at a large local hotel! We're exhausted so we'll take the praise. I think we've earned it...

We've spent months collecting mismatched china, and teapots to set our tables. Small fresh flower arrangements graced each table, (I even got to use the pink birds that I wrote about last March!), and each guest received a beautifully decorated teapot cookie and one of the chocolate purse favors that I showed you in a post in October. A keepsake menu was also placed at each seat.
I didn't have my camera with me, because I knew that I wouldn't have time to snap pictures. Luckily, a friend who came to help serve brought hers and shared the following shots.
Here's the main room almost ready for guests... and one of our place settings. The place card you see is actually a bit of 'tea trivia.' Different facts and legends about tea were printed on cards and scattered about the tables. All of the tables were covered in lace, and there were embroidered linen and cutwork napkins.
We set up a dessert table and decorated it with an antique tea set filled with flowers. In this shot, desserts are still being brought out from the kitchen. Every square inch of this table was covered with goodies...
And then our guests arrived and began their mini feast by nibbling on scones with lemon curd, Devonshire cream, and raspberry jam. Next came the tea sandwiches...chicken salad en petits choux, Branson pickle, sharp cheddar and leaf lettuce on whole wheat fingers, cucumber bites with seasoned cream cheese and fresh dill, ham and pickle salad on rye flower rounds, and cream cheese and green olive on country white. Scones and sandwiches were plated and brought to table, as were steaming pots of Earl Grey. The dessert table was self serve, and available all afternoon.

Chances were sold on baskets, and drawings were held for door prizes. My friend's little one drew the chances...
and then she drew her own name for the coveted basket that held a tea set. She immediately ran to her mother repeating, "I didn't look Mommy, I really didn't." It was pretty funny.

And here's the happy winner and her mom. They really enjoyed a nice mother-daughter outing.

So the tea is over, and everyone is asking if we'll have one next year. Probably...but we need a larger committee, more help, more bakers, etc. Lots of women told us that they're going to bring all of their friends...What have we gotten ourselves into???

BTW: Since Monday night I've been drinking lots of tea and only tea. Pretty sure that this is the flu. The fact that I could stay awake long enough to publish this post just amazed me.

If you're able to stay awake, and wish to be tantalized by amazing food, please visit Designs by Gollum. Our hostess, Michael Lee, will have Mr. Linky ready to escort you around the blogosphere.

How to celebrate your birthday when it ends in a zero...

2009-11-11T22:28:00.005-05:00

This is how you celebrate your birthday when it ends in a zero.

Have a tea. At your house. Make a lot of tea food. Invite the friends you really love. Buy a funky dress and a funky hat. Make your friends do the same. And laugh. Laugh a lot.

It was a really good birthday.

Foodie Friday - A Heavenly Banana Cake

2009-11-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

So I did get my very own copy of Heavenly Cakes, Rose Beranbaum's new book. I haven't signed up to be a Heavenly Baker because of too many on going projects, but I have dabbled a bit with a few of the recipes.

Last weekend, I made her Banana Refrigerator Cake with Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting. This cake is a bona fide winner. Who knew that a banana cake could be so light, so tasty, so spectacular???

For the first time ever, I used baking strips around the outside of the pans and I have to admit that I am thrilled with the results. The cake rose perfectly and the outside edges didn't over brown while the center finished baking. I'm a convert. I'll be using them from now on.

Next time I make this cake, I'll definitely use Rose's frosting variation that omits the white chocolate. Even though the frosting on this cake is pretty wonderful, my husband and I have agreed that we're just not white chocolate lovers. For those of you who are, go for it. You'll have a heavenly experience.

Please go visit our Foodie Friday hostess, Michael Lee, at Designs by Gollum. You'll finds tons of folks who have prepared a Foodie Friday post.

PS: Maybe next week I'll have some pictures from the benefit tea that we're doing this weekend at our local library. I started baking today and I'll be at it until tea time on Sunday afternoon, so please forgive me if I don't visit you all until after Sunday!

Foodie Friday - One Roast Pork, Four Meals

2009-10-29T22:25:00.015-04:00

Last Sunday I made a traditional roast pork dinner. With only my husband and me in the house now, we had plenty of leftovers and managed to put them to good use.

One night we had an improvised version of Hu Tieu do Bien, a Vietnamese soup. It's fast and easy when you add the thinly sliced cooked pork just before serving.
Next up was a batch of guilt free Roast Pork Egg Fu Yung. Making the pancakes in a non-stick skillet really reduces the calories.

For the sauce,I used defatted leftover gravy as the base, and enhanced it with a dash of soy, a bit of mirin, a little rice wine vinegar, and a few drops of sesame oil.
Tasted like the restaurant version. Always does.

Tonight, we thoroughly enjoyed another round of the Asian Street Sandwiches that I did a post on back in June. They're always a treat.

With such different dishes, we didn't grow tired of eating the same meat all week, but just to change things up a bit, I may have to declare next week vegan!

Please go visit Designs by Gollum to see who else has cooked something up for Foodie Friday.

Move Over Kate Spade...

2009-10-28T08:33:00.009-04:00

I've gone into the purse making business.

I've made 7 dozen of these babies.
Dooney and Burke and Coach should be worried, very worried. I'll be giving them a run for their money...
because my purses are filled with what every woman wants...
Chocolate!

Bet Kate Spade is shaking in her boots...

Foodie Friday - Solving an apple problem

2009-10-22T20:58:00.019-04:00

My husband recently went on an apple shopping spree. The price was right, and he's an excellent bargain shopper, but how in heaven's name could two people ever eat several pounds of apples before they turn to brown mush? I knew I had to bake something, but what??? We had just devoured an apple pie, and my other fall back recipes don't require hugh amounts of apples.

I started scanning the internet and stumbled upon a scrumptious looking Apple Upside Down Cake at Butter Yum. I was drooling all over the keyboard by the time I finished my emergency email to BY. How do I get the recipe for this fabulous cake??? I felt a tad stupid when I recieved Butter Yum's sweet reply. Turns out that I was so smitten by the gorgeous cake, that I didn't read the whole post and hadn't realized that it was a Heavenly Cake Baker's cake of the week, from a new book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Well, I looked at the book on Amazon and I can tell you now, that as sure as God made those little green apples, I will own that volume in the very near future. In the meantime, however, I still needed to use the apples aging on my kitchen counter. I went back online for more recipe ideas, but couldn't get the upside down cake out of my mind. Sure, I found recipes, but there was something in each one that I didn't like or didn't have in the house. The only solution was to combine several recipes. I did, and this is the delicious result...

I don't think I could recreate this exact cake again. My apples were already a bit too soft. I was less than exact with my measurements. I will never remember which recipe I took which step from or in what order.

But sometimes life in the kitchen serves up a happy accident.

My husband and I are certainly enjoying this one!

Please visit Designs by Gollum and see what's cooking with everyone else on this Foodie Friday.

Fall Decorating

2009-10-22T11:31:00.018-04:00

Autumn is my favorite season. Give me a crisp fall day, trees in glorious color, a crunchy, tangy apple and a warm, snugly sweater and I'm in heaven. Oh, and I need to pull out the fall decorations for the house.
Cats and ghosts...
farmers hawking their harvest foods...

a skeleton in the village...

several scarecrows...

wreaths and foliage...
dried grasses and pumpkins...

a spooky tree that lights up and flashes...

and, of course, our fall village houses are part of the fun.

And then there's my husband's collection of Halloween ornaments that grace the ugly tree...

A devilishly cute devil...

a pumpkin man and a cute raccoon...

a pumpkin head, and a black cat are just some of his favorites.

Alas, autumn just flies by. Next week is Halloween, and I'll have to weed out the witches, ghosts and goblins, but not to worry...the pilgrims and turkeys are waiting in the wings.

Foodie Friday - A Fine Kettle of Fish

2009-10-15T22:30:00.004-04:00

I've been cooking. I really have. I just haven't had time to blog about it or snap a few pictures, since June. Eeeek! June??? What month is it again? Was there a summer this year? Did I miss it??? I vaguely recall barbecuing my way through July, August and most of September. I even seem to remember baking, sauteing or stir frying a number of meals. We ate, ran, and never snapped one photo. To say it was a busy summer would be an understatement. So far autumn has been the same. Life has been crazy I tells 'ya, just crazy! But all of that is a post for a later date. We've got bigger fish to fry, errrr, saute.

Tonight we address the simple flounder fillet and how it can be elevated to a true culinary masterpiece.

Flounder with Shrimp Sauce has been a favorite dish since we first tried the recipe many years ago. Gently sauted flounder is covered with a delicate cream sauce laced with sherry and studded with shrimp and mushrooms. It's a stunning dish that's worthy of fine table linens, china and special dinner guests, or just a weeknight supper with your hubby.

We discovered it in the Seafood volume of the Bon Apetit cook book series, which I collected in the 80's when we were younger and could eat anything. I do love these books, and use them frequently.

I've lightened the recipe considerably to meet our new household dietary restrictions, and I'm happy to report that low fat butter substitutes and skim milk work just fine for the sauce. I use fresh herbs and have a heavy hand with them. The results are still pretty darn amazing.

Here's the recipe, copied from my cook book that has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous cooking... Did I mention that I really love these cook books?

Flounder with Shrimp Sauce:

Now scoot over to Designs by Gollum, hosted by Michael Lee, and search the other blogs participating in Foodie Friday. Find a side dish and maybe a dessert and have a weekend feast.

'Till next time... Nancy

Foodie Friday - Could this be Deborah's Lemon Chicken?

2009-06-25T22:38:00.007-04:00

Remember the running joke about Lemon Chicken on Everybody Loves Raymond? Deborah cooks it for Raymond on their first date, and it's so delicious that he just assumes that she knows her way around the kitchen. Of course, in typical sitcom fashion, Deborah turns out to be a terrible cook, (with the exception of that one dish), and the joke was on Raymond. The chicken is mentioned in a number of subsequent episodes, (everyone always loves it),but we the viewers never find out much about the recipe. Will wonders never cease? Network television had given us a chance to use our imaginations and mine went straight to a chicken dish that I've been making for years...Crispy Lemon Chicken. Touting Asian flavors, this dish will definitely wow the most tainted palate. Could this be Deborah's signature dish?
***

Crispy Lemon Chicken

***

About one pound of thinly sliced, boneless, skinless chicken breasts

***

Marinade: (Mix in shallow bowl and marinate chicken in refrigerator for approximately one hour)

1 egg, well beaten

1/4 t. salt

1 t. pale dry sherry or oriental cooking wine

1/4 t. sugar

juice from 1/2 of a lemon

***

Sauce: (combine in a bowl and set aside)

1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 T. rice vinegar

1 1/2 T. pale dry sherry or oriental cooking wine

1 T. sugar

4 T. soy sauce

1 C. clear chicken broth

***

Have the following prepared before starting sauce:

1 heaping T. fresh ginger root, minced

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 C. finely chopped scallions

1/3 cup finely shredded red or green bell pepper

***

1 T. cornstarch mixed with 1 T. water

***

Juice from 1/2 of a lemon

***

canola or peanut oil

***

cornstarch on plate for dredging chicken

***

Heat 1 T. oil in wok. Add ginger, garlic and scallions and stir fry for one or 2 minutes until aromatic, but do not let brown. Add shredded pepper and stir fry for another 30 seconds. Add liquid mixture and when sauce starts bubbling quickly mix in the cornstarch slurry. When thickened, remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Set aside.

***

In large fry pan, heat about 1/4 inch canola oil. Dredge chicken in cornstarch and fry until crisp and lightly browned. Drain.

***

To serve, place chicken on white rice and drizzle with sauce. Garnish with lemon slices.

***

Please visit Michael Lee at Designs by Gollum. She's the genius behind Food Friday and each week facilitates a calorie free culinary tour of blogland.

Foodie Friday - Substantial Summer Salads

2009-06-19T11:11:00.009-04:00

Over the past few months I've been on the look out for summer salads to add to our repertoire. If it ever stops raining here in the hills, (it's rained on 18 of the last 25 days!), there are now two new recipes that will come in handy during the summer barbecue season. Earlier this spring, we gave each side dish a trial run, and declared them keepers.

Potato Salad with Grainy Mustard Dressing was the first success. Because it's best served at room temperature, it's a good make ahead salad, and I suspect that it will adapt to whatever vegetables are in season. The version shown here included red potatoes, grape tomatoes, roasted bell pepper, asparagus and green beans. Steam, boil, or roast the vegetables that require cooking until crisp-tender.

Dressing:

Zest and juice of a large lemon

1 1/2 t. whole grain mustard, or more to taste

a clove of minced garlic

A dash or two of white wine vinegar

1 T. olive oil

2 T. finely chopped parsley

Sprinkle of dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all ingedients together, pour over prepared vegetables and gently toss.

The recipe, Asparagus with Warm Tomato Vinaigrette, became a salad side dish with the addition of pasta, in this case elbows.

Substantial enough for a main dish vegetarian meal, it's also a nice change of pace pasta salad. You can find the recipe here. Just remember to add the pasta!

Now, I hope you join me as I pop over to Designs By Gollum to see what else is cooking on this Foodie Friday. I know for sure that our hostess, Michael Lee, has whipped up a lovely dessert. Have a good weekend.

Foodie Friday - The Anatomy of a Killer Sandwich

2009-06-12T22:23:00.002-04:00

When is a humble sandwich not so humble? When it's an Asian Street Sandwich created by Guy Fiore of Food Network fame. I stumbled upon this recipe in the July 2009 issue of Family Circle magazine, and knew on the spot that we'd have to give it a try.

See those rays of light that seem to be emanating from this delightful creation??? I'm sure they're no accident, because this sandwich is heavenly.

Thin slices of seasoned roast pork, marinated cucumbers, lettuce, cilantro and a spicy mayonnaise, are all tucked into a lightly toasted club roll.

The resulting sandwich is a movable feast that will bring you to your knees in thanksgiving.

I usually have trouble finishing one sandwich. The night we made these I polished off 2 with no problem! (I convinced myself that a second serving was necessary for blogging purposes...I thought it would be a noble thing to obtain better Foodie Friday photos.)

We had half of a leftover teriyaki roast pork loin sitting in the fridge, so I didn't need to prepare the meat. We just whipped up the mayonnaise and marinated the cucumbers. What a great way to use left over pork!

For the cucumbers:

Marinate thinly sliced, peeled cucumber in 1 T. soy sauce, 1 T. brown sugar, 1/4 C. rice wine vinegar, 1/4 C. mirin, and 1 T. fresh minced mint for 10-15 minutes.

For the mayonnaise:

Mix together 1/2 C. mayo, 1 T. oyster sauce, 2T. chili garlic sauce, and 1 t. sesame oil. Let stand for 5 minutes. (Use less chili garlic sauce if you're not a fan of spicy food, but do use at least a little!)

Assemble, enjoy, and then reminisce about it next day with your significant other!

Please visit our Foodie Friday hostess, Michael Lee, at Designs by Gollum. She has Mr. Linky up, running and ready to take you on a whirlwind tour of what's cooking in the blogosphere.

Foodie Friday - 'Julie & Julia' and the Tarte

2009-06-05T12:06:00.059-04:00

For the past several weeks I've been researching the life and times of Julia Child. It all started when I spotted the trailer for the movie Julie and Julia which is due to be released on August 7th. If you haven't seen the clip yet, take a peek and tell me if you're as intrigued as I am. (I adore Meryl Streep, Amy Adams is just too cute, and is it just me, or is Stanley Tucci downright sexy???)

Had I been living under a rock? I didn't know a thing about the Julie/Julia project...not about the blog and definitely not about the book! I scanned the blog, (okay...I was there for hours!), then headed to my library's website. Within a few days, Julie and Julia, (Julie Powell's book), My Life in France, (Julia Child's account of her experiences, co-authored by Alex Prud'Homme), Appetite for Life, (Child's biography by Noel Riley Fitch), and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, (volumes one and two), were sitting on my kitchen counter.

Of course, I immediately became too busy to just sit around and read, so I had to make do with stolen moments to dive into my treasure trove of books. I did get through them all, and was able to return them to the library without paying any fines. The glimpse into the lives of two very fascinating women left me mesmerized, yet I didn't feel fully sated because I hadn't had time to try any of the recipes! I admit that I wouldn't attempt many of the dishes immortalized in the cookbooks, (brains and sweetbreads...I think not), but I like liver, kidneys and a lot of other foods that many people find strange, and I do love desserts.

I was just about to retrieve volume one of MtAoFC, when I remembered a cookbook that had been languishing on my bookshelf since I received it a few years ago.

Unfortunately, I received this book when I was on chemo and never thoroughly explored it. Food held no interest when I was in treatment, and this thoughtful gift from a well meaning friend was set aside. How fortunate to have it now!

I didn't have a free day to bake until Memorial Day weekend, when rain delayed the big plans I had for planting a new garden bed. A quick browse through the book, and an even quicker trip to the store, resulted in Tarte Citron Mama... A light, delicate, almond cake that contains only one tablespoon of flour is topped with peeled, thinly sliced lemons, then crowned with a nut meringue. During the final baking, the lemons transform to create a sort of tangy filling. The combination of flavors and textures is just divine.

If you've suddenly developed a taste for something decidedly French, you can find the recipe here...

To discover more tempting dishes, please visit Designs by Gollum. Michael Lee is our hostess for Foodie Friday, and she has generously provided Mr. Linky to help you on your culinary adventure.

Foodie Friday - Train Wreck Edition

2009-05-14T23:14:00.008-04:00

A Recipe for Disaster:

One heaping cup of arrogance
One dollop of impatience
One wet potholder
One hot cake pan
A major amount of stupidity

Blend all of these ingredients together and this is the result...

The recipe said to let the cake cool completely in the tube pan. Why would I follow those directions? I'm a hot shot, experienced baker, right? And I was in a hurry, so I used a pot holder that had fallen into the sink and was a little wet. Wet potholder + hot cake pan = steam. Steam = burned hand. Burned hand causes hot shot baker to drop cake on counter. Cake deflates like a punctured balloon.

After holding hand under cold running water, I run for the camera. Husband turns in to "The Cleaner" and disposes of all large pieces of cake on counter. (Yes, he ate the broken pieces and declared that the cake tasted fine despite its pathetic appearance.)

The moral of this sad tale: Kitchen Train Wrecks - They keep you humble.

(And no, I did not give the cake the dignity of the prescribed glaze. No amount of glazing could repair that damage.)

Now go visit Designs by Gollum and see who else is sharing a kitchen disaster this week. It's so comforting to know that you're not alone!

(Please note that I'm still on break because of a heavy work load, but I hope to make the rounds and visit over the weekend.)

Foodie Friday - A Little Cake and a Little Break

2009-05-07T17:00:00.000-04:00

I honestly believe that most 'foodies' are genetically predisposed to their life long love affair with culinary endeavors. This yet unidentified gene may remain latent for a generation or two, but it will surface eventually, and yet another 'foodie' will be welcomed into the fold.

In my case, there was no escaping the call. My father, who was a baker by trade, (his father had owned and operated a large bakery), had also gone to The Culinary Institute of America when it was still located in New Haven, Connecticut. My mother and maternal grandmother were excellent cooks and bakers in their own right. So, what would Santa bring to a six year old girl who was born into this situation? How about a Betty Crocker Baking Set? It was my Red Ryder BB gun...the Christmas present that I just had to have...and Santa came through. While the potential of getting burned on an oven rack was always present, at least you couldn't shoot your eye out!

The picture below isn't my set. I'm sure that my set was given to a younger cousin when I graduated to full size kitchen equipment. I found this set on a vintage toy website. Guess that makes me officially old. Come to think of it, if I were a car I'd qualify for one of those special antique license plates!

Unfortunately, this was one of those gifts that had to wait to be used until December 26th. No matter how I pleaded, my mother would not take the Christmas rib roast out of the oven and allow me to start baking, so I half-heartedly had to occupy myself with my other presents.

In a bizarre turn of events, by the time Christmas dinner was on the table, my brother and I started to turn into chipmunks. By that night, we were chipmunks with high fevers and confined to bed. A quick call to the pediatrician the next morning confirmed my mother's diagnosis. The doctor gave my mother instructions and told her not to bring us into the office, because we had the mumps! They were spreading all over our little town, and ruining more than a few Christmas vacations. The baking set remained untouched under the Christmas tree.

It was almost the New Year before I got to bake my first cake. The sets came with mixes, and my first ever cake was vanilla with chocolate frosting. In the true spirit of a family who loved food, the moment was caught on film. That's my Dad supervising the frosting procedure. My Mother must have taken the picture.
This milestone became one of those stories that was repeated over and over at family gatherings. Seems I doled out teensy slices to my parents and brother and polished off the rest of the cake alone in one sitting. Before you judge me too harshly, it was a very tiny cake. Really, it was just a morsel!

I've baked hundreds, (maybe thousands???), of cakes since that first attempt, and I've also learned to share. In fact, I've gotten so good at sharing, that sometimes I don't get a piece! Recently, I baked my favorite cake, Chocolate Genoise, for a book club meeting. I forgot to take a picture before I left the house, and by the time I cranked up the camera at the meeting, this was the only photo I got! Luckily, the last piece was mine.

Let me assure you, that the cake looked like the photo in the Better Homes and Gardens Entertaining with Ease Cookbook that I've owned for over 20 years. I even bought, and learned to use, a decorating comb because of this cake.

It's not an easy recipe, but it's worth the effort. Light, airy chocolate cake is frosted with espresso buttercream and then decorated with the same buttercream that's further enhanced by semisweet chocolate.

I'll be a little short on computer time for the next several days because of the Postal Service food drive that's happening this weekend. It's going to benefit the pantry with which I'm involved, and that's brought some extra work my way, so I don't have time to post the recipe. If you would like the recipe, please leave a note and I'll tell you when I'm able to jot it down. Most likely, I won't have time to visit the other Foodie Friday blogs until later next week, but I will get around to visit at some point.

If you have time, please go to Designs by Gollum and check out who's posted what this week. The lovely Michael Lee, our hostess, provides Mr. Linky to make your tour a 'piece of cake'.

Foodie Friday - Cinco de Mayo para dos

2009-04-30T23:28:00.011-04:00

For our Cinco de Mayo celebration we invited Jose... set a bright table...

and whipped up a batch of Shrimp and Black Bean Enchiladas.
This recipe uses corn tortillas, and features a salsa created from fresh tomatillos, green chiles, scallion, garlic, cilantro, black beans and corn. It's a tangy, refreshing change from the run of the mill red salsas, and it's heart healthy! The recipe comes from the Mayo Clinic Williams-Sonoma cookbook. If you need to monitor cholesterol and fats, yet still want to enjoy gourmet food, give this cookbook a try. You won't be disappointed.

For dessert, we kept it light too, and made Cinnamon Crisps.
The bases for these fabulous morsels are flour tortillas that are kissed with vanilla, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, then baked. Top them with non-fat whipped cream and fruit and you have an easy and elegant dessert. Tonight we used fresh raspberries, kiwi and mandarin oranges. In short order, there was only one crisp left on the plate.
Alas, that too disappeared, but not to worry...they're so fast and easy we can make more any time! You can find the recipe here.

Now vamoose over to Designs by Gollum and see what everyone else has cooked up to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Our hostess, Michael Lee, has Mr. Linky ready to serve as your guide.

Foodie Friday - Spring Fling

2009-04-24T00:42:00.000-04:00

One of our favorite Spring vegetables is asparagus, and perhaps the way we like it best is in a stir fry with carrots, fresh ginger and a dash of soy sauce. Paired with teriyaki glazed Salmon and a wild rice medley, courtesy of Uncle Ben, it's a meal that can be on your plate in about 30 minutes.
It's the perfect, easy meal to prepare after a day spent working in the garden.

Looking for more Springtime meal ideas? Stop by Designs by Gollum and see the offerings for this installment of Foodie Friday.

Foodie Friday - Easter Food Review & The Blessing of the Baskets

2009-04-16T19:00:00.008-04:00

Holy Week is the busiest week of our year. My husband and I both sing with the choir, so we're at just about every prayer service and mass. I also help with altar preparations and decorating, and of course there's the cooking and baking that has to be done. This year I worked out a schedule that I'll probably use next Easter season. I was tired, but not frazzled, and everything got done. I always consider that the second miracle of Easter!

I baked two large loaves of Greek Easter bread. This is the after...
and this is the before...
I also made a cheese filled babka, which is my husband's favorite.
We baked ham, cooked kielbasa and boiled and colored eggs. Salt and pepper shakers were filled, and coffee, sugar and prepared horseradish were packed into containers. We also made sure that we bought a chocolate cross...
and that the lamb carved out of butter, that I wrote about in last week's post, was ready to go.
This is the reason that all of our cooking, baking and shopping had to be finished by Saturday morning.
All of the food that's served for our Easter breakfast, is packed into baskets and taken to church to be blessed at noon on Saturday. Baskets start to line the altar steps by 11:30AM...
and soon the aroma of smoked meats and freshly baked bread fills the sanctuary.
We were early, so I hopped up to the choir loft and started to snap pictures, but they weren't what I had hoped. The lights are put off after morning prayer and the church remains dark until the lighting of the new fire at the entrance to the church at the beginning of Easter Vigil at 8:00PM. I had to shoot in natural light on night setting and didn't bring my tripod! This was the best I could do under the circumstances. The day was overcast, but the sun did break through for a few minutes, and at least allowed me to take this blurry shot.
One of the wonderful things about the blessing of the baskets, is its multi-generational nature. Three, and sometimes four, generations gather together to carry on this tradition. I was able to get a cute photo of our friend's grandchildren.
At noon, our Pastor began the brief ceremony. He read from scripture, and spoke about his experiences with this custom, (he happens to be of Polish descent),

and then he blessed the baskets.

On Easter morning, our table was set with all of the traditional foods that had been blessed the previous day.

A few years ago, I found a tablecloth that we use every year. I love the way the pattern frames each place setting...

and the lovely scalloped border. The design is painted on the fabric, and then outline stitched in the same color.

After Easter we were faced with the annual ham and hard boiled egg dilemma. Ham sandwiches, ham salad sandwiches, ham and potato casserole, egg salad, and split pea soup are old standbys, but this year I really wanted to try some different recipes. I've never tried my hand at puff pastry sheets. I've always limited myself to the full size shells, and more recently the mini shells, but it looks so wonderful on so many blogs, that I gave it a try. I layered shave ham, sliced tomatoes, caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms, then topped it with a mixture of spinach and cream cheese and fresh basil leaves. The results were wonderful! I'm sure I'll be experimenting with it again in the near future.
I hope you'll stop by Designs by Gollum and take advantage of the Mr. Linky feature that our hostess, Michael Lee, so generously provides. Mr. L. will take you on a delightful culinary adventure.

And don't forget...the Easter season is just beginning!

The Flowers of Easter

2009-04-16T11:05:00.011-04:00

Nothing much is in bloom in our corner of Northeastern Pennsylvania because it's been unseasonably cold. A forsythia here, an occasional daffodil or a very brave early tulip is about all you see outdoors. An Easter with no flowers was unthinkable, but a trip to our favorite garden center solved the problem. The greenhouse was filled to overflowing with wonderful potted plants and arrangements, and we managed to find our favorites. They looked so beautiful, especially with the sun streaming through the windows, that I'll let them speak for themselves.

Don't you think they said quite a bit?

Foodie Friday - Behold The Lamb...

2009-04-09T14:24:00.012-04:00

I'm sure I would have loved my husband even if he wasn't of Polish descent, but he is and happily so am I. Our families kept the same traditions, so there was never an awkward moment when we had to figure out how to marry customs.

One of the traditions that we both grew up with, was a lamb carved out of butter that graced our breakfast tables on Easter morning. Our fathers carved the lamb out of a pound block of butter, but I've managed to scale back to a mini 1/4 pound version.
Here are the ingredients and tools.
First step is to make the basic form. This is one stick of butter that has been cut into various shapes and repositioned. At this point, we call him the sphinx and he's already getting soft, so he goes back in to the fridge to firm up a bit.

Next step is to soften all of the hard edges. I liked his basic shape, so I shaved bits of butter from a 2nd stick to create better curves. He started to get soft again, and had to be re-chilled.
Now we create a 'woolly coat' with the tines of a fork.
After yet another stint in the refrigerator, I transfer the little guy into a 'traveling bowl'. He's going to be going to church to be blessed on Saturday at noon, along with the rest of the traditional foods that will be part of our breakfast on Easter morning. (I hope to be able to take photos this year so I can share the tradition of the blessing of the baskets with all of you. It really is a lovely ceremony.)

Finally our little lamb is ready for some eyes, which are whole cloves with the center bud removed. He also gets a bit of something red to create a mouth. We used to use a piece of jelly bean, but this year I used a tiny sliver of dried cranberry.

We add a little parsley for grass, and his flag, and he's done. I love opening the fridge and seeing that sweet face. It's a gentle reminder of why we celebrate Easter.
You can now buy ready made lambs in the dairy section at the grocery store, and you can also purchase butter molds, but somehow it just wouldn't be the same. Watching the lamb take shape is like watching the fulfillment of the Easter promise unfold. We need to experience it every year. It's part of who we are.

Please stop by Designs by Gollum, and discover who else may be sharing some of their 'foodie' Easter traditions. Our hostess, Michael Lee, will have Mr. Linky ready to assist you.

A Happy and Blessed Easter to All... Nancy

Bunnies On Parade

2009-04-04T11:58:00.000-04:00

I usually pull out my bunnies at the beginning of Lent, and don't put them away until it feels like summer. Last year, I 'thinned out' the collection, and hauled quite a few to the white elephant sale at our church fair. This year, when I started to unpack them, it seemed like their numbers had grown again, and I swear I have kept my promise not to buy any more! I'm starting to wonder what goes on in those sealed cartons. It must be true that rabbits do multiply quickly.

I probably still have too many, but there will be no more downsizing. Only my favorites are left, and I'll always find a spot for all of them.

Perhaps the one I favor the most, is this little guy riding a rooster. I have to smile every time I walk by him...

but I also like the other rabbits in my new smaller stash. I like the rabbits who are good friends...

and the bunnies who pretend to be chocolate.

These sophisticates are here to stay.

The small, cuter than a button youngsters will always have a home...

This classic bunny is a keeper,

as is the lop eared.

The rabbits that work, have earned their keep. Some push wheelbarrows...

some haul carts...
some carry flowers...

while others hold eggs...

or candles.

Some just stand around looking pretty while they wait for the Easter Parade.
This fella is handsome, but way to large for most shelves.

There are rabbits over the mantle and on the mantle.

The potholders...

and dishtowls have rabbits on them too!

Oh, and can't forget the bunnies that serve at table...

or the mamas with their young 'uns.

I still love my rabbits, although the live outdoor rabbits have destroyed large chunks of my gardens over the winter. If I could, I'd like to do this with all of them...

Come to think of it, that may solve the rabbit population explosion too! Anyone know how to tell a boy ceramic bunny from a girl ceramic bunny, and where can I buy a bunch of glass domes, cheap???

Foodie Friday - Not Your Mama's Red Sauce!

2009-04-02T19:00:00.003-04:00

My husband prefers his pasta with home made marinara sauce, and he'd gladly eat it at least once a week. While I like the traditional tomato based sauce, I also like to change things up a bit. Not long ago, I finally found an alternate pasta recipe that makes us both happy. Pasta with Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, is a simple recipe that nets gourmet results. Quick and easy to prepare, it makes a perfect dinner on a busy weeknight, yet it's also elegant enough for weekend guests. The ingredients are things that I usually keep on hand. Tonight I was a bit rushed, and forgot to included a jar of roasted red peppers and basil in the picture. (Truth be told, I left the basil out of this shot intentionally. When I buy fresh basil, whatever doesn't get used immediately goes into the freezer. Frozen basil tastes closer to fresh than dried, and it's an acceptable substitute, but is not very photogenic! I can't wait until the pots of fresh herbs are back on my deck!) I have made changes to the original recipe. We like it best this way!

Pasta With Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

8 ounces pasta

1 cup frozen peas

Sauce:

1/2 cup oil-packed sun dried tomatoes - drained (NB: We've discovered smoked sun dried tomatoes in a resealable zip lock pouch. Make sure they say 'moist and ready to eat', otherwise you will have to soak them in water. They add a very distinctive touch to this recipe!)

1 cup roasted peppers, drained

1/3 cup good quality olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano cheese

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions, except add peas to pasta cooking water for the last 2 minutes of cooking time. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water before draining peas and pasta. Return peas and pasta to pot.

While pasta is cooking, make sauce. Combine sun dried tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, drained peppers, and salt and pepper in a food processor. Blend until almost smooth. Add 1/4 cup cheese and process until well mixed.

Add reserved cooking water, sauce, and 1/4 cup snipped basil to pasta & peas in pot. Toss gently. Serve with additional grated cheese.

In no time flat, this will be on your table, your taste buds will be very grateful, and you may feel like doing the mambo!

Now it's probably psychological, but my husband and I think that pasta tastes best in these bowls...
Maybe it's because they were a gift from a close friend, or maybe it's just that they're so whimsical that you're happy even before you start eating!

I did have a dickens of a time trying to photograph these dishes. They're so heavily glazed, that light reflects off of them in alarming amounts. In the picture above, you can see the recessed, pendant, and under cabinet lights from the kitchen reflected on the rim and the interior of the bowl.

In the picture below, you can see the lights plus the last bit of daylight coming through the windows from 3 different rooms. It took at least two dozen shots to get these two pictures!

To continue on your culinary journey, please visit the other bloggers participating in Foodie Friday. Our hostess, Michael Lee, at Designs By Gollum has Mr. Linky ready to guide you.

Buono Apetito!

Foodie Friday - Cleaning The Fridge, Stocking A Pantry, And Giving Thanks

2009-03-26T23:58:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, I need to be reminded to clean the fridge. Occasionally, the reminder comes in the form of a cucumber that rolled to the back of the crisper and is approaching a liquefied state. Other times, it's a bottle of something that expired a few months ago. This week, I was nudged into the chore when I made a cake for book club that needed to be refrigerated. I opened the door to the stainless steel monster, and every shelf was cluttered with odds and ends. What a nuisance! This week was busy enough without one more thing to do, but I had no choice and started to pull things off the shelves.

I can only assume, that Jupiter must have aligned with Mars or some such thing, because when I looked at the mishmash of ingredients on the counter, plans for dinner materialized. Five left over flour tortillas, half of a large onion, most of a red bell pepper, salsa, red and green taco sauce, a small piece of cheddar cheese, a chunk of colby-jack, and a handful of 'almost' fresh cilantro could make fajitas! I get upset when food gets wasted, so this job was accomplishing more than I had anticipated. After adding a chicken cutlet from the freezer, chopped garlic and a shot of liquid smoke, dinner was on the table in just over an hour...

and it was delicious. The ingredients that were on the cusp of their expiration date were used. The cake was in the fridge. All was right in my 'foodie' world, and I took a minute to give thanks, because there are people who don't have enough to eat, and would never complain about cleaning a stocked fridge, let alone having to find room for a cake. Those are the people that we serve at the food pantry at our church every week, and I consider it a privilege to be a part of this effort.
Last Spring, I approached our Pastor about starting a food pantry at our parish, and was surprised to learn that a young family man from our community had already brought up the possibility. The Pastor put us together, and introduced us to a non-profit organization that was already in existence in our county. We visited an established pantry in a neighboring town, and the wonderful couple who lead it became an invaluable resource. They patiently took us through their systems for paperwork and food handling, and gave us the knowledge we needed to get underway. Without them, we'd probably still be floundering. The planning, scrounging and work began in earnest last fall.

The basement in our Parish Center had just been cleared out and painted, and we claimed the largest room. Heavy old tables were stored in another room. No one wanted them, but they were perfect for our application, so we hauled them in to our space. We needed more tables and a parishioner was able to get us a few from his employer. We went begging for pallets to keep food elevated off of the concrete, and a local landscaper and a home improvement center donated them. When the pallets needed to be cut to size to fit under the tables, a friend who is a carpenter by trade obliged. We would have been helpless without his tools and expertise.

While our friend is cutting more pallets, the co-leader of our pantry is vacuuming up the sawdust.
The pantry was shaping up quickly now, so we put out a call for volunteers. We needed people to screen clients to make sure they meet eligibility requirements. We also needed men with trucks to assist with food pickup and delivery, and people to pack bags and manage stock. I should explain that all of the food that stocks our pantry is non-perishable. Most of it is purchased in bulk with money that comes to our parent organization from a state grant that's administered by the United Way. Additional funds that are used to purchase food come from corporate and private donations. We also receive food from food drives that are run by various organizations such as the Boy Scouts, school classes, and the Postal Service. Just recently we found that we were low on canned fruit and sent out an appeal to the people who attend the two churches that combine to make up our Parish. We covered our shortage until our next pickup was ready.

Below is a picture of our pantry shortly after we opened last December. Bags are being prepacked so they're ready when clients arrive. The pantry director works with a nutritionist who creates packing lists so that each bag contains the right assortment of food to create balanced meals. Sometimes when food runs low we need to substitute items, while still maintaining the proper balance. It can get a little tricky.

This past week our pantry had more stock, because a Boy Scout troop had just completed a community food drive. Sometimes it's scary how quickly food moves through this room.
Food from drives needs to be sorted, and expiration dates have to be carefully checked. We can't use canned milk from 2004, or undated packets of oatmeal that are taken from the box!

Below are two volunteers who are ready to check in existing clients or screen new applicants. Our pantry is designed to serve the most needy in our community, and it is necessary to carefully qualify each family or individual who comes to us.

Working on the food pantry has been quite an experience. It's certainly not glamorous, and at times it's frustrating to have to do paper work, make out schedules or do something concerning fundraising, but most often it's very rewarding and it's always pretty darn humbling.

For more food related adventures, pop over to Designs by Gollum. Our hostess for Foodie Friday, Michael Lee, has Mr. Linky ready to take you on a culinary cruise of blogland!

Bird Brained Decorating: A Sorta Scary Story

2009-03-22T02:00:00.001-04:00

Last month, I did a quick sweep through our local indoor flea market and found these adorable pink bird planters. The price was right, and they were in perfect condition, so on an impulse I snapped them up.

When I got my little treasures home, they were given a bath and buffed. Then I began searching for a place for them to nest.

I started in the foyer, but the newbies couldn't light there. A pair of peacocks had already claimed the space on the hall table next to a pile of books, and they complimented the picture frame. Best to leave that vignette alone and look elsewhere.

Next stop was the living room. There had to be a perfect spot in the behemoth of a wall unit. I went to have a look.

No room on this shelf. A pudgy budgie had alighted on another stack of books and looked too comfortable to displace. Don't you want to pinch those cute little cheeks?

Maybe a higher shelf on that side? Well, maybe not! The middle birdie seems to be saying, "Go ahead, make my day. Just try to move me!" My right eye started to twitch in anticipation of having it pecked out in a fit of avian fury. I moved on...
Couldn't bring myself to oust the Cardinal. I'm still feeling guilty because his dogwood blossom was broken during a move, and we haven't seen his wooden pedestal since before Christmas. He has a right to look miffed. It's not just my imagination, he does looked miffed, doesn't he???
Maybe I could move the small eagle. No, that wouldn't work either. Two pink birds in each hand are worth eight in the bush, so they certainly won't fit in this tiny space! Besides, I think he's giving me the eagle evil eye!
On the highest shelf, the large gyrfalcon was striking his usual majestic pose. It's the only shelf that accommodates his bulk. He definitely won't be relocating in the near future. He's also a strong and very fierce predator. Hmmmmm...Did I just see him blink??? I swear...he blinked at me! Didn't I read somewhere that they blink just before they move in for the kill???
I turned to leave the living room and had a full blown Tippi Hedren moment. (Remember The Birds???) I heard the sound of a thousand wings flapping, and through the chandelier window the sky grew dark. Tightly grasping my pink treasures, I looked right and saw birds facing one way.
I glanced left, and saw birds facing the other way! A chill went up my spine. A cold sweat coated my brow.
I spun around, and the massive wood carving that my husband has nicknamed The Claw, loomed over my head!
My heart started to pound, and I closed my eyes in an attempt to regain my composure, but it didn't work. Instead, my mind's eye flew to the metal wall hanging that was sitting in a spare room upstairs waiting to find a new home.
I raced into the master bedroom, and had to kick the door shut with my foot, because now I was clutching the pink birds to my chest. I raced for the closet to hide, but remembered the tapestry that was sitting on the floor still in it's shipping box. It's covered in blue birds! Now I regretted not being able to decide where it should be hung.
I slammed the closet door, and with shaking hands set the pink birds down on the dresser. I became weak in the knee as I looked around my bedroom with the khaki green walls and soft yellow accents. Why did I buy pink birds that didn't match anything in my house, and where was I going to put them? My head was swimming as I threw myself across the bed. How had so many birds gotten into our home? I turned on my side, and the last thing I saw before I fainted was the pattern on the soft, comfy quilt that's my current "blankie"... More birds!

Okay, that last part was a teensy exaggeration. I actually stretched out across the bed and took a short nap because it was Sunday afternoon, and I was frustrated at not finding the right spot for the new additions to the flock.

When I woke I felt much better. While dozing, I had a wonderful dream, and I was basking in the after glow. In the dream, the pink bird planters had been filled with tiny flowers and served as the centerpiece in a wonderful tablescape. Chocolate brown, mocha, and dusty rose hues swirled around meticulously arranged dishes. Flatware and crystal gleamed in the sunlight and linen napkins were pressed and folded to perfection. It was a glorious sight, but alas, it was a dream.

Fully awake, I realized that the birds would play a major role in a tablescape someday, when I had the time. It wouldn't be that day, but it would happen. I retrieved the pink birds from the dresser, and carefully placed them in the small sideboard in the kitchen.

That's where the pink birds were perched last night, while my husband and I helped ourselves to dinner straight from the pots in which it was cooked. The serving dishes stayed in the cabinets doing their usual job of holding down the shelf liners. We sat at the kitchen table, which had been 'tablescaped' with our best plastic placemats and paper napkins, and enjoyed our supper. It had been a busy week, and a busy Saturday. It was nice to sit and relax with a good home cooked meal.

More than once during dinner, I did hear chirping. It could have come from the yard - sound has a funny way of moving around here in the hills - but I strongly suspect that it came from the sideboard. My husband gave me a funny look, but didn't comment when I whispered, "Soon pink birdies, soon."

Foodie Friday - Trainwrecks In The Kitchen & A 'Catered' Trainwreck On The Rails

2009-03-19T22:00:00.000-04:00

If we had remembered to take the camera on our family vacation in the winter of 1995, among the photos tucked into our album would be one that looked something like this...

Yes, we were passengers on a train that was involved in an accident. A real photo of this unfortunate event wouldn't have looked quite this bad, because mercifully, the train we were riding on didn't derail. (My husband 'posed' some of the trains and vehicles on his model train layout so I could take a picture for this post.) It was however, a very serious accident, because it involved a fatality. We were traveling on Via Rail Canada between Quebec City and Montreal when the driver of a car chose to ignore the warnings at a grade crossing. His attempt to beat the train cost the man his life. In a matter of seconds, our vacation took a strange and very distressing turn.

As soon as details were available, train personnel fanned out through the passenger cars and stopped at each seat. In hushed tones, they compassionately explained in French and English what had just occurred, and apologized in advance for the inevitable delay that would ensue. An investigation by authorities would have to be completed, debris needed to be removed from the undercarriage of the train, and inspectors would have to check for damage to the operating systems before we would be allowed to continue on our way. They also told us that food service would commence shortly.

Food service? Now I must explain, that in 1995, even on short journeys like the three hour trip between Quebec and Montreal, Via Rail included meals in the price of the fare. We had already been fed, so we were uncertain as to what 'food service' meant. It became apparent as soon as carts began to roll out of the kitchen.

Following the same instincts that drive us to put on the kettle, and pull out a coffee cake when tragedy strikes at home, the kitchen crew bowed to the fact that food is the great comforter. They must have raided every cabinet and refrigerator quickly, because soon an array of sandwiches, cheese and crackers, fruits, desserts and snacks flowed in a steady stream from the galley. Coffee cups were silently filled and refilled and food was graciously offered, while we sat on an elevated section of track where the train had come to its unscheduled stop. Everyone in our car was unusually quiet, as we watched the emergency vehicles come and go on the streets below us. Sipping hot drinks and nibbling cookies gave some of us time to reflect upon the unfortunate accident. Others used the time to offer silent prayers for the person who had lost his life.

Gradually, the passengers began to break their self imposed silence by sharing stories about where they were from or why they were travelling. We had the opportunity to share the details of our stay at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec.The college girls across the aisle talked about visiting their friends, while others spoke about business meetings or seeing family. The gloomy atmosphere in the train lifted a bit. Food and drink hadn't changed our situation, but it did provide a familiar and comforting touch when it was most needed.

Finally, after a few hours, we were able to resume our journey. When we reached Montreal, we said good bye to the people who had shared our experience. We knew we'd never see each other again, but our brief time together in a stressful situation had connected us in a unique manner.

Looking back on the happy, sad or frightening experiences in our life, it seems that food was always present. It has helped us to celebrate or mourn, and in situations like the train accident, it sooths, but sometimes preparing food can be the source of some pretty weird stories, laughter, and both good and bad memories.

Disasters in my kitchen are not common, but there have been a few. I did drop a pineapple upside down cake upside down on the floor. A road construction project near our home in Connecticut necessitated blasting through some rock, and unfortunately the explosion occurred in mid cake flip. I was so startled, that the pan, the cake dish and the cake flew out of my hands. Our dog, Gretchen, who was the very definition of the term 'chow hound', immediately dove in to the mess on the kitchen floor and badly burned her mouth and tongue on the hot sugary syrup! It took a few buckets of hot soapy water to clean the floor, and I had to keep filling the dog's water bowl with cold water and ice cubes!

There was also the episode of the shrink wrapped banana cake. I baked the cake, left it in the pan and gave it a good layer of frosting. I had to run out, so I covered it with plastic wrap and hid it in the oven so our cat Sullivan wouldn't attack it while I was gone. I forgot about the cake, and at dinner time, I lit the oven. After several minutes at 350 degrees, the cake was hermetically sealed in a Pyrex baking dish. The family cried when I threw it away. I cussed when I tried to get the melted plastic off of the baking dish.

You can read about my biggest kitchen disaster in a post named The Cat And The Griddle that I wrote last July. It's about a breakfast adventure that no one in our household will ever forget. Click here to read the full length version. Once you read it, you probably won't forget it either!

Hopefully I've whet your appetite for strange food related stories and disasters. If you'd like to read more, pop over to Designs by Gollum. Michael Lee is the special lady who hosts Foodie Friday, and she's got Mr. Linky up and running to direct you to participating bloggers.

(Photo of the Chateau Frontenac was taken by Bernard Gagnon and is subject to the GNU Free Document License per Wikimedia Commons.)

The Bunny Dishes That Hopped In To My Car

2009-03-14T13:00:00.012-04:00

I'm developing a love-hate relationship with bunnies. I love to see then hopping around the yard at sunset, but I hate the massive amount of destruction that they've inflicted on my gardens this winter. They've been so voracious, that I fear that some of the damage may be irreversible! I'm researching ways to control them, but I still have a long 'row to hoe' to solve this perplexing outdoor critter problem. Wish me luck!

Despite the little eating machines gobbling up my shrubs and plants, I'm still attracted to them, so I was immediately smitten by these dishes when I stumbled across them online.

With Easter and Spring just around the corner, they'd make perfect luncheon or salad plates and the shape was interesting without being too fussy. The only thing I didn't like about these plates was the price. Sometimes you have to think with your head, and not a heart that's currently filled with dish lust, so I put my desires on hold and pretty much forgot about them.

Then I walked into TJ Maxx last week, and look what I found...the bunny dishes! The price was 60% less than on line and there was no shipping charge to tack on to the total. There were 8 on the display, but only 6 were in perfect condition. I scooped them up and practically ran to the register! When I got home, it was a nice suprise to see that I had placemats and napkins that complimented them perfectly. Here are the other designs in the set...

Now these are bunnies that I'm sure I'll love for years to come, and the only destruction they might cause is to waistlines when dessert is served.

Foodie Friday - Leprechaun Bait

2009-03-13T13:45:00.000-04:00

I have reason to believe that a Leprechaun has invaded our home. There's just no other plausible explanation for some of the shenanigans that have been going on around here.

Things have gone missing. (First my good sewing scissors disappeared, then a whole box of small ceramic pieces vanished.) The cat has been chasing something, (someone?), around the house that we can't see. (Sure, he does this all of the time, but it's been worse lately.) The computer is doing weird things, and to top it all off, someone ate the last dish of chocolate pudding. I found the empty bowl in the sink!

Last Sunday, after yet another futile attempt to locate the missing ceramics, my husband and I decided that we needed brunch. I suddenly had a strange craving for corned beef hash and eggs, so we headed to the kitchen.

As we sat down to eat, I had an idea. Why not lure our little mischief maker out into the open with food? Maybe I could catch him, get my things back, and put a stop to his Tom foolery. Of course, there was also the pot of gold to consider. What a bonus...I'd probably net enough to buy a large china closet and stock it with Lenox and Villeroy and Boch!

I found the tiniest bowl in the kitchen, and filled it with some hash.

Now all we had to do was wait, and watch. Of course, after eating we were a little drowsy, so my husband went off to watch TV, while I headed to the office and the comfortable chair at the computer. I wanted to scan the hundreds of pictures we've been taking to see if maybe we caught the Leprechaun on film. I didn't find any pictures of our little friend, but I did find a picture of one of the many rainbows that we see from the hills.

Just in case you're not believing my tale, I submit this as more proof to substantiate my theory.

That rainbow ends on the east mountain, but it was too chilly and damp to check that area out, so I decided to see if I could find more evidence at the local shops.

On the way out the door, I remembered the 'Leprechaun bait' that we left in the kitchen. Faith and begorrah! It was gone. The slippery little urchin ate and ran! Maybe I'll have better luck hunting for clues at the stores...

I didn't have much luck while shopping until I got to the local candy store. The little rascal was obviously one step ahead of me. He dropped a few coins, his pipe and a shamrock.

Frustrated, I went home to whip up another batch of 'bait'. This time I'd make bangers and colcannon. Surely, that would be a dish that would lure any Leprechaun into a trap, and oh yes, we'd have to keep a closer watch.

The bangers are simply pork sausages, while colcannon is mashed potatoes combined with chopped cabbage and onions that have been sauted in bacon drippings. Add crumbled bacon, salt, pepper, milk and butter to taste. It's a great meal for a chilly day, and extremely satisfying. In fact, it's so satisfying that I took a short nap on the couch. You guessed it...another botched attempt to get my pot of gold.

I only had one last morsel left to use as bait, but I decided to eat it myself. These 'Babycakes' were too good to waste on a Leprechaun who has been giving me nothing but grief.

You can find the recipe for these fabulous cupcakes at the Food Network website...just search Babycakes, but beware...the recipe makes a hugh amount.

Oh, and Mr. Leprechaun, if you give me my ceramics back, I'll make you a whole batch of Babycakes. I need my napkin holders for Easter!

Now please stop over at Designs by Gollum and see what the other folks participating in Foodie Friday have been feeding their Leprechauns.

Foodie Friday #3 - Nostalgic Desserts

2009-03-05T18:34:00.057-05:00

There's a time machine in my kitchen. If you see it on my kitchen counter, you might mistakenly assume that it's just a recipe box, but when I open it and start rummaging around, it transports me back in time. I never know where I'm going, but I'm sure that I'll enjoy the trip. Sometimes, I land in a friend's home in the 1980's or I'm transported back to my parents' ranch house and it's the 50's. Occasionally, I go to Greece or Hungary. There are many places for me to go, but lately it's been taking me back to my grandmother's house.

This past week, I made a soft landing in Grandma's big, warm, country kitchen. The year was 1972. An Apple Dutch Cake was cooling on the counter, and the room was filled with the smell of cinnamon and vanilla. Coffee perked on the stove, while I made a hard sauce under my grandmother's watchful eye.

We poured cups of coffee, cut pieces of cake, and returned to the kitchen table so we could continue working on a project that we had started earlier that morning.

I didn't realize it that day, but my grandmother was giving me the first set of keys that would activate my still non-existant time machine. The table was strewn with Grandma's recipes, and a few packs of note cards. Here's the key that started it all.

Grandma dictated the recipes, and I wrote them on the cards. I loved the way she added advice as we went along. Sometimes she would remember a tip that she wanted to give me about a recipe that had been finished several cards ago, and I'd have to retrieve it and add the note.

My grandfather came in while we were 'cutting more keys', and asked what we were doing. My grandmother told him that she was giving me recipes for my hope chest.

"Don't you mean the 'hope to get a man chest'?" he quipped, as he grabbed a piece of cake and a cup of coffee. Before he shuffled off to the sun porch to enjoy his cake, he turned to me and said, "You'll get a husband because you already know how to cook, and having your grandmother's recipes certainly won't hurt." The backhanded compliment was high praise coming from grandad, and my grandmother actually blushed!

Some of the recipes I recieved that day were simple. Tapioca pudding? "Use the recipe on the box. You can't beat it."

Others, that I thought were well guarded family secrets, came from ordinary places. This included Grandma's signature chiffon cake. When we came across the recipe, she told me not to bother with it. "The recipe in the Betty Crocker Cookbook is much better," she confided.

I made this cake for a friend's birthday last year.

There's probably a time machine somewhere in your kitchen, too. Why not pull out a key and take a trip back in time? If you do, I wish you a safe trip, but most of all I hope you land in a kitchen where they serve love and dessert in equal portions.

Now please stop over at Designs by Gollum for a listing of bloggers who are participating in Foodie Friday. You'll love what you see...

The Dishes That Sang My Name...Have I Become A Dish Addict???

2009-03-03T00:03:00.012-05:00

It started out innocently enough. It really did. A few weeks ago, I finally acknowledged the fact that we needed new everyday dinnerware. The old plates, cups and bowls that served us well for quite some time have started to show their age, and just aren't bringing anything to the table anymore. I haven't found the perfect set of all purpose dishes yet, but along the way, I have acquired some pieces that have made me very happy.

This set is currently making me grin from ear to ear, and I found them at a very unlikely spot...my favorite garden center! As soon as I saw them, I knew they'd be coming home with me.
There were only 4 salad plates and 4 dinner plates left. If they had 4 more of each I would have taken them on the spot!
The dinner plates have a wonderful raised pattern on them. Some birds are in full flight...
other birds are swooping...

and a couple of love birds are snuggling on a branch.
I just can't wait to use them. Now I'm hunting for the perfect black mug or cup and saucer to match. I'm also looking for more yellow majolica to match my Easter set, additional pieces to match my red set, and yes, I'm still looking for the perfect set of everyday dishes. Guess I'm hooked, huh? I may need an intervention...

Foodie Friday Week 2 - Some Like It Hot: Phool Gobhi aur Tamatar

2009-02-26T19:01:00.044-05:00

My husband loves Asian cuisine, especially when it's highly spiced. He likes it so much, that sometimes I strongly suspect that one of the reasons he married me was because I owned a wok! Several woks and thirty odd years later, I'm still making Asian dishes, usually 3 or 4 times per week, and I really don't mind one bit. It's a healthy way to eat when you stay away from the deep (fried) end of things.

Recently, we shared a Vietnamese style dish, Scallops with Asian Noodle Salad,
It made a nice Sunday night supper.

We always enjoy Spicy Chicken with Fresh Orange. It definitely has Szechwan roots, and is simple to prepare.

It's a perfect meal for a busy weekday. (We like it served over lettuce. This keeps the calories down, and the cold lettuce is a nice contrast to the spiciness.)

A few weeks ago, we added a new Indian dish to the ever expanding repertoire.

Phool Gobhi aur Tamatar, (cauliflower and tomatoes), is an extraordinary way to brighten up a very ordinary head of cauliflower.

Served with Tilapia that was sprinkled with salt and pepper, lightly dusted with flour and pan seared, it made a tasty and satisfying dinner that was very low in calories yet high in flavor.

Like most Asian recipes, there's quite a bit of prep work, but then the cooking is quick.

Ingredients: 1 T. safflower oil 1 T. fresh ginger root, minced

1/2 C. onion, finely chopped 2 large cloves, garlic, minced

1/2 t. mustard seeds or 1/4 t. dry mustard

1/4 t. turmeric

1-2 t. garam marsala or 1/3 t. each ground cumin, ground coriander and black pepper

1-2 fresh or dried chili peppers, seeded and chopped

***Important note here: I stopped using chili peppers years ago and substitute Vietnamese chili garlic sauce. It's easy to use, lasts forever in the fridge, and provides a nice even heat in spicy dishes. In this recipe I used about a teaspoon. Use more or less to suit your taste.

More ingredients: One small head of cauliflower, divided in to small florets

One large ripe tomato, coarsely chopped
1-2 T. fresh lemon juice

Fresh chopped cilantro for garnish

Now we're ready to cook! Heat the oil in a large nonstick wok or fry pan, and saute the onion, garlic and ginger until soft.

Add the spices and peppers and cook for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the cauliflower florets and toss until they are evenly coated with the onion mixture. (Now I know why my wooden spoons have singed handles!)

Stir in the tomato, reduce heat, and cook for 3-5 minutes until the cauliflower is tender but not mushy. (I had to add more chopped tomato and a bit of water to keep the mixture cooking.)

Add lemon juice. And garnish with the cilantro.

I forgot the cilantro garnish and put the camera away. I was too intoxicated by the aromas swirling through the kitchen and sat down to eat, but you've all seen cilantro so I thought you wouldn't mind.

BTW: There is a downside to this dish. If you cook with wooden spoons, they will turn a lovely shade of greenish yellow.

After a few washings, your spoon will return to it's normal color, but your tastebuds may never be the same!

For many more epicurean delights please visit Designs by Gollum and see the full list of bloggers participating in Foodie Friday.

Books + Food = Books Appetit!

2009-02-25T01:17:00.062-05:00

There are usually several very important things hanging on the bulletin board in my office, but yesterday, nothing was more important than this:

In what could only be considered a stroke of genius, the annual "Books Appetit" benefit at our local library was scheduled for Fat Tuesday this year! Be still my heart! Sumptuous food,(don't let the 'light refreshment' tag on the ticket fool you), was going to be consumed in my favorite place, on a day whose sole purpose on God's green earth is to over indulge? Surely, this was my admission ticket to heaven!

When we arrived at the library, we were given Mardi Gras beads.

Then, the ticket ladies took our tickets.

Other ladies sold us more tickets...

so we had a chance to win one or more of these gift baskets.

The circulation desk was converted into a very decent bar, and wine, beer, soda and water were liberally dispensed. Hey, that's my sweetie in the dark gray blazer getting me a drink! He's going to be surprised that he's on my blog. Thanks dear.

I just noticed that the computers are missing! Smart move to tuck them out of the way with the libations flowing so freely, and isn't that a lovely ice bucket?

Now experience is the best teacher, and we've been to this event before, so our next stop was the food area. Good food disappears fast here!

The pizza table was cleared and reset several times. I noticed that most of the men headed there first.

My personal philosophy is, why bother with pizza, (even though it came from excellent pizzerias), when you could head for the table with the gourmet delights???
I tried to get pictures of the glorious food array on this table, but a swarm of locusts, err...I mean patrons, were in my way. If you can't beat them you have to join them, so I grabbed a plate and got in line. I'll just list what I sampled:

-Heavenly crab cakes with a piquant tartar sauce

-Delicate, perfectly seasoned, stuffed mushrooms

-Ravioli with a sweetened ricotta filling that was gently kissed with nutmeg and cinnamon, then bathed in a light bechamel sauce studded with raisins

-Chicken tenders and spinach in a divine Parmesan cream sauce

-Potato/cheese pirogi, gently sauteed with onions in butter

-Feather light miniature rolls, generously filled with your choice of shaved ham or roast beef

There were other items on the menu, but I was pacing myself for dessert. There were tables that looked like this...

and then there was my favorite table. A local chocolatier was offering the most ethereal creations.

The handmade chocolate cups were filled with a lighter than air mousse, and topped with whipped cream. Surely, this was food for the Gods. But wait...what were marbles doing on a table full of sweets? I had to ask. "They're truffles," came the reply.

Truffles??? "Those can't be edible," I exclaimed. "Surely they're works of art!" I immediately told them that I needed three in different colors, because I just had to photograph them! Alas, because of my weak will, only 2 1/2 made it into the photo. I must, however, state for the record that I have no regrets. They were exquisite.The evening's entertainment was about to begin, and everyone began to gather near the stage.

The choir from our middle school gave a stellar performance. Impressive? You bet! And this is coming from an ex-stage mother!
The evening started to wind down and there were many happy people.

There were happy patrons, because they had been wined, dined and entertained.

There were happy circulation clerks, because they weren't working and didn't have to search for one of the gazillion books that I've placed on hold.

There was a happy library director, who was in perpetual motion. (I took 5 photos of her and this is the least blurry!) Tomorrow she's probably going to be written up in the Journal of American Medicine for having survived the highest sugar rush ever recorded.
And there was one happy me, because these are the remains of my day, which I tried to hide in the children' s section.

Shortly after I took this last shot, I melted into a puddle of chocolate ecstasy in the reference stacks. My husband scooped me up and poured the molten me into the car. My food adventure had come to an end.

Today is Ash Wednesday, and we will fast. Bread and soup is all that's on the menu, but I do believe that it will be easy to cope with fasting after experiencing my first truly decadent Fat Tuesday.

2009-02-19T21:21:00.043-05:00

The First Foodie Friday - A Tea For My Valentine

Many thanks to Michael at Designs by Gollum for hatching an idea that bloggers can 'sink their teeth into', and not gain an ounce! Can't wait to see what everyone has cooked up for their inaugural posts, but guess I'd better share my humble offering first..

On Valentine's Day, this was my gift to my husband. The poor dear loves tea, but had never experienced a proper afternoon repast. I thought it was time.

I polished the good sterling flat ware, (Damask Rose), and pulled some china, (Old Country Roses), out of the cabinets. I found the best lace in the linen closet, bought a lovely potted plant, and set the table.

Early Saturday morning, I made lemon curd, from a recipe that I had spotted on the Joy of Baking website. If you try it, I promise that you'll never buy another jar...

While the lemon curd set, I went on to make scones, using Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network archives. There was a moment of panic when my biscuit cutter became unusable, but I rolled the dough a little thinner and used a deep cookie cutter. I was about to have a breakdown, when the scones didn't rise as high as I would have liked, but I did make them thinner, and a certain amount of twisting the cutter occurred because of using the wrong tool. (I really do know better than to twist the cutter when making rolled biscuits or scones, but I was under the gun and improvising. I will own a new set of cutters within the next few days.)

Despite my 'cutter problem', the scones were sinfully delicious, which is the hallmark of a superb recipe. I may have to go to confession. Yes...I ate that many, and they are that wonderful. Buttery, yet light, and filled with currants, they were the best scones that I have ever tasted. Thank you Alton, and God Bless! You have earned your place in heaven. PS: I do own your salt cellar, and I love it!

Next on my work list was to make short bread tarts to fill with the lemon curd. But wait...I didn't have that much time. Left with no alternative, I pulled out a half dozen of the mini puff pastry shells that were stashed in the freezer and threw them into the oven.

Once they cooled, I filled them with the lemon curd and topped them with fresh raspberries. Voila! Instant sweet treat.

Next stop...Savoryville! I needed tea sandwiches that surpassed the ordinary. What's a girl to do??? I had been disappointed by cucumber sandwiches in the past. Was a solution at hand? Yes, yes, yes! I merged several recipes to come up with a tasty alternative to the usual blah tea sandwich fare. I mixed mayonnaise with horseradish, chopped capers and minced scallion. Then, I sprinkled thinly sliced English cucumber with white vinegar and kosher salt and let them sit in a bowl to contemplate their existence for one hour. (Fortunately, they ultimately decided that they needed to become one with slices of bread and they continued on their journey to becoming the centerpiece of a sandwich.)

The cucumbers were drained, patted dry, then nestled between crust less slabs of thinly sliced bread that had been buttered and slathered with the mayonnaise mixture. The results were spectacular.

Next up, deviled egg triangles. Egg salad mixed with a touch of Grey Poupon made a delightful morsel.

Last, but certainly not least, were rye bread rounds smeared with scallion enhanced cream cheese and topped with smoked salmon and fresh dill. (Note to self: If you sneak a sandwich off of the pedestal, fix the one that's falling over. You can commit the perfect theft with a little forethought.)

I've always loved afternoon tea. As a child, my grandmother settled us down in the late afternoon with 'tea', (it was really just milk in a tea cup with a splash of tea), and cookies or a small slice of cake. Later, in high school on trips into NYC, I discovered the Charleston Garden Restaurant in Altman's department store. It was one of the hot spots in Manhattan where ladies from the suburbs "did" lunch or tea while they were in the city shopping. The room had a full replica of the facade of a southern style mansion on one wall. You really did feel like you were having tea in a garden. Our parents felt that it was a safe place for young girls to go when they were on their own in New York and encouraged us to go there. We didn't mind one bit. Decked out in our Sunday best, which included hats, gloves and dresses or suits, we would approach the maitre 'd as if we had done this all of our lives.

Then there were the mother/daughter teas at church, in high school and during my college orientation. This picture is from my Senior Tea. The Junior girls were obliged to serve the graduating class and their Moms every year.
Will my husband and I have another tea that's this elaborate in the near future? Probably not. There was enough butter on that table to clog thousands of miles of arteries! We will, however, make a pot of tea in the old Rockingham tea pot sometime in the afternoon. We'll cut up a lemon, break out the clover honey and toast life.

Winter visitors...

2009-01-08T00:23:00.010-05:00

Wednesday, in the midst of a bone chilling snow, sleet, freezing rain 'event', several deer ventured down the ravine next to our house. It was fascinating to watch them from my bedroom window as they scampered through the trees. (I do like me my creature comforts and firmly believe that when the temperature is 18 degress, and there's a stiff wind, it's best to marvel at the beauty of nature from indoors...)

Here's Mr. Buck striking a classic pose.

He was quite handsome and not in the least bit shy when he spotted me taking pictures. Good thing he came close enough to the house for me to take a few shots from inside, because there was no way that I was going to take my good camera outdoors in that miserable weather. Also a good thing that he didn't come in to my yard to snack on the shrubs. Sure he's good lookin', but if he destroys my garden, he stands a chance of becoming a good looking piece of venison...

An Epiphany...

2009-01-04T11:25:00.001-05:00

Just a little Christmas spirit to (Yule) tide us over

2008-12-03T10:14:00.003-05:00

Haven't had much time to post because of a gazillion projects, including one BIG one, so just a little Christmas, right this very minute...

Yikes!!! What happened???

2008-10-29T23:14:00.005-04:00

Two weeks ago, this was the view from my bedroom window. It was an autumn filled with glorious color.

Yesterday morning, this was the view from my bedroom window...

We only had a couple of inches here, but there were power outages because it was a heavy wet snow mixed with sleet and it coated the leaves that were still clinging to the trees, causing them to topple and bring down power lines. Just a short distance away, in the Pocono Mountains, one area recorded 20 inches of the white stuff!!! Last winter was pretty mild. Makes you wonder about this winter!

September 11, 2008

2008-09-11T11:37:00.011-04:00

God Bless America

The Last Rose (Gladiolus?) of Summer

2008-09-06T00:02:00.006-04:00

Yesterday...yes, September 5th...this beauty decided to honor us with her presence. As an after thought, I planted a handful of gladiolus bulbs very late in the season and I didn't think that they would have enough time to bloom, but they're fooling me, and they couldn't have arrived at a better time. I've been in a funk lately and this little lady and her sisters are helping to snap me out of it. I stuck support stakes in when they were planted, but so far haven't needed them. Of course after 21 days with no rain, we're finally going to get a drenching tomorrow, and I'll probably be out there during the deluge to check on them. I'd be really peeved, except we desperately need the rainfall.

The other 5 are ready to pop! Here's hoping they pull through.

Staycation is now in effect...

2008-08-20T21:20:00.003-04:00

The grandkids, (and their parents), will be arriving in a few hours, so for the next several days I will be on a "staycation" and in 7th heaven. Then, I will need to recover! Will return next week... probably exhausted but most likely very happy!

A Gardener's Saga - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and The Edible

2008-08-12T03:00:00.003-04:00

Prologue

A word to the wise...If you're an avid gardener who's lucky enough to own a nice, new, large piece of minimally planted property, don't start a blog at the beginning of the growing season. Trust me on this one, because I've got some experience here. You won't post at night when you're exhausted from hauling buckets of mulch or turning compost into beds, and you won't post in the morning when you're rushing through housework to get out to water, weed, plant, deadhead or putter.

On rainy days, with a list a mile long, you skip over to the local garden center to shop. You grab what you need for the next sunny day, and then you race home to read garden books, and search the internet for solutions to problems that may be plaguing your personal patch of God's green earth . (Important note: You may also have to toss a load of laundry into the washing machine or cook something to placate your neglected husband. This will insure that there are no objections the next time you head out the door to resume playing in the dirt.) Oh, and expect to lose all track of time. I'm warning you...one minute it's Memorial Day weekend and the next thing you know it's the middle of August and you're starting to think about your spring bulb order!

Now that I've explained myself away, I have to confess that I've been one happy camper since the beginning of June. Working in the garden really never seems like work to me, even when I'm exhausted and aching at the end of the day. After all, it's the means to a (hopefully) beautiful end.

Part I - The Good

In early May, I started to get my usual spring gardening itch. The weather had warmed and our sparsely planted yard was in reasonably good shape from the fall cleanup. Our neighbor had seemed to finally deal with his drainage issues, which had been washing out one of our beds, and my husband was thinking tomatoes, so we trotted off to the local garden center. I wanted to plant the relatively empty slope next to our garage with perennials, and I had some definite plants in mind, but I just wasn't sure if they would fare well on our sun drenched piece of land in zone 5 Pennsylvania. Our last home was in zone 7 New York, and almost entirely shaded by large oaks. It's been 22 years since I had gardens that you could classify as sunny. I was really looking forward to planting something other than astilbe, hosta, bleeding heart, impatiens or hydrangea!

Here's the hillside that would become my canvas as it looked at the end of May.

The few perennials that I planted last year did survive the winter. There's lavender, threadleaf coreopsis, creeping phlox, a low growing sedum and euonymous. So far, so good, but what next? I posted a few photos on the HGTV 'Rate my Space' website and got some terrific advice especially from a gardener named Glenda who has must see gardens. Visit her at http://www.tootsietime.blogspot.com/ . She has been, in very large part, an inspiration for this bed. I also relied heavily on the expert staff at a local garden center. They were really good at helping me to navigate what I consider the uncharted waters of zone 5 planting. With all of this help and a lot of work, today the garden looks like this:

I did have a picture that showed almost everything blooming simultaneously, but a toxic computer glitch made it necessary to use my backup system to restore my PC's innards to a happier time and I lost two batches of terrific pictures! I was upset on two fronts. Not only had I lost the pictures, but I was spending oodles of valuable gardening time working on rescuing the computer! Bummer.

Before I went on my gardening rampage, I used to pull into the driveway and see a few unhealthy looking burning bush. Now, I pull in and see blossoms and pretty foliage peeking through the branches of healthy bushes. (More on the shrubs later.) It's always good to come home, but it's even sweeter when you're greeted by flowers...

that's why I always keep pots of flowers by the front door.

Last year, I discovered these beauties and I liked them so much that I planted them again this year. I don't ever remember seeing this plant on Long Island or in Connecticut. It's called Plectranthus, or more commonly mona lavender. The underside of the leaves are a gorgeous deep purple and the spiky flowers are fascinating. I guess I miss having the impatiens around because I did underplant the mona with just a few. There's shade at the front door in the afternoon and this combination seems to work well here.

This year, while I was in the bed weeding next to the pots, I took a closer look at the flowers and was amazed by the intricacies of each bloom.

Each one in like a mini orchid! I understand that down south, this plant is grown as a perennial, but here it's strictly an annual. As long as it's available in this area it will be somewhere in my yard!

Here's another plant that I had never seen before, and I just immediately fell in love with it. This is Platycodon grandiflorus 'Sentimental Blue' or balloon flower. Are certain flowers not popular in certain areas of the country so local nurseries don't stock them, or are growers just now developing strains that tolerate colder zones??? How could people in NY not worship this sweetheart?

The buds really are shaped like balloons, and they were a constant source of joy for weeks. Alas, they have stopped putting on their show for this year, and I understand that this year they won't re-bloom. I'll look forward to seeing them again next year, but for now the compact dark green foliage is pretty.

I freely admit that I did get wooed by some new friends, but I remembered to get what I came for too. Monarda, (bee balm), was on my must have list as soon as I knew that we had sunny gardens. This is a nice compact strain called 'petite delight.' So far it's attracted its namesake...

and butterflies! Next year I will get some butterfly weed too, and maybe a butterfly bush.

The garden off of our back deck is coming along as well. This is how it looked at the end of May right after I planted canna bulbs. The cannas were here last year and filled the space quite nicely, so they're back for a repeat performance.

The barberry bushes were planted around the edge of this bed to keep the rabbits out. I wish that they would get at little larger, because the little stinkers are strolling right by them.

Here's a better peek at the cannas. My husband was so excited last week when he was watering and a hummingbird came to feast. We're finally attracting birds and insects to the yard.

Difficult to see, but this is also where I start the plants that were given to me by friends. All of these little ones came to me as cuttings or tiny plants. Nice to see them from the deck.

This Knockout rose was given to us by friends the first spring that we moved to PA. The poor bush had to live in its pot for several months until the beds were installed and it came through like a champ. Then it was attacked by gypsy moth caterpillars and eaten to a nub before I could bring myself to use and insecticide. It came through again! This Knockout is living up to its reputation as a rugged rose!

Just to reassure you that I didn't forget the old friends that I went shopping for in the first place, here they are.

Yes, I even wound up getting astilbe and a hydrangea for the front of the house! Old habits die hard!

Next time the bad and the ugly. Might as well lump them together and have it done!

(St.) Cecilia Was Breaking My Heart

2008-08-10T00:42:00.048-04:00

I belong to our church choir, so I spend quite a bit of time in the choir loft, yet I had never noticed the small statue that was standing on a shelf against the back wall. She first came to my attention last fall, when our pastor asked the congregation to help give the interior of the church a thorough cleaning. I had volunteered to work in the loft, and it was then that she first caught my eye. Covered with grime, and sitting on a very dirty cotton doily, was a lovely but battered St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music.

At some time in the distant past, Cecilia had obviously taken a tumble, because she was missing fingers and her paint was chipped in quite a few spots. She also had a crack in the top of her head, yet despite her "injuries" and tattered garments, she valiantly continued to play her lyre, and her countenance remained ethereal. This poor woman deserved better. I knew right then and there that she'd be coming home with me. She needed a lot of TLC that would take time, concentration and paints and materials that I had at home. At the end of the work day, I carefully wrapped her in the dry towels that I had brought for the cleaning, placed her in my wash bucket and drove her home. Our relationship had begun.

Now I'm not an expert restorer, just a crafter with quite a few years of experience, so I'm not sure if Cecilia is plaster or chalkware. I do know that water is poison to both, so I was extremely careful when I started bathing her. I used dozens of barely damp cotton swabs, toothpicks wrapped in bits of fabric, cosmetic brushes and eye makeup applicators. Once she was clean, I allowed her to dry for several days, then started to touch up her paint. The results were amazing. She was slowly returning to her former glory, but the finger repairs had to wait. I'd have to research the 'how to' and our litugical year was starting. To make things busier, we were also starting the year long celebration of our parish's 150th anniversary. Sadly, I returned Cecilia to the shelf in the choir loft and she remained there until one week ago.

Last Sunday, we had to clear everything from a large section of the choir loft to make way for a renovation project. Before we left, my husband and I took our music with us and I decided to take Cecilia home too. There was no sense leaving her in the way of the construction, besides, she's losing her shelf! This was the perfect opportunity to work on those fingers and finish the painting.

I've been working on Cecilia all week and she's almost done. I wish I had thought to take pictures before I started to build her new fingers! It really is miraculous!

Here's Cecilia with her new digits. It took four thin layers of spackle and a bunch of toothpicks to build them and I used a tiny piece of fine emory board to sand them down between applications. She's pretty petite at 13 inches so these fingers are teensy.

When I started painting, it became apparent that I needed to do more sanding! That one finger looked broken! I also decided to add some bling to C's outfit, so I broke out the metallic paint. I don't recall one Bible passage that prohibits a saint from being a fashonista.

The sanding did the trick, but now I had to add shading for definition. Custom mixing colors may have been the most difficult part of this project!

The finished project. Isn't she lovely??? I do think that I will try to make the hand a little more sallow to match C's face. I'll decide tomorrow in natural light.

And this I just couldn't resist. If a woman has a "new" outfit, shouldn't she have a new 'do'? Well I couldn't create a new hairstyle, so I just gave Cecilia highlights. Wish my hair looked this good!

I'm going to miss St. Cecilia lounging around my kitchen counters, but at least I'll get to see her at rehearsals and when we sing at Mass. We're going to have to find her a new safe spot, and I think I'll stick some museum putty on her base so she doesn't fall again.