Easter Bunnies and … Puppies!

Since me and the hubby are in the midst of moving it seemed only logical (okay, if only just to me) that my mom host Easter Dinner … which happens to be my most favorite holiday!  And as it was at Thanksgiving I only had one task – to make some yummy Easter potato salad – but this turned out much better!

I needed potatoes and …

eggs, and what else? … I better check my recipe card!

So, I cooked the potatoes …

And soon Voila! Yummy Easter Potato Salad!

(During the Summer I will often bring this to friends’ BBQ’s – its always a hit!)

So on Easter Day I spent time with my family – and the food was delish!  All my favorite foods – deviled eggs, kielbasa, potato salad, broccoli & cheese – just to name a few!

And the best part was my Easter Present … a new puppy!

Meet Bert!

Isn’t he just the cutest!  I’ll tell you more about him tomorrow!

Happy Easter!

Love,

My Memories are All Coming Up Roses

J.M. Barrie once said, " God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December."

While I adore all plants (okay … almost all plants – vetch is still on my naughty list) I usually am not so-taken with roses.  It may have something to do with a little personality quirk of mine – I always like to be different, even as a kid.

Here's an example: While I was in elementary school many of the girls in my class were joining brownies or girl scouts, and my mom asked me if I ever wanted to join. Now, I will tell you I said no, but you'll never guess why … I told her "No, not if I have to wear the same uniform as everyone else."  I was 8. I told you – weird personality quirk. They did lots of neat stuff that I missed out on because of my own peculiarity.

So while it isn't December anymore and while I don't normally pick up roses (I personally like the softness of peonies or bountiful hydrangea flowers), these were so pretty. The pink is so soft, and the white so creamy it just made me think of the spring.

These flowers took me back to a particular year in my garden at my first house which had the same palette. They brought back all the good memories I had there – of a day I made Watermelon & Basil Margaritas (totally fantastic – highly recommend!) from the Martha Magazine for friends & family.

Of planting out about 300 salmon and white impatiens which grew into a brilliant bed around my deck! And of growing my 'Sara Bernhardt' Peonies and dealing with some unsightly powdery mildew – which did go away with a bit of TLC.

^{(Just a to give you an idea of my impatiens … we had loads more … everywhere!)}

But that is what is so great about flowers, they can be a pick-me-up on a sad day, give you the exercise and enjoyment from gardening and transport you to a warm and wonderful spring or summer memory just by looking at them!

New Recipe for Spaghetti and Meatballs!

I found a new recipe for spaghetti and meatballs that I absolutely love! 

Last week while folding & ironing some laundry (and by some I mean a giant pile that may have been approximately 5 loads!) I was watching some television. I usually don't get an opportunity to watch some Martha, and I do love Martha, but I was using the dreaded-laundry as an excuse to watch her show.  

That day she was featuring the chef, John LaFemina, who will forever be a favorite of mine because he found a way for me to love spaghetti & meatballs even more … using CHEESE!   

So Martha and John made his wonderful Ricotta-Filled Meatballs, which he serves at his restaurant as an appetizer.  You can find the recipe here! It is wonderful!

Now, when I cook italian (or anything else for that matter) I believe a little wine makes everything even better! And while the recipe did not call for any, I sauteed the shallots & garlic in some red wine. So … a little red wine for the sauce and … a large glass of red wine for me! 

I altered the sauce recipe a bit by adding some freshly grated parmesan and pecorino-romano cheeses once I used some to cook the meatballs. I feel that cheese makes everything taste better and I always have some on hand at all times – I think I at least 7 different cheeses in my cheese drawer at the moment. Also, I only used ground turkey instead of the 3 meat mix since the hubby has me eating a little healthier, leaving behind my bad polish eating habits! And I used a pinch of fresh black pepper and oregano to the meatball mix. 

I did not make my own pasta this time since the meatballs do take some time to prepare, but I do make it a majority of time (using my old crank pasta maker). I'll have to do that next time I cook this dish! 

So enjoy cooking a little, drinking a little and eating A LOT!

And be sure to check out Brenda's lovely blog at Cozy Little House.  She featured me and some other great blogs on her Welcome Wagon Friday post.  Thank you Brenda! The blogging community has made me feel so good and welcome! I appreciate everyone's comments and kind words. This is truly a positive and refreshing experience!  

Thank you Brenda and all the other bloggers out there!

Snow Day

While the entire East Coast was treated to some snow this week, up in Maine the snow only arrived yesterday morning, and it was glorious! I always love snow days … I think it goes back to being a kid waiting & listening to the radio (I know I'm showing my age here) hoping & praying your school was called out.  Even when I was teaching, there was nothing like getting the call (usually somewhere between 2 and 4 AM) telling you school was cancelled and had to call the next down on the list!  So now that I am lucky enough to work from home, you'd think it gets old … but it doesn't!

I took my camera out while it was snowing to get a few shots of the snow coming down in front of my house, and I thought it was simply beautiful – freezing ( as my gloveless fingers can attest!) – but beautiful!  I tried to get some of the backyard, but the wind was so strong that our entire backyard looked white – I couldn't even see our barn. 

So today it was still pretty icy & snowy, and in honor of me calling another snow day for myself I did work in the morning, but spent the afternoon playing with my lensbaby (my birthday/christmas present that my entire family contributed to).  I had some flowering plants in the house, so I was working with them and was having so much fun that the afternoon flew by!

A lenbaby is a specialty lens that uses a selective focus for the "sweet spot" and tilts creating beautiful, curved blurring. Since I haven't had much time to experiment with it, I used my self-appointed snow day to play! 

After I (admittedly) completed very little work this morning, spent the remaining part of my snow day cuddled up in the house with the fireplace going toying with my new lensbaby toy, I wanted a dinner that just felt all warm and gooey!  

So I made my potato-leek soup! Yum!!! I start by cooking some bacon in the pot I use to make the soup, and once the bacon is cooked, I remove about 3/4 of the fat from the pot.   The remaining quarter I leave so it makes my soup tasty! Then I take 1 minced shallot, 1 minced leek and a pinch of salt and saute them in the pot with the bacon grease (or fat – not sure which, but I am pretty sure neither is very healthy!).  I add about 10 rinsed, chopped red potatoes to the pot. Sometimes I peel them, sometimes I don't – but tonight I did peel them.  I also add pepper and enough chicken stock to mostly cover the potatoes.  Let it cook for 30-40 minutes, blend or puree – whatever your pleasure – until smooth, then add some shredded cheddar and bits of bacon from earlier and Voila! A yummy, hearty soup to cap off a wonderful snowy day!

For such a carefree, snow day, it looks like my cat has had a rough one huh?

Hope everyone had a safe and cozy day!

Love,

Making My Gingerbread House … Not As Easy As It Used To Be!

So every year I build a gingerbread house.  And by build, I mean I get the gingerbread pieces already baked and I "frost" them together.  Usually this is not a problem … However this year, it did not go so smoothly.  

First, let me set this up for you … I am up at night (my usual witching hours), I light the Christmas tree, put on some Christmas movies (including the Grinch & Bing in White Christmas of course!), get all cosy in my pajamas, light the fireplace (in other words, flip the switch – I cannot start real fires and would not last on Survivor!) and plop myself down in front of my living room coffee table to enjoy a night of gingerbread house building & decorating! I love the glow of the fire and Christmas lights (even if it does play havoc with my camera's white balance!)

I always enjoy this activity, it really puts me in the holiday spirit! So I open the box, and realize the house is already put together.  Ugh!  And to make matters worse, the walls are broken too! I feel that if I can't at least glue (with frosting) the walls & roof together, it seems too much like a sham, like I am fake building my gingerbread house.

For the record I do not count making the gingerbread dough & baking the pieces as part of this exercise. I have done that once, and it was too much work.  Also, the pieces were very crumbly.  Not very good.

Anyway, I am quite upset the house is built for me, until I realize I have another set of pieces left over from last year. Yay!  So I go and get those pieces and frost the house together.  Nice huh?!

Now is when I realized problem #2: I still have to decorate all the walls.  And unfortunately I am not coordinated enough preform this task while the pieces are vertical.  So I pull all the pieces apart & lay them flat so I can design & decorate them first.  

And here was problem #3 … I was running out of icing! Since I has used so much in building the house, I had very little left to decorate with. Being the problem solver I am, I decided to use the icing mix from the first box.  Only it still had to be made, so I took a little detour into the kitchen & used the hand blender to make more icing.  Now my kitchen counters are covered with dust from the frosting mix.

I go back to decorating the pieces. I have enough icing, plenty of candy and I am having so much fun!  It is all going well.  Now I must ice the walls & roof together.  Since I've done this over past Christmas holidays I think I am almost done.  Oh no.  

While cleaning up the mess on my  coffee table from frosting & candy, I hear a plop!  The house slid apart and now one of the roof pieces broke in half!

So I spend the next half hour just getting the 4 walls to stand straight and stick. I ice the roof back together and let it dry.  And since I think things need to set, I let it harden overnight.

As I tried to attach the roof pieces, the one broke in half again (the same place as before) and they both slid off the house.  The only remedy was to hold the pieces in place for 10 minutes, and then the sliding stopped.

Now I had to add the icicles (with the sticky frosting bag).  Since I have done this in the past this should have been fun and gone quickly.  Well all I can say is, this year it did not go so smoothly. It took quite a bit of time and concentration to get the whole thing iced.

And now it is done!  It looks pretty good.  Some of my past houses have been better, but I think I like this one more since it made me work for it!  

Hope all of your holiday festivities go more smoothly than this little adventure! 

Apple & Pumpkin Pie – Done in Time for Thanksgiving!

My only job for Thanksgiving dinner was to make a pumpkin & apple pie.  Over the past two months I had "negotiated" with my mom (some pleading may have been involved) until she agreed to host Thanksgiving. For the past two years I made our Thanksgiving meal and I must tell you – it is so much work!  It took me literally days to prepare all the food . . . and I have a small family.  Which brings me to Thanksgiving 2010 and all I had to do was bring an apple and pumpkin pie.

So at about 11 pm on November 24^th (yes, the night before Thanksgiving) I decide to get baking!  I have never made a pumpkin pie, and I lost my old apple pie recipe so I went to my favorite cook, Alton Brown.  I had gone food shopping a few days before and bought all (or I thought all) of the ingredients.  I soon realized I may not have gotten everything on the list.  

Since the apples had to drain for about an hour and a half and its pie dough had to be refrigerated for about an hour I was working on both pies simultaneously.  

As the night progressed my kitchen got messier (and I am usually such a neat cook!) and messier as I kept looking up substitutions (usually butter – I hope no one is getting their cholesterol checked this week!) and hoping everything would turn out okay.  I may not be Martha Stewart but I do have some pride and despite my lack of motivation to make the pies, I did want them to taste good.

So for my pumpkin pie crust I found some graham crackers in the pantry (a fancy word to mean a narrow closet) and used another recipe for the pumpkin filling.  I wasn't exactly sure how this would work since both recipes were made for specific combinations of crust & filling, but not having all the ingredients for either I was just hoping for the best.  It was time to cook the pumpkin, which took an extra 30 minutes since I didn't think the center of the pie "set" in the initial 50 minutes!

Now the apple pie was ready to get put together, and this went relatively smoothly.  Until I realized I didn't have a pie bird.  Up until this point I had never heard of a pie bird, so I had look it up to understand it was a steam funnel used in the pie.  Since I didn't have one handy, and it was approximately 2 am on Thanksgiving morning, I used some long macaroni which seemed to work just fine.

On Thanksgiving evening after a particularly fabulous meal by my mom it was time for dessert.  And the pies went over big!  Everyone liked both a lot, but the pumpkin was the winner by far. My husband liked both but loved the pumpkin (remember . . . the mish-mash of 2 recipes) best.  

While I am thankful for my pie success, I am most thankful for my family and its blessings this holiday season.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and found something or someone in life to be thankful for holiday season.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!

P.S. Since I forgot to take pictures before we dug into them, this is what was left at the end of dessert!

Peony, Paeonia…. a true classic!

Who doesn't love Peonies?  Really?!  They are just too beautiful – its a very well known fact. 

I went to Whole Food the other day and fell in love with these Gorgeous Girls. And while I only went in for some vitamins… I came home with THREE bunches of flowers!  I just couldn't wait to get those babies home & photograph them!  I planted 8 peony rootstocks in front of my house two weeks ago, but they're just starting to sprout, so there isn't much going on with them.

I was going to do some shots in front of my back window, but the wonderful weather beckoned (yes – it literally beckoned) me outside.  And then I realized I needed a table, so I carted one out.  Then I realized it looked kinda silly just a vase on the table … so I took more stuff out.  

After about 5 trips I had a lovely pile of pretty things I swiped from all over my house and battled the pesky wind (which kept knocking everything over – my poor girls were quite weather-beaten by the end) to get some shots.  Here's a few that I will be making into prints.

I simply love peonies.  Doesn't everyone?!

Wind Gone Awry

Have you ever had a fully planned day, but then something unforeseen happens – and NOTHING gets done or goes according to plan?  Well, that was my day today. 

I had all these plans to get some work done on the computer, clean-up some beds on the sides of my house, make a healthy meal (okay not so healthy, but oh-so-tasty!) and follow up with a bunch of phone calls for work.  Well…none of that happened.  

It was mid-morning here and I was just gearing myself up (have I mentioned that I am NOT a morning person) for my day doing some work when my lights, computer and anything electrical flickers …. and goes OUT!  At first I think everything will come back… I was so disappointed when I realized that this was not what was going to happen.  After sitting around for about an hour and a half (un-showered as yet mind you!) I call the power company and talked to a recording, which informed me very politely that they knew about the outage & that power would come back "soon".  Apparently we had very strong winds all day which took out some power lines in over 5 towns.  So I have this beautiful day but I can't do any work outside since  the wind is blowing so hard (the debris would go everywhere!); I could take some photos but can't upload my files to the computer, can't do my phone calls since I have cordless phones (again the electricity thing), my cell is dying & most of my calls were to be to businesses in the same towns; AND I have an electric stove, so no delicious dinner.  

After speaking with my mom (who so kindly pointed out to me that I could turn on the portable generator if I knew how to operate it … this was not the time for that discussion) I packed some things and went to her house to borrow her shower.  

And once I was clean again (which greatly improved my attitude!) we decided to go out and buy some more seeds (a girl can never have enough!).  So I bought some corriander, dill, garlic chives, more oregano & thyme and some extra basil seeds (I know I'll plant it all before the summer finishes).  I love to grow my own herbs & vegetables and also buy fresh ones at local farm markets throughout the spring, summer and fall!

I particularly love going to Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine – you can even tour their research farm! Even kids love it!

So even though the day didn't turn out as I had hoped, it wound up okay (even good – hey, anytime I get to shop for more seeds is a good day) in the end.  

As for this weekend I'll have to add the side bed clean-up to my already too-long list.  Hopefully we will get our soil delivered for the kitchen garden so we can put up the fence and created some raised beds, plant some more seeds.  Then we will be planting more hostas (a variety) along the front path to our door, some clematis (Jackmanii), Sarah Burnhart peony crowns (oh this is one of my FAVORITE plants!) and some groundcovers, which we are still undecided about which to go with (ivy or pachysandra). 

Do you have any ideas about DURABLE groundcovers that will get partial sun/shade?