Third Time's the Charm

This post was initially entitled Friday Fragments, but Friday was a whirlwind, so that didn't happen. I tried to get it together on Saturday morning, but Saturday was also a whirlwind, so that also didn't happen. Now here it is Monday afternoon, and it's not too late, is it?

My gourmet group met on Friday, and our theme this month was 'It Ain't Easy Being Green'. Each recipe featured a green ingredient, and I have to say our plates with all that color looked so pretty, and mostly healthy.

I made an interesting dessert which was a strawberry basil yogurt cake. It was slightly underdone in the very center, but the taste was nice. The basil was subtle, but definitely present. I'd make this again but would bake it a little longer. The recipe said 30-35 minutes and my oven normally cooks fast. I baked mine for 40 minutes and the edges were golden and pulled away from the springform pan, but it still needed another five I think for the center to be less gooey.  The batter was a lovely spring green, and then you laid the strawberries on top before baking.

Wow, my photography skills have deteriorated this winter.

It really is a pretty shade of green. Pretend the weird lighting and shadows aren't there.  And of course I forgot to take a photo of the finished product, but in my defense I was preoccupied with my home improvement project wrapping up mere minutes before people were due to arrive.

You'll be happy to know my wall has been repaired and looks brand new.  Because it is. Our repairman did a great job matching paint, so no need to re-do the entire foyer-upstairs hall-family room this spring. He finished at 11 am Friday morning and my lunch guests arrived at 11:30,  just as I was putting away the vacuum. Good times.

On Saturday we attended a Bat Mitzvah, and it was a really fun day. I hadn't been to a Bat Mitzvah since I was in high school, and it was so interesting. Our friend's daughter is adorable and she did a wonderful job leading the service, reading and reciting all the prayers in Hebrew, and sharing her own thoughts on reaching this milestone.

Afterwards they had a lovely celebration at a local restaurant complete with a party room for 80 kids, a DJ, and the biggest balloons you've ever seen (that were not attached to a basket carrying people I mean!).

I decided I need to have a party that requires ginormous balloons. I don't think these slightly blurry pictures do them justice so you'll have to take my word for it. Tres festive!

After that party ended we went back to our friend's house for more food and chatting. Our friend's cousin walked in with two of the most amazing trays of hand dipped pretzels, popcorn, potato chips, and bugles I have ever seen.

Who knew a bugle dipped in white chocolate could be so delicious?

The pretzels were either chocolate and carmel, Oreo, or peanut butter, and they really were a work of art. I cannot imagine how much time it took her to put all of this together, but rest assured her efforts did not go unappreciated. I only had a bite of the pretzel, but I could have eaten all the popcorn.

Didn't but I could have.

Long time friends from Maryland traveled up for the event, and they came back to our house to spend the night. Always fun catching up in person as we have daughters the same age.

I bought tulips to put in their room because some years we need to make our own spring.

This appears to be one of those years.

Three inches of snow in our Tuesday forecast. On the bright side, most of the snow on the grass has melted, so that's something. We still have small mountains here and there from the plow, but baby steps right?

Before our friends headed home on Sunday we all went to see a former work colleague of the guys. We had such a nice time sitting in their lovely den with a spectacular view of tinytown lake.  It's still frozen and looked like a postcard. You'll once again have to use your imagination because I neglected to take a photo. I need spring to get here and clear out the cobwebs.

There's probably more, but I'm hosting my book club this evening, and am thinking I should be baking-cooking-cleaning as opposed to blogging the minutiae of my weekend.

Happy Monday everyone!

Slice Of Life

So here it is Friday again, another quiet week. Even quiet weeks have fragments worth capturing. In the middle of a polar vortex it's important to enjoy the small things.

First...this cardinal-

Is there anything more lovely on a hum drum January day than a bright red cardinal posed against the naked forest? Add a bright blue sky and a snowy backdrop and it's very near perfection. There's a female lurking too, but her camo prevents me from capturing her at a distance.

I was at a distance.
It was 3 degrees so shooting from my kitchen window was good enough.

When I see a cardinal this time of year, the red so vibrant against a leafless branch, it's as if God is reminding me not to be a worrier. I watch this gorgeous bird from the warmth of my kitchen and think of the verse in Matthew 6 that says, 'Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you more valuable to Him than they are?"  (NLT)

I'm glad there are seasons... in nature and in life.

Daughter1 was home last weekend, and we had such a nice day on Monday. We enjoyed a long leisurely lunch, and solved all manner of the world's problems. Long leisurely lunches with grown up girls makes my list of favorite things.

Tuesday we had us a little snow, somewhere around 6-8 inches. My bible study was cancelled, and although hubs did make it to the office, he came home early to get ahead of the worst of it. The snow was the super soft variety and so pretty!  Still not tired of it.

Wednesday hubs worked from home, which is another way of saying he set himself up in the middle of the kitchen island, and proceeded to conduct one conference call after another. Not inconvenient at all-ha!

Actually I didn't really mind. It was the push I needed to tackle the great office file clean out of 2013, which somehow was overlooked in 2013, so in reality is now the great office file clean out of 2014. Still not done, but close. I'm easily distracted.

Yesterday I had my hair cut and highlighted which pretty much means this week was awesome.

And here we are, back to Friday. My gourmet group met for lunch today, and our theme was 'eating by number'. All the recipes had a number in their name, and everything was delish, most especially the 5-ingredient no bake peanut butter bars. Oh my! I probably should not have tasted those.

I made a five-spice green bean recipe which was just okay. The 5-spice seasoning is really strong, a little heavy on the anise flavor which isn't my favorite. On the bright side though, my house smells a lot like Christmas.

Now on to the weekend, where once again we have snow heading our way. I heard one weatherman say, "...we won't even mention the Superbowl forecast just yet..."

Ruh-roh.

I don't think you needed to be a weatherman to predict a February Superbowl played in New Jersey as a risky proposition.  

And yes, the Superbowl is in fact being played in New Jersey, not New York. As a resident of The Garden State I feel it's my duty to insert that piece of sports trivia here, because apparently the lack of respect our little state is getting is annoying a whole lotta people. I say this is what happens when sports teams with one state name in their moniker play all their games in a stadium that sits in a whole 'nother state.

New York? New Jersey? Either way it's gonna be a cold one!

For more Friday Fragments hop over to Half Past Kissin' Time.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!

It's Still Friday Fragments

It's still Friday so I guess that means I can still post fragments, right?

Of course I can. Hubs and I have a saying we utter at least once a week around here, and it goes like this-"We're empty nesters. We can do whatever we want."

Not really, but we like to pretend we can.

Fragments.
Obviously I've got 'em.

It's a one day weekend here. again  Hubs has been in sunny Arizona since last Sunday, landing at a ridiculously late hour tonite, then hits the road again this Sunday. Technically he'll be in the air, but you know what I mean. I mean we have a one day weekend.

My gourmet group met today and that's always fun. Our theme this month was 'States of the Union', so everyone brought a favorite dish from a state they'd at one time called home. We had recipes from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Virginia, and Hawaii.

I made Virginia Peanut soup, and used this recipe. It was really delicious, and I'm thinking about making it as a starter for one of our holiday meals.

This morning when I came out of boot camp the sky was painted a pastel pinky pink orange-

I detoured past the lake to snap a photo, because I consider a pink sky at sunrise reward for dragging myself to boot camp at an absurdly early hour.

Also, I might be slightly obsessed with a fall sky.

The other night I snapped a photo of our back woods that were black as coal against a fiery pink backdrop-

There's something lonely and mysterious in the November wood, don't you think? The scene outside my door felt like a painting, and made me feel all kinds of things. The kinds of things I imagine inspires poetry, and I'm thinking about that still.

Hmmm...you just never know where a fragment will land you now, do you?

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Five on Friday

Trying something new today, and linking up with Five on Friday happening over at The Good Life .  My Daughter1 links up here most Fridays, and I'm pretty sure I can come up with a list of five somethings, so here we go-

1. Boot camp. BOOT CAMP. Oh my word. I want it stated for the record that I pushed one of those horrible awful ridiculous weighted sleds back and forth across the room at 6 AM today, and I did not die. I thought for a minute I might, but here I am so it's all good.  In case you don't know what I'm talking about you'll find a photo here.

No, that's not me in the picture-ha!

I have no idea how much the sled weighs on it's own, but the instructor added 165 pounds to it, plus if you happen to be in tip top shape, she hopped on top of the sled, and you had to push her right along with it. Since I'm not in tip top shape (yet!), I just had the weights and trust me, it was enough.

I'd arrived a few minutes early and saw the class before mine moaning and groaning, and my heart started beating fast. Who needs a workout when you've got the worry gene. I can usually be counted on to get my own heart pumping.

But y'all! I did it!

2. Gourmet Lunch. An unfortunate segue from the fitness piece, but such is life. We have our first gourmet group luncheon of the year today and we're doing a harvest theme. The recipes all use fresh ingredients easily found this time of year like butternut squash, apples, beets, spinach, sweet potatoes and pears. I'm making chicken with a butternut squash and Gorgonzola sauce that sounds interesting. Always lots of wonderful foods, new recipes to try, and a great way to usher in the weekend.

3. Sometime last week I wrote my 1000th blog post. I thought I should mention it, maybe say something deep and meaningful, but it's Friday and did I tell you I pushed a weighted sled and did 100 planks and bounced one of those insane weighted balls at 6 AM this morning? It's made my brain a little fuzzy, so I'm afraid I can't do deep right now.

4. This post needs a picture, don't you think? I've been saving this one because I wanted to give it a post of its own, and I think I will still do that,  just not today.

I had a custom sign made for my family room by the wonderful Dee at Red Letter Words. I'd seen one on Lisa-Jo Baker's blog, and The Nester has one too, and if anyone needs a sign reminding them of all the streets and cities and countries they've resided in through the years, I'd say it's us.

I cannot tell you how much I love this sign and all the feelings it brings to the surface every single time I look at it.

5. How about we wrap this up with a random, but informative, fact that I wonder about every time we drive into city via the Lincoln Tunnel.  As you approach, there's a big banner on the overpass above your head, which you have plenty of time to read because you are generally at a crawl miles before you get to the actual tunnel, and it says,

"Welcome to North Jersey-Embroidery Capital of the World since 1872'.  

See, you always learn something when you read here.
Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Happy Fragments To You...

Twenty five years ago today I became a mother-

How's that for a fragment?

Here are my sweet girls on Easter Sunday this year, the birthday girl is on the left.

She's all grown up now, her heart still so kind and gentle.

She makes me want to be a better person.

Happy Birthday Daughter1! She has a cute blog, so if you have a minute hop over and wish her a happy day today. You only turn a quarter of a century once, and she has the sweetest friends who've got a fun weekend planned. You'll find her blog here.

In other news, Daughter2 is still home for a few more days, and we're off to my gourmet group's luncheon in just a little while.  We have a luau theme this month, but a steady rain is falling, so not looking too tropical outside.

We can still eat mango cheesecake, right?

We're bringing two desserts, the cheesecake and these Blue Hawaii cupcakes with a spiked whipped cream icing.  Daughter2 is serious about her baking.

We used this recipe for the cupcakes and bought fun little umbrellas and pink flamingos for the top.  We also crushed a handful of plain graham crackers into fine crumbs to resemble sand. We had to display them on two trays because just like the Jersey shore, umbrellas crowd.

If they don't taste good at least they'll look good.

No worries...they taste good.
When you're taking a baked item to a party the rule book says you must first taste.

We resisted cutting in to the cheesecake.
Believe me, we considered it about 10 PM last night, but we talked each other down and the cheesecake is still intact this morning.

While Daughter2 made the treats for today I made meatballs and spaghetti sauce for last night's dinner.  Except instead of spaghetti we had spaghetti squash. Have you tried that? We'd both seen the recipe all over Pinterest, and if you watch The Biggest Loser, they make it a lot on there too. As I smelled the sauce simmering away I was kind of wishing we were having actual spaghetti, but this was pretty good too.  I'd never cooked spaghetti squash before and it's an interesting vegetable. It really does look a lot like spaghetti!  Next time I'll drain it more, before topping with sauce because we thought it was a teensy bit soggy, but overall pretty tasty.

I'm sure I've got more fragments to share, but I've also got a luau to get to so will end this post here. Why not hop over to Half Past Kissin' Time and share some fragments of your own today?

March. Grrr.

March is not my favorite month for which I mostly blame the weather. When I really stop and think about it I would say March is perhaps my least favorite month of the year, although I don't actually hate it. Hey, the days are getting longer even if it was 27 degrees when my feet hit the floor this morning. And this year March will have Easter sneaking in on her coattails, which feels wrong but makes me happy anyway. Easter should be sleeveless pastel dresses and maybe a new spring cardi. I think we all know that is an unlikely scenario for Northern NJ in the month of March.

We were not out of town this past weekend.

It seems I need to say that. When snowflakes stay on your nose and eyelashes it's hard not to wish you were still in a beach chair on Florida's Gulf Coast.  March. Grrrr.

My gourmet group met on Friday and we had a Panera Pick Two theme. Did you know there are recipes on the Panera website that aren't served in their stores?  Me neither. I made a roasted red pepper soup which was tasty, but next time I'll add a cheesy crouton or a handful of popcorn as a topper.

Hubs bought me a Cuisinart hand blender for Christmas and I am in love with this little kitchen tool.  It makes pureeing a soup so easy, and it also has a chopper attachment that is super easy to clean so I use it all the time.

Another member of the group made a chicken peanut soup and I will definitely be making that one again.  It's got a slightly different flavor than the Virginia peanut soup, but I loved it.  She gave me a container to take home, and hubs loved it too. We ate soup and salad for dinner and watched Taken2 courtesy of Red Box.  It wasn't as good as Taken, but it confirmed that if I run into trouble while traveling I want Liam Neeson nearby.

The sky spit snowflakes off and on all day Saturday so we did a few household chores and then went to the movies. We saw Quartet and we both loved it.  Maggie Smith is so fabulous in everything, but in our minds the star of the show was the magnificent English countryside. The movie takes place in a home for retired musicians, and the house used in the film is in Taplow, a little village not far from where we lived. We get ridiculously sentimental when we watch British programming.

Or hear British accents.

Or think about England.

Sigh.

On another note... what's up with movie theatre concessions these days?  I tell the girl I would like a small diet coke and a medium popcorn and she immediately does some sort of magic math and asks if I would like a medium coke and a large popcorn for the same price?  Why don't they just give you that instead of trying to trick you into thinking you're getting more than you pay for?  I am not a fan of the medium drinks because you need two hands to carry one, and we always share a medium popcorn, but I still found myself saying yes because it felt like I was in some sort of shell game.  It makes no sense.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with friends, and came out of the restuarant afterwards to actual snow falling and sticking. We woke up Sunday morning to snow on our driveway and hillside, although it melted before it could cause any inconvenience.  March. Grrrr.

I added a splash of Spring to the apothecary jars on my kitchen island because it felt therapeutic to do so.  I liked the finished product and asked hubs what he thought.  He said,  "Why do you have peas in a jar?" I told him I liked their spring green color, but they're actually chocolate.  Shhh....don't tell.

Last night hubs and I finally watched the season finale of Downton Abbey. It's been sitting on the DVR for weeks, but I knew we needed to be in the right frame of mind to actually sit through it.  I knew what was coming (thanks Social Media!), but still it was so so sad.  I'm glad there is a break before Season 4 begins because between the drama, and that castle in Scotland, and the green, green rolling hills and gray blue magnificent English sky we're gonna need the full six months to recover from this season.

Reading back over the weekend it seems like all we did was eat and watch movies. There was more, but that was the gist of it.

March.  Grrrr.

Friday at Five

It's still Friday and I have a head full of fragments...what better place to drop them than right here?  I don't really have anything of substance to say but,  a) when have I ever let a little thing like no substance keep me from blogging?,  and 2) I'm trying to get back in the writing groove which I think we can all agree is no easy feat post-Christmas.

I had a dozen women here for lunch today and I didn't cook a thing. I hosted our Gourmet Group and the great thing about hosting is no cooking. Your house is the venue and all you're required to provide are the beverages. I knew hosting in early January would motivate me to get every single solitary Christmas item packed up and put away, and on top of that my house would also get cleaned.

Ta-da!...it's done!

Speaking of yummy recipes, when daughter2 was home we made a delicious avocado-shrimp-grapefruit salad we'd seen on Pinterest, and it was a keeper.  The shrimp would have been delicious over pasta, but I suppose greens were the better option following a month of sugar cookies.  Sigh.

You'll find the recipe here.

I'm reading The House of Tyneford by Natasha Solomons in case anyone is interested. If you're a fan of Downton Abbey you would probably enjoy this book too.

My car is at the dealer today getting new tires so I have a loaner vehicle.  I'm not always good at noticing when something needs repairing on my vehicle.  Hubs will get in and say, 'How long has it been making that noise?' and I'll say, 'What noise?'  That answer frustrates him just a little-Ha!

Anyway, the dealer called and they will need to keep the car through the weekend which means I have to drive this loaner vehicle for a couple more days.  I really try not to drive the loaner vehicle anywhere except to/from the dealer which means hubs and I have to go out for breakfast tomorrow.

Here's how I made that happen-I was going to run to the store after picking up my car, but now I'm not picking up my car so there won't be any cream in the house for tomorrow morning's coffee.  I used the last of the cream at my luncheon today and Voila!...breakfast out.

We rented Salmon Fishing in the Yemen while Daughter2 was home, and watched it over the New Year's weekend. We all liked it a lot. I'd read the book, but the movie didn't get much publicity so I'd kind of forgotten I wanted to see it.  Sweet story and I'm a big fan of Emily Blunt.

In other Pinterest news...my daughter2 showed me something she'd seen that she thought was a cute idea for parents of young children.  Trace your child's hand on paper, write a bible verse you want to pray for them across the palm, and then keep it in your bible so you'll remember to do just that.  

Hey, you're never too old to have your hand traced....

Or to benefit from a mother's prayers. 

Rain is moving our way this weekend, but not until Sunday.  That means I should be able to squeeze in both a walk and a nap.   

Housework, weather, car repairs...you're glad you stopped by here today, aren't you?  

The CIA. Not that one. The other one.

Yesterday I went on a little field trip with my gourmet group. We went to the CIA...that would be The Culinary Institute of America. It's located in Hyde Park, NY, about a two hour drive from here and if it weren't so far away I might be tempted to enroll. Then I remembered our tour guide telling us that some courses require you to eat 20-30 cookies every night (you have to write a couple of paragraphs on each one) and I realized that while I could have done that at age 20 without gaining a single ounce that would not be the case now so, no. I guess I'll have to settle for a day trip.

We arrived at CIA (that's fun to say) just in time for our lunch reservation. The campus is beautiful and overlooks the Hudson River.

There are five award winning restaurants on campus which make up what they call Restaurant Row and you need to book ahead if you're going. The students cook, serve, and learn to manage the restaurant as part of their coursework and I definitely would like to go back and try all of them the French, Escoffier.

We dined in their Italian restaurant called Caterina de Medici which is housed in what looks like an Italian villa. The chandeliers came from Murano and a lot of beautiful pottery is used in the decor. We had a set menu since we were a group of 20 and the meal was fab-u-lous.

We started with a Tuscan white bean soup with escarole and tubettini, and for the main were served a braised beef with polenta, glazed cipollini and baby carrots.

The beef had been slow cooked and it was like butter...so perfectly tender it just fell apart when you touched it with your fork. Sorry. Forgot to take a picture before I took a bite.

Dessert was a warm chocolate lava cake with caramel sauce and gelato.

So rich but so so delicious.

Yes, I needed two pictures.

How else would you know there was 'lava'?

After lunch we were given a guided tour. These are available even if you are not with a group but call ahead to book if you're thinking of going. Our guide was a student and she was adorable. She said she had no desire to be on television but she so totally could be on television.

The main building which houses the classroom kitchens was originally St. Andrews on the Hudson, a Jesuit monastery. The student dining room was the original chapel and when they inquired about removing the stained glass they learned the windows were the creation of Tiffany's apprentice before Mr. Tiffany was Mr. 5th Avenue. They are extremely valuable so they stayed. The main hallway is lined with Tiffany lamps..it is an absolutely beautiful building.

We weren't permitted to take photographs inside as the students were in class. The rooms are surrounded by windows into the hallway so you can observe without interrupting. The curriculum is designed so that each student takes one class for 7 or 8 hours each day for three weeks and then moves to another. Wouldn't you love to take a class called chocolates? We looked in on one classroom where the instructor was demonstrating cream fillings...he is a very well known German chef and is credited with bringing Creme Brulee to the Americas. I wanted to blow him a kiss thru the glass but I refrained.

We passed the cake decorating and the bread baking and the aroma...oh my. Nope. I could for sure not go to school here. Our guide did point out what she called one of the most important buildings on campus and that is the gym. I'm pretty sure however, that no amount of working out would offset eating 20-30 cookies a night at my age. Which, btw, is not 20.

We of course made a stop in the gift shop and some in the group made purchases in the bakery. The program is intense and the students are on their feet for long days. And if you are in the baking track you might have to report for class at midnight. Yes. That would be another reason I could not go to school at the CIA.

The campus is beautiful, the food is wonderful, and the program is impressive. A really enjoyable day out...lots of fun without any espionage whatsoever.