Perfect Day

A fun day in Madison.

Busy Month

It has been super busy this month... A little moving, a little cooking, a little unpacking and more packing, Natchez wedding and sweating.  It has been hot this month to say the least.  The best part is yet to come.  VACATION!!!!

Our annual family vacation to Estes Park Colorado.  We love it!!

I will try to post some fun things while we are relaxing.  We are looking forward to the cooler weather.

All while wearing pearls.

While in Denver

While in Denver this past week I kept looking at the mountains to north wanting to be in Estes Park.

It will not be long until we are there!!  We are looking forward to resting, enjoying the beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park and having a great time.

Since this was a business trip we stayed in Denver and enjoyed two great restaurants that I recommend.  We went to Lola's on Boulder Street for a business dinner.  It is always good and I recommend the ceviche platter!  Also if you are ever there on a weekend they have a great brunch( I remember some really good shrimp and grits, and chicken and waffles), just saying!

Something new for us but not for my daughters was Deluxe on Broadway.  It was fabulous and we will go again.  The dessert made up for not going to the mountains but a 10 mile hike would have helped with the calorie count.

This was a flourless ice cream sandwich note the word deluxe on the plate!

Now if I could figure out how to make this recipe I will.  It was a chocolate coffee type pudding with whipped cream and a chocolate disk.  

I needed to hike 10 miles.

All while wearing pearls....

Banana Foster Pancakes

Bananas Foster Pancakes

Seven Eleven is a fun day in our home.  Its a birthday night!!  I wanted fix my husband something that he would enjoy, so I prepared a salad with grilled shrimp.  I then thought all day what would he really like.  He loves pancakes, did I say he loves that is an understatement!  He also likes bananas foster for fun occasions.  So why not the two together.  I usually like to cook from scratch but I read that jiffy mix is good so I thought why not. 

So here is what I came up with for dessert.  It is a winner and the family has asked me to make it for them when we are together.

Bananas Foster Pancakes

1 box jiffy baking mix (make according to the package)

3 tablespoons of sugar 

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Make the pancakes with these ingredients added to the mix ( I learned this trick of sugar and vanilla from a minister that was in charge of pancake dinners).   Cook according to the directions.

Bananas Foster

( similar to Commander's  Palace in New Orleans)

1/2 stick butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons Creme de Banana

1 1/2 tablespoon rum

In a non-stick or iron skillet melt the butter very slowly medium heat.   Slowly add the brown sugar and whisk together not letting the sugar burn.  Add the Creme de Banana to the sugar and butter and whisk gently making sure that the liquid doesn't make the sugar and butter separate.  Then in the center of the mixture slowly pour the rum in the middle and light it with a match or lighter.  Whisk the mixture until the flames go out.  

Top a stack of pancakes with the mixture and enjoy!!!

They were a hit.  I text the pictures to my best critics and now they all want me to make it for them. 

It was a super big hit and is so much fun to make.  Also it is always good on vanilla ice cream.

Have a flaming good time with this......

While Wearing Pearls

A Recipe Surprise

Better than Anything Cake

A few weeks ago I pinned a recipe for this cake onto a board.  I didn't think that much about it and thought if I need a quick and easy recipe I might fix it.  It certainly looked super easy.  After about 2 weeks I noticed that people were pinning it after the first round.  When I looked at the board 345 people  had pinned it.  I thought about it for awhile and thought if that many people pinned it maybe I should make it.

So I made it!!!!!  It is absolutely delicious.  I looked back at the original blog that I got it from and she stated that she is not for sure where the original recipe came from.  Her pictures are really good and the directions for the recipe is on her blog.  Here is the link to the blog

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/06/better-than-anything-cake/

After making the cake I noticed that 460 something people had repinned the recipe.  I will have to say that I finally had to put the cake down the disposal so that I would not eat the whole thing.  

If you try it, you will not be disappointed!  

Have a wonderful and safe July 4th.

While Wearing Pearls

Reunion Dinner Part 2

The Rest of the Story.....

I'll finish with the menu items and then share a little about the weekend.

I made a Blueberry Barbecue Sauce from the blog How Sweet It Is.... our whole family and now friends love this recipe.  I highly recommend this blog and her recipes.

Now this recipe makes people that have never liked grits come back for seconds and ask for the recipe.  I got it from our local Jr. League cookbook but I have modified it.  I make it thicker and with less eggs and other stuff so I feel that it is where many love it.

Cheese Grits

6 cups of chicken or vegetable broth (I use organic)
2 cups quick grits
1 1/2 sticks butter (I know this is bad but this is a splurge dish)
1 pound cheddar cheese shredded
3 teaspoons seasoned salt (sounds like a lot but grits need the seasoning!)
1 8oz. can green chilies
2 eggs beaten
(if it seems dry you can add another egg)

Bring the broth to a boil and slowly add the grits and stir until thick.  Add all but the eggs and stir until cheese is melted.  It boils really fast and pops on you so I take it off the burner to do this.  Add the eggs when you remove the grit mixture from the burner and stir in.  Grease a 9x13 dish with butter or Pam(I use Pam).  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour depending on your oven.  This casserole is a great side dish for many menus.  Have fun with it and watch people come back for more, or call asking for the recipe.



This was really a wonderful dinner party for friends of my husbands from his college days.  The reunion was based around the college ministry that he attended.  We got to see many friends, hear amazing music and inspiring words.  The dinner party the night before the event was a great way to prepare our hearts for the weekend.


Reunions...While Wearing Pearls

Chicken Salad for Lunch

I may have found a simple picture solution. There is an app for blogger. Catching up with technology!

One more thought about my blog.  I get several emails or calls a month about where to eat while on a trip.  I really am a foodie!!
This week it is about restaurants in Aspen.  So a new addition to my thoughts is great places to go while traveling.
I added this good picture I took last spring in the UK because I wasn't blogging then and it is great.
Have a great day and thanks for all of the sweet comments on my past post.

Reunion Dinner

Dinner is Served

This last Friday we had a wonderful dinner for great friends.  The recipes that I fixed are some family favorites and not hard to fix.

Now my pictures were awful only one was passible for the blog and it is not very good.  Oh well.

The Menu

Sangria

Salad

Pork Tender

Blueberry Barbecue Sauce

Roasted Asparagus

Cheese Grits

Rolls 

Strawberry Cake from a Bakery

The only usable picture

Sangria Recipe

3 oranges

2 lemons

2 limes

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of berries (I used blackberries)

2 apples

2 cups of grapes

2 bottles of rioja (Spanish red wine)

1 litter of ginger ale

Slice the oranges, lemons, limes, and apples and place in a large container.  Add the berries and grapes to the container and sprinkle with the cup of sugar.  Let the fruit and sugar sit for an hour at room temperature then add the red wine and let it set for about 30 minutes.  Right before serving add ice and the ginger ale.  

I do not use the liquor that is in most recipes which is how we like it better.

Salad

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1 quart sliced strawberries

1/4 of a purple onion diced
Organic lettuce
1 avocado diced
1/2 cup feta cheese
4 Tablespoons Watermelon Vinaigrette (Cookwell & Company)

Toss together the ingredients and add the dressing before serving.

Pork Tender Marinade

This is for 2 pork tenders, I always double if making more

1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
3 garlic cloves, pressed in my garlic clove press
2 teaspoons ginger(sometimes I use fresh but for this it was the dried form)

Marinade over night or at least several hours.
Then I put mine on a rimmed cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  I roast at 425 for about 30 to forty minutes.


Okay I'm posting for now because some are waiting for my recipes.

I wish I had more pictures to show but they were really bad and I need to ask someone for help with that.  I will post my grits recipe later.  It is the most asked for recipe that I make.

Have a wonderful day and I will write more later.

While Wearing Pearls

More of London

After going out of London for 2 days we decided to stay in town and explore some favorite places and new ones.  We went to the Wallace Collection, which I had not been to before it was really a pleasant surprise.  The building was really a beautiful old home with a great collection.    After seeing the collection we ate lunch at the tea room at the museum.  It was really nice and relaxing.  I loved it.  Here are a few pictures that we could take in the museum ,which was fun to practice without a flash. 

                                                    A Portrait of Young Victoria



We then went to Harrods for afternoon tea.   This is a great treat while in London.  It is now my third year to go there for tea and I love it.

One of my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood where we stay is DaMario's.  It is a great neighborhood place to eat and apparently Princess Diana ate there when she live in Kensington Palace.

I found these cute little chicks at a store while in London.  I love the cute little things that you can find  in the UK.

The best part of the trip is when we returned to Cambridge to get the treasure that my friend had found.  We returned to the antique dealer that we named Mr. Chippy.   When I go back to London I will go back to this antique dealer many hidden treasures were in his shop of chippy transferware!!

I loved this trip "while wearing pearls"

Have a wonderful week.

Part Two of Adventures in Quilting

 I finally got my computer to put of the pictures of the progress of my quilt after the disappearing ink fiasco!   So here they are and as you can see Lucy Belle is enjoying this by sleeping in my chair.

She was not disappointed by the delay because she realized she could have the whole chair by herself!

This is the part that I had to start over because the ink disappeared, even with this I'm happy with the progress I making.

Now more about my fun trip in March.....

This is a statue of Henry the Eighth of England.  This was my first trip to Cambridge it is really an interesting town out of London.  We walked around the different Colleges that make of the Cambridge University system.  There are a lot there.   We got there on a day that we could not tour The Kings College(Henry's), so we quickly found a place to eat lunch (Wagamama's).  The hunt was on for some antique stores in Cambridge and will say we were very successful.  We found some amazing things but the highlight was finding a dealer with a lot of personality.  When we would look at something he would say that we didn't want it because it was too "chippy" we really found some things of interest but needed to research an item to make sure of its value.   So we decided to get tea and think about what we saw.  After we were refreshed we went to the Evensong Services at King's Chapel, this was so amazing to attend.  I had not been to a services like that before and will go to one every time I'm in England.  After the service we headed back to London, we then discovered what we saw in Cambridge was of value and knew we would go back.
It was such a fun experience in Cambridge that we did not mind another day there.
As promised to my girls tomorrow I will add some family favorite recipes.
So Cheerio for now.....

Adventures in Quilting!

I have signed up for a quilting class that has been a great learning experience.  I like to sew and now that I have finally learned how to thread my new machine I'm in business.  It took me two hours to learn to thread the thing and make a bobbin.  That is a whole different story.  I do miss the fact that my Mom's old Singer Slantomatic quit working after many repair jobs.

So I signed up for a quilting class and have started making my first quilt.  I hope it turns out okay.  It is going to be very small but hopefully cute.  I chose these reproduction fabrics for the first one.  The other morning I had about 45  minutes before I needed to go to lunch with friends so I thought I could start marking my fabric to make half squares and flying geese.(whatever that means)   So I carefully measure and mark the fabric so that later I could cut them and start sewing.   Well I got home after several hours and all of my marks had disappeared!  I had used disappearing ink.  Hopefully this will not happen again but it was so funny because I was being super careful with what I was doing because I am trying to learn the technique of quilting.

I have some pictures of my progress that are on my phone but can not get them to upload for my blog.  It goes with out saying that I am very new at this.  Definitely a work in progress.

Tomorrow is my second class and I still have a little homework to go so ...."sew" long for now.

While Wearing Pearls

Well it has been way to long since I've added to my blog!  I had a wonderful trip to England in March.  I went with a dear friend that knows a lot of things to do while there, mainly shopping for antiques!  We had so much fun with shopping( I mean touring the sights), having afternoon tea and more shopping( I mean touring the sights).

 We had a great day trip to Bath my favorite city out of London.  The train trip is beautiful then you arrive in such a peaceful setting of the city in a valley.  I have been through the Roman Baths a number of times so we just ate lunch in the Pump Room it is a must do event.  After our fun lunch we went to the cutest Cath Kidston store (again not my first trip to that store) great gifts were bought there.  Then the antique mall...well needless to say the day was way to short but my friend found an amazing piece of silver and I found some great vanity jars with silver lids!  Before leaving Bath we had to have tea at Sally Lunn's Tea Room.  Definitely an iconic tourist destination but really good for afternoon tea.  It is always cooler in Bath than London so tea is a great idea before the train trip back to London.

                                                                   The Pump Room

                                               
                                                  The Avon River in Bath with the iconic Bridge Shops

                                                               Sally Lunn's Tea Room

I will add more a little later.   Cheerio for now.

Curried Cauliflower Soup


Tonight for dinner we had this soup a simple Red Snapper preparation with lemon salt and pepper and sautéed Swiss Chard.  The meal was very good but the  most outstanding was the soup.  
The original recipe was one I got at Williams Sonoma.  I used it as a guideline to make it my own.


Curried Cauliflower Soup


2 heads cauliflower, cut into florets
1 onion chopped
1 leek, cleaned and sliced
1 cup carrots chopped, I used purple carrots
3 tablespoons olive oil, and some olive oil pam
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 bunch cilantro tied in a bundle
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
4 cloves of garlic minced
8 cups of organic vegetable stock
3/4 cup non-fat greek yogurt
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste


1.In a large stock pot saute the onion,leek and carrots until soft about 7 minutes.  Add the cauliflower and cook until soft about 14 minutes.
2. Toast the coriander and cumin in a skillet for about 2 minutes, when toasted add them to the vegetables.   Add the turmeric, curry, garlic and cilantro bundle and cook for about 2 minutes.  It will smell wonderful at this point.
3. Add the vegetable broth and let it cook for about 25 minutes.  Remove the cilantro at this time and let it all cool for a few minutes.  If you have a hand held blender use that otherwise blend in a blender.  Add salt and pepper at this time for taste.
4. Mix the yogurt, lime juice, olive oil, and cumin in a small bowl.
5. Ladle up the soup in a bowl and place a dollop of the yogurt mixture on the soup.


Enjoy!!!!

 Spring time at home.

                                                                Morning Glory Muffin

This is going to be my recipe to add to the blog.


I thought you may enjoy these because they are great for a fast breakfast on the run.


I made them years ago and lost the recipe but thanks to the internet I found them online at the Cooking Light website.  I have adapted them to our taste.  


Morning Glory Muffins
Cooking Light July 2007


1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour 
1 cup of regular oats (not instant or quick)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon wheat bran ( found on the bulk aisle )
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain non-fat greek yogurt
1 cup mashed ripe banana about 2
1 large egg
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dried pineapple
3 tablespoons ground golden flaxseeds
1 tablespoon flaxseeds to top the muffins


1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. Place 18 cupcake liners in a muffin pan and coat the liners with pam.  It really works!!
3. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups and level with a knife.  Combine the flours and the next 5 ingredients (through the salt) in a large bowl and stir with a whisk.
4. Make a well in the center of the mixture.
5. Combine yogurt, banana, egg, buttermilk and place this mixture in the well that was created in the bowl of flour.  Stir until just moist and combined.
6. Combine the chopped dates, walnuts, dried pineapple and flaxseed in a small bowl.  Fold the nut mixture into the batter.
7. Spoon batter into the muffin cups and sprinkle with flaxseeds.
8. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes or until the muffin springs back when touched lightly. 
9. Remove from the pan and cool on a rack.


Enjoy!

Completed my first recipe that I will post at a later time to the blog.  I will figure out how to upload pictures and add recipes at the same time.  This could be a lot of fun!!

Still under construction but got the book Blogging for Dummies.  I might have a chance now!!!

Under Contruction