PIZZA TIME AND A WINTER WEEKEND BIRTHDAY BLIZZARD WARNING

I was surprised to look at my blogger dashboard today and see that this is my 600th post.  My gosh, that's a lot of writing considering most of my posts are like essays!  Have you noticed I'm trying to write more often?  And I've been spending an hour in the morning and most times, an hour in the evening visiting blogs.  It's a nice balance.  I want to thank all of you ladies who have followed me on Instagram, I've followed all of you back (I think).  I'm a little new with it all so bear with me.  I'm also working on getting a Pinterest button on my pictures...the sort that pops up in the corner when you hover over the picture.  It's difficult and I've failed a few times figuring it out.  I thought everyone had a Pin it button their toolbar!  Well, if I ever get the button up and running, I'll let you know.  

I know most of you know Maria Elena from Our Home Away From Home.  I was the lucky winner of one of her recent giveaways.  If you know Maria, you have probably been amazed by her many talents...from crafting to sewing to decorating her beautiful home.  One of the gifts I received (and packaged so prettily!) was a sweet collection of handmade gift tags.  They are precious!  I already have some ideas for using them with some homemade gifts of my own, and to give my little nieces to include in a few valentine's for their besties.

Maria makes the most beautiful pillows.  The first three pictured here are the ones she made for me.  I love the Paris theme on the fabric in the first one, and then the red and gray pick up those colors.  I had a stash of pillows that I wasn't using so I just popped out the forms and everything fit!  I love how bright they make my family room look on these dull days.  Thank you, Maria!!

Oh, goodness (I can hear you saying), she's cooking again.  I just don't know what else to do with myself all day long.  I wake up to an empty house and then The Husband and Abby don't arrive home until about 6 or 7 p.m.  I hope to get into a better routine by next week; gym first thing, cleaning, laundry, make ahead meals for the weekends and getting more reading in.  I've felt like I've been floundering around since Christmas.  I can't seem to focus on one thing for very long.  When I'm busy running errands and preparing for this or that, I long for a lazy day at home.  And then when I'm home for a day or two without plans, I'm climbing the walls.  Do you feel that way at all in the winter or is it just me?

Last week Emily made a delicious and healthy pizza and I shared it with you on my last post.  I was in Trader Joe's Wednesday for just a handful of things as I was in the area, and I saw a bag of arugula.  I remembered Emily using it on her pizza, so I grabbed a bag along with some other things that sparked my idea for a healthy pizza and out the door I went with my little brown bags.  This is a couple of big handfuls of arugula softening and shrinking in size in just a few tablespoons of water in a hot skillet.  It literally takes about a half minute.  

I've made pizza dough a few times but I was sort of intrigued by the bag of Trader Joe's fresh dough so I grabbed one.  The instructions say to roll the dough out but believe me...that never works.  Pizza dough needs to be stretched...that's why you have that iconic picture in your head of the Italian, mustached man in a chefs jacket, tossing and twirling the pie in the air.  S-t-r-e-t-c-h it!  Smack the ball of dough down in the middle of a lightly oiled pan.  Use one hand to hold the pan down firmly and the other to push and pat the dough towards the edges.  It will tear and you'll have holes but you just have to keep at it.  Patience.  ;-)

What I really wanted to fiddle with was the sauce.  I've never made my own pizza sauce and I wondered, what's the difference between the sauce you might have on spaghetti or ravioli, and what you have on pizza?  I scanned thorough a lot of recipes on the Internet and in some of my cookbooks.  The common denominator?  The texture, the use of tomato sauce and the addition of brown sugar for sweetness.  The tomato sauce gives you a smooth creaminess that spreads well over the pie.  I always use a pinch of sugar in my tomatoes when I make a sauce as they can be bitter when cooked slowly.  Brown sugar is a bit of an earthy sweetness.  The catch here is that I didn't have tomato sauce so I used a large can of crushed tomatoes.    It's a different result but I'll happily make it again this way.

Healthy Pizza Sauce

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter.  Add 1/2 cup chopped onion, and 2 chopped  garlic cloves.  Saute until onion is softened.  Add a large (14.5 oz) can of crushed tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon each of dried basil and oregano, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon of dried fennel, and a pinch of salt.  Let the sauce simmer on low heat for a least an hour.  Remove bay leaf.

I put the pizza together by spreading most of the sauce over the pie, then I added sliced mushrooms and arugula that I had steamed a bit together, sliced tomatoes, shredded pieces of Prosciutto, a palmful each of Parmesan and Mozzarella.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.  Let sit 5 minutes before cutting.  This was so good.  I wish I had doubled the sauce to freeze.  Next time!

Tomorrow we are leaving for downtown at about 9:00 a.m.  And wouldn't you know it..my area has not seen more that 3 inches of snow since winter hit.  And this weekend they are warning us of a  blizzard!!  Well, as our weather people say, "A winter storm warning."  Well, I have a warning!  This is my 'winter weekend birthday' and no amount of snow is stopping us.  Take that, you 5-9 inches of white stuff!

I'll be back next week to tell you all about it.  

Jane x

GIVE ME SOME SUGAR!!

Hello, sugar!  I was saying that a lot on Saturday as I made one batch of cookies after the next.  It wasn't such a bad deal, I had a great movie channel on in the living room and caught bits and pieces of Must Love Dogs and The Other Woman, both of which I've never seen.  The first was so heartwarming; I love books and movies that touch on the quirkiness of family life.  The Other Woman was pretty bad, but Leslie Mann is hysterical, a really great comedic actress.  It's worth watching just to see her in action.  And my little Abby, who usually holes up in the family room, jumped on the couch and spent the most part of the afternoon watching these movies between stealing fresh baked cookies cooling on the counter.  

Have I mentioned she's in the midst of getting an apartment with three of her girlfriends in March?  Yes, just north of the city near Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs.  You did hear of Ernie Banks passing?  So sad.  Mr. Cub.)  As she is my last baby...my caboose, I've been feeling really sad about this.  I know we raise them only until they get their wings to fly.  And all the advice says that we just give them the best we can til takeoff.  At first I thought it was silly.  A waste of money.  Plus, all of her friends and her boyfriend are here south of the city.   And I don't want to be the mother that is always bringing up my past to my kids, "Oh, I did this and I did that."   Learn from my failures instead of making your own.  But I do.  :(  I made the move to Chicago from the suburbs/country in my early twenties and my gosh, after the first few weeks of excitement, I was so lonely!  And I had no money to enjoy much of anything.  Yes, there are many free things to do in the city, but we exhausted all the museums and architectural tours on field trips in grade school.  And I was so inept at taking care of myself.  I remember throwing a can of soup at the wall in a fit of anger because I didn't own a can opener.  

So just as I ease back and make up my mind that I have to put on a positive face and support her in all she does, she starts to confide in me that she is worried about money, worried about her apartment-mates, well, all sorts of nagging worries.  Abby is a thinker.  She's disciplined and hard working.  But as the baby, she's been pampered far longer and much more than the rest of my kids.   I want her to be prepared.  I want to buffer her against all the hard knocks.  I want her to have a can opener.  

She went away to college for one semester.  I cried all the way home after we got her set up in her dorm, and then broke out in huge hives.  Every time I walked by her bedroom I thought I would see her in there, doing homework and listening to music.  I slowly got used to it and then the phone calls started to come.  She was bored.  She was lonely,  She was scared.  She was angry.  I drove the three hours down there to pick her up for Christmas break and she was standing on the curb with all of her bags packed.  She never went back.  She got her degree here on the Chicago campus.  I guess I truly know, I'm not worried about my heart, I'm worried about hers.  

So, I did good...7 dozen cookies.  I got smart and used a small round cookie cutter in addition to the heart shaped one which was so big!  Ha!  And I decorated a few without the melted white chocolate.  Again, you can find the link to this really great sugar cookie recipe here. 

I am living with the two biggest health nuts alive right now.  Since Abby is gone at work 12 hours per day, she really has to pack a lot of food to bring with.  She shops twice a week for fresh fruit and veggies in addition to what I buy when I grocery shop.  She usually has two smoothies a day, a salad and various types of nutritional bars.  She has a hot meal here with The Husband and I for dinner.  And The Husband?  Well, I told you he is trying to get fit to go on a big hiking trip, son Jeff, is putting together for the spring.  I keep telling Jeff, "You are 32 years old and he is 62.  Give him some slack!"  But Jeff never lets anyone off the hook.  "He has four months to build his endurance."  The Husband doesn't know our son and I had this convo.  He re-joined the gym last week and has been going every evening.  He went out and bought some good work-out clothing, thankfully, he had been wearing the same old lounging pants until I thought they could walk to Goodwill themselves.  And he bought a FitBit, the less expensive version that is synchronized with the IPhone.  It counts his steps/miles, calories and number of hours he sleeps.  It can probably count how many times he peeks in the refrigerator.  

Saturday I demanded he take me out to dinner after all of the cooking and baking I had been doing.  He totally agreed and I'm sure it was because we had a Christmas gift card for an Italian restaurant nearby.  As I was getting ready that night, he bounded into the bedroom in his jogging pants, a zip up athletic jacket and his ear buds around his neck.  Jogging in place he said, "I thought I'd run home from the restaurant!"  Oh, dear God.  The man has lost it.  First of all, I informed him, you can't go into a restaurant dressed like Bruce Jenner from the 1980's.  Secondly, he wouldn't be able to walk much less run after eating the portions they serve at this place.  And thirdly, I wasn't going to try to drive his hot shot, recently bought, two year old Mercedes home when I've never driven it before, never will and don't even know how to get the key in the ignition (I never learned to drive the two seater "Spider" either).  He can have his fancy cars.  Well, his face fell a bit and he went to change.  The man is insufferable.  

Me, I'm going to go back to the gym as well, honestly.  I have to bide my time, with his joining and having to pay 3 months at a time...well, I'll work that into the budget later this week! ;-)  I did promise myself that if it was over 30 degrees today, I would take a long walk outside.  I awoke and grabbed my phone to check the temps.  28 degrees.  Saved!! 

Daughter Emily has cleaned up the bad eating habits going on in her home as well.  She keeps this basket on the kitchen counter so she and Mike can make good food choices.  She knows a little bit about presentation, too.  Makes it look all the more enticing. ;-)

She cooks quite a bit and she's rather good at it.  She texts me pictures of what she's up to pretty regularly.  This came in a short while ago.  A store bought crust with sauteed zucchini and arugula, topped with sliced tomatoes, turkey pepperoni and a bunch of good Italian spices, then finished off with mozzarella and Romano cheese.  Now why wasn't I invited over?

  

I've been meaning to post this picture of Emily, a selfie she took on New Years Eve before they went out.  Isn't she cute as a button?  I always called her 'chocolate chip eyes', and you can see why.  I think she looks so much like my mother.  :)

We are not having bad weather at all, just a lot of slush as snow comes down and melts.  We are praying for everyone on the east coast...what a monster of a storm they are expecting and we are no strangers to that...so be safe if you are in that area.  I'll be back soon.

Joining Tweak It Tuesday with Brenda at Cozy Little House

Jane x

LOVE ME, LOVE MY KITCHEN

Oh, my friends...weren't things supposed to slow down once January arrived?  I would love to complain about the weather but it rarely seems to affect me, I seem to be chained to my home by so much going on...as per usual.  I just think February will be different and I will be droning on and on about books and reality TV shows and lame DIY projects.  So for now, I'm dreaming about snowdrops and crocus, which are nowhere to be seen yet.  :)  Sorry for the tease pic.

You can see that Mary Clare is ready to have her baby soon.  She looks SO beautiful!!  We were all at her mom's house, Tuesday,  Katie (her sister) was doing my hair.  Their aunt was there as well as niece, Hannah.  Katie had her little baby, Margot, along (hasn't she grown?).  Their mom, Peggy, was working away at a wonderful Italian dinner, and the smells and laughter and good feelings touched me to my soul.  Good times. 

    

  I couldn't get enough of holding this little cutie and it is making me inpatient for my granddaughter.  2 more weeks!  I bet MC is happier than I am about this.  ;-)

When you have a baby (or have gone thorough an illness or hard time), the dinners (casseroles, soups, sometimes even basic groceries) arrive.  I knew Mary Clare and Kevin were trying to adjust to having meals while they both worked full time...MC will work right up to her due date.  

I made a promise to Kevin to make a few meals before she had the baby, while they had to work and  deal with being tired and a bit stressed out.  These are the times that I feel so blessed that I don't have a job outside of the home, and that my kitchen is my favorite place in the whole house.  Things have been bubbling away since I did a big shopping on Monday.  This is a huge pot of soup of lentils, sausage and Swiss chard.  Daughters Emily and Abby said, "Forget it, Kevin will never eat this."  I said, okay,  he can go to McDonald's then.  Son Jeff said, "Make healthy 'stuff' for him'".  They are going hiking in the spring for Jeff's bachelor party.  Kevin has been running every day.  We'll see.  

Recipe links will be listed in a future post or if you follow me on Pinterest, you can find most of them there.   More on that later.

Among a few things, I made stuffed shells.  I think we have all made them at some point in our lives.  They are time consuming...boiling the pasta, making the sauce and stirring up the filling.  Not to mention stuffing those slimy noodles.  Let me help a bit.

STUFFED SHELLS

1)  While you boil your shells, (1 lb.) in a sea of salted water, make your sauce.  I use 2 jars of pasta sauce...I like to mix them..here I did an Arrabiatta  (sp?) sauce mixed with Emeril's garlic marinara (he has super tasty red sauces).  When I have time, I make my own sauces but for now...we do the convenient.  Heck, I've made my own pasta as well, I'm not going to try to impress with this recipe!  However, to this sauce I added one pound of cooked ground sweet Italian sausage, as well as 1 medium chopped green pepper and a handful of fresh basil.  Let simmer on low for 1/2 hour to meld the ingredients. 

2)  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together a 16 oz. container of Ricotta cheese, 1 cup of shredded mozzarella, two beaten eggs and two tablespoons of parsley.  

3)  Drain shells when just soft.  Mix a tablespoon of olive oil into the colander and toss several times to keep them from sticking and to drain excess water from their folds.    

4)  Assemble a work surface.  Spread out shells and have a 9x13 dish ready with a few spoonfuls of red sauce on the bottom..  Place a shell on a cutting board and with a teaspoon, add about two dollops of the cheese mixture.  Use your (clean) fingers to sort of tuck that cheese in.  Place into the dish.  Keep repeating until you have two layers of shells.  Don't try to be perfect.  This takes patience.  Enjoy the process, it's so worth it.  

5)  Spoon the red sauce over, top with about 1 1/2 cups of shredded Mozzerella, as evenly as you can...then give it a good sprinkling of Parmesan.  

6)  Bake 40 minutes covered with foil.  Remove foil and give it a few minutes under the broiler, watching very carefully. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before you serve.  Use a big old metal spoon.  This should not be cut like lasagna, although it looks like it should.

I try to make recipes sound doable...maybe some look complicated in the crazy way I write them.  I simply believe that when I was a young "cook", I shied away from recipes that had a mile long list of ingredients.  Sometimes half of those involved spices.  Still, it looked daunting.  I try to make my recipes look and cook "friendly"...for all of you by listing the ingredients in bold.  You can assemble them easily this way.

 

In addition to the many meals I'm making for Kevin and Mary Clare, a relative of mine was really impressed with the heart shaped sugar cookies I made for the baby shower.  Very complimentary!  She asked if I could make them for a wedding shower she is going to on Sunday.  There will be 40 guests.  Figuring 2 cookies per guests...I lost count of how many dozen. I will be making these tomorrow after I finish up the other stuff.  Gee, I'm getting popular and I really am not that good at baking.  So I'm not quitting my day job (of reading, dusting a little, and haunting HomeGoods).  Ha!

I'm trying to work on my Woman Cave, although we are all so disgusted with that description, we are back to calling it the den once again.  Emily is part of a buy/sell group on FB and the pieces are not going well as a whole.  We are getting bids on them separately.  I have no use for these relatively formal pieces that we were absolutely out of our minds buying in the first place.  Thus, they have rarely been so much as sat on in 5 years.  I want to use the money to have Charlie (my main man in removing stubborn wallpaper and painting uneven old walls) do his thing.  And then I have to come up with the $$ to get (what I hope to be) a comfy chaise, chair, and 32 inch TV where I can be close enough to read the closed caption.  Heaven.  :)  I'm saving my pennies!

As late as it is, I'm off to make one more dinner to freeze for my lovebirds, and the dough for the cookies.  I simply feel alive, worthwhile and earnestly chuffed to do this.

I will see all of you soon.  Many prayers for those on the east coast...we've heard of the treacherous weather coming your way.

I also wanted to mention that I joined Instagram, and you can find me here if you want to follow me.  And you can also follow me on Pinterest here.  No big deal, I think you might like to see some of my "found" recipes that are so Go To!!

Jane xx

Joining in with Thoughts from Alice

ONGOING ORGANIZING AND SOME JANUARY DRIVEL

It doesn't sound like I lack for company in the linen closet sorting business.  Lots of you ladies admitted to sharing my dirty little secret.  No names.  Ahem.  I have to admit, as you get into the cleaning and organizing, it's sort of cathartic.  I found myself humming a bit and I never do that.  

I found a few cool things, I used to love to go through the piles of old linens at some of the antique stores we would find in little towns.  Pillowcases like these were snapped up without a second thought.  I have a few with the handkerchief closure.  Just buried and very musty smelling in this long overdo~to~be~cleaned out linen closet.  I washed everything twice.  With lots of bleach.  And I ironed a lot.  Well I did that because I left everything in the dryer overnight.  

 

I've told you, I have a thing for shower curtains.  Nothing makes my heart skip a little as when I look at my bathrooms switched up a little with a new curtain and some matching hand towels.  Sort of like how your living room might look different in your eyes just by moving the furniture or a few objects.  That can't be done in a bathroom, so this is my way of freshening things up.  

I also felt I was coming up short on hand towels so I ordered a few from Macy's, which was having a "Blowout" one day only sale.  I think I missed all the white sales this month which is odd as I get every conceivable offer from every conceivable store in my email box every day.  Maybe I mindlessly deleted them.  

So...you saw the closet "Before" picture here. And now we have this:

I left an empty spot because I have more towels in the dryer right now.  Ta Da!  Isn't this the bomb?  I tossed a lot of the old and ragged items and I found I had much more room once everything was folded neatly.  I wiped each shelf down and I couldn't believe the dust/dirt.  How does that happen?  And I know I really need to give it a fresh coat of paint, maybe even replace the actual shelves, I'm sure they are original to the house.  As in 70 years old.  Maybe in the fall.  

On a funny note, I was awoken this morning to The Husband banging around in his closet.  He had made an 8:00 a.m. trip to Home Depot and was in the midst of repairing his closet organizing system.  He has one of those kind that you spend all day putting together; wire shelves on metal brackets.  It's always falling apart.  I liked this...sort of a domino effect. :)

This is the REAL drivel.  In mid December, Abby treated me to a manicure at the shop she goes to.  An early Christmas gift.  I haven't had my nails done in years and I had actually stopped using nail polish except for very special occasions.  I don't care how much you spend or how much the brand says, "No Chip", mine starts to chip the same day.  And I despise taking it off,  I have little patience for that sort of thing.  Anyway, Abby has been getting gel manicures for a few months.  The beauty of it is that it simply doesn't chip.  Nope.  You get a good 2-3 weeks out of your manicure.  It's a layer of some sort of gel which hardens, then two coats of some sort of special nail polish and then a sort of oily topcoat.  The picture above is from my second manicure which I had done last week.  Isn't the little flower cute?  Soooo not me but I couldn't turn down the cute Chinese guy doing my nails.  I'm such a sucker. :) 

So, as proof positive about the no chipping, this is what my nails looked like right before I went last week.  No chips. but they had grown a lot and well, that's the trade off.  And that means maintenance.  And I don't like that at all.  On one hand (no pun intended), I love this sort of "armor" for my nails.  They grow fast but they are thin and they sort of snag and rip off.  And as I said, I don't like to be putting on and taking off my polish.  I'm just not sure what to do.  Pretty though.  Okay, drivel~time over.

I made a beautiful roast last week, slow cooked in the oven with carrots and potatoes and leeks, yum.  As I was getting ready to take it out of the oven, Abby declared she was in the mood for pizza, that she was breaking her diet for one day and ordering a deep dish pizza.  Of course, The Husband's eyes lit up, and then he looked at me holding my oven mitts and sort of shrunk back.  But I caved.  What's one slice of pizza?  I refrigerated the roast and the next day invited Emily and Mike over for dinner.  I reheated it and added some mashed potatoes and rolls to soak up the heavenly juices.  Nothing fancy was done with the table, it just felt good to have company so I hauled out the real napkins and silver.  

I actually walked by this slate cheese board (?) the first time when I was at HomeGoods before Christmas.  You can write the names of your cheeses in chalk.  I thought it was a little fussy.  There's nothing wrong with serving your cheese on a tray or wooden cutting board.  A week or so later (yeah, I go to HomeGoods alot!), I saw it again and then I just knew it was calling me.  I love it and have used it many times.  I always have cheese in the house, The Husband loves his sandwiches, and on my low carb/no carb diet, this is a good snack.  I love playing with everything, too.  I used some cookie cutters to make shapes.  It reminds me of when I used to make food with Playdoh when I was little.  Remember that? :)

My birthday is right around the corner.  Every year is different but I just have to do something to mark the day.  In the past we have gone downtown, other times we've gone to a restaurant with all the kids or just invited all of them over for pizza.  With Mary Clare having the baby the day after my birthday, we thought we'd do the downtown thing.  We made reservations at my favorite hotel, The Knickerbocker.  The rates are fantastic this time of year.  The Husband surprised me with a 40th birthday party here.  Oh, it was a blast.  A lot of our Michigan friends were there and spent the night.  It was a treat for them to visit Chicago and I was so touched they came.  Anyway, The Drake Hotel is across the street.  I had always wanted to stay there because that's where Princess Diana stayed when she came to Chicago back in the '90's, they have a display case with her pictures and a 'thank you' note she wrote.  And they have 4:00 high tea.  I really want to do that one day.  So we stayed there one time and I actually found that the Knickerbocker was more my taste...very European and some great restaurants and a piano bar.  So, we will be here on the 31st.  No big plans.  Elizabeth Arden is next door, I've gone there for facials and to get my hair vamped up for a night on the town but I'm not in the mood for that.   And not for shopping much either after all the hullabaloo of Christmas.  We'll see.  You can't possibly be bored in downtown Chicago!

I'm finishing up a big mug of this herbal tea right now.  The past few months have been the worst with my insomnia.  I usually go to bed after the news, then I toss and turn for a minimum of two hours.  Then I'm wide awake at 4 or 5, then I fall into a very sound sleep and have to force myself to get up at a decent hour.  I tried Melatonin as so many suggested.  It did absolutely nothing.  And it was Buy One, Get One Free at CVS so I now have a 120 day supply.  So this is a bit different from the regular Sleepytime, it has valerian root in it and that is supposed to naturally calm you.  I feel calm, I just can't turn my mind off.  I have read so many articles and have gotten so much advice, but nothing seems to work.  I hope that when I get back to the gym next week that I will burn off some of my restlessness (among other things).  

Jane x 

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SOME ORGANIZING & THE THINGS WE EAT

You might remember me telling you a few weeks ago about the evil floating shelf that kept falling off the wall.  They are both down at the curb as we speak and hopefully someone really handy will rescue them.  I will be looking out the window laughing.  So these are the shelves I made by buying some pine boards from Home Depot and staining them a light gray.  

The Husband popped them up the night before the shower, you know...the 11th hour.  I was biting my nails and when he was finished, I scurried around the house finding and arranging treasures I had tucked away.  I think it might be a tad cluttered now that I'm seeing it in a photo.

I wanted a few personal things; pictures and books that tell a story.  This room is decorated with pieces I fell in love with and some greenery that makes me happy, but you have to have that very personal element somewhere.  For me, that's family pictures, this is my spot for them.  Here you see a rare framed picture of The Husband and I taken in Las Vegas about 8 years ago,  Pics of the kids and even the dogs are in and amongst the other treasures.

A few days before the baby shower, Emily came over to help me sort of clean things up to make room for the food and candles and candy dishes,  pretty much our only party decor.  She proceeded to take everything off my kitchen counters, island, coffee and end tables, the whole time me protesting,  "I have to have some of my stuff', Em.  This is me!"  Oh no,  She wouldn't have any of that.  The food and pink candles and pink candies had to take center stage, my "stuff" would be distracting.  Bingo, she was right as usual.  And until today I was sort of liking the extra space.  I kept those counters clutter free and actually rolled out some pastry on the marble topped island (which is what it was meant for). 

Today I caved and went downstairs to my storage room, which is starting to look like a garage sale in the making.  I found a cloche and some pinecones for my coffee table and added some of my decorating books.

A pretty tray with my Christmas hurricane was re-purposed for winter with a white candle.

I found these S & P shakers at Terrain a few years ago.  If you look closely, they are mini Mason jars.

Do you remember that episode of Friends where Chandler, Joey and Ross discover Monica's secret closet?  Monica was the perfectionist, always after everyone to be neat.  And then they found the closet, broke into it and found something like the above.  Gasp!  Well, welcome to my linen closet.  It reminds me of my "junk drawer" in the kitchen (you have one of course?).  After you sort it out and it's perfectly organized, someone searches for something and it all flies out the window.  That's what happens here.  I do have to say, the balled up sheets were shoved in during a fit of anger.  I despise folding fitted sheet.  I even watched a demonstration by Martha Stewart on You Tube and I just couldn't grasp it.  And if you think this is my only dirty little secret...no no!  I have a habit of using the sheets and pillow cases on the top of the piles.  One day I pulled some pillowcases out from the bottom and I got a whiff.  They smelled like something wickedly old and musty.  So I had been putting this off knowing that everything had to be washed and that I had to delegate some of my shower curtains (yes, I'm a fiend and love to switch them out), bath rugs and duvets to another location.  Ditto for the heating pad and iron which rarely get used.  So...I have a load of wash going and I'll give this a go again tomorrow.  Are you interested in seeing the after?  Do you have any dirty little secrets in your home?

I've been back on my low carb/no carb diet since January 1 and so far, so good.  Abby on the other hand decided to go with whole foods and little dairy or excess fat.  She has been making smoothies with our new Magic Bullet (a Christmas grab bag gift).  I can't have fruit but I've tasted a few.  The strawberry/pineapple/banana/Greek yogurt is a winner.  Anyway, she wanted to go to a restaurant we've recently discovered called The Harvest Room.  The food is farm to table, organic or organically raised.  They make their own biscuits, jam, syrups, soups and pastries.  The menu was incredibly interesting...if you are curious and want to scratch your head in confusion a lot as I did, here is their website.  

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Abby ordered the Slider Trio; ground beef, chicken and beef brisket.  They were each dressed in a different way, and look at that presentation.  The Husband had Chicken and Waffles.  We were intrigued.  Sorry...he frowns on me when I take pictures of food in restaurants, so no peek.  Basically it was chicken pieces fried in Panko crumbs with small bacon infused waffles and a maple caramel sauce.  He was in heaven.

I had the Slow Braised Pot Roast which came with charred organic carrots, confit potatoes, roasted pearl onions and...   

...English "sphere" peas.  I had no idea what they were.  When I tapped one with my finger, it broke apart and oozed like some sort of alien egg.  When the waiter came by, I asked that he enlighten me on these before I tasted them.  Apparently, after these type of peas are cooked, they are dropped in cold water and they just pop!  Okay.  So I spooned that gooey goodness on top of my organic carrots and roasted pearl onions and I think I may be switching up my old standby pot roast recipe!  Now...where to find these peas...

I read the most hysterically funny book yesterday...yes, it's only about 100 pages and I really didn't do much else.  This is not so much a diet book as it is a fun look at the eating habits of the "Fit and Famous".  The author, Rebecca Harrington, who is also a columnist for New York Magazine, has researched and tried fad diets going all the way back to the celery loaf Great Garbo subsisted on.  She tried Gwyneth Paltrow's strictly organic diet which includes goji berries with quail eggs, and Marilyn Monroe's go~to breakfast of raw eggs mixed in warm milk.  "The egg without the nog." the author writes.  

Today as I made my own go~to lunch, I wondered about the things we eat, the many ways we try to stay healthy with the foods we choose.  I sometimes want to laugh when someone says they can eat everything they want by just trying "a bite".  Ah, The Painful Restraint Diet.  According to this book, Sophia Loren wrote a cookbook filled with pasta recipes and said she eats pasta with every meal.  When the writer made the recipes, she read closer and apparently SL only eats a palm~full of pasta at a time.  The recipes were out of sight and the author couldn't help but kill the whole pot each time.  

So who eats tuna salad simply because they love it?  Crave it?  If you crave more it can only be because you are still ravenous.  Still, here is my tuna salad recipe.

1 pouch of tuna in water (one serving size)

2 T mayonnaise 

1/2 stalk of celery sliced thin

1 green onion, sliced

1/2 t onion powder

1/2 t Mrs. Dash

A pinch of parsley flakes

Mix all and chill one hour (preferably...I never plan ahead and usually devour it as is).  Serve on a few iceberg lettuce leaves.

My four 'o clock snack was cucumber slices with hummus.  I SO wanted more. Not.

January means organizing and goals to eat better and be more active for so many of us.  Dr. Oz, whose new magazine is just terrific, wrote in the January issue, "So many New Year goals fail because we expect immediate results.  When that doesn't happen we throw in the towel."  I agree that we have to be in it for the long haul.  Be patient no matter what your plan is. 

I was going to go back to the gym this week.  I found that I just needed more space between the chaos of the past few weeks and a true commitment.  It's pretty easy to have that goal shimmering in front of me full of promise.  Then there is the harsh reality of completing that first run around the track and remembering how much I hate to exercise!

Off I go to work on that closet.  Maybe I'll burn a few calories while I'm doing it.

Jane x

A BABY SHOWER

I wanted to start off with a pretty picture...well, they are all pretty.  The shower was a success, I think.  There were a few glitches but I have to chalk that up as a learning experience.  I didn't feel like that at the time but...well, here's the good stuff.

I threw together the sugar cookies the night before after the Red Velvet cookie debacle.  This simple and delicious recipe came from Jennifer at Town And Country Living.  I used decorating sugar on some of them and the others I dipped in white chocolate and then sprinkles.  Fun!  These would be great for Valentine's Day.

We were trying to get pictures of the dessert table (my island) five minutes before guests arrived.  Emily ordered everything through a local bakery except for my cookies and the cheesecake bites which you can see on the left (with the strawberries in the center.  

Remember the stork scale we found?  Still can't believe our luck and how the stork became our "theme".   These tarts were almost too pretty to eat.

I was really happy with the appetizers.  A lot of work and I could have planned better, but I look at these pictures and know that I put my heart and soul into making everything.  My sister in law brought Fruit Kabob's, and my future daughter in law, Deirdre, made Bacon Wrapped Dates (I have to get that recipe).  I think everyone really enjoyed the food and sweets.  We had little glassine bags for the guests to take home anything left over and there really wasn't.  That's a good thing, right? :).

Abby has experience as a bartender and waitress.  She not only ran out the morning of the party and bought champagne and juice, she set up and manned the little bar area.  We had the Mimosa's of course, and they were cranked up a notch with several flavors of orange juice.  Mango is my favorite.  I made iced tea and there was a variety of wine, but the ladies loved those Mimosa's!

We managed to pack everyone in as you can see.  My Mother in law used to say she loved parties like this because everyone mingles.  I think she was right.  

Mary Clare opened her gifts while Emily recorded everything.  My girls gave her a jogging stroller.  That will be a fun thing for her to do with Elsie when the weather warms up. 

I love this picture of MC with her sisters; Katie, Nora, and mom, Peggy.

I didn't want to do a picture overload so these are just some of the highlights.  I thought I would get this post out right away, all of you have been so kind with your best wishes for the shower and the arrival of my granddaughter.  Thank you!

I had lofty plans for today; go to the gym and get a manicure...or one or the other.  I settled on neither! lol.  It's 23 degrees, my car is covered in icy snow...okay, excuses.  I'm just so darn lethargic today.  I know I will perk up soon.  I have a few projects to get done this week, mostly involving some cleaning and organizing.  I wonder why January is such a popular month for that.  Is it because we are housebound?  Bored?  That it all went out the window during the holidays?  I have to say, I do get motivated seeing the magazines and blogs with their tips and solutions for everything imaginable.  Maybe it's a way to make a clean slate for the year ahead.  Sounds good to me.

Below is a list of the party food links.  I would highly recommend everything I chose to make, nothing about the recipes is difficult, unless you want to make everything at once as I did!  Ha!

See all of you soon!

Jane x

Cucumber Tomato Bites

Marinated Mozzarella with Rosemary Sprigs 

Apricot Ham Tea Sandwiches 

Lemon Chicken Tea Sandwiches 

Traditional Cucumber Tea Sandwiches 

Blue Cheese~Walnut Finger Sandwiches

Strawberry Heart Cheesecake Bites

Joining Marty at Inspire Me Tuesdays