Flea Market Goodies

When I went to the Paris Flea Market this month Jan brought me two laundry baskets full of goodies. She is cleaning "house" as she puts it and thought I might like some of these items. I don't know why this silly picture won't post the right way but I thought it was pretty neat so you will have to tilt your head to read it.

There were some really cool items in the baskets. I tried to display them so you could see most of it.

There are several tin boxes I can use for odds and ends.

Cute basket I was going to use but Bailey claimed it. He is really too big to fit but he sure tries.

I just love all the linens. It took me all afternoon to wash and iron everything.



Jan goes to England and France to bring goodies home to sell in her booth. The lace is from France and/or England. The are so beautiful and most are in perfect shape. I hope you enjoyed seeing my treasures. The best part is she said she would have more next month. I can hardly wait. I'll have more tomorrow.

Mixed Berry Jam and Lemon Braised Chicken

I know this is kind of a strange combination but I wanted to post the scrumptions jam recipe that I actually have pictures of and I promised my friend Jan that I would post the chicken recipe that I did not take pictures of. So instead of posting with no picture I thought I would just sneak the chicken with the jam. And you could make some buttermilk biscuits and have them together. Now it makes more sense doesn't it?
Raspberries and blackberries mascerating and below cooking away.
It is such an easy recipe. It was posted in the June Gourmet magazine. It is from Molly Wizenberg column. Here is the recipe. She also has a blog Orangette and if you haven't visited check it out, it is one of the best food blogs around. Click here for Molly's Blog.
Now for my Braised Chicken Thighs. I have no idea where I found this recipe but it's easy and delicious. I hope you enjoy.

Lemon Braised Chicken Thighs

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 T olive oil

1 tsp chopped sage

1 small chopped red onion
4 mashed garlic cloves
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup chicken broth (about)
Salt/Pepper
1/4 t cayenne pepper

Rub chicken with salt, pepper and cayenne. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and brown thighs on one side. Flip over and add chopped onion. Brown chicken and saute onions until onions are soft, a few minute will do it. Add garlic, sage, lemon juice and chicken broth. Let simmer until chicken is done, 20 minutes or so. I served them over noodles. How easy is that?
Bon Apetit!!

Georgetown Revisited

We browsed the General Store while we were in Georgetown and when we were leaving I happened to see these Jam's. I had to share with you because they were so cute. I thought they were so cute. I didn't buy any but I should have brought some home just for conversation!! They were way too cute. I wonder who thought of the names. The gingham tops made them perfect. I will be sharing some homemade jams with you soon.

Hope you are all having a wonderful week. It has cooled down here and I hope you get some of the nice 80 degree weather we are enjoying.

Guanella Pass and Georgetown

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July. I thought I would share our day with you. My daughter and I went hiking at Mt. Bierstadt. It is located at the top of Guanella Pass. It was a beautiful day for a hike. The sun was shining and the clouds were white and fluffy. So come along and enjoy!!

This was taken not far from the car and yes I walked waaay over there where the snow lies.
I stopped a lot to rest and my excuse was that I had to take a picture of the flowers. So you will see lots and lots of flowers.

The wild flowers were beautiful along the trail.
We were getting up past the meadow at this point and I took some pictures so you could see the surrounding scenery.
Isn't it spectacular?

Hey it's snow!!!
My darling daughter. She kept telling me we should turn around but I wanted to make it to the top.
You can see my kid waiting for me. You can see how steep it was in places. We actually climbed about 2850 feet during our hike.



Wasn't the sky beautiful?
And me totally exhausted almost ready to say "I can't go any further" I was too tired and too sore to go any further. We almost made it though. The last 1/2 mile was pretty steep and it was so disappointing to have to turn back.

We did make it to the snow though. It was nice and cool up there. We almost wished we had a jacket because the wind came up but as soon as we got part of the way down it was nice and warm again. -
See I made it to all the snow you saw in the first picture. We turned around at this point. You can see how steep it was going up. Going down was a lot easier!!! We had to be careful of the rocks and steep places so we wouldn't loose our footing.

This is the stream we crossed going up and back down. It was actually at the end of the meadow before we started climbing. Balancing on the rocks was loads of fun!!
We walked for about 4 hours altogether. I was never so glad to see my car and the back seat where we collapsed with another bottle of water and granola bar. They sure tasted good. We took plenty of water with us too.

This waterful is on the road going up the pass. We stopped on the way down to take the picture.

This is Georgetown from Guanella Pass. We were almost down at this point. Oh and I was driving when these were taken. I was through walking at this point.
Georgetown is just a quaint little mountain town. Relaxing and peaceful.
The following are pictures taken in town.

This is the hotel too. Notice all the hanging baskets along the street. They also had barrells of flowers on the sidewalks.

Lots of people eating ice cream. They have a homemade ice cream shop that I failed to take a picture of.
They had buggy rides for the day. Earlier they had a parade but we were up the mountain.
We stayed there long enough to eat (we were starving). For dessert we had homemade icecream on a homemade waffle cone. So wonderful after a long hike. I hope you enoyed our day. We sure did. Thanks for coming along.

An Early Happy Fourth and Easy Pasta

Good evening everybody and happy 4th of July a couple of days early!!! I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday!!!
It's been a busy busy week around here. Work has been super busy and the only person in the office who thinks she is the QUEEN has driven me crazy. Why is there always one? I work in a very small office so I have to try to get along. The position I filled was for an office manager but someone decided that they really didn't need one, so I do everything she did but without the title. Which is OK with me but now I understand why. The little know it all, run it all front desk person wants to be the office manager. Well let her as far as I'm concerned...like who cares. She watches everything I do and doesn't train me properly. She even tells me that she'll show me how to do something when she thinks I can handle it!!! Oh Someone Help Me!!!
OK enough complaining!! Except about the heat. It has been in the 90's all week and that is way too hot for me. I read blogs that don't complain as much as I do and they are in the 100's. I lived in Dallas for 6 years when I was working for Mobil and I said I'd never complain about the heat or humidity (which we do not have here) and here I am complaining. Anna and Bailey sleep all day and Bailey is grouchy because of the heat. He is just a big fluffy hair ball so I'm sure he is hot. He lays in front of the fan to take his naps.
I made this wonderful easy pasta for dinner tonight. It's not really a recipe and easily adjustable for however many you are feeding. I take leftovers to work the next day. I just leave it on my desk and let come to room temperature.
This feeds one with maybe leftovers depending how big your tomatoes are. My tomatoes are big because I've been buying them at the Farmers Market. Everything depends on the size of the tomato and how many tomatoes. Just don't overdo it with the olive oil cuz the tomatoes juice while it is sitting.
1 tomato diced
diced onion
garlic clove diced (again depending on how garlicky and how much you are making)
few leaves basil chopped or torn
maybe 1/8 or 1/16 c olive oil
salt/pepper
cheese (cube mozzarella or just add some grated Parmesan)
Mix altogether and let stand for about an hour. Cook some pasta, penne, spaghetti, linguine or whatever you have. Drain and mix with tomatoes. All done and time to eat. Easy Easy Easy and it doesn't heat up the kitchen. Make a salad and/or garlic bread and you have dinner. I've made this for years, it is my easy summer go to.

Now that I've complained and given you a wonderful summer pasta I'm going to sit down with what you see below. A nice glass of wine and my new Romantic Country.
Have a wonderful relaxing fun weekend.