March and April Snowflakes

Since I didn't get around to posting the March snowflake and my April has arrived I'm showing both of them. I have no clue as to how Crystal does these but I am so enjoying receiving them. I'd love to watch someone tat and see how these lovelies are created.

This is actually a good post to end the week because for the last two days we have had so much snow and rain. It's been great because this has been the driest winter on record and we so needed the moisture. If this had all been snow it would have taken us until June to dig out. There were big beautiful white snowflakes and rain Friday and yesterday it rained all day. What a slushy mess it was for awhile. Today the sun is shining and the sky is blue.

I hope you have all had a wonderful week. I'm getting a fun post together for later in the week all about my shoes!!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone has a wonderful and happy Easter. Eat lots of chocolate too!! I bought my Tulips today while grocery shopping for tomorrow's dinner. I love tulips and the colors in these look so happy and Spring like so I had to bring them home with me.

My nest I got the other day from Vintage by Crystal. She was on Martha awhile back making these and since I've been so busy I knew I'd never get one made so I ordered one. I'm so happy it arrived by Easter so I could display it for awhile.

Banana Cream Pie and Antiques

I hope everyone has had a good week. It has been very busy around here so I haven't accomplished much. The weather is beautiful. Still so very dry that I'm getting worried about fire season. This is the driest winter on record unless things change. It's nice having 70 degree days but this wind is awful. I'm getting spring fever early this year. I was watching Martha the other day and she made a banana cream pie and it sounded so good that I had to make one today. I almost burnt the meringue because I was getting out my taxes so I could finish them. And speaking of taxes if anyone would like to donate to help me pay mine, please let me know. But on to better and happier things now. I also made a huge batch of marinara from the rest of the tomatoes I had in my freezer. I'm trying to get it cleaned out and use everything I froze last year. I put two containers in the freezer and then added Italian sausage to the rest for spaghetti tonight.

As I've been cleaning out closets and drawers I'm trying to take pictures of some of my treasures and yes, some of my junk. This was my grandmothers fur collar. I think she used to wear it to church.

She also loved these little hats. Her hair was down to her waist and she always wore it braided and twisted in a bun at the nape of her neck. She always wore a little hat when going to church. The black one reminds me of a beret and I remember her wearing it.

I have two sewing stands. This one I found in some junk store many many years ago.

This is my favorite. When I was in Kansas and bored out of my mind I started working auctions on weekends and I got the bug so I started going to a few. I bid on this one and I didn't think the lady was going to quit. I learned to put a maximum bid in my mind and if it went over that I would quit. Well needless to say I lost a few things I really wanted. I did get this sewing stand though and I had a feeling the other lady was upset with me so I gave her one of my biggest and happiest smiles!

My hope chest was a Christmas present my senior year of high school. The upright style is the only one I've seen so I don't know if they make them anymore. I like it because I can store blankets and linens on the shelves. I should have opened it and taken a picture of the inside. I keep a lot of vintage linens in the drawer.

So my high school Christmas present is now a vintage item? Have a good week everyone.

Roast Pork, Coconut Key Lime Cake, Awards and Gifts.

Happy weekend!!! Bailey would like to thank everyone who came to his birthday party. He also wants you to know that he is being very very good now that he is all grown up and he is not spoiled!!! Yeah right Bailey. I hope you have had a good week. It was springtime here and we were supposed to have snow today and it did for 5 minutes. I wish it would, it's been a warm dry winter. I know some of your are shuddering because you've been so cold and snowy.

I received this wonderful award from Penny. She is so sweet and so creative. Thank you Penny.

My February snowflake arrived too!! This is my third snowflake from Crystal. I look forward to them every month.

I made this cake today. It is in the Gourmet magazine and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make it. The hardest part was squeezing 1/2 cup of key lime juice. Lucky for me my daughter came in the kitchen as I was grating the zest to see what I was doing and I asked her if she wanted to squeeze some lime juice for me. She said yes and I handed her the key limes. She said "Out of these little things?" I just said start squeezing honey!! The recipe is here.

I made a pork roast with roasted pears that was so good. I got the recipe from a Williams Sonoma catalog. You can find it on their website here. I must be in a roasted pear mood this winter. I made a chicken with roasted pears not long ago that I got from Mimi's blog. Mimi always takes you on wonderful trips to Paris or walks with her Grandmother. She is a wonderful story teller and writer.

All these recipes should keep you busy for the awhile. I'm making a new mac and cheese recipe tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm still spring cleaning but took last weekend off for my Mother's 90th birthday party and this weekend I'm just too lazy to do much. I have my bathroom and living room to do and I'm done. I just have to get back in the cleaning mood. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend.

It's Bailey's Birthday!!

Hi everyone, guess what? I am three years old today. Can you believe that? I am as old as Anna now!! I live with my Mommy and her human daughter and Anna. We are so happy. My mommy is the best mommy. She takes really good care of all of us. Anna is really really spoiled but I'm not at all spoiled. I'm a very good kitty and.....pause...shhhh!! Oh there for a minute I thought I heard snickering. As I was saying I'm a very good kitty, just a .....pause....shhhh....I did hear snickering. You think I'm spoiled too don't you? Well OK I am!! But most of the time I'm good. I am very mischievous though. I get into everything and sometimes I make my Mom yell at me. I broke one of her favorite cups last weekend but she had it where I wanted to go so you really can't blame me can you?
I'm napping getting ready for my party.

OK I'm all ready are you? Look at my presents!!! Aren't' they the best.

This is my favorite treat. Would you like some? I will share with you. It is soooo good but my mommy says it really stinks and smells fishy!! I don't like any other treat except these. Anna eats lots of other treats but not me...I'm very very particular.

I got some new balls too!! I love playing catch. My Mom throws the ball and I run and catch it and bring it back to her so she can throw it again. My doctor says I act like a puppy!! Isn't he silly? My Mommy read that Cats have the intelligence of toddlers but she says I'm as smart as a first grader!! See all my pretty new balls, do you want to come play catch with me?

This is me when I was a tiny baby. Wasn't I the cutest most cuddly thing you ever saw?

Anna was a LOT bigger than I was but guess who is the biggest now? Me of course.

Here we are now taking a nap together. Can you believe I got so big when I was such a tiny baby?

I love playing in bags and boxes and whatever else I can find to crawl into. My Mom always brings home paper bags because she knows how much I love them.

I sleep in some really funny positions.

This is my real Mommy. She carried me in her tummy. Isn't she beautiful? My Mommy's Grandson is her Daddy. He was moving and Gemini lived with us for a month. I had so much fun having my Mommy here. We played and slept together all the time. Anna was so mean to her. She hissed and hunched her back at her all the time. I don't know why she was so mean. I think she was jealous because she was my mommy and Anna doesn't know her Mommy. Anna was adopted when she was a baby. Someone put her in a pet orphanage. We asked the vet if he thought I remembered my Mommy and he said he doubted it but he didn't know for sure. Well I can say I do remember her. She smelled just like me and we love each other.

I'm so glad you came to my party and looked at all my pictures. I had a lot of fun and I hope you had fun too.

Turkey Scaloppine

I bought another cookbook....my daughter put me on "cookbook and magazine restriction" as she calls it!! Hee hee like that is going to stop me. I have sooo many but they are all good and I actually use most of them. Every time she sees one she asks me if I bought another cookbook and I say The mailman brought it to me!! I actually buy a lot online because it's easy and convenient. I love Jacques and have several of his books. I found this turkey scaloppine recipe and decided to try it. I am so glad I did, it was fantastic. And so easy. I didn't use the dried morels because morels don't really make me happy. I used fresh cremini's because I'm in love with them. I use cremini's instead of white buttons when cooking with mushrooms.

Doesn't this look scrumptious!! It tasted even better than it looks. I served couscous with it to sop up the sauce.

Turkey Scaloppine (adapted from Jacques More Fast Food My Way)

2T butter

2 T canola oil

4 large or 8 small turkey cutlets (about 1 pound)

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 pepper

1 1/2 all purpose flour

1/2 cup finely chopped shallots

1 pkg fresh cremini mushrooms sliced

1 cup chicken broth

2 T white dry vermouth

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 T chopped fresh tarragon or chives for garnish

Heat butter and oil in heavy skillet, sprinkle turkey with salt/pepper and dip them very lightly into flour. Saute scaloppine until brown on both sides. Do this is 2 batches. Remove turkey onto plate and saute shallots for 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and saute until beginning to soften. Add broth and deglaze skillet. Cook uncovered for 4-5 minutes or until the liquid is almost gone. Add the vermouth and cook for a minute or so. Add the cream and boil a couple of minutes to reduce and thicken. Add the scaloppine with all the juices from the plate. Sprinkle tarragon or chives and serve.

A Special Award, Orchids and Presents

A friend of mine sent me this in a email and I thought you might enjoy it too.
CALMNESS IN OUR LIVES
I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr Phil proclaimed, 'The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.' So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now. Pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peace. Can you believe I have another orchid? This one is full of buds so should bloom and look beautiful for quite a while. Remember the first orchid? I cut the last of the blooms off today so it lasted. I really enjoyed it. I have one more and I think it is yellow but it shows no sign of doing anything.

I received my January snowflake from Crystal today. I just love it and I'm already looking forward to February's.

This very nice award is from Bebe from Peaches and Dreams. She is such a wonderful friend and I appreciate this award so much.

More about the award ~ "This blog invests and believes in the Proximity ~ nearness in space, time, and relationships. These blogs are extremely charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I'm not good at selecting bloggers to award because I hate leaving anyone out so please all my special friends grab this award and post it on your blog.

I'm still cleaning and sorting. I finished my kitchen last weekend and now it's my bedrooms turn. I hope to start it tomorrow. I trying a new recipe for a roast tomorrow so if it turns out yummy, I'll post it so you can all try it.