Goodbye for now

Hello everyone. Sorry it took me so long to say this but I'm am quitting my blog. Anna, Bailey and I want to thank you for all your comments and friendship. Please feel free to email me, I'd love to hear from you.

I won't be deleting my blog just yet. I may post occasionally and I'll be visiting you as time permits.

Have a happy holiday season

Hugs,

Breckenridge

We haven't taken a little sightseeing trip for awhile so thought you would enjoy going to Breckenridge. It is a ski town so in the winter it is packed with skiers but in the summer it's fun to go strolling around town, visiting all the little shops and having a nice lunch in one of the unique restaurants. The picture above is of Dillon Reservoir through my car window. That's me driving. These silly pictures are completely out of order so bear with me.

This is one of three houses that were for sale. The other two are further down. I tried to keep them together but.....

We thought it would be fun to take a ride in the gondola but it wasn't open. I think they may have been making sure it was ready for the ski rush so we just watched it for awhile wishing we could go for that ride. It would have been a beautiful day for it. So sunny with a pretty blue sky.

There is a lovely stream running through town.

See the snow on the mountain top? After this past week, I'm sure there is more now. We had snow over 6000' but down here we escaped the early stuff.

Dillion Reservoir is on the way to Breckenridge. It is man made and I remember when they flooded the area many years ago. There is a lot of boating and fishing there.

These are the other two houses for sale. They were all three in a nice little row. I would have loved to venture inside and dream. Mountain property is so expensive. We saw one two bedroom two bath for almost 500,000!!

It was a beautiful day and we stopped and had lunch in a lovely Bistro after trying on fur coats in a boutique. Of course I didn't buy one but it was loads of fun.

Has anyone ever matchrf up or tried to match up a b-dazzle? They sure scramble your brain. I was trying to match this one and I guess Anna decided I should just give up, so she jumped up, messed up the pieces and then just lay down on them. Geez, thanks Anna, I just may have gotten all the pieces in the right places this time. Thanks to Cheryl, I've had lots of entertainment this weekend. I am determined to match them all up. I'll keep you posted. I may not have any hair left though.

My New Love Kale

When I receive my monthly Bon Appetit magazine the first article I look for is Molly's of the Orangette blog. I love her writing and recipes. She always takes you on a wonderful experience while reading her articles. Well when I saw her article titles How I Learned to Love Kale I didn't get too excited but since I love reading her I figured what the heck. Well by the time I finished, I didn't remember why I didn't eat Kale. I couldn't remember the last time I tried it or even cooked it. So decided I had to try it. I told you she was good!Her recipe for the article was Spaghetti with Braised Kale (which I'm sure is on Bon Apetite website, and I'm trying soon) but she mentioned how a friend of hers had sauteed it similar to spinach so decided to try that first. OMG I fell in love too! All you do is saute the washed, chopped, dried kale in olive oil and butter. After the Kale is wilted sprinkle with salt and squeeze a little lemon juice over the top. The first time I didn't quite wilt it long enough but the second time it was perfect. Molly described how it cracked and popped like popcorn and it really does. If this doesn't convince you, read the article. I know you'll be a Kale lover too!

I also bought the Cooking Light 101 Chicken Recipes recently which is wonderful. So many good recipes in it. To go with the Kale I decided on Chicken with Lemon Sauce which was very easy and had the lemon to go with the Kale. I also cooked Spaghetti for the sauce which I made extra of. I think I doubled it.

Chicken with Lemon-Caper Sauce (adapted from Cooking Light)
4 skinless boneless chick breast halves
salt/pepper
olive oil
Cooking Spray
1/3 cup extra dry vermouth or white wine
3 T fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 T capers
1 T chopped fresh parsley
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray. (I used my regular saute pan and no cooking spray). Add chicken and cook until done. Remove from pan and keep warm.
Add vermouth, lemon juice and capers to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook until reduced about 2 minutes. Stir in chopped parsley. Add chicken back in pan to reheat a little and enjoy.
I made extra sauce to serve over the spaghetti. Bon Appetit!

I hope you are all having a great weekend. It is supposed to be a cool 60 degrees this week so I changed my bed and added a blanket. I'm also making a big pot of Chicken Tortilla soup.

Indonesia Ginger Chicken

This recipe is from Ina's first book. I love her books as you all know and use them often. I had forgotten about this recipe and have not made it for a long time. Someone at work wanted her corn chowder recipe so I took the book to work to copy. She was looking at other recipes and copying them. She came across this one and asked me if I had ever made it. I made it the next weekend. I'm so glad she reminded me.


I made brown rice with parsley and scallions and roasted carrots and parsnips to go with it. The wing looks a little brown but it wasn't, just the nice brown color from the marinade. I love this recipe because it is so easy and quick. All the work is done the night before.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken (adapted from the Barefoot Contessa)

1 cup honey

3/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup minced garlic 8-12 cloves

1/2 cup peeled and grated fresh ginger root

2 chickens (3 1/2 lb each) quartered with backs removed

Cook the honey, soy sauce, garlic and ginger in a small saucepan over low heat until the honey is melted. Arrange the chicken in a large shallow baking pan, skin side down and pour on the sauce. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350.
Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 1/2 hour. Uncover the pan, turn the chicken skin side up and raise the temperature to 375. Continue baking for 30 minutes or until the chicken is done.

Bon Apetit!

My Beautiful gifts from Barb.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. I had such a busy week and this weekend has turned out to be the same. I went to the Market yesterday and bought my veggies and fruit for the week then came home and made chicken broth. My freezer is so full I can't put another thing into it. I should say them because the one on the frig is packed too. I was looking for something on Friday and found several packages of chicken parts so decided to make chicken broth. I ended up with about 4 quarts for the freezer and I used the rest in my Potato Leek soup that I made for dinner last night. A nice Ceaser salad and dinner was easy and so good.

After my busy day I almost forgot to get my mail. I'm so happy I didn't because Barb's package was waiting for me. I was so excited. Isn't everything so pretty. I almost just left it all wrapped up....OK maybe not for very long.

Now see all the wonderful goodies I found in my package!! I am so happy I won!

This is everything grouped together and below close ups of all my beauty's. Isn't the rooster so very handsome?

Don't you love the pillows? I have a.....well I'm not too sure what to call it. I should have taken a picture. It's what they used to call a hall bench. Or at least that's what I was told when I bought it. It has one drawer that I keep some of my linens in and on the top I have an old old quilt. Now my beautiful pillows are there too! I have it sitting under my window in my bedroom so I can see them often and enjoy.

And my beautiful towels. Aren't they they the cutest?

Isn't it all beautiful? Thank you again Barb. I am so enjoying everything. I hope you enjoyed seeing all my new treasures and that you all have a wonderful week.

I am making Ina's Indonesian Ginger Chicken for dinner. I plan on posting the recipe later in the week.

Corn Muffins, Snowflakes and Etcetra

I hope you all had a good weekend. It was sooo hot here. I kept telling myself not to complain because we have had a relatively cool summer. But 98 is just a little to hot for me. Back in the 80's this week so I'm happier. But to cheer me up last night guess what? Do you know who won Barb's giveaway? ME!! I was so excited when she told me I had won. YEAH!!! Thank you Barb!

While I'm slaving away over the weekend. This is what Anna and Bailey did!! Lots of help they were. It really was a busy weekend. I took today off and I'm doing some laundry, taking a couple of baskets to the booth and then maybe I'll find 5 minutes to relax!! I got up early after being up late last night. Isn't is amazing how you can jump out of bed when you don't have to go to work instead of procrastinating and laying in bed just 5 more minutes?

This will be my breakfast this morning. These corn muffins are fantastic. I watched Ina Saturday and she made these for breakfast. They are the best I've every made. The recipe is definitely a keeper. I thought they sounded good for dinner last night so I printed out the recipe. So light and fluffy. Our peaches are wonderful this year. I must say I've made a pig out of myself. I was going to cut it up before I took the picture but thought it looked so pretty I'd let you see it before I did.

I don't think I posted the snowflakes lately so I pulled out the last three. I look so forward to getting them each month. I'm so going to miss them. I wonder if Crystal would extend my year?

They are so pretty don't you think?

I forgot to post these when I posted my last post. I picked these up from a garage sale. The toppers were 25 cents can you believe it? The cookbook was only 50 cents. I thought with the holidays coming up someone might want a cookie cookbook. I didn't realize until I got home that it has recipes from all over the world. Geez maybe I'll have to keep it.....

I didn't go to any estate or garage sales this weekend. I wanted to spend the time pricing and labeling so I could get some things to the booth. I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Estate Sales

Here is all the treasures I found last weekend. Most will go in the booth of course. I really did well and got some great deals. It wasn't the best weekend but I ended up with quite a bit as you will see. I got a lot of this on Sunday which is 1/2 price day.

I got the box of linens for $5.00!

These are yards and yards of trim. I'm going to put them all in a bag and give them one price.

This is a beautiful big tablecloth that someone put a lot of love into embroidering all the flowers.
Price $2.00. They were asking $2.50 1/2 price so I got a real deal.

The Singer was $35.00 but I passed on it but when it was there Sunday I bought it. I also asked them if I could have it for $15.00. SOLD!! The only thing wrong with it is the cord is in bad bad shape. I might put a new cord on it if it doesn't cost too much. What do you think?

The case is in pretty bad shape but I can clean that up fairly easy.

See this little red scarf that Bailey loves? Well after taking pictures of the linens I put them in a pile until I had time to wash them. Well I forgot the scarf was in the pile and yes you guessed it. My beautiful white tablecloth is now light pink!! And the red scarf is now in a million little pieces. It fell apart after ruining my tablecloth. The doilies came out OK! Maybe I can sell it cheap. Or maybe someone will love the pink tablecloth. Who knows!

This is a box of Rice Paper napkins. Aren't they pretty? You should feel them. Oh so soft and delicate.

Isn't this the cutest iron? Can you imagine ironing with this thing? It is sooo heavy.

The cute nativity scene was only $2.50. Couldn't pass that up.

I loved these cookbooks and NO I'm not selling them. They are fun to read. It's amazing how much shortening the recipes call for.

The leaf was in the McCalls Cookbook. I wonder why the owner put the leaf in it and what it meant to her. I left it in the book.

The quilt and 2 shams were only $10.00.

The hankys were $1.00 a piece. Aren't they pretty?

And the pretty doll was only $4.00. The clock beside her was $10.00 and is pretty.

And the cans and baskets were all free!! I took the baskets to carry things in. The cans have 1 or 2 nested inside of them, so there are more than it looks.

The kitchen towels were only $1.00 a piece.

I found these adorable chubby Santa too! I just love them.

The angels and some little bears were a steal too.

I thought the little pitcher was cute too.

And that is all for now. I hope you enjoyed seeing all my goodies. Hope you are having a great week.