Tag Archives: Food

Friday’s Fave Five

Our first Friday in February. Time to think back over the last week and choose 5 favorites. Our hostess Susanne provides Mr. Linky for you to join in if you’d like. So head on over and join in on the fun.

1. Saturday morning walks with Dear are always on the top of my list. We had a low tide walk this last Saturday and saw lots of birds and collected several shells. We generally start these Saturday morning walks before the sun rises.

 

2. On Sunday after a great church service filled with worship we headed to Agoura to do some antique shopping. We found a nice Italian restaurant to have a snack before the stores opened at 11:00.  Hand Rolled Meatball Sandwich – Topped with Marinara Sauce and Mozzarella (we grind our own beef & pork) Mama’s Italian Kitchen in Agoura.

3. We decided to add a DVR to our Fios service at the condo. I never imagined how simple it is to record programs we want to watch later. No punching in start time or end time. I just click on the show and it takes care of recording it no matter how short or long it is. Then when we decide to watch the programs we get to skip all the commercials. That was a favorite this week.

4.  Eating in every night this week. We’ve had some good eats. Can you tell food is an important part of my life. :0)

 

5. Dear and I are still walking during the week and working out on the bowflex. Those work outs and walking with Willow most days  really makes me feel better. On Thursday we had some real good rain in Camarillo so Willow and I didn’t walk. Even though she grew up in Oregon she doesn’t walk in the rain :0)

For more Favorites visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Friday’s Fave Five! It’s all about Pismo…

 

All my favorites this week are from Dear and my getaway to Pismo Beach from Sunday to Monday. Very short time filled with lots of wonderful sights, sounds, and food!

1. We got to see the Monarch Butterfly Grove with thousands of butterflies in residence. What an exciting experience it was. It’s been a goal of mine to visit one of these groves in California. I’m so glad we did. I’ll be posting all about them on Tuesday.

2. Beautiful beaches and beach walks and pier walks were another favorite.

3. We took a side trip to Arroyo Grande and did some fun antique shopping. Boy we only went to two antique shops but they were big and filled from corner to corner with so much interesting stuff. We came away with just one purchase. Such self control!

4. Food glorious food! I love food. I love to find unique spots with wonderful food. I like to fellowship over food. I like to cook good food. So there’s the insight into why I’m always trying to take off some extra pounds!! We ate well those 2 days! Wait, was I just talking about self control, “pride goeth before the fall”!?? The clam chowder pictured was oh so chunky and rich and good! Pismo Beach is known for their clams. We ate a wonderful meal with an ocean view. I had lamb shank with risotto, brussel sprouts, and a double chocolate martini for dessert. Dear had a Rib-eye steak, salad, and potatoes. Needless to say, I did not step on the scale when we got back!

5. The last of my favorites was having our own personal hot tub on the private deck where we sat and enjoyed watching the star filled sky while listening to the waves crashing on shore! Glorious! We even started singing “In the stars His handiwork I see, on the wind He speaks with majesty, though He ruleth over land and sea, what is that to me…”  Are any of you old enough to remember that one??

I have a post with lots of photos from the Pismo Beach area here.

To see more Favorites or to join in the fun visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story!

Friday’s Fave Five

If you haven’t already why don’t you join us in thinking back over this past week and picking out your 5 favorites. It’s a great exercize of counting your blessings. Susanne at Living to tell the Story is the hostess for this weekly meme.

 

1. On Saturday Dear and I returned to our favorite early morning walk and were rewarded with wonderful crashing waves.

2. After our walk on Saturday, Dear re-did the shelves in our condo pantry giving me an extra shelf. Oh the joy of an extra shelf in our little condo. Whoohoo!  Shhh, don’t tell dear I’m thinking I have more room for pretty dishes!

3. We’ve been eating “in” more to coincide with our daily exercise program we’ve started. Dear and I added resistance training this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday instead of walking. We already are benefiting from our extra efforts.

4. I’m still walking with Willow every week day but Friday and with Dear on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Willow and I  blazed a new trail this week in her neighborhood and that was fun. Sunday is our day of rest…

5. Thrift store shopping continues to be something I really enjoy and I found a few goodies this week that I will change the original function for and show you in the future what I came up with.

We are having a heat wave here in Southern California. Dear and I are headed north on Sunday for an overnight and hope to enjoy cooler weather, at least down into the 70’s.  Have a wonderful weekend…

For more Favorites visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Fave Five on Friday!

 

1. Well it will be no surprise that at the top of my favorites for this past week is spending extra time with all my children. (And it hasn’t been a soap opera). On Saturday we did our belated family Christmas with stockings and Dear’s Swedish pancakes for breakfast. Later on that same day we had a birthday dinner for our daughter Katie. Since we will be in California for both Josh and Dan’s January birthdays we are celebrating tonight with a dinner for them.

2. It’s always great to see all the guys working together. Here they are shoveling snow off the drive to our house and two of our neighbor’s houses. We are really pleased the snow has almost disappeared.

3. I’ve been talking about wanting some more substantial nativities and Dear bought me both these sets for Christmas. They are both very different and I like them very much.

 

4. We revived a favorite dessert from days gone by this week that has always been enjoyed. You cook up vanilla pudding and while it is still hot you pour it over a generous scoop of good chocolate ice cream. Yum you get some great hot and cold and added creamy goodness in every bite!  Having Dear’s wonderful Tomato Rice Peasant Soup was so good, too!

 

5. On New Year’s Day we met our dear friends Dave, Jody, Bob and Jan at McCormick and Shmicks Restaurant in Downtown Seattle for Happy Hour. It was wonderful sitting and talking for a couple hours over great Happy Hour Menu food. We had Salmon burgers, Black Bean Chicken Quesadillas and Oysters for $1.95 each! We also tried the Cod sandwich which was $3.95 and delicious! Sheesh, can’t beat that with a stick! We love these friends who we’ve gone through thick and thin with…

 

To see more Fave Fives or to join on in visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Blue Monday and Tablescape Tuesday!

Since we had a blue and white tablescape for our daughter Katie’s birthday on Saturday I’m combining Blue Monday and Tablescape Tuesday this week!  My sister Lana G! was over and helped with the details on the tablescape while Dear and I prepared dinner for the party. Dear made both soups we were serving for the dinner. His famous Tomato Rice Soup is one he’s been making since his college days from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. The second soup was a Potato Leek Soup with Bacon and Havarti cheese that we used the best of 3 recipes to come up with. Both soups were yummy and well received.

 

My daughter Katie gave me the star bundt cake pan for Christmas so I decided to make her the Bundt Spice cake she enjoys. Here are the thick hearty soups we served along with bread and salad…

 

For more Blue Monday posts visit Smiling Sally and on Tuesday for more tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

A Russian Christmas Cooking Day!

For the first time in well, ever, I was around for the annual making Vareniky for Christmas Eve Event. This year we all gathered at my niece Debbee’s house for the cooking. My mother Nadia was at the helm keeping us on track. Here’s the crew of mother, daughters, daughter in laws, and granddaughters, and great grandson. The youngest granddaughter was here, too, with photos to follow…

 

We were making Vareniky, which we have for dessert on Christmas Eve. The recipe and description of what they are is here  from last years event if you are curious…

 

 

I think we ended up making close to 200 of these lovelies!!

 

Some of the guys showed up, too, hoping for a treat or two!

 

And Miss Hope is here from Dallas for her very first Christmas!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

2008 Christmas Tour of Homes

It’s time for Boo Mama’s 2008 Tour of Homes. You can travel all over the world and see homes all decked out for the most wonderful time of the year.

A very warm welcome to you from ellen b.  in Washington State and Southern California.

The tree above is our first annual Mystery Tree. I started a new tradition last year. I walk into Home Depot look at all the tied and wrapped trees, pick one without unwrappping it, bring it home all wrapped up, and surprise our Mystery tree is unveiled and we can laugh or cry at what we ended up with. Actually it’s quite fun to pick a tree this way. Good way to lighten up during the season…

 

Like many of your homes Jesus is at the center of our Christmas celebrations and Joy! This is what you’ll see at our entry in Washington.

 

And this is from our condo  in Southern California.

 

Let me serve you a festive drink and some chocolates and let’s start our tour before I serve dinner. These chocolates are the easiest things in the world to make. Just melt 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 bag of butterscotch chips then throw in some pecans or walnuts or whatever nut you like, spoon them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and let them cool and voila you have candy. I’m so darn sorry I forgot whose blog I saw these on. If you happen to visit here let me know if it was you and I’ll give you credit!!

 

Another collage of my little fake Christmas tree with lights that I bought for the condo from a local thrift store here in Camarillo, California. I’m usually in the State of Washington the whole month of December and only put up a tree there but this year is different and we’re not flying to Washington till Christmas day so we need something at the condo so people won’t think we are part of the Grinch family!

Now if you visit us in Washington I could serve you at this table.

 

Or from this Christmas table in Southern California.

 

Here is what I will be serving and what is part of our traditional Christmas Eve meal.

 

We’ll have a Rib Roast, Creamed Corn, something green, and Yorkshire Pudding. (Ok, it used to confuse me that they called Yorkshire Pudding pudding when it’s not pudding but a popover type bread that you bake using the hot drippings from the roast, I’m way over it now. You can make it in any pan but I bought this great popover pan that works great for them.)  After dinner we can sit by the fireplace and enjoy the tree with a cup of cocoa or coffee. If you stay for Christmas morning we’ll have those yummy Swedish Pancakes above that Dear makes for us every Christmas morning after we open our stocking gifts…

 

Now for some of the people God has put in our lives to share all the wonder of Christmas with…

 

I’d like to introduce you to our family. Our daughter Katie and DIL Laura. Our oldest son Josh with Dear. Our son Dan. Josh and his wife, our DIL, Laura. Another shot of our son Dan. Dan and Katie live in our home in Washington and take care of it while Dear and I are living in California. Josh and Laura live in Washington, too.

 

More shots of the family and extended family. The top left photo is of my sister Lana G! and I. She has a tour happening at her blog too, Above the Clouds . We have a great time blogging and tablescaping together. Dear, our daughter Katie, and me at Molbaks in front of the Poinsettia Christmas tree, Our girls…Katie and Laura, ellen b. and Dear at our 34th wedding anniversary celebration.

Thank you for taking my tour and meeting some of my family…

To see more tours click over to Boo Mama’s.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Tag You’re It!

My friend Willow at Willow’s Cottage tagged me for this easy meme.

TAG!

You’re supposed to do the following:
1. Open the 4th picture folder on your computer
2. Open the 4th picture and post it on your blog.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same!

 

These are some easy chocolates that I saw on someone’s blog and now doggone it I don’t remember whose blog it was. Please let me know if it was you and I’ll credit you. So here’s the easy recipe for these: Melt 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips with 1 bag butterscotch chips. When they’ve melted and you’ve mixed them together smoothly pour in some nuts (pecans, walnuts, or your pleasure) drop in little mounds on parchment lined cookie sheet and let cool. Voila!! Yummy candy!

So I’m a rebel and I’m doing all but #4 but if you’d like to do this meme let me know and I’ll come see :0)

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Celebrations!

Before I dive into some old and new Christmas Tablescapes I have a couple fun tables from the long Thanksgiving Weekend. I’m at my home in the Seattle area instead of at the Condo in Southern California right now and we’ve had some fun celebrations with my kids and extended family. My brother and SIL from California have been here with us in Washington for Thanksgiving Weekend.

 

My SIL Letty is Mexican and she was cooking us a homemade Mexican meal so my sister Lana G! and my daughters decided to create an impromptu Mexican themed scape. We had a lot of good laughs creating this one. We went with the red, green, and white colors from the Mexican Flag. The cervesas were mandatory for a good Mexican scape according to my SIL Letty! The red and black center fabric on the table is actually one of my daughters skirts.

 

Here’s proof that people sometimes even sit and eat at my scaped tables :0)

 

My DIL Laura is celebrating a big birthday this next week and before our company and Dear and I left town we decided to do a birthday celebration on Sunday night. We went with a simple tablescape. I hadn’t made a turkey yet because we were invited to friends on Thanksgiving so I made the turkey and all the trimmings for Laura’s birthday dinner.

 

For those of you who were wondering if I’d ever get around to cooking while I was home here’s the proof. We enjoyed another meal around our table and for Laura’s birthday cake I made the Pumpkin Praline Trifle that I posted before on the blog.

It’s been wonderful to be with my adult children during my time in Washington. I’m here until Saturday the 6th of December and then I head back to California.

For more Tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!

Tea and Fiesta in Washington

After our very successful trip to Goodwill the ladies arrived at Madame Fifi’s Tea Room at Country Village in Bothell for an Afternoon Tea.

 

Madame Fifi (Christine) had our lovely room all ready for us. The usual after Thanksgiving Goodwill shoppers were in attendance and this year we inducted Pat (my DIL Laura’s mother) into the group.

 

We each chose our tea and enoyed a relaxing time.

 

Our sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, lemon curd, and sweets were divine! After all this loveliness one would think we didn’t need any more food on this day but…

 

My SIL Letty made us a fabulous Mexican dinner. She made refried beans, Mexican rice, salsa, and carnitas for us all to enjoy. YUM! Ejola it was muy bueno!!

 

We capped off the night with a movie all cuddled up on the couch!

I don’t know how much longer I can keep up this pace but I’m enjoying every minute of my time in Washington with my family. Have a wonderful weekend…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!