In My Kitchen – November 2015

I had such high hopes of doing more in my kitchen this past month but alas, just after getting rid of my crutches and the sprained ankle, I was opening a package with scissors.  TIP:  When using scissors to open packages, always cut away from you, not toward the hand holding the box.  The package won and I stabbed the web of my hand with one of the scissor blades and sliced the knuckle of my thumb with the other.   So another run to the emergency room and a half dozen stitches kept me from doing anything overly exciting in the kitchen.  But if you look outside my kitchen window early in the morning, you will usually see…

Wild turkeys…lots of wild turkeys… so many wild turkeys that I couldn’t get all of them in the same picture but I counted at least 50 of them.  Not a pretty sight at all because they’re truly one of the ugliest creatures ever invented and they make a terrible mess which the dog loves to roll in (why do dogs do that?).

However, something else outside my kitchen window is much prettier – fall foliage in New England.  This is one of our maple trees bursting with color.  

Sitting temporarily outside my kitchen window and no longer a part of the house is this trim board that I just have to show you.  We’ve been having some work done on the house to replace rotted wood and the carpenter removed this board from the front of the house only to realize that he had huge, angry bees swarming him.   I’d been going nuts every morning with this crazy woodpecker pecking away outside the bedroom window.  He was after the invaders – Carpenter Bees!  The bees drill holes into wood then build tunnels for their nests.  The woodpeckers then go after the eggs which makes much bigger holes until you have something that looks like this: 

Here’s something you might not see everyday and also something I haven’t seen for about 20 years.  This has been up in my attic and I haven’t thought of it for ages (yes, really at least 20 years) until Mimi did a post about hers with a canape bread recipe.  Seems like she and I were both talked into going to a home party for Pampered Chefs – not sure if they’re even still around but I went because I was told that it was a ‘food demo’ and there’d be great treats to sample.  Of course it was a sales opportunity for the hostess and I ordered a few items.  By the time they were delivered, I’d completely forgotten what I ordered or what I was supposed to do with them … I’m pretty sure that I was impressed with it at the time because I seem to recall the woman shoving a roll of pastry dough inside and having a very cute loaf come out by the end of her demo.  So I bought it, never used it but Mimi just may have inspired me to go ahead and give it a try now that she’s given me  a recipe to use in it.

At the same Pampered Chef party I came home with this…it’s called a press and seal cutter.  I can’t even remember the demo on this one other than some sort of blackberry tart where you pressed the top and this gadget created cute little tarts, perfectly sealed.  Unfortunately when I dug this one out of the ‘what-have-you’ drawer, it seems that there’s supposed to be some sort of handle on top which of course is missing and defeats the purpose because this thing is now in 2 parts so that the ridged inner ring that supposed to seal the tart just falls out.  Who wants to take bets on the minute I throw this away (which I should), that I’ll find the little handle for the top?  How many of you have gadgets that you don’t use, never will use, or are broken just cluttering up a kitchen drawer (or two)?

As always, many thanks to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for hosting the IMK posts every month.  I don’t know how she manages to keep it going for so long but I know I love to see the posts and look forward to seeing what everyone’s doing each month.  Thanks to Celia – check out her November IMK post as well as the other contributors.  

In My Kitchen – October 2015

It’s been quite a while since we’ve been in my kitchen (or that I’ve posted).  With the wedding planning  and the wedding itself, I needed some time to rest up from the weekend of festivities.  We’ve also been busy catching up on all the projects around the house that I let slide for the past few months…ok, possibly I’ve let a lot of things slide for the past year.   There’s plenty that I’ve got to do both inside and outside the house.  Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of wood rot on the trim as well as an infestation of carpenter bees who decided to drill nests inside our trim board.  Once the bees moved in, a very determined woodpecker started hammering away at the bee larvae so that made for quite a mess.

I’ll ease back into posting now that the wedding is over, our heat wave is finished, and we’re heading into more comfortable cooking weather.  I will be posting a photo blog of the wedding and reception – it was absolutely the best day.   I’ve been waiting to post the official wedding photos though since I consider them to be Niki and Tim’s story to tell and share first and I didn’t want to jump the gun – so those will be coming up in the next blog.

For now though I do have a few things to share in my kitchen.

My favorite – a beautiful tablecloth and napkins that Niki and Tim bought for us in Greece on their honeymoon.  I love the linen fabric and the design.

I’m sure any of you who follow our IMK Hostess, Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial have noticed how much she loves her Romertopf cookware.  Looking at prices starting at $50 and going up from there, I’ve been debating on whether or not I’d use one enough to invest in one.  My decision was made for me when I found this at the church fair.  Are you ready for how much I spent on this (Celia?)?

$1.00 – yes, ONE DOLLAR!  I figure even if I never use it during the coming year I can always donate it back to the church next year.

My final In My Kitchen (actually it’s more of a ‘Wherever Diane Goes’) are these…again, sigh…

They’re still nice and shiny from my hip surgery and came in handy when I slipped on an oil spill in the garage and sprained my ankle.  At least they were in the basement where I could easily grab them and get myself upstairs to wait for my husband to come home for a ride to the emergency room.  It’s not a bad sprain though and is already feeling pretty good – not ready for dancing yet, but soon.

As always, thank you to Celia for hosting the IMK monthly blogs.  She does a fantastic job keeping us all connected.  Be sure to stop by and say hi to her at http://figjamandlimecordial.com/2015/10/01/in-my-kitchen-october-2015/

In My Kitchen – June 2015

In my kitchen this month is success!  Last month I was having an anxiety attack trying to learn Photoshop to make the table numbers for the wedding reception using old photos of Niki and Tim with their ages corresponding to the table number.  A few days after buying some books and just starting to get the hang of things,  Apple decided to change their photo application and I lost access to all of the photos I had scanned.  I’m lucky that we now have an Apple store nearby and was able to get an appointment with a tech who did something to change back where my photos were being stored and finally got access again.  The results may not be perfect and need to be fine tuned, but they’re good enough to get by while I move on to other wedding projects.

And for my next project … making mercury glass vases.  The reception tables will have tablescapes with a variety of candles, flowers, and greenery and Niki was looking for that speckled, vintage look of gold mercury glass with a touch of silver peeking through.  After looking online for these and seeing the prices from $25 to $200 per vase, my daughter and I decided that we could turn this into a do it your/myself project.  I rummaged around in my supply of plain glass vases, bought some Krylon gold metallic and Looking Glass silver spray paint, found online instructions and waited for the temperature to warm up enough to spray outside – boy, this stuff is toxic and a face mask is highly recommended.

Viola!  mercury glass vases for about $1.00 a piece.

I also snuck in another birthday in May and my lovely daughter got me some of the cutest things.  Little tiny bud vases (no, not mercury glass – got enough of those now thank you very much).  All we need is a few days of sunshine and warm temperatures and I should have some new blooms to put in them.  Alas, right now we’re between blooms and a few days of heavy rain have stalled things.She also found these very cute measuring prep bowls.  What I love about them is that they’re the 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup, and 1/4 cup size but also have a little pouring spout.  I love having prep bowls with everything measured out – fewer mistakes when I’m CWD (Cooking While Distracted).

Finally, when I was out shopping for my daughter’s Caphalon pots and pans (Crate & Barrel had a fantastic 40% off sale), I decided that I really needed one for myself.  The price was too good to pass up and I don’t have any like this with the ridges.

What’s happening in your kitchen this month?  As always, thanks go to Celia who graciously hosts the IMK every month for us.  Please stop by to say Hi to her at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.  Take a stroll through the other posters kitchens and make some new friends.

 

 

 

In My Kitchen – May 2015

Remember the last time I talked to you, it looked like this outside my windows?

Well, we’ve gotten past that to something that looks like spring…

 

As soon as the daffodils bloomed, I was out there with my clippers to bring some spring into my kitchen.  It’s been a long wait but they bring a smile to my face.

 

Much has been going on in my kitchen these past couple of months but very little of it has been cooking, especially the creative type.  With my daughter’s wedding this August, I’ve taken over the center island for Wedding Central and started addressing invitations (I know it’s early, but at least I’m getting return addresses all set for the invites and the response cards).

 

Niki’s bridal shower is tomorrow and her lovely bridesmaids have got that completely under control.  I’m afraid that the UPS and FedEx drivers and our mailman hate me right now since a lot of the gifts are arriving daily from those who can’t attend the shower.  The first couple of packages started in my kitchen but I soon had to move everything to the dining room.  It looks like this…

I’m really enjoyed all of the wedding prep and have tried to keep up with all of your blogs but I’ve been immersed in a wedding project involving a computer (the new Mac), the scanner, and Adobe Photoshop…sigh…  I was so used to the Microsoft photo editing package.  My project is to scan photos of my daughter and her fiancé from ages 1 to about 18, then merge each age to one photo that will go on each table at the reception corresponding to their age.  You know – table 1 will be them at age 1, etc.

I started out thinking “I know how to photoshop pictures, of course I do”.  Hmm, there’s a little/lot more to Photoshop than meets the eye so I started with online tutorials using my iPad for the tutorial and the Mac to follow along.  Whoa…wait up Jack, slow things down a little – what did you just click on?  Since that wasn’t going so well I spent $30 on a book called Teach Yourself Visually.   That was a help but still left some gaps of the things I want to do with these photos.  Back to Barnes & Noble for a $50 book Photoshop 12 for Digital Photographers.  Now my island looks like this…

So you can see that I don’t have any room nor time for cooking but I’ll be getting back to all that at some point because I’ll be damned if Photoshop is going to beat me!  You might be thinking, “Well why don’t you just hire someone to do this for you?”  The answer is “because I’m stubborn as a mule so I’m not coming up for air until I figure all this out!”

In the meantime I am enjoying keeping up with your blogs although I am a little behind.  At least I can thank Celia for keeping me up to date with what’s going on in your kitchens this month.  Please swing by to say hi to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial and take a look at her inspiring IMK post.

In My Kitchen – February 2015

How many of you remember that little jingle from elementary school that helped you  remember how many days in each month?

“30 days hath September, April, June and November,
All the rest have 31,
Except January and February in New England which have 61″

Ok, I’ve changed it up a little to reflect winter in New England and it may have something to do with the 2 feet of snow from last week’s blizzard and the 1 extra foot of snow predicted for tomorrow.  Unless you are an avid skier or snow mobile enthusiast, a lot of us do spend more time in the kitchen in the winter cooking warming, comfort food – like soups and stews.  That’s my plan except for one thing –

HELP – I don’t know beans about beans, so would all you bean friends tell me what I’m supposed to do.  I’ve got this really pretty bag of beans with a stew recipe which my daughter gave me for Christmas.
I think they’re pretty enough to just put in a dish for decorations but I really have plans to make the stew.  There’s a wonderful farmhouse stew recipe on the attached card but I’m stumped at Step 1 which says:  Rinse, drain, and pick over beans.

Help me out here bean gurus, what am I supposed to be looking for as I “pick over” these beans?  Is it like mussels where I’m supposed to discard the dead ones?  How do I know a dead bean by looking at it?  I’ve opened the bags and none appear to be jumping around or breathing so they all look pretty dead to me.  Maybe it’s a matter of taking out any that float belly up.  Any suggestions regarding bean ‘picking over’ are greatly appreciated.

Once I get the beans figured out and the farmhouse stew going, I plan to make these biscuits – another thoughtful gift from Niki (isn’t she great to try to streamline my cooking time?

I also have this adorable mini whisk from Tim, Niki’s fiancé.  I’ve put it beside my regular size whisk so you can get an idea of the size.  I’m not sure if I want to gunk it up with anything or make a cute decoration for next year’s Christmas tree.  Some of my favorite ornaments are related to my hobbies and I think this could be very cute with a bow.
Finally, finally, I’ve waited out my husband and after a year, got the counter chairs that I’ve been hoping for from Restoration Hardware.  I found these last year when they were on sale but my husband was against buying them without giving them an are test.  There aren’t any Restoration Hardware stores nearby where he could test drive them so I decided to wait him out.  It worked, I let him go looking all last year for counter chairs and he couldn’t come up with anything even close to the quality and sale price on these.  As soon as I saw the sale come up, I gave him one last chance and he caved in…and they’re very comfortable.

Now I’ve mentioned our latest blizzard in Massachusetts.  I don’t think it was as bad as some (since we didn’t lose power & that’s the true test of a storm around here).  Although we’ve now got a generator in case of power failure, you can’t run the entire house on it and have to select the most important things to keep running – like HEAT, water,  and the refrigerator.  So if power goes out during one of these storms, my stove moves outdoors to this:

You just have to brush the snow off after you shovel a path … yes, that’s the grill under there.

What’s happening in your kitchen this month?  As always, thanks to Celia at Fig Jam and cordials  for hosting the IMK posts.  Swing by to say hi and check out other kitchens around the world.  In the meantime, make sure to smile and enjoy whatever life drops on you….

In My Kitchen – January 2015

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and that 2015 will be a happy and healthy new year for all.

Don’t you love getting ‘real’ mail?  Real mail being NOT bills, supermarket flyers, or 6 pre-approved credit card offers.  You can imagine my delight when I received a chubby envelope from Celia in Australia.  Many of you know Celia from her great blog and as the hostess of these monthly In My Kitchen features.  If you haven’t stopped by yet to see her, this would be a good time to check out what’s happening in her kitchen this month at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.  Inside the envelope were the seeds for making my first ever sourdough starter…so, the first thing happening this year in my kitchen is sourdough:
Celia very helpfully included very detailed instructions on getting the started perked up and ready to go.  She also suggested naming my starter, referencing where it came from, namely Priscilla.  I’ve named my starter Mamie, sister of Priscilla, in honor of my mother who was a world class baker.  I should warn you though, that at any time Mamie may decide to suddenly change her name as my mother did.  Yes, I have to tell you the story of the time I was visiting my mother when I answered the phone for her.  That conversation was a pretty typical conversation with my mother and went something like this:

Mamie:  Who was that?
Me:  I don’t know – wrong number, someone looking for Mary
Mamie:  Oh!  That’s for me, who was it?
Me:  I have no idea but it was someone looking for MARY, Ma. (My mother was a little hard of hearing).
Mamie:  No, that’s me.
Me:  (Who’s on first?)  What do you mean – are you Mary?
Mamie:  Yes of course I’m Mary!
Me:  When did this happen?
Mamie:  I’ve always been Mary
Me:  Then why did your parents call you Mamie?  And why did Dad call you Mamie…and your brothers and sisters?  Why is the mail addressed to Mamie?
Mamie:  They got it wrong and it was wrong on my birth certificate.  (End of discussion, next!)

So, just like that my mother decided her name was Mary and started using it on all of her documents so I guess it was legal.  One day I may take out my Mamie starter only to find that it’s now Mary, twin of Mamie, sister of Priscilla.

As Celia promised, my starter came to life and I got my first batch of sourdough bread ready to go, leaving it on the counter overnight until the next morning when it was ready to bust out of the bowl.  Alas, the dough was ready to go but I was upstairs with a rip roaring migraine.  Glenda – do you remember suggesting that my husband take up bread making during his retirement?  The idea of fresh bread was too overwhelming for him to not step up to the plate and finish off according to Celia’s great tutorial.  There were a few minor adjustments due to poor math skills with conversions (mine – and they would have happened even if I didn’t have a migraine).  End result – maybe not the prettiest but our opinion is that it tastes great!
Of course I got plenty of cool gadgets and gifts from my family and friends.  Now that I’ve got the first batch of sourdough under my belt, it’s time to try this butter making kit from my daughter.  It should be great on my next batch of sourdough:

I also had some temporary things in my kitchen.  Sushi:

Cute little guy isn’t he?  He was a Christmas gift for Tim, our future son-in-law and I was a wreck worrying about making sure he survived until I could get him to Tim.  Lucky for me, I turned around in time as Moe the Terrorist Cat was tap-tapping Sushi’s jar to see the how he handled gravity.  Oh, he’s also been renamed Henry (I think).

Now here’s what looks like a very fun gadget from Tim’s mother:

I have to buy some more grapes or cherry tomatoes to give this little gizmo a try but what you do is load it up with round objects and slide the slicer to cut the round objects in half.  I imagine I can come up with other round objects to stuff in there and the beauty of it is that the blade is safely inside so I shouldn’t slice off any fingers this year (at least not with this).

And how about this Fadenschneider?  I think I like that name better than just “microplane”.    It’s always useful to have a zester and bottle opener handy but I’ve never had anything to make those clever curly garnishes that all of you fancy bloggers are doing.  I sort of mangled a lime so I guess I still need some practice with my Fadenschneider, but once I do, you are going to see curly things all over my food.

And finally, moved from my kitchen to the back yard is this fun birdseed wreath from our great friends and neighbors, Tom and Sue.  It took the birds a while to figure out what that was hanging out there, but I think our recent sleet and snow storm convinced the birds to give it a try and we had dozens of birds out there yesterday fighting for treats.
Thank you all for sharing your stories with me this past year and especially for stopping by to read and comment on my posts.  I love hearing from you all and feel that I am a lucky person to have so many wonderful friends around the world.  Your stories brighten my days and I love learning about you through your love of good food and fun friendship.  May you all continue to share your joy of cooking and have a healthy, love filled New Year!

 

 

In My December Kitchen – 2014

When did December sneak up on us?  If it weren’t for Celia over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, I don’t think I’d know what month it is.  Please stop by to say hi to Celia and take a look at what she and other bloggers have going on in their kitchens this month.  She really caught my eye with the awesome Cheese and Garlic Crack bread!

After finding a recipe for Spicy Lime Shrimp with Drunken Grapes (check out the recipe on  Simply Fresh Dinners – Robyn, guest writer on BamsKitchen blog) I tried this recipe as just an appetizer.  My husband and I decided that in the future it’s worthy of an entire meal.  Little appetizer bites were great, but you just don’t want to stop eating these.  I used a dried ginger powders for the shrimp since I didn’t have fresh and Pinot Grigio to get the grapes drunk.  As I say, the shrimp was so good but I may have gotten a little too excited about the drunken grapes. Therefore, in my December kitchen …

an extra mason jar of Drunken Grapes.  They’re sweet red seedless grapes with a Pinot Grigio poured over the top and soaked for 6 hours to no more than 2 days.  I can tell you that after 2 days those little grapes will blow your head off.  So what to do with the extra grapes?

Make some Goat Balls with Drunken Grapes…

No need to put them on crackers.  I just did that to get my husband to try them.  When he’s watching football, you can put anything on top of a cracker and he’ll eat it.  I just ground up some pecans, made little balls with the goat cheese (I found that small balls are better than big since the cheese can overpower the other flavors),  rolled the cheese balls in the pecans and stuck them with a pick.  Of course you can just eat the drunken grapes.

This is what’s left of the Pinot Grigio.  It was a very nice wine but I’m including it really to show the background kitchen wall paint.  Yes, I really did get that room painted!

ALMOST in my kitchen are some food rings.

I’ve been coveting food rings every time I see Happiness Stan making something with his (like this cottage pie with seared filet in madeira sauce) and vow to get some for myself.  While my husband and I were out Christmas shopping I found these at Sur la Table – a really fun store with everything you can imagine for cooking.  Since I couldn’t find the food rings, my husband asked a clerk and we BOTH went over to the bins where I picked 4 rings and said “I’ll get these but you can wrap them and put them in my stocking for Christmas”.  So that’s why they’re not quite in my kitchen yet.  BUT…a few days later, my husband went back out Christmas shopping alone.  When he got home I was taking a picture of these and he did a double take and said “where’d you get those?”.  I reminded him that we bought them when we were out shopping, that I explained that he needed to wrap them, and they were to go in my stocking.  At which point, he went back down to his car and came up with these…

Oh look…more food rings!  One of each size … from Sur La Table.  Since I wanted them to make pretty and equal portions of foods like mac and cheese or some sort of meat patty meal, I’m not sure what to do with one of each.  Maybe I could make a portion for papa bear, mama bear, and baby bear – any ideas or should they just go back?  Especially that tiny little one, I’m not quite sure what you’d put in that other than maybe – oh yes – a drunken grape sitting on a goat ball.

Well that’s all that I can show in my kitchen right now since the island is full of Christmas gifts waiting to be wrapped and I can’t very well share those pictures yet.  Thanks again to Celia, hostess for In My Kitchen.

 

In My Kitchen – November 2014…The best way to choose paint colors

In My kitchen this month is decision central…

In my last post I mentioned that we were getting ready to paint most of the rooms in the house, starting with the kitchen.  I mentioned that we must have just about every paint chip available from all of the major paint companies.  Did you thinking I was exaggerating?

I think the problem is having too many choices and of course there really isn’t a huge difference between say Mystic Cream and Artist’s Canvas.  As for the names of these paints…what are they smoking to come up with names like First Love, Meditation, Woodstock Tan, and Stone Harbor?  I like names that at least have something to do with color – tell me what color do you imagine when you think Meditation?  I also feel like I’m color blind when I talk to the paint experts at the hardware store:

Diane:  “I have a light beige and persimmon duvet cover that I’d like to coordinate with, what do you think of this linen color?”
Paint Expert:  “Well, I suppose you could go with that but aren’t you afraid of the green undertones in that?”
Diane (to herself):  Green undertones?  I see light beige…
Diane (to Paint Expert):  “Oh, of course, I see what you mean, how about Lonesome Dove”
Paint Expert:  “Weellll, I could see it but do you really want to bring the hint of gray in there?”

In any case, I’ve come up with a pretty good way to pick the color for the back hallway and the kitchen.  I wait for a rainy, muddy day and let the dog out.  Once Lola does the test color with her tail I go find the color card that’s the closest to our mud.  Now if you have dogs, you’ll need to do your own test since I’ve noticed that mud varies region by region so I won’t give you any particular recommendation but ours looks like this:

As always, thanks to Celia for hosting the In My Kitchen feature.  Please stop by to say hi to her and if you don’t already, think about joining in next month – there should be plenty going on in everyone’s kitchens during December.

 

In My Kitchen – September 2014

In my kitchen is my now retired husband…

Okay, that’s not my husband but a gift to him from someone who’s obviously not worried about John doing his performance review next year.  My husband’s hair is a little sparse and I admire the extent that this fella went to to find the perfect gift.  There’s Chia Pets all over the stores but it’s hard to find a Chia guy and you might not be able to read the fine print, but it is HANDCRAFTED!  Can’t beat that now can you?  Actually, after 20 years as a controller with EMC my husband had quite a round of parties and send offs from people from all over the company (and yes, he did get some extremely generous gifts other than Chia Guy).

John’s been incredibly worried about what he’s going to do in his retirement years but I took care of those worries the first morning of his retirement!  Despite an incredible heat wave here, we needed to get the yard spruced up because this Saturday is the engagement party for my daughter Niki and her fiancé Tim.  So we’ve been scraping and painting the deck, taking out shrubs, digging out stumps, and slinging mulch.  We ended up with a huge brush pile and I was lucky to coerce our backlogged landscaper to at least come with the chipper and get the mountain of debris out of the yard.

Then, the food planning and decorating ideas…

Rather than take individual photos of what I have (still more to buy), I just took one shot of what I have so far (still plenty more to buy).  I found terrific disposable steam tables (back left) for the hot foods.  They have a metal stand, then you put the foil tray for hot water on the stand with the food trays above (cans of sterno under).  The craft store had some little chalkboard stands to label the food and note everything that’s gluten free for those with sensitivity.   Since the wedding colors will be gray and pink, I found silver plates and utensils.  In the middle are adorable flower shaped cupcake papers for pink M&Ms and I will put the little silver balls in the center since they only had one box of those.  Boy, are M&Ms expensive!  The candy store has these dispensers where you put the plastic bag under, pull the lever…and spill about $40 worth of M&Ms all over the floor!  I went into shock when I weighed and got the price on my bag of M&Ms but decided not to complain since I’d trashed the woman’s store…oh well.

We’ll be using plastic wine glasses and my “pink” champagne glasses arrived yesterday.

What?  They don’t look pink to you?  They don’t look pink to me either and I was about to call the company to complain when I looked at my online order…yes, they certainly were pink in the picture but then after reading the description that says CLEAR champagne glasses, I realized they’d just poured pink bubbly in the glasses for their photo.  Guess I’ll be looking for some pink champagne.

But my absolute favorite item in my kitchen this month came all the way from South Africa!  My dear friend Mandy (do check out what she has in her kitchen this month too) sent me these perfect cake decorations.  I get excited any time I get mail that isn’t a bill or piles of advertisements but I was truly touched that Mandy would go to the trouble to send me this little gift which I will use to top the mini cakes – I’m thinking of a making heart shapes on the cakes.  Thank you again Mandy, you are one of the sweetest most thoughtful bloggers I’ve been lucky to meet via our blogs.

So wish us well and send us some sunshine.  In the meantime, check out what Celia has in her kitchen this month, as well as the other IMK friends who’ve posted what they have going on.  Thanks as always to Celia for hosting this monthly feature – Celia, you’re the best!

In My Kitchen – August 2014

August … already the light is subtly changing and the afternoon shadows sneak into the kitchen a little bit earlier each evening.  I haven’t been spending much time in the kitchen cooking but have been taking advantage of our incredible summer days outside cutting brush and digging out stumps in my never ending quest to reclaim our back hill.    Of course New England weather is much like that little girl in Henry Wadsworth Poem – There Was a Little Girl:

“When she was good, she was very, very good
and when she was bad, she was horrid”

Needless to say we’ve had the entire range of hot, humid days where breathing feels like sucking air through a wet towel; chilly, rainy (even tornado warnings) downpours, and then what we always dream of around January – The Perfect Day.

We’ve had enough sun and rain for my blackberry patch – at least enough for us and plenty to share with the birds:

My daughter and I spent a weekend in New York City on a mission to find the perfect wedding gown for her August, 2015 wedding.  After finding that perfect gown, we celebrated at Nino’s and we each had their special of braised short ribs over pasta.  It was so good that I had to try to re-create it when I got home.  I think I really nailed this one and decided to braise the short ribs in the crock pot until the meat just fell off the bones.  I’ll share the recipe in another post, but in the meantime, have a look at these ribs simmering away in wine with rosemary and oregano:

In addition to pre-wedding planning, Niki and her fiancé have had an offer accepted on a gorgeous home in Boston.  They won’t be moving for a while but in the meantime I’m trying to sort through the boxes of “stuff” that’s been parked at my house.  In exchange for the use of my space, I’ve pilfered this adorable cupcake tree.  As I said, we’ve had some beautiful weather which is why there are no cupcakes on the stand – but please feel free to send some my way…Mandy?  Butter, Sugar, Flowers?

Finally, patiently waiting for us to finish singing Happy Birthday is Lola, our 9 year old Bernese Mountain Dog, drooling, waiting for her birthday hotdogs.  I know it’s hard to tell and I didn’t go a great job of making those hot dogs in the shape of a “9”, but she didn’t mind what shape they were in as they disappeared in a matter of seconds – chewing in not something Lola ever learned:

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen this month and again, thank you to Celia for hosting this monthly peek into everyone’s kitchens.  Please swing by to see what she’s up to at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.  Also, be sure to enjoy the list of contributors who share their what’s happening in their kitchens.