Lessons learned

Rainy days are great for making realizations that you might not ever make on sunny days. For example, if it rains all day long on Saturday, cleaning the house like a maniac while your fourteen year-old Jack Russell becomes angry with the vacuum is funny. Watching Money Ball with Brad Pitt does not suffice when you really wanted to watch Father of the Bride.



Norman Rockwell - Game Called Because of Rain

 Baking cinnamon sugar biscotti is always a good idea even though you have about 674 biscotti recipes scattered across the house. Drinking excessive amounts of green tea makes you feel healthy and also gives you energy to dust the top of the shelves that have not been dusted since before the Backstreet Boys were cool. Not to say that the Backstreet Boys are not cool now...this is forever cool. Don't disagree on this one. Meanwhile, listening to Joe Purdy sing about "loving the rain the most when it stops" might or might not make you cry depending on how hormonal you are feeling on this aformentioned rainy day. If you are feeling hormonal, take a bubble bath and blare the Backstreet Boys song.



Van Gogh - Wheat Field in Rain

 Continuing on, rainy days give you time to think about things that you are too busy for on sunny days. Like being really grateful for new friendships in your life that God has surprised you with. Some friendships come out of the blue and have you smiling all the time without even knowing you are doing it. Isn't God full of those little surprises? And then rainy days allow time to think about those friendships that he is rekindling or making stronger. Rainy days don't come often enough. If it weren't for rainy days, I would never have any clean clothes much less have them ironed.



Gustave Caillebotte - Rainy Day


Without rainy days, I would never make a dent in my growing reading list. When I was in college, I had a strict one book at a time policy. Unfortunately, this did not include textbooks, but it was for the "fun" books that I would roam the library for. Wouldn't libraries be amazing if no one had to study? Epic realization. I remember reading The Sound and The Fury for the first time. If I had not been wholly devoted to finishing it, I would still be on page 6. That strict policy went out the window about a year ago. Now I am on page 6 of several books and only on the rainy days do I make it to page 8 of them all. Abi, I am almost done with the third book in the Narnia series!

So on this beautiful sunny day that I am exceedingly grateful for, I am also grateful for the rainy day that I just had. Langston Hughes once said, "Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby."

fall love food

 I love apples!  I love fall! Apple are a great fall food!

One think that I have really enjoyed about living where I do is the fresh fruit.  It is so good!  As you can see from this picture I did not hold back when I went to buy fruit from a fruit stand just down the way.  OHh soo good.  I had aspirations to make something with the apples... but that didn't happen... I ate them all.  :)  lol I did enjoy one with my favorite EXTRA Crunch Jiff Peanut butter sent to me via my mother. :)   Thanks mom. :) 

I have also had the great fortune of enjoying amazing food with amazing friends.  One of my favorite things is to cook, with or for someone.  For this Mexican meal we did both.  (And yes it was as good/better then it looks)

Right now I am faced with the problem of having many left overs.  I have rice, noodles, veggies galore, and other odds and ins. What do I do?  I found this recipe from 101 cookbooks and I may tweek it to make a rice and veggie soup.  We shall see how it turns out. :)  

Ohh! Happy Thanksgiving week to everyone!  Enjoy all you can with your families, and friends.  I hope you can truly treasure the moments and the small things you can spend time doing. 

Sayonaraさよなら

I started early took my dog and visited the sea...

Flash. Best Sous Chef Ever

Cheese Toast Fanatic

Outdoor Dog

Patch and Cookies

Maybe there is no sea. But I did start early this morning browning butter for muffins with Patch's help. He always helps in the kitchen. And secretly wishes something tasty would fall from the kitchen counter. I can't write about Patch without thinking of Flash. He was the ultimate kitchen dog and will be forever missed. Cooking these last few weeks without him under foot has been an adjustment I would have rather not had. In fact, I refuse to eat cheese toast in any form ever again. Cheese toast to Flash was better than any gourmet dish. He could be sound asleep and hear you take it out of the oven. No one in the house had it without him. If I could go back in time, I would make him cheese toast every day. I would live off of cheese toast and games of throwing the tennis ball and giving head rubs.

Flash was my childhood dog, so I learned to make just about everything with his unfailing assistance. Flash was there for the era of excessive scone baking, and he would show his support by the dusting of all purpose flour on his black ears. At one point, I had many different varieties of scones all stocked in the freezer. There were cranberry nut scones, blueberry scones, chocolate scones and some other kind that I can’t seem to remember. I think that was all I was eating for a while.  He became a super cheerleader the first time I cooked tenderloin in the crockpot, and impatiently danced on the linoleum while it warmed the house on a winter’s day. He cleaned up spilled milk from rice pudding explosions, dutifully licked away bits of cream sauces, and barked ferociously at the possessed “blender.” Sometimes he would hide hunks of carrots or pieces of wilted lettuce in his bed. It was as if he might eat them if there was ever a period of rationing or if I ever forgot to feed him. I never did. 

Patch still helps, but he has always been more of an outdoor dog. Sometimes I imagine what my dogs would look like if they were people and not dogs…doesn’t everyone do that? Okay, well maybe that is not normal, but that is not the point. Patch would be the tough guy with the truck slinging 2 x 4s over his shoulder every day and spending as little time as possible inside when the weather is nice or even if it isn’t. Flash on the other hand would have channeled Cary Grant or Clark Gables; he might of even had little wire rimmed glasses and an affinity for fine wines. And cheese toast. But do you get my point? Flash was a foodie. Patch eats cereal. There is a difference. 

I can see totally see Cary Grant

I am so excited that Abi and I are now blogging! My first post had to be about Flash. My first dog.  


Talk soon,
Sara