Category Archives: food

Sep9

Around the county

Posted on Sunday, September 9, 2007 by Dianne

Our Sunday afternoon was a bit warm and crowded. We headed up to the Mushroom Festival and parked in a bank lot-what luck! We couldn’t really look at what the vendors offered-how many baby strollers are there out there and people who are in a daze? A store in town had some collaged cards that caught my eye. I told them I like being inspired. We heard that Ilan Hall and Miguel Morales from Top Chef were doing a cooking demo at 2:30 and waited inside a tent for half an hour. We could have met them before hand as they were standing outside the tent for about 15 minutes. Oh well. I got a few good shots and Bri said the heat was getting to him so we left.

To my surprise Bri took me to Chadds Ford Days! Now that’s when I felt the heat! Lots of vendors, artists, antique dealers and local restaurants. I did get a 9 month free membership to the Chadds Ford Historic Society and I can go to ‘the big pumpkin carve’ next month for free. I’ve never been to that event! We saw some vintage cars-a 41′ Woody and an early 1960s Lincoln Continental similar to the one JFK was riding in when he was assassinated in 1963. The later vehicle was owned by someone at Chadds Ford Days. I saw a Martha Washington cabinet like the one I had, but it had been refinished and looked like new. The asking price was $185. We saw a child’s MW cabinet at another vendor.

Bri treated me to dinner at Ruby’s Dinner (yummy burgers with avocado and the works) and we went over to Borders where I purchased some awesome art magazines. I have to cook up some chicken for tomorrow (meant for tonight) later, but I plan to relax and get some great ideas from my new purchases.

Some of the photos in this collage were just things that I liked-the sunflowers with their hanging heads, a tractor, and old barn (I guess they are all in the collage).

We didn’t eat a single mushroom dish! The guys from Top Chef were talking so much, they burnt the mushrooms they were cooking!

The only things I bought were handmade soaps from a Virginia couple at Chadds Ford Days. I didn’t see my other soap people from last year at the Mushroom Festival.

To tell you the truth, I’d rather go to flea markets and yard sales. My mom was here yesterday and we hit a yard sale up the road. I got some vintage compacts-one has a little powder holder, rouge and lipstick. Mom went a little nuts there and I had to whine because the 90 degree heat from getting to me. She loves shopping-second hand seems to be her new thing.

Aug20

Tomato explosion

Posted on Monday, August 20, 2007 by Dianne

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I’ve got dozens of red monsters sitting out in the kitchen. The longer they sit, the stinkier they get. I need to get my act together and turn them into salsa and spaghetti sauce today! I’ve been giving some away to family, but didn’t get to see my uncle last night, so his bag is sitting there and I have to use them too. Not to worry, there are still some on the vine. I think Bri over plants because he doesn’t think he’ll get anything. This year was different because we mulched around the tomatoes-apparently they love mulch (like what you put in your flowerbeds). It was pretty easy to apply-we used three bags. He did plant one row in a nice straight line, so I did a ‘line tie’ ran the string all the way down and looping it around the individual stakes as I went. Made a big difference! Some of the plants that stood alone fell over.

I’ve been vegging out myself since the trip. I have been tidying up as I get motivated. We are having company next Monday, Father from church for his bi-annual visitation. He doesn’t stay long, says a prayer and goes to the next house. This will be a few days after that trip to central PA.

We have a dreary day here anyway. Something stinks and it’s not in Denmark-must be an overripe Tom. Ugh.

Aug9

Watch out for Mr. Tomato

Posted on Thursday, August 9, 2007 by Dianne

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He’s watching out for his fellow Toms-so beware! : ) I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this funny looking guy.
And some ATCs I worked on. I started with the background on a most unusual kind of paper a few days ago. Can you guess?

I used travel ‘wipes’ (they smell so nice too) and watercolor pencils! The wipes are wet already which makes it fun to draw on them with the pencils. I also added water to the colors. The children are from the art e-zine link in my sidebar. I’m still working on a little boy with a sunset background on the wipe. Cool, huh? Vonna-I use playing cards for the base. These particular cards have white card stock glued to the playing card before I added the wipe layer.

Jul13

Food Network Star Finalists

Posted on Friday, July 13, 2007 by Dianne

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Rachael Ray hosted the final ‘3’ Food Network star finalists on her show this morning. ‘Jag’ the only guy left, cooked Puerto Rican food, Rory cooked Tex Mex (grilled food) and Amy who is the Next Door Gourmet did an egg dish. All received kudos from the three judges, but I think Amy stood out as being calm and collected and remembering everything she had to do and say. But Amy got to go last. I’m not sure if she got to watch the others, but she looks like she learned from their mistakes. I didn’t care for Jag calling Rachael ‘sweetie’. Rachael joked that she didn’t mind being his sweetie. Plus what he was cooking was something that the average cook would have to save up a month to cook-lobster. He used an oil that he called ‘poor man’s saffron’ but he used lobster, contradicting himself-Rachael pointed that out. Rory was really nervous. Plus, I know how to cook steak on the grill! But to be fair, of the three dishes that were made, Rory’s looked the most appetizing. When I eat lobster, I don’t want to mess with it too much and I’m not much on eggs unless they are scrambled or a frittata. The remainder here was edited as I shouldn’t have said what I said and I didn’t mean to hurt Rory as she wrote to me-I didn’t expect that. (I just looked at what my commenter said and I am the first on the list in a Google blog search) I am so sorry, I’m almost a Jersey girl myself. I was making fun of myself in that passage though. Good luck in your quest Rory, for hosting a show on one of my favorite networks. Here’s a plug for her. And I so want those ribs!!!!

Update-Rory wrote back and thanked me for editing my blog. I told her in reply that Bri has one of the toothiest smiles

around and I have loved that smile for 25 years! What the heck was I thinking? And I noticed from her blog that she loves preschoolers (so do I, remember I have an AAS in Early Childhood Ed)-she has a Youtube video with her and her niece’s class. All forgiven I think. If you can’t say anything nice….yes mom!

Funny thing seen on the side of a bus yesterday (and twice): webuyuglyhouses.com! I mentioned this to mom and she asked if I meant her house-no-just that it was a weird thing to see twice.

Have a cool Friday the 13th!

May28

There is a secret!

Posted on Monday, May 28, 2007 by Dianne

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We had the best hamburgers on the grill tonight. After I made the potato salad (I used red potatoes), I got the hamburger meat out. I usually buy the frozen disks of meat. This time I caught a sale and got 4 lbs for only about $7.50. When we go to Rudy’s Diner the burger platters for one person are about that price. So I divided up the meat when I bought it and took out 2 lbs for today. I got out my fairly new Martha Stewart Everyday Food book (compiled from the terrific magazine) and looked under hamburger-nothing! I then looked under ‘beef’ and low and behold it said the world’s best burger. So I anxiously turned to the recipe-salt, pepper, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce! That was it! I used the last tablespoon I had of the sauce (whew) and stuck the patties back in the frig for a bit. I was anxious to taste my cheeseburger and it was delicious! Moist and thick. The guys said they were soft-are they nuts?! They were just crisp enough on the outside and done perfectly. We’ve had so many barbecue fiascoes that I am happy they were so good.

May6

Camera phone shots

Posted on Sunday, May 6, 2007 by Dianne

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Brian behind the wheel of the van.

My dinner 5-5-07-Sesame Chicken salad-where’s the lettuce-under all that good stuff-grilled chicken, sesame noodles, red onion, carrots, cashews, tomato, green pepper (Bri got these). They forgot the dressing which I had to ask for and no, I didn’t eat it all or the roll. You also see some bbq chicken nachos in the background which the guys mostly ate.

Apr10

Easter Monday

Posted on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 by Dianne

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This was a quiet day. Yesterday was too, but I was out in the kitchen for a while. Not that I mind, as I love that kitchen now. It will be almost a year since the remodel-hard to believe! We had Bri’s dad here, he talked our ears off and still tells Sean how tall he’s getting. I had ham and turkey-both freebies because of bonus coupons. We had the pasta salad, red potato salad, green beans, corn, rolls, coleslaw, a cool whip type prepackaged dessert and chocolate cake also from the store.

So here’s what I made with some of the leftover turkey:

You take a can of pineapple tidbits or chunks and make a sauce out of the juice. I added a little relish and maraschino cherries to make it a true sweet and sour. The other red you see are grape tomatoes and red peppers. I think I’d like it with shrimp and chicken better. You know how reheated turkey has ‘that taste’. Maybe I need to wrap it better for storage. We had brown rice and couscous too.
Hopefully off to mom’s tomorrow!

Apr8

Happy Easter

Posted on Sunday, April 8, 2007 by Dianne

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After cooking from the early afternoon to just a little while ago (taking a breather) I wanted to stop by and wish everyone a blessed Easter. We are waiting for Brian’s dad to get here. I took a photo of my asparagus pasta salad that I will share later. Hope you are having a nice day.

It needed a little something extra-perhaps the pasta absorbed too much of the oil? You see: asparagus, grape tomatoes, ham, pepperoni, carrots, mozzarella and pasta! Yoy can find the recipe here.

Apr3

$1.98

Posted on Tuesday, April 3, 2007 by Dianne

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is how much these gorgeous roses cost….

It was so nice outside today-71 and sunny. I got out the rake (the plastic one that doesn’t retract or expand-blah) and worked on a few of the gardens. Bri cleaned up the piles after dinner. I also grocery shopped and ran across the flowers above.
We had a nice dinner of fried boneless chicken breasts with an eggy kinda dijon sauce (followed a recipe) ,asparagus, stuffing and stir fried spinach-not bad!

Mar9

Things I made…Friday

Posted on Friday, March 9, 2007 by Dianne

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Instead of Art trading cards, I worked on this in the last few days:

A Sally Sells Seashells by the Seashore Shadowbox! It was fun to make. I bought the shadowbox at the local Dollar General for about $3 and took out what they had and started from scratch. I had that great scrapbook paper from the same store that resembles waves. The sun is from the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA. (remember my post a few weeks ago?) Moravian tile to be exact. I have tons of seashells too. I made the little bucket out of curved cardboard (it was a little birdhouse), red wire and the stand that came off the birdhouse. I’ll hang it out in the kitchen where this photo was taken.

Cooking for Lent can be challenging. I knew I wanted to make an egg dish for dinner as I had just bought 2 dozen eggs. This was in my great meatless Italian dishes cookbook. It’s a frittata with garlic, red peppers, parmesan, basil (frozen from my garden last year!) and capers. The basil really makes it. We enjoyed it.
Hopefully we’ll be going to the Philly Flower Show on Sunday, the last day.
Have a great weekend!