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Wheel-can be squeaky-that’s all I have unless I find a mouse in the house. : )
I should say this is a photo from one of the annual Philadelphia Flower Shows (probably this year).
Dec27
Dec26
Family gathering
My family had a get together tonight so we were all together (ALL brothers too) for a dinner and gift exchanging. I was happy my mom had all her kids and grandchildren together.
Here’s a photo of my 9.5 yr old niece and me:
and my mom and her oldest grandson, David age 23:
Last night I was wondering if my father-in-law was enjoying the steak dinner I sent over. He usually calls and thanks me for any food I send over. Right before Brian and Sean got back, he called not to thank me for any of the oodles of food I sent, but to say he almost choked on the steak! I felt terrible, but he must have put it in the microwave to reheat and made it tough. I wished I had sent it a bit under cooked now. Then I thought well maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned it because it was Christmas and he was okay. It ruined the rest of my evening. He does have these choking episodes once in a while, was probably starving as it was 7 pm or later. Yikes!
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Please go check out the gorgeous home of Jessi-she must be a decorator for a magazine or something fabulous. I was blown away!
Dec25
Pass the cookies-Merry Christmas!
To all my pals in blogland that I call my friends-Merry Christmas. I have made some newer blog pals that I have enjoyed getting to know. I think back on my second grade teacher who taught use this little song in round-‘make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold’.
Here are my cookies for this Christmas-
7 layers cookies, Russian Tea cakes, Sour Cream Drops, Sugar cookies, Rum Raisin squares, Mini Reese’s cup cookies and peanut brittle.
And one of my favorite gifts from Brian-
Adorable little mushroom salt and pepper shakers from Anthropologie! I thought they were just mushrooms for my collection. : )
I also got a GPS for the van-which will be great if I get into going antiquing in unknown parts along with some books and music CDs. I highly recommend Sarah Brightman’s Christmas CD-it’s beautiful!
Brian and Sean got new watches-Bri a Ford Mustang one and Sean a new Penn State one. Sean got almost everything off his Amazon wishlist-a cool big book on the history of Penn State Football with removable ‘artifacts’ like old banners, etc. He looked at it for a long time.
It was nice to have my mom here this year. We took her to midnight mass at a church in Delaware. We sat off to the side instead of in the middle pews and it took away from hearing the choir as well. I saw her singing quite a few times.
We had shrimp and chicken carbonara last night:
It was good-very rich with maybe a wee bit too much garlic. The recipe wasn’t written well and I skimped on the sauce-but in retrospect, I didn’t use all the milk product it called for. I think I would do a breaded chicken next time and not put the shrimp in with the sauce as it was hard to peel.
Tonight we had ‘Surf and Turf’! I cooked the sirloins from BJ Wholesale and cut them in half as they were huge. I bought two lobster tails and cut them in chunks so we all got some. Also made the green bean casserole with fried onions in the can; Potatoes and sweet potato au gratin and asparagus. It was a great dinner and everyone enjoyed it.
The fellows took Brian’s dad some dinner and his gifts, so mom and I are hanging out relaxing.
Hope everyone had a great day!
The entire song from above:
Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other is gold.A circle is round,
it has no end.
That’s how long,
I will be your friend.A fire burns bright,
it warms the heart.
We’ve been friends,
from the very start.You have one hand,
I have the other.
Put them together,
We have each other.Silver is precious,
Gold is too.
I am precious,
and so are you.You help me,
and I’ll help you
and together
we will see it through.The sky is blue
The Earth is green
I can help
to keep it cleanAcross the land
Across the sea
Friends forever
We will always be
Dec24
Favorite Toys
I’m pretty sure I posted this when I first made it, but I thought you’d like to see what children of the 1960s played with:
I should have had more Barbies, but I actually did a Barbie collage too one time.
I also finished a cross stitched ornament I started in 2005! It had ‘one over one’ that’s one little square. I had a terrible time, even with a magnifying glass on a few parts, but alas, it’s finished and I can move on. I added it to my feather tree!
The glue is still wet-you can see it. I may take it done and put it under some heavy books to get that pucker out of it.
I expect a busy day ahead as this is the first Christmas Eve that I cooked for years. I am doing a knock off of The Olive Gar*den’s Shrimp and Chicken Carbonara. Think I better start around 2 to make it! Sean will go get mom. I hope we can get her to go to midnight mass with us, it is such a wonderful service at the church we go to every Christmas Eve.
Dec23
My New Year’s gift to you
I received some items from the Breast Cancer site and decided I’d like to send one to one of my blog readers as a gift when the new year rolls around.
You will receive the one with the silver tone necklace.
If you are interested in trying to win, please leave me a comment here and I will randomly choose a winner on New Year’s day and mail off your lovely ‘Live, Laugh and Love’ necklace shortly after. I wore mine today and it’s cool! : )
Good luck!
Dec23
Santa’s letter to me!
Santa’s letter to me!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
Wow-I can’t wait! I think what I want is still on back order though!
My baking for today-minus the Rum Raisin bars-Sour Cream Drops-heavenly goodness-thanks for the recipe Jennifer; Microwave Peanut Brittle and Sugar Cookies-these are vintage Tupperware cutters like the ones my mom had. I would suggest not to save sugar cookies for last-too frustrating.
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Congrats to Missy and her family over at A Treehugger’s Wife-she welcomed Seamus 12-18 in a water birth and said it was a great experience. So happy for her.
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Please keep Brian and his fellow employees in your thoughts as the newspaper company where he works is going through hard times. All the papers (7 I think) need to be sold, except the one where he works, or they will be shut down. At Bri’s work there will be employee changes. He’s been there and in the different offices for almost 11 years now. Things will be going on in early January.
Dec22
Same tree-4 different themes
Same tree-4 different themes, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
Thought you’d like to see my tree over the last 4 years. They don’t like alike at all, except the shape of it. : )
Here’s the photo I should have used in the collage to match the others better:
Dec21
It’s really almost Christmas now
Yesterday I felt a bit frantic as every cookie recipe I looked at called for something I needed to purchase. Bri and I went on an early evening shopping trip to an almost empty store. They didn’t have unshelled pistachios for a cookie I want to try (recipe from Jennifer) and a few other things. Today I made ‘candy’ (I say that loosely)- Chocolate Cherry Bourbon Balls that my pal Warren said I should try. Brian went for a booze hunt in the basement and came up with a gorgeous bottle of Taylor Kentucky Bourbon. It had a ’68’ on the bottle, and sure enough it was from 1968! Bri did a Google search and found the exact bottle. The little balls are very potent! I don’t know how many anyone will be able to eat without feeling tipsy-lol.
A condensed ‘I recommend’-
What made my day was finding a recipe for Peanut Butter Pinwheels which has to be the exact recipe from one of Peg Bracken’s ‘I hate to cook’ books. I made them as a teen and loved making them, smelling them baking and eating them! I made some and the following are photos of the rolled up peanut butter dough with the melted chocolate inside, to the finished product. I may bake a batch of easy peasy 7 layer cookies when I finish here-all in one pan-and finish up the rest tomorrow.
Recipe for
Peanut Butter Pinwheels-
Taste of Home-Best & Loved Cookies and Bars (there is a new edition every year it seems-I only have last year’s issue which I recommend)
Sent in by Kandy Dick
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
In a mixing bowl, cream shortening, peanut butter and sugar. Beat in egg, and milk. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture.
Roll out dough between wax paper into a 12″ x 10″ rectangle (I think it could be a wee bit bigger). Melt chocolate chips; cool slightly. Spread over dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Roll up tightly, jelly roll style, starting with long side; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes or until easy to handle.
Unwrap dough and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Place 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield about 4 dozen.
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Brian took some outdoor shots-we need to get the tripod out, but here’s an what it looks like:
The bluish lights are LEDs that I had on the Christmas tree a few years ago. They are very energy efficient.
Dec20
Photo Hunt-Wide
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This is a wide view of our side yard taken by Brian, my husband, almost 4 years ago. I know exactly where he is standing-at the corner of the house. I have chairs near the holly bushes there in the summer-they are quite larger now. The tree on the right is one of two Chestnuts that we have-I have a love/hate relationship with them. We don’t have many trees that provide shade and they do. But they are the messiest trees around-they drop 3 things a year-catkins, burrs and then leaves. I wanted to keep with a winter feeling as it will be winter on the 21st.
Dec19
Cookie baking!
I finally got around to cookie baking. Not that I am finished by any means. I used the Butter ball (Russian Tea cakes) recipe from The Silver Palate cookbook. Now my oven is only two years old and I have to watch delicate foods like cookies. The recipe called for 35-40 minutes in a 300 oven. They were done in 15 minutes and got a bit too brown on the bottoms. It said it would make 36-no way. This is the recipe that the gourmet take-out place where I worked used all the time. Also made cookies with mini peanut butter cups-they turned out better! The recipe is similar to chocolate chips. Jennifer over at ‘Sweet Pea Stitches’ shared some yummy tried and true recipes, but I need some key ingredients to make them. I’ll do some more baking tomorrow, plus a ton of other things!
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I liked the way this turned out:
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My dear only niece’s most recent school photo next to her great grandmom’s photo. They share the same middle name of Caroline.
Collages & Creative Goodness 