Category Archives: 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons

I love to garden. I love to eat. I love to enjoy the seasons. And home is where my heart is!

Edible Bouquets

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

Tredessa\'s Edible Bouquet  The 2nd Bouquet

"I really don't think they'll be that big of a deal,"  Tredessa said at about 10:30 pm one busy Friday night about the fact that she wanted to put a couple of "edible bouquets" together for the next day.  You've been seeing them on TV and in all the magazines as THE new thing to send to people you love.  The problem is, theirs cost about $89.99 and up!  Tredessa did very lush, full bouquest for 2 different celebrations for less than $30 in about a half hour – and her first time out!  She is looking forward to adding chocolate-dipped strawberries and other fancy additions.

She can't cook yet, but she is amazing with fruit and skewers!

I love that you are fearless on stuff like this, Dessa.  Try to see cooking the same way!  Or – marry a good cook!…Love, mom (aka Jeanie)

NOTE TO SELF: Let the girls do their thing everytime they want to.  Life is getting really easy!

pictured: Dessa's very first bouquet on the left, that Saturday morning (that is my niece, Elise, in the background).  On the right is her second bouquet that night at a different function.

It’s that time again…

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

The Girls June 07 Guini 07 Guini September 07

Hunter May 07 Hunter Summer 07 Hunter 07

I have held back, I have resisted the strong urge, I have said to myself, “No! Wait until May 10 – wait until after the final frost date,” but I have the gardening itch!  I made my first seed and supply purchase last week, even though I will grow most things from seedlings, I cannot restrain myself from the joy of showing my grandchildren how putting some seed into soil will create something wondrous!

Gavin summer 07 Gavin Fall 07 Gavin fall harvest

A few weeks ago Gavin and I were talking about how it is almost time to garden daily.  He remembers with me that great fun and success we had with it last year when we first planted in cups then later into the garden his Gavin’s Fancy Gourds, not far from Guini’s Birdhouse Gourds and Hunter’s Great Pumpkin Patch, right across the yard from Baby Gemma’s Sweet Baby Watermelons.

Gemma June 07 Gemma fall 07 Gemma and her watermelons

As I was explaining how, even though the weather seemed very nice, we still had to wait to plant most things due to crazy last-minute snowflakes and cold nights, he brightly exclaimed, “Nonna – I have a good idea!?  How about we go put some ketchup in the ground and grow some tomatoes!??!”

I have to give him props for remembering the tomato-ketchup connection.

The grass is greening, the soil has been turned, it really is spring!…Jeanie

Averi at her Dedication 4 20 08

NOTE TO SELF:  Introduce Averi to the soil…what shall we grow together this summer???

pictured: gardening fun last summer, Guini at top, Hunter, Gavin, Gemma.  Averi at the bottom, the newest seed…

Cookies-on-Sticks

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

  

Life was a little too hectic to get a cake complete for Audrey's Baby-Shower-Brunch, but Stormie and I did some really extremely simple, yet truly delectable sugar cookies (made with real butter) on sticks (slightly varied from pastry chef Michelle Bommarito's recipe) and popped them into clear treat bags (as favors) and then into vases, creating non-arranged "bouquets."

   

Real-Butter Sugar Cookies. Each recipe makes about 12-14 nice-sized, 5/8" thick cookies for sticks.

3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks unsalted, softened butter
1 Cup granulated suagr
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
     ^^^^^
Sift together the flour and baking powder and salt.  In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg and both extracts.
     ^^^^^
Slowly add flour mixture, about 1 cup at a time and stir until well incorporated.
     ^^^^^
Form the dough into a disc and refrigerate for about 15 minutes (while oven heats up).
     ^^^^^
Pre-heat oven to 375-degrees F.  Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to approx. 5/8" thickness and cut shapes.  Place the cookies on a parchament-lined cookie sheet.  Poke skewers into the cookies (carefully, kind of twisting).  I used 2 different lengths, but for a vase arrangement, the longer the skewer, the better.
     ^^^^^
Bake for 10 minutes (edges will just be starting to turn slightly brown).  Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack before picking them up.  This helps the stick set fully.  Glaze and decorate.

I am anxious to try it with lots more decorating sometime, but these were very delicious!

         

Audrey was, of course, beautiful and glowing.  She got lots and lots of great gifts.  She is due on May 1st, also-known-as May Day and it is The National Day of Prayer!  A good day for a baby to arrive, I am thinking!

       

Bake yourself some cookies!…Jeanie

NOTE TO BEN & AUDREY:  Looking forward to the May flowers brought on by the April Shower! (Keep up with Audrey-Ben-Alyssa news here: http://audreykesler.wordpress.com/

NOTE TO SELF: Remember to take more pictures at parties.  Yikes!

pictured: (click on the thumbnails to see full picture better!) cookies on sticks and Audrey; cookies in process; a couple of views of the diaper cake and the guest-list/guess the baby stuff sign-in; the outdoor sign which beckoned guests, Audrey opening gifts, April Showers bring May flowers

A Barrel of Bland

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

crackerbarrel.jpgWhen Cracker Barrel Restaurants started popping up all over Colorado I remember them causing quite a stir.  Tour busses would bring loads of people; there was always a crowd rocking out on the "front porch," and the gift shop was shoulder-to-shoulder chaos.  We went occasionally and I never admitted I didn't get the appeal (except for the retro stuff in the storefront), but when you wanted to meet people for breakfast-that was always a place that seemed to please.

A year and a half ago I ventured in to one by myself near a hotel we were staying in while Dave was teaching an onsite.  Not good.  They stuck me on a hard chair in the middle of the room, mere inches from diners on either side of me and served me the blandest of lunches.

Why, oh, why did I try it again today?  We're in Pueblo where Dave is teaching this week and once again, I thought I'd give the Barrel a try.  I decided to pore over that menu with a keen eye and get something really delicious.  It seemed to me that my problem was just that I didn't order well when I was there – my fault, not theirs. I asked my server what she recommended and then took her up on it.  It came out hot and fast and unseasoned and colorless and my check was already on the table within 12 minutes of me being seated.  And that was about the end of any service or notice of my existance…except for the patrons on either side of me, just inches away-wondering why I was eating alone and what I was having and if it was good.  Same middle table, same hard chair.

I really wanted something to eat, you know?  But their menu seems to be for people who don't have teeth or good eyesight going for them.  I am not ready for that yet!

But I would like one of their rockers…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Never again choose Cracker Barrel, and try to go with grace if some one else does.

I watched their 30-second commercial and I want to know where that color came from on the tables full of food!??! 

This Cake is LOST! on Me

3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

dharma-1.JPG           dharma-2.JPG

Stormie designed it, I baked it.  Stormie cut the shapes, I iced, filled and decorated the big one in the middle (roughly 12" x 12"), a white cake with cherry filling.  I iced the little ones, swiss chocolate, but freaked out when I discovered that each one had its own design.  So Stormie did those.  This apparently represents some kind of Dharma Initiative symbol-thingy-something-or-another from the TV show, LOST! , which I obviously, unlike others in my family, do not follow. Whatever.  Stormie also painted Dave an apron to match.

The cake was a fun idea, but we only went through 2 of the small chocolate cakes and about a fourth of the big cake.  Now what?????

crosses-1.JPG          crosses-2.JPG

Then we have the mini-crosses I did for the kids for Easter.  Years ago, I was involved in making giant ones with Three Muskateers for an annual Ladies Ministries fundraiser.  Crazy days!  Now-I just made a few, but they were very small, made with the new mint-flavored Three Muskateers which are teeny-tiny.

This last cake was my dad's birthday cake, a 3-layer white cake with buttercream filling as he requested, topped with cherry pie filling.  Rocky kept eating the cherries before we served it, confident the red sauce would create a diversion.  It was the easiest cake we have ever done.

cake-2-1-08.JPG         

Who in the world needs this much sugar and flour in their lives?…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Time to start using foam for creating elaborate cakes we will never eat.

Spring is Sprung!

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

We made it through a very uneventful and boring winter!   Spring is here.   I am knee-deep in a cake project, the windows open, the doors flung wide, listening to the birds celebrate, basking in the morning light.

spring_flowers_t1669.jpg

“It’s spring fever.   That is what the name of it is.   And when you’ve got it you want, oh-you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”   -Mark Twain

“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”   -Virgil A. Kraft

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”   -Margaret Atwood

Grandkids as Cupids

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

cupid-pic.jpg 

CUTE!!

My Valentine from Stormie was a mounted 8 x 10 she put together of the grandbabies.  The other night at a family dinner, she and the kiddies disappeared for about 15 minutes (where I am told they were swathed in white fabric and photographed) and this is how the whole thing re-appeared.  Stormie loves having fun with Photoshop: changing colors, cropping, cutting and pasting.  Do you see the word "love" 5 times in it?

They were supposed to be cupids, but kind of look like little forest faeries.  Nonetheless – this is my Garden of Love!

Thanks, Stormkins, for always surprising us and cracking us up!…Mom

NOTE TO SELF: Find the perfect frame… 

pictured top: Hunter, Guini, Gavin; bottom: Averi (only 8 days old when taken) and Gemma (8 months)

Aloha!

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

 copy-2-of-me-and-group-in-maui.jpg                   

I am just back from Maui where I got to help my great friend, Carol Ann, cook for the cast and crew who were filming a reality-type series: Gospel Journey – Maui for Dare2Share (www.dare2share.org) under the leadership of Blake Pilgreen with Mediatech (www.mediatech1.com) and with these great people (my Hawaiian-housemates, Rolly and Holly) from Outside the Box Ministries (www.otbm.org) and a wonderful crew of cameramen and sound techs and grips and all those other film-types.

The cast was made up of six 18-22 year olds from different backgrounds, religious affiliations and streams of belief.   They lived together in a beach house just 50 yards from the ocean and got to experience all the cool stuff Maui has to offer while engaging in really great conversations with Greg Stier (President of Dare2Share, and Zane Black (an extreme snowboarder and instructor www.timberlinelodge.org). I fell head-over-heels for these kids.  They are such beautiful human beings.  I will always remember them and the short time we had together and how they let Carol Ann and I fuss over them and nurture them and feed them. 

You can see lots of pictures and read other accounts of the project, the trip, the filming and all sorts of other stuff by visiting Rob Kelly's, Carol Ann Kelly's, or Greg Stier's blogs: www.robkelly.typepad.com,  http://cakboliv.wordpress.com, http://www.gregstier.org

We figure we put together 3 meals a day for about 8 days for any number of people between 25 & 30 and that is a lot of meals.  We also found out that we could put over $1000 worth of groceries in just 2 Costco carts.  It was quite the adventure! 

The cast called us their personal chefs.  The crew called us caterers and said we were better than Hollywood's Kraft Services.  But we were really just a couple of moms cooking for the guys and the kids, just like we do for our families – only it was in paradise!!

copy-of-final-maui-pics-108.jpg

The ocean, the sun, the swaying palm trees – wish you could've been there!…Jeanie

Pictured, left-to-right: Zane and Greg (the sort of leader/host/facilitators of the week for the cast),  Jasser, Carol Ann Kelly (my partner-in-crime), Priscilla, Rachel O., me, Jonathan, and Rachel M.  Emma is seated in front of us, the Pacific Ocean is behind us!  Carol Ann and me.