fire roasted and hot tubbed

Years ago my Book Club friends and I decided we would try to make every birthday a big deal every year for every one of us. We have done a pretty good job of it. This includes a restaurant, gifts and cards. For Priscilla's fete we met at a fairly new place called the Manship. It was great. One of their specialties is fire roasting.  I chose a veggie plate.

 

It was all great. Those are onions at top left. They were so sweet.

 

Here is the birthday girl, Pam and Joan.

 

 

I swear she gets prettier every year.

 

Sue, Bev and yours truly.

 

One drawback to going to the new hot restaurant in town, is the clothes all the patrons are wearing. I really wanted to snatch the gorgeous blouses and dresses off all those stylish people's bodies and run off with them. I would just leave my pitiful TJ Maxx shirt in my wake. My Target sandals would trip them up if they pursued me.

 

My new favorite breakfast obsession. It is so good with grapefruit.

 

Sorry I've just got to show last night's dinner.

 

Those were perfect green beans almandine. Turns out if you follow the directions on the package, they are great. It involves ice water. Sautéed the squash pretty well on my own and grilled the pork chops.

 

Ok, so Candy had always wanted a hot tub in her yard. Well it came to light that the last resident had been forced to remove one from that very yard. I found the perfect solution.

 

We could have this puppy deflated before the property manager could say the word covenants.







 

 





Proud mom

As a mom, there are so many firsts that we are proud of. I have been enjoying seeing Cary reveling in Brody's firsts. Each little accomplishment seems so huge. Learning to sit up, pull up, all those first tastes of new food (Brody with a lemon on our trip!) are all so much fun to see. Then when they begin to do things for themselves it makes life easier. Taking their own bath (that has its own perils), making their own bed (well they could) and driving their own car (yikes), all are great moments. But just wait until they own their own house and are totally independent and are great at it! That is the best (so far). I'll get back to you when there are grandkids. So all that to say look at the new Wolf house. They closed Friday morning and all McNeil girls and Ryan (he hates to paint but acquiesced when it became obvious that there were too many shorties helping) converged and painted their den before movers came Saturday morning.

 

It looked great. MG and Ryan brought pizza for dinner. But hold on to your hat...here is the same room 24 hours later.

 

What? Can you believe this? We didn't even help them. The had movers for the big stuff, but the rest is all Sophie and Paul. I see a few pictures that they may want help with. Knowing them though , it may be done by now.

 

In Madison, an enormous chicken coop was being built.

 

Good grief that is big. Also note the 8 foot fence they built behind him.

 

Lucky chickens!





 

 





 

Tulips are amazing cut flowers. They are sensitive to light and will turn to face the light. They will even continue to grow after cutting. Look at these from Easter. They were tiny little buds that looked perfect in these little vases on Sunday. They have tripled in size since.

 

so amazing.

 

Ever wondered about the color robin's egg blue? Well here it is.

 

I bet mother robin does not know how popular her egg color has been the last few seasons.

 

As you know we have all been dieting. :( Well Candy got a little carried away with the ice cream selection in Dollar Tree. Head first.

 

Can't take her anywhere. 







 

a few things

Headed out to walk the other day, I looked back and saw this precious sight.

 

Truffles is afraid of bad weather and a storm had passed through earlier. She elected to stay inside. Here she is with her cat and sidekick.

 

Junior just loves her. They were babies together.

 

Big news at St. Catherine's. A mommy duck has made a nest in the courtyard. She has 12 eggs.

 

  

It will be fun to see them hatch.

 

Mary Grace , Mom and I went to see an exhibit of Eudora Welty photographs. It was excellent. But one thing I really enjoyed is that it was located at the Cedars where Sophie and Paul got married. It was a beautiful day and I loved remembering that great day.

 

 

 

Here is the front porch. Afterward we met Sophie and Paul for lunch at Walker's. They are closing on their new house Friday!

Ok , I've had complaints about the food pictures, so if you like them you better tell me.

 

Lightened up one of my old favorites. It is chicken smeared with mayo and parmesan and sprinkled with bread crumbs. I used olive oil mayonnaise and much less crumbs. 

 

 

 



 

Easter chicks

Yes , here are the Easter chicks after church.

 

Church was great. Always fun to fill up the old Ellis pew.

 

Wouldn't Dad have loved these guys?

 

We all went to Jan and Tommy's and had tons of great food and company. In true form I took absolutely no pictures. Remember how Dad made us all pose at the Riverwood house for Easter pictures. I should go through and post a chronicle of all those years.

After lunch Brody got to see the chickens.

 

These are the new little ones. They will lay blue green eggs.

 

Here he is seeing the bigger chicks. They are only a few of weeks old and so big.

 

Precious little family. They are such good parents. 





 





 

Big splash

We have recently replaced all of our appliances. I was particularly glad to see the old stove go. However, I can't help but think of all the food I cooked there for the last 26 years. Some would say they have seen way too many pictures of that food right here. So no food for today. Just a do it yourself project. Since this was not a total kitchen remodel, we didn't want to spend very much on this project. You may remember the stove story from an old post. Here is how the backsplash went down...or should I say up? Step one - find a cute installer. Fortunately for me, I found one "handy".

 

Making sure it is level.

 

Oh wait ,it hardly matters as not one other surface was level or straight.

 

These were self adhesive stainless steel tiles

 

All your had to do was peel and stick them on. With a little jiggling Ed got it looking great.

 

We were very happy with the results.

 

When we went on our girl trip to Bay St. Louis, I could not find a charm for my bracelet. Mary Grace and Ryan were headed for the coast last week for a food convention, so I asked her to look for one to represent our little bayou house. When they got back, Ryan was so excited to give it to me. He had me hold out my hand and he dropped the charm in it. Take a look at the one he picked.

 

Um...not exactly the subject (or the scale) I was expecting. He got such a kick out of it. To serve him right, I wore it to church and showed everyone. Sophie said I had to get one that said Paul to be fair. When the giant brass collection plate came to me it made a big ringing clang when I passed it. Please notice the cute little alligator MG picked out for me right next to Ryan.

 

Look what happened to the wreath on Mary Grace's door.

 

 

Look very close at the top. A wren built a nest and this is one of three babies,

 

So cute.

 

Here are the other two.



 



 







 

Give them what they want...

...sometimes. I'd been having some complaints (Ivy) that everyone was not feeling satisfied after eating my healthy meals. I asked Ed to pick how I cooked the lean ground beef I got at Fresh Market. He of course picked the unhealthiest way. Oh well. Hamburger steak with mushroom gravy (actually I added the mushroom idea).

 

Real mashed potatoes. Ok I added a little Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Shhhh.

 

Canned English peas.

 

My mom and my mamaw always added a little butter and milk to Leseur peas. Not sure why. I have actually found that Kroger brand is really ok.

 

Had a bit of fun today. Took Candy to see my mom's Easter singing program.

 

It is always good to see her enjoying herself. The music was great, including a bit of Mozart sung in Latin. Can you see her?

 

Now its my turn to complain about a picture. I must be using parenthesis too much in the blog because now they are showing up on my face ))). Yuck.





 

 

A doggie treat

Well the dogs have been cute lately , so here are a few pics for y'all.

 

Mary Grace and Ryan have been out of town. A sitter has been looking after the dogs. I stopped by for a visit. Daphne was a little sad.

 

Dupree, cute as ever.

 

Toby loves to run errands.

 

Ellie was doing a bit of reading or trying to figure out the remote.

 

Stopped by to see Mom. Cute. She frowned at this picture.

 

Why is it we never like pictures of ourselves. She looks beautiful to me.

 

Ok a couple of food pics for those interested.

 

Perfect salad. Greens, avocado, tuna, grated cucumber, carrots and some kind of hard cheese. Candy always has interesting cheese.

 

Our dinner (fed friend Amy too) Chicken, turkey sausage (just a little), mushrooms, bell pepper and onion. Cooked them on the grill with asparagus. Promptly ate them and did not take a finished pic. It was good though. Fresh Market has their chicken breasts on sale every Tuesday this month for $2.99. They are so much better because they are fresh from the case.

 

This is the seasoning I used. It is great if you like sesame seasoning. Marinated chicken chunks in a little Italian dressing and soy sauce first.

 

 

 

















Another sign of spring

Sorted the weekly laundry this morning and it contained: long pants, below knee length cargo pants, above the knee walking shorts, t-shirts, long sleeved shirts and a sweater. You just can't decide what to wear. It can be freezing in the morning and by afternoon you are ready to take off your shirt and throw it in the parking lot. Y'all will be relieved to know I did not do that. In a clothes related story , it seems a local home was ransacked or possibly a freak storm came through. Not sure which.

 

 

Candy and I pooled our leftovers and came up with this quiche. We made one for each family. I shared mine with MG and Ryan and the Norwoods.

 

 

It had 4 cheeses, mushrooms, bacon and spinach. Little tomatoes were on top.

 

Felt the need for a calorie free snack the next day.

 

Cucumbers and red onion in vinegar and water. So perfect.

 

More great flowers.

 

My two little Mustard Seed bunnies. A gift from Priscilla years ago.

 

This was so funny. The Woolverton 's dog Gibbs has gotten huge, but Little Ellie still runs the house. Lucy had dropped a piece of food and it landed on Ellie's back. Gibbs wanted it so much , but was afraid to get it.

 

See how tempted he is? Lucy ended up taking it off and giving it to Ellie. We decided it had been a Moveable feast. Candy suggested Moveable  beast.