It's Hors doeuvres, not Horse Devours!

I was a-huffin' and a-puffin' -- a-strainin' and a-sweatin- as I dragged my excess 30 pounds up the 600+ foot trail to Thunder Knob last month. Whew!! Well, whatdayaexpect when you're toting an extra 30 pounds around? It's like carrying a suitcase around with you everywhere you go. To be fair, in my defense, I have been losing weight; just very slowly. About a pound a month. Which is good, right? But kinda slow, nonetheless.

Maybe thats why this little book caught my eye while I was flipping through magazines in the book section down at the Rite Aid store... "The Small Change Diet" by Keri Gans. It's loaded with creative ways to trim the fat from your plate and your derriere.

Here are a couple of tips I really like...

* Mentally divide your plate into 4 equal parts like a pizza. One fourth of your plate should contain protein. (A piece of meat about the size of your cell phone.) One fourth should have starchy carbs like bread, potatoes, etc. This means 1 slice of bread OR 1 small potato OR 1 helping of rice. The other half of the plate is reserved for fruit and veggies. Period.

* When attending a celebration, don't loiter by the food. Hang out with the people instead. Remember that the party is about people; not the food. So go have a little chat with crazy Aunt Marge or cut a rug on the dance floor instead of pigging out at the hors doeuvres table. Just so were clear here...hors doeurves roughly translated means 'little snacks' in French. It's not Horse Devours like we once thought or behaved...capish??? Nuff said. If cake is offered, go ahead and accept it, but try to eat only half. And do not starve yourself ahead of time in an effort to compensate for overeating at the wing-ding. You're setting yourself up to fail.

* Love french fries? Go ahead, but eat 1/2 of a small bag.

* Instead of thinking, what will I serve with my chicken or main dish tonight; plan a wonderful salad or veggie dish first. Then complement the veggies with a small main dish. It's just a subtle way of thinking...but it makes you begin prioritize veggies in your brain.

*Good news...Pasta is just fine to eat in moderation. Bad news...That means only 1/2 cup of noodles. Good news...You can slather on all the marinara you want. Go ahead, douse that plate with red sauce. Bad news.. No french bread for you!!! (the noodles are your one starchy choice.) More bad news...Stay off the sauce...the white stuff, that is; it's just too darn fatty. More good news! You're gonna be svelte and slim in no time!

There you have it! See, you can have your cake and eat it too. In moderation of course. Now get out on that dance floor and show those young-uns how to do the Funky Chicken!

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Mirror, mirror...

Sofie and Isabella got their faces painted at the county fair. Here they are, gazing at their newly painted faces in the mirror...

My title for this image would be..."I See Myself as a Butterfly."

What image do you see when you look at yourself? Black and white...or Butterfly? 

"Behold thou art fair, my love; behold thou art fair..." 

from the Song of Songs; which is Solomon's. 

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Life is Just a Chair of Bowlies...

They're coming today, and I'm almost ready. Just have to go to the fruitstand, smash out some burgers and make my special spaghetti sauce. Oh, and pitch a tent in the backyard for the kiddies to play house. Yep, we're all ready for company for the next couple of weeks. First my daughter and her brood, then my daughter-in-law and her two. (I feel special that my daughter in law wants to come, even though my son is working out of town. I mean, how many daughters-in-law want to visit mom-in-law for a whole week?) Soon we'll be riding the ferris wheel at the county fair, scouring the beach for pretty shells, walking the Boulevard to Fairhaven, and playin' in Fishtrap Creek down in the city park. Life's gonna be a Bowl of Cherries around here!

So the guest room is made up. My guest room is far from something you'd see in a magazine. Even though I'm moving toward modern in my decorating esthetic...this room seems to be stuck in a time warp. But I rather like it, so as Dad used to say, don't fix somethin' that taint broke!

The pretty duvet was a thrifted find for a buck!  Embroidered pillowcases, some made by moi, some from local antique stores.

 Made these cute little pillows a few years back for the family room. My tastes have since changed; but they seem quite at home in the guestroom.

 Our little town was settled by dutch folk. Every year we have Holland Days Festival; and of course, there are commemorative prints. The 2002 one makes me smile. Look at the scale of the people compared to the building! They look like the dwarves in Sleeping Beauty! I guess this must be the artists' style...but why?

 I like this one. We have a little Dutch mall downtown that looks like this. It has a canal inside with koi fish. That's the good news. The bad news; it was purchased by some big city bigshots who jacked up the rent so high that every little shopowner moved out. All that's left in the building is the hotel.The owners don't care. It's a tax write off.  This print was done in better days.

 This lamp has been in my family since I-don't-know-when! It's hand painted and I think that's real gold-leaf paint on it. It used to sit by my old iron bedstead when I was little. I remember sitting on the bed and running my fingers over the shape of those flowers as I daydreamed about many things.

 No childhood is complete without Raggedy Ann and Andy. I don't care how hip or expensive a doll is; nothing compares to a dolly that has "I love you" embroidered on it's heart.

 Mr. Teddy, you have been well-loved!

Baron has staked his claim at the foot of the bed on the fancy oriental rug we inherited from Uncle Myles. Dear me, Uncle Myles would not be thrilled to see a dog lying on such a fine antique. But Baron isn't just any dog. He's family. Patience, my puppy...the children will be here soon; and then life will be Bowl of Cherries...or as Mary Engelbreit puts it; a Chair of Bowlies!

Refrigerator Pickles; Easy peasy!

I planted cukes, pumpkins and nasturtiums all in the same row. Now I have a jungle of green leaves with bright orange and yellow blossoms everywhere. Quite charming! A day or so ago I decided to peek beneath the leaves and see what was happening down there. To my surprise there were 10 chubby little cucumbers lying there in the shade! Hmmm, what to do with 10 cukes? I gave a few away, but that left me with 6. Too few for a batch of pickles. Too many for hubby and I to eat. Then it came to me...surely there must be recipes for pickles that you don't can...that you just make and refrigerate. A little search of the web, and sure enough; refrigerator pickles! I made a couple of jars today...it was as easy as pie! I'm thinking that I'll probably keep making little batches as long as I can get cukes that are fresh and small enough. Why not? Have you seen what they charge for pickles in the stores these days? Highway robbery! Last time I checked they wanted about $7 for a large jar of pickles in my local market. That's crazy. What does your store charge for dill pickles these days?

The recipe is from a nice blog called 'A Couple Cooks.' I liked it because it is simple, straightforward, and a small batch. Refrigerator dills last a month. I mean, realistically, how many pickles can an empty nester couple eat in a month. Two jars is probably fine.

Here's the link:  http://www.acouplecooks.com/2012/06/quick-refrigerator-dill-pickles/.

I checked out their list of recipes, and I'm going back for more. These folks cook my kind of food! 

Voila, finished result! Took maybe 20 minutes or so. 

A little advice about this recipe;  Two widemouth pint jars will hold about four sliced cukes. That is, four small to medium-ish sized ones. You don't want them too long or they won't fit into the jar. (You could slice them crosswise, but I prefer larger, crunchier chunks.) I bought a dozen jars with the intent of using the rest for freezer jam. Widemouth is the way to go for freezing jam in jars. Expansion during the freezing process can cause the curved narrow mouth jars to break--not good!
I got my coriander seeds and peppercorns in the bulk section of the store. Much cheaper for a little batch. And since my garden cilantro aka coriander is going to seed anyway, I'll for sure be collecting the seeds and drying them for future recipes. Why not? Red peppers look pretty in the jar, but they don't agree with me, so I didn't include them. But wouldn't these jars be gorgeous with some yellow and red pepper slices in them? What a nice gift they'd make!

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