Chocolate,Cinnamon, Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

These handy little morsels were the hit of the holiday season. It's a new recipe I tried and somehow it worked so well I repeated the recipe to make up for all the supply and demand. There was much demand after that first batch and I made more to keep everyone satisfied.

It's a cocoa powder based chocolate cookie with butter and cinnamon...lots of butter and cinnamon. That combination seemed to be the addicting ingredient. It has a few steps but after I increased the cinnamon and reorganized the procedures in the recipe it turned into a great little rich and decadent cookie!
Here it is...

1 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 large egg
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup hazelnuts

1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

4 oz (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 Tbsp hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease baking sheets.
Beat sugar and butter till pale and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Add all dry ingredients and then hazelnuts until combined.

Mix 1/3 c sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon in small bowl. Roll heaping Tablespoon size round of dough into balls and roll in sugar. Bake 2" apart for 12 minutes turning baking sheets half way through baking time.


Make indentation with melon- baller in each cookie and remove from cookie sheets onto wire rack.



Heat chocolate chips with butter until melted and combined. Pour spoonful into indentation at center of each cookie and sprinkle with hazelnuts. Let cool for 20 minutes until set.



There is something about finding a new recipe that warms and comforts. It's especially nice around the holiday season when they can be enjoyed by all. Happy Holidays!
TT

Warm Retreat

Did I mention I put up all the Christmas decorations already? It's slightly early for me since I usually don't tackle that until the weekend before December 14th but this year it felt like it should all go up earlier. It's now arranged in all it's sparkling glory practically singing out from the corner where the tree is placed. I even started baking some cookies and made a hearty pot roast for Saturday nights dinner.

The dip in temperatures, the time change, and getting over a sinus cold seemed to have put me back a bit but I think I am over those hurdles. The sinus is almost all cleared up again, the time change is becoming more routine, and the colder temperatures will rise and fall. I have my warm retreat of sparking glory to come home to where I can sit and crochet, read, or bake. It's another part of the year. 

TT

Then repeat

OMGosh!

I'm looking over my shoulder trying to figure out what happened to this past week. I had some time off, there was a holiday in there, and now it's Saturday morning and I'm not sure what happened to all that time. Am I really so busy I can't keep up with it all or is it just that I am getting so tired that one day blurs into the next. It might be a combination. Busy, rush, routine, tired, and then repeat.

The good news is I have my full weekend left! The rush of the holiday is winding down along with the leftovers. I got a couple of loads of laundry already out of the way. There isn't much cleaning up to do since it's been done. It's a good time to spend with cultivating a few words of fiction. And a run.

It hasn't all completely gotten away from me.
TT

The music is in me

How do you get your music nowadays?

I have a passion for music. It's something I listen to everyday, without fail. There isn't one single day that goes by that I haven't listened to at least a few hours of music, even if it's a background to something else I might be doing. It's always there, always revving me up, giving me something that fills and heals and can be sunny or sad. All of it is something I can't do without.

Music has always been around for me. I grew up with my mother's albums played on various degrees of better record players and stereos. Every evening after dinner, in the back room of the house where we grew up, she would sit at her sewing machine with Tony Bennett, Petula Clark, or Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. She would play scores of Andy Williams, Perry Como, and Vicki Carr. I remember the latter being so dramatic and thinking that, if this is an example of how it should be done, she was committed. I probably carried that with me going into teenage years and early twenties when I lived and breathed theater. I couldn't and wouldn't, for all the world, get away from the music.

My dad sang in the church choir. He would go up with the group to the loft and pipe organs above while the rest of the family sat below in the center of the church. After each mass he would ask, "Could you hear me?" It was a choir of blended voices but I could pick his out of the crowd. He would smile back at me when I strongly nodded my head in a definite positive. He wanted to be heard even in the crowd. We practiced songs together while he drove around in the car doing every day errands. Over and over we would sing the same tunes trying to perfect the harmonies, laughing at missed notes, and trying it again. It was always acapella and sometimes he would start or sometimes it would be me. We always gave it the Vicki Carr commitment.

It was many years later while listening to the radio with a co-worker that I realized not everyone could pick out the different instruments playing in songs. I thought everyone could hear the horn, keyboard, or strings that would float through a piece. When I realized not everyone tuned into music that way I couldn't help but think if what they heard was only a mash of notes. What did they actually hear or did they hear anything at all? How could that be? The years of playing piano taught me to read those notes and understand their placements, and timing, crescendos and decrescendos. It didn't hurt to have it all around me with a brother that became a virtuoso at that keyboard or the brothers that picked up 6-string, 12-string guitars, banjos and sang. We were all a fearless bunch of happy racket makers. But what a joyously wonderful way to make noise.

The music stays with me all the time. I played it over and over while painting this room. I play it each night in the kitchen while making dinner. It's on the deck while we relax and sit outside. It's with me on runs, long or short. There are different ways to get it these days instead of large vinyl record albums or only on the local stations of radios. But with all the technology, it sometimes get's hard to figure out where to pin it down or how to find something new. I only know I have it and it's never going away.
TT

Fun overload

I am barely dragging myself out of bed. I think it was too much fun and an overload of the amount of food I ate yesterday.

Sonny had a full plate of everything homemade. You can start with the fresh corn at the top of the plate and come around to the mac and cheese, fresh made ranch-style beans (these are NOT from a can, kiddos), coleslaw and a six hour, slow-roasted brisket with that tangy sauce in the middle of the plate.

I made an utter pig of myself because when it was all said and done there was nothing left on the plate except the corn cob. Really. I practically licked the platter clean! And then, I had a piece of cake!

Fireworks were everywhere, too! Since restrictions are lifted with all the rain, all you needed to do was look up to see the sparkling glitter light up the sky. Sonny lives just out of the city limits so it's legal and his neighbors go wild with it. It's all for free, just sit back and watch.

But now, with all that relaxing from yesterday, I'm moving a little slower than usual this morning. I stayed in bed, am just getting a cup of coffee, and need to get moving. I have a few things to do today and well, times a wasting.
TT

Christmas Dinner 2012

Christmas Menu - 2012

 

Appetizers

 

Boiled Shrimp with Horseradish Cocktail Sauce

Crab Cakes

Fried Artichoke Hearts

Crab Bisque

 

Main Course

 

Herb Crusted Crown Roast of Pork

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Green Beans with Pancetta

Cauliflower Au Gratin

Cinnamon Sautéed Apples

 

Dessert

 

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Whipped Cream

 

Merry Christmas to all!

TT

 



Cake Pops and Birthday dinner

My oldest Sons' birthday was Friday, 12/14 and we celebrated that evening.  I made his favorite chocolate chip cookies with walnuts but I wanted to experiment with something new.  What better way than trying to make these new Cake Pops?

They might not fit too many candles but they were something different and in individual servings.

Here is how simple they are to make.  You bake your regular layer cake and let it cool.  Then you crumble it into fine morsels.  Yes.  You take that perfectly good cake and crumble it up.  Then you add a dollop of the frosting.  Not too much.  You might think more is better but it isn't.  It doesn't take much frosting to bind the cake together and no matter how much you like cake frosting this can become too much very easily.
Mix the cake and frosting together.  You might have to get your hands into it.

Then form them into balls.  Yes.  Like the size of mini-meatballs except they are cake and frosting. 
Take some melted chocolate and dip the tip of your stick into the chocolate and then put it into your cake ball about half way through.  The chocolate on the tip is supposed to help keep the stick in the pop.  Once you have all the sticks in pops, place them all into the freezer for 20 minutes. 
Take them out and dip them all in melted chocolate to coat and then you can decorate with sprinkles.
That's about it.  Individual bites of cake on a stick! 

But I did all that before going over for the Birthday Dinner.  Once we where there we cooked up what Sonny picked for his menu.  We started with Artichoke, cheese and capocollo and a glass of wine.

Dinner was simply Marinated Sirloin, Stuffed Potatoes, and Asparagus.  Simply delicious.

Not a bad evening.  Happy Birthday, Sonny!

TT

Manhattan Clam Chowder

When a pregnant woman has a craving you try your best to get her what she wants.  At least I thought I would try to help out.  Sonny (my oldest son) and Selma got married early this year and yes - she is five months pregnant.  (Congratulations!  We are all so happy)!  Selma and I had exchanged a few e-mails earlier in the week about her wanting seafood and her and Sonny finding a new seafood restaurant that was good but it didn't have the soup she had been wanting.  She said Sonny was going to try to make it this weekend and we should get together.
It turned out the conversation was never settled and there were a string of confusing conversations between everyone in the family that sounded like some silly 30 minute comedy show on television.  I mentioned it to Jay, he mentioned it to Dante, Dante talked to me, Dante talked to Sonny, Sonny called Jay, Dante called me and we finally got together yesterday here at our house.  Jay told me Selma wanted Manhattan Clam Chowder.  That seemed to be the soup she was craving.  Okay, I thought.  I've done that before.  So I actually found some great Cherry Stone Clams!  I got 2 cups of water to boil and added them in for a 4-5 minute steam bath.  I might have left them a tinge too long but they were fully opened when I fished them out of the pot.

I left the water in the pot to settle while I got my vegetables cut. I crisped some bacon pieces in a pan and set aside.

After adding about a tablespoon of the bacon drippings into the tall saucepan I added the crisp bacon and the onions, then garlic. After 1-2 minutes I added the celery and carrots and let them sweat for about 5 minutes. Then I added the potatoes and poured in all the water from the steamed clams into the tall saucepan. I left a small amount of liquid at the bottom where some grit had settled. I added oregano and bay leaves and let the potatoes cook. I went back and minced my clams (not too small) and added them into the pot once the potatoes were ready.

At this point the soup was pretty much done. I covered the saucepan and let the flavors meld while I cut up a bagette, brushed it with olive oil and grilled it for some crunch. They made the perfect dipping tool for the Manhattan Clam Chower.

Everyone seemed to like it.

Then the questions was asked of Selma, "Is this the soup you were craving?" She admitted it wasn't. There was a different seafood soup she was thinking about that had shrimp and fish and scallops and octopus... I don't have a recipe for that one! So, in any case, it got us all together and as far as the soup cravings, we all decided we would wait to take on another soup when it was much, much less than 100 degrees outside.

The meal and the great company went on from there.  And as far as a pregnant womans cravings I tried to help out!  It's not my fault the rumour mill didn't get me the accurate information!      

TT

Now I remember

I was on my way to an entirely different subject this morning when I did what I was starving for yesterday and spent a few moments reading other peoples pieces while checking my email and having my coffee.  I was thinking it was just early enough to run outdoors instead of going to the gym if I didn't dawdle too long and waited until it was too hot.  That was about the time I flipped over to a piece that lightly burrowed deep and reminded me of my Dad.  A very pleasant thought to mull over while I ran outdoors for the first time in 16 days.
It was his birthday yesterday.  He would have been 99.  I'm grinning as I remember him taking his walks so long ago.  He would do them right there in our old neighborhood where we all grew up.  Is that why I'd rather run in my own neighborhood instead of the gym?
I'm not trying to get off the hook about writing something today but I wrote this piece about him and would rather you take a look at it instead.  The link will keep you here in this blog but to an archived post...take a look at my Dad...Dad's link...it was his birthday yesterday.
TT

Baby news

It's never been a question of "if."  It's always been a matter of "when."
It was only a while back that I got a card with that one line on the front of it.  I had gotten a call after work asking if I was at home and what time Jay would be there.  I tried to answer as best I could and the conversation seemed abruptly short and left me without too much information.  When Jay arrived home I asked if he had gotten a phone call.  "No."  Well, then, okay.  It seemed a little odd but nothing to really think too much about.  Yet, it did seem slighly odd. 
A little later in the evening Sonny and Selma came over to the house.  I knew something was up and Selma seemed a little nervous (or was that me)?  We went out to the back deck and weren't sitting more than a few minutes when Sonny looked at Selma and Selma looked at him and I looked at both and then everybody was looking at each other.  Selma finally stood up and handed us the card.  There it all was.  It's never been a question of "if."  It's always been a matter of "when."  I opened the card and it said, Congratulations, Future Grandpa and Granda!
OH!  My! Well!  That IS happy news, without question!  No question!  We were all smiles and hugs and talking.  There was no more looking from one to another without a multitude of words and more smiles.
It has been a while since I got the news but it was never a question of "if" I was happy and excited about it.  It was a matter of "when" I would want to put something as important as this down.  It's past that time.  The when is now and was never an if.  Good news like this will swirl around you starting at your feet and work it's way up until you lift your arms and can only smile and clap.  This feeling has been swirling around me from the moment I read that card.  It's been there every time I think about the future and how these things unroll and play out.  It keeps gaining momentum at times and I can feel it generating from those places inside that want to burst it's way out.  There was never an if.
So, it looks like there will be another name I might be called in the future.  Granda.  And no, I didn't misspell it here...that is what the card said...so it must be so.       
I'm going to be a Granda!
TT

Keep it real

If my Monday after work was busy than I'm not sure what yesterday after work was.  It must of been the next higher step in busy.  It isn't often that will happen two days in a row where I have so much going on after getting home from work.  But I was able to come home, sit at my desk for a most welcoming few minutes, and then whisked myself off to cookie world where it didn't end until well after 9:00pm.  That is late by my standards when I haven't taken a single break except for the short time at my desk.
Yesterday started off with a number of e-mails exchanged by me and my agent (my younger son, Dante, that is).  He was off and running with a list of things he needed from me to get started on this cookie business.  A list of six cookies with descriptions of each..twitter style...meaning 140 characters only.  We have to know how many cookies fit in different size tins...cost of tins, cost of cookie ingredients, pricing for each.  He had a rough draft of an order form and we needed to create a menu of sorts with those cookie descriptions.
The e-mails went to and fro until it got to the point I couldn't do any more until after work.  So after I was able to get away from my few short (but lovely) minutes at my desk I went and made a test batch of cookies.  I amazed myself how quickly I was able to get them mixed up.  I obviously know this recipe quite well.  It made the exact number I had expected.  Now the tin test...how many fit?  I had never counted them before.  It was just a matter of filling the tin and counting the cookies.  Then I went to order tins and got stuck.  I called Dante.  He was on his way home but instead came over.  I pulled my laptop from my desk and set up in the kitchen.  We created a label.  We figured the cost of packaging.  We tried to get as close to a cookie cost as possible.  We ordered tins.  We filled a trial cello of a bakers dozen.  We searched other cookie sites to compare retail pricing.  We came up with a number. I realized the time was almost 8:00pm.  I hadn't even thought about or started dinner!
So we tried to wrap up but it took a little longer - doesn't it always?  I don't know where the time went.  It seemed we got a lot accomplished and even after he left, we were on the phone again shortly after again. 
It makes me smile.  Whatever the outcome will be fine with me.  I can't say there are any expectations one way or another, except that it has been exciting and fun...and real.  Dante thinks this go around will work and he said it well in the last e-mail he sent to me after all the questions.  He told me I had already done the hard part and developed the cookies - the rest were just details.
Nothing like keeping it real.  How cool is that?
TT   

Talk to my agent

It seems my time spent in the kitchen yesterday may have been a premonition of what was to come.  I received an e-mail from Dante (my younger son) asking if I could make some of my cookies.  He said he thought he had some people that might be interested in buying them. 
I smiled.  I enjoy making my cookies.  I have fun coming up with the different flavor combinations and sharing them with people that truly seem to enjoy them.  But I have never sold them.  Dante has always been my sort-of, well, what can I call him? - agent, I guess. Or let's just say he has always been the one that will try to push me in the things I like to do (that I do for fun or give away) when he thinks there might be an actual market for it.
He has been the one asking me to finished my book.  When I say I am only writing it for myself he will always say well then finish it and we will see if it's only for you.  And we have had small discussions about the cookies before but this time it has gone further.  When I got home he actually called me and wanted a list of possible cookie selections.  He wanted me to come up with a cost.  He asked about my tins or other packaging.  He seems to be serious.  I started trying to answer his questions and I had to think quickly because he was asking about this and then he thought about that.  He thought a bakers dozen would be a good marketing idea.  He was talking about the names of the cookies and what exactly do I call my 5 chocolate cookie?  Then I'm stuttering...Cinque Cioccolato...except I can't seem to pronounce it.  It stuck on my tongue and I'm trying to answer his questions about what I put into my PC and MAC cookies.  He thought those would market well also.  So I will need to spend a little time figuring some things out.  If I get to bake some cookies that will be good.  If he thinks he can get some orders that will be great.  I have always done this for free - for people that enjoy them - so if there is some type of small token thrown in because Dante has done a little work - it's all good.
I don't have a problem with that.  Besides, that small token will probably go right back to him anyway.  I know he has a vacation trip at the end of the month which may be the reason this idea came up in the first place and being my agent and me being his mom...  Well, his percentage might be well higher than most but would I even do it without being pushed by my agent?
TT

What time is it?

I am just barely creaking out of bed right now this Saturday morning.   This is so extremely late for me.  I am the early to bed, early riser around here but then I didn't get back to the room until after 1:15 last night.  It's been a very long time since I have been a party girl but party is what was in order last night with Sonny and Selma's wedding reception.
It started out quietly and slow.  We obviously arrived too early...like the time we were told and printed on the invitation we finally received.  Not many people had arrived and we waited a long time before guests actually started making their entrance.  I have noticed since coming back to my hometown that time seems to stand still here.  You can check your watch and hours later when you check it again only three minutes have past.  We must have brought a space rocket to travel in because we arrive at places two and three times the normal time it should take.  There must be a stop light at every corner and even with the traffic and terrible drivers we would manage to arrive at our destinations in nano seconds.  Dante and his lovely girlfriend arrived at the reception early, too.  They decided to make a quick trip to pick something up and it was a mere flash before they had returned and were waiting with us again.  I'm not sure why this happens.  The locals don't seem to notice.  I am no longer a local.  Well, they say you can never go home again...
But then the party started and went and kept building and going.  It was fun and happy and joyous and absolutely wonderful!  There couldn't have been a better celebration and reason to be festive and cheerful and in such good spirits.  It was hugs and smiles and glads.  It was all the good things I had been feeling from these two beautiful people dispersed at the entire crowd.  The joy and happiness they have created wound it's way into everyone there attending and filled us all up like our congratulatory glasses of champagne. 
Then we went out again since time doesn't work here the way it does anywhere else.  We managed to get another group of us squeezed into an overly packed nightclub with live music and then proceed to dance (some more).  It was great with Dante and family and then even Sonny and Selma.  Her sister was there and soon we were prompted to take ourselves home.  Jay had left the lights on in his car.  The younger taking care of the older.  So is that how it's gonna be.  But didn't we always take care of each other anyway?  I think we always have.
We are leaving the time-warped hometown this morning.  We should have been up and moving already but late nights and wonderful celebrations came first and into the early morning.  Something I am not accustomed to any more.  I fared very well, if I say so myself.  I have a chance to re-coup and re-cover.  Instead of the long drive home today we will be stopping half way to break up the trip.  We will stop for a few days.  Oh, yes.  Now that it is all done I am heading to my own personal paradise.  What better way to take the time to stop, relax and contemplate the hugs and smiles and glads. 
But what's this?!  It's late!  Somehow, now that I could use a little of that extra time, it seems to be catching up!
TT

Wedding Ceremony

Sonny and Selma are now officially married!
The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, and the ceremony was at a glorious location. It was small and intimate and the perfectness will be forever captured in a snapshot of a memory.  One that can be taken out and held in my mind and remembered whenever the thoughts take me back. 
I don't know how they found this location but the house was built in 1937 and has the luxury and charm of being small and grand all at the same time.  There could not have been a more perfect location or atmosphere for this event to take place.  Well...you take a look.

Pretty fabulous. 

We all went to lunch after the ceremony and have this block of an afternoon to rest and re-group.  We have the reception tonight at 7:00 with music, champagne and celebration. 

What was it I just said? Oh...I know...

Pretty Fabulous!

TT

Off-line AM 4/29/11

We took yesterday evening to spend some time at one of Jays’sister’s houses. It was a pleasant evening, sitting outside and talking of ordinary things. After we left we had dinner and stopped for a drink. I will admit I had a dry martini. It wasn’t late but it was time to head back to the room and get some sleep. I don’t think the drink hurt my sleep.

I am up this morning already showered with hair dried and straightened smooth and shiny. I have taken advantage of the complimentary coffee pot and will have to make the second by the looks of how I am draining the first. It’s too early to start getting dressed. Or is it? Is this going to be one of those days when you think you have all the time – almost too much time – and then find yourself rushing away, wondering what happened to those few moments you thought you still had. Will it go from zero to one hundred in a few seconds and I will find myself in the middle of a ceremony wondering how I got from dry martini to sipping champagne? I will see, won’t I? For now I will be happy with another cup of coffee while I warm up the curling iron. We need to be there by 10:00am. I have a little extra time it seems. Let’s see how long it lasts.

TT (8:06am 4/29/11)

Dante called while munching his complimentary breakfast. He wanted to check the address of our location this morning and he wasn’t able to get an actual address from anyone. I had it and gave it to him. He was plugging the information I gave him into his laptop since his room had wi-fi?! I didn’t think a hotel in this entire town had wi-fi…I looked! Dante not only had found a hotel with wi-fi but complimentary breakfast, too! Here I am working off-line and he is searching mapquest. Ah, now…I have other things to do right now besides worry about that. No, really. Now I do. I need to be ready to leave here at 9:30am.

TT (8:44am 4/29/11)

Off-line PM 4/28/11

We arrived Thursday afternoon at approximately 2:30pm. I don’t know exactly when and if I will get an internet connection so I have taken my writing off-line for now and will save to an ordinary document.  I might be able to post whenever I catch up to the modern world again.
 I am quietly working my keyboard as Jay naps and the air conditioner fills the room with the only other noise filling the space.  It seems to be doing a better job at masking my keystrokes than conditioning any air but I am not really concerned.  I don’t mind these stolen moments.  I have a small desk facing a window and that keeps me happy.  There isn’t much that couldn’t keep me happy about now.  I talked to Sonny as we checked in and he and Selma were on their way to the private location to decide if they would have their ceremony tomorrow morning inside or out.  I have seen pictures and it will be fine either way.  It is located by water and that would be lovely but the interiors also have a charm that would prove to be delightful.  It will be their choice and whatever it is will be the right one.
They will stop here on their way back so we can check our lists and synchronize our timetables.  I will need to check on Dante and see on his arrival time today.  Yes, we all drove hours from the same place and drove south in our respective vehicles.  We all have our combined plans for tomorrow but will continue on our separate ways again after the events of Friday and move on by Saturday.  But it is only Thursday afternoon and I have stolen a few happily quiet moments.  I don’t know how many more quiet ones I might have during the next day or so, but I don’t doubt how happy they will be.
TT  (3:24pm 4/28/11)

The keeper

I have a lovely, white satin wedding dress sprawled across the entire length of my sofa downstairs.  It is thoroughly pressed, meticulously packaged and looks as if it is lounging just before the big event.  It isn't mine but it seems I have been the keeper of the dress since it was first picked up from the bridal store.  It only seemed fitting that I would also transport it from it's location now to where it will be delivered and worn tomorrow.  It wasn't necessarily planned that way but it seems I am the keeper of the dress and it couldn't have happened any other way.
We will be driving a long five hours today to arrive at a location farther south and I will be taking the dress. Selma and Sonny will be married tomorrow morning there at a private location with only immediate family attending.   Later tomorrow evening there will be a reception at a different location to celebrate until midnight with more family and friends that are local to the area.  The dress will travel again but by this time it will no longer be under my care.  I will relinquish my duties as keeper of the dress knowing that I had been given a trusted postion when it was needed.
The dress is lounging now awaiting it's time.  Soon it will be swept up and taken care of and safe.  I have been happy to be the one to watch over it until now.  I am happier to know there will be times in the future that I will be trusted again.
But for now, it's almost time for me to rouse and transport a lovely, white satin wedding dress.
TT

No recipe

Yesterday was Jay's Birthday.  Since it was a Monday and he is the only one scheduled to be off from work we celebrated on Sunday instead.  When asked what he wanted to have for dinner I was surprised when he said lasagna.  He doesn't ordinarily prefer Italian but he said this time it was what he wanted.  I immediately started calculating I could get a meat sauce going on Saturday and have it ready for Sunday afernoon to put everything together and then he said he would like to have some spinach lasagna.
"With white sauce?" I asked.
"Yes, you made it one time and it was really good."
"Okay.  I don't remember but I could do both."
"Do you want to go to all that trouble?"
I was thinking I wasn't sure about the spinach lasagna since I couldn't remember making it before so if it didn't work out at least I would have the regular.
"Yeah, I'll have the cheese and pasta already.  I'll make a smaller portion."
It was decided and I went for it.

It was decided both came out well.  I added some ground pork and a link of each mild and hot Italian sausage to the white sauce for the spinach lasagna.  And since it was a birthday, of course there was cake.  Jay likes white cake...with fruit.  So that is what I made.

It all seemed to turn out well. 

After coming home from work Monday afternoon Jay gave me some good advice.  I was tired and confessing my sins of needing to be better about watching what I had been eating, getting consistant with my exercise, write...  He told me to stop fretting about everything.  It's okay to have some downtime and to enjoy it.  We may not have all the time in the world but we should at least enjoy what is happening right now.  He is right, of course.  I enjoy all these things and right now it all should be enjoyed.  I guess wisdom might really come from age or is it from putting up with me for so long?   
Happy 60th Birthday, Jay.
TT

Rings, bowls...

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/marche-serveware-collection/?cm_src=rel
This is a serving bowl and four pasta bowls that caught Sonny's eye as we were browsing around my boutique stores this past Saturday.  I took him and Selma into a Williams-Sonoma store to take a look-see with the intention of getting a cheese grater.  We were just browsing shelves and looking at all the different displays of cookery and kitchen gadgets when he noticed it.  We stopped and took a closer look.  After some time and thought, with me talking to a salesperson and asking some questions, the cheese grater was left behind and I convinced  Sonny to let me purchase the entire set for them.  They were reluctant.  They thought they were great, would fit in to what they already had going on in their kitchen by way of decor, but was too nice a set for the pieces they already had. 
I thought they would fit nicely and since they liked them I thought it even better .  They can be matched up with other pieces.  With a little more looking and talking and then the salesperson helped...too nice?  you have to start somewhere.  They agreed.  I purchased the set and had them hold it in the store until we were finished shopping so we could pick them up as we were leaving.  And we did after an entire afternoon of looking and browsing in other stores.
I got an email yesterday from Sonny with a picture of the bowls.  He was explaining that the bowls had different graphics and it made them even better than what we thought when we were in the store since we didn't look at each bowl while we were there.  Each one was individual but all part of the same theme from the larger serving bowl. Good!  I'm glad.
Then I got another e-mail from Sonny.  He was asking why had I gotten him into this Williams-Sonoma stuff!  He had found another set by the same artist that would match nicely.  They had the veggie motif but also a recipe in Italian.  He sent me the picture.

These are very nice, too.  Sonny cooks some great batches of pasta.  I thought the original set of bowls were nice when he pointed them out on Saturday and these are too.
I can't help if he went looking at their website.  I can't help dragging them into Williams-Sonoma in the first place.  It's not my fault I like to look and see what's the what.  He took us into a jewelry store which is one I hadn't ever been in for all the times I've visited this shopping area.  Sonny and Selma picked out their wedding bands (scroll down for picture) there that same day.  I took them into a Williams-Sonoma which was probably a store they had never ventured into.  Did I hook him up with something new or did he hook me? 
It's part of what makes those memorable days of sharing things without a casual thought.  Of coming across something that you didn't mean to happen but did and it turned out well because you went for it and everyone received something good they weren't expecting.  The kind of experience that makes you smile longer than you might normally smile because it fills you from the inside out.
So...rings, bowls and a dress.  I got a lock down on all three in one day.  Oh, the dress?  Well, earlier I had gone with Selma to pick up her wedding dress...that dress.  All these great things in one day.  I'll be smiling for a long while.  And no...You get to see rings and bowls...no pictures of the dress.
That gets to stay in my memory.
TT

Least expected

I just got back from an all day excursion.  What a wonderful time!  I hadn't expected a late lunch to turn into a truly wonderful afternoon but it did.  They say when you least expect it...
Well, it proved true today.  I spent the entire afternoon with Sonny and Selma.  Their wedding is planned for April 29th and after lunch we decided we needed a little walk.  What better place to do that than one of my favorite open air shopping areas.  It is where I sometimes go on a Saturday afternoon to check the latest items at all the best fashion boutiques.  It turns out we did a little more.  Sonny and Selma picked out their wedding bands.  They had it on their list of things to get done but not planned on actually doing it today.

Now, you tell me.  I've never been really big on jewelry but I can certainly appreciate it and how it looks on someone else.  These look so good  I cannot even begin to talk about how great they look.   Sonny's band is actually white gold like Selma's.  You can blame my snapshot on the color difference.  Aren't these something?!
We spent the rest of the afternoon in different shops.  I looked around one of my most frequented places but nothing spoke to me there.  We stopped at a few more and it wasn't until I was browsing yet another that I found the one thing that not only spoke to me but yelled out.  It was on a hanger too high for me to reach and yet I managed to stretch up far enough to knock it down so I could try it on.
That was it.  Once I had it on I knew it was coming home with me.  It may not be white gold.  It isn't even real leather.  But the feel of it is and the look is hard to tell it isn't real...but the cut and fit was all me.
I hesitated a bit but I knew.

Dusty pink, short cropped, faux leather, zippered Guess jacket.
They say when you least expect it.
TT