I'm Alive, I Promise!

I am so bad, I know. I apologize. I have photos from everywhere to share and I just keep pushing them aside. What is up with that?  Yes, Easter is around the corner, so you KNOW I'm decorating! I found these wonderful chicks stashed in the basement. Bought them at Harrod's this summer (on the 1/2 off table) and completely forgot about them. They are tooooo cute! (Note the Oregonian rocks I carried home?)

Earlier in the week, we got slammed with more storms. I noticed the doves hunkered down on the bird feeder and saw the storm coming (round II). The wind started whipping and I went to get something to tie the bird feeders down with and . . . 

Boom!  By the time I got back to the door, a wall of water hit. Literally. We lost shingles on the roof which I am still finding in the yard. Thank goodness I had already made an appointment for our roofer to come out and do some other work. Lord knows what's going on up there now!

We were so enamored with pancakes for dinner in Portland, we made them again. This time, I made fried pears. 

YUM! And yes, I'm soooo fat!

Recipe for 2:

1 pear

1 T butter

1 T honey

1/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t lemon and/or orange zest

spec of nutmeg

Easy peasy. Enjoy!

Berkeley, CA

New Year's Eve, we decided on a trip up to wine country, Napa and Sonoma. But on our way, I was hell bent on having breakfast at Bette's Diner in Berkeley.

Any recommendation coming from Val has my attention!

There was quite a wait, always worth it, but coming in from frigid Alberta, we were quite happy with sitting outside in the "balmy" weather.

My eyes went right to the Banana Souffle Pancake. Yours?

The hub ordered his fave, corned beef hash.

The kid, his regular, pancakes with a side of sausage.

And then mine arrived. Ok, wipe your mouth.

Again.

And a side of grilled potatoes. Wipe again.

Of course, I had to have the recipe, so I bought the Handbook, but you can find the recipe HERE.

As if Bette's wasn't heavenly enough, just about next door was Castle in the Air. I have always wanted to go into this shop since discovering Ulla's blog many years ago.

Unfortunately, Ulla wasn't there, but the store was amazing just the same. I could have spent hours in this little space if the men hadn't been with me. (smile--kinda like the time I took the kid into Liberty of London and he wouldn't let me shop! Grrrrr.)

Yes, I found some goodies and brought them home.

There were other shops on the block and it was a lot of fun looking through them. So creative. I need to live here!

xo
ro

Ring in the New

With black eyed peas!

I changed my recipe a little and tried a new one.

It's from Garden & Gun and can be found HERE. Well kinda. I didn't make the "Hoppin' John." I kinda made a soup. I doubled the beans, added a Honey Baked Ham bone (rinse the sugar off) and put the tomatoes (canned/diced) with the soup and did not cook the rice with the peas.

I didn't make the "Hoppin' John." I kinda made more of a soup. I doubled the beans, added the tomatoes with the soup and did not cook the rice with the peas.

And, dinner is served.

We had flurries this morning which delighted the kid and I. I think this is the first for us this season. We've always been out of town when we did get some of the white stuff.

But with the snow comes the cold. Burr doggy. We're not quite used to this temperature down in these parts. I had to actually wear a coat while driving the kid to his orthodontist appointment. Whattup wit dat? (He--the kid--DID get his braces off this morning!!! Yay! Photos later, perhaps.)

Dave has the right idea lying by the heat register. He doesn't even want to go out! Now, that cold.

Ok, I don't know why I can't sit down and try to get up to date with everything I need to post about--like Thanksgiving! I have the photos in a file ready to go. This week, I'm truly going to try and get up-to-date. New Year's reso? Hmmmmm.

xo
ro

New Toy, New Toy!

My new Cyber-shot came in yesterday! Yea!! Unfortunately, I didn't open it until late last night, but I've been playing with it ever since. Too much fun. The newest feature is the panoramic capability.

The kid snapped these this morning.

And this is us playing with it last night. New vs. old.

Broken but not forgotten.

Two oldies but goodies.

Midnight jumping jacks. Wonder if it was Jack who invented them?

This morning, the cats were all over my clean clothes I had just pulled out of the dryer. Guess they were cold. Awwww.

Guess I'm going to have to get faster in the folding department.

There's a new feature on the new Cyber-shot for animals. It's suppose to be able to take the photo and keep them in focus if they move. Caught Dave's "Whatchyou lookin' at?" face.

And Bella's "better than thee" drinking (won't have anything to do with the water bowl, mind you).

Okay, now let me back way up to yesterday's visit with Beth and her mom, Lottie. (Photos taken with my old, old Cyber-shot.)

We painted pumpkins.

And then waxed them. They turned out beautifully. We also started some Autumn banners which are still in the development stage. Will have to share those later.

We got our group shot in. ha. We all had the best time.

Lottie had made pimento cheese and chicken salad, her son had made some strawberry bread and I brought a Mexican layer dip and some Chex mix munchies. Mmmmmm. Have the get the good eats in with all that hard work! It was a delightful day and we promised to get together at least once a month. There's no excuse not to!

On my way home, I spied another one of my low clouds over the hill. I snapped this quickly and captured it! Yea. I love these! This is right near the Natchez Trace Parkway which is a 444-mile parkway that goes all the way down to Southern Mississippi. You can barely see the bridge in the background.

After arriving home, the hub and kid told me we were having dinner down in The Gulch, a trendy area in Nashville that has opened some new restaurants (and Urban Outfitters!). We ended up at Urban Flats, a restaurant that specialized in flat breads. I was in heaven, of course, and off my diet immediately!

We started with some spreads that included red pepper, pesto, macadamia and a tapenade. Yummy. The flat bread was to die for.

I ordered the Moroccan Flatbread which had a curried chicken in it.

And we ended with the special of the night, S'more Flatbread! Deary me. Yes, you can see, the diet was shot to hell. I loved the cutting board paint pallets they used to serve the flatbreads. I would like a couple of these for the house. (Yes, I'm a cutting board hoarder. I have some of this style in every size. But, I don't have the round paint pallette ones. Wonder where I could get a couple???) lol

xo

ro