Happy Things!

I feel like spring is finally here!  Three days in a row with 50+ temps!

The only fun thing about the rainy weather this past weekend was watching Clyde sashay through the house.  He wears the towels we dry him with as if they're a fancy cloak.

Sometimes he carries the end of the towel in his mouth like it's the royal train.  And he looks at me as if he's saying, "Cue The King's March.  I have arrived."

Plopping himself down to take a nap.  I think he keeps the towel wrapped around him so that he will have royal dreams...dreams where he waves a perfect royal wave to his subjects.

Or maybe he just wears the towel because it's comforting on a rainy day.

Thank you to all who commented about their favorite comfort food to enter the giveaway for the Whole Foods gift card last week.  The winner was Carly G., whose favorite comfort food is "a toss up between baked mac and cheese and biscuits with gravy!"

"Biscuits?  Did somebody say BISCUITS?!

Hope you are all enjoying some glorious spring weather wherever you happen to be!

Comfort Food Cooking Show...and Whole Foods Giveaway!

  I'm so ready for the snow to be gone!

Even though it is fun to throw snowballs for Gus.

Got it!  Clyde usually looks on in admiration, he simply doesn't have the desire to catch snowballs. 

 We filmed another episode of the cooking show this week.  With the freezing temperatures outside, it only seemed fitting that the theme of this show should be comfort food!

What did we make?

 Chicken Pot Pie

A large, family-sized chicken pot pie and cute li'l individual ones.

Lentil Soup.

Puff Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce

Click on the links to be taken to the recipes.

Buffalo Wings, Teriyaki Wings, a Giveaway and Happy Moments

Bear with me.  

I'm going to throw a lot of stuff at you before we get to the wing recipe.  

It all started early this morning with a few happy, happy, happy moments, one right after the other within  a span of about 5 minutes.

 I was picking up a prescription at the pharmacy.  As I was leaving, one of the pharmacists was just coming in and he stopped me to ask how everyone in my family was doing and as we were talking the store loudspeaker started playing a Bee Gees song.  It brought the biggest smile to my face and both of us started laughing and I said, "I can't help it, whenever I hear the Bee Gees it makes me feel like I did way back then!" and he said, "You mean back in your Saturday Night Fever Days?" and we both laughed.

I was still smiling when I was sitting at the traffic light, waiting to exit the parking lot.  I looked over at the very old, vintage car that was sitting in the lane next to me and noticed the elderly lady driving the car, gripping her steering wheel tightly.  A steering wheel that was covered with a plush, fluffy, bright pink steering wheel cover.  I had to stifle a laugh, because I didn't want the woman to think that I was laughing at her, but I was thinking to myself that when I'm eighty I hope that I have a fluffy, pink steering wheel cover in my vintage car.  But make my vintage car a Ferrari, okay?

Then the light changed.   I turned out of the parking lot and a couple of blocks later found myself waiting at another traffic light.  Staring at the back of the minivan in front of me, I noticed a sticker on the back with the profile of a beautiful, long-coated dog.  I decided that it was probably either a Newfoundland or a Great Pyrenees.  As I pondered which of these gorgeous breeds it could be, a movement in the back window of the minivan caught my eye.  There in the window, staring right at me, was an English Bulldog, in all his smushed-face glory, complete with an immense underbite with his bottom teeth jutting out.  I started laughing again, thinking how odd it is that the sticker on the car has a beautiful Newfie or Great Pyrenees but the dog in the car is actually a bulldog.  And the dog continued to stare at me, as if to say, "Yeah, and I'll bet your husband once had a picture of Farrah Fawcett or Bo Derek on his wall. But just like the sticker on this car, that picture on his wall didn't mean anything, did it?  Because he ended up with you instead, right?"  Which only made me laugh more.

My good mood continued throughout the morning (I know that I am really in a good mood when I'm still smiling as I vacuum and do laundry).  As I sat down to blog about chicken wings, I thought to myself that it has been a really long time since my last giveaway.

So I gathered up a bunch of fall-themed kitchen toys from Williams-Sonoma for you!

 The winner will receive everything you see in this picture.  A set of pumpkin and gourd candles, Halloween cookie cutters, a pumpkin spatula, a pumpkin pocket pie mold, and a set of fall-themed piecrust cutters.

I also bought a set of the candles for myself.   Here they are on my fall mantel.

Cookie cutters in the shape of a ghost, haunted house, bat, pumpkin and witch's hat, and a pumpkin spatula.

Turkey, pumpkin, leaf and acorn piecrust cutters, and a pumpkin-shaped pocket pie mold.

To win the giveaway, all you have to do is 1. be a follower of this blog and 2. leave a comment on this post. Comment about anything you like, anything from your favorite Bee Gees song to Let's Go Red Sox or anything in between!! 

The winner will be drawn via random.org on Friday, October 4 and contacted via their blog comment email address.

This giveaway is only open to U.S. residents, and it is sponsored by me--believe me, Williams-Sonoma has no idea who I am.

Update: The giveaway is closed.  The winner has been emailed-- and the winner is:  Heather, from Vintage Grey.  I have been following Heather's blog with its lovely crafts and creations for a long time, her handiwork is amazing!  Congratulations, Heather!

Okay, onto today's recipe.  I do not eat chicken wings.  I'm happy to eat white-meat chicken, but I don't do wings.  Mr. Terrific loves them, however.  And now it's football season.  And I spend a lot of time making appetizers on Sundays before we watch the Patriots.  These wings are part of football Sundays.  Partly because they are good football food, but also because it's best to make these on a day when I am spending a lot of time cooking, because of the refrigeration and the wait involved after the wings are steamed.  If you have the time, I recommend using this steam-then-roast method!

I don't fry the wings.  I figure there are enough calories in the sauces, why pile on more grease by frying?  So I steam them, and then I refrigerate them and when they are cold again I roast them.  Roasting the steamed-then-refrigerated wings makes the skin crispy which then holds in the moisture from the steaming.  I think.  I can't say for sure because like I said, I don't eat wings.

So I asked for Mr. Terrific's honest opinion.  I told him, don't spare my feelings, be brutally honest with me!!  I only blog about recipes that I think are really awesome, the last thing I want is for someone to make a recipe off of my blog and say "EEEWWWWW."

And he said, he really likes the texture.  They are crispy on the outside, but very moist on the inside.  Sounds like a good wing to me!

Blog Anniversary, Etsy And A Giveaway!

I'm just a few days away from my blog anniversary.  I can't believe it's been a year already!

And--today I crossed another one of my New Year's resolutions off my list.  I've opened a shop on Etsy!  Someday, I will figure out how to add a link to the sidebar on this blog, but for now, you can click here if you want to check it out.

For now, I'm just listing some of pillows that I've made using scraps of vintage linens and tablecloths, fabrics from the '30's, '40's and '50's.

They've been piling up.

I still have more to list, so stay tuned!

I thought I would celebrate my anniversary and the opening of the Etsy store with a giveaway.  The winner will receive..........a pillow!  

Pillow #1:

The center of this pillow is a trail of embroidered roses from a vintage linen table runner.  Framed with pink stripes and a vintage-inspired floral print.  Surrounded with fluffy pink vintage pom poms.

Pillow #2:

A patchwork of vintage chenille squares, framed with new, fluffy white chenille and vintage pink pom poms.

Pillow #3:

A bouquet from a vintage tablecloth, framed with polka dots, rick rack, ticking stripes and vintage pom poms.

All of these pillows have a slip opening in the back, and each pillow measures approximately 19" x 19".

If you would like to win one of these pillows, here is how you can enter:

Leave a comment, telling me which pillow you would like to win.  You can elaborate as much as you like, or simply write "#1," "#2," or #3."  And if you also become a follower of this blog, you will be entered twice.  (And anyone who currently follows this blog will also be entered twice if they leave a comment!)

Winners will be drawn on Saturday, March 3.  Good Luck!

Today, I'm also linking up with Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for her Rednesday blog party!

Salty/Crunchy/Chocolaty/Caramel Treat

Don't forget to leave a comment or become a follower if you want to enter to win the giveaway for the Williams Sonoma ornaments .

A set of three glass peppermint candy ornaments......

a snow chef and a ginger chef.

Three winners will be drawn on Friday.  Each winner will receive a set of all of the above ornaments.

{Just a reminder, this giveaway is sponsored by me.  I am not affiliated in any way with Williams Sonoma, I just like to shop there.  They do not know who I am.}

Mine are on my dining room tree...........

a good place to serve up tasty treats.

I also use them to embellish gifts or baked goods.  What will you do with yours?

Look who's all decked out in his holiday finery.  Gus is all gussied up!  I love the sound of the bells on his fancy collar, jingling all the way.

I have finished my five-day decorating frenzy.

Tree #1.  The real tree.  In the living room.

Traditional decorations.

Tree #2.  Not real.  In the family room.  Decorated with all of our favorite things.

Characters from our favorite Christmas movie.  Who doesn't love Ralphie, Randy and the Leg Lamp?

 Lots of hearts.  Because I love hearts.

Spongebob and Patrick Star.  Probably my kids' favorite cartoon when they were young.  Patrick was their favorite character.  Sometimes a certain family member will try to put Patrick on tree #1.

Uh....yeah.  If you don't know who this is, I'm not gonna be the one to tell you.  Let's just say that this guy makes Mr. Terrific laugh until he cries.

Tree # 3.  Fake.  In the dining room.

Sort of cooking-themed.

Lots of candy........

and cookie-themed ornaments.

The mantel.  Always a work in progress.  I'm never happy with it, and this year is no different.  This is the first year I didn't use fresh greenery.  I decorate so early, the greenery always dies.  And then I replace it.  And start cursing when all the little barbs on the holly leaves stab me.

I went and bought fake greenery this year.  Snow-frosted greenery, which totally announces that it's fake.  

Maybe next year I'll get it right.

The only thing about this picture that makes me smile is Gus' tail.  That's right, that little black swirl at the bottom of the photo is his waggin' tail.

And the little vintage-inspired papier-mache balls also make me smile.  This is their first appearance on the mantel, I think I'll let them stay.

I love snowmen.  Hangin' out on the china cabinet.

And on the sofa table.

\

Little Santa-fairies adorning the windows.

And snowmen, too.

Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin, And A Giveaway!!

It's been a while since I've posted.......I'm not going to make any excuses.  You've heard them all, anyway!

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  

On Saturday we took a drive to the tree farm.  It took all of three minutes for us to find the perfect tree.

Well, my kids found the perfect tree.  All I did was agree with their choice.

It's been a decorating frenzy since then.

The real tree is in the living room, and there are fake trees in the family room and dining room.

In my sewing room, a.k.a. The Land Of A Thousand Unfinished Projects, I had started making a fabric bunting from a charm pack of Mary Engelbreit prints from her "Isn't Christmas Jolly" line.

I finished it today so that I could decorate the final tree.........my dining room tree, which sort of has a kitchen theme.

Which brings us to the giveaway!

 Aren't these glass peppermint ornaments cute?

How about the gingerchef and snowchef?

I bought these at the Williams-Sonoma Outlet last year, during the after-Christmas sale when all the holiday merchandise was ridiculously reduced.  I stocked up, with my dining room tree in mind, forgetting that it's only a five-foot-tall sort of pygmy tree.

I have three extra sets of these ornaments to give away.  You will receive five ornaments--the three peppermint ornaments, the snowchef and the gingerchef.

All you have to do to enter is 1. become a follower of  my blog.  (If you already follow the blog you are automatically entered.)  Or, 2. you could enter the giveaway by leaving a comment.......about anything from what type of ornaments are your favorites to whether or not you think the Red Sox will actually have a manager under contract before next season starts.  And 3. if  you are a follower and leave a comment, you will be entered twice, which means that you could possibly win two sets of ornaments.

Winners will be drawn by noon on Friday.

{This giveaway is sponsored by me.  I am in no way affiliated with Williams Sonoma, and I can say with certainty and conviction that they have no idea that I even exist.}  

Today's recipe was something I sort of stumbled upon in desperation.  Pork Tenderloins were on sale, I bought two, and then I didn't know what to do with them.  I couldn't just sit and stare at them!  I had to cook them!  What to do?!  Google to the rescue!

I scrolled through the recipes that popped up and settled on this one.  Which I just had to tweak, of course.  I read through a few of the comments that were left and made some adjustments.   

Recurring themes throughout all the comments--"Tasty!" "Flavorful!" "Tender!" "Easy!"-- I agree!  Mr. Terrific, Sean and Erin all agree--this recipe is a keeper.

Artichoke Dip

Today's recipe, Artichoke Dip, is easy to make and totally yummy. 

The playlist is really short.  It only takes about 5 minutes total from the time you gather your ingredients until you're putting the dip in the oven!

Giveaway Winners!!

After assigning numbers to the entrants for the cutting board giveaway, I went onto random.org and used their random number generator to pick the winners.  Congratulations to Maureen and Anne!  Your cutting boards will be delivered today.

Unfortunately, I do not have a cooking post at this time--between taking care of my recuperating family member, gardening (will it ever get done?), and buying a new car--I've been sticking to tried and true recipes for the last few days.  Like the barbecued sirloin tips and pasta salad that I blogged about previously and the chicken, broccoli and pasta that started this whole blog. 

I'll be experimenting in the kitchen today, and if I'm happy with the outcome, I'll post the recipe tomorrow!

 I do feel the need, however, to post something more substantial than a short announcement of giveaway winners and my feeble excuse for not spending much time exploring new recipes.

So I decided to post about one of my other favorite things in life.  First and foremost, that would be my family, but they would never go for me talking about them.  Dang.  It would be so much fun for me to post my son's prom pictures from last week.  But he has forbidden me to publicly display them.

So I'm going to post about Gus.  He doesn't care if I post his picture! 

In the above photo, you can just see the corner of his dog frisbee.  It's his favorite new toy.

I've been the lucky owner of two gorgeous golden retrievers.....

Rosie was the first.......

..........and then Gracie.

Rosie never left our sides, never wanted to be alone, ever.

She can be found lurking,

more or less,

in pretty much.......

every picture we took....

from 1990 'til 2002.

And then there was Gracie.......

who never found a hat she couldn't rock.

What Rosie and Gracie had in common was their fetching ability.  Or more precisely, lack thereof.

They were great at retrieving.  They would bring anything to me.......one time. 

If they found a ball they'd bring it to me.  Okay, you wanna play?  I'd throw the ball..........and they'd look at me;  if they could have talked, I'm sure they would have said something like this, "Why did you fling that over there?  I just brought it to you!"  Sometimes, they would go get the ball a second time, but they wouldn't bring it to me, they would bring it to a spot where they would lie down next to it as if to say, "I need to keep it far from you so you don't pick it up and heave it again."

And I would very rarely throw a ball at them, expecting them to catch it.  The chance that the ball would hit them in the head was far more likely than the chance that it would be caught.

And then there's Gus.

He's the best throw-it-again-so-I-can-fetch-it, toss-it-high-so-I-can-catch-it dog I've ever owned.

He's so uber-focused on the ball--he never takes his eyes off it, he leaps to catch it, he trembles if I make him wait before I throw it.

Because of his leaping ability, I thought it would be fun to teach him to catch a frisbee.

I was sorta wrong.

I bought the frisbee last month.  The first time I showed it to him, he backed out of the room.  I'd leave it on the floor and he would avoid it.   Anytime the kids and I needed a break from him, we picked up the frisbee and Gus would promptly disappear.

Until this weekend.

On Saturday, my daughter brought the frisbee outside and put it on the ground.  Gus eventually picked it up and started running around with it in his mouth.  Eventually, it got to the point where we could throw it and he would bring it back to us.

Then we finally figured out how to throw it so that it would hover properly to give him time to jump up and catch it.

And this is what happened!

And this!