A little of this and that...

The "Potted Salmon" recipe from the Crabtree & Evelyn cookbook was pretty good....we ate them on the Trader Joe's Pita Bite Crackers.
Have you ever made homemade bagels?  This is what they looked like before dipping them in boiling water and baking them:

Yesterday was Myrrhbearer Sunday.  It was my nameday and my sisters celebrate then, too...Martha, Mary & Susanna.  We had a new family come to our church, and the little girl, Salome, is just 6 years old.  She is here with her parents from Ukraine, for cancer treatment.  She has a rare form of cancer of the nerves and has been battling it for 2 years already.  May God help her!

After the previous post...we've been singing "Parsley, sage, rosemary and....mint."  We do not have any thyme growing in our yard.  I hope to have some dill soon.  We do have cilantro, too.  The chickens love to eat it.  ♥

Mint, rosemary and sage...

We plucked the leaves off some of our mint yesterday to make mint butter.  If you can read the recipe in lower left hand corner you can make your own.  It's in our freezer right now, wrapped up like a nice little log, ready for us to slice.  I'm thoroughly enjoying the Crabtree & Evelyn cookbook I borrowed from the library earlier this week...and I just rubbed their La Source hand therapy onto my hands, which were quite dry.

Our chickens are doing okay...Nutmeg faithfully lays a brown egg everyday, Clementine lays a greenish-blue one about once a week now.  She has had some illness on and off for a while, little bubbles form in her left eye and mat down the poufy feathers.  That's the problem with being beautiful.  She is more friendly, though and seems very happy!  

Can you see the purple flowers on our sage?  And below, you'll see my rosemary, which I brought inside for the winter....it looked like it wasn't going to make it, but there is new growth!!!

Oh, doesn't this menu look lovely?  And these vegan pizzas?  This weekend, I plan to make Potted Salmon (like a pate, to spread on bread) on page 149 from this cookbook.  ♥ I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Rhubarb season

 

 I have been working on this hat...a light summery hat with lots of holes.   I picked a bit of our purple flowering sage out of our backyard and sprigs of mint.

Yes, our rhubarb seems to be ready, I chopped it up and cooked it in a shallow pan with a little water and sugar.  I got this Crabtree & Evelyn cookbook from the library and am looking forward to making "Raspberry Zabaglione" and maybe making it into a Rhubarb Zabaglione, and trying other recipes...

To be perfectly honest, I was so excited when my husband got this book The Heirloom Life Gardener by Jere and Emilee Gettle as a birthday gift from his mom, but upon further examination I wish they'd omitted the politics.  In the tomato section they comment "Even Michelle Obama grows them."  And ridicule Ronald Reagan.  I do like the useful gardening information, as does my husband, but wish they'd just left that other stuff out....

P.S. We have lettuce coming up!  Our backyard looks like rows of dirt, but pretty soon I'm sure it will be all green!!!

39th birthday

 

It's my husband's birthday today...next year he will be 40!  We went to visit with his parents yesterday...his mom made a pork roast, rolls, green beans, etc.  I made him a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  

Rob brought his mandolin and played it...  His dad and he chopped off a branch from the tree that was hanging over the front door.  

Then, we looked a lots of photo albums...great old pictures!

That's Robert (Rob's grandfather who passed away 5 years ago, I posted pictures a few weeks ago of our visit to the cemetary here he is buried) on his 1965 Harley Sportster.

  

 Below are a few photos of Bob (Rob's dad) when he was a little boy...

I wish I had copies to show you Rob when he was very little, with his dog, Moochie, when he was about 10 years old.  Lots of pictures of him on the school track team...8th grade, he was the fastest kid, and then he hurt his knee and had to have surgery (still has a 10 inch scar on his knee).  Rob in his boy scout uniform.  Picture of him with his brothers and sisters, and his grandparents...  My favorite one was his kindergarten picture, wearing a cream colored corduroy little suit and the big thick round tortoise shell glasses!  He started wearing glasses at 2 years old, because he was born 3 weeks early and his lungs weren't developed, the doctors gave him oxygen in an incubator, but TOO much and it damaged his eyes.  Thankfully, his lungs did develop correctly, though and he is overall a healthy guy now and we're celebrating his 39th birthday!  ♥

New fabric to cover my old purse...

I got this thirty one purse two years ago. One can order new "purse skirts" to put over the base purse to update it, but I decided to sew my own. I used a 1/4 yard of this pretty NEW fabric and sewed up the sides and then sewed it by hand onto the purse...Perfect weather for backyard tea party picnic with dolls...

Christ is Risen!

During the midnight service, the girls stayed in the little where confessions are heard...we all took a nap for a few hours before going to church, so were awake during the whole service! Here are a few of the languages I think are most beautiful...

• English - Christ is risen! Truly, He is Risen!
• Greek - Χριστός Ανέστη! Αληθώς Ανέστη! (Christos Anesti! Aleithos Anesti!)
• Russian - Христос Воскресе! Воистину Воскресе! (Khristos Voskrese! Voistinu Voskrese!)
• Georgian - ქრისტე აღსდგა! ჭეშმარიტად აღსდგა! (Kriste aghsdga! Cheshmaritad aghsdga!)
• Japanese - ハリストス復活！実に復活！ (Harisutosu fukkatsu! Jitsu ni fukkatsu!)

The photo above I took this morning at the Bright Monday service, when we had a procession around the church! I love this one with the children holding the icons of their patron saints. May you have a radiant Paschal season! ♥

Holy Week

Today, we heard the Gospel about how the people placed a crown of thorns on the head of Jesus and crucified Him. I'm trying to answer the girls questions of WHY did they do this to Him? And in reply I asked them if someone said that they were God, today, would you believe that person?
Yesterday, we decorate the kulich we baked. I squeezed lemon juice from some lemons and added confectioner sugar. Then atop, placed almonds and raisins. In the background of that picture you can see Olivia taking out an egg that we hard boiled in a pot with yellow onion skins. Aren't they pretty?
This is Mariah, the cat my sister and I brought home when we were high schoolers about 18 years ago. She was a kitten then. She's getting old, but she is doing okay...she loves to bask in the sun. Neither my sister nor I live there anymore, but my parents take good care of her.

I am thankful for so many wonderful things in our lives, for Christ our God, for my family and friends, plants that nourish us and give us shade as well as animals who help us to learn how to love. God is generous. ♥

Reusable fabric snack bags...

I used this wonderful tutorial to sew these, but also added a layer of quilt batting to make them a little more plush. Reusable sandwich or snack bags! There are so many pretty fabrics available, patterns and colours...I got these ones at SEWN, a beautiful little shop on Madison Rd in Cincinnati.

You can use these bags to hold a sandwich, or a snack! Better than plastic bags! So, sew some yourself, by hand or using your sewing machine, it'll be a quick project and will last a long time. Or if you don't feel like it, check out my etsy shop!

a visit with grandma

this is Rob's grandma...our girls great-grandma, we spent Sunday afternoon with her and took her to the cemetery where 5 years ago grandpa was buried ♥ as the girls picked flowers and started decorating grandpa's grave, she said that she and grandpa loved dandelions!
the cycle of life is like a flowering tree...it is beautiful and it often doesn't seem to last long enough