Sushi

My not so new years resolution is to be a better blogger. I haven't kept up with this and I feel bad!

So, my dinner tonight: homemade sushi! I made crabmeat and cucumber, and also salmon with avocado and cucumber. The little kiwi has soy sauce, and there's a little wad of wasabi. I bought the powdered stuff that you mix up, and boy! Is that stuff strong!

Happy Halloween

Sorry I haven't really been around much (or at all, lately).

We did dress up and hand out candy, though!

Vanilla

Sorry friends, I meant to post this a week ago after spending the night with my aunt Julie! She sent me home with some homemade vanilla and som farm fresh eggs -- oh the possibilities!

Daisies

I wonder what could be inside this sweet little bag?

Daisy slippers! They're too big, but they're so cute I don't even care. Thanks Auntie!

And yes, that is a daisy tattoo on my foot!

"The Moose"

Due to some unfortunate family circumstances, my husband and I are the proud owners of "the Moose." I've loved this dresser since the first time I ever went to his parents house, and was more than thrilled to give away my grungy old black dresser. We had had plans to get this for a few weeks, but they kept getting pushed back. DH had been keeping all of his skivvies on a bookshelf in the bedroom. He was happy to get this, too!

The funny story behind "the moose" is that he got this when he first moved to the northeast. He thought that moose handles would help him be more "Maine."

I love them!

These little guys keep the "mooses" company!

Happy Easter

Although my parents are away in Florida (for who knows how long), I was able to spend Easter with most of my family! My husband and I drove out to Gorham to have a wonderful brunch at my Aunt Julie's (of Dog Trot Farm) house. Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, berries, syrup, popovers, pastrys, buns, YUM. It was pretty amazing, too bad I didn't take pictures of the food!

I did get to visit with 'the girls' though. They're so big!

Isn't that the cutest hen house ever?

Imogen

doesn't have a lot to say today,

but the brief bit of sunshine was pretty nice!

Meow.

Ow, ow! Chili

I found a recipe for crock-pot chili, but didn't like half of what went into it so I made up my own version. Simple, easy, and smells amazing while it cooks.

• 2.5 lbs. stew meat
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 15 oz. cans pinto beans
• 28 oz. diced tomatoes
• 1.5 T. chili powder (I used 3T)
• sour cream

Combine all in crockpot.

LOW for 7 hours.

Breakfast Bake

It doesn't look like anything special.

8oz. refrigerated crescent roll tube

16oz. smoked sausage

1 green pepper

Monterey Jack cheese

Cream of Onion soup

4 eggs

Press down crescent rolls. Seal any seams and press it up the sides of the pan.

Cut smoked sausage and green pepper. Layer on top of crescent dough.

Sprinkle 1/4 cheese on top of meat/vegs.

Mix cream of onion (I didn't have this so I've used cream of mushroom and cream of celery - both yummy!) and 4 eggs. Pour over everything else. Top with cheese (recipe calls for 1.5C. but we love cheese so I used it all!)

35 minutes @350 degrees...

Oh, yum! I'm sure this would be great with onions and other veggies, too.

French Onion Soup

I don't know why, but I've always wanted to make my own french onion soup. I think maybe because it sounds so easy. Onions, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, water, bread, and Swiss cheese. Sounds easy, right?

Not exactly.

I had a really hard time getting the onions thin enough, as it's difficult to slice when there are tears streaming down your face and your concentration is focused on not slicing off a finger.

It didn't come out the way I hoped. It tasted nothing like what you can get in a restaurant. The cheese was good, but mostly it just tasted like onions and beef broth.

a family favorite

Hmm... I wonder what this could mean?

Butter Brickle! A family favorite.

.. to help me get a handle on things

The most annoying thing about my kitchen is that the cupboards don't have any knobs. Prying them open with my fingernails is quite a chore.

Well..

I'm happy to say that DH finally put knobs on for me!

They're not fancy or pretty, but they make life in the kitchen so much easier!

Sweet Confections

Sweet Confections?

I wonder what could be in there?

Oh..!

Two-bite blueberry muffins!



YUM!

Moose

Even our "little" Moose enjoyed the sunshine this weekend.

We think he's pretty handsome!

Barefoot Contessa

So, basically when I can't sleep - I bake. This is my latest early morning scramble.

Hmm.. what could it be?
Oh look. It's a chocolate ganache!

.. and it looks nothing like Ina's..

Infact, it looks horrible.

But it passed the "good job, honey," test.

Mmm, cinnamon

I've been up since 5:00am so I decided to bake! I made some yummy cinnamon swirl-coffee cake.

I had a little trouble getting it out of the pan and all of my crumbles crumbled and fell off (whoops!). Then I put a glaze on it.. dropped a paper towel and smudged it everywhere.. then thought I could salvage it by smearing it with a fork.. It did not work.

Well, I assure you this: It tastes way better than it looks!

Maryse

This was supposed to be a gathered scarf, but I didn't like the way it was coming out with the vareigated yarn. I made a hand towel for the bathroom instead!

I wish I had a pretty soap for it, but I guess Caress will have to do!

You will see this pattern again, as I do want to make the scarf with it!

'tis but a dusting

It was predicted yesterday that we could possibly get up to ten inches of snow. Figuring the snowfall would be the perfect way for me to plan and plot a blog entry I started snapping pictures out of the spare bedroom window every hour.

3:30pm

4:30pm

I'm sure you can imagine my astonishment, when not even ten minutes after I took this last photo, the snow abruptly stopped falling. So much for my snow documentation!

Well, I shouldn't say that. This is Maine, afterall. There will be more snow.

My apologies..

...for falling off the face of the earth. However, I have returned and am more focused on getting back into the swing of things here. Since Valentine's Day was over a long weekend this year, we decided to go away and do something fun. We chose Salem & Boston as our not too close, but not too far away destination. In Salem we saw these great ice sculptures!