Impromptu Dessert Night

For Christmas, I bought a friend a new cookbook and an oven mitt from Anthropologie. As I thumbed through the cookbook the day I bought it, I thought I might like one for myself but I decided against buying one. At that time, my dollars needed to be spent on Christmas gifts for others.

Well, the other day I was at Barnes and Noble and I looked for the cookbook and found it. I had a members card so I saved a bit on it.

Mmm, "cinnamon, spice, & warm apple pie- comforting baked fruit desserts for chilly days", the very title makes me salivate. I couldn't wait to get started on my first dessert. I went to Whole Foods on my way home from Barnes & Noble. I sat in my car in the Whole Foods parking lot and looked through the recipes. I decided to start with the first recipe, apple and blackberry crumble. I just love blackberries!



Although I consider myself better at baking than cooking, I am certainly no expert. In fact my repertoire is pretty much limited to apple crisp, lemon squares, and brownies.

The recipe called for porridge oats and I couldn't find them at Whole Foods so I used what I had on hand, the regular rolled Quaker Oats. Later, one of my friends told me I should have used steel cut oats. Ok, good to know for next time.



I was hoping my apple and blackberry crumble would turn out just as nice as the one pictured in the book.



Here is MY apple and blackberry crumble. The recipe called for a variety of mixed apples so I used braeburn, granny smith, and one lady pink gala apple.

I thought it turned out well so I invited a few people over for an impromptu dessert. We sat in the living room and enjoyed our dessert and the fireplace. It was a chilly night so a warm apple dessert and a cup of tea was just the ticket!



Vanilla ice cream is the perfect topping for this dessert although whipped cream would also be nice!

I've decided to make every recipe in the book and blog about it a la Julie and Julia! Maybe they'll make a movie about me too!

A celebration

We had a little party for my friend Mary this evening. Actually, Mary likes to celebrate her birthday by making dinner for her friends. So we enjoyed salad, roast beef, roasted potatoes, corn, and rolls courtesy of Mary. We brought dessert. I found this cute candelabra candle yesterday. We put it in Mary's creme brulee.

My sister showed us this video in honor of Mary's birthday. We found it hilarious and I hope you enjoy it too!

Snippets of my home

I think it's been a while since I showed you some snippets of the condo.

The first photo shows where I blog. Yup, that's it right there. No office or elaborate desk, just 3 yard sale nesting tables and a laptop on the top of the largest table. I blog mostly in the living room in front of the television. When it's cold I use that little purple faux fur throw to keep me warm (it's at the left of the photo). I am very good at multi tasking. I often blog with the TV on.



I moved the bookcase to this corner of the livingroom after I got my new fireplace. I love the faux chandelier from Pier One and the candles and candlesticks are also from Pier One.



This is the second tea rack in my home. This one is from Home Goods and it hangs just outside of the kitchen. The teas I use the most are displayed on this rack.



And here is my ultimate favorite tea, Harrod's No. 42 or Earl Grey. I have to rely on friends who visit London to supply my addiction. Harrod's Tea is nearly impossible to buy in the States!



This etagere is in my dining room. I got it at a store closing. I like the scallop trim on the shelves. The candle is from Anthropologie.




I bought these two watercolors off Etsy at a two for the price of one sale. I had them matted and framed at a local frame shop. They're from Annechovie. Her etsy shop is here


I love the mat on this. It is a gray suede. The watercolor is an inspiration for the dining room I would like to have some day. I have been toying with painting my dining room purple. The walls are sort of a sage green now and I do love them. But it sure would be fun to have a purple dining room with white furniture. Oh the drama!




Here's the other watercolor. Doesn't that look like a fun room?



I have a large wall space over my sofa. I need to figure out what wall accents I want to choose for this area. I am thinking of a nice big clock, but, for now I've hung this vintage frame, one of a set of three from Barn House Marketplace. The ornament is from a gift store in Beverly called Sweetwater.

I hope you enjoyed the house tour. In a future post, I'll show the full rooms.

Lazy Sunday morning

Good grief, it snowed again! This caught me off guard because I think it was forecast as a dusting. It was more than a dusting.



But it sure was pretty as it always is. I slept in a little later than usual.



The view was so nice from my kitchen window.



Molly wanted to sit in the new scratching post box and if you look at the side of it she took a few bites out of it too. And then she spit out the pieces on the floor, ew! Bad kitty!



Percy loves watching the snow fall and then it turned to rain. He enjoyed watching the raindrops slide down the window and he tried to catch them.



Oscar joined Percy in the snowfall watching.



And then he edged Percy off the table.



Don't let that angelic look fool you.



Percy is a little instigator.



And he can be quite destructive too. So far, he has ripped two of the three fabric shades in the living room, made scratch marks on the new fireplace, broke a teacup and two mercury glass candleholders, and pulled 6 nailheads out of my dining room chairs. He pulled the nails out with his teeth and then dropped them to the floor so he could play with them. I, of course, freaked out, thinking he could swallow a nail and do serious damage. He is a danger to himself and others. I had to take the chairs out of the dining room and put them in the basement office so he could not get at them.

Just a day in the life of three kitties!

Should we meet?

When I was a young girl, I had a penpal from France. Jean-Paul lived in Ussel. He would only write in French so it always took me a long time to translate his letters. But what a thrill to get something from a foreign land. The stamps were so colorful and his handwriting was so, well French! I really loved learning all about his life and family.

After writing to Jean-Paul for a few years, I acquired more penpals. Miriam and Ann from Ireland, Andrezj from Poland, Rick and Karen from Australia and Clive from England.

I always dreamed of visiting them in their countries. I actually did meet Andrezj in Poland in 1986 and Ann in Ireland in 1996. Those vacations were highlights of my life. From a young age, I learned so much about the rest of the world.

You may wonder why I am telling you about this. Well, I have been thinking of doing a meetup with some of my blogging friends. In a way, you are all modern day penpals to me. I write something and you comment. You write a post and I comment. All the while, I am wondering what you look like and how fun it would be to actually meet and have a real in-person conversation.

It makes me think of the movie, "You've Got Mail". NY52 asks Shopgirl if they should meet. And well, you all know the story. And if you don't I posted a clip of the movie for you.

So I'd like to know if anyone out there is interested in a blogger meetup. I have never met any of you in person but I feel like I know you from reading your blogs. We could do lunch or go somewhere to take photos, I'm up for anything really. Of course, you would have to live reasonably close to the Greater Boston area although I am willing to travel north, south, or west.

Those of you who can't make it or choose not to, I would love to know if you ever met up with fellow bloggers. What did you do and how did it go?

If you are interested you can either leave a comment or email me. I do hope some of you will consider it. I am thinking March or April might be a good time.

I know I'll be watching my mailbox

According to CBS News, 1800 invitations to the Royal Wedding have been mailed to the lucky recipients. Depending on who you are, you may receive one, two, or three invitations.

The first invitation is to the church ceremony at Westminster Abbey, the second to the Queen's reception and the third invite is to Prince Charles's evening reception. Only 300 invitations were sent for the third party.

So I am renewing my passport and anxiously watching my mailbox! How about you? How will you prepare for the Royal Wedding?

Memories of past romances

Thanks to all of you who left such great comments on my last post. It's always nice to have your support. Wish I had known you all earlier in my life!

Tonight's post is about memories of past romances.

The first one is about a boyfriend I had in my teens. For our first date, he asked me if I wanted to go to the Red Sox home opener. Wow, I was very impressed! I asked him where our seats were located, thinking we would probably be in the bleachers. He said, "Oh, I don't have tickets! I thought we would climb the billboard and watch it from there. You can really see everything from up there". I politely declined but we did go out after that.

You might remember the subway guy from my Sweet Romance post from last February. We both worked at the movie theater. He was an usher and I was a candy girl. So on the first night we went out, he showed up at my house with masking tape down the sides of his jeans. He said he thought I might not recognize him without his usher's uniform. I cracked up, a great start to the evening. I love a man who makes me laugh!

Then there was the guy who only took me out to lunch. You guessed it! He was engaged, the snake!

Anything my readers would like to share? I'm listening!