Lunch for 12 and other insane tasks…. October 3, 2011

Even tho Harry is 84, he still walks several miles a day.....

I think I mentioned I was expecting houseguests in this past weekend who will be with us through Friday…The Shelleys took us under their wing when we moved to Balaltimore long ago, and while they moved back to their native England some years back….they still come to visit “across the pond” as they say. They were  like a wonderful aunt and uncle…my kids adored them.

Tick tock, tick tock guys....

I was worried a bathroom being redone wouldn’t be ready in time….and while it was functional(you could use the toilet, shower and sink…there  was still plenty of work to do..shelves not installed, no place to hang towels)..etc…it was “kinda” finished. I was NOT happy about it, but there it is. The best laid plans….

Setting the scene for a party!! Love the different chairs(tho was from necessity!

But we had a great lunch party Sunday afternoon, for 12 people. I just love long Sunday afternoon lunches, where people can talk and hang out at the table, for several hours. We had shrimp and grits…one of my fav dishes for lunch(or dinner or breakfast for that matter)….

Oh, and a little Tobasco or Crystal sauce, touch of Worchestershire

It starts with a base of red and green peppers, some tomatoes, butter, and kielbasa…shrimp added at the last.

Twelve plates, check.

Wine(of course), check.

Flowers(unlike Madonna, I love hydrangeas), check.

Table set, check(ordered these killer pine cones on Ebay!)

marinated olives and pistachios for nibbles, check.

But let me be honest, I often order desserts to take some of the stress off of having a dinner party.

Coconut cake with lime curd filling...yummo...

I love to cook, but baking anything more serious than brownies or the NY Times plum torte, is too much for this girl. A former neighbor started a company called Butter Catering(everything is better with butter, right?)….and she made for me the most luscious coconut cake with lime curd inside…and a a very dense chocolate flourless torte. They were just AMAZING. Thanks Mary Gill! You’re a lifesaver!

This is serious chocolate....

Flowers, Cake and Oil….. June 1, 2010

Buttercream fabulosity......

It was a lovely weekend, with a most important occasion being celebrated…my sweet daughter’s birthday. She now moans about “getting older”(puh-leeze) and wishes to be 17 again..though I don’t think she means it. Seventeen? No thanks. But my son and the lovely Jennifer came in Friday night, and while we had intended to celebrate at the Dogwood Restaurant  in Hampden, they were stuck in traffic coming down from NYC, so at the last minute we rushed together a birthday dinner at home….barbecued ribs, lobster tails, and thank goodness I had snapped up a couple of family size salads at Whole Foods that day..potato salad  and tomato/corn…both accidentally perfect with the meat and seafood. And Jennifer had bought the birthday cake(Schnooks is her pet name for Cada) from One Girl Cookies Bakery in Brooklyn, that she claims has the best cake she’s ever had….that from an admitted cake snob. Yummy buttercream, with a raspberry middle layer….fabulous. Just amazing…and they even make Whoopie Pies!

It's hydrangea time!!

Let’s see….the hydrangeas I painstakingly lugged back from a farm in Rhode Island two years ago in the back seat of my car are in bloom…and while I still suffer from a lesser degree of Hydrangea envy…(you know those yards with humongous bushes covered with endless blooms, that must be decades old)….mine look really lovely, and I adore them.

Cherries and brownies...you can see how many pits I left...

We sat around eating homemade brownies and fresh cherries at a neighbor’s house one night…enjoying the loveliness of the evening, and the deliciousness of the brownies, while mourning what’s going on(and what’s not going on) along the Gulf Coast. I haven’t written about it, because I can hardly stand to contemplate it. I spent all my girlhood summer vacations on those Gulf beaches with their blindingly white sugar sand, beaches so wide they were really never very crowded, even at peak holiday time. The thought of those white sands and the clear blue-green waters being fouled,  home to so many sea and air creatures, perhaps for years and years, with smelly oil from giant rigs that plunder what’s underneath the seabed, I can’t stand it. And what I must also admit , is that we all share in the blame…all of us…because we demand the oil , oh, and we want it cheap too. Let’s take a collective look in the mirror.

Parting is such sweet sorrow....in this case, just sweet.

On a happier note, one thing that didn’t end up in a landfill was my sofa….if you remember on Friday, I was desolate because no one would take it. I called the nice man(Daryl) who did my mulching this year to see if I could pay him to haul it to a rescue mission downtown who said they were interested. But when Darryl got there, he announced that he would keep it himself! Love it…and all’s well that ends well. I wish we could hope for that down South. As a trip to Biloxi looms this month for the wedding of my nephew, I will be anxious to see what’s going on in the area. I’m hoping for the best….but fearing the worst.

Garden Glory…. May 12, 2009

The pink flower in foreground are coral bells from Brenda,,,

Wow, I can’t believe how everything looks sooooo good right now in the garden. The grass is emerald green, a climbing hydrangea is (finally ) loaded with blooms…I waited years for this. Some iris(or flags as a British friend always called them-shoutout to Brenda in Christchurch) are loaded and ready to pop.

Peony buds..and there are lots more!

And yes…the peonies..the glorious, glorious peonies I planted two years ago, a Home Depot special for $11.99, are all back and waiting for June. Sigh, happiness all around.

It really is too bad it’s all downhill from here. I know, just enjoy it’s beauty…but beauty is fleeting..there’s no botox for hydrangeas. And if you look a little closer at the brilliant green grass(the least environmentally green thing you can grow,byw), there is a bumper crop of clover mixed in, but I refuse to use poison on it…not with my kitties and other people’s kitties padding gently over it. So, it can stay. And hey, a little imperfection, just makes the rest of the perfection that much better, r at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

And someone had asked, Susan I think, if my hydrangeas had survived. Yes. I am happy to report they all are back, with lots and lots of blossoms..will they be their original blue, as when I bought them in Rhode Island and packed the back seat of the car with hydrangea plants to haul them home to Maryland? Or will they be tinged with pink? Don’t know, don’t care. They live!!

So, the garden is for the moment, good… all good. It’s breezy, like me. And thank you for all the kind thoughts about my Mom…she is out of the hospital, a little weaker each time she goes in for another bout of pneumonia, but hanging in there…she’s “sticking around“, as she calls it. She too wants to see another spring, another summer. And she wants to witness, though not in person, her grandaughter, my wonderful daughter graduate from college this Friday(yes, another big event in May!), and to see pictures of her grandson…my son..getting married in New York the following weekend. So there’s a lot to live for. For all of us.  Including a lovely garden, even if will look very different this August.  Gather ye rosebuds while ye may…Old Time is still a-flying, and this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying. Robert Herrick wrote that poem over 300 years ago, but the sentiment is timeless. Beauty is fleeting, life is fleeting, gardens are fleeting. And the last stanza of the poem could be for my son…who took the great poet’s advice…..Then not be coy but use your time, and while ye may, go marry. For having once lost your prime, you may forever tarry.

A Girl’s Weekend…So What are Men Doing Here?? June 23, 2008

I told you I was headed to the Eastern Shore this weekend for a girl’s getaway….two of us went over on Thursday, and those of us who had to work(including me) made the trip Friday night. The first thing we heard when we arrived at the house was the voice of a man…a husband, to be specific. Looks were exchanged…that said, “What’s he doing here?”  And we found out moments later that there were actually two husbands there. Two of them! And we like these guys, it Must be said…good guys both of them…fun to be around, but….certain conversations are seriously curtailed when husband-types are there. You know, just skews the talk.

We had a glass of wine and  got over it.

The weather was gorgeous, as you know…did a little shopping in St. Michaels…and went to what is I think my favorite store there, called London’s. Just a lovely little store, with all kinds of things you might never see anywhere else. I bought two fabulous smelling candles, one for me and one for my hostess…and some matches. Wow, big spender, matches, you’re saying…but wait, these are matches that are 1. a little longer than normal..and 2. contained in beautiful boxes…birds, fruit, sea creatures…you’d have to see them to appreciate them.

We ate dinner that Saturday night at Bella Luna….it’s just up the street from the Bellvue Ferry…in Royal Oak. Such a gem of a place. No men allowed….homemade mozzarella caprese, mussels in a spiced, garlic wine sauce,  sauteed soft crabs over roasted corn salad….oh, it was delightful….. great evening.

And the hydrangeas are in full bloom now…if you’re a hydrangea freak like me, you notice these things. One of the “girls” this weekend said, “You know it’s funny, I love hydrangeas now, but when I was growing up I thought of them as an old lady flower for some reason.” Please. You’re thinking of chrysanthemums. Or baby’s breath. Anyway, I brought back a bunch of hydrangeas as a reminder of  our girls/guys weekend…I love them. And they’re not an old lady flower!