its been a while....

It is a beautiful quiet Easter morning - for the moment. I am filled with a sense of being blessed. There were a few dark weeks since I last came around - anniversaries of events and the like, but once I again I shake it off and look around me in wonder, seeing all the wonderful things in my life.

Last weekend I started planting my first front flower bed - a nice mix of herbs and pink - knockout roses, dianthus, minicarnations, and a pretty white flower called diamond frost...I have pictures, but having realized after the fact that someone took the memory card out and I have no idea where the connecting cable is...will have to wait to post...or just do a before and after when they actually look like plants!

I always thought that by the time I was 40, I would be in the house I would live in forever and it would have mature roses all around. Many many moves and three divorces [yes, three, I'm sad to say] at 50, I finally have my own house...with mature roses! Thanks to a wonderful man who remembered that goal and when he found 3 ginormous rose bushes being dug up to make room for the never ending suburbian sprawl, had them transplanted into my back yard.

So....on to food...and there has been a lot of it! Last 2 times we went to Port Aransas, it was a mission to taste as many crab/shrimp boils as possible...and we have a favorite - The Boiling Pot in Rockport - they have this awesome remoulade that I haven't tried to duplicate yet! I hope someone will read my blog and send me the recipe! anyway....there's a pretty good one at Canyon Lake - now to be honest, I don't remember WHERE we were! but the name of the place is Plooky http://www.igougo.com/dining-reviews-b144761-Canyon_Lake-Plookys_Cajun_Boiling_Pot.html

well pooh, I forgot how to do the link....anyway...take cash, they don't take credit cards!

One of our favorite things on lazy weekends is to have finger food and last night I tried a couple of new things that really worked well. We already know I love HEB Plus...last time I was there I picked up a couple of small wedges of cheese - a mancego, stilton, and brie. While there, I saw a recipe for brie crescents - pillsbury crescent rolls, brie and a pear...how simple is that? Separate rolls into triangles, slice brie into 1 oz slices, slice a pear into 8 slices - put a slice of brie and a slice of pear on each roll, roll up and bake as directed on package. O M G [note - I did not use 1 oz slices on most of them - it just seemed too much, so probably about 3/4 oz was good and didn't ooze out onto the baking dish.

I also baked a pack of the HEB stuffed jalapenos and wanted something sweet and hot to dip them in - it turned out to be awesome on the brie as well - I would probably make it again and spread it on the roll before wrapping: 1/4 cup sugar free red raspberry preserves, 1/2 tsp chopped jarred jalapeno, 1/4 tsp horseradish, and a drizzle of honey - just mixed it all up and served it in a little cup on the 'hot' tray. So dinner turned out to be a tiny piece of port stilton, jalapenos, brie crescents, a couple ounces of manchego, crackers, grapes, and apple. Oh and a bloody mary shrimp cocktail that didn't really add anything, thankfully, I only made a very small batch for testing purposes, good, but not really the right thing to go with the cheese and fruit....some serrano ham or prosciutto would have been perfect.

That WAS my favorite meal of the week. Today we're grilling ribs and some chicken quarters, potato salad and deviled eggs are in the fridge, everything is seasoned and just waiting to get the fire started....It's going to be a long afternoon, smelling those ribs cooking! I'll probably put a couple of 'freezer meals' together - i'll post recipes if they turn out. I've always loved Mimi Wilson's cooking for a month cookbook - and while I rarely do a month at a time anymore, I do flip to a few favorites when a lazy day presents itself alongside an empty freezer.

Happy Easter all - have a beautiful day.