That's A Lot Of Birthdays

 All totaled we celebrated 195 birthdays in this house this month. For such a short month it sure is busy. Fun busy to be sure. Kind of makes us glad when March gets here and not because spring in getting closer either, we just need the rest. I know of a few birthdays in March thankfully none in my house.
   Yesterday was the last of the birthdays in this house. Last but you know not least. In my eyes the most important one. Bill's. We had his dinner party on Sunday which was a great deal of fun and one smart idea on my part. No set up or clean up just show up. I am a genius. Last night was just as easy I picked up raviolis and few other little treats at the store during the day and was ready to roll when Bill got home.

1 dozen Oysters not really hiding in the fridge

Not a single bite of chocolate in that bag, I just like reusing

 After he walked the dogs, loaded the wood pile, and finally sat down to relax I gave him his gifts. He smiled and even laughed a little at the cards. There wasn't much there really a 4 cup measuring cup because he was so bummed about the one that was chipped beyond using at my birthday dinner. An Oyster knife. That was all that was in the bag and I was sure the knife would give away the rest of his gift. Nope it didn't and normally by this time Bill has been in the fridge scrounging to see what there is to eat. I liked the surprised look on his face when I walked out carrying a extra large bowl of ice and 12 Oysters for him to shuck. I laughed just a little when after shucking and eating, well you don't exactly eat Oysters do you. You kind of slurp them really.

 Any way when he was done he looked at me and said next time get them shucked.
  The cake once again from Wegmans and so very very very good. Triple Chocolate Mousse cake. Not so rich to fill you up in one bite but 3 different layers of light fluffy chocolate.

  Dinner was as I said yesterday the sauce I made Monday but instead of spaghetti I opted for ravioli fresh made by yep you got it Wegmans. I love that store sometimes. I also served fresh made Italian crusty bread and a tossed salad. The sauce was even better last night. We all agreed it was top notch with a very nice flavor.

  "What Was Dinner"? Monday night we ate the chili. Very informal grab a bowl and serve yourself when your hungry. After cooking all those different recipes and cleaning up afterwards I didn't really want to serve and then clean up again. I like Chili on the first day the peppers and onion are still a little firm and chili itself is still a little thin, but I love Chili a day or 2 later when everything melds together all the flavors coming together to make a big fiesta in your mouth. Well there were no peppers in this recipe as well as onion. I added onion to be sure but I chose this recipe because it had no heat and was pretty straight forward  and easy to make, so I tried to follow the recipe as written therefor no peppers. I missed them. I also didn't add the tomato paste because Chili thickens up as it sits and I was making this with the intent it would sit. As the recipe says it has no heat and Mom ate it up loving all the beans and meat with no heat. Bill and I we heated ours up a bit and enjoyed away. I tasted it today as I was doing my photo shoot and like all good Chili's the flavors have blended together and it is delicious but I still miss the peppers, and seasonings I normally use in Chili.

    Not sure which picture I like better so I still haven't put a face to this recipe yet but rest assured I will.
mild mannered chili
  The recipe will get a good rating because it is exactly what the author said it would be a good mild mannered Chili.
  Have a lovely Thursday! Thank you for stopping by.

Good Wintry Wednesday Morning.

 Good Morning everyone I just love waking up to a gentle snow falling down. Nothing major just a pretty little dusting.
   Today is Bill's birthday and while we had the dinner party Sunday I still need to figure out exactly how to make this day even more special. He reads the blogs so what ever I do you will hear about later.
   Monday I spent my day in the kitchen cooking up a storm. By the time I was done I had enough meals  cooked for the next 3 dinners. Monday night chili with more then enough left over for a lunch and to freeze some. Tuesday night Stuffed cabbage and mashed potatoes, and tonight will be spaghetti sauce over pasta. I felt so old school in the kitchen on Monday my mind kept traveling back to when women actually did that,you know 1 day was for cooking,one for laundry, and another for cleaning the house, and in between all of that the gardens were tended, as well a hundred other things that we don't even think about anymore because a machine and the push a of a button does it for us. Any way it was fun and as you may have noticed all the recipes involve tomatoes. I haven't finished photographing them yet I will do that today I hope.
   Speaking of photos yesterday has to have been one of the most frustrating photography days ever for me. Pictures that I thought we good even better then good have been getting negative feed back like  Low lighting, underexposed, composition to tight. Technical issues that have me scratching my head and doing research. Then the research has me scratching my head, well the composition one anyway. I saved a few articles to read later but wow. I don't mind the feed back at all in fact I welcome it but trying to understand and fix my short comings with the camera is where the frustrations lay. I want on the spot improvement with something that will take time and practice apparently a lot of practice. Yesterday had me questioning myself if I even had an eye for photography. In the light of day I know I still gotta try. The histogram seems to be helping a little because the feed back went from the lighting to composition. Here are few random shots I did yesterday, I didn't worry about focus or composition I only concentrated on the lighting. I tried different settings taking the same picture over and over again with different setting and light setting on my LED light each time.

This with auto focus and no LED light

Manual with the light

   I wasn't picky about my subjects just as long as they weren't food and I could take a few in my favorite food spot. Good or not my favorite picture of the day  was not in my favorite food spot but in fact taken from my front door. Bill calls it the OK Corral I call it Snowman Massacre. With the melt of the snow my snow people couldn't stand up and the actual snowman left only his hate and scarf behind.

Snowman Massacre

   We all know how much I love my dishes so I am sure it will come as no surprise that they became my models yesterday as well.

 The next 2 are where a few questions are popping up for me. Look at the shadow in the first on it ruins the picture. In the 2nd photo I shortened the shadow but the lighting seems to bright. I am not worried about the focus as I say I was working on understanding me, my camera, and lighting. How do you remove shadows without over lighting?

  Bill has said I can take a class and believe you me I will be taking him up on that offer. A better understanding of what I am doing will go a long long way in helping me achieve my goal.
  " What Was Dinner "? Last night was the stuffed cabbage but I haven't taken its picture yet so I am going to show you what we are having for dinner tonight well part of it any way. I plan on dressing dinner up a whole lot. Tonight we are having spaghetti sauce over pasta. Rich popped in last night and when I showed him the fridge he was like you make such good sauce cause you make it from scratch. I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't my recipe, but one I wanted to give a face. It is homemade like mine but that is where the similarities end, there is way more meat then I would use in 1 sauce, but we like a meaty sauce so it won't be wasted that is for sure. The balsamic vinegar was a little scary so I cut the amount I used in half  and as it turns out the flavor is very good. There are a lot of peppers and mushrooms in the sauce that will make Bill very happy and add extra flavor to the sauce making it rich and hearty and perfect for a chilly winter night.
Bobbie's Spaghetti Sauce

 So here's hoping for a dinner as tasty as I think it will be.
   Happy Wednesday everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

Monday Morning

 A good time was had by all on Saturday night. If my pictures weren't so blurry you would be able to see for your self. Not a single picture turned out good. With the settings I needed to use in the restaurant the shutter was so slow I couldn't hold still and the people I was picturing wouldn't hold still long enough for the camera to do it's work. As soon as they saw my finger press down a head would turn an arm would move or I would get shaky.

 A tripod would have helped but I really didn't want to set up like that and some of my guest were already kvetching about my taking pictures, mostly my son.

 There was very little room to move so a tripod would have been in the way but that is what I needed.  
  Thanks to a group I am in on face book I found a handy dandy just what I needed tool on my camera and I think when it comes to lighting at least I may just start improving. I am not sure what to call it but I think of it as a light meter. One person the person that made me aware there was something like this on my camera called it a histogram. What ever you call it. I tried using it today and I was impressed with the results.

before

after

 There is a big difference in the photos I shot before I found my new best friend and after.
   Sunday was bright beautiful and oh so warm. A real teaser knowing that on Monday the polar vortex was coming back. We made the most of it. Bill and Tom worked with Bees, and stacked wood. Mostly they all just hung out together enjoying the day and continuing to celebrate Bill's birthday.

 I went shopping, played with my camera and made tomato soup for the first time ever. Mom worked on her blanket of every color and relaxed in her chair.

 When the guys asked if she wanted to go out she flat out said " NO I have been out enough this week" We all stifled a laugh and smiled instead. It is nice to know she is content and satisfied.
    " What Was Dinner "?  Last night we had steaks on the grill with sweet potatoes and a salad. No fuss no muss and very good. every thing was cooked on the grill except the salad and still my kitchen is a mess. Not sure how that happens but it happens all the time I clean the kitchen spotless walk out the kitchen door, and when I walk back in it isn't spotless anymore. I guess you would call that living.
  I made one tomato recipe yesterday and that was the soup you were looking at a few paragraphs up.
Tomato Soup
 This recipe is pretty versatile and can be made into a very good red sauce as well as a soup. Just omit the cream and don't blend it and it is a sauce. I gave it a 4 star rating because as a soup I liked it. As a sauce I liked it a lot more in fact I almost loved it.
   I hope you have a happy Monday. Thanks for stopping by.
   

Good Morning

  Sorry about missing yesterday, I wasn't goofing off really. I was indeed busy putting together a food challenge, taking Mom cloths shopping and trying not to get blown away by the heavy winds we had yesterday.
    Instead of going myself and getting Mom some cloths I thought she is doing so much better that I would take her and let her pick out her own cloths. She enjoyed herself whole heartily, she walked around the whole store. Dress barn is the perfect size store for her. She proudly told any body and everybody as she walked through the plus sizes " I use to have to shop in this section but not any more". For Mom it was a red letter day because for the first time in over 60 years Mom didn't have to visit the plus size section. I didn't really realize it when I took her shopping that it was such a big occasion, well let me tell you it was. The look of pride on her face when she came out of the dressing room just said it all and was worth every penny we spent.

 Once we got home Mom was a sleep in her chair with in minutes of sitting down. For her shopping is hard work and she was tired but the smile while she napped says she enjoyed it.
  The food challenge is an idea I came up with to amuse myself and a few foodie friends while we wait for the All Star program to start back up again. We have been on hiatus for a little bit now and our fingers are itching to do some assigned cooking. I know that may sound a little crazy but my food friends they understand. Anyway the challenge is to pick 1 ingredient and find as many faceless recipes with that ingredient in it as you can and make them, rate them, and photograph them, and lastly share the results with everyone. Me I picked tomatoes because of the abundance of them sitting on my counter threatening to go bad not to mention 2 yes 2 shelves in my pantry that are supporting cans of tomatoes. Not the little one either oh no we are Costco shoppers so you know the bigger the better. We have from yesterday at dinner until March 1 st at dinner to accomplish this mission. There are about 11 of us so far that have accepted this mission and the pinterest board already has some good looking pins. Avocado is on the list, ground beef, pork, and chickpeas are also some of the ingredients that have been chosen  for this challenge oh and I do believe rhubarb is going to make an appearance as well. I really think the end results are going to be interesting to say the least. Here is the link to the pinterest board if you would like to follow along.
pinterest

   Of the 2 recipes I made with tomatoes yesterday 1 is going to be "What was dinner"? and the other was hmmm that looks interesting lets just give it a try. It was interesting and I am glad I cut the recipe in half because as is no one is going to finish it. With some tweaking it is a good recipe and nice idea.

Unstuffed Tomatoes
  "What Was Dinner"? Dinner was delicious, plan and simple so easy to make with very good flavors that all blend together perfectly. I have never been to Italy but I could imagine getting this dish in any cafe or restaurant there. This recipe doesn't just go in my recipe box it goes in my rotation and we will be eating this one often. When summer comes with the fresh grown tomatoes and spinach I highly doubt I will make red sauce the entire season.

Pasta with Spinach and Chickpeas
 Good all year round I just know this is going to be the perfect summer pasta. 
   Tonight we are going out to Prospectors to celebrate with friends and family Bills up coming 52nd birthday and to continue Mom's 88 birthday. Bill calls it the dead of winter party. I call it party on the patio because that is where we will be out on the patio. It is closed in and heated and feels a little less like a big bar and restaurant just a little more private feeling. As much as private parties are nice I just could not bring myself to do all the work involved with a large dinner party. This way all I have to do is show up.
   I hope you weekend is sunny bright and warm. Thank you for stopping by.

88 Birthday's

   88 Birthdays is a lot of years celebrated in many different ways. So how do you celebrate the 88th? In Mom's case dinner out and chocolate.
   We took Mom to Charlie Browns
 a favorite restaurant of ours for celebrating birthdays. Last night had the added bonus of helping The Rancocas Nature Center
 Charlie Browns was nice enough to donate 20% of your food bill to the center, all you had to do was mention the center when you ordered and 20% went right to the nature center.            
   Finding the right gift for mom was a bit of a challenge, after all what do you get an octogenarian that has everything she needs? Normally crossword books, and yarn make her happy but I was trying for more then happy. At long last I figured it out and had everything wrapped and ready when we got to the restaurant. We sat down at the table and I sat the gift bag in the middle of the table. At times Mom is a bigger kid than any child I know and last night was one of those nights. She made a grab for the bag while I was still hanging the coats up and Bill says you better wait. Oh the pout on her face was so cute. We order our drinks and appetizers and give Mom her gift while we wait.

 The squeal heard around the restaurant as she opened the gift box with a pink necklace in it says I got the right gift.

I was trying to get a picture of her holding up the necklace and before I could click she had the new one on and the old one off. 

 When she found 10 pieces of chocolate in the bag you would have thought I gave her 10 pieces of gold.

she is checking out her chocolate

  I hope you enjoy the pictures I almost didn't take my camera knowing I don't do people well at all and I didn't want to pressure myself but, I wanted pictures so the camera came along. I  shared my favorite memories even if the picture isn't the best.

 I would rather have crisp clear focused memories but I will take blurry out of focus memories over none at all.
 " What Was Dinner"? Dinner was what ever she wanted to order. She got shrimp, chicken, & steak with broccoli. A very nice looking dish that Bill enjoyed for lunch today all except the shrimp and broccoli. No matter how full Mom was she couldn't stop sipping that virgin Strawberry Daiquiri, I think it may have been the favorite part of dinner for her, that or the famous raisin bread that Charlie Browns salad bar is known for. As you will see in this next set of pictures. I smile every time I look at them.

 Notice that bread never leaves her hand and with each bite she ummmmmmms and says how good it is, same with the Daiquiri. 
 Bill did Mussels and wings and I did steak and potatoes. All very good. The stars of the show  were our appetizers. A layered dip with Hummus as the bottom layer, a chunky salsa in the middle and guacamole on the top all sitting on a plate drizzled with a chipolte vinaigrette.

 The artichoke heart dish was so so good. Artichoke hearts deep fried and topped with a tomato mixture of I am not sure what.

 Every thing we ordered was delicious and when we were done eating we were so stuffed not even Mom could eat dessert. 
   I hope your Thursday is going well. Thanks for stopping by 

It's For The Birds!

 A rainy Wednesday morning here gave me the opportunity  to play with my camera once again  from the back door. The rain brought a verity of birds to the feeder hanging on the cloths line, and I did my best to take advantage of all the activity going on.
    I saw the birds and knew I had to try so I looked around and built my self a steady stand tall enough to set the camera on. A make shift tripod. A TV tray and a heavy duty card board box holding hand tools did the trick. I put the neck strap on and sat the camera on top and focused in on the feeder. Doing my best not to move the camera I stood stock and waited. I didn't have to wait long to be rewarded with more then a few birds stopping by for a nosh. Some birds are just so much easier then others to photograph, the Finch they socialize at the feeder so you have all the time in the world to get the shot you want,

 but other birds like Wood peckers and cardinals are less social they land on the feeder get a few bites and they are gone.

 Unfortunately I moved the camera when the Cardinal landed and it was my only chance because she didn't come back again while I was there. 

 The what I believe is a Titmouse (feel free to correct me if I am wrong ) flies down to the feeder grabs a beak full and is gone in a blink of the eye.

 The Chickadee is even faster and much more skittish I still have no pictures of them and they are at the feeders more often then not. 
  "What Was Dinner"? Last night we had baked fried chicken, Jasmine rice,  and red beans. A tasty quick and easy dinner that was satisfying as well as comforting. My new best friend in the kitchen is parchment paper nothing sticks to it and clean up is a breeze. I rarely dredge or bread my chicken but when I do I absolutely hate for it to be left on the pan in stead of on the chicken. With parchment paper I do not have that problem at all. Nothing I mean nothing sticks to it. I didn't take pictures last night so I am going to share a recipe or method I use when I fry my chicken.
Grandma's Fried Chicken
 For those of you wondering how I made last nights chicken, I dredge in flour seasoned with salt, pepper,& garlic powder, then dipped in some sour milk, re dredged in the flour and placed on a parchment paper lined baking sheet with a lip. bake at 425 until done. Timing will depend on the pieces you use. Turn half way through cooking. The result crisp crunchy juicy chicken.
    Happy Wednesday! Thank you for stopping by.