Well, It Looked Great...

About that tart...No way did it want to come out of the pan. It was stuck on there like suction cups, and that crust didn't want to budge. I didn't use any baking spray on the tart mold, and possibly overworked the dough. I've never had that much trouble with pastry sticking before, but now that I think about it, it didn't have that much butter in the crust. Oh well! Next time. There's always a next time...

How Nice When Something Goes Right For A Change!

I offered to bring dessert to a gathering this weekend, and I pulled out several recipes that I thought would be good, and selected "Almond Plum Tart". Since our presence wasn't required until 4pm, I figured I had time after church to put this thing together and get it into the oven and chilled on the day of. Pastry always tastes better on the day it is baked.

As I was working on the ingredients, I had a vision of the last time I had made this tart. We were in Indiana for New Year's, and I was cooking dinner while our hosts were at work, and I was alone in the house. I pureed the plums in their blender, which diabolically unscrewed itself from its base, and bright red plum went all over their white tile floor, and right up their lovely yellow painted walls, looking just like the blood spatter patterns that they are always analysing on CSI. Of course, the lady of the house chose that moment to call home just to "see how I was doing..." Luckily, it all washed off the walls, and the tile floor suffered no stains. Agita!

Today was much better, it all went together without any hitches, and I even prettied it up a bit with the spider webbing design on the top. At first I thought I had chosen too shallow a pan, and that all the filling might not fit, but it went nicely and didn't overflow when it baked. I also thought that the pattern might obliterate itself in the oven, but when it finished it looked good enough to hand to the judges on a reality cooking challenge show. The people who will eat it won't be nearly so hard on me though, and we are going to enjoy eating it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Where Ya' Been?

I know, I know--haven't posted anything in a long time. So I'm guilted into writing this, even though I don't have much to say. Maybe it's our lovely warm weather--and note that today is cooler, so maybe my brain cells have started working again. Last week at WW I stepped up to the counter for the weigh-in, and the person asked me what I did on the weekend, and my mind was totally blank. I'm thinking, portents of things to come...

So--where have I been? Where haven't I been? We did two big trips--one to Hawaii, and then a cruise to Bermuda. Hawaii was amazing--landscapes that we have never before experienced (acres and acres of black lava fields), and much beauty (jungles with huge plants). Bermuda was lovely (all that gorgeous green water) with old buildings and lots of history. In Hawaii we stayed in a condo, so had a very laid back week, eating out when we wanted, cooking in a time or two, or just having munchies and happy hour for the evening. We had a view of the sunset from our supersized lanai, and we were on the third floor and could watch the birds fly by.





The ship docked in Bermuda for three full days, so we had time to experiment with the public transportation, and were able to travel the entire island on their equivalent of a MetroCard. We picked up lunch one day when we were too far from the ship, but the other days caught our meals at the buffet for lunch and dinners in the dining room. I guess we didn't leave a lot of dollars behind aside from our sight seeing. Sailing out of New York was a wonderful experience that I certainly would repeat. Of course, you have to choose your season carefully--too early and it is cold, too late and you are in hurricane season. We met some folks who had come on a different ship that had left a couple of days behind us, and they hit storms in the Atlantic and were sick. I would have been very unhappy with that...We were so lucky, with a smooth sail in both directions.


I've said before that my brain checks out on vacation, and stays awol for days after we come back. I still seem to be stuck in puttering mode, spending time doing crosswords and reading bubble gum books. Our schedule is due to change to summer mode--I'll be playing in various churches on Sunday mornings, and my exercise classes will end due to excess heat in our facilities. I don't want anyone collapsing while we're there.

We won't be travelling so much this summer, but maybe we can get together with the grandchildren at the beach or the park after school ends. That would be nice. We don't see them as much since they all started school. It seems like the calendar has nothing on it, but then I start to tally up where we have to be, and looka-dat--there's plenty on there already, starting this weekend with a trip to Albany for a fine wedding. Plus, we get to catch up with our faraway relatives that we love, but don't see very often. Okay--sign off here, and pack up that suitcase once again!

Party Day

The sun is shining brightly, even though the weather men were threatening us with rain. It will happen tomorrow instead. Tonight is the party for Jon and Sue, and it should be a ton of fun. Family is coming in from all over--again!

We all decided a few years back that we would travel to the happy occasions instead of waiting until the funerals. It has worked out very well, and we have visited in several places that we never would have seen otherwise. But, we are running out of children to marry off. This is our last contribution to this arrangement--our baby. (And oddly, she is marrying someone else's baby...Has anyone done a study on this? Oldest marrying oldest, youngest marrying youngest?)

We will have to start planning destination reunions or something else to get us together. Why not? We enjoy each other's company, and a vacation is a perfect way to spend some time doing fun things. Maybe the dart in the map thing--gets you someplace different. Now we need to get them all to retire, so that they have free time to come and play!

Didya' Miss Me?

I've been away. And come back and gone away--well, it's what you do when you are retired, and have enough sense to go and do it as long as the money holds out, and your legs...


We went to Hawaii for a week, with Garden Fairy and her spouse, since it was the occasion of their 40th anniversary, and they invited us to go along. Well, what the heck! It's a long ride, but you end up in Hawaii....We went to the "Big Island", and did the volcano park tour--that was an eye-opener! And, considering what is going on this week in Iceland, fascinating! The Island is half black lava fields, and incredible to look at and drive through. No describing it. You have to go there and see it--beautiful in its own way, and so different. I could never stay there for long, just because of it being so far from anything else, in the middle of the Pacific. Less ominous than the volcano and its lava fields were the signs at the edges of the island that read "Tsunami Evacuation Area", accompanied by the tall poles each attached to six or eight warning sirens. We stayed in someone's lovely two br/two bath condo, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We generally ate lunch out while sightseeing, and had dinner in on our beautiful two-sided lanai.

We got back in time to have the fam in for the annual egg-hunt and Easter dinner, which turned out nicely, partly due to the lovely weather, and all the flowering things in bloom. After that was the wedding--very pretty, and meaningful. And then I headed to Florida by myself for a few days of outlet hopping with the fine ladies of my family, some of whom I only see only on such occasions. These things have to be scheduled in at least once a year--they talk about male bonding--well, this is our female bonding. MyTreasure makes fun of it, but he has his days when he and his friend go off to the ranges to spend their dollars shooting off boxes of "ammo". I at least come home with something I can wear...





Well, the good news is that the shopping marathons balanced out the wine drinking on the lanai, and I lost a pound at Weight Watchers this week. WoHoo! Salad season is here, so maybe I can undo the damage that I did in February and March, and find my way back into my summer skirts by the time I need them. One more little hurdle--the wedding reception this weekend. But--it's only one day, right? And, we are so looking forward to seeing everyone. After all, this is our last wedding! Everyone is married, and how nice is that! Congrats, Sue and Jon!

Spring Or Else!

You know it was a bad winter when you feel like you have been let out of jail. Finally our weather broke, and we have had a string of decent days that could actually be called "spring-like", even though the official arrival of spring was not until this weekend. Only last weekend was that horrible storm--which could have been so much worse, had we had lower temperatures. Somehow, we escaped without any water in our basement, and we didn't get involved in the power outages that so many households suffered. I guess we did our time that once, and it was bad, since we were an isolated incident on our street, and of course, they got to us last. Our sympathies to all those families who had to wait it out this week.

My mini-daffs are in bloom, and the regulars are budded, and ready to go. The snow drops appeared last week, and were most welcome, and the crocus have popped the last day or two. How pretty is the color purple, after a long winter of brown!


I bought two batches of tulips and put them in a vase. The yellow ones were bigger, and I picked out some red with yellow edges, for pretty contrast in the vase. The yellows stayed the same, but the reds kept growing, and look how they ended up! A little odd, I thought.





Our niece was coming for the weekend, and I looked at my "Attitude Vase" and thought "too bad I didn't pick up some flowers". CarolA came in and she had brought the absolutely perfect cut Gerberas for that vase, and I just had to take a picture of it. I'm still enjoying them--those elbows just say it all, as far as I'm concerned! And happy spring to Y'all!

Wild Weekend

Sometimes the fun never quits. We started with a big storm that promised to hang out over several days. We always get at least one dramatic weather incident in the month of March, even though I try to convince myself that spring is in the air. For heavens sake, there are robins outside--in flocks, no less, picking away at whatever is in the lawn, and the little pokey things are coming up through the dirt--some are even budded. The temperatures are sticking solidly to the high 40's, and the air feels soft, not bitey, so at least it won't be snow.

Friday isn't great, with gloom and rain, but the weather men are offering up Saturday for the big show. We didn't have much to do, except get some appetizers ready and spruce up our fiddle/piano duo for a little entertainment at Garden Fairy's St. Patty's party.

Saturday WAS a big show. The rain came down, the gales blew, taking out trees and power lines all over Long Island, and plenty of other places as well. Our power flicked a couple of times, but never actually went out, so the food got prepared, and we had a fine time at the party. Cycle in "Spring Forward" on the old clock, and all is well. Choir in the morning, so don't hang out too late. We came in at 12:30, plus our one hour time loss, so call it 1:30.

Our clock radio does it's thing at 7:30, and at 7:38 there is a phone call from our church organist that he and his wife and baby are all sick, and can I play the morning worship services (first service 9 am). Well. That wasn't how I was expecting to begin my morning...

We had concert tickets for this afternoon in Manhattan, and the trains on our line were running, so we got there only a little late--missed the first piece. At least all that was required was to sit in a seat and do my best to stay awake. We caught some dinner in a restaurant next to the concert hall, and were back home by 7 pm--or is it 8 pm--or 6 pm? I guess it will take me a day to get it all straight in my head--which is still whirling a bit...