Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. Her 96th birthday, to be exact! Bertie was born in 1915 and was a child of the Great Depression. If you recall, I told the tale of the buttons and bread ties...and the apple juice & tissues.

So, in honor of her 96th birthday I did what I do best. I baked. I baked two dozen cupcakes - with almond flavoring in the batter, and almond-vanilla in the buttercream frosting I topped them with. The buttercream was tinted a coppery bronze color in honor of the season (my favorite - FALL) and topped with sprinkles depicting leaves in all their splendor in autumn. My friend Linda came over and we packed the cupcakes into a carrier, got her gifts together (she loves fleece so I bought new fleece, socks, and GUM) and off we went.

We got to the nursing home shortly after lunch. They were all aware it was PARTY TIME, so one by one they were rolled into the 'dayroom' for the party. We had to remove the cupcake liners (one lady tried to eat it) for them, and we cut them in half so the ones that were able to, could pick them up to eat them. My mom had to be fed. I guess at 96 that's allowed. Anyway, Linda fed mom, and I went around to dispense cupcakes to all the guests. Just before I could grab a napkin for one guest's cupcake, one of the OTHER guests took the whole stack of napkins, folded them, and stuck them under her sweater. Yep - a klepto!! The rest of the partygoers had to use regular paper towels for their treats.

In the midst of all this partying, suddenly the fire alarms started going off! Lights flashing, horns and sirens blaring, and the doors suddenly all closed.....closing us in the Day room with the party ladies. My mom got very upset - wanted me to make it stop and told me she needed to 'get the hell out of there'. I covered her ears with my hands and promised I'd take care of her and I wouldn't let anything hurt her. Another lady covered her head with a towel - the same towel she had her 'baby doll' wrapped up in. It was so sad. Then, there were a few that were seemingly unaware of anything happening at all. They just kept right on eating.

So, after about 10 minutes, which felt like an hour, the alarms finally stopped going off, and the doors opened. We all went out into the interior garden, where mom opened her gifts. Some of her fellow party goers were there too. Most of them were still shaken by the excitement.

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon. The best part was that I got to celebrate one more birthday with mom - and make it special for her...and for me. At 96, I'm not sure how many more there will be - but each and every one will be a wonderful thing to be able to still share.

Thank you, mom, for all you have done for me...you took care of me when I couldn't take care of myself, and now it's my turn to take care of you. You were my parent, now I am yours. The full circle of life, I suppose.

I love you, Mama. Happy, Happy Birthday!!!!

Spinach Dip in Sourdough Bread Bowl

Check out my first 'homework' assignment for my catering class.

If you can't tell what this is, it's a sourdough bread bowl filled with spinach/artichoke/cream cheese dip, and surrounded by red and yellow pepper strips, zucchini sticks,, and chunks of crusty buttered garlic homemade bread bites. It is garnished with parsley straight out of the garden, and a rose created from a tomato peel.

It was very tasty, if I say so myself. And yes, I know it made a lot for just us, but I had the time and really wanted to get this first assignment out of the way.

So, what do you think? Is there hope for me in the catering world???

Stay tuned for my next 'creation'....in the next day or so.

Until then.

Bathrooms and Biscotti

Don't let the title of this post fool you. These two things are in TOTALLY separate rooms in the house. Whilst the bathroom was being outfitted with the brand new supposedly CLEAR shower doors, I was in mia cucina creating cranberry-almond biscotti AND Italian cookies; the latter resembles a shortbread cookie - it has almond, lemon and orange flavoring, is a twisted pencil thin cookie with an egg wash & sesame seeds on top. It cooks fast - and has a glossy finish thanks to the eggwash. These delicacies were prepared for the Italian Festival, which is tomorrow. They were packaged in clear 'baggies' which were then tied with red, green and white tiny ribbon, which also held a 'tag' announcing what the contents were. These will be sold at the Italian Fresh Market tomorrow. It was hard to bake all that without eating any. I guess if I want some, I'll have to buy them.

Now, back to the bathroom shower doors; you are all aware of how long this renovation has taken, right? A renovation that we didn't plan on. One we didn't budget for. One we didn't think would take most of the summer to complete. Today we had all hoped that the end was in sight. The shower door was delivered yesterday; the installers came by this morning to put it together. As yours truly was in the cucina, creating gastronomic delights, I was unaware of what the installers found when they opened the package. My beautiful new Tuscan Bronze-finish shower door was the WRONG ONE. The clear glass I wanted was not there. Instead, the doors had this etched finish. Both doors had vertical stripes over the entire finish. They were very BUSY looking. I was so disappointed. The workers were disappointed - I think mainly because they knew they'd be installing a replacement as soon as it could be gotten and delivered. I tried to like it - I mean, it's not like it was UGLY or anything; it's just that it's not the one I had my heart set on. I wanted CLEAR. I like being able to see out when in the shower; or in the tub. I have a clear shower curtain too. Maybe I have 'Psycho' phobias or something. Anyway, the doors are up; they slide beautifully; and they are etched. And awaiting their replacement. One of these days.

The renovations continue.....STILL.

But, until they do:

Il Festival italiano è domani. Vieni a giocare con noi.

(The Italian Festival is tomorrow. Come play with us.)

Ciao, a presto, mia amici. Chi vuole un bicchiere di vino rosso?

Let There Be Light

Remember the renovations that are still continuing?

Late this afternoon, Jim came by to install the shower light .... a new recessed, waterproof fixture. Problem is, he couldn't install it from DOWNSTAIRS in the shower. Someone had to go up in the attic, scurry across the rafters - carefully so as not to step on the ceiling and FALL THRU to the downstairs - and find the electrical box for this particular light. Well, guess who got the honors? Yep, me.

I am crouched in the attic, wearing my slipper-clogs, advancing precariously from joist to joist, scooping insulation out of the way using an piece of cardboard, looking for the light.

I found it. Then Jim asks, what does it look like - is it attached to the side or the bottom? My reply - I don't know; I didn't bring a flashlight. Oh. No flashlight. Here comes Paul. We pass on the same floor joist - HE has the flashlight. So, I'm sitting at the top of the attic stairs, reading old Christmas cards; Paul is bent over the light box - with the flashlight - attempting to dislodge it without being electrocuted - the electricity is still on. Jim, the contractor, is standing at the bottom of the steps, drinking a cup of coffee....and not just ANY coffee. He is drinking a cup of white chocolate macadamia nut coffee.

After I finally shut off ALL the electricity in the house, we manage to install the new light fixture. Now we need a light bulb for it. Oh, and a new switch. The one that controls this newly installed fixture is broken. Now the light is on, and we can't shut it off. We have to remove the bulb to turn it off.

Jim leaves, Paul has to change as he has insulation in his pants. Ants in his pants. HAHAHAHAHA

I'm going to make dinner. And pour a glass of wine. Perhaps two.

Tomorrow, we might get the shower door.

And the renovations continue......

tomorrow is another day.

Escape to New York City!

OK, so enough about the renovations....they are STILL underway. At this point, I don't feel like they will ever be finished. I'm sure they will, and today they are tiling the bathroom. At least that's what I hope. I still feel like I'm living in a warehouse.

So, in the midst of all this unrest and construction going on here at home, I escaped. Big time. To New York City! NEW YORK CITY! My girlfriend had asked me to go with her to her cousin's wedding. Well, being the nice Southern girl that I am, and how I hated to say no (remember, I am unemployed and it's not like my calendar was FULL or anything), so I told her I'd go. No clue that the wedding was anyplace other than good ole SC. When she told me New York, I was beyond thrilled! New York City - the land of the rich and fabulous. The land of the WTC being reborn out of the ashes, like a Phoenix. So, to be sure we had everything we needed for our trip, we packed. And packed. And unpacked. And repacked. Then we packed some more. Instead of a huge suitcase, it felt more like we were carrying trunks. Trunks packed to the gills. Trunks packed with things we mostly did not even wear. But we had them.

This Southern girl has been to New England many, many times. Remember, my husband is an EYE-Talian Yankee from Massachusetts. I love it up there. That's no secret to anyone. All I had ever seen of NYC was what I could see from the George Washington Bridge as we were driving thru the Bronx headed to the Nawth. We landed at Newark and the view of the city that I was greeted with was spectacular. Almost as breathtaking as seeing the Golden Gate Bridge upon landing in San Francisco many years ago.

We collected our trunks and waited for the car to pick us up. In the meantime, we collected propaganda. I love propaganda. I mean we collected brochures about EVERY LITTLE THING that could be seen, visited, or done in the city. More to put in those trunks. Then our driver arrived - holding a sign with my name on it so we'd know he was there for us. He loaded our trunks and off we went - headed to the hotel, which by the way, was lovely. We stayed at the Hyatt on the Hudson, Jersey City. I highly recommend it. The view of Manhattan from there is unparalleled.

When we arrived at the hotel, the room was not ready, so they held our trunks for us. We got the claims ticket, made a quick 'potty' break and a quick mirror check to be sure we still looked great - (I mean, we're in New York City and we did NOT want to look like tourists), and off we went. Exploring. We've only been in town 30 minutes and we're already prowling around. We found the water taxi, bought our tickets, boarded, and I had a ticket taker call me Scarlett O'Hara. Welcome to the South, boys! We cruised across the Hudson River,and docked at the Financial District. We had some version of a map in our hands, and we started walking. Our first stop was the WTC site. We did not have tickets to go 'down' into the memorial, but we took as many photos as we could of what we COULD see. Then we went into the Museum. They had artifacts (if you can call them that) on display and of course, the usual coffee cups, tshirts and calendars. Capitalizing on tragedy. Sad. And it was working. People were in lines 5-6 deep making MAJOR purchases. We bought post cards. We quickly decided our next stop had to be Little Italy. After consulting our map, we knew we could not walk that far. We hailed our first taxi. That was pretty easy, because they were virtually on EVERY corner. We got in, told him where we wanted to go and off we went. This man was driving like the devil himself was chasing us. I mean he drove unlike I've ever seen anyone drive, except the cab drivers in Rome. He squeezed the car in places I really didn't think it would fit. But it fit. He got us to Little Italy in what I think was 'record' time. We got out, started walking and saw lots of Italian momentos - most of them being offered by Chinese people. What in the hell? Oh, that's right - China Town and Little Italy are butted up right next to each other. In fact, both names are on the street signage. What's going on, people? Italy and China are nowhere close on the map. Someone needs to brush up on their geography.

We decided we were hungry and found this place that just oozed Italian charm. The restaurant was called Ristorante Da Gennaro and we had the best meal. I had pasta with olive oil and garlic, and AM had Chicken Francaise with a side of pesto penne. Yum. Of course, I had chianti. She had a beer. Then we had espresso and profiteroles with hazelnut chocolate drizzle on top. Having filled our stomachs, we were on the go again.....this time we just went across the street and plopped down in ANOTHER restaurant where we ordered Prosecco (Italian champagne) - one glass each....with a strawberry floating in it. Wonderful. We toasted New York, and her cousin's impending nuptials, and we toasted ourselves. We toasted to the fact that we were such saavy New Yorkers....even this Southern girl. After we polished off our Proseccos, we quickly checked our map - you see, we had a LIST of must-sees, must-visits, and must-do's. Our next must-see had to be the Empire State Building. Sunset was rapidly aproaching and we knew that the view from the top was the best. We did what we did best - hail a cab! Another mad dash thru the street and we arrived at our next stop. We bought our tickets and stood in line to ride the elevator to the top. That elevator must've had the devil chasing IT too. We flew to the top in a record 30 seconds. When the doors opened, I was greeted with a view of New York City that would take your breath away. We took many photos, and sunset from that vantage point was indescribable.

Once we left there, we decided we'd had enough for the day. Our feet were throbbing and we still had MILES to go. Oh, and it was time to EAT again! We got another cab back to the dock, where we boarded the water taxi yet again. We were getting pretty good at this! We got back to the hotel, where we ordered a salad in the VU lounge. And a VU it was. A view to die for. We couldn't walk another step, but had the waitress bring our salads to us while we sat there by the panoramic view of the city....feet propped up. By this time all of Manhattan was lit up just like twinkling stars. And all for our viewing pleasure. We managed to crawl to the elevator and upstairs to our rooms where we collapsed into bed, talking in the darkness and giggling like teenage girls. Tomorrow - more fun!

The next day, we had the wedding to attend. We were fabulously dressed, went downstairs where we all were taken to the church in cars, and the bride rode in a vintage Rolls Royce. The wedding was in midtown Manhattan and the ride took about an hour. The ceremony was beautiful - Roman Catholic Italian wedding, complete with Mass. Then it's back to the hotel for the reception, which was absolutely fabulous. The wedding cake was baked by Carlo's Bake Shop. (http://www.carlosbakery.com/) Now, I don't know if you are aware of who that is, but it's the Cake Boss (on TLC). It was red velvet and absolutely delicious.

As is typical of Italian weddings, the reception with the fabulous cocktail hour and dinner/dancing lasted way into the night. We left at 11:30 and headed back to our room. Tomorrow was another long day of sightseeing for us.

We woke early - got dressed, and off we went. Our first stop was Lady Liberty. We boarded a train, got off and walked about a mile to reach the Station we needed to board the ferry from, and bought our tickets. The lines were LONG. I mean, REALLY long. Keep in mind that it's Saturday. The wait just to board the boat was 2 hours. We decided not to see her up close. We just didn't have that much time too spend there. Too much too do and too little time to do it in...plus it's Saturday and we had all the tourists to deal with. We boarded the water taxi and headed back across to Manhattan. Next stop, uptown! We outdid ourselves today. We saw: Rockefeller Center (where they were assembling the ice rink), Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, St. Patrick's Cathedral (where a wedding was underway), Madison Square Garden, Trump Towers, every store you could imagine (Prada, Van Cleef & Arpels, Gucci, Harry Winston Jewelers, Salvatore Ferragamo (shoes), FAO Schwartz, The Plaza Hotel, and Central Park,which was full of many types of people. This was the weekend of John Lennon's birthday, so his music was everywhere. Check out THIS Lady Liberty!!

We walked from Central Park back to Times Square, which to me, had a circus atmosphere. Saw the 'ball' which drops every New Year's Eve. I can't imagine how packed with people that would be, because this day we were there it was chaotic. This Southern girl needs to find some trees and open space! Back to Little Italy we go.

I had contacted an old friend from over 20 years ago who, to my surprise, was meeting us for dinner. We were looking forward to it. We bought some pastries, Italian cookies and bread and ended up at a restaurant called Angelo's. Had a fabulous meal, and we three ladies walked back to the restaurant where we had the prosecco - Caffe' Napoli. My friend had two of her buddies join us, and we sat there until the wee hours of the morning....talking, sipping Prosecco, and laughing. (and resting our feet) When we realized the time, we knew we had a HAUL to get back. They called a cab for us, paid for it and put us in (and got in with us) and took us to the Path Station. They put us on the direct train back to our Path Station near our Hotel. We were back in about an hour. By this time it was nearly 2 am. These girls did quite well in The Big Apple!

Next morning, we packed our bags, had breakfast int he restaurant and we waited for our car to come get us. We got to the airport in record time, had uneventful flights and arrived back home in time for din-din on Sunday night. All in all, a fun-filled, wonderful LONG weekend in New York City!

Oh, and by the way, the renovations continue.....

New York City

As the title of this post hints at....I have just returned from a LONG weekend in New York City with my friend, Annemarie. She had to attend her cousin's wedding and asked if I'd go with her. What? Are you kidding? Of course I'll go with you. I mean, it's not like I have a job, or anything important that I'm needed here for...unless it's applying for jobs that I know I won't get. I have to do that to keep the unemployment checks rolling in.

Anyway, New York.....we flew in on Thursday afternoon and by that night we had checked in at our hotel (we were staying at the Hyatt on the Hudson in Jersey City), gone back out, got a water taxi and hauled ass across the Hudson to Manhattan, baby! In about 4 short hours, we managed to check out the WTC site, the Marina, Battery Park, and do some window shopping in Little Italy, then off to the Empire State Building. We purchased our overpriced admission ticket to the Observatory on the 86th floor, where we got the most breathtaking views of New York and vicinity. It was about 5 pm or so, and the sun was just beginning to go down - it was a bright beautiful day and sunset was just amazing. A soft orange orb slowly disappearing from the horizon. As it disappeared, the buildings all began to twinkle like stars in the heavens. I swear I could see for 100 miles. Perhaps not, but that's what it felt like to me. We stayed up there taking in the scenery, until we realized we were STARVING. Time to eat! At the same time, we looked at each other and just knew where we HAD to eat. Our stroll thru Little Italy earlier when we were on our pilgrimage to see the Empire State Building determined where we decided to have dinner. We found this amazing little place, Da Gennaro, on Mulberry Street when passing thru the first time. We high-tailed it right back over to Little Italy, plopped down at a sidewalk table, and hailed the water in our best rusty Italian. Total immersion in Italian culture is the way to go. Chianti doesn't hurt, either. I had pasta with garlic & olive oil, and Annemarie had Chicken Francaise. Oh, and a side of penne with pesto. And dessert. Always dessert. We had profiteroles, filled with creamy sweet ricotta, and topped with chocolate hazelnut spread. Delicioso!

After dinner, what did we do? Most people would head back to the hotel and relax. Not us! Nooooo, no. WE WALKED ACROSS THE STREET to another restaurant, sat BACK down and ordered a prosecco....with a strawberry floating in the glass. We toasted to ourselves and patted each other on the back at our prowess and our ability to maneuver our way around in NEW YORK CITY. (not ever having been there before, I was more than pleased with my excellent sense of direction). We sat a good long while in THIS restaurant, just watching people and talking about what all we planned to do for the rest of the trip...starting with the wedding the next day.

When we were ready to go back to our hotel, here's how it laid out.....

Got up - hailed a cab. He drove us to where we thought we needed to be. Well, we were wrong. It was the WRONG port. We still had to walk about 8 blocks past the Manhattan Sailing Club to the Financial District pier, where we caught the water taxi BACK across the river to the Paulus Hook Terminal, where we walked another block back to the hotel. Let me tell you my piggies were SO tired by the time I got the boots off. Time for sleep now.

Next post I'll tell you all about the wedding and our next excursion, which included Ellis Island, Lady Liberty, Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, Central Park and all points in between. We are some traveling fools....in boots.

Demolition Begins....

Bright and early this morning, my doorbell rang. It was Rick, the demolition guy that works for our contractor. Finally! He came in, proceeded to cover our bedroom furniture with plastic (just like our parents had all over the furniture all the time - NOT just for construction purposes), and taped resin paper on the floor starting at the front door. He brought in the hammers, mallets, buckets, and SAFETY GOGGLES!

Now I am in the kitchen, lolly-gagging around in my house clogs and sipping my New England Coffee - (just the best coffee ever - try it for youself in one of their seasonal flavors) www.newenglandcoffee.com in my Vermont moose mug, when the hammering commences. I look up to see my prints that are hanging on the kitchen wall....bouncing off the wall with each strike of the mallet. Those pictures were taken down immediately before they could FALL down!

He has been hammering away for about 45 minutes and he has nearly all the tile off the shower wall. I took a 'before' picture, and tonight will take a 'in progress' picture and HOPEFULLY be able to post 'after' pix.

No napping in this house today - unless you're deaf!!