THE ROAD TO HEAVEN MUST BE PAVED WITH OLIVE OIL

Where to begin! After we returned from our wildflower jaunt to the Hill Country, I had appointments the rest of the week with what seemed to be every physician I have ever met as well as my dentist! Fortunately I'm in pretty good shape for the shape I'm in!

Then last week we were invited out for dinner with our friend, Darden, and we had a delightful meal at Piccolo Mondo, one of our favorite restaurants.

Spring was in the air and I was ready to get into the swing of things. Speaking of shapes, I was feeling so good about myself that I rushed out and bought new swimsuit without trying it on first. Big mistake!!! I had gone to my Weight Watcher's meeting the day before and found that I had lost 5% of my body fat which is the first goal you set for yourself with the program, so in my mind I looked terrific. Let me tell you, Esther Williams I was not.

In fact, when I looked in the mirror, I looked a lot like this beached whale!

Back to the drawing board and away from full length mirrors for me for a while!

We've had lots of good times with friends the past couple of weeks, all involving food. Let's face it, at this stage of life, that's most of if not all of our entertainment. Last Sunday after church the Ferbends had our breakfast group over for brunch.

There are several of us who always go to breakfast after the early service and occasionally we change our routine and meet in one of our homes to eat. It was a lovely affair with good food and great conversation.
Then mid-week we went for dinner with long time friends, the Sawyers and Walkers. The Walkers had us over for drinks before dinner and we had a nice visit before heading out to the restaurant.

When we returned home that evening we watched "Idol Gives Back" which we had recorded. Thank goodness for DVR's. You can watch your favorite shows and also eliminate all the commercials. What a blessing! We lost one of the two contestants from Texas, but after all, there will always be one person eliminated each week until the finale. It's sad but the show must go on!
Last Monday I started attending the book club at St. Alban's again and I think it's going to be an extremely exciting study. We started with Dante's Inferno which is the first book in his trilogy, The Divine Comedy, and we are now beginning the path upward to Purgatory. Thank goodness we're finally out of Hell!

It's absolutely fascinating and I'm really looking forward to this study as Father Duncan brings the pages to life for those of us in his class. I am even ahead of the game with my homework for a change and ready for some interesting discussion tomorrow.
We sold our old car and got a new one. It was a bittersweet time as it was really a good car but we were ready for a change. If anyone is interested, I can promise you that the old one in great shape and should last for a long time. It has a little under 30,000 miles on it and has been handled with TLC. She still looks brand new. Here's Papa backing it out of the driveway for the last time.

We took a photograph of it before we took it to the dealership. I read somewhere that you should take a photo of each of your cars that you own so when you take that trip down Memory Lane you will remember what they looked like. Plus, your children would never believe what some of the old cars you owned looked like. Sometimes I forget to do that so I'm trying to be more accountable now. When Frank and I married I had a '55 red Thunderbird with both a hard and soft top and I did not take a single photo of it. I'm really sorry now! At least they're still on the Internet. I sometimes wonder if he married me for love or for that car! It was a real cutie (but I was back then too!)

Friday afternoon we didn't have anything to do, so we watched "Julie and Julia" again. It is without a doubt one of my very favorite movies. I adore food and absolutely LOVE to cook. There is a scene in that movie that has continued to haunt me since the first time I saw it.

In fact, I have even bought Julie Powell's book and am starting to read it now since the story interests me so. It was on the best seller list for a long time and is a delightful read.

Julia Child used to come to Longview, Texas and give cooking workshops and I had the privilege of attending one of those many years ago. I've always been interested in food and I get extremely excited when I either am served or prepare something that I consider to be exceptional. I took two week long workshops with Jacques Pepin at the Broadmoor at their School of Cooking in Colorado Springs in the '80's and loved every minute of it. When I was younger I was a very serious cook. I used to work in a gourmet cookware store and even taught some cooking classes. Some friends owned the store and I offered to help them out a couple of days a week. I'd never worked before but I had certainly cooked, so it was like playing all day, doing the thing you love the most and getting paid for it! It was certainly a win/win situation!

Jacques and Julia had a cooking show on PBS for a long time and they were wonderful together. In fact, they collaborated on a cook book and I not only have a copy of that book, I have all of his cookbooks and also Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

They also made a DVD of their show and I plan on getting it soon. It's such fun to watch them working together.

The two of them are absolutely delightful together. Two entirely different styles of cooking but they compliment one another completely in the kitchen.
And now, to the main point of this entry! While watching the film, I decided that I could not live another minute without trying the delicious Bruschetta that Julie (not Julia) prepared in the movie. Since I still have a little trouble getting around physically, so I sent Frank to the store ... he was MORE than anxious to go knowing what would be in store when he returned ... and he came home with all the necessary ingredients for our very special lunch. Here is the recipe and following this are the photographs that I took of what I call my masterpiece.

BRUSHETTA - al la Julie and Julia – Recipe

4 slices rough textured bread, such as focaccia, or from a crusty baguette, cut lengthwise

16 oz. assorted heirloom type tomatoes (I used President’s Choice Rainbow heirloom cherry tomatoes) chopped and seeded if the seeds look sketchy

Extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic, peeled and halved

sea salt

chopped fresh basil

1. Toss tomatoes with 1 T. olive oil and about 1 tsp. sea salt.2. Fry bread in 2-3 T. olive oil in skillet, browning on each side, and adding 1 more T. oil if necessary (I added a tad of butter to the oil)3. Rub cut half of garlic clove over 1 side of fried bread.4. Spoon tomatoes (with oil and accumulated juices) over bread. Top with chopped basil and more sea salt to taste.5. Eat with plenty of napkins on hand. It's messy but wonderful!
Serves 2.

I used some of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil in this recipe that I had purchased on our last trip to Tuscany and it tasted like velvet. Nothing on earth compares with really good olive oil from Tuscany. The bottle is small and the contents are very precious, like liquid gold. An absolute delight on the tongue.

We proceeded to open a bottle of white wine and put on our bibs as we bit into this glorious taste of a little bit of Heaven. Surely the road on the way to Heaven is paved with extra virgin olive oil!
This was very easy to make, not very time consuming and one of the best things that I have put in my mouth in a very long time. The sounds that we both made as we were eating it could only be described as complete ecstasy. I'm glad no one was listening because they would have wondered what on earth was going on with these two old people!
After taking a long afternoon nap (we don't generally drink wine during the day), we went out on the deck and finished the bottle of wine we had opened for our lunch.

As we watched the sun set on our little garden, we listened to some of our favorite golden oldies sung by Bette Midler and Michael Bublé .

It was the perfect end to an absolutely perfect day.
Since I am writing this blog, my precious husband told me that he was going to read the paper, but he was actually taking a nap. He thinks I can't see him when he's in his disguise
:-) I don't know why he doesn't just turn the lights out. that way he wouldn't look like a corpse in an ugly body bag!

After all the great food and wine, I need to get to the gym on Monday and start working on the body that I can only dream of. If I live long enough and keep going to Weight Watchers, maybe someday .....

or would I rather just continue to cook and have delicious food and enjoy this part of my life? You tell me!
Bon Appetite,
Pcasso

SPRINGTIME, GLIDERS AND POSOLE

I love this time of year and this weekend has been perfect so far. Spring is in the air and we have gotten busy getting our back patio ready so we can sit outside and enjoy the wonderful weather. This is where we will be spending a lot of our time as long as the temperature allows it.

Frank has been busy putting flowers in all the planters and the yard men have the yard in perfect condition. Yesterday morning he went to Home Depot and purchased a glider for the back deck. I always hated to see my babies grow up because I couldn't rock them any more. He remembered how much I love to rock, so he surprised me with it. (My Grandmother loved to rock as well, so that's probably where this originated)

The biggest surprise was what a chore it was to assemble. He thought he could have it done in about an hour but guess what .... WRONG! After nearly 5 hours of both of us working diligently on it, it was finally assembled and ready for action. This is one of Martha Stewart's products and I was about ready to wipe that smile off of her face before we finally got it put together!

Well, all went well, and after a very busy afternoon, the deck looked wonderful and we were ready for action.

We fixed ourselves a little libation and decided to play cards outside. We have had an on-going gin game for the past several years, so there's always some healthy competition going on.

We have an outdoor speaker for the CD player, but we hadn't hooked it up yet, so I brought out my new toys ... my iPhone and my portable speakers called "Tweakers". I ordered them a couple of weeks ago and they are perfect for listening to Pandora on my iPhone. Pandora is an Internet station that plays wonderful music. Check it out!

They are not only as cute as a bug, they have wonderful sound! I just love electronic gadgets! My Dad and eldest son, Jim did as well. They would have loved to still be living in this era and be able to enjoy all the "gadgets"!
We sat there and looked out over the back yard as the sun went down and it really felt wonderful. A true sence of peace.

I told Frank that I hope that when we move somewhere that is more convenient for us in our "Golden Years", my hope is that the new owners will love this place the way we have during the years that we have been here.
When we finished our card game (I won this time), we went inside, had a bite to eat and then watched TV for a while.
We got up bright and early this morning and had coffee out on the deck. The world was just waking up and the birds were all chattering. We have a family of Cardinals that live in one of our hedges and we love to watch them.
The Papa is the sentinel while Mama and her babies are eating the birdseed that we have provided. The neighbor's roof looks like snow in this photograph.

I have just discovered that the mottled looking Cardinals are the babies and their full color will come as they mature.

Mama does her own thing as the baby is being watched by Papa and a sparrow.

The squirrels are also up to their usual antics. It must be mating season because they are running all over the place, chasing each other and jumping from tree to tree. This one had taken a break and was posing so I could photograph him. They're such hams!

Once we finished our breakfast of pork chops and eggs, I started tonight's dinner (have to keep ahead of the game!)

It had started to drizzle this morning, so it seemed like a perfect day for Posole. For those of you who are not familiar with Posole, it's made with dried hominy, pork, red chili and garlic and it's delicious! I had extra pork chops, so that's why we had them for breakfast. Seemed like a good thing to me!
The Posole is ready now, so here's what it looks like in both the pot and the bowl.

This with either tortillas or sopapillas makes a wonderful meal any time ... especially on a spring evening.
Tomorrow we will go to church where we will have the privilege of serving at God's altar at the early service and then we are going to our friend's house for brunch. I have to do my homework in the afternoon for my Monday book club where we're studying Dante's Purgatory and then I will watch the Tudors tomorrow night. Sounds like the perfect weekend to me. How about you???
XOXO, Pcasso

EASTER, BLUEBONNETS AND THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY

Greetings from North Central Texas! I can't believe that it has only been a week since we celebrated Easter Sunday.

It was a beautiful day and the feeling of spring was in the air. Frank and I served at church that morning at 7:30 a.m. It was and always will be a special time for us as we met each other on an Easter Sunday 56 years ago and were married 2 years later.

It was a glorious day way back then as well it was this Easter. That day will always be special in my life as the Lord brought us together and our faith in Him has kept us together all these years.

We had a lazy day that afternoon and then we took our family out for dinner at Hibachi 2007 to celebrate together. This was the first time in nearly a half a century that we didn't have Easter lunch here at the house. Since they all had other plans, I didn't cook but we wanted to see them on this blessed occasion, so going out that evening seemed to fit the bill.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of dining there, it's a Japanese steak house and they prepare the meal at your table. Our chef did a great job.

We started with fried rice and then he prepared steak, chicken and shrimp for all of us. One of the highlights of the meal is when he takes the onion before he chops it and makes a volcano with it.

The boys always like it when this takes place. We all oohed and awwwed when the steam rose out of the center of it. That's always a lot of fun. Even the "old folks" enjoyed that :-)

The previous week I completed the companion piece to my Indian so I'm including a shot here of the two of them together.

It's good to get back to the drawing board again. I got several really good photographs on our Hill Country trip that I plan on painting in the near future.
I was pleased to find out that the young man who owns a sandwich shop that we frequent called the Tin Cup is now a member at our parish. His name is Damon Carney and he is an actor. Handsome devil, isn't he, and he's as nice as he is good looking!

Be sure and watch for him in different TV series as he appears frequently on several shows such as Prison Break and Friday Night Lights.
Last Monday was opening day for the Texas Rangers, our local baseball team. Frank and two of his buddies attended the game.

I couldn't decide if they looked more like the Three Musketeers or the Three Stooges. What do you think?
Since we are in Texas and it's springtime, this is when people go to the Hill Country to see the wildflowers. In our state the song this time of year is "The Eyes of Texas are Upon the Wildflowers!"

A great place for seeing the best assortment of flowers is around Lake Buchanan near Burnet , Texas.

If you visit New England, you go "Leaf Peeping" in the fall to enjoy the fall foliage, so I guess you could call this "Bonnet Peeping" if you're in Texas. We were certainly not disappointed. We were told by the locals that due to all the rain we have had, this year was a bumper crop for the flowers.They even had these giant bluebonnets (the state flower) on the town square in Burnet.

I have included a slide show after this entry so you can enjoy some of the wonderful sights that we had the good fortune to behold.
It took us nearly 8 hours to go less than 300 miles because we stopped so many times to take photographs. Our good friends, the Sawyers went with us and we had a wonderful time.
When we finally got to Burnet we stopped for coffee at a little place on the square called Tea-Licious.

It was a darling place and they served all sorts of pastry as well as food. It was your typical tearoom fare and it was delicious. We had a piece of Coconut Cream Pie that was to die for.

The place was decorated with lots of memorabilia and they had everything for sale from teacups to homemade pickles to hand made quilts.

After we finished out little light repast, we went to the Fall Creek Winery. It had a great tasting room and we sampled all their wines and bought a few bottles as well so we could savour the moment when we got home.

When we left there we decided that it was time to find a place for lunch. We stumbled upon this little Mexican restaurant and the meal was delicious. The chile was very reminiscent of New Mexico flavors and was a welcomed surprise.

It was nearly 3:00 p.m. and they told us that they turned the lights out at 3:00 and I asked them if they quit serving then. They said no .. that they were open and still serving, they just turned the lights out. I told them that I thought that was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard of and asked to speak to the manager who was the one who made these rules. Of course, he wasn't there. After all that, they didn't turn the lights off until we left. Guess this squeaky wheel got the oil after all!

It was pretty remote and if we had not had explicit directions from the owner we would have never found the place. It was very nice and private and was high on a bluff overlooking Lake Buchanan.

We had a 2 bedroom apartment that had living and a nice balcony with a great view. That was the perfect place to enjoy cocktail hour and watch the sun go down.

Everything has been renewed, refinished and refreshed, so it was like staying in a brand new place. It was quite lovely.

The Rainbow Hearth was a combination retreat center and spa. We didn't realize when we booked it that it was mainly a place for women only. The name alone should have told us something!

All the food was organic and it was really good. We had a delightful stay even though our men were in the minority, if you get my drift. We should have figured something was a little different when we saw this sign posted at the bath house after the fact. If you double click on this notice, it will enlarge and you can read it more easily.

There was no way that I was going in their hot tub in the buff. I reserve that rite only for the privacy of my own home!
Joyce and I took a little stroll around the garden after breakfast while the boys loaded the car. We had so many snacks that we didn't eat that it took them a long time to get everything packed up!

After a delicious all organic breakfast, we checked out and headed for a river cruise on Lake Buchanan. It was really pretty much of a waste of time, but it gave us something to do.

The lake was very low as they have been in a drought the past 3 years, so we couldn't go on the river to see the waterfalls which were supposed to be the highlight of the trip. It was enjoyable but much too long. It lasted 2 hours and an hour would have been enough.

We had a totally different viewpoint of the lake from the barge and we didn't begin to get the feel of how large this lake really is until we saw it from the water.
Buchanan Dam, which is a structure over 2 miles in length, was completed in 1939. Lake Buchanan was the first of the Texas Highland Lakes to be formed, and with 22,333 acres of surface water, it is also the largest. The surface of the lake includes area in both Burnet County and Llano County. The lake is west of the city of Burnet, Texas. It's named for Representative James P. Buchanan (1867-1937) who is credited with securing the funding to build the lake and dam.
We ended up having lunch at Tea-Licious and it was really great.

We arrived home Wednesday evening around 5:00. We had a wonderful 36 hours and hope to make this same trip next year and stay 2 days. We will probably stay in Fredericksburg and take a different route to see the wildflowers from a different perspective.
I have been having a little trouble with a patch of dry skin on the back of my head (as you get older, everything seems to dry up!), so my dermatologist suggested that I put some medicated oil on it and wear a shower cap to take care of this challenge. When Frank walked in, he didn't know who I was. He thought a Quaker had invaded our house!

I also had some surgery done on my ear the same day, so I really was a mess!!!

Last night we watched the movie, "An Education". The young woman who played the lead was nominated for an Academy Award and it was a really good film. It was made in England and it was delightful. It's already out on DVD, so if you want a good film to watch without violence and car crashes, I'd recommend this one.

I'm really looking forward to tonight. We will spend the afternoon watching the Masters and then tonight is the first episode of the final season of "The Tudors".

I have seen the three previous seasons so I'm really looking forward to this season. I just hate for it to end, but poor Henry is running out of wives!
Have a great week. I'll be starting the study of Dante's Purgatory tomorrow which is the 2nd segment on the Divine Comedy. Wish me luck. It's a difficult read but I hope to learn a lot.
Until next time ... XOXO, Pcasso