Sorry I got Side Tracked!

First Foodie Friday! Because I have to show you the pictures of the macarons I made last weekend.



I took this picture before I got rid of the dimples on top. And they weren't pink but a beige/brown color, because they were flavored with pumpkin pie spice. Yum! They weren't perfect, but pretty darn good for my first time. And damn tasty filled with pumpkin white chocolate creme! Click on the name to get the recipe, and yes I will be making the salted carmel ones next. Sorry no after pictures. As soon as I filled them I toted them off to my parents to share the goodness. You're suppose to refrigerate over night to let the flavors meld together. I'm betting not many bakers do that!
So now on to the site I lost myself in this morning. Euro Antique Market is a shop with a blog, that is filled with antique's from a french market. It's located in Louisville, Kentucky. What the??? So if you can't get to France go to Kentucky. That is just too bazaar! When you click on the name it will take you to their blog that is full of all things french and wonderful. Like this





I really, really want this

See that wire bird cage, to die for!!!

On top of all that if you scroll down on the right side bar there are heading called "Boutiques with Blogs" and "Like chocolate with your coffee", with tons of other awesome blogs to check out.
And, and, they have great music to listen to while you lose yourself!

Oh for the Days of Summer!

I know I said I like curling up on the couch with a magazine in my hand, but, I keep finding these great magazines online that I can't even find at the local book store. This e-magazine is from Sweden and is clocked full of great pictures.

I have no idea, but it must be summer there because all the photo's look like it. Which is really making me envious as I sit here on a blistery fall day, knowing that I'll have to wait a good 8 months before I see days like that here. Just typing that makes me want to cry! Happy thoughts, happy thoughts! Pumpkins, long winter naps, warm bowls of homemade soup, Oh and NO yard work. OK I'm better now!
Click here to go to the editors blog it's pretty fantastic too!

This is HIL_AR_IOUS!!!!

This just cracks me up! Again, click on video to see it full size.
Ok for you people out there that don't watch TV (you know who you are) Watch the 2nd video 1st!

Very Happy Belated (sorry) Birthday Shout Out!

I think it's important to celebrate birthdays. It's the one important day to show the person you care for you are ever so happy that they were born. Yesterday I got very busy at work so I did not get to do a shout out for a very special birthday (I apologies for that). Special because I'm ever so happy that she was born.
1. Because she's the best Mom ever.
2. I wouldn't be here if not for her.
Not only that but I wouldn't be the person I am today if not for her. Because she taught me how to be a strong, imaginative, independent, stop and smell the flowers women.
Growing up I was not very good at school. Or ever actually. Little know fact #1... I flunked third grade. She never yelled, or said she was disappointed in me. She just asked me if I did the best that I could. When school started again in the fall, all of us kids went to a different school. Was that because she knew all the kids would pick on me? Little known fact #2... I was very shy as a little girl, kids picked on me.
We were poor and we weren't like all the other kids. But we were clean and we were happy and we had each other. Which leads me to the best thing my Mom taught me and my brothers and sisters. Embrace your individuality. Be who you are, and be proud of who you are, don't change for anyone. It's our differences that make us interesting. Yes school/work is important, do the best you can. Other things are important too, like being kind and caring, love the little things in life. Work hard, stand strong for what you believe, be fair, honest and respectful. But don't forget to dance and be silly and make yourself laugh because that's just as important to get you through life.
Thanks Mom and a very Happy Birthday to you!

Oh what a weekend! (sung like "Oh what a night")

Man what a great weekend I had!
It all started by buying some beads Friday after work. I got out at 1:00 and drove to the city to buy some beads from my friend who just opened City Beads.

Cute logo huh?! A percentage of the profits goes to promoting scientific research for women's health, BONUS!
Wow, I was like a kid in a candy store (surprize). She has a ton of seed beads not to mention crystals and aiko's and pearls Oh my! And so many colors I've never seen before. Oh how I love color!
I have a bag that I carry with me when I know I'm going to a bead store that has about 8 tubes of beads that I'd like to buy more of, if I can find them, bag empty!! Some of those tubes I've been trying to get more of for years! So thank you Lisa for having such a great selection of beads! You can also click here to go to her blog, she just started, but is planning to inform us about all that is new and exciting at City Beads. I was too much of a magpie to think about taking pictures, next time for sure!
I took the expressway all the way home, by myself, for the first time ever! Guess I all grown up now.
Saturdays anticipated class at Sur la Table was wonderful, the chef Kathy Skutecki was full of tricks and tips as well as funny!
It just so happens that one of the tricks is to let your egg whites stand at room temperature for three days!!
I guess the yolk is what goes bad. Well we ate our batch's and I'm still here to talk (type) about it. So I guess that's OK.

Good looking cookies (not mine), nice "foot" (thats the rough edge on the bottom)

Unfortunately that means I have to wait a few days to get my macaron on :-D We'll see how it goes, the class actually made me more nervous about making them, they are so finicky.

Stir too much, bad, stir too little, bad. Cook too much, bad. Cook too little, bad. It's a very precise thing. For me as long as there edible, there good!
The class broke up into 3 groups, each group making 2 kinds of macarons. Our group made Chocolate with white chocolate ganache fillling and rose extract with raspberry jam buttercream.

Here's a picture of our groups batch's. We switched up the filling and put the raspberry buttercream in to some of the chocolate shells, OMG, I will be making those again!
Once again I took the expressway 50 miles west for the first time, all by myself!! I felt so independent this weekend going here and there alone. Alone but not lonely, just like when I was single. Not that I want to be single again, I love the DH more than ever. It's just nice to know I'm still the independent women I was before, I just need to get off my butt and go!

Foodie Friday!

I am so looking forward to my class tomorrow at Sur la Table, I can hardly stand it! As a matter of fact I plan on thawing some of my egg whites, leftover from my ice-cream recipes, when I get home from work because I know I will be making this flavor on Sunday!



Lavender with vanilla bean cream filling!!! Justt look at that color! Oh yes! My mind is spinning with all the wonderful flavor combinations I could make! Peanut butter, pumpkin, coffee...the list is never ending.
In other foodie news, if I can tear myself away from cookie making, pardon me, "french" cookie making, I'd also like to make lentil soup this weekend. I have a big ham bone in the freezer and I think that space might be better suited for Ice-cream!!!

I was thrilled yesterday when I had an email from Beads East announcing new kits.

Thrilled because if you remember back in January I wanted to take this class at Bead and Button but it was too expensive!

Well I just purchased the pattern from Bead Pattern Central (Bead Easts Sister Company)

For $12 and I got to download it immediately!

The necklace pattern is by Melissa Grakowsky a very talented bead artist. And I must say this pattern is brilliant!

I just had to start it before I went to bed last night, which of course made me dream about all the things I can do with ferns one of my favorite things in the whole world!

Biggest Loser!

Oh my, oh my! My boss quit! I'm doing the happy dance!!!

No more whining and trash talking everything and everybody all day long!

And those are his good qualities! Hell I might just like coming to work again :-)

Indian Summer!

The weather in the midwest was glorious this weekend. In the 80's both days! We worked outside in the yard on Saturday, cleaning out the shed so all the accoutrements of summer would fit back in. The DH found three dead mice under a pot. He was amazed at the three different degrees of skeleton disintegration, I was just glad that they were in the shed and not in my house!
Sunday we started the day by going to the gym per-usual. Then back home for a nice hearty breakfast. We then decided since there's most likely not going to be more warm, sunny days like that we'd go Geo-Caching. Geo-Caching is finding and/or leaving small items in the woods or basically outside,anywhere in the world, for you and others to find. These items have a longitude and latitude the the site give you, or you give that info to the site if your leaving a cache. So you will need a GPS, but now days most phones have them. (Would you ever have imagined THAT when you were in high school!?)
We went to a Forest Preserve close to home,


looking for the same one's that the DH and "Big T" looked for when he was in town. The first two were fairly easy. Specially with me being the "gumshoe" that I am and realizing that leaves would be covering up the cache, since they were last there. And sure enough there it was in the middle of a tree stump covered with leaves! The third one, we were not so lucky. Each cache on the website gives you a description and sometimes a little background. The third one said that the x,y coordinates would bring you to a "bird castle" and from that it would give you the next set of coordinates.
Well, after cutting through the woods scrunched down so as not get scratched up by them, we came upon this

cool burnt out tree stump, but not a "bird castle"!

We did manage to kick up this HUGE bird! Not sure if it was a hawk or a turkey vulture. Though it doesn't look it in the picture, like I said it was HUGE!

We continued in the direction the GPS was telling us, only to be out of the wood and next to a railroad tracks! What the??? Across the tracks we went (it is an adventure after all) only to see this!


No matter how much I like a good adventure I do not like wading in swap water! Especially if it's only getting me half way there.

The only way we'll find it is if we wait till winter, late into winter so we know the swamp is truly frozen. You may not know I'm a "gumshoe" or that I'm a super hero, but if you know anything about me you know I HATE winter! So I might as well just forget about it cause that is not going to happen.

We could see the road from where we stood and decided to walk the tracks back instead of getting cut up by the brush and weeds.


We were no sooner off the tracks when a train came!


Thats right, I live for adventure!!!

Foodie Friday and Then Some

I forgot to mention in my last post that when we were at the Wisconsin Cutlery and Kitchen Supply store we purchased a boning knife! What a beauty. Used it on Tuesday to take the "silver skin" off a tenderloin, it was like slicing butter!

Click here to check them out on Amazon. Great knife for a small price.
The other thing we did on our long weekend was drive to Sur La Table to sign up for a cooking class.
It's a hour drive, and a little pricey for a class, but I'm going to learn how to make these little beauties!

French Macaroons!!!
And what's even better is I can make them with all the left-over egg whites from when I make ice cream! Your probably thinking, what so hard about making cookies. Well I've read a few blogs in my day and people say they are finicky little bugger's, so I'm hoping taking this class will take all the worry out of it for me. Then I'll get together with the other cooks in my family and teach them how to make them. Cause really, who wouldn't want small, low cal, flavorful pillows of smiles in there repertoire!
And maybe we'll make this first.

Hate to eat only cookies all day :-D

Guest of the Day, Day Two!

When we last left our hero's... and we are, really, we are super hero's, shh don't tell!
Sunday morning we started the day by going to the "Governor's Club" for a light breakfast. It was full so we got trays and brought it back to our room, which was even better cause we got to watch TV, and surf the net for direction for where we wanted to play that day.
First stop was Olbrich Botanical Gardens, and I must say it's pretty impressive for $1 admission!!! Hell $10  would be more like it. It's huge. First we when into the conservatory that houses over 650 plants. It's like a rain forest in there! Warm and very humid. Made up for the cold and wind the day before.

They had a pond with Koi fish in it. So far my wish has come true!

 And you should definitely click on this photo to see the pitcher plants close up!

This was one of the amazing planter's they had around the grounds.

There was this adorable topiary of bears with a bowl of honey. Can you see the small bear on the right side?

 Really nice hanging plants.

We could of easily of spent another hour there, but back to the hotel we went for our late check-out.
Next we drove to Orange Tree Imports. Actually we got there and realized it was a store we'd (and when I say we I mean I) would spend a good hour in, they recommended Jac's for lunch, so we went there first to fuel up. What a quaint place. If I owned a restaurant I would like it to be just like this. Old building, wood floors, small bar on one side, great food, friendly service. It was perfect! Awesome burger with the best frites!!! Frites NOT fries, and if you don't know the difference you should not die without finding that out! Trust me on this one! DH had the crab cake benedict, all I can say is OMG, who ever came up with that one, brilliant!!! Sorry I know it's not Foodie Friday but I just had to get that off my chest.

Back to Orange Tree what a spectacular place! They must of had 25 kinds of spatula's, and bakeware and cooking ware and, and, and, if you cook, you'd love this place. They even have cooking classes. While we were there, a class just started on how to make fresh pasta. We both grinned when we heard the teacher say "Oh lets have a glass of wine while we cook"! Yes ma'am, Sunday afternoon cooking class is the way to go!
Next on the list was Wisconsin Cutlery and Kitchen Supply store. Completely different from Orange Tree, oriented for the restaurant business. The main reason I want to go is because they sharpen knifes and I wanted to find out the best way to sharpen my Global knife.

And you will not believe me when I tell you, we (and when I say we I mean the DH) can keep that baby sharp for $4.99! That's right a 2 sided sharpening stone will do the trick.
I need to mention that I never could see spending the big money on cooking knifes, I thought that my cheap Target buys were just as good. Listen to me, I was wrong, so wrong. (sing that like Patsy Cline)
If you cook you should absolutely invest in a restaurant quality knife. And keep it sharp with an inexpensive sharpening stone!

Click here to go to Amazon to get you one

Damn, it's even less than what we paid!
OK, where was I? Oh we had a hour or two before we needed to head back downtown for supper. Most of the shops would be closing soon, lucky for us there was a Border's Books right across the street.
Everybody knows that's the best place to kill time.
The nice women at the front desk at the hotel had given us a pass so we could park for free at the hotel and walk to the restaurant. How nice was she! (it turns out she's a fellow foodie :)
Dinner was at the Icon Tapas Bar. Good food you know how we love tapas! And wine was half price! Lucky me I wasn't driving home! But the whole 50's music and paintings of Elvis and Marilyn were odd. What's in a name? Right!
Well I've gone on and on, you'll just have to wait for Foodie Friday to hear what we did on our day off, Monday! And yes surprise, surprise it's food related!

Guest of the Day! Day One

Well our long weekend in Madison was a blast! It all started with chocolate croissants (from Trader Joe's) and Sweet Maria's coffee! We left for Madison around 9:00 arriving around 11. We went to the front desk of the Madison Concourse Hotel to see if we could check-in early and found out we were chosen to be the "Guest for the Day"! Which meant an upgraded room, access to the "Governor's Club" that included:

• Private key-access floors
• Complimentary continental breakfast, top-shelf cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and desserts in the Governor’s Club Lounge
• Complimentary wireless Internet access
• 42” flat screen TV
• Compact refrigerator
• Granite top furniture
• Spacious bathroom with a glass walk-in shower
• Comfort Collection™ bedding and bath towels
• Terrycloth robes
• Complimentary in-room bottled water during turndown
• LodgeNet Digital Interactive TV system offering hit movies, DIRECTV® Sports, digital music, games and more
• Turndown service

I know! WOW!
Here's a picture of the room,

ours wasn't facing the Capital, it was facing Lake Mendota which was nice too.
So after we jumped up and down on the bed we commenced to "the square" for the Farmer's Market! OK we didn't really jump on the bed, but we could of we were so flabbergasted at our good fortune!
The farmer's market was wonderful. We walked around to check out the prices and see all what the vendor's had to offer. I bought some fingerling potatoes and some purple carrots!!! I've seen them on TasteSpotting and now I have some of my own! Bought some jerky for my brother for his b-day that's coming up. He's a persnickety one, but I've never seen him past on homemade jerky! Oh I also bought a handful of "cosmo" flowers, a handful for $3!!!!!! I gave them to the wonderful women at the front desk of the hotel that helped us, she was also the one that picked our name for "quest of the day". The price's at the farmer's market were really good compared to the one's in Barrington, I was surprised though, that most of the vegetable vendors were asian.
Next we walked around State Street. Popped into Pop Deluxe and bought some cool gifts. Bought some cool paper and more gifts at a scrapbook store. Bought a sweater for $36 at one of those hippie type shops, I know it won't last long but it will be fun to wear until it starts to fall apart. The DH was so nice acting like a "girlfriend" as I ooh'd and aah'd at everything, and just shopping with me in general. It could of been that he was just grateful to step out of the wind, because it was coming off the lake with a good clip! But he told me he was having fun looking at all the unique things too, and I believe him!!!
We when back to the hotel around 4:00. Took a short snooze before dressing for dinner. Ok DH snoozed, my mind was whirling with all the fun we had! And we'd only been there 5 hours!!!
We used our special "gold" card to go upstairs to the "Governor's Club" for FREE cocktails! We each had 2 cosmopolitans, they were small, plus we were walking to the restaurant. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
Dinner was at "Restaurat Muramoto". We were a little confused how to order at first, then we realized it was like a japanese tapa's restaurant. The first thing we had was kobe tartar with a raw quail egg. Wow, now I see what my dad means when he told me that fresh eggs taste so much better that the ones you buy at the store. It was one of the favorite things we had there.

"My" second favorite thing was fried sweetbreads with apple puree and apple chips. This may not seem like a big deal to you, unless you know what a "sweetbread" is.
It's the pancreas of a pig or lamb under one years old. That died of natural causes. OK I don't know that for sure, I don't know if it was lamb or pig either. I do know if you ate it without anyone telling you, you would say thank you may I have another, cause it is delicious! It tasted like really tender italian sausage. Really, tender "expensive" italian sausage, which is why I tried it as a small plate, that and because I wasn't sure I'd like it. I was also surprised I ate the fish eggs that were peppered around the rolls that we ordered. OK, OK "caviar"! All I know is the first time I ever saw "caviar" was when my dad would gut the coho salmon he caught. If you would of told me then that someday I would eat it and like it, well I probably would of stomped on your foot and called you a snaggle toothed liar, and now I'd have to join facebook so I could find you and apologize.
On the walk back to our hotel the Capital building was lite up like a christmas tree, unfortunately the batteries died on my phone so no picture. (It looked just like it does in the first photo of the room, so click on that to enlarge it.) It's OK though cause on the way to the restaurant I got in this shot for JW.

Tesla Roadster! An electric car, the car of JW's dreams. It is a beauty, and as you can see they have beautiful men in Madison too!
Day Two tomorrow!

Foodie Friday!!!

Before I talk about food I've made or want to make, I have to tell you about what I saw driving home from work yesterday. And YES it is food related!
It's something that will put a smile on everybody's face.
It's big and yellow and orange.
Can you guess what it is?
No? Here's the best hint, the license plate reads ..... YUMMY!
You know don't you! It's the ...

WEINERMOBILE!!!
Seriously can you not smile and wave when you drive past that! I know I did!
And "YUMMY" for the license plate, that just cracks me up! If you'd like you can read more about it here.
In other foodie news this week I took the recipe for mushroom lasagna,

and the recipe for butternut squash lasagna,

and made mushroom and butternut squash lasagna! The best of both and man was it tasty!
I also made this Plum and Raspberry Crumble, from the Barefoot Contessa, who I call my Julia Childs.
As much as I like to try new recipes some of Julia's are a little too fussy for me. Ina Garten's, (otherwise know as the Barefoot Contessa), recipes are updated versions that still have lots of flavor. She's my go to girl! Her an Giada De Laurentiis. Almost all of their recipes are exceptional.
As a matter of fact I'm combining the two again and using Ina's Roast Chicken recipe but with Giada's Roast Game Hen flavors for supper tonite! YUMMY!

I'm not getting older, I'm getting wiser

Years ago when I first started listening to NPR I thought, am I really starting to listen to "old peoples" radio?! Not being able to stand all the chatter and commercials on my music stations anymore I made the switch. Though I thought at the time "I"m too young to be listening to old folks radio" the stories and the lack of commercials kept me coming back. Today I can say I am smarter and more informed because of it. Not being much of a political or a business savvy person, I can now hold my own talking to the DH who IS both of those! (not to mention cute)
This morning they were interviewing John Vaillant the author of the book "The Tiger". What an incredible, true story! I can't wait to read the whole book! It's a story about a tiger that stalks and tracks the man who shot him and stole his food. Now I'm not a hunter nor do I play one on TV, but I would think rule number one, if you shoot a tiger, make sure it's dead! Rule number two never, never, never take food away from an "un" dead tiger!

The story then continues with the head of the anti-poaching unit who finds himself setting out to hunt the same animal he's suppose to protect. Sound exciting doesn't it! Here's the Amazon link to read more, or buy if you so choose. Plus how can you not resist a book who's first sentence is "HANGING IN THE TREES, AS IF CAUGHT THERE, IS A SICKLE OF A MOON." Now really!
As a bonus when I was at Amazon I looked up the other books Vaillant has written, first novel, "The Golden Spruce" about a ex-logger turned environmentalist who chops down a one of a kind tree, the only one of it kind in fact, to protest the destruction of the old growth forest in British Columbia. He then vanishes. Not disappears, vanishes... that my friends is a word of a good writer.
Now you know how much I love trees, including the ones that are vomiting acorns all over our lawn right now, (this of course would be different if I was the one raking). So it looks like I'll be buying both of Mr. Vaillant's books! I may just splurge and actually read, instead of listening to it on CD while I bead. Fall is the perfect season, after all, to curl up and read a good book.

Artist I admire!

Bead and Button just published the link to last years "Bead Dreams" participants. Once your at that site click on the top right "next" button to see all of them (and as always click to enlarge). Some artists use beads some use metal and some use clay or glass. All are are juried to get in. All have spent a lot of time making each pieces (hence the "NOT"). Here are a few of my favorites.

Yukiko Yamamoto

The ever colorful Suzanne Golden

This is something I have thought of doing myself chain maille with beads,
 but just didn't have 5 years of my life to spare! Artist: Lynn Davy

This piece won first place, and though it was amazing
(the watch over the heart really works)! I talked to
Diane Hyde at the show and she showed me a piece
that got rejected and it was so much more amazing
that this one.

This artist is one of my all time favorite. I went to her booth at Bead and Button first, thinking I'd get my pick of the pretties before the whole world got there, only to find out I couldn't afford them. What was I thinking?! Hours of details are carved into metal clay, that's right it's made out of clay, (metal clay to be exact) that, when put in a kiln, burns away the clay leaving .99 percent silver. Pretty cool huh! Luckily I could afford some of her pieces parts. Stay tuned to see what I do with them. Oh, the artists name is Christi Anderson.