I collect Temp-tations by Tara and the Harvest collection is kind of neat.   The above tea set is usually $49.00 but right now it’s on sale for $24.00 with free shipping on the Temp-tations website.

I collect the blue Old World pattern and would love to add that to my collection while it is on sale.

I really like the Craftsy courses that you can take online.  There about 3000 courses to choose from and they keep adding courses all the time.  I got a new Kitchenaid food processor and I am definitely taking the above course.

I have a beautiful sewing machine that does all the embroidery stitches.   I am defintitely taking the Craftsy course that teaches how to use all those embroidery stitches in a quilt.   The course makes a pillow and a quilt.

I also want to take the Craftsy course to learn how to knit like a master.  I love it.

Then they have Scott Conant who is on the Food Network and has an Italian Restaurant in New York City teach a course on Pasta on a Craftsy course.

It’s called Pasta Like A Pro.   I’m taking that course for sure.

 

And then the Chef that teaches at King Arthur Flour Courses has a bread, scone and jam course that I am going to take.

Each one of these courses costs anywhere from $40.00 to $67.00 but they are all on a special price right now for about half price.   Plus Sigurd said that he would pay for me to take the special that they have to sign up for a year and take any of the 3000 courses that I want for a year.   I love, love, love it.  After bills and food, I have no money left, so this means a lot to me and I really love being able to do these awesome courses.   Anyone can learn a lot from them.  I already have the King Arthur Flour Pizza course as well as their rolls course.   It’s about $125.00 for each of those courses if you take them at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, VT.  Martha Stewart taught one of the courses last year at King Arthur Flour and the class sold out really fast and only a few got to take that course.

There is also a course on Craftsy on how to make the most of your Pressure Cooker.   I don’t have a pressure cooker, but in case I want one in the future, I would like to see how they work and what you can make with them.

My little Grandson turns 2 on next Monday and I made him a birthday card.  He loves Chuggington and I found the above to put on the front of the photo card.  Then it had “Happy Birthday in a fancy gold font and I personalized it with his name.  On the inside I had a photo of him that was really cute and then a photo of him with his whole family that I took when they were visiting one time.  And I wrote a personal message to him.   It came out so cute and you would never be able to find one like it anywhere.  It was a lot of searching and work but worth every bit of effort I put in it.  I did it by using photo cards on line at Walgreens and they have a local store where I could pick it up today.

I had the panel material to make the above quilt for my little grandson, but I bought one all made on Etsy for him.   I hope that he likes it.

I have a slow cooker and have only used it once.  I have a ton of recipes on my Pinterest Crock Pot board.  My daughter in law puts a whole chicken in her slow cooker and makes a roast chicken that is really, really good.  I found some recipes for the slow cooker chicken and put them on my crock pot board on my Pinterest.

I love French foods and I have pinned all kinds of French Recipes on my Pinterest French Recipes board.

I like to try diets and the above is what my good intentions usually pan out like.  Oh well.

I love Taco Pizza and I found a recipe that uses refrigerated dough biscuits for the little individual pizzas.  I pinned the recipe on my refrigerated dough board on my Pinterest.

And that’s my inspirations and ideas for today.

I love how the Woodstock Inn decorates their front entrance for different seasons.

In December Woodstock has a “Waisal” weekend and they have caroling and everyone dresses up in old-fashion clothes.  There is a parade and all kinds of events for a whole weekend.

I love Burpee seeds anyways and they have a contest where you can win a beautiful advent calendar that isn’t available to be sold, but is exclusive.  You just have to write in a comment on their facebook page what new seeds that they have that you would like to plant and why.  They will choose a winner.

I chose the Candy Mountain sunflower.   I love sunflowers anyways and the color in that Candy Mountain variety is just beautiful.   Plus it is a cutting flower and I love how they bring sunlight into your home when you arrange them in a vase.  There all kinds of new seeds to choose from.

I love soft throws and the above throw is from Walmart.  It’s called Comfortable cuddlings and it costs only $9.98.  I think that it is a must have.

Another product that I want to get is the OXO herb keeper.  I have an OXO container that I keep lettuce in that is a different shape then the above, but the same idea and I love it.  It works really well and when I buy baby greens or kale, that container keeps the produce fresh for over a week or so.

I really like King Arthur Flour.  They have a recipe on their website for Chocolate Mousse Cake that is an award winning recipe.  I pinned the recipe on my Cake board on my Pinterest.

Then they have what they call “bundles” for everything that you need to make for example Harvest Grains bread.  Their products are like the best of the best for baking.

Their thermapen is on sale right now at 15% off.  It’s very expensive, but would be a nice tool to have for the kitchen.  Especially if you like to do roasts and need to get the exact temperature to tell when it’s done.

And then the Vermont Maple rolling pin and the mat to roll out pie dough is something that I have on my wish list.

On QVC they had the above makeup organizer and I just could not resist it.  Everything was on like 5 or 6 easypays a few days ago and even I can afford $4.00 a month for a few months.   I saw it last year and didn’t get it.  So when I saw it again, I just could not help myself.  I just love it as all the clutter on my counter in the bathroom is all organized now.  It spins around so you can see where everything is.  Besides that, I got that “today’s special” which was 5 products from IT Cosmetics that included a $58.00 makeup brush and the whole gift box with all 5 products was under $50.00 on their special and on 5 easy pays, which is really nice.   I have two of IT Cosmetics makeup brushes and they are the best brushes I have ever seen.   And their makeup is all they say it is.   Really works nice.  Twice I have gotten their products when they were on special and if you buy them in a regular store, you pay 3 times what they are on the QVC specials.

I like the above sweater from Nordstrom.  It’s just classic and never goes out of style.  I like the black one because it’s slimming and also very warm.

Then  a white one  goes with everything.

And a green one for the Christmas season.  Just those 3 sweaters could be mixed and matched to make a lot of outfits.

Victoria’s Secret had a sale on PJ’s that included a neat pair of slippers on special for $39.00, which is a good deal because the slippers alone were $28.00.

I liked the lounge set above as well as the red knit pj’s.  They had all kinds of styles to choose from.

I saw the above in my facebook feed and it made me smile.

I like Le Creuset pots and the above cookbook must have some really good recipes in it for using Le Creuset pots.  As you know, the Le Creuset are castiron but covered over with enamel, and they work really nice and are easy to clean.  Anything I have ever made in my Le Creuset comes out perfect.  The French really know what they are doing when it comes to cooking.  And the Le Creuset are worth every cent that they cost because that enamel doesn’t come off.  It’s on there forever.

The next pot that I want to get is the braising pot above.  It’s like an every day pan that really comes in handy.

I would also love all three of the above.  To me, they are a home cooks dream.  I can’t afford all of them, so what I have is a 3.75 quart Le Creuset pot with a handle and it has a grill pan for a cover.  I just love it as I make homemade soups in it a lot and the grill pan comes in handy.

 

On Google yesterday you could click on to see a tour of the Space Station.  It gave me goosebumps and flip flops in my stomach.  That little rocket in the bottom window is like a lifeboat to take them back to earth in an emergency.

So beam me up, Scottie.   Over and out for now.

 

 

 

 

In Grantham, NH they have a Yankee Barn model home and the above is part of the kitchen with like a little greenhouse breakfast nook on the side of it.   I just adore that idea.  It’s so sunny and just cozy.  That model home is called the Gathering Yankee Barn Home.  It’s very expensive and has all the extras but still an awesome dream house.

There is a loft with open beams and the fireplace is two-sided with the other side in the dining room.  I love a field stone fireplace.

The above is the Yankee Barn home cottage.   It is smaller then their model home that they have in Grantham but the great room is on this side of the home with that huge window.  There is a loft with the open beams and cathedral ceilings.   I love the farm house porch on the front.  I love everything about the Yankee Barn homes and the one called Craftsbury Cottage is my favorite of all favorites which is a modular but everything quality in it.

I would start with this home in a nice location because location is everything in Real Estate.  The fireplace and kitchen would be the extras that would just be worth every cent it cost in my opinion and the breakfast nook.   It would just be on a smaller scale then the model home but would make the home affordable as well as awesome.

I thought that the balcony was on the back of the house, but the house plan  shows the master bedroom on the side of the house in the loft with french doors to a balcony.  And there is a screened in porch on the back.   You would never guess this was a modular home and affordable.   It looks like something that people from down country come up here in the mountains and build where money is no object to them.

 

 

One of my favorite fashion bloggers,  had 15 outfits ideas to wear for Thanksgiving.  I liked the above idea.

I liked the above idea, also.  The ankle boots and white sweater are kind of neat.

The above pocketbook is really classy looking and is sort of like the Hermes Birkin bag that costs $24,000.00.   The above pocketbook is like $300.00 and I would not pay that for a pocketbook.   I like leather pocketbooks, but never pay more then like $60.00 for them at the most.  But I like the look and style of those pocketbooks.  I don’t like pretense, but I love a classy look.   When I was much younger, I wanted the best and always thought that you get what you pay for.  But not always I realize in my more mature years.   When you search and read reviews, it’s amazing what you can learn and find.

Above is the Birkin Bag that is from France.  It costs $24,000.00, but I have seen a lot of pocketbooks that are lookalikes for under $100.00.   Neiman Marcus has a bag that looks like the Birkin for $2000.00.   It might even be a Birkin, but not one of the most expensive ones.  Martha Stewart has a Birkin.

I like nice things but would not waste money even if I could.   And I can’t even if I wanted to.  Oh well.

I like to watch the Food Network on Saturday mornings.  There were a couple of Barefoot Contessa shows and Ina Garten had a couple of neat Thanksgiving table settings.  She had pumpkin cookies with names on them for place settings.

Then Ina had orange tulips and clementines plus orange napkins and little white candle votive on one of the table settings.  She got the tulips at the grocery store.  She said she bought the pumpkin cookies from Eli’s bakery and then wrote names on them.

Ina’s second table had table runners going horizontal on the table instead of vertical.  Then she had caramel filled chocolates with sea salt on top that were from France and tangerines and white candle votives down the center of the table.

Then Ina’s 3rd table idea was for a round table and she had a Fall flower arrangement in the middle

Craftsy has an on line class to make embroidered pillows and quilts using a sewing machine.  I have those embroider stitches on my machine but I have never used them.   The class is usually $40.00, but right now it’s $19.00.   Love that on line class.  Craftsy has just amazing classes for on line.

My favorite shopping place is now Aldi’s.   They have quality produce, organic and specialty foods at affordable prices.  I got some of their Friendly Farms cheddar cheese there and it was the best cheese I ever bought.  And it was only $1.49.  They offer organic produce and their Kale Salad Blends are only $2.49 at the Aldi’s I went to.  Their 3 pack yellow, red and green peppers, mini cukes, red grapes, sweet potatoes, carrots, avocados and seasonal berries, melons, apples, pears and clementines are really a bargain and always fresh.  Their canned goods are like .50 or .60 cents and their fit and active line which has products with reduced sodium, fat and/or calories at a few cents more.  All their organic foods are a $1.00 less then regular grocery stores and they have coveted USDA organic labels on them.  Their chicken sausage varieties are mostly fully cooked and $2.99 for 4 sausage and free from preservatives.  Their whole wheat bread is only $1.79 and they have specialty breads.  Their refrigerated cheese tortellini is really good.   Also their nut butters are at a great price.  You know how expensive Almond butter is at like $7.00 to $9.00.   At Aldi’s it’ $4.99.   Their Quinoa is $3.49 for a 16 oz package.  I could go on and on.  I do not have an Aldi’s really close but it’s worth a once a week trip down Int. 91 to Brattleboro or down rt 12 to Keene, NH.

Today it is cloudy and chilly outside.  At least it’s not snowing here yet.  Have a wonderful day.

 

 

 

 

I like to watch the Food Network cook shows.  The above goat cheese rolls look kind of festive.  One of the rolls is rolled in dill and the other one is rolled in cranberries and pistachios.  The recipe is from the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.  I don’t particulary like goat cheese.  The French call it Chevre or something like that.  But it just has a taste that I have not acquired the taste for.

On the same episode of the Pioneer Woman, Ree had pomegranate juice and Champagne that also looked festive.  The recipes are all on the Food network website.  I love pomegranate juice and I love Champagne.  What’s not to like?   Yum.

I have read that tumeric is supposed to be very good for you.  The above smoothie sounds like it would be tasty as well as healthy.

Avon has the above 80 mini lipsticks for $30.00.  These lipsticks are on Oprah’s Favorite Things list this year.  It’s like a sample of all of Avon’s lipsticks I think.  Kind of neat.  I like Avon and sold it a couple of times as an Avon Representative.   I had a sister in law that bought a lot of it and a bunch of girls at work that bought a lot of it.  The problem was that I was my own best customer.

I like Butternut Squash soup.   A really easy recipe that I made up is just using that frozen butternut squash that comes in a little square block.  I put half a cup of milk and half a cup of chicken broth in a saucepan with the frozen squash.   Then I just add a little apple sauce and a little maple syrup.  Stir it over medium heat and it’s really delicious.  Melt a pad of butter over it and salt and pepper to taste.

I’ve never seen that Keller’s butter in the grocery stores around here, but what a neat idea for the Thanksgiving table to have the turkey butter sculpture.  I love it.

This morning on the food network Damaris Phillips made Pumpkin Brulee.   Instead of regular sugar for the brulee part, she used brown sugar.  Sounds good to me.  I pinned the recipe on my Thanksgiving ideas board on my Pinterest.  I would like to get one of those little cooking torches that they use to make brulee.

 

Today on the Food network, Ina Garten made stuffed mushrooms.  She used Marlo Wine and Sweet Italian Sausage and shallots for a few of the ingredients.  They sounded really good and I pinned the recipe on my Thanksgiving ideas board on my Pinterest but the recipe is also on the food network website.  You just go to the TV schedule and all the programs that were on Saturday, Nov. 18 are there with the recipes from one of her shows.  She has a couple of episodes there.

Ina Garten made place settings from pumpkin cookies that she bought at Eli’s Bakery on one of her shows today.

King Arthur Flour used to have a really cute pumpkin cookie cutter that would work good for that.

One year I had the whole family over for Thanksgiving and I made my own place settings.  I found the format for the place setting online and used the photo center online from Walmart to print out 4X6 photos of it and then just folded them in half and wrote names on them.  I surprised myself on how cute they turned out.

In Maine they have a lot of whoopie pies and my brother and his wife live in New Hampshire right on the border of Maine.  His wife makes him the above whoopie pies in the Fall and he loves them.  I put several recipes for the pumpkin whoopie pies on my pinterest under Fall recipes.  The recipe with the maple cream cheese frosting sounds really good.

Today on the Pioneer Woman show on Food Network, Ree made Giblet Turkey Gravy.  I can’t make gravy anyways and I hate that horrible bag that is always in the frozen Turkey that they call giblets.  But all she did was boil those giblets for 30 minutes and it looked like pieces of turkey in the gravy.  I don’t know.  It doesn’t look all that complicated when they show how to make the gravy but it just is not that easy to me.  They use the turkey drippings and a little flour to make a rue.  Then they add a couple of cups of chicken broth and stir it to make gravy.

I noticed that the important part of roasting a turkey is to let it rest for about 20 minutes before carving it.  I noticed that they do several different ways of preparing the turkey such as dry rubs, brining and herb butter under the skin as well as rubbing the butter all over the skin.   Then they stuff the cavity with lemon, onions and garlic and all kinds of herbs instead of stuffing.  The temperature has to be 160 degrees when the turkey is done.  Also a frozen turkey has to be thawed in the refrigerator on the lowest shelf with a sheet pan under it for one day for every 4 lbs the turkey weighs.

I watch so many cook shows.  And I’ve seen a ton of ways that a turkey is prepared.  Most of them baste the turkey quite a bit during roasting.  I love roast turkey.  And then the leftovers.  Nothing like a turkey sandwich or Leftover Turkey Tetrazzini.

And that’s my thoughts for today.  Have a nice weekend.

I love Pfalzgraff Plymouth dinnerware.   Right now they have a service for 8 on sale for $179.00.   Then they have a 25% off coupon and free shipping for anything over $49.00.  What a beautiful table that would make for Thanksgiving.  The sale includes a turkey platter and a vegetable dish.   So nice.

But my Mom had this beautiful Victorian set of dishes that had 24 karat gold around the rims that were my Aunt Marion’s dishes and my Grandmother actually sold them to my Mom.  They were like a burgandy rose print and my Mom loves dishes anyways and just adored that set.  She always got it out of the China closet at Thanksgiving.  We had Thanksgiving dinner in the dining room and we had a Victorian type dining room table and the sideboard that matched the set was always just loaded with all kinds of  Thanksgiving food.

The above is the type of Thanksgiving that I remember as a kid.  There was always a huge turkey and all the fixings.

I like what my Mom called a “sideboard”.

 

I just adore the wreath from the Plymouth Collection that is marked down to $29.00 from $69.00.   Plus there is the coupon for 25% off from the $29.00.   Soooo beautiful to have.  I could just see that on our door for Fall and on Thanksgiving day.

I love cranberry sauce that has orange zest in it.  The above recipe is as follows:

12 oz. pkg of fresh or frozen cranberries

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup orange juice with pulp

1/2 cup of water

l.  In a medium sauce pan, dissolve sugar in 1/2 cup water and half of orange juice over medium low heat.

2.  Then add cranberries and return to gentle boil for 10 minutes.

3. Remove from heat.

4.  Let sauce cool

5. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Note:   Sauce thickens as it cools.  Garnish with fresh orange zest for presentation.

Maybe have a can of the regular cranberry sauce and some of the above cranberry sauce would be just right to have on the table.

A nice relish tray is always colorful and nice to have.

I like the above Antique looking relish tray.  My Mom had one like that with the dividers in it and she would have celery, pickles, olives and cheese in it.

 

For a nice wine, the above wine can be found at Aldi’s or Trader Joes and it won an award for the best wine in the world.  The really good part is that it only costs $8.00.

My son loves Indian Pudding.   It’s an old New England recipe and I pinned that recipe on my Thanksgiving ideas on Pinterest.

The Pioneer Woman has a mashed potatoes recipe that has cream cheese in it and sounds like it might be good.  I pinned the link to the recipe on my veggie recipe board on my Pinterest.

I’ve always had a hard time making gravy.   There really is a trick to it and you have to have one of those special separator pitchers that separates the fat in the turkey drippings.  To tell the truth, I used to just buy that turkey gravy in a jar at the grocery store.

 

One of my favorite sides for Thanksgiving is butternut squash with melted butter.  Even I don’t have a problem with making that.  Although it is not easy peeling the butternut squash.  The easiest way is one of those little tools that just scrapes the peeling off with the thin blade.

Parker House rolls are always traditional to have at Thanksgiving.  My grandmother used to always make those and bring them to Thanksgiving at my folks house.  Gram always made the gravy also.  I wish that I had my Gram’s recipe for her rolls.  But I found a recipe for Parker House rollsand pinned it on my Thanksgiving ideas on my Pinterest.

I made a few Thanksgiving dinners and I used to get a “Mile High Apple Pie” all made at the Woodstock Mountain Creamery.  Everyone absolutely loved that pie.  It’s really good with vanilla ice cream.

And while I was at the Creamery, I used to pick up a Pumpkin Pie also.

One year I made a Chocolate Kuhlua Cheesecake.  It was really, really good.

The above is the recipe for that Cheesecake.

When I was a kid, my brothers always loved Chocolate Walnut fudge and that was usually on the dessert sideboard.  Fudge is not easy to make usually, but a really simple and no fail recipe is the following:

2 cups toll house semi sweet chocolate morsals

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup walnuts

1 can carnation sweetened condensed milk

Line a 8 or 9 inch baking pan with foil.  Combine the morsels and condensed milk in a medium heavy duty sauce pan.  Warm over lowest possible heat, stirring until smooth.  Remove from heat, stir in nuts and vanilla.  Spread evenly into prepared baking pan.  Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.  Lift from pan, remove from foil and cut into 48 pieces.

A funny story about chocolate fudge is that my two older brothers would sometimes stay home when my Mom went shopping.   And they would always make a batch of chocolate fudge and cool it outside in the winter so my Mom would not know.  But she always knew.

So that’s some of my ideas on Thanksgiving.  Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I worked at Holstein Association International Services in Brattleboro, VT, our unit received a Christmas gift of going to the Nutcracker performed by the Boston Ballet.   I will never forget it.   It was one of the most memorable times of my entire life.   We could bring one guest and my gentleman friend would not go with me as he can be miserable at times.  So I took my young son at the time who was only around 12 years old.   My ex-husband dumped me when I was only 30 years old.  It devastated my entire life as it hurt beyond measure.  But my son had so much fun with me that day.   It was a snowy day and they had a chartered bus take us to Boston.   What a beautiful, beautiful day.   We had donuts and coffee on the bus and then we had the whole day to just shop around and enjoy Boston.  Then we were all going to meet up at the Wang Center for the Nutcracker performed by the Boston Ballet.

My son and I started at Faneuil Hall and Quincey Market.  So beautiful with all the Christmas lights and the falling snow.

We had fun shopping around all day and stopping to have hot chocolate.   Then the Wang Center was just awesome.

The Nutcracker was just beautiful and elegant.  We had some of the best seats in the house as they spared no expense.   What a beautiful Christmas present.

After the Ballet at the Wang Center we went to the Top of the Hub and could have anything that we wanted on the menu.  The Top of the Hub is 52 floors up and the view of the Christmas lights of Boston and snow falling was just magical.  I remember they had Christmas music playing in the background and Ava Maria particularly was memorable.

They had all kinds of really fancy foods.   I think that my son had seafood platter because Boston has really good seafood being right on the ocean.

I remember that I had a really fancy dessert.

I had Fish and Chips which is just a total Boston treat.

My son had creme brulee which is really fancy and really delicious.

It snowed really a lot that day and it was just beautiful fluffy snow that came up to our knees by the time we got out of the Top of the Hub.   The chartered bus took us home and we didn’t have to worry about driving.  They told us to wear boots because you would never know about the weather.   I wore high heels.   And you can imagine the flack that I got.   But it was still a really, really memorable day.

If you ever  want to have a beautiful Christmas time experience, go to Boston and the Wang Center and then the Top of the Hub for dinner.

 

 

It’s been in the 20’s here lately and there has been frost on the pumpkins for sure.

I got a new King Arthur Flour catalog today.  I read it from cover to cover a couple of times and would order everything in that catalog if I could.   I love the ideas that they have and they have awesome recipes as well here and there in the catalog.  I like the cookie cutters that they have for the cookies on the cover of the catalog.

They have all kinds of ideas for decorating as well as making Christmas cookies.  I like the Santa and Snowman for sugar cookies and the gingerbread man for gingerbread cookies.  My little grandsons would love cookies like that.

I saw the above cute Lock & Lock containers that came with a cute gift bag on QVC and I just couldn’t resist them.  I think that they will be cute to put Christmas cookies in as a gift for the grandkids.   I’m just going to put some tissue paper in the bags and fill the Lock & Lock containers with home-made Christmas cookies.   They came all together with 5 bags and containers.

The King Arthur Flour catalog had all kinds of gift ideas.   I liked the “Winter Warmer Gift Box” .  It had hot cocoa mix, Peppermint Crunch and Gingerbread Cake and Cookie Mix.  I also liked the “Divine Doughnut Gift” that had all kinds of doughnut mixes as well as that doughnut pan that you can bake doughnuts in.   And I love the jute bag it comes with.

I love how King Arthur Flour had a recipe for Linzer Cookies and it had a Linzer Cookies Recipe bundle that was so awesome.  I just love King Arthur Flour.

I also got a Vermont Country Store catalog that I read from cover to cover several times.   So many cute ideas in it.

I love Vermont Country store’s candies.   They have all kinds of old-fashioned candies.

I love those Boston Fruit Slices in the Nutcracker tin.   So cute.

The warm socks that the Vermont Country Store has are really a nice gift for the Vermont weather in the winter.

I like the toys that the Vermont Country store has.   When my brother was a toddler, he carried a Raggedy Andy around.

I saw a Bed and Breakfast one time that had a cute Raggedy Ann in a baby high chair.   It looked so cute.

I love dinnerware and the Pfalzgraff dinnerware is awesome.  Their Plymouth style is so cute for Thanksgiving.

All their dinnerware is on sale plus they have a 20% off code and free shipping over $49.00.  I like the above vegetable dish.  It would be a nice addition to the Thanksgiving table each year.

I like the covered dish also.

 

I have a dragonfly rubber stamp that I decorate my planner with.  I bought all kinds of fun stuff for my planner at Michaels Craft last week and with 40% off coupons, I saved quite a bit.

It’s definitely Chili weather.  The above came into my facebook and there were about 300 comments of what people added to Chili.   Some of the additions that I thought were interesting were hot sauce and fire roasted tomatoes, bit of chocolate, half can of beans in a blender for thickener, worcestershire sauce, Apple Cider Vinegar, Ground Mustard, a little Brown Sugar, Jar of hot Salsa, Smokey Bourbon, couple squares of 70% cocoa, Red Wine, Fritos on bottom and cheese on top, A-1 Sauce, Bacon Bits, a little V8, Bloody Mary Mix, Chipolte Peppers in Adobo sauce and Louisiana Hot Sauce.  I definitely are going to try some of them the next time I make Chili.

I like Martha Stewart style.  She has a community of houses that she designed and partnered with some builders.  There are some in Colorado, North Carolina and the newest ones are in Florida near Orlando.

Martha designs the kitchens after the kitchens that she has in her own houses.

The house that Martha has in Maine is called Skyland.  That house was once owned by Henry Ford’s son.  Martha’s daughter gave her the above car which is an antique to go with that house.  She is one of three women in the USA that is a billionaire.  I think that it helped that she married a Yale graduate that got her interested in stocks and Wallstreet and probably showed her the ropes and started her road to wealth.  But most of her money came from stocks in her own companies from what I understand from an interview of hers that I saw.

There is a place in northern Vermont where two ladies that worked as chefs both lost their jobs because of the economy.  They didn’t want to go to the poor house so they started a business called “Poor House Pies”.   And can they ever bake.  On holidays they make doughnuts on the Sunday before the holiday.  Their pies are sold at their house in a little farmstand that is on the honor system to pay for the pies.  So cool.  From the jobs that they had, I don’t think they have to worry about money.  One of the ladies taught at a culinary school and they probably were old enough to retire.

The above are some of the pies that they make.  They put them in a fancy box and tie the box with string.

Well, it’s getting late and I have to call it a day.  Thanks for visiting my blog.

 

I love salads and I saw a recipe for a Fall salad that had Cabot Oak Cheddar, bacon and apples in it.   Sounds good to me.  I think it would be good with just plain Cabot Cheddar in it also.

I love soup and salad.  Also Simon Pearce restaurant in Queechee is an awesome place where they have floor to ceiling picture windows with a view of a waterfall and a covered bridge.  I found their recipe for Vermont Cheddar soup and pinned it on my soup Pinterest board.

I really love Craftsy website where you can take courses on line.  Right now they are having an awesome, awesome pre-Black Friday sale on and I would like to take about 10 of the courses.   I just got a Kitchen Aid food processor and I am definitely going to take the above course with George Geary.   I want to make the most of that awesome food processor.  And there is a huge discount on a lot of interesting courses from quilting, knitting to baking.  I love them all.  But will definitely be able to afford to take a few of the courses with the awesome discounts.

I like the above tea holder box.   It’s on line at the Walmart and one of the Pioneer Woman’s new products for Fall.  I would put my selection of Stash teas in the little drawers because the tea bags are individually wrapped with the name of the tea on them.  That box would look cute on a pantry shelf.

My fondest inspiration is the Yankee Barn Cottage.  I just love every angle of it from the farmers porch on the front to the screened in porch and balcony on the back.  The best part of it is it’s a modular that can go up in a few weeks time.  And it has open beams, a balcony and french doors on the second floor that lead to an outside balcony.  But the really amazing part is that it costs less then any home that is for sale around here that is even half way decent.  I love how they landscaped the model home.

This is the back of the cottage.   I just love every angle of that home.

The only thing that I would do different is I would put a customized kitchen in it because I just totally love the Martha Stewart kitchens from Home Depot.    And a custom kitchen by a designer would cost about 10 times more then Martha’s kitchen from Home Depot.  The above kitchen is very affordable.  I just love it and I loved it from the first time I ever saw it at the Home Depot.  I could just imagine that kitchen with open beams and cathedral ceilings.

I would also add a little breakfast nook like the above to be off to the side of the kitchen.  I would have a bench that went around the bay windows with a white round table and chairs.

I love the pull out drawers for pots and pans or bowls.  Martha’s kitchens have details that make a kitchen a place that you want to be organized and have a place for everything and everything in it’s place.

So organized and just a dream to cook in a kitchen like that.   I mean what a dream kitchen.

This was my view out my kitchen window a few mornings ago when I got up really early.  I just thought that the sky looked beautiful with the sun just starting to rise up over the horizon.  It inspired me to get up early and also go to bed earlier so that I can wake up early.

And those are my inspirations for today.

 

 

 

 

November is the start of getting colder and the leaves all falling off the trees.  It’s also the month of my birthday and also Thanksgiving.   Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday and I was born on a Thanksgiving day.   About every 4 years or so, my birthday will be on Thanksgiving day.

We could get snow anytime.  I can remember one year at Thanksgiving that we had a real “northeaster” and got over 2 feet of snow.  But this time of year at the beginning of November it’s usually just a dusting of snow now and then.

I saw a neat pin on Pinterest that gave recipes for spice blends.  They had two blends that I was interested in which are the Chili blend and the Apple Pie blend.   Maybe the allspice blend would be good to have.   I have some neat little bottles that I got at T J Max that would be perfect for keeping the blends in for the pantry.  I put the recipes on my Spice blend board on my Pinterest.

I love the beautiful houses in Woodstock, VT and how they decorate for Fall.

The Creamery in Woodstock has homemade ice cream and mile high apple pie that is just really, really good.   You can order whole pies there for Thanksgiving and several times I have ordered a mile high apple pie and their pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.  But several times we have just gone in and had a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream at the Creamery.   So fun and a real treat.

I love how the Woodstock Inn decorates for Fall.  So beautiful.

Woodstock is just a beautiful town with lots of picket fences and colonial houses.

The Middle Bridge is across from the Woodstock Inn.   There is a big park that is the shape and size of a battle ship between the bridge and the Inn.

I like how L L Bean has monogrammed tote bags.   Also their sweaters and jackets are perfect for New England weather.

I saw an idea for a nice little toddy for Fall that is called Bourban Maple Apple-Cider.

Slow cookers are always fun to cook with because you just throw the ingredients in the crock pot and forget it.  Then you have a nice supper all cooked for you 8 hours or so later.  Soups are always good this time of year.

Samantha Brown had the above luggage on HSN a few days ago.  I love the burgandy color and also the extra containers that are sold separately to make packing organized.

 

The days are getting chilly now.  It rained all day today and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow.   But the weekend is going to be sunny and cool.

If you turn around in New England, the weather changes.

I like how in the mornings, there is always a mist in the air.

And thanks for visiting my blog.  Please comment as I like to hear from you.

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was my friend Sigurd’s birthday. He grew up in Woodstock, Vermont so we took a trip to Woodstock by going country roads all the way as that is what he likes.

We went over the Taftsville bridge just outside of Woodstock and went on a country road to Woodstock and then South Pomfret and Suicide 6.

Most of the trees were bare of leaves because of the bad windstorm we had a few days ago.  So I was surprised to see the above tree at peak.   So pretty.  That tree was along a road that we used to go for walks on in Woodstock.

We went by a house that I love the landscape of with the stone walls and long driveway.  I also love the farmers porch on the front of that house.  Such a beautiful setting for a house.

Along that same road are two friendly horses that would always come down to the fence to greet us when we went for walks on that road.  Sigurd had a Morgan horse when he was growing up and he enjoys seeing those horses.

Because Sigurd likes the Chinese Buffet in Whiteriver, VT we went there to celebrate his birthday.  So I think that he had a really nice day.

I made Sigurd a birthday card with the above photo on the front of it.  I love to make cards and I personalize them with photos using Walgreens photo cards.  I had some photos of Sig’s grandkids and also I put some pumpkins on the back of the card because he was born on Halloween day.

The above is the photo that I put on the back of Sigurd’s birthday card.  He should like it because those pumpkins were in Woodstock.

We had to go through Hartland on the way home and through the Skunk Hollow road.  Hartland is just a very small town but there were a ton of kids with their parents out trick or treating.   Cute little kids skipping along so happy to be getting treats.  One house that we went by had about 30 kids lined up all the way down the walk and the sidewalk.  Those house owners must have had to buy plenty of treats.  I only get about 8 kids at my place as they have a big trick or treat party a couple of days before Halloween in town for the kids.

So hope you all had a Happy Halloween!