I was on my own for dinner tonight. I heated up the vegetable soup we made yesterday and made some cheese toast to go alongside it. It was delicious, it was warming, it was a quiet dinner. I always enjoy being with Mr. Michie, but sometimes it is nice to be left to your own thoughts. After a day of constant noise, a little quiet solitude is a very welcomed gift.
We try and vary our lunches from week to week. We decided to make pasta salad this week. Now, as Mr. Michie will tell you, I have a thing for packaging. I can’t help it, I have been known to buy something simply for the packaging. I have been staring at this pasta every time I walk down that particular aisle of our local grocery store, today it jumped into my hands.
This box of pasta was so beautiful, I just had to photograph it. In 1927 at the age of 14, Domenico Cocco began learning the art of making pasta. In 1944, he passed on his passion and knowledge to his son Giuseppe who continues to make pasta today in the village of Fara San Martino in Italy.
The taste of it, just on its own with nothing on it was simply wonderful. It tasted more like fresh pasta then dried pasta. I can’t wait to taste it in our lunch tomorrow after it has absorbed the flavors of the tomatoes and olives and mozzarella and olive oil and oregano, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!
The past two days, I have felt that I have not had a chance to catch my breath, between school and outside of work activities. Tonight, Mr. Michie and I are getting to eat together.
I have a chicken in the oven, a salad dressed with a delicious raspberry vinegar I found and oil and we are trying pumpkin speltotto, a spin on risotto but made with spelt instead.
Candles are lit, the heat is on, the lights are dimmed, Mumford & Sons is playing through the speakers and we are happy.
I bought my first munchkin today, it made me smile.
Ages ago, my Mom sent me this adorable Betty Crocker “Apple Pie” candle and I have yet to burn it. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, as it was so adorably packaged.
But, last night, I lit it and I knew it needed to sit on something cute in my kitchen. So, I looked around, I don’t have any mini cupcake stands, but I knew I needed something like that.
I suddenly spied what I needed, it is an old glass egg cup, I use for tea lights or to put flowers in, that turned upside down was the perfect “cake stand”.
Looking at something in a different way, always sheds new light on the situation, don’t you think?
The rain is coming and going today. The sunshine has come out to play for a little while, but the breeze in the air has kept everything quite cool in our little neck of the woods. So, I have been sitting on the couch, cross-legged with a quilt over my legs and a sweater on.
I have been working away on a small project. I am putting the final touches on an invite for a party that will be held for someone very special. I might give you a sneak peek soon, but I don’t want the surprise to be ruined for the party girl!
Mr. Michie made me a wonderful cup of tea to keep up my creative strength! Nothing better than a Sunday cup of tea with your honey next to you on the couch!
I think the tea tastes even better, because not only was it made by him, but it was served in a cup that I got when I was antiquing with my Mom in a store in Wexford, PA. What a little treasure trove that spot is! My Mom and I love finding places like that, hidden gems!
These daisies are one of the first things I see when I walk out of my house in the morning. They always greet me. They looked so pretty and summery in the sunshine this morning, I just had to snap a picture.
Have a lovely weekend…
I have spent the past two days doing some major “Spring” cleaning in the house. The jobs I have been doing are the unseen jobs. The jobs that only I will know I have done (and Mr. Michie, of course).
I spent all of Monday gutting our bedroom. That is they only way to describe it: “gutting”. I reorganized all of my drawers, went through the closets, set up a bag for clothes that I would donate and clothes that would become part of a quilt and clothes that are too sad to do either of the before mentioned with, so they went to clothes heaven.
Today, I have reorganized my pantry, so now you can actually walk into it and not have to climb over things or tie a rope around your waist, so someone will be able to pull you out if you need to be rescued.
I also and this was a major task for me, went through all of my old magazines. I decided what I would hold on to and what I would bring to school to recycle. I have to say, I hear my old Martha Stewart’s calling out to me from the bag by the door, (“Jennifer, can you hear me?”, sung to the tune from Yentl)but I am strong, I have lived with them in a basket for ages and paid no attention to them, so, as Martha would say: “its a good thing”.
I will admit and I have admitted this before, I do love to clean, it is satisfying. But, this type of deep cleaning is not only physically exhausting, but a bit mentally exhausting too.
Once you get in a groove, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of is easy, you just have to find that groove. I did and now I have a pretty bare closet and an empty drawer in my cupboard.
There is a few new things I need, like a few new shirts. I seem to go through them all to easily at work. I come home with paint, ink, a tiny hole where I have caught it on the edge of something, that over time becomes a series of holes. My clothes take a beating, but you can’t expect anything else when you work in an Art Department.
I am taking a break tomorrow from cleaning and will finish up a few little left over things this week. The main purpose for cleaning the pantry was so that I could access all of my craft supplies again and not have to fight to get to them, because I have a few projects up my sleeve for this break. They are for someone else and not for me, but I still might give you a little sneak peek here and there, so stay tuned…
We “sprung” forward last night and so it suddenly seems did our flowers. We have spent the day, cooking, working, talking, sitting, making red velvet cupcakes with marshmallow cream cheese frosting (mmm!) and tending to our little flowerpots.
Flowers make me happy and they certainly make the cottage feel like we are moving into Spring from the outside, which is a good thing as I can’t say as much for the inside. It is time for a major overhaul, but my major “Spring Cleaning” is going to have to wait till we are on Easter Break, so watch out closets, because I am coming to attack you first!
Today we have both been off kilter. We are fighitng off colds and back to school tiredness and so a meal of true comfort was in order. So, tonight I made our first pot pie of the Fall season. It was delicious and Mr. Michie said it was the best I had ever made! We made a turkey pot pie and I decided this time that I would roast the turkey and the celery and carrots instead of my usual sautéing the vegetables and boiling the meat.
I tell you, it had the most wonderful flavours and the turkey was so moist. When I pulled my roasting pan out of the oven, I went to work on making a gravy and when it was almost ready I dumped the cut up meat and vegetables into it, stirring in some beautiful red onions that I had leftover from breakfast the day before and some frozen peas.
The house smelled so delicious. As it baked we worked on making some mashed potatoes which were a wonderful and homey accompaniment to dinner. They were mashed with my favourite French butter, spring onion and cracked black pepper cream cheese, fresh parsley and goat’s milk. They were sinfully divine.
To top it all off, we did something we don’t normally do, we sat on the couch and watched TV while we ate. This has been a long week and so we vegged out and caught up on NCIS. I can’t think of anything better tonight then turkey pot pie and watching the adorable Mark Harmon on TV! Delicious!
I have had to change my cleaning schedule around since school started. We have been very busy since going back to school and I have not been able to keep up with my dusting and vacuuming like I normally would.
So, I hatched a plan: I decided that I will do all my housework on Thursday nights. I was tired when I came home yesterday as it was almost the end of the week and the thought of cleaning was not what i wanted to start doing, but I rolled up my sleeves and got down to it! I am one of those odd people who does enjoy cleaning, it is such a satisfying job!
And the reward, for me was worth it! It was so nice to come home from work today, to a clean house with everything smelling fresh and sparkling. It was like a weight was taken off my shoulders. It is a nice way to start the weekend!