Cowgirl Goods

Meet Lele, four pounds of sheer cuteness.  She had to have her teeth cleaned and then she is going to San Diego for the winter.  If she doesn't put a smile on your face go back to bed, like right now.  I was the lucky employee today, well for one I got to hold this little bundle A LOT and second I got to make some pretty special phone calls.  We had a client come in and hand us some money last week.  They wanted to do something local for the holidays, they told us to take the money and put it towards peoples bills that were struggling.  I was proud to be the one that got to call and tell these folks what just happened and that someone helped them out.  I told them Santa stopped by.  Spread the cheer, it's infectious for sure!

We've been on vacation around here.  It's back to Lucky Pet today and back to the grind.  I just checked my lottery ticket and it looks like I better go to Lucky Pet.  Why they always give us the wrong numbers is beyond me.  That probably happens to you too doesn't it? 

Not a lot of snow around here and I don't see any in the forcast.  So we've been out hiking a lot.  It was GORGEOUS up on the mountain the other day.

It was also our 26th Anniversary.  We had our own special dinner right here.  We spent half the day gathering our food and planning the meal.  We settled on surf and turf on the Big Green Egg.  Ohhhhh did we plan well.  We splurged on King Crab legs and a beautiful cut of steak.  We sauteed up some brussel sprouts with garlic, grilled fresh baguette slices with a fine sheeps milk cheese, we had another stinky cheese (I LOVE stinky cheese) and it was all so tasty.  Those crab legs, no wonder they have their own tv show.  Damn they are good.  It was a great day and a great way to celebrate our day. 

Little Georgia Rae likes it when we are on vacation too. 

Happy Boxing Day!  Not that anyone celebrates Boxing Day here in the U.S., it's just a funny thing to say to folks.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas day with plenty of great cheer.  Why do I have a feeling for kids it was the "iChristmas"?  If you didn't get the gift that started with "i" then I bet you're not cool.  Well we aren't cool here.  We got even cooler gifts, like stuff for making more homebrew.  Did I mention our chocolate milk stout turned out AMAZING?!  It's like cake in a glass...hmmmmmmm.  But today was about being outside.  I love winter here, if it's sunny just bundle up and get out there.  We went down to Fort Foster in Kittery Point, Maine and it was perfect, just perfect.

The water was a wee bit choppy

 

Perfect day

Happy Holidays to all my dear family and friends.  This little blog gives me so much pleasure and thank you for reading, it means a lot.

~Be Merry and Bright~

Not your typical Grandma......

Merry Christmas Eve everyone.  I always love the excitement you feel on Christmas eve.  Bob the dog yacked up his breakfast this morning (on the one and only rug in the house, of course) and I said to Hubby, "yeah he's all wound up for Christmas."  I know TMI.  Kids do that don't they, they get all worked up.  I never did of course....ha.  Our local newspaper runs a series of unusual Christmas stories from local people.  This STORY is hysterical!  This is one grandmother's house you would of NOT got in trouble and I have a feeling anything odd put on your plate, well, probably tasted like chicken. 

Merry Christmas from the pine tree state.  I had quite the forest on the counter yesterday.  This is the gingerbread cookie recipe from bakerella. It is really tasty and only bake them for 8-9 minutes like it says, I think that is the trick, excellent recipe.  Also hop over to How About Orange I love this blog and after finding my favorite store Gus & Ruby's and discovering the art of antique letterpress, I've become a little obsessed with paper these days.  She will take you to Studio Morran where you can download the sweetest little woodland scene gift tags.  I made up a bunch of them last night.  I splurged and bought a spool of Divine Twine to add to the cuteness.  It's the little things.

~Have a fun day~

How's it going?  Are you getting everything done?  I turned on NHPR yesterday and I recognized the voice.  It was one of our local gals, Kathy Gunst. Kathy has written several cookbooks with the Stonewall Kitchen folks and some of her own.  She also has her weekly radio show and her own book, Notes From A Maine Kitchen that just came out in Sept.

Kathy and I know each other from the art show we did a few years back.  Right when I turned on the show she was discussing the pressure of cooking.  She made a really good point and basically it was, there is so much pressure to perform these days when it comes to food.  People feel like they need to make the perfect meal, just like the magazine or the tv show.  She said what people forget is every time you see food in the media it has about 5-10 people preparing that food, i.e. stylist, editor's, props etc.  She said this is why she doesn't love food tv because it's made it hard for someone who is intimidated by cooking not to feel that even more.  JUST COOK.  The other point is, it doesn't ALL have to be done.  We forget that sitting around the table, eating and talking and sharing is what it's all about.  So if you are feeling the pressure to perform, lighten up.  It's fine, keep it simple and don't make yourself crazy.  It's okay....really.

Kathy also went over her top ten favorite cookbooks of the year.  This was her number one

I thought I was done buying cookbooks (ha..right).  It's all about vegetables and what to do with them.  I get stumped with veggies, the weird ones, the ones I know I should eat.  She couldn't say enough great things about this book.  AND she also mentioned that she loves reading her cookbooks in bed, ME TOO!  So remember slow down and just enjoy.

~Cheers~

It's beginning to feel like winter around here.  Any excuse to pile on polar fleece and I'm thrilled.  I saw a few minutes of the 20 top sexiest beach vacation spots on tv.  We have beaches, none of them were mentioned.  I guess the top beaches were based on the amount of skinny skin skimpy walking around.  It was kind of like watching aliens, scary.  We're trying to get in the holiday spirit around here and our weekend was full of holiday parties.  I'm glad I was on the flu weight loss program earlier in the week.  That is a bonus for the holiday grazing that takes place.

Bob and I went out back and found a tree today.  It's kind of funky looking but we like that in a Christmas tree.  Some years we put up our faux tree, some years we go out back in the woods and do some pruning.  While out back today I got thinking that I just might plant a bunch of Christmas trees out there in the spring.  Now to start thinking about baking cookies and making fudge....mmmmmmm fudge.

Yep small town livin'

I love where I live, despite having to put a gate up to keep creeps from robbing our house.  You know you live in a small town when you're parked downtown and this is what the UPS guy can do for you........

Pure comfort....

Well darn it!  I got the flu, I was NOT planning on the flu, I don't have TIME for the flu, I HATE the flu and it's the gross kid kind.  Gross.  I had to bail on work today, something about a smelly dog and having the flu......not good.  Couch bound I was, I was a little bit excited to find this in my stash down in the basement.  I had two cans of Vernor's ginger ale.  Now in this neck of the woods this is like having gold.  Most of you out there are thinking yeah so what we get it all the time.  It's a regional soda.  It's a make the flu go away soda and it's what all of our Mom's use to give us when we were sick.  If you click on VERNORS there is a little history about it.  It's kind of a sad story like so many other things that just went away.  But it's still out there.  We have Moxie soda here, Mainers LOVE that stuff, I can tell you when you got the flu you sure don't want a Moxie.  What's your regional soda or your go to soda when you got the flu?