At times like this....

These past two weeks have brought some sadness. We had to say goodbye to my son's dog Minnie (aka Mintie Girl and Bat girl). It was time and the decision had to be made. She was 15 and had a good life. She will be missed terribly. My son is heartbroken. I am too.

While I was having lunch with my friend Donna at Brynwood Needleworks, her dog Fezzik (many of you know him) was having "manhood" surgery and he died of complications on Friday. He was just a pup. My friend is heartbroken. I am heartbroken for her.

Many of you know Donna. She is a warm and wonderful woman with an outstanding sense of humor.

This post is for families, friends and good dogs. I will be back the first of the week.

"What's this?" you ask....

A few weeks back I got a package from my friend Jackie in Surrey. If you follow my blog, you will recognize her name. And if you have read her blog (and I think you should), you will know she loves tea and in particular Yorkshire Tea. So I had to Google Yorkshire Tea and after reading about it, I had to have some. I found it at Amazon. You can read about it here and here. It is a lovely tea.

In the package was an apron, a tote (which will go back to Maine with my knitting projects) and a tea towel. What a treat. So here are a few pictures.

Of course I had to get a new little teapot. Just because....

I love the lid.

And the teapot designs.

And, of course the tea...

Another pot

Scenes on the tea towel

Thank you Jackie!

Happy Easter

A Simple Supper

Easy suppers that we can eat on the lanai are my favorite "good" thing. I have gotten so many ideas from all you bloggers out there. I thank you. We had ground beef, Rotel tomatoes, and flour tortillas but no taco seasoning. So I made it. Easy. No preservatives and I can control the salt. You can print the recipe here.

1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp. Onion Powder
1/4 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 tsp. Dried Oregano
1/2 tsp. Paprika
1 1/2 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. Black Pepper

The above makes enough seasoning for 1 pound of ground beef. We saute onions and peppers and set aside. We cook ground beef and drain well. Add seasoning, 1/3 cup water, 1 can Rotel tomatoes, and onions and peppers. I serve with chopped lettuce and grated cheese on flour tortillas. Easy. The seasoning can be adjusted for personal tastes. There is enough for the two of us to have another meal.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! We are having a quiet Easter weekend and I hope to catch up on some projects.

Before I forget....

I just want you to know that Blogger's spam detection works! I have had some issues with Blogger since changing from Windows to a Mac but slowly but surely they are being resolved. Owner/operator error has also played a part in the mess I had to deal with in the last couple of weeks!

One of the changes I made in the comments section was to get an email notice when someone posted a comment on my blog. Very nice. Before that I was compulsively checking my blog very frequently. This also enables me to email back if someone has a question. Very efficient. 

So imagine my surprise when I received emails from some shady lady escort services in London with pictures!!!! I went quickly to my blog and no questionable comments were posted thank goodness. However, Blogger's spam detection had stopped 21 spam comments. Thank you Blogger.

 I have a new filter for my camera by Digital Concepts. There are 4 filters which magnify in different strengths. The rose is magnified 10 times as is the silk poppy below.

These were not expensive. I ordered them on Amazon.

We had dinner with friends and here is a collage. I will post more pictures later this week.

Have a great week!

I have a story....

Before I tell this story, I need to set the table for you. My friends and followers know how much I love dishes and "stuff" and how I have tried to replace some of the items my grandmother and mother had. I also wanted transferware but just couldn't decide what color I wanted. 

Red Cliff Soup Tureen

I found the candlesticks in Arcadia, FL which has an Old West feel with lots of antique shops. The candlesticks were made by Fostoria and the pattern is Queen Ann which later became Colonial. And in the back of the store on a bottom shelf were the dishes. Transferware! Yup and it had all the colors  so I didn't have to choose. There were luncheon plates, cups and saucers, fruit bowls, bread plates and one serving bowl. The dishes are Woods Ware and the pattern is English Countryside. I follow Nancy Daily Dish. Nancy is the queen of transferware so I quickly checked her Etsy shop and she had some of this pattern. She had dinner plates, soup or salad bowls and an oval platter. She doesn't have them any more....

I found the sherbets covered with dust in another shop. They are needle etched. I love the green base. I will look for some goblets to add just a little more green to this setting which I know I will uses again. The glass plate underneath is American by Fostoria as are the water goblets.

The wine goblets are Kent York by Val St. Lambert and although not terribly old are a nice match for the table setting.

While we were waiting for one of the stores to open, we went into another store. I like to look through the silverplate flatware and look for some of the patterns that I remember and that my gram had. There was a chest with a service for 8 in a lovely pattern. It was very reasonable and shortly thereafter was mine. I came home and went through my book and there it was. Replacements.com was my stop and listed all the pieces made in this pattern. I had them all but the cake and pie server. The name of the pattern is Fortune.

I love the fact that the design is on the back as well. 

I keep my silver in plastic bags and store it on a shelf in my dish closet. I thought I would just check and see if I had a pie server that would look nice with my new pattern. I certainly did. My grandmother had the matching pie server. I was thrilled. I happily set the table with my new dishes and silver. I used pieces that had belonged to my grandmother as well.

I know this feeling...

My email for the blog has changed. It is working with another one of my emails but I didn't change it and PhotoBucket is down so I can't make a new button or a slide show.....

Roses, Clocks and Daffodils

I am finally mastering the camera and the Mac! It has been a struggle but many of you have really helped. Bottom line is that the Rebel takes much better pictures if the UV filter is removed for indoor shots and web albums are a girl's best friend for loading pictures into Blogger! And after yesterday's fiasco with disappearing pictures, I learned not to trash pictures I have moved to the desktop. One needs to copy them to the desktop....However, I like the Picasa album method better.

Clocks and Roses

The reverse painting at the bottom of clock is almost gone but looks like it was a lovely old home.

The name of the rose is Fiction perhaps because it is too beautiful to be true...

Have a wonderful day!

What happened?

My primary e-mail address has changed and I didn't do it. Gmail has taken over my blog and taken away the pictures in my last post. I am very annoyed and have spent the entire afternoon trying to make it go back to my yahoo address. I don't have time for this....

A good day...

Altered Roses

 I want to start out by thanking all of you who made suggestions about blogging with the Mac - it helped. I am getting there. Between the Mac and the Canon, it has been a confusing couple of weeks.

My time to blog is in the morning - very early in the morning...I decided years ago that if I woke up early with things on my mind or something I wanted to accomplish, it was better just to get up and go for it. Then the rest of the day was wide open. The downside is reading your blogs with the recipes and pictures of food. Chances are I haven't even had coffee. If is not too early (after 5:30), I will often make myself a cappuccino.

Today, I am making soup. I am making Potato and Leek Soup. We have been craving it. I read about it one morning very early here at Thibeault's Table.

leeks from the market

All of you who suggested that I download the pictures I wanted to the desktop - great idea. I am now taking them into Photoshop to edit. I use Photoshop to crop, resize, and color correct. I am finding I need to correct the color sometimes with the Canon. I will continue to use Picasa  and Picnik for playing with the photos but I am happy with the fixes I can do right from the desktop.

I rinsed them in the sink because there is always a little sandy dirt and then chopped them. I sauteed them in butter and a little olive oil and then let them cook for about 20 minutes.

I used 3 chopped russet potatoes, 4 cups of chicken broth that I made using Better than Bouillon. Fresh thyme, salt and pepper simmered until the potatoes were cooked.

The immersion blender made easy work of pureeing the mixture after I removed the thyme sprigs. I added about a cup of whole cream and gently reheated the mixture. It was quite delicious!

The bowl is from Provence! The plate is from Publix!