Monday Musings

Snow-Flakes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Out of the bosom of the Air,
  Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
  Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
    Silent, and soft, and slow
    Descends the snow.
Even as our cloudy fancies take
  Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
  In the white countenance confession,
    The troubled sky reveals
    The grief it feels.
This is the poem of the air,
  Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
  Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
    Now whispered and revealed
    To wood and field.

 Painting by Paul Sullivan via Rainbarrow Studio

Reflections

One kind word can warm three winter months. ~ Japanese Proverb

 

photo by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Saturday Simplify

Find and pursue your passion.

photo via flickr Matthew Fang

French Recipe - Friday Food Feature

We were craving some winter stew last week so I made French Lentil Vegetable Stew and some raisin bread. It was delicious and I even took the time to snap a photo!

Photo by Denise Dion-Sullivan
French Lentil Stew

Ingredients:

1 1/2  T  olive oil
1 1/3  c  finely diced onion
1/3  c  finely diced celery
1/3  c finely diced carrot
2  bay leaves
1 large can chopped tomatoes
1  tsp salt and 1/4  tsp black pepper, or to taste
2  minced garlic cloves
6  cups vegetable broth
1/2  c dried French dark green and 1/2 c of dried French red lentils
6  c  chopped spinach
1/3  c  chopped fresh parsley
2  tsp  red wine vinegar
2  tsp  Dijon mustard
shaved fresh Parmesan cheese

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion, celery, carrot, and bay leaves; saute for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and minced garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add 6 cups water and lentils; bring mixture to a boil. Partially cover, reduce heat, and simmer mixture for 25 minutes. Stir in the chopped spinach, parsley, vinegar, and mustard, cook 15 minutes. Discard the bay leaves. Ladle soup into bowls; top with cheese.  (I actually put mine in the crock pot on low all day and it turned out more like a thicker stew).

 

Thinking Green

If every family in the USA replaced one roll of conventional toilet paper with a roll of recycled toilet paper, we'd save approximately 423,000+ trees. Sounds worth looking into and perhaps making the switch!

Through My Lens - Wordless Wednesday

Bramble and Blue by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Tuesday's Treasure

I love these Galvanized Marais chairs:

They wouldn't exactly go in my very cottage styled home but maybe around our table on the summer porch in blue or yellow. The perfect splash of color for the upcoming season. From IndustryWest.com

Monday Musings

A bit more Zen humor this Monday morning:

 via Mark Stivers

Reflections

The journey toward the center takes place within your own mind.

St Annes Kennebunkport by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Saturday Simplify

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.  Robert Brault

Image via Kazzie on flickr

French Recipe - Friday Food Feature

Sauteed Cherries with Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds dark red cherries, pitted
  
• 11 T unsalted butter
• 6 T Strawberry, Raspberry or red current jelly
  
• 1 1/2 pints vanilla ice cream

Directions:

•  Put butter, in a large skillet, melt the butter and turn heat to medium-high. When butter just starts to brown lightly, add cherries, stir to coat with butter, and saute for 7-8 minutes, unitl the cherries begin to soften. Add the jelly and 1 1/2 cups of water, stir to combine, then cook until the mixture comes to a boil. Remove pan from heat and let cool slightly. Transfer to bowl and place a scoop of vanilla ice cream in center of each dessert bowl. Spoon the warm cherry mixture on top and serve immediately.
• Cook until cherries begin to break down, again just a minute or two. Taste and add more sugar if you like. Remove from heat.
• To serve, spoon ice cream into 4 dishes, and top with cherries. Cherries may be served hot, warm or at room temperature.

artwork Life is a Bowl of Cherries by Prashant Shah

Thinking Green

If one of your facets leak at the rate of one drop a second, you might be wasting as much as 2,700 gallons of water a year. Try to get to it as it might be as simple as replacing the faucet's washer.

Through My Lens - Wordless Wednesday

Pink Barn by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Tuesday's Treasure

Recently, I needed a new pair of slippers and came across these shoes that could serve multiple purposes. They are the new "exercise" tone up clog by Sketchers. I don't know if they work with shaping my legs (which would be a wonderful perk),  but they are very comfortable and are lined in fabulous faux fur. I hate wearing socks (or tying shoes), so the lining keeps my foot cradled in warmth and they are a quick slip on. The outside is a stylish suede in black but I think I have also seen them in brown and gray. They are designed as an outdoor shoe and although I am keeping them "clean" for slipper use, they are still perfect for a quick run to the mail box. I highly recommend them and may even end up buying a second (or third) pair for outdoor use!

Monday Musings

i carry your heart with me by E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Reflections

We are, after all, artists of our own destiny ~ Mark Larson

Saturday Simplify

C. S. Lewis once said:

 Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

 Think about it - do we really want to live in isolation? Some may say yes, perhaps because of bad experiences and hurts, they choose to be alone, isolated.  Yet is that really living?  Initially it may simply begin with not allowing others in since your heart may be exposed.  If this is how you feel you could still give to others in simple, yet helpful ways -  be a volunteer! If you love animals, volunteer at a shelter to walk dogs or feed cats. Volunteer at a fund-raising event for an organization you believe in. Even if it's simply registering people for a walk-a-thon. It can be the beginning to making a "love" connection and feeling it as well.

Friday Food Feature

 Maine Lobster Potpie Filling:

1 large potato, peeled and cut into cubes, about 1c
3 T butter
1 c onion, chopped
1 sweet bell pepper (red, yellow or orange), cut into 3/4-inch pieces
6 oz. package mushrooms, stems trimmed and sliced
2 c  Maine Lobster stock
1/2 c heavy creme
3T corn starch
3 T water
12-oz cooked Maine lobster, cut into bite-sized pieces  

salt and freshly ground pepper
Dash of dried thyme

 

Bakewell Cream Biscuits:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons Bakewell Cream (may substitute cream of tartar)
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup vegetable shortening or butter at room temperature
3/4 cup skim milk or more as needed

1. For Maine Lobster Potpie Filling: Cook the potatoes in water until just fork tender. Drain, turn the potatoes into a large bowl and set aside.
2. In a sauté pan, melt the butter and sauté the onions and peppers for about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté until the mushrooms are cooked. Using a slotted spoon, remove the vegetables to the bowl with the potatoes and set aside.
3. Add the lobster stock to the juices in the sauté pan and bring it to a boil. Whisk in the cream.
4. Dissolve the cornstarch in the water, and whisk into the lobster stock. Continue to cook, whisking vigorously, until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil. It will be quite thick.
5. Remove the sauté pan from the heat and let cool. Stir the sauce into the potatoes and vegetables. When the mixture has cooled to room temperature, stir in the cooked Maine lobster.
6. Season the filling to taste with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and if desired, a dash of dried thyme.
7. Divide the filling evenly between 6 greased potpie dishes or ramekins and refrigerate while preparing the biscuit dough.
8. For Cream Biscuits: Sift the dry ingredients into a medium-sized bowl. Using a pastry blender or 2 forks, blend in the shortening.
9. Add the milk and stir until a soft dough is formed. On a floured surface, turn out the biscuit dough and divide into six pieces.
10. Roll out the dough so that it is a size that will cover the potpie. Make a slit in the top of each crust. Gently transfer the crust to the top of each potpie. Pies may be refrigerated for up to 8 hours before baking.
11. Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C).
12. Bake the Maine Lobster Potpies for 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling all over the oven.

Recipe provided courtesy of Maine Lobster Promotion Council.

Thinking Green

Here are a few pieces from the Eco Friendly Spring and Summer Collection by Eccoterre - a website devoted to the future of sustainable fashion design. Here is a more accurate description of their mission from their website:

"Ecouterre is about changing people’s minds about what “fashion” design entails, beyond fleeting fads and mindless consumerism. Like any good product design, clothing production can be accomplished in a better, smarter, and more socially and environmentally sustainable way. And we’re not the only one’s who think so—organic clothing, produced without toxic pesticides and dipped in low-impact dyes, is gaining popularity across the globe. In 2006, retail sales of organic cotton products reached $1.1 billion globally—85 percent higher than the year before, according to the Organic Exchange. Organic cotton is by no means alone on the playing field. With improved technology, other strange and wonderful eco-fabrics have entered the fray, from salmon leather to fiber derived from milk."

Visit their website and view the complete Spring Line HERE!

Through My Lens

photo by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Tuesday's Treasure

Adult Root Beer Float

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop vanilla ice cream
• 1 ounce Stoli Vanilla
• Root beer, to top

In a cocktail shaker or glass, smoosh the vanilla ice cream until creamy with no chunks. Add the Stoli and stir. Pour into a martini glass and top with the root beer. Yummy!

image via About.com cocktails

Monday Musings

"Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible"
Thich Nhat Hanh

Especially beginning with a cup of coffee! A good Monday Morning to all of you and I hope you all have a productive week! 

coffee design - Intelligentsia in LA. 

photo found at http://vannyyy.me

Reflections

The realist sees reality as concrete.  The optimist sees reality as clay.  ~Robert Brault

image via How stuff Works

Saturday Simplify

“A house is a machine to live in and from which all superfluous and irritating ornaments should be banished"
– professor of oriental studies A. L. Sadler

Americans are definitely a nation of consumers.  Perhaps this is changing as we have come to see how excessive we have been.  I find as I get older there is a peace and simplicity to having less.  With this said I have been wanting to tackle my clothing closet and rid myself of things I haven't worn in ages. It would be nice to also have more space, which would allow me to see what I could be wearing.  So here I am in February, in the middle of winter in Maine - what better time to celebrate the holiday Discardia!  What holiday you may ask??

Discardia "is a holiday to celebrate and teach letting go of what doesn’t add value to your life – whether a physical object, habit, or emotional baggage – and replacing it with what makes your world more awesome."

Well, I have decided I want awesome closets so I am going to celebrate Discardia today. I am filled with enthusiasm at the prospect (and I obviously need to get out more, here in the middle of winter, in Maine). Seriously, Discardia is a website where you can find great tips on organizing all aspects of your life (well ok, most aspects of your physical life). Click on the closet image above and "make room for awesomeness".  And if you choose to join in - Happy Discardia to you!

French Recipe - Friday Food Feature

Overnight Creme Brulee French Toast with Raspberries

Ingredients:

• 6 egg yolks
• 2 ½ c heavy cream
• ½ Tbsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 8 thick French bread or baguette slices
• ¼ c butter
• ¼ c brown sugar
• ¼ c honey
• ¼ c maple syrup
• 1 pt fresh raspberries

In a saucepan, add the cream. Scald over medium-high heat.
Combine the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl.
Slowly add a bit of the hot cream mixture into the eggs and then add eggs to mixture and whisk to incorporate. It is very important to add the mixture so you do not cook the eggs. Continue adding the cream until the egg mixture and cream mixture are the same temperature.
Pour half the mixture into a baking dish. Place the bread in the pan and top with other half of egg mixture. Refrigerate, covered, overnight.
Melt the butter in a 9x13-inch baking dish and stir in the brown sugar, honey and maple syrup. Add the soaked bread slices. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes until brown. Serve immediately with fresh raspberries.


photo via BBC Good Food

Thinking Green

 For a wonderful selection of eco friendly, natural products visit the shop All Things Green. Here are a few of my favorite items from their website.

 Hunny Bunny Pillow

Bambu Tea Lights

Through My Lens

photo by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Tuesday's Treasure

Although my sons have grown I can still appreciate there is not much out there for really interesting or fashionable children's clothing. When my son's were young I especially thought boys got the short end of the stick when it came to clothing styles. I recently came upon Petit Couture, a shop on the web that specializes in fashionable, fair priced and Fair Trade produced infant and toddler clothing. Click on the chic photos to be taken to their website!