Dinner Time!

Lets take a break from the books and movie talk and take a look at what I made for dinner tonite. It really was delicious. At first bite my oldest said "oh my god mom this is absolutely delicious" and my youngest said. "Actually mom its pretty good!" (thanks for the confidence!!) here are some pics...

Here I am all excited for my cooking. No idea why I chose the high angle shot. Maybe because I wanted you to see my dog dishes and other clutter...

 I decided to pick the cookbook I was going to cook from for the remainder of the week. Quick and Easy that cant be bad!

Lemon and Artichoke chicken. Simple and Delish. O wait sorry  quick and easy...

 Take two skinless boneless chicken breasts and pound them til they are thinner (i know that couldn't be anymore vague!). I didn't pound mine enough but it still worked fine. I have to admit I was shocked to find I owned a meat mallet.

 Coat chicken in flour and cook in pan w about 2 Tablespoons of butter. I didn't even season the four but you defiantly could. Can I just add that those black tongs in the corner are the most useless utensil ever. It would be easier to coat and flip the chicken with my feet. anyway...

 Chop up 2 cloves of garlic, Ray Ray (aka Rachel Ray ) style. Smack the clove w the side of your knife remove skin and chop. I love Ray Ray and learned alot of how to cook from her shows.. more on that later...

 Remove chicken after it is browned and fully cooked and add garlic and about 2 Tablespoons of flour to thicken...

Yum! that's about all I can say about that pic

 Chop up some mushrooms. I used about 6-8... along with chicken broth, about a cup

 Add the juice of one lemon (don't you love my action shot??!!)

Add some lemon pepper seasoning (why is it that I seem to have red chipped nail polish in my pics?) As well as 4-5 artichokes quartered.... and simmer all together. This would be great to season the flour with in the beginning...

 In the spirit of housekeeping home keeping and all that good stuff I decided to clean off and set the table... so I cleared off tigger, the pile of library books, a random little soccer ball, and buried under there used and slightly chewed chop sticks from the previous nights Chinese take out...

 Ta da!! Table is set complete with UNscented candles (thank you for that GOOD THING from martha) and a glass of grapes for the kids...

 The finished meal. It was so good especially with my favorite rice Carolina white rice...

One more picture! It was sort of a combination of chicken francaise and chicken marsala with some artichokes... the ultimate compliment was when Jack asked if I was making it again tomorrow... full recipe to come (sorry I am being lazy and don't feel like getting up to get the book after wrestling 2 crayons 1 Popsicle stick 3 colored pencils and an apple core away from my dog) Hope you enjoyed my dinner!!

Get comfy folks....

Grab an iced tea, coffee, wine or whatever you like and get comfy because theres alot coming at you in these next few posts!! First lets go back to the library and the pile of books I decided to take home today...

I decided to check out (literally and figuratively) the two books that were in the movie i so love. I'm already 40 pages in to the My Life in France and it has been wonderful. I don't necessarily plan to read the french cookbook cover to cover but I am curious to see the recipes and methods...

To go along with my nesting instinct I grabbed a few decorating books. Comforts of Home... sounds perfect for nesting

 Ok I'm not sure why I grabbed the Paula Deen biography. Maybe because I felt a little guilty from my butter comment yesterday. But I do love her and I know something about her life and I wanted to learn more. The one on the right I hadn't heard of but the line of script in the middle says memories and recipes from my kitchen table... sorta sounds like my blog doesn't it!

 Ahhh yes. Martha. How pretty and coiffed she looks pre jail time. I'm totally kidding. Truth be told I love her and could care less that she went to jail. She made house keeping truly an art form. More on her later....

Well here they all are all piled up and waiting for me to dive in. Along with the movie I renewed. I'm not sure where I'm going with all of this but I hope you stay with me to find out. After all how often do you hear the saying it isn't the destination its the journey that counts.. (or something like that)

So the long lost student in me resurfaced...

And off to the library I went in search of what I didn't know. Old cookbooks? Books about Julia Child? I came home with two armfuls of cookbooks, biographies, and decorating books. As soon as I can pull myself away from my fresh newly borrowed library book -My Life in France- by Julia Child I will post some pictures of what I borrowed and what I'm making for dinner tonite. Stay tuned...!

Im in Love

OK the credits just started to roll and i couldn't get my laptop, well on my lap, quick enough. I'm in love with the movie Julie and Julia. I have heard of it but hadn't netflix-ed it or streamed it or hulu-ed it or whatever it is that you are supposed to rent a movie. If any of those are even renting... ANNNNYYWAAAYY I went with the old fashioned way and borrowed it from the Library for free. I love this movie so much that I just restarted it to watch as much as I can before my brood of boys return home. I was mostly uninterrupted during this movie which is an amazing accomplishment alone. I was able to watch it with minimal interruptions... only the occasional pawing of my 40 lb lab mix... ok constant pawing of my 40 lb lab mix.

What is it that I love? Where to begin. I love that they cook with butter. Lots of butter. Butter before Paula Deen hogged it all JUST KIDDING PAULA I love ya! I love that the cooking connected these two women that never knew each other or met. I truly believe that cooking is an amazing way to connect with people. Either a family meal. A reunion BBQ. Dropping off a casserole to a new mom or sending fresh baked cookies to school for your kids teachers. All of these ways are a gesture of one person reaching out to another. To say " I care" or " I missed you" or " I love you"
I also truly believe that cooking can connect us to people we never knew just like Julie does with Julia. I never met my Italian grandfather, my mothers father. But I know that he was an amazing cook and I make his recipe for sauce often. And when I'm standing there at the stove, wooden spoon in hand with the delicious aromas of garlic and olive oil filling my kitchen I wonder what he was like. What did he sound like? How tall was he? Did he twirl his spaghetti with a spoon or not? I may not know the answers to these questions but I love that by simply cooking his recipes I am connected to him.
I have loved cooking, and even more so baking, since I was little. IN FACT when it was the girl scout cookie bake off my cookies... my Italian wedding cookies.. were SO good that my troop leader didn't believe that I made them!! The nerve!!

The premise of this movie is that this young woman turning 30 decides to start a blog and cook every recipe out of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French cooking.  I love this idea. What I love more is that she was able to stick with it for an entire year. Over 500 recipes in a year. And she cooks every one of them. Now as much as I believe I would love to have the attention span and dedication to stick with something like that but I know myself much better than that. As I mentioned before I have many many MANY cookbooks. I don't think I could be dedicated enough to tackle a huge undertaking like this. So maybe I will do this on a smaller scale and pick one cookbook a week to cook from. And focus on that book for a week or two. Tomorrow I am going to post some pics of my cookbooks. If anyone is actually reading this I will let YOU pick which one I should start with. If my inbox is so overflowing with mail that I can not respond to it all, I will pick it.

One of my favorite scenes of the movie is when Julia is slow to chop her onions in the class of men at the cordon bleu, so she takes a bushelfull of them home and chops til she out chops her male competition. I love that she loves food and doesnt worry about carbs or calories. It is simply an enjoyment of the most basic and simple pleasures of life. Food

Hello?? Hellloooo?????

Ok so I have no idea what the heck happened to my blog. I was doing so well!! I think what happened was this.... it was Thanksgiving. Then Jack broke his wrist. Then we got a puppy. Then the puppy got sick. Then the kids got sick... sensing a pattern here??? Anyway winter is not really a time i love so i guess I just lost interest in blogging about recipes cooking and blah blah blah. Usually around this time every year I start some nesting. Many times on a hot late August afternoon when I have had enough of humidity I start rearranging my furniture. Cant tell you how many times I have dragged an entire china cabinet or dresser across a room. I guess now that I know I am going to start nesting and cooking and all that good stuff I want to keep track of it and keep my inspiration going.

I thought I would post some pics of my Thanksgiving table since I never did and that was the entire point of the blog! I am NOT repeat am NOT looking forward to fall or wishing summer away in any way shape or form. I will take humidity to snow shovels any day. But I did love the pics of my table so I wanted to share them!

This is a picture of my table setting. The dishes are from a set I found in an antiques store in Deleware after I graduated from college it was a presesnt from my mom.

My centerpiece! It was a pumpkin carved out and the flowers were from Shop Rite. There are a few dried hydrangeas and those long things sticking out are from my sea grass. I just walked around my yard and cut what I think would look good w the flowers.

Some more pictures of my table, centerpiece and table settings... I have to admit it really was pretty!

My apple pie, pumpkin pie and dessert table. The apple pie was def one of the best tasting ones I ever had.
Ok I think thats it for now! I may put up a few of my puppy (no longer a puppy) and some Christmas ones and then some current projects Im working on. Also couponing... no I am not AM NOT one of those crazy people that has 300 bottles of maalox and that insanity. I do try to be reasonable and economical about it. Not obsessive and crazy. OK!!! See you soon!!!