Pillow

Troy had once upon a time said he'd like this pillow for his room, but I think he was just being polite. It is pretty, but not his style. Anyway, my step-mother was thrilled. I gave her the unfinished needlepoint so she could choose what color she wanted for the back and trim. You can't see the back here, but she chose navy suede cloth. The cording color choice really turned out well. The picture below shows the pillow on the sofa in my step-mom's home office. The reds are really nice together. This is a discontinued Ehrman Tapestry needlepoint called Turkish Stripe. The date on the canvas is 1989 (the year Zack was born), but I didn't buy it until at least 1997 (the year Troy was born). I used the finishing service for the U.S. as recommended on the UK website (Cindy Hills). She does a fabulous job. Looking up her email got me poking around the Ehrman site. Now I want to start another one. I'll post my top three for consideration.

Winter Training

Zack was home for the holidays. He has a training schedule, no matter the weather, so when it was really cold, he set up his rollers. They are usually set up in the basement in the doorframe between the family room and the utility room, but since his dad wanted to watch something on tv (and the rollers do make some noise), Zack took his bike and the rollers upstairs to the little bedroom. The little bedroom used to be Troy's, but they worked out some sort of arrangement when Zack first left home that gave Troy the bigger bedroom. Anyway, this little bedroom is barely 6' x 9' so it was funny to see the rollers in there. Can you see the open window? This was one of the coldest days of the season but Zack had sweat dripping off of him. In this photo you can't quite see the new tattoo I discovered on the inside of his left upper arm. It looks sort of like the mushroom below. He insists it's not a drug-related reference, and I believe him. He told me that one reason he got it was because with a goofy mushroom on his inner arm he wouldn't ever be able to take himself too seriously and grow up to be a grumpy old man.

Lasagna

I admired a Mario Batali lasagna pan the other day at Crate and Barrell. Russ must have heard me-- he included it in an order from Chef's catalog when he ordered a new Henckles knife. (He broke the other one trying to use it like a cleaver.) Anyway, I was so excited to see the pan, but it is HUGE. I made lasagna last night. I tripled my usual recipe. What was I thinking? I should have invited the neighborhood. It would have fed a dozen people. And, I had to store the leftovers on the back porch because I didn't have room in the refrigerator.

I left the can of tomatoes there so you can get a sense of scale. The bread crumbs are for the birds after they've dried a bit more. The martini shaker is, well, you get the idea. I do actually use the mortar and pestle, and just used it night before last to grind up some saffron for osso bucco, or more specifically, for the risotto to go with the osso bucco. Yummm.

Living Simple

My friend wrote on her blog about a decorating style she admired (http://houseitemsandroomsilike.blogspot.com/2008/12/this-is-gorgeous.html). I agree. Simple is MUCH better, but it is really suprisingly hard to do. Do you think so too? Like losing weight, something I know a little about. The weight creeps up and up without one hardly noticing, but it is so hard to lose it. It's the same thing for me with clutter. It starts with one pile of mail I can't deal with right this minute, then a stack of magazines, shoes that need to go upstairs, linens I don't really have a place to store. . .

I spent a week on a 42' sailboat several years ago. There were 3 adults and six teen-age Boy Scouts. It was a blast, but it also inspired me toward a more uncluttered existence. Why do we need two or three of everything? On the boat, you have to be able to put everything away, every day. A place for everything, etc. He (the captain and boat owner) didn't have two cookie sheets, much less the six I have in my cupboard, three of which don't even fit in my oven. I think I'm going to go start a Good Will box right now.

Cookies, again

Here's the snowball recipe:
http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1565831

and the pine nut cookies. Same cookie base, but pine nuts instead of coconut. I piped the leftover white chocolate on top. I hate to be wasteful!

Cookies

Alright, pipe down. I know I don't stage food as nicely as Martha's minions staged hers, but I thought these turned out o.k. Zack said they were lame, but he's also sporting a mohawk so I don't have to take him too seriously. I tried to find recipes on her website with no luck. I got them as an insert to my magazine subscription invoice. The ones on the bottom were supposed to look more like snowballs. Again-- oh well. They did taste good.

Poetry for Plumbers

I don't know if you'd feel this sentimental about your plumbers, but I thought you'd appreciate the poetry. Made me laugh, as I'm getting ready to redo my bathroom.

http://www.elabs7.com/functions/message_view.html?mid=604262&mlid=499&siteid=20130&uid=502144dea9

I need a shot of frenetic energy, maybe to be a Type A personality for a bit. I want to not resent the fact that I can't spend the afternoon in front of a nice warm fire with my stack of magazines and books. Or when I do blow off the world for an hour, not to feel bad about it.