May 28, 2011

2nd Best Chicken Salad

My absolute favorite lunching spot, O'Carr's, is going to be closed Monday for Memorial Day.  Margaret and I loved to visit there on my days off, and now she'll be in town Monday!  So, I checked my trusty recipe box at All Recipes, and I found a chicken salad recipe that looked simple.  Well, at least I thought it was simple; I didn't have bacon, water chestnuts, grapes, minced onion, ginger, or lemon juice!  Anyway, I used what I did have, along with two pieces of baked chicken.

1. Bake 2-3 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts at 400° for 40 minutes.
2. Shred the chicken into tiny pieces.
 3. Add the following ingredients:
  • 1/2 c. chopped celery or 3 T. celery flakes
    1/2 c. mayo (I used the new olive oil blend-yum!)
    1 T. dried parsley flakes
  • 1 t. onion powder or 2 t. minced onion
  • 1 dash of Worcestershire sauce
  • salt and pepper to taste
*I added 1/2 T. of thyme, which is really the secret ingredient for making it taste like O'Carr's!
4. Mix well and serve chilled with butterfly crackers!  Delish!

Summer's HERE!

School's out, summer's in.  Yay!  And just in time for a new series to follow all summer long (aside from the obvious So You Think You Can Dance season!).  Sarah's Summer House takes us on a journey of her renovation and beautification of her husband's once bachelor pad.  Sarah Richardson is my all-time favorite designer.  She's freaking amazing!  It's on HGTV, Saturdays at 7pm.  Love it!

May 16, 2011

What Could Be Better

Than a neighbor with giant blue hydrangeas growing outside my bedroom window?!  Lovely Mr. J (aka Grandpop next door) came by after dinner to remind me to clip some of the hydrangeas before our backyard neighbor came to call.  Happily, I trotted on over and gathered a beautiful bouquet for my kitchen.  LOVE.
I could be happy forever with a fresh vase of hydrangeas each week!  What a great start to the work week.

May 15, 2011

Peaceful Retreat

When Father-in-Law, Father-in-Law's friend, and Dear Husband all pile into the house with projects, I know it's time for me to find something to do and stay out of the way.  I haven't painted since my dear friend Margaret and I lived in the same condos last summer.  Sadness.  So I broke out a new canvas and got to work.  I am pretty good at the standard color wash, and I can even blend colors into other colors (and so can most five-year-olds).  So that's not saying much.  But I wanted something with lots of different colors, so this is what came out of my brain (which is not really what it looked like in my brain).
I really like the blue swishy background, but I don't like how my line arched or that all of my brush marks are nearly the same length.  Creating colors I imagine does not seem to translate to reality, but playing in paint does give me a break from supervising.

May 9, 2011

Current Obsession

Ahhh.  I am loving the bright, airy clusters of peonies popping up lately!  Right now, I am wishing this arrangement were sitting on my dining room table.  Or my nightstand.  Or my sink windowsill.  They are just perfect!  Happy Monday!

May 5, 2011

DO Do Your Part

Newsflash: NO ONE LIKES DOG POOP.  Even Masseykins moves away from his poo and takes care not to step in it.  Diligently, DH picks it up in the translucent blue bag and parades said dog around the block each morning.  We always clean up Massey's poop!  Especially since we live in a neighborhood!  One of my sweet darlings stepped in poop today on the playground.  Really?  It's bad enough to leave your dog's poop in someone's yard or on the edge of the street, but where children play?  Very tacky.  Please pick up your dog's doo doo!