A Sentence A Day~ January

It is always wonderful to start a new year and think, I've lived to see another new year in!  As a cancer survivor you learn to take every day as a blessing.  I have loved doing these A Sentence A Day journals.  It is easy for me to summarize my day into one sentence now, and I hope for the future, some grandchild or niece or nephew might find the words interesting.

For past editions of the A Sentence A Day journaling, check out these links: May, June, July,  August, September,  October,  November, and December. 

January 1.  A beautiful day spent reminiscing of the past year, mostly centering on highlights and with some vacation planning for the future!

January 2.  No school, so we went to a new friend's Open House and met some of her friends, which means our own circle of friendship got even wider!

January 3.  We sold our silver trunk that has been used as our coffee table for the last two years, to make room for the new one coming on Saturday.

January 4.  The first class for my Columbia College class, full of eager new faces for the teacher education program.

January 5.  Working hard on scheduling summer trainings for my principals and thinking how hard it is to imagine summer!

January 6.  A drive into Columbia today to talk to my colleagues about how we can be more supportive to our first year teachers.

January 7.   Our DAR Executive meeting was so much fun, being around women who are happy to live in this beautiful country!

January 8.  A wonderful day eating Cheeseburger Stew, socializing with others on Instagram and making a new friend or two who like to cook as much as I do.

January 9.  I drove to a lovely little school in Cadet (Missouri) to talk about how to make good units of instruction for their staff.

January 10.  Book Club with our New Town friends at the Wine Bar is always so much fun, especially when the book was as good as this one was! 

January 11.  Bob had hernia surgery today and had a great surgeon and staff who were reassuring and kind.

January 12.  I had a lovely breakfast with two of my PEO sisters and one potential member, part of my duties as PEO President of the year.

January 13.  We holed up for the wintery weather that never appeared but it didn't stop us from cuddling on the couch and watching The Crown!

January 14.  We received about 1/4 inch of ice, so I took some photos and took the dogs out to play in it.

January 15.  Bob is still recovering but doing a good job of following my directions!

January 16.  We made a small grocery store run, but I carried all the groceries into the house so Bob would not pull hard on his incision.

January 17.  Both of us are back to work, after our 4 day holiday and Bob's surgery recovery.

January 18.  Spent the evening with one of my idols, Ina Garten, with 1500 of her other fans and loved every minute of it!

January 19.  Talking to a new doctor about a new way of looking at my thyroid health and hoping that what he can do for me will be different that what I have experienced for the last 40 years.

January 20.  Our country is so divided about President Trump, so much so, that I fear that those of us who are family, friends and colleagues will divide amongst each other and then all will be lost.

January 21.  Fantastic evening with friends on a 70 degree day in January, in Missouri, sitting outside by a bonfire, talking about life, loving our friendship.

January 22.  Watched my Green Bay Packers lose mightily today, so no Super Bowl for us.

January 23.  So excited to initiate a new PEO sister into our chapter tonight!

January 24.  Love my quiet Tuesdays at home with my husband, no plans, simple but delicious dinner of roast chicken and time with the TV.

January 25.  I went to a doctor to day to discuss my unhealthy body and decided to learn more about what is going on inside that is keeping me from losing weight and all the other symptoms that I experience.

January 26.  Fasting overnight, giving blood to the tune of five vials plus a urine sample and I do hope this gives the answers to all my issues. 

January 27.  Spent two hours on a machine that can detect different infections in your body, and while I was being tested, I got to take a nice nap!

January 28.  A wonderful date DAY, as planned by husband, included a lovely breakfast at a chocolate bar, lunch at the Curtain Call at The Fox Theater, An American in Paris show, then dinner at the wonderful French restaurant called Brasserie by Niche which was A M A Z I N G.

January 29.  A day to relax after our wonderful Saturday, then preparation for our convention on Monday and Tuesday.

January 30.  First day of our Powerful Learning Conference and wow, it has been a long while since we were both together at a educational conference!

January 31.  We were so fortunate to see such wonderful educators such as Luis Cruz, Beth Houf, Todd Whitaker, and Mike Rutherford, who motivated us to share information with our pre service teachers!

What a month!  Personally and professionally, we have had a lot of wonderful events and moments this January.  If you would like to do a sentence a day journal, let me know!  I would love to read yours!

Color Our World~White

White.  Pure as the driven snow.  A sign of purity.  It is also one of the most common colors in nature, did you know that?

The bloggers from Project Beautiful chose White as their January color.  White is an achromatic color, a color without hue. White is a color closely associated with all world religions.  White was most likely the first color used in prehistoric times, as chalk was available and didn't have to be mixed.  

White is beautiful and found in so many forms.  Let's take a look at what each of our bloggers did this month.

Lynne at Sensible Gardening discusses white gardening.  She says white flowers are her favorites and she gives us some examples to highlight her point.  They are gorgeous!

Karen from GardeningChick shares the white flower called Obedient Flower with us.  She says it gets its name from, well, go and read the post to find out!

Renee from The Gardening Frog tells us about the Formosa Lily.  She says it has an incredible fragrance and is from Formosa, Taiwan.  My dad served over there for awhile.  Another story! 

Shoshi at Blooming Secrets tells us about a year of color using white flowers.  I am in love with the white astilbe. That flower is so delicate and long lasting.  So pretty.

Teri at The Freshman Cook takes us a new direction with this delicious Chicken Marinara Panini.  The creamy texture of the chicken and cheese make me so hungry.  Better head on over and see the yummy goodness of this recipe!

These white flowers are popular in the northeast as Lee from A Guide to Northeastern Gardening tells us.  She has a lot of beautiful ideas for white flowers and some garden shots to share in her post.  I am in love with these while allium.

And for me, I made this Warm Vanilla Milk that has been so popular on Facebook.  It is delicious and perfect for something warm but not overly rich.

Thank you for joining us for #PBColorOurWorld White.  Next month we will be featuring PINK and I know our gardener friends will have something wonderful for us!

How to Prepare (and Eat!) an Artichoke

When I was a principal at South Callaway Schools, my administrative assistant was a sunny and kind woman named Dana who was a California (state) implant to Missouri.  Dana was the perfect antidote to my seriousness and always made sure that school was a fun place to be.

One day, for whatever reason, Dana and I were at school with no one else around.  It could have been before Parent Teacher conferences, or maybe a school concert, but she decided she was going to show me the proper way to make and eat an artichoke.

She brought one to school and somehow cooked the thing and showed me how to eat it.  It Rewas delicious, and since that day, I have tried to make sure I have at least one whole artichoke a year.

I am going to show you how Dana taught me to make an artichoke.

First, snip off the pointy ends of each petal.

Remove most of the woody stem, leaving about an inch.   Cut off the top 1/4 with a serrated knife.  

Rinse the artichoke under cold running water.  Place your aromatics (I use bay leaf, lemon and garlic) in a pot holding 2" of water.  Heat water to boiling, then reduce heat to simmer.

Place your steamer basket in the pot, add your artichoke, cover and cook for 25-45 minutes (it depends on how big and tight the artichoke is) or until one of the petals comes off easily.

Using tongs to place your artichoke on your plate.  Prepare dipping sauce for the artichoke.  I like mayo mixed in with a little balsamic vinegar.  

To eat, pull off one of the petals, dip in the sauce and place the petal in your mouth, dip side down.  Use your teeth to scrape off the small bit of meaty flesh at the bottom of the petal.  Work all away around your artichoke until it looks like this:

This hairy structure is the choke.  I was told not to eat it. So I don't.  I scrape it off with a spoon until I get to this:

This is the heart of the artichoke.  Dip it into the sauce and eat it.  There is about four good bites here.

This is a delicacy and something I look forward to each year.  I remember with fondness many memories of my time at South Callaway, of the dear friends I met and still keep in contact with over the years.  Thank you, Dana, for showing me the true delight of the artichoke.

French Kiss #foodnflix

January's pick for #FoodnFlix was French Kiss, hosted by our sponsor, Food 'n Flix!  Here's the movie description as written by our host:

French Kiss stars Meg Ryan as Kate, the tightly-wound, straight-as-an-arrow history teacher living the life she'd always imagined with her fiance Charlie (played by Timothy Hutton) in Canada. Charlie asks Kate to go with him on a work trip to Paris, but Kate opts to stay home and secure her dream home and finish planning their wedding.

Kate's world is shattered when Charlie calls to tell her that he's fallen in love and won't be coming home. She musters up the courage to hop on a flight to Paris, where she is seated next to Luc (played by Kevin Kline), a French thief, who annoys her to no end and stashes something he has stolen in her bag.

Once in Paris, Kate sets her mind to winning back Charlie, and Luc sets his mind to retrieving his stashed goods. Romance and comedy ensue. Plus, the majority is actually filmed in France, so there's some beautiful scenery.

I loved the movie, as I am a real sap when it comes to romantic comedy.  I like my heroines lovable and cute, and I want the hero to be dashing and winsome.  This movie got checkmarks in both boxes and added in a romantic location (hello, Paris) to boot.  And, my feeling is that she got the better of the two men, even though they both were lacking in good character. 

The food scenes were limited and I saw a couple of really good opportunities when it came to desserts (Kate falls over a dessert cart, spilling beautiful French pastry everywhere!) but all I wanted when I finished this movie was a cocktail.  A very specific cocktail, the French Kiss.

As with most of my cocktails, this one is pretty simple.  There are hundreds of recipes on the web for French Kiss and all are different.  I like this one because A.  I can use my cranberry juice and 2. I had fresh strawberries in the house.

French Kiss, a cocktail

by Our Good Life

6080805

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 2 oz vodka
• 1/2 oz Chamboard
• 1 T simple syrup
• 2 T cranberry juice
• 2 strawberries
• 1 lime wedge

Instructions

In a cocktail shaker muddle 1 strawberry. Add 1/2 c crushed ice, vodka, chambord, simple syrup, and juice. Shake until very cold. Fill highball glass with crushed ice, strain into glass. Garnish with strawberry and lime wedge.

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The cocktail has just enough pucker to make it refreshing, but you do need the simple syrup to sweeten the sugar free cranberry juice, if you make yours from my recipe.  I love the fresh strawberries in my drink.

à votre santé!

Simple Game Day Snacks

Putting on a party for your game day need not be a big preparation.  Keeping things simple but fun makes the day even more fun.  We recently had a spread worthy of the Super Bowl but without a lot of fuss and stress.  Let me walk you through it!

1.  Crab dip.  Get good crab from your butcher and a great cocktail sauce.  Mix together and pour over softened cream cheese.  Serve with good crackers.

2.  Make hummus (it is so easy with Hummus So Easy, see my recipes here, here and here!)  Serve with fresh veggies as a dipper.  We love baby carrots!

3.  Make a large bowl of popcorn.  We love the Skinny Pop with white cheddar.  Yummm.  We can eat a whole bag of it ourselves.

4.  Have a sweet.  Whether it is cookies, or candy, or ice cream sundaes, have a little something for those who like to indulge their sweet tooth.

5.  Marcona almonds.  These are so good and perfect for those who want to indulge.  These almonds are so delicious, we don't do anything more with them than to pour them in a bowl.

6.  Chips and salsa and queso dip.  Standards at any party!

7.  This is where you spend your time.  One special dish.  In this case, these are lemon chicken thighs, to be featured in an upcoming blog post!  Think ribs, or flatbread, or chili.  This one dish that you can't be without or it won't be perfect!

We are huge Green Bay Packer fans, and while they didn't move on to the Super Bowl, we are so proud of them for the season they had.  One day, we will find ourselves in the stands wearing a cheesehead.

Our cute football napkins and football shaped bowls came from the Dollar Store, as did our green plates and plasticware.  The Dollar Store can really add a lot of punch to your set up, so be sure and check them out!  The little Green Bay Bear was purchased a long time ago when we went to Green Bay on a family vacation.  Nothing like a good memory to help decorate your table!

All credit goes to my husband for this game day plan.  He made the chicken thighs and set up this snack bar! He's really good at things like this.  Make your party delicious without spending hours in the kitchen or a ton a money.  Good luck to whomever you are rooting for!

Easiest Bread Ever

Bread is the food of life.

Baking bread takes me to faraway places, like the time we traveled to England, and scones, biscuits, and homemade bread were a part of every meal and table.  It takes me to my favorite Italian restaurants, the crispy yet chewy crusts that absorb those delicious oils and sauces or my favorite butter dense with fresh herbs.  

It is the mainstay of my favorite breakfast, avocado toast.  A hearty piece of bread perfectly toasted, with smashed ripe avocado, olive oil, and salt and pepper sprinkled liberally over all.  The textures, the aroma, the taste buds smiling really big!

I found a recipe on Pinterest for a 5 ingredient bread made in an hour.  Of course this caught my attention and I have tried it several times.  I have made adjustments the recipe based on my personal experiences.  Here you go.

Easiest Bread Ever

2 small envelopes of fast rising yeast

1 T good honey

2 c warm water (as for a baby's bath)

4 c flour

1 1/2 t salt

Preheat oven to 375.

Pour water in a glass bowl.  Add honey and whisk until incorporated.  Add yeast and stir.  Let yeast activate, about 10 minutes.

Sifting the flour isn't necessary, but you might want to stir the flour if it has been sitting in a canister for awhile.  Measure 4 cups into the bowl of your mixer that has been fitted with your dough hook.  Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl and begin mixing on low speed.  Let the dough hook do it's work for about ten minutes or until all flour is incorporated.

Bring the dough to your surface and knead four times, and on that fourth time, form into a long loaf. (I always mess this up and make a round ish loaf, which takes more time to rise and bake!)  Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  Cover with a towel and let rise 20 minutes.  If the bread doesn't look like it has at least doubled in size, let it rise 10 minutes more.  (I take a photo of it before it rises so I can compare)

With a knife, cut slits on top of the bread.  You can brush it with melted butter or olive oil if you want.  Place the bread in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Insert a long toothpick to check for doneness.  It should come out clean.  Remove bread from the oven and let cool on the counter.  Slice and serve.

It is delicious.  

I have added in herbs in a batch, in another I added in garlic powder.  Both were amazing.  

I feel like a baker now!  I can make the bread without a recipe and I love that you can knead it a little.  It turns out every time I make it!

Give it a try, and feel yourself transported to Italy and a baker's shop.  You deserve that!

Healthy Soup Options #SoupSwappers

Our resolutions are freshly made, but you might find yourself starting to slide a bit, the salads are getting monotonous and you long for something comforting to eat.  A group of bloggers have banded together to give you some healthy soup options that will leave you feeling satisfied and happy.

You might remember that our group, The Secret Recipe Club, disbanded a while back.  I am happy to say that one of our group, Wendy Klik, of A Day in the Life on the Farm  rallied us together and we have started a new group called Soup Saturday Swappers.  You can find us on Facebook if you are a food blogger and want to join us!

The herbs I used were the ones I harvested and froze for occasions just like this.  My herb garden provides me so much pleasure in the summer, and when I harvest and use them in the winter, even more so!  This herb mixture is basil, oregano and thyme.

We also used my husband's homemade chicken stock.  Each time he roasts a chicken, I am having him make stock.  It was over the top delicious.

I'm planning my herb garden for this spring.  It is going to be huge and so much fun!

My soup was inspired by a recipe I saw at Kitchen Cents posted by my friend, Rachel.  Her soup is fantastic, all I did was reduce the fat (no herbed butter) add some of my own personality to it!  I hope you will enjoy it and make it soon.

Chicken with Gnocchi Soup

by Our Good Life

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

6080772

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped
• 4 c homemade chicken broth
• 2 c water
• 4 T minced herbs (basil, thyme, oregano or parsley)
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 pkg potato gnocchi
• 1 T lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Bring water and chicken broth to a boil. Add carrots and celery and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add chicken, herbs, lemon juice, and gnocchi. Cook until gnocchi rises to the top, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Jessica Fechtor's Cherry Clafoutis #CooktheBooksClub

Cook the Books read Jessica Fechtor's memoir called Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals that Brought me Home for our bimonthly selection. Jessica's writing is what we teachers like to call "authentic voice."  Even though I have never met her, I know I would recognize her when she spoke. Her book tells the story of her brain aneurysm at the age of 28, her nothing-short-of miraculous recovery, her food blog and how food and cooking helped her return to the world.

I was completely, soulfully and utterly mesmerized by this book.

Jessica writes her story in carefully crafted, simple yet powerful sentences, that sets the story free to soar. We walk beside her bleeding brain, recover with her outside of surgery, struggle with physical therapy and the loss of sight and taste, celebrate when things start to go well, cry when they aren't. And between all of this, is food.

Not just any food, but food, like Jessica, that has a heart.  In its own simplicity, she talks about toast with good bread and butter.  She talks about fruit in a way that makes you sit up and take notice. There are certain canned tomatoes and a certain salt that make food sing.  (You will need to read the book to learn these things!)

While I read her journey to recovery, I was thinking about mine, several years ago, and how I thought about food.  Food is a connection between love and wellness, between love and healing, between love and caring.  Food is offered when things are bad, when things are good and when things are just right. Find the foods that say love to you, and you can find your way back home.

I was intrigued by all the foods Jessica mentions in her book, but I was certain I wanted to create the Cherry Clafoutis at home.  My husband loves cherries and I wanted to taste this simple dessert that features cherries at its core.  It was delicious and I hope you find it so, too.  I modified her recipe to fit our dish.  Here's how I made it:

Cherry Clafoutis

1 T softened butter
sugar for dusting the pan
1 cup of fresh cherries, pitted
1/2 c milk
1 T brown sugar
1/2 t baking powder
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 T brandy
1/4 t salt
2 T flour
confectioners sugar for finishing

Preheat oven to 375. Use the butter to coat a round cake pan, thickly coated. Dust the pan with sugar and shake out any excess.  Put the cherries in the baking dish (I halved mine) in a single layer.  In a blender pitcher, add milk, brown sugar, baking powder, egg, vanilla, brandy, salt and flour.  Blend on high speed for 1 minute.  Pour the batter over the cherries and back for 30 minutes.  The clafoutis will puff up and turn golden brown.  A tester will come out clean.  Serve at room temperature, dusted with confectioner's sugar.

Serves 4

Read the book.  It will nourish you in both mind and spirit.  Come back and thank me later.

Valentine Candy Bouquet #OrientalTrading

I was given product from Oriental Trading for my review but all opinions are my very own!

Valentine's Day is approaching and we are all scrambling over our pinned posts to find a gift for those in our lives who go above and beyond to make our lives easier.  I, too, am looking for that gift, and I believe I have found one that is easy, creative and inexpensive, yet also is beautiful and tasty!

This candy bouquet is so pretty in person.  All you need are candies, a vase or container, foam to hold the candies in place, tape, and floral sticks.  All my candies were purchased from the Valentine's page of Oriental Trading!  So many choices, both in kinds and colors!  You will see so many ideas when you visit the Crafts Section, too.  I searched the whole section just in case there were ideas I hadn't thought of yet!

Green foam and plastic container came from a dollar store.

First I wash and dry the container. I place the green foam in the container and create a grid with tape. This holds the foam in place and also helps me know where to place the candy.  In this bouquet I am using chocolate roses, lollipops, rock candy sticks and Hershey's chocolates taped to floral sticks.  I start in the center with a chocolate rose and surround the rose with lollipops and rock candy.  I added more roses and lastly, I add the Hershey candy in for more depth and texture.  Add a card and you are ready to present this to your favorite people!

What do you think?  

Let me know if you make one and be sure to send a photo!  I'll send photos to Oriental Trading, too!

A Moonbow Night #ourgoodlifebooklist

In my first read by author Laura Frantz, I am taken in by the authentic voice of the era that the author seems to write with ease.  The opening sentence "There was no cure for the whirling April snow, the cold seeping through thin, trail-worn moccasins from the frozen forest floor" draws you quickly into the misery of trailbreaking in 1777 with the threat of harm and the lack of filling food to look forward to each day.  A Moonbow Night is the story of survival in the wilderness during the first flood of landowners to Kentucky.  Temperence, the main character of the story, is a strong, smart and savvy woman of the frontier.

The author makes sure that each character is grounded and sincere.  Each has distinct voices and mannerisms that make you love and sometimes, dislike them.  All have strength of character when times call for it and all have weaknesses that nearly do them in.  The author weaves the story like a fine artisan, and the story emerges just like a tapestry.

She has a tendency to tie us up in detail when we are on the edge of our seat waiting for the outcome of a serious situation.  This does not endear me to her, in fact, I found myself skipping large portions of text in order to find out what happened next and probably missed some fine work.  I am not regretful of my decision to skip ahead, as I did not find anything lacking when I got to the end.

My personal favorite chapter was when the Moonbow Inn first comes into our world.  The descriptions of life, food, people, and the Inn drew me in and I reread those sections over and over.  Beautifully done, and nurturing for my soul.

I review books for Revell Read and the books are given to me for free in exchange for my review. All written work is my own opinion.