Friday, April 25, 2008

Good Things

So in honor of Martha Stewart I have decided to start a section of my favorite things:
For spring cleaning:

I have absolutely no clue what is in these fabulous little things but nothing cleans dirty walls, counters or sinks.

This stuff smells devine

For baking:

This stuff is affectionately known as "the vanilla" at Williams and Sonoma. Dont believe me, walk into any WS and ask. It is from Madagascar and makes everything you bake taste better. I feel a little like a traitor since I have always been taught that Mexican vanilla is the best but this stuff is AMAZING. Even Martha herself has used it on her show.

For training:

I never enjoyed running until I recieved this for Christmas from my wonderful husband. Since then running is so much more fun. This little product plays your music, tracks your miles and gives your encouragement when you log a longest distance or time. Even Lance Armstrong comes on occasionally to congratulate you.

Spring

Spring blooms

tulips
daffodils
royal star magnolia tree
hyacinth

Lazy

Champ had such a long day outside that he decided he could no longer follow us up and down the stairs. So he took the perch position.







Banana Crumb Muffins

I have decided to start putting some of my favorite recipes online. So here is my first.
This is mostly a plain banana bread recipe but the crumb topping makes it extra special. My guinea pigs (Andy, my boss and his sons) really enjoyed these.
To further assist me with this I have decided to rate my recipes:
0-5 paws
This one is rated 3.5 paws by the guinea pigs
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
Optional: 1/2 cup chocolate chips


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Linens



For those of you who havent spent time in my home there is something you should know about me....I have an obsession...with linens. Towels, sheets, placemats, table runners I have to change them with every season. My newest purchases have to be displayed because I love them so and only my mother and sister can truely appreciate them.

Bluestone Patio

Our new patio set
Last summer my husband, father in law and brother in law spent an entire weekend putting in our bluestone patio. Until this spring we havent really had a chance to use it. Now that the snow is melted we are utilizing it to the fullest.

Man has created fire,He is very impressed with himself

The boy beast seems equally impressed

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Patio set


Andy and I have been planning since last year to purchase a patio set once our bluestone patio was complete. Now that it is spring again we found one we love. It is similar the the one Ron and Kathy have which we have spent many summer evenings sitting at. We purchased the table and four chairs. The chairs are amazingly comfortable, for wrought iron, and actually rock and lean backwards. The set obviously isnt set up yet since we still have 6 inches of snow on top of the patio but we are hoping soon to be outside eating dinner in the sun.

We didnt buy the lounge chair...but maybe in the future.

Spring fever

Ever since I can remember my family has had a spring tradition. Both my mother and my father are avid gardeners. My mother would load us up on a beautiful day in June take us to P&M gardens and spend more money they Gordon would probablly have liked on plants. Additionaly my father has always had a beautiful hedge of bleeding hearts in his yard.

Now that it has reached 60 degrees here in New Hampshire my gardening "genes" have set in. I went to home depot and picked up some ideas for my new garden beds. Last summer my wonderful husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law put in a big blue stone patio in our backyard. It has a fire pit in the center and lots of room for flower beds around it. I will put lots of pictures up once the snow all melts. So here are some of my purchases for the beds near the patio




Lots of DAHLIAS
I love this flower and as you can see I purchased just a few varities :)

Ranunculus

This variety of flowers is perennial down in the south but here in new england it only grows as an annual. It was also in my wedding boutique.


Clematis

I have never grown this variety of flower. They are climbing vining flowers that have blooms the size of dinner plates. I am very excited to try my luck at them.



And this is the trellis I bought to train them on. It will look beautiful


Lastly I couldnt resist this urn, I actually bought two of them. The clean lines and yellow tint will look amazing with the blue of the patio. I am not sure what to plant in them yet. Ideas?

So that is it for now. I havent even started at the green houses yet. I have to wait till at least end of May to go pick out flowers there. I blame my parents for this obsession.

Monday, April 7, 2008

She passed!

Breanna took her boards last week. I woke up early to cook her blueberry pancakes and of course we had to celebrate her end to studying with a big dinner including filet mignon with blue cheese sauce, green beans, twice baked potatoes and black bottom cupcakes. She left the next day to move back to Colorado. The puppies miss her already. She found out a couple days later she passed her boards and now can join the rest of us in working hard to pay off our astronomical student loans. Congrats.



Garden Art

Typically I abhore gnomes and fairy's that go in the garden. However on a recent shopping trip I found this adorable frog to put in my garden this spring. Since I have a little bit of cabin fever I decided to buy him and keep him inside till he is ready to appear. In the mean time I have taken to keeping fresh tulips is the house..until mine come up of course.





Triatholon training

I am currently training for an olympic length triatholon which requires alot of running. While Breanna was here she helped me train both dogs to run with me. This is a picture of us getting ready to go out one morning. The wonderful thing is now I can actually run with both dogs at the same time and they do wonderful. Thanks sis.




For my mother

Ever since my mother and godmother helped me purchase these pictures in Italy last May I have been waiting to get them framed. Andy and I finally were able to get them framed this spring. I love how bright they are. They really add a lot of color to our kitchen.




Another picture of our house. I am really in love with bright colors but would never think about doing a dark blue anywhere other than a bathroom. Andy was a little hesitant at first but I think it came out beautifully.


Had to throw in a picture of my long legged girl

Last is a picture of the beautiful plate my godmother sent me. I love the poppies.

Thank you Debbie! We love it.

Older pics

Since I didnt have a blog at the time these photos were taken I thought I would put them on now.

One of the few benefits of living in New Hampshire is the access to candidates around campaign time. This campaign season all of the candidates came to our home town including Obama, McCain, Bill Clinton and of course Ron Paul. Ron Paul actually came to our office to discuss health care topics. It was fun to meet him and he had some very interesting ideas.




Dr. Ron Paul and myself



Dr. Reisert (my supervising physician) and Dr. Paul.

I also have pictures of Bill Clinton but I think my family would disown me if I placed them on my bog.

The next picture is being posted to show off my martha stewart like skills.

While Breanna was here over Christmas we did a ton of baking. Including pumpkin roll (Andy's favorite), Chocolate truffles, Peppermint bark, Thumbprint cookies and mexican wedding cookies. I absolutely love to bake for a group of people and having Andy's family here for Christmas was the perfect excuse to make lots of treats.


Oh and dont forget to look at the beautiful table runner from my wonderful mother.