Jane Eyre

I have one question:

Did Charlotte Bronte have a word requirement?

As in, at least "X" number of words?

188,209.

I looked it up.
A Tale of Two Cities is only
135,420
and that had 2 cities!
Jane Eyre only has shires. 

The median word count for a novel is

99,341.

Looked that up too. 

http://indefeasible.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/great-novels-and-word-count/

I'm just sayin'....

I thought I was long winded. 

A Shower Gift

27 years later

Mike and I received this set of ten 

glass bowls from Crate and Barrel

27 years ago.

They've held; 

pancake batter on Saturday mornings,

pasta salad on summer evenings, 

gravy on Thanksgivings,

cake mixes for many birthdays,

guacamole for countless parties. 

They've been around for a lot.
And bounced around a bit too. 

So have Honey and I. 

And we're all still here. 

Imagine how pleased I was to find the same 

set of bowls on Caitlin's bridal registry.

I hope her bowls will be as durable as mine. 

Her marriage too. 

:o)

Caitlin's Bridal Shower

I actually went to a party that I didn't throw!

It was so much fun to see what other creative people do.

I didn't go around taking pictures of all the decorations

because I didn't want to be obnoxious but I did take a shot of this:

It's the cake!

And it's all edible!

And we aren't anywhere near Charm City Cakes!

And even more surprising was that it was delicious.

I always thought that it takes so long to make one of these works

of art that the cake must suffer for it. 

This cake was great, oh and it was chocolate.

You know they had to have a game. 

 I have never been a participant in this particular game before. 

I have heard of it. 

In folklore.

The guests are divided into teams and they

are given copious amounts of toilet paper and the charge

to create a wedding ensemble. 

I was in charge of the head piece. 

Obviously I missed my calling. 

Oh, and my team won. 

heh,heh,heh. 

Mushroom Wellingtons

It's Meatless Monday

and these were great!

I found the recipe in a little magazine my sister gets for the pictures 

and then passes on to me.

It's called Cuisine At Home and it has a website

but it doesn't appear to offer the recipes on line or I would 

link it here for you. 

Basically these are portobello mushrooms that 

you stuff with mushrooms. 

That just doesn't seem right, kind of cannibalistic,

 but good none the less.

Then you wrap it all up in puff pastry, bake and

Wala!

Mushroom Wellington!

And while I am happy to share this new find,

the happiest piece of news from all this is, 

Puff Pastry has officially become a staple item in my freezer!

Life is good. 

Restaurant Review

Steve likes it when I do restaurant reviews so,

this one's for Steve. 

To celebrate our 27th anniversary Honey and I 

headed out to a little winery in 

Maple Park Illinois for dinner last night. 

I didn't remember to take my camera so you get this little

diptych.

(increasing your vocabulary=free)

I have only heard wonderful things about this

 little winery and restaurant  

so I was excited to check it out for myself.

First off, the only way to

 get rid of your car is with a valet. 

Did I mention there was nothing for miles around but grape vines?

As in, no Citgo to stash your car at?

It was free, which was good, but we didn't exactly have any cash on us

so tipping our free valet was going to be a challenge. 

We went a little early thinking we could sit in the lounge 

and have a glass of wine before we sat down. 

Mistake.

There is no lounge. 

There is, however, a bar that you can stand at.

No chairs. 

They would like you to do wine tasting standing at said bar.

Not really what I had in mind. 

And Tony seemed none too pleased that we were there early. 

We are not 100% sure who Tony is. 

He informed us that he planted the vines. 

(I'm seeing horses heads in my bed if

 I don't like the fruits of them there vines.)

So maybe we didn't all get off on the right foot. 

(ya think?)

But, actually (actually), the wines are pretty good, 

considering we are in Illinois.

We eventually get seated and sitting right next to us

are some old friends from a previous church. 

That's nice. 

My husband, who is the BEST ever!, requests a dessert menu

before we even look at the dinner menus.

There really wasn't anything that looked like it would 

preclude us from a standard (by our measure) 

meal so on to the main menu.

It really is all standard Italian fare. 

We had a pizza for an appetizer and then split

an order of gnocchi. 

The pizza was good, the gnocchi, eh.

If you want FABULOUS gnocchi got to Tri Bella.

Their gnocchi were like little clouds of wonderful. 

But that was another day. 

When all was said and done, we were happy to have tried 

Acquaviva but probably don't need to go back, 

seeing as how the best part 

of the evening was seeing the Tamlins and McConnels. 

And you can't count on that happening every time!

End note: certain apostrophes have been left out so as 

not to incur the wrath of daughter unit. 

http://www.acquavivawinery.com/index.html

It's Home!

How is it that this lamp has not spent it's entire life here?

I found it at a consignment shop.
That sells clothing.
While I was doing yoga.
Could this find have been any more random?

Or any more meant to be?

All is right with the world.

Pork Loin with Pinot Noir Sauce

I have my camera and my favorite person to cook for back.

And so you get, 

New Posts!

I know. 

The world waits with bated breath. 

Or at least Mom and Big :o)

So here is yesterday's creation:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/claire-robinson/pork-loin-with-pinot-noir-sauce-recipe/index.html

As I said before, I love pork tenderloin and am always on the 

look out for new things to do with it.

This was great and really easy. 

The hardest part was educating myself about Demi-Glace.

I happened to walk away from the TV as Claire

was explaining what it is and how you make it.

Big mistake. 

All I knew about it was somebody named

Escoffier had something to do with it and it takes a really 

long time to make. 

Oh, and that my FB friend Maggie had been interested in making it 

from scratch. 

Once. 

So, at least I knew who to ask for recommendations 

as to a good brand. 

First good call. 

Second good call?

Saying something to the sales person at Williams Sonoma 

about how expensive this stuff was ( $29 for 10 oz)

and that my recipe calls for 2 cups of the stuff!

Uh, it's a concentrate. 

A couple of tablespoon mixed with 2 cups of water should do it. 

Can you imagine what I would have wound up with!?

So crisis averted. 

And I am actually (actually) happy I discovered the stuff.

It has a really deep flavor and the package suggests

adding it to stews. That sounds fantastic.

Lessons learned:

Do NOT walk away from the television. 

Keep someone smarter that you in your back pocket.

Talk to strangers and tell them everything you know. 

Oh, and, Demi-Glace = good thing!