Love, Laughter, and Life

Adventures With a Book Lover


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Meeting in the Middle Really Works

meet in the middle

drive separate roads to where

catching up is fun

~ Haiku by Angie Quantrell

 

Meeting in the middle works.

Yes, the sort of meeting in the middle that signifies compromise and working together – that works.

But also the physical, drive and meet in the middle between two far flung locations – that works as well.

Making the most of a federal holiday, a friend and I recently met in the middle for a fun day of rubber stamping, visiting, and eating. We’ve been discussing the idea for quite a long time, but could never put wheels on our vision.

Until we stopped talking and started driving. She booked a hotel room for her daughter and a friend and herself. I met them. We took over the hotel’s business conference room table, where we were front and center for the excitement of the day.

It was great!

Due to the limited amount of time, we really focused. We only brought some of our mountains of supplies and ideas. We only shared one meal. We only began some projects, stacking them for completion later at home (one of the best unintended parts of the day). We only spent a short time visiting a local thrift shop.

Success.

Now we know where the middle is and plan to take advantage of this knowledge again.

You should try it. Who do you want to meet in the middle?


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Salmon with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Homemade sauces are a cook’s most valuable asset. The béchamel, the hollandaise, the mornay, the romesco—they’re all lovely. You know what else they require? Time. On Mondays, I have a lot of things: an onslaught of work to complete, laundry to fold, blog comments to respond to, events to plan, babies to make giggle, and […]

Source: Salmon with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

This recipe sounds delicious! We love salmon and have recently been enjoying teriyaki salmon – but the store bought sauce is soooo salty. Thanks, Vicky, for this recipe. Can’t wait to try it.


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NEW DINING EXPERIENCE (A YouTube Video) …

Source: NEW DINING EXPERIENCE (A YouTube Video) …

A fun innovative way to wait for dinner to arrive. I’ve never seen anything like this. Have you?


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Please

Reblogged on WordPress.com

Source: Please

Plant these to help bees! Thank you.


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Vitamin and Mineral of the Week – Recipe – Stuffed Green Peppers by Angie Quantrell

Source: Vitamin and Mineral of the Week – Recipe – Stuffed Green Peppers by Angie Quantrell

Thanks, Sally! I love this recipe!


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A bowl full of nutrients – Pureed Root Vegetable Soup from Annette Rochelle Aben

Source: A bowl full of nutrients – Pureed Root Vegetable Soup from Annette Rochelle Aben

This recipe sounds delicious! Thanks, Annette!


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United Kingdom Afternoon tea…

Source: United Kingdom Afternoon tea…

I love afternoon tea! One of the fanciest places I’ve enjoyed high tea with friends is in Seattle, WA, at the Queen Mary Tea Room. I wish afternoon tea would take off here!


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Caramelized Onion and Ricotta Tarte Soleil

The whole house smelled of caramelized onions, thyme, and butter this weekend. Which is to say, I didn’t want to leave the kitchen. I’m going to go ahead and ignore the negative 10 degrees outside that caused a winter scene of ice to develop on our kitchen window. That may have also had something to do with […]

Source: Caramelized Onion and Ricotta Tarte Soleil

I really really need to make this dish. Delish!


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Quick and Easy Nutella Brownie Cake

Source: Quick and Easy Nutella Brownie Cake

I don’t know if I could avoid eating too many spoonfuls of Nutella to get enough in the brownie mix! Sounds very yummy.


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Gingerbread Party – Not for the Faint of Heart

Never fear. Nana had the grands over for a wild and seriously crazy evening of decorating gingerbread cookies. That is not an understatement.

For the past few years, I have decorated gingerbread houses with the grands. But this year, with 3 boys and 1 girl, six years old and younger, I thought gingerbread cookies would be much easier. I was right.

But we still made a big mess, gobbled too many decorations, and spread icing far and wide. One nice thing about decorating cookies instead of houses was that we could eat our work instead of letting it sit around and petrify into cement.

I’m not so sure the parents agreed. But like any good grandparents, we played, made memories, fed them too much sugar, and sent them home.

Here are a few photos from our Gingerbread Party. Notice the series when Gage decides he is GOING to have his plate and cookie (Nana had to decorate his, as he can’t eat cookies yet). Of course when we are all watching his actions, Donavyn chooses that moment to look at the camera instead of eating the icing and candy off of his gingerbread boy.

 Tips:

1. Make the cookies in advance. Definitely. I used giant cookie cutters and made 1 girl and 3 boy cookies. The extra dough was used for normal cookies.

2. Sort candy into individual bowls. That way, each child gets the same things to put on their cookies. Or, I mean, the same amount of sugar to eat.

3. Give each child a cookie sheet as a workspace. Escaping candies and sticky knives stayed right where they needed to be.

4. Forget the fancy icing. Just buy a tub of white icing. It spreads so nice and easy. The icing in the gingerbread house kits is horrible and making a glaze icing that doesn’t spread is frustrating.

5. Enlist someone else to take photos. No way could this Nana help everyone, keep Gage from eating stuff, and take photos. Even with assistance, taking pictures of our completed cookies was the hardest part!

6. Have fun! Eventually we will get back to the houses. But for now, keeping it simple makes more sense. And next year, when we have 5, I think I will have to adopt yet another helper for crowd control.

Happy December traditions!