Keepers From the Recipe Box

I collect cookbooks and recipes. I still have a recipe box with all my favorites written on recipe cards. I also have many of Mom's recipes in that box. Pinterest has provided an excellent tool for me to organize recipes I find online. 

At the top of my blog I have a page that links you to favorite recipes. I haven't updated this for awhile, so that is my goal now is to add more recent recipes. 

I love the combination of lemon and chicken and am always using for a recipe that combines both. This  recipe was a big hit. It has been added to my keeper list. 

https://everydayannie.com/2010/04/15/lemon-chicken/

Another recent recipe I really loved was Sunny Anderson's Spring Goddess Salad. I watched her make it on The Kitchen and tried it right after. It is delicious and makes lots of extra dressing for another dish.

 https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/spring-goddess-salad-recipe-1946696?soc=sharepin

The last recipe was a favorite at a birthday party for a friend in March. It is called Lemon Lush and it is really easy and and delicious. 

https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/lemon-lush/

Stay tuned. I will be sharing more of my favorite recipes. 

Timeline of Life with Photos

the cemetary in Kellogg in autumn

I love to take photos of flowers, bouquets, food dishes, places I have traveled, craft projects, seasons of the year and sunsets just to name a few. I don't take as many pictures of people.

a spring bouquet

When I first started using a digital camera I just loaded and saved all my pictures.

a favorite strawberry cake recipe

I have discovered my photos are a timeline of my life. They are all saved in chronological order. Sometimes people roll their eyes at foodie pictures. I am relieved I have taken so many food pictures so I can remember recipes and how a dish looked when I prepared it. 

annabella  hydrangea

My garden pictures remind me of what was blooming at what time each year. The pictures also remind me of flowers I had planted in former gardens and what thrived and what didn't. They also give me ideas for how to combine colors and textures in containers. There is a good reason for me to have hundreds of flower pictures!

Shelby and Annie

Of course, my photo timeline helps me keep track of all my dogs and cats, when we got them, when we lost them, and how they entertained us. Boy, have I taken a lot of pet pictures. 

Maybe this will help you look at your huge collection of pictures off your phone and camera in a different way. It is your life in images. I know there will come a day when I need to organize all my pictures and remove duplicates and not so good images. I think that will be a good winter project.

Sherman Pass

Silver Linings

" We are the silver lining in any and every dark cloud we could ever find. There is no need to go looking for the light when you bring it with you. " Tyler Knott Gregson

In April last year I wrote a blog post entitled "We Are the Silver Lining".  It was after we had been sheltering safe for about a month. Instead of getting down, Everett and I chose to search for silver linings. The quote above is the same one I used last year. It is still true. Here that post. https://gatheringaroundthetable.blogspot.com/2020/04/we-are-silver-lining.html

The world is a tough place to live in right now. People around me are hurting. People around me are struggling,  There are days when I am hurting. There are days I am struggling. I continue to work at bringing the light with me. I continue to search for silver linings.

Every week Family Dinner is a silver lining. It isn't always about the delicious foods everyone prepares, but it is knowing it is a place we can share, get lifted up, sing, and laugh.

Riley is a silver lining. What would I do without Riley? My day starts with him greeting me with a snuggle and all through the day he makes me laugh and provides companionship. He just knows when I need kisses or a paw on my arm. Here he is building a pillow fort on the 4th of July.

My gardens are a silver lining. When the day is coming to an end I find joy wandering around looking at what is blooming and what is finally sprouting. I am thankful for sunshine and water.

My friends are another silver lining. I am surrounded by a special circle of friends that call, text, join me for a meal, or just show up. It is so nice to be able to share a laugh, a memory, hear about their day, talk about a new book, or just sit outside and enjoy fellowship. Knowing they are out there somewhere is a huge silver lining. 

Where I live is a silver lining. I can jump in the car and be at a beautiul place in minutes. I am surrounded by beauty, history, quiet places, busy places, and so many places that bring back memories. I love the place I call home.

Do you have a silver lining?

the view from my front yard

Women Who inspire Me: Mary Engelbreit

The first card I remember purchasing.

 Today is my first installment of "Women Who Inspire Me." Mary Engelbreit has been a part of my life since the early 80's. She is my favorite artist and illustrator. I think I first discovered ME in a Hallmark store in Kennewick and the Ocotopus Garden, an eclectic card shop in Richland. 

Mary's greeting cards are bright, colorful, whimsical, and she almost always uses a quote. She also loves polka-dots! She wanted to be an artist since she was a child and was so excited when she learned people were artists for a living. Her first goal was to illustrate children's books, but the agents that looked at her work encouraged her to do greeting cards. The rest is history.

My all-time favorite

She has created cards, calendars, t-shirts, wall hangings, stationary, fabric, books, and for eleven years did a magazine. I loved her Home Companion magazine. She did fulfill her dream and has illustrated a whole collection of children's books. 

Her magazine always had beautiful covers.

I am always interested in a artist's process. This is how she creates a piece of art:

"I’ve often been asked how I actually create my illustrations, so let me explain. I complete each drawing on a single piece of paper, first in pencil, then in pen and ink. I then color in with marker and shade with colored pencil. Each drawing takes me about two to three days to complete, sometimes a little longer for calendar or book images."

I love her illustrations about gardening. They speak to me!

Now, along with her cards and other products I can follow her on social media. I can comment on her Instagram account and tell her personally how much I love her art every day. Every year I have her wall calendar above my desk, I have her cards tucked away to send out to friends and family ( ( I was so excited to discover Current carries her products). My all-time favorite product of ME's is her daily desk calendar with a quote and illustration for each day of the year.

Who inspired her? Jessie Wilcox Smith and Johnny Gruell ( the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy). but her biggest inspiration was  Joan Walsh Anglund. She inspires me because she had a dream, stuck with it, and has spent her adult life doing what she loves. She draws every day. 

a page from the desk calendar

Summer Play List

Because of  the wildfire smoke I am staying inside today. While working around the house, writing, and reading I have been listening to summer playlists on Amazon Music. I don't know about you, but when I hear certain summer songs they take me right back to a place, an event, a person, or a memory.

It is difficult to narrow down a list to ten. Maybe I will do a few summer play lists in the next few months. What songs would be on your summer play list? Here are mind in no particular order. I did add a video for the last one because it reminded me of summers in my youth.

" A Summer Song" Chad and Jeremy

" See You in September" The Happenings

" Summer Breeze" Seals and Croft

"Walking on Sunshine" Katrina and the Waves

"Windy" The Association

"Saturday in the Park" Chicago

"Wouldn't It Be Nice" Beach Boys

"We've Only Just Begun" Carpenters

"The Power of Love" Huey Lewis and the News

"Lazy Day" by Spanky and Our Gang

I Wish I Could

Even at this age there are still things I sit back and say, "Oh, I wish I could do that." Does this ever happen to you?

I wish I could open a jar.  Are jars on tighter, or am I weaker? What is the deal? No matter how many tricks I do, there are times I think I am going to just have to break the jar to get the contents out. What the heck?

I wish I could hammer in a nail. This is pathetic. No matter the hammer, the size of the nail, the wall I am putting the nail in... I drop the nail, I hit my thumb, and then give up. I should have taken Shop in Junior High. Oh, I forgot. Girls couldn't.

I wish I could grill . I love grilled food. I have watched at least 135 episodes of BBQ and grilling shows on Food Network and read cookbooks on grilling, and I still just don't do it well. I guess practice makes perfect. Anyone ready for charred, dry chicken?

I wish I could make homemade bread. I love to bake sweet items, but I have never mastered bread. I have used a bread machine and was able to make presentable bread with it. Mom loved to make bread and once again, I have cookbooks telling me step by step what to do. I guess I just need to do it, and do it, and do it.

I wish I could endure heat. When I was younger I could walk along the beach in the hot sun. I could lay out on the dock all afternoon. I loved hot sun. Not anymore. Heat in the hot part of the day makes me feel a bit sick. That is good though. I wear sunscreen, I wear a hat, I try to be safe in the sun and watch getting overheaded. That is why I garden in the evening. 

I wish I could make autumn come quicker. I have learned to enjoy summer this year, but I am ready for sweaters, cooler evenings, fires in the fireplace, and leaves turning.