THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA'S VEGETABLE TIAN, AND LAISSEZ LE BONS TEMPS ROULER..........

That's right.....Wink and I are headed off to The Big Easy, because we need to put some serious SOUF in our MOUFS!!! Grits, Jambalayas, Gulf Prawns, Po-Boys and Pralines, baby....with us, it's ALL about the food!.........

This week I've only been asked by about 19,532 people, "Hey, wasn't yesterday Fat Tuesday? And doesn't that mean that Mardi Gras is over?".......

Why yes, yes it is. This is, let's see, my fourth trip down to NOLA, and I don't think I would ever plan to go during Mardi Gras....speshally now that I'm not supposed to drink anything but Sweet Tea. But I have to say that New Orleans is SO SO much more than just partying, anyways--we just love the sweet hospitality we receive there, without fail, and the fact that the whole place is just so darned historical and gorgeous! So don't you worry--I'll be back in 10 days or so with (God willing!) some wonderful, alcohol-free photos and tales to share........(if you look real close, you can find me up on one of those balconies, earning my beads the OLD FASHIONED WAY, back in the day....)..........

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Our daughter, Little Miss Thing, turned 21 years old the other day in Paris. Which is pretty uneventful  (turning 21 there, that is), because kids can legally drink in France at 18. But that didn't stop our little party animal from celebrating with friends.....I stole this photo from her Facebook page, because I'm stealth like that, and I suspect the photo is one of them thar Instagrams (I've downloaded the app myself recently, but haven't figured out how to use it yet.....LOVE the grainy, artistic quality of the photos!)..........

I'm ASSUMING that's something made out of chocolate that she's enjoying, but knowing France, it could be duck livers! With a candle, no less......

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY TO THE LIGHT OF OUR LIVES!!!

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So I hereby do promise, promise, promise that this is the last Barefoot Contessa recipe I'm going to share with you, at least for the time being. I just adore preparing her recipes, so please forgive me for my little obsession............

Last week I needed a nice side dish for the steak dinner I was serving, and I found Ina's Vegetable Tian...the photos in the book were so appealing, I just HAD to try the recipe! For this dish, you will need lots of yellow onions, garlic, potatoes, zucchini and fresh thyme...............

In a saute pan, saute sliced onions until translucent..............

Spread the onions out on the bottom of a greased baking dish.............

Slice potatoes, zucchini and tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices (Ina's tip: choose vegetables that are all about the same diameter so the slices look similar).....

Layer the vegetables alternately in the baking dish on top of the onions....

Drizzle with olive oil, thyme leaves and thyme sprigs.....



Cover and bake for about 40 minutes; remove thyme sprigs and sprinkle with grated Gruyere cheese...bake for another 30 minutes or until browned....a fabulous side dish, and so very pretty!...............

You can find the recipe, HERE.

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I will be back soon.....but before I go, I need to give proper thanks!.........

TODAY I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR.......

***Curling up on a chilly winter's afternoon for a restful nap with my fat old purring kittens.........

***My obsession with all things beautiful, and ESPECIALLY beautiful foods!

***The sweet people in my life who make my life so very beautiful, each and every day!

SUGAR AND SPICE COOKIES AND A FEW GIRLS GONE WILD IN SKAN TOWN.......



I simply MUST interrupt today's regularly scheduled programming, all about the cookie that started it all, to fill you on in my fantastic Valentine's Day, 2012!

It all started with getting this little invitation, via Facebook.........

You see, my dear friend Cindy, who lives in the glorious New York Fingerlake town of Skaneateles (pronounced, "Skinny-Atlas") in a pre-Civil War era farmhouse (Hidden Pond Farm), has this HUGE, HUGE Valentine's get-together for all of her friends. Every. Single. Year. For over 14 years now.....girl knows how to throw a love fest, to be sure!

This year, she invited over 500 people, and I am honored to say that my good friend and former editor (even though she fired me) Lisa and I were on the guest list. And as a girl who loves her some Valentine's Day, well, how could I pass this invitation up?

We started by having lunch at one of my favorite places down in Skan Town, the BlueWater Grill....this is Lisa, trying to look like a model, gazing at the lake.......

And this is her "normal" face--always laughing. Which is PRECISELY why I like hanging with her...she makes me laugh!...Hey, isn't life too short to hang out with "serious" people?.....



For lunch, I had the most marvelous Smoked Salmon (Food of the Gods alert!) B.L.T., and I think Miss Lisa had chicken and biscuits....MMMMMM!!! But we were good girls and saved room for dessert, because, after all, we WERE headed for a tea party! I think tea parties normally have cookies and scones and scrumpets and such, no?

I put Lisa in charge of the picture taking.....BIG mistake, as she didn't take ENOUGH, in my book, so this is what you're gonna get.....here's me, on Cindy's front porch.....

And here's Miss Cindy....(I'm actually happy that my part of the picture is all blurry)....Cindy is about 5 feet tall, soaking wet,  and absolutely the most darling woman you're ever going to meet (and here's something pretty funny...her husband is about 6'6"...talk about Frick and Frack!).............

Here's Cindy's alter of worship to all things COOKIES..she even had a gluten-free platter....

An awesome candlelight-only chandelier hanging over her dining room table....I am telling you that being in her home is like stepping into a time machine, back to the 1800's.....LOVE IT.......

Cindy had a large table brimming with make-it-yourself Valentines supplies...every kind of paper and glue and glitter and rubber stamp and ribbon you could ever need to be as creative as possible with your homemade Valentine creations!...............

Here's where I decided that I'd lost my patience with Lisa's camera pointing, and decided to stab her with my little kid's scissors....you should be very a-fear'd.....

(Don't you feel sorry for that poor guy next to me? He was the only man there, by the way--brave soul!)

Lisa made the SWEETEST little cone-shaped cookie holder for her son, Luke......

Awww...what a great mama.........

And since I had already made and/or purchased all of my Valentine's cards for others, I made this little number for one of my very favorite people on the planet--MYSELF! ha ha......

Well well well, waddya know.....it says, "Sugar and Spice"....hey, that's me!..

Oh, and I forgot about the TEA....Cindy made the BEST Chai tea, from scratch, and served it with coconut milk and honey, in these darling antique tea cups...mmmmm!...

All in all, we had such a wonderful day--thank you so much, Cindy!!! And thanks for the fun company, Miss Lisa...here's to many adventures to come.....

Oh and in case you were wondering....Wink ! had dinner waiting for me when I got home--tacos, what else! Truly my favorites....and I was spoiled rotten with gorgeous new pearl earrings and my very favorite chocolates and lots and lots of kisses....I am one lucky woman!

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And now onto the cookie that started it all...the whole Sugar and Spice empire that I've created. You see, for 3 plus years I wrote a weekly newspaper column, called Sugar and Spice. The column was truly a great joy in my life...and it has evolved into this little blog, which I creatively (note: sarcasm) titled the very same thing.......

Why Sugar and Spice, you ask? Well, first there's the fact that my husband Wink ! says that I'm part Sweet and part Spicy....I think I like that description of myself! Second, these cookies; my mom gave me the recipe years ago, and I find myself reaching for it again and again when I need to whip up a super easy but delicous cookie...

Funny story here...check out this recipe......



Do you notice anything strange in the dry ingredients listed? What on earth is "slat"? WELL, silly me didn't realize it was a type-o, and actually went to two grocery stores, searching in vain for a mysterious spice called, "Slat". I got a lot of strange looks from store clerks, lemme tell ya. Later on, my mom told me that she meant, "salt"...well DUH! That's what you get when your mom e-mails you recipes after her 3rd glass o' boxed wine........(she's gonna KILL me!)......

You will just love these cookies...they are full of wonderful spices like cinnamon, cloves and ginger, and have a wonderful molasses-ey flavor. I love the way they make my home smell when they're baking and cooling......to begin, cream shortening and sugar.....

Add egg and molasses......

Sift together dry ingredients, then add to shortening mixture.......



Form dough into walnut-sized balls, then roll in sugar. Place on baking sheets.....

And here they are, hot out o' the oven......got milk?.........

I hope you love these...here's the recipe. Thanks, Mom!

SUGAR AND SPICE COOKIES

Makes aprox. 32 cookies

3 / 4 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 / 4 cup molasses

Cream together shortening and sugar; add egg and molasses

Sift together:

2 cups flour

2 tsp. soda

1 / 4 tsp. SALT

1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. cloves

3/4 tsp. ginger

Add to shortening mixture and mix until well blended. Form into balls the size of walnuts. Roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on greased or silicone lined baking sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool on wire racks.

TODAY I'M SO THANKFUL FOR.....

***The weekend our daughter is spending in London with her hometown friend Chelsea P, who is also spending her semester abroad in Europe.....They will be celebrating Abbie's 21st birthday (!), coming up on Monday! Hoist one for us, girls!

***A nice quiet weekend ahead of us, and maybe taking in a matinee on Sunday.....

***The future, for she is bright and shiny!



DECADENT CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES, VALENTINE'S DAY AND A LITTLE BIT O' THIS AND THAT!.......

  "If you won't be my Valentine

I'll scream, I'll yell, I'll bite

I'll cry aloud, I'll start to whine

If you won't be my Valentine

I'll frown and fret, I'll mope and pine, and

It will serve you right---

If you won't be my Valentine

I'll scream, I'll yell, I'll bite"

-Myra Cohn Livingstone

Isn't that the most wickedly cute St. Valentine's poem, ever?

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I tried to have my baby girl (almost 21 years old!), on Valentine's Day in 1991, but my 10 lb. bundle of joy was kinda "stuck", so we ended up having her one looooong week later..........

But a dear, dear old friend of mine, Carrie Wilson Link, gets to celebrate her birthday on Valentine's day, every single year....lucky duck! Happy Birthday to one of the best moms, friends and writers I'll ever know (you can check out Carrie's Blog, simply called "Love", HERE)......

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I was given significant grief by another dear old friend of mine last week--his name is Marty, and I've been friends with him for over 30 years now (how fortunate am I, what with all of these long-time friends of mine?). Marty was in Paris, just traveling around like a hobo gypsy, and he got a chance to meet this pretty Frenchie-looking girl for coffee....check out the red lipstick!......in a perfect world I would just close my eyes and join those two in this charming cafe for some lavender scented steamed milk, which I am told is all the rage.............sigh.....

Anyways, Marty also took a tantelizing photo of HIS Boef Bourguignon dinner in a Paris restaurant, and sent it to my phone, where I promptly forgot about it....better late than NEVER, right Marty?.........Here 'tis......

HIS version (if you don't remember, I prepared Ina Garten's version in my last post) looks like it has potatoes, but I also spy some bacon, mushrooms and stewed tomatoes, so all in all the two recipes are very similar. Marty was a proud vegetarian for years and years, so this is HUGE, I tell you, HUGE! Thanks for sharing, Marty!

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I'm spending Valentine's evening with my sweetheart, Wink! I think he's making tacos, but of course!.................

 But Valentine's Day itself, WELL NOW............

I'm spending with this very sexy broad, my old editor to the stars, M. Lisa............

And yes, she does in fact always have a gin and tonic in her hand.

Lisa and I are taking a silly girl's road trip to a town about 2 hours away. We've been invited to a very famous St. Valentine's Day tea party....I promise to bring you lots of photos very soon, provided that I don't forget my camera. Which I am famous for.

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Another one of our "glorious" Adirondack days here today...the temperature isn't supposed to rise over 11 degrees, so I ain't goin' nowheres! Here's a photo of my cute little Valentine's ladybug slippers (a silly gift from Wink!) that are keeping my tootsies toasty, all day long......

I do declare, if my feet were any whiter, I'd be blue!

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So I sent our darling girl a big care package a week or so ago, just chock full of Valentine's Day decorations, sweaters (super cold in Europe right now!) and peanut butter (ridiculously expensive there, so I'm told).....and I had every intention of including a little bag full of homemade Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Truffles in that box. Except that, in the end, I forgot to put the truffles in the box....see how my mind is these days? Please don't tell my neurologist--he'll just want another bothersome MRI. Well anyways, here's the forgotten bag, which has since been eaten up (the truffles that is, not the bag).............

If you'd like to do something wonderful for someone you love this Valentine's Day, why not whip up a quick batch of these decadent chocolate truffles? Really, they are super easy to prepare, and you can decorate them as creatively as you wish.

I mean really, what else are you doing? Hmmmm?

To begin, finely chop up some good bittersweet and good semisweet chocolate (I used my food processor) and place in a bowl...

Heat cream in a small saucepan until it boils................

Pour the hot cream through a sieve into the bowl with the chocolates...........whisk together until chocolate is completely melted.......

Whisk in Grand Marnier (I didn't happen to have any on hand, because I'm poor, so I skipped it), coffee and good vanilla  (I used instant Espresso here)..........

Cover and chill. Then, using 2 teaspoons, make dollops of the chilled chocolate mixture and place on a parchment lined baking sheet..........

Refrigerate for about 15 minutes, then roll into spheres with your hands. At this point, you can roll them in cocoa powder (that's what I did) or powdered sugar or anything you want....fine red sugar would be pretty for St. Valentine's Day, doncha think?.....

Can I just tell you here that popping just ONE of these amazing truffles is enough to satisfy the most WICKED of sweet tooths?

Absolutely TO. DIE. FOR..........

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO YOU!!!

Will you be mine?

Click HERE for the printable recipe--thank you, Barefoot Contessa!

TODAY I'M SO THANKFUL FOR.......

***Sleeping in on this cold Sunday morning, after a very fun (but late for us!) evening last night...

***All of the kids from our area that get to experience schooling and/or traveling in Europe this year--you GO, Chelsea, Leif, Allison and Abbie! The world is your OYSTER, darlings!

***My sweet Mom, for sending me a Valentine's card that was so thoughtful it made me get teary-eyed, right in the Post Office parking lot!