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Archive for the ‘Amuse-bouche du jour’ Category

Count Down to Christmas-19 Days Till…Sparkly Table Centerpiece

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY on December 7, 2012| 2 Comments »

Glitter makes everything look festive! Try this idea for your holiday dinner table or New Year’s party table.  This is one of the quickest and easiest ideas ever.  I wish I had thought of it first.  This creative centerpiece was designed by Alicia DiRago who did a guest blog for Martha Stewart Living.

The supplies can be purchased at Martha Stewart Home Depot! YES, it’s true, Martha Stewart has a section at your local Home Depot. There are only 3 components to this table decoration;  

Sparkling silver-glitter cone trees

ornament garland

ornaments to fill in spaces.

Set up as many cones as you want and wind ornament garlands around the cones. Fill in any spaces with odd ornaments in the same color family.  The theme here was “Icy Blue”.  As in most Martha Stewart craft supplies, the color coordination is made simple as she produces components in one, two or three color themes.  

Think Sparkling Ice

Think Sparkling Ice

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Count Down To Christmas – December 5th

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, tagged , , , , , , , on December 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

NO Time to bake? Too busy shopping, writing out your Christmas cards, finding a grab bag gift for the office?  Still and all, everyone loves a good cookie at Christmas and these are right up my alley because they are made with chocolate and peanuts!  This is an excellent NO BAKE cookie recipe. I’m planning on making some this weekend with Finley Ray, my little helper.

No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Stir in the brown sugar, cream, and cocoa, then boil for 1 minute.
  2. Remove the saucepan from heat, add the peanut butter and vanilla, and stir until smooth. Stir in the oats and peanuts.
  3. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of the batter onto wax paper–lined baking sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart, and let cool until set, about 20 minutes.
  4. Storage suggestion: Keep the cookies at room temperature, between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.

By Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez , December, 2011 -Real Simple Recipes

NO BAKE and YUMMY

NO BAKE and YUMMY

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Count Down to Christmas – 21 Days of Holiday Ideas

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, tagged , , , , , , , on December 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I know I should have started this a few days  ago….really!  It was a pretty harrowing week here, with the conjunction of a million spheres all causing chaos.  Mechanical and electrical breakdowns, I must ask my sister-in-law Juanita, if Mercury is in retrograde.    It’s not quite midnight so let’s count this post as December 4th and counting.  For the next 3 weeks I’ll post an inventive, creative holiday idea.  It could be a recipe, a hostess gift, a kid’s gift, a decoration, just about anything that I think might enhance your holiday season.  Today’s idea comes from REAL SIMPLE and is a Mantle Makeover.  We’re all familiar with the usual fireplace mantle decorations.  This is NOT standing rows of Christmas cards, draping a greenery garland, hanging stockings, pine cones and ornaments or Nutcrackers.  Clear away the clutter atop your mantle and give it this very simple makeover.

DECEMBER 4th

A Very Berry Christmas Wreath and Votives

A Very Berry Christmas Wreath and Votives

HOLIDAY MANTLE

Elegant, sophisticated, simple and beautiful.  Berry wreaths are readily available in stores like Michael’s and flower shops that carry artificial or silk flowers.  Scatter a few berries around and line up some votive candles flanked by pillar candles.  The two-color theme is very powerful and the choice of the raspberry-mauve berry color adds not only a holiday flair but also a winter seasonal flavor

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BLACK FRIDAY – Where Did You Shop?

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Friday after Thanksgiving, green day, Christmas shopping

Shopper Mania

Personally I’m not a mall shopper, never have been and certainly never for Christmas!  I like unique, personalized, customized presents or in my case PRESSents which is my own custom-created gift business.  More about that soon.  So when my friend  Gail sent me this video, I thought it would be great to share with my readers in case they had not seen it.

I love IMPROV EVERYWHERE and have a secret (well not so secret) desire to perform in one of their events.  Come to think of it I could have been in this one!  Check it out, you’ll be smiling in no time.

Black Friday Prank at a Dollar Store

 

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Walking Around…The City and My Apartment

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, New York Speaks, Only in New York, Peter Coddles, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Peter Coddles, wooden frog

Doesn’t everyone have a wooden frog sitting on a vintage Peter Coddles game in their dining room?

Last week, it was recipes for Thanksgiving dinner dishes, this week it’s photos.

My last post was about Peter’s collection of vintage Peter Coddles games. Those 7 are just the tip of the iceberg!  Murray took those photos and while he and Peter were setting up the shots, Murray wandered around and snapped a few random pictures here and there as something caught his eye.  We have stuff, no doubt about it.  Only one photo is of a collection and I’m sure you’ll be able to pick it out (and I’ll give you a hint anyway).

living room

A window sill in my living room. Plants, African art, carved figures, vintage lamps, sand dollars, stained glass, an antique kaleidoscope, vintage bottles and paperweights, and….

Chair monkeys-IF they had hats they could live on the bed

dopey, the seven dwarfs

My own personal Dopey collection. Aren’t they cute? Peter stuck Bashful or Happy in there to keep Dopey company.

Alessi, toothpick holder,

I love Alessi! This cute rabbit is a toothpick holder.

building blocks, nostalgia, Bill Ding clowns

Mini Bill Ding and his clowns stand guard on a dining room window sill. Along with a several other things!

Well that was just a peek into the collective madness of the collections that reside in our New York apartment.  Here are few random photos taken by Murray as he was wandering around Bryant Park, Grand Central Terminal and vicinity.

Bryant Park, Christmas booths, Christmas fair

It’s easy to shop for your pets in one of the City’s Christmas Fairs.

Grand Central Terminal Food Market-Murray’s Cheese Shop

Sephora cosmetics, midtown

Sephora Cosmetic Store

animal hats, Bryant Park Christmas fairs, childrens hats

Grgghhhh – Animal hats for sale in Bryant Park

Christmas ornaments, Christmas fair, Bryant Park

Christmas ornaments for sale in Bryant Park

 

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Thursday’s Top Ten Reason NOT to Cook Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Friends, Thursday's Top Ten, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Place cards for Thanksgiving dinner 2008.

Place cards for Thanksgiving dinner guests

So if you’re not cooking, you are either dining out or better yet invited to share the annual feast at someone else’s dinner table.  Either way, the end result is still the same because you….

  1. Do not have to spend hours grocery shopping for myriad ingredients for dishes you make only once a year.
  2. Do not have to spend 3 x what you normally spend at the grocery store each week, buying weird items like persimmons, figs, chestnuts, turnips and a 14 lb bird.
  3. Do not have to pull the giblets out of the cavity of an ice cold turkey and then clean its inside  and cut off its rear end also known irreverently as the pope’s nose.Do not have to pull the giblets out of the cavity of an ice cold turkey and then clean its inside  and cut off its rear end also known irreverently as the pope’s nose.
  4. Do not have to get up at the crack of dawn to stuff the turkey and put it in the oven so it is ready at 2:00pm
  5. Can actually go to the Parade if you wish or leisurely sit in your living room with a cup of coffee all warm and cosy and marvel at the balloons and how cold everyone seems to be at the Parade.
  6. Can have breakfast with the family instead of peeling potatoes.
  7. Don’t have to wonder how you are really going to get everything baked and cooked with 1 oven and only 4 burners.
  8. Will have time to get appropriately dressed  without an apron and even be able to put on makeup.
  9. Will probably be offered some leftovers to bring home for tomorrow’s supper (bring your own containers)
  10. BEST of all, you won’t be in the middle of any unresolved sibling or parent-child issues from your own family!!
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Ode to Sweet Potatoes-New York Times Mark Bittman

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The softer, orange-fleshed variety of sweet po...

This is actually a YAM and not a Sweet Potato

I said I wasn’t going to post another recipe today because I am supposed to be preparing my own culinary contributions to the Thanksgiving Day dinner and so I’m not.  However, I just noticed in the New York Times that Mark Bittman wrote an article extolling the virtues of sweet potatoes.  In my 9 days till Thanksgiving recipe posting, I included two recipes for sweet potatoes.  His article is listed below.  Sweet potatoes-Thanksgiving and beyond!

 

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Thursday’s Top Ten Reasons to Watch Grey’s Anatomy

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2012| 1 Comment »

English: This is the title screen from the ABC...

Yes I am a Grey’s Anatomy groupie and not that ashamed to say so.  Every Thursday night is a problem in our house because I have to make sure dinner is over with or that I’m home on time (even though it is be ing DVR‘d).  Peter does not want to be in the same room when it’s on and for the life of him, he can’t understand my fascination/obsession/addiction to it.  Yeah well, me and few other million viewers!

1. Will Kerev take in more than one room-mate/sub-letter?

2. Will Derek ever perform surgery again?

3. Can April REALLY re-virginize herself?

4. Can Owen win back Dr. Yang – Does he really want to?

5. Is Arizona ready to come back to the hospital?

6. Will Dr. Yang give a few more of the interns dwarf nicknames?

7. Can Kerev keep it zipped up for at least one more episode?

8. Will Dr. Avery (the cute one) marry April?

9. Will Richard divorce his wife to be with Katherine Avery or will they just continue to hook up?

10. When will Meredith be able to sleep with lights off?

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Movies That Make You Cry

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on October 2, 2012| 6 Comments »

Cary Grant

Cary Grant (Photo credit: twm1340)

I just walked into my apartment after having dinner with  a dear friend who told me all about her wonderfully romantic vacation.  My husband had left the TV on in the den and of course it was tuned to  ONE OF THE ONLY TWO stations he watches – TCM (Turner Classic Movies).  

And what did I see? OMG I had the good fortune to walk in on the last scene of An Affair to Remember!!!! OMG (again) that scene just rips your heart out and then puts it back in its appropriate place…

Cary Grant was beyond gorgeous in this movie.  Perfectly groomed, hair with a part as straight as I-95, impeccably dressed in his own clothes always sporting French cuffs and there he is pacing nervously around Deborah Kerr‘s living room.  She is posed and poised on the couch dressed in red (after all it is Christmas) and a red coverlet covers her lower body.  Well I’m crying as soon as he starts carrying on about how he never went to the Empire State Building  and she plays it so cool yet conveying through some facial expressions the tumult of emotions at play in her mind and heart.

Tears are dropping down my cheeks and I know that the crescendo of this emotional scene has yet to unfold but it definitely on its way.  The shawl, the confession of waiting and waiting, the deep looks exchanged between the two former lovers….He moves to the door and in true Hollywood pull-at-your-heartstrings style, he stops and turns for one last look.

And then slowly in perfect timing, he explains to Terry why he didn’t take money for the painting…I’m bawling now, sobbing at each passing moment.  The climax is heartfelt and Nickie’s face is a road map of discovery, pain, realization and heartbreak.

What movies make you cry? I have some more, but I think An Affair to Remember is my all-time-guaranteed-to-make-you-cry movie.   Would love to hear from some of my readers which movies cause their eyes to fill up!

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ONLY in New York? Well maybe…

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

If you live in New York City, you have seen this!  A ginormous blow up rat squatting in the middle of the sidewalk or on the street (taking up a parking space!).

I saw this photo and comments from my friend, Greg Moore on Facebook.  I asked for permission to reprint it because first of all, I wish I had thought of posting a blog about it myself and secondly, it seemed so perfect a contribution to my ONLY IN NEW YORK category.  Now here’s my question, does this only happen in New York City?  Please comment and let us know if the RAT has relatives in other cities.

union rat, Greg Moore, New York city, contractors

I’m the City Mouse!

This thing is about as “New York” as the Statue of Liberty…or the Empire State Building! I have a feeling this is one of those “only-in-New-York” kinda things! It’s the giant, inflatable “strike rat”! Whenever there’s a labor dispute or a strike where they feel that a business is hiring workers unfairly, they (I guess) call “Rent-a-Rat”, this huge, hideously ugly, inflatable rat, which they park on the sidewalk in front of the offending business. This guy has been outside my office building all week. I’m DYING to interview this guy who sits next to the rat all day long. I have so many QUESTIONS for him: What is your job title? What do you tell your family you do? What do you put on your resume? What is the rat’s name? What would differentiate a “good” day from a “bad” one? I saw him pack it in, right at 5PM. He deflated his rat, shoved it in a bag along with his folding chair and headed toward the subway. (this one, by the way is the SMALLER one! They also have one that’s about 3-stories high! I know that, because the apartment building next to mine apparently hired non-union doormen and they hauled out the HUGE rat…and its head appeared right outside my third-story window for about a week! Rather alarming…but very New York!).

Thanks to Greg Moore for his astute observation and comments.

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