Sylvia's Simple Shots

Visited my aunt for our annual meat pie session.  These are a French Canadian Christmas Tradition called Tourtieres.

Omelette for lunch.

Always a great lunch with non alcoholic wine.

A mixture of beef and pork with spices.

A double recipe of pastry but more work with out her kitchen aid mixer.

We made less this year!

I brought home 3 pies and 3 servings of the filling which I will eat as a meal over the next few months.

I watched this movie while slow stitching this week. A Man Called Otto - Tom Hanks.

We all grieve differently.  We all have lost loved ones, jobs, family, countries so we can relate.

Mr. Otto lives an ordered life and follows the rules.  When a family moves in next door it brings a warmth and caring (the color) he has been missing since his wife died.

He can manage most house challenges and starts to help this family in between trying to figure out how he is going to join his wife.

The pregnant wife is very perceptive and senses something is missing.

Very touching and at times very funny.

Loved it.

My sister passed this book to me. It is a story of teenagers sorting out their place in the world.  Paper Towns by John Green.

When Margo Roth Spiegelman comes to Quentin Jacobsen's window in the middle of the night — dressed like a ninja. She has plotted an ingenious campaign of revenge and he follows her. Margo always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. 

After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

The adventures a long trip, investigating abandoned buildings, and finding the smallest of clues as to where Margo has gone.

It was a good read in the youth reading genre.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

Spring is here!

The birds are pairing up, preparing nests and getting ready to have nestlings.  

I hope this pair selects this nest so I can observe them raising their family.

I can see it from my living room window.  

Here's hoping!

I finished this book on the weekend.  The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks. I can always count on this author for a good read.

The Best of Me tells the story of Dawson and Amanda, two former high school sweethearts who find themselves reunited after 20 years apart, when they return to their small town for the funeral of a beloved friend.

They have both experienced challenges in life and now in their mid forties are asking the "what if" questions. 

I enjoyed the book and as usual there is a surprise ending! 

Easter spent home alone again this year!  This is getting old.  I get it as we are in our third wave of COVID pandemic and the numbers are rising like crazy due to the variants of concern.

I made corn flour pancakes with egg and cheese.  I treated myself to a Earl Grey tea - which I may be sorry for later.  It's early in the day.  I served it in a newest bone china tea cup by Teavana.

I was lucky to find 2 of the Noble Poppy Yellow Bone China Tea Cups at the thrift store on Tuesday.  Works really well with my French Cobalt blue dishware.

 

I have some new to me art for my walls.  This is a painting by my aunt.  You can find her art here.

She was clearing out some old paintings and put the word out.  This is the one I selected. 

It is hanging in my front hall.

I colored some eggs for Easter.  

I used Nick Bantock acrylic ink in Prussian Blue, Damson Purple and Chrome Yellow.  I filled small glass holders with color and placed the egg in it. I put a glass plated on top to keep them submerged.

I put them on a metal grid plate to dry.

I placed them on a small saucer to photograph them in my studio.

Flickr Macro Mondays' challenge was Trash this week.

This was a very interesting challenge.  In the photo on the left I have a pear sticker, onion skins and a lemon which I squeezed to make Lemon Vinaigrette.

You can check my Flickr photostream (SMDPics) to check out the shot I submitted.

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #125 and Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #283.

Happy Easter 2021

 I hope you have a great Easter!  Easter wishes to family, friends, followers and fans!

Tea and Lunch

I started by trying a recipe I saw on Jill's blog last week as part of Mosaic Monday.  These are Herb Scones.  I chose savory with basil, rosemary, oregano, and garlic.  As you can see that I baked them on my pizza stone which works really well and since it is very seasoned no danger of them sticking to the surface.  The recipe yielded 12 scones cut with scallop cutters.

Here's my collection of metal scallop/fluted cutters with really nice handles.  I have a set of graduated round ones in 3 different sizes varying from 2 inch at the smallest and 3 inches at the largest.

The rectangular ones are 1.25 inches by 3.25 inches.  They may be a bit small for certain things but it would be a great for shortbread.  A bit of research would suggest these may be from the 1940's.  I had to be patient and wait quite a while to get what I was looking for but these are excellent.  I had hoped to get square ones in the same set as the round ones.  I will keep looking.

I recently replaced a very heavy rolling pin with a vintage rolling pin which serve me well for many more years.

I made some Masala Chai tea which is the best I have tasted.  It is made by a couple of ladies in central Alberta - The Chai Wallahs.  A bit of honey and some cream.
I drank it from a large shallow cup in blue glaze make by IKEA.  I was thinking it would not be great for drinking but it turned out quite nice.  Update: It is a soup mug and not designed for tea.  Makes sense.

I had an egg cooked in my well seasoned cast iron fry pan.  You can see my restoration of it in this post.  it was certainly worth the effort.   The egg is cooked sunny side up which worked well with the place setting I put on my table.

I had the wonderful herb scones to soak up the wonderful yellow yolk.

Dessert was plain yogurt topped with a raspberry rhubarb compote.  Mom sent some rhubarb home with me on the weekend.  I added some frozen raspberries and a bit of honey and boiled over low heat until the rhubarb broke down a bit.  Nice change from bananas.



Here is the total table setting.  I place a navy table runner over a lace table cloth over a white solid table cloth. 

Still love my little square yellow dessert dishes and the yellow is repeated in the egg and napkin.

Sharing with the following link parties.

Bernideen's Tea in the Garden

Tuesday Cuppa of Tea hosted by Ruth

Share Your Cup #253 hosted by Jan at Daily Cup with Mrs. Olson

Share Your Cup #218 - This Week

This was breakfast this morning.  I laid out my new navy tablecloth with a Battenburg lace table mat.  I set the navy and white Blue Carnation large plate with the white IKEA ARV salad plate on top. I chose apples, rye bread toast, couple slices of old cheddar cheese and chai tea.
I drank my Himalayan Chai from a IKEA 365+ Cobalt Blue mug.  I drink my chai tea with a bit of honey and cream.





The apples are from Mom's tree as she brought some back with her this week.



I put together likely the last bouquet of the year with a few small yellow crysanthemums and some Celosia ‘Dragon's Breath’ in the background in a lovely small white vase.

I've decided to change the containers I use to store my eggs in the fridge.  I buy eggs in card board containers but they are getting so flimsy and soft that there is a danger of cracking eggs.  I acquired a couple of these clear containers which will keep the eggs more secure. Also, I can see at a quick glance how many I have when checking for a recipe.  A win win for me.

I had this book on my night table for 3 weeks and could not finish it.  I'm sure the author is representing the atmosphere of the talent shows accurately but it was a most frustrating reading experience.  About half way through I read the last few pages to see how it turned out but I was done with the insanity for Zack of competing, being far away from Reese and the unwanted attention from Zoey.

Sharing at Share Your Cup #218 hosted by Jann at Daily Cup with Mrs Olson.

Share Your Cup #206

Blueberries were on sale this week so I bought 5 containers.  One to eat fresh and the rest to freeze for winter time.  I love these small white plastic bowls.  They make a perfect serving and fit into my color scheme.  I placed a bit of plain yogurt, some blueberries and a dabble of honey.  Makes a great snack.  Can you guess what the original use was for the containers?  Leave me a comment.

My sister found me a glass egg cup in her travels of garage sales.  I was wanting one to use during my photo shoots to hold almost anything.  It could be uncooked rice with a beautiful spoon, turned upside down as a pedestal like in the first photo, an egg like this photo, tea leaves, legumes of any kind, a small amount of jam, and the ideas keep coming.

I wasn't looking for a water jug because I have been using my Steeped Tea Ice Tea pitcher but this one appeared with a blue handle and I could not resist. It's a better size for using on the table.

Sharing with Carol at Art & Sand for Share Your Cup #206.

Friday's Hunt 1.5

I'm joining Friday's Hunt 1.5 where the prompts are start with the letter E, Favorite, Sky.

I chose Egg for the letter E.  Eggs are smooth, oval and perfect.  I nestled it in some brown rice in a small rectangular china dish. I imagine it's designed for condiments or sauces.  I used my sunflower hot spot as a background.  You can check out another egg photo I took a while ago.

Favorite: Grapefruit is one of my favorite fruit.  They are in season and reasonably priced these days.

I repeated the circular theme by surrounding the fruit with lavender loose leaf tea onto a white round ironstone plate.  The white plate was on a gold charger plate but I ended up cropping that.

I love this shot in late fall.  The sky is so animated with a storm rolling in.  The sun was setting and putting light on the far hills.  In the foreground, there are birds on the water as they prepare to migrate.  Unfortunately, power lines are pretty much unavoidable but are quite subtle in this shot.

Submitting to Friday's Hunt 1.5 hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills.