My oldest and dearest friend (who is more of a sister, really, since we are so close) is within hours (she’s already three days late!) of having a baby girl – and Lily is taking Her Own Sweet Time. I told Sisi in an email yesterday that Lily must want to be a December baby.

Mom is up there with her and Jason and the Bandits – and Spectre (!) helping her this week because:

1. Lily was due last Tuesday

2. The Bandits are out of school

3. Jason is working until Lily’s born, and

4. Sisi is now officially 10 months pregnant

I was supposed to be there, but the Army saw things differently. Enter my ma, to save the day. God love her!

Anyway, I really can’t blame little Lily for waiting, seeing as December’s birthstone is turquoise and all. Who wouldn’t want that for a birthstone?

Not me, that’s who.

So, anyway, Sis sent me some awesome pictures of the nursery that she and Jason did THEMSELVES (leave it to her to make it a cool room instead of a typical nursery) and I get to show YOU!

I love this picture, because it is good incentive. How, exactly, does somebody manage to look this beautiful and be this pregnant? If it were me, I would be on the couch, feet up, hair in a barrette, and nursing a Bloody Mary.

Oh, hold on a sec. That’s me every Saturday morning anyway.


But I digress.

So there you have it – a great post because it featured my beautiful sister and my little soon-to-be-niece’s beautiful room (sans custom-made bedding by Jenny which is coming soon!)

Hope you enjoyed them!

I did. Albeit vicariously.

Love,

Lily’s Tía Holly.

You may or may not remember the story I told about an eventful Thanksgiving many years ago? Well, that event took place in this house, near this…very…table!

My Aunt Sara sent me these pictures of the feast at her house this year…with another typical funny message – this one succinctly relating that her dishwasher konked out and she was on K.P. duty until 0130.

No rest for the weary, and the righteous don’t need none, I guess.

Here’s another view of this beautiful table – a view that I remember as a youngster because we were all peeking down through the railings on the second floor…

Obligatory cat picture. (mais naturellement!)

This is my aunt and uncle’s Maine Coon – a real beauty.

This looks so good! Here’s Aunt Sara’s message that describes the menu, my notes included:

i didn’t want to send food pics in case all you got were k rations…….

not pictured: caviar pie (I am crying. This is my FAVORITE!!!!), cheeses and olives and nuts, creamed shallots, sausage,apple and cranberry stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, potatoes gratin, roasted parsnips and carrots, squash with maple syrup (Boo Hoo!!!), 3 kinds of cranberry sauce, apple pie, punkin pie (thank you marlene the queen of pie makers), ice cream, whipped cream (chow halls use whipped cream in a can…I’m still sniffling, here…), chocolate dipped apple slices, chocolate dipped pecans (sis got one of those chocolate tempering things!!!!!) cranberry walnut bread, etc, etc etc. did i tell you my dishwasher was broken? it is amazing what you can get done when everyone else is in food coma. next year it is the sach’s turn to host and i get to coma out. love, aunt sara (I told her I wish I was there today so we could hang out, eat leftovers and feed snippets of turkey to her Newfie and her German Shepherd dogs, and drink Champagne. She has the best kitchen for doing that.)

Hey! Who’s that???? Looks like a set of newlyweds to me!

Yep, it’s Lydia and Gabe, back from their Hawaii Honeymoon!

And here’s Lydia’s dad – my Godfathah – and USMC veteran –

honoring John and me with the Missing Comrades’ pose

Wish we could have been there.

…and I love that little cutie patootie on the bottom left.

So! Do you remember when I asked for people to send me pictures, because if you didn’t, I’d be posting “just words” (and that’s a bit of a snore, innit?) or archival photos of my two ancient felines (so if you don’t like cats you’re out of luck) or nothing?


Well, someone REALLY delivered!


My Aunt Sara sent me a doozy…along with this funny quick message:

hungry bear LOVE sunflower seeds.
time to let the dogs out.
hope you are well.
love, aunt sara



Gotta love Nou Ha-amp-shiah! That is her FRONT PORCH/DECK, PEOPLE!!!!!!!

In terms of our economic downturn, let me just say this: I believe in cooking at home as often as possible. Mostly for two reasons:

1. It’s fun!
2. It’s cheaper.
3. Generally, it tastes better. (Exceptions would be things I can’t cook myself – like Thai, or sushi, or really authentic Mexican food – my absolute favorite cuisine…)

Oh, wait. That would actually be three reasons, Hol.

Hoo Boy.

Anyhoot…before we left Florida for this mini-deployment, I saw a recipe in Bon Appetit magazine, in their RSVP section. And to make a long-story-longer, I’d like to note that I rarely like braised, or any other type of slow-cooked meats. Armour’s Osso Bucco is a notable exception.

This dislike drives me a little bit crazy, though, because I know (!) we’re missing out on delectable things like Puerto Rican oxtails, Moroccan chicken with preserved lemons, coq au vin, or any number of slow-cooked dishes from around the world.

I mean, People – I really don’t even like chili. How bad is that????

So with all of that in mind, I tried this short rib recipe (which I can’t find now online, but it really doesn’t matter because it turned out to be horrible anyway.)

Here’s why: the butcher convinced me to buy the shortribs he was selling: boneless shortribs. (“You pay too much for the bone that you can’t eat, ma’am.”)

Don’t ever do that. It’s worth it to buy them on the bone…the bones impart a lot of flavor, they’re nice to nibble on (and if it’s just family eating them with you, who cares?) and you can then use the scraps and bones for wonderful beef stock – so you definitely get your money’s worth.

Here’s the picture of what I started with:

It looks like it would be good, doesn’t it? (And don’t you love the little salt & pepper vessels? Perfect for my kitchen. From Sisi – natch.) The ingredients are simple, colorful, not too many flavors – but I didn’t even take a picture of the end product because it was a brown, glutinous, every-flavor-but-beef Mess.

The moral of the story is: whoever heard of ribs without the ribs? Don’t waste your money on bad butcher advice.

Hmmph.

Using only one word, please…

Idea courtesy of this neat little blog,

which I like because the author shares my love of modern design…

(That is, in fact, Candy Corn –