Shhh! It's a Surprise

My mother's birthday was July 7.  I did what all sons are expected to do and sent her a card and a nice arrangement of flowers.  She called and told me she loved the flowers.  It was a smallish arrangement.  Something that would fit easily on her bedside table without taking over the entire room.  I try to choose the size of the arrangement I am sending based on the event.  Smallish, intimate arrangements for birthdays.  A medium sized arrangement that can be placed on an entry or hall table for Easter or Christmas.  Large arrangements if sent to a church or hall.

What my mother did not know was that, in addition to the card and flowers, I bought her a pair of garnet earrings.

She has a garnet ring that belonged to a great grandmother or great, great grandmother.  I am not certain of the story behind the ring other than it has been in the family for years and is now in her possession.  I bought these from Jewelry Television.

I do not know if any of you have heard of or watched Jewelry Television, but it is the most entertaining show on the air.  If you are interested, you can visit their website at www.jtv.com.  I have ordered jewelry from them prior to this order and I have to tell you it is of high quality and very beautiful.  I bought a gorgeous blue diamond ring for myself a couple years ago.  Sometimes they sell loose gemstones at ridiculously low prices and I have some of those also.  I enjoy watching all the personalities.  If you get a chance, check them out on your cable line-up.

We will be taking a road trip to Midlothian later this month and I will be delivering these to my mother at that time.  I hope she likes them.  I, of course, will be blogging about the day-trip down south, so come back for that post some time after the 27th.  And, as usual, stop by every weekday for something new that is going on at Crest Avenue.

Shhh! It's a Surprise

My mother's birthday was July 7.  I did what all sons are expected to do and sent her a card and a nice arrangement of flowers.  She called and told me she loved the flowers.  It was a smallish arrangement.  Something that would fit easily on her bedside table without taking over the entire room.  I try to choose the size of the arrangement I am sending based on the event.  Smallish, intimate arrangements for birthdays.  A medium sized arrangement that can be placed on an entry or hall table for Easter or Christmas.  Large arrangements if sent to a church or hall.

What my mother did not know was that, in addition to the card and flowers, I bought her a pair of garnet earrings.

She has a garnet ring that belonged to a great grandmother or great, great grandmother.  I am not certain of the story behind the ring other than it has been in the family for years and is now in her possession.  I bought these from Jewelry Television.

I do not know if any of you have heard of or watched Jewelry Television, but it is the most entertaining show on the air.  If you are interested, you can visit their website at www.jtv.com.  I have ordered jewelry from them prior to this order and I have to tell you it is of high quality and very beautiful.  I bought a gorgeous blue diamond ring for myself a couple years ago.  Sometimes they sell loose gemstones at ridiculously low prices and I have some of those also.  I enjoy watching all the personalities.  If you get a chance, check them out on your cable line-up.

We will be taking a road trip to Midlothian later this month and I will be delivering these to my mother at that time.  I hope she likes them.  I, of course, will be blogging about the day-trip down south, so come back for that post some time after the 27th.  And, as usual, stop by every weekday for something new that is going on at Crest Avenue.

Spinach and Cheddar Souffle

On Sunday of last weekend, I decided to make a Spinach & Cheddar Soufflé.  I love cheese soufflé.  I could eat it everyday.  A nice slice of cheese soufflé made with gruyere, fresh from the oven and a little caviar and crème fraiche and some mini blinis on the side?  My dears, that is heaven on earth.  I made a crab soufflé a couple of years ago using fresh crab and gruyere.  It was, well, . . . not my favorite.  It did not rise like a plain cheese soufflé rises.  I did not care for the taste of the crab and the cheese together prepared as a soufflé.  Maybe as a casserole with additional ingredients.  But not together in a cheese soufflé.  That behind me, I wanted to try this Spinach & Cheddar recipe.  It was good.  But again, as with the crab, it did not send me over the moon.  It did not rise – at all.  The egg white were very fluffy and I was careful not to deflate them when I mixed in the cheese and spinach.  But, in the end, I was a bit disappointed.  I think I need to just stick with cheese soufflés.  Choose which soft cheese I like best, and just make good old cheese soufflé.  I am going to share with you the preparation of this Spinach and Cheese Soufflé and let you be the judge of whether or not you would like to try it.  I hope you do and I hope you have better luck with it than I did.  If you make it, and you do have good luck, please email me and let me know.

I started out by finding my stainless steel storage bowls.  These are handy to use to hold the ingredients for your soufflé.  One for cream of tartar, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, butter, etc.

Here you see them filled with various ingredients and the salt and pepper mills ready to get started.



I used regular dinking glasses to hold the egg yolks and egg whites until ready to incorporate everything together.  Salt and pepper on the little white plate.  One half cup of cheddar cheese in the measuring cup.  And one box of frozen spinach, thawed and thoroughly squeezed to remove as much water as possible.

Now that is a bowl full of perfectly beaten egg whites for a soufflé.  You want stiff, glossy peaks.  I don’t know if the picture really shows that off, but I had stiff, glossy peaks.  The Cream of Tartar helps with this.  Plus I like for the bowl I am mixing them in to be cold.  That helps with the volume also.

And here we are folding  the cheese and spinach mixture into the egg whites.  Don’t over stir.  You really are not stirring but rather using a down under/up over move to gently incorporate the two mixtures together.  If you vigorously stirred this, you would deflate the egg whites and then you would have a big spinach and cheese pancake because it would just flatten out.

Next step, butter and thoroughly coat the inside of your soufflé dish with parmesan cheese.  This bowl is perfectly coated.

Into the dish.  Ready for the oven.  Oven is heated to 400 degrees, then turned down to 375 just before putting in the soufflé.

And this is what emerges from the oven some 30 minutes later.  It is quite beautiful.

And this is a cross section on the soufflé once is had cooled and fallen.

Maybe I should not be so hard on this recipe.  It actually was very tasty.  It just was not a soufflé in the way that I have come to know and expect soufflés.  So I would make it again, but with the expectation that it will be more dense than a traditional soufflé.

Spinach and Cheddar Souffle

On Sunday of last weekend, I decided to make a Spinach & Cheddar Soufflé.  I love cheese soufflé.  I could eat it everyday.  A nice slice of cheese soufflé made with gruyere, fresh from the oven and a little caviar and crème fraiche and some mini blinis on the side?  My dears, that is heaven on earth.  I made a crab soufflé a couple of years ago using fresh crab and gruyere.  It was, well, . . . not my favorite.  It did not rise like a plain cheese soufflé rises.  I did not care for the taste of the crab and the cheese together prepared as a soufflé.  Maybe as a casserole with additional ingredients.  But not together in a cheese soufflé.  That behind me, I wanted to try this Spinach & Cheddar recipe.  It was good.  But again, as with the crab, it did not send me over the moon.  It did not rise – at all.  The egg white were very fluffy and I was careful not to deflate them when I mixed in the cheese and spinach.  But, in the end, I was a bit disappointed.  I think I need to just stick with cheese soufflés.  Choose which soft cheese I like best, and just make good old cheese soufflé.  I am going to share with you the preparation of this Spinach and Cheese Soufflé and let you be the judge of whether or not you would like to try it.  I hope you do and I hope you have better luck with it than I did.  If you make it, and you do have good luck, please email me and let me know.

I started out by finding my stainless steel storage bowls.  These are handy to use to hold the ingredients for your soufflé.  One for cream of tartar, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, butter, etc.

Here you see them filled with various ingredients and the salt and pepper mills ready to get started.



I used regular dinking glasses to hold the egg yolks and egg whites until ready to incorporate everything together.  Salt and pepper on the little white plate.  One half cup of cheddar cheese in the measuring cup.  And one box of frozen spinach, thawed and thoroughly squeezed to remove as much water as possible.

Now that is a bowl full of perfectly beaten egg whites for a soufflé.  You want stiff, glossy peaks.  I don’t know if the picture really shows that off, but I had stiff, glossy peaks.  The Cream of Tartar helps with this.  Plus I like for the bowl I am mixing them in to be cold.  That helps with the volume also.

And here we are folding  the cheese and spinach mixture into the egg whites.  Don’t over stir.  You really are not stirring but rather using a down under/up over move to gently incorporate the two mixtures together.  If you vigorously stirred this, you would deflate the egg whites and then you would have a big spinach and cheese pancake because it would just flatten out.

Next step, butter and thoroughly coat the inside of your soufflé dish with parmesan cheese.  This bowl is perfectly coated.

Into the dish.  Ready for the oven.  Oven is heated to 400 degrees, then turned down to 375 just before putting in the soufflé.

And this is what emerges from the oven some 30 minutes later.  It is quite beautiful.

And this is a cross section on the soufflé once is had cooled and fallen.

Maybe I should not be so hard on this recipe.  It actually was very tasty.  It just was not a soufflé in the way that I have come to know and expect soufflés.  So I would make it again, but with the expectation that it will be more dense than a traditional soufflé.

A Few Garden Pictures

I thought we would take a break from the kitchen and cooking today and look outside.  We had lots of rain in the spring and early summer here in the mid-Atlantic.  The rain stopped last week and the temperatures soared.  So we are watering on a daily basis again.  Here are a couple shots from the deck and patio area.

The Mandevilla.  Wow!  I am very happy with how well this is doing.  This is the first year I have planted this beautiful, vining plant and it has given me a beautiful show.  I love the large, showy flowers.  It has a tendency to want to wrap around the chains on the basket and move up and wrap around the iron supports.  So it takes some maintenance to unwind it every now and then.  I want it to continue to grow and to cascade down over the sides of the planter.  We're getting there.

Here is the window-well garden I started a couple years ago.  Heuchera in the center, boxwood, ivy, a little juniper, some small air ferns.  And this year I added the large fern on the upper left.  That took the place of a schefelera that was in that pot that did not make it.  This picture really does not do this little garden justice.  It is quite stunning.

Finally, I got these cute ceramic outdoor candle holders at the Crate & Barrel Outlet in Alexandria.  I got the candles there also.  They were designed to be used specifically in these holders.  I learned during the rains earlier that it you invert the holder over the candle it helps to keep both the holder and the candle clean.  It also does not allow mosquitoes to breed in what would be standing water.  Plus it's not bad to look at turned upside down.  When company arrives, just turn them over, place the candle inside and light it, and enjoy and evening on the deck!

So that's it for today.  We will be working on some patio upgrades over the coming weekend and possibly spending some time in the yard again since temperatures are set to lower considerably on Saturday.

A Few Garden Pictures

I thought we would take a break from the kitchen and cooking today and look outside.  We had lots of rain in the spring and early summer here in the mid-Atlantic.  The rain stopped last week and the temperatures soared.  So we are watering on a daily basis again.  Here are a couple shots from the deck and patio area.

The Mandevilla.  Wow!  I am very happy with how well this is doing.  This is the first year I have planted this beautiful, vining plant and it has given me a beautiful show.  I love the large, showy flowers.  It has a tendency to want to wrap around the chains on the basket and move up and wrap around the iron supports.  So it takes some maintenance to unwind it every now and then.  I want it to continue to grow and to cascade down over the sides of the planter.  We're getting there.

Here is the window-well garden I started a couple years ago.  Heuchera in the center, boxwood, ivy, a little juniper, some small air ferns.  And this year I added the large fern on the upper left.  That took the place of a schefelera that was in that pot that did not make it.  This picture really does not do this little garden justice.  It is quite stunning.

Finally, I got these cute ceramic outdoor candle holders at the Crate & Barrel Outlet in Alexandria.  I got the candles there also.  They were designed to be used specifically in these holders.  I learned during the rains earlier that it you invert the holder over the candle it helps to keep both the holder and the candle clean.  It also does not allow mosquitoes to breed in what would be standing water.  Plus it's not bad to look at turned upside down.  When company arrives, just turn them over, place the candle inside and light it, and enjoy and evening on the deck!

So that's it for today.  We will be working on some patio upgrades over the coming weekend and possibly spending some time in the yard again since temperatures are set to lower considerably on Saturday.

Chunky Macaroni Salad

As I posted yesterday, we spent some time in the kitchen this past weekend experimenting with some new dishes.  One of those was a variation of the Classic American Macaroni Salad.  I woke up at 2:00 AM on Saturday morning and got to work on this.  While my neighbors slumbered peacefully, I was hard at work on getting all the ingredients just right for my new macaroni salad recipe.  Below is a pictorial of that work so early in the morning.

We started with a one pound box of Barilla Elbow macaroni.  This is the classic style of pasta this is used to make macaroni salad.  You could substitute bowties or penne - whatever you like.  But for this recipe, we will use Elbow.

The pasta was cooked for seven minutes and then drained and rinsed in cold water.

While the pasta was draining I cut up the cucumber, peppers, onions and tomatoes and placed them in Ziploc bags and placed them into the refrigerator.

I laid down some paper toweling in the refrigerator.

Then I placed the rinsed and drained pasta still in the strainer on top of the paper toweling.  I did not want to assemble the salad just yet, so I left the pasta like this in the strainer for the remainder of the night.

Later in the morning, once all the neighbors were up and starting their weekends, I assembled the salad.  I combined the cucumbers, peppers and onions altogether in a stainless steel bowl.

In a separate bowl, I mixed the pasta, mayonnaise and Ranch Dressing.

Lastly, I combined the cucumbers, peppers, onions and tomatoes with the pasta and the remaining ingredients and I ended up with a huge bowl of the most delicious macaroni salad you have ever tasted.  I named this Chunky Macaroni Salad because all of the dice in this recipe is large.  Refer to it as a "large dice" or "rough chop."  You want the veggies to be in large chunks rather then finely chopped.  This was a huge hit with  Steven, Bob and Bette.  Definitely a dish I would serve to company.

If your weekend plans include spending some time in the kitchen or getting together for a summer barbecue with friends, check out this recipe under the Food & Recipe Tab.  I think you will be glad you did.

Chunky Macaroni Salad

As I posted yesterday, we spent some time in the kitchen this past weekend experimenting with some new dishes.  One of those was a variation of the Classic American Macaroni Salad.  I woke up at 2:00 AM on Saturday morning and got to work on this.  While my neighbors slumbered peacefully, I was hard at work on getting all the ingredients just right for my new macaroni salad recipe.  Below is a pictorial of that work so early in the morning.

We started with a one pound box of Barilla Elbow macaroni.  This is the classic style of pasta this is used to make macaroni salad.  You could substitute bowties or penne - whatever you like.  But for this recipe, we will use Elbow.

The pasta was cooked for seven minutes and then drained and rinsed in cold water.

While the pasta was draining I cut up the cucumber, peppers, onions and tomatoes and placed them in Ziploc bags and placed them into the refrigerator.

I laid down some paper toweling in the refrigerator.

Then I placed the rinsed and drained pasta still in the strainer on top of the paper toweling.  I did not want to assemble the salad just yet, so I left the pasta like this in the strainer for the remainder of the night.

Later in the morning, once all the neighbors were up and starting their weekends, I assembled the salad.  I combined the cucumbers, peppers and onions altogether in a stainless steel bowl.

In a separate bowl, I mixed the pasta, mayonnaise and Ranch Dressing.

Lastly, I combined the cucumbers, peppers, onions and tomatoes with the pasta and the remaining ingredients and I ended up with a huge bowl of the most delicious macaroni salad you have ever tasted.  I named this Chunky Macaroni Salad because all of the dice in this recipe is large.  Refer to it as a "large dice" or "rough chop."  You want the veggies to be in large chunks rather then finely chopped.  This was a huge hit with  Steven, Bob and Bette.  Definitely a dish I would serve to company.

If your weekend plans include spending some time in the kitchen or getting together for a summer barbecue with friends, check out this recipe under the Food & Recipe Tab.  I think you will be glad you did.