Grateful Week

I am grateful for many things.  Today these are the things I am especially grateful for:

 

Blue Colored Birds at the Aviary

Mussels and Frites at Point Brugge Cafe with Molly and Peter

 

Visiting Philadelphia tomorrow...seeing friends, and feeding Ethan's dissertation committee with my chocolate chip cookies!

Please wish Mr. Ethan luck as he defends his dissertation, this has been almost five years in the making! I am super duper proud of him (times 1000 million)!

A Weekly Menu a la Ethan et Claire

I scanned our next week’s menu… I like to include the cookbooks with page numbers of the recipes we are using.  Obviously, next week is abnormal since we have a lot of travelling coming up.  I will post a better weekly menu when I am more ambitious and  and less hectic.

 

Eat!

Love, Moi

Feeling Dreary

I don’t know why, but lately I have been feeling out of sorts.  Not sure whats been going on with me.  I’ll need to get back and post something exciting next week.  It hasn’t stopped raining here in Morgantown, maybe thats why I’m so melancholy.

For Rene

Over the past weekend, my family converged in Naples, FL for the funeral of my step-grandmother, Irene “Rene”.  Although it was sad she passed away from the earth, we all felt grateful that she was no longer suffering.  She was about 2 months shy of her 90th birthday and very, very sick and uncomfortable.  Her memorial weekend was filled with good stories, a Catholic Mass, sifting through her boxes of photos, and eating.  Perhaps most notable was the discovery of a box filled with hundreds of love poems written to Rene by her late husband Len.  He wrote her a sweet poem for most holidays and her birthday.  They weren’t just little rhymes, but heart-felt expressions of a man totally in love with his wife.  It was pretty amazing that he kept writing these poems several times a year and for over 50 years!  They were love-birds until his death in 2000.   She was a terrific homemaker and mother–sharing her love for theatre, art, and music with my step-father. 

It was really nice to see family, talk about food with everyone, eat fresh grouper and snapper each day, shop with my mom, and chat on the beach.  I think Rene would have been glad that we got together and celebrated her sweet life. 

 

First Night: Grouper Dinner

Watching Dolphins Swim in the Pass

Pre-Memorial Brunch- without fruit, bacon, or eggs....

Grouper Sandwich at Captain Kirks

A Week of Meals in Picture Form

Fried Chicken and Scallop Potatoes at Apple Annies with our friends, the Sakai Family

Arugula and Spinach Salad with our own salad dressing to make pretend I am still on a diet

Mushroom Pizza with Ethan's homemade pizza crust

 

Organic Chicken Parmesan

 

Vegetarian Pad Thai in Ethan's Birthday Present (Le Creuset Braiser)

Dinner in Front of the TV: Homemade Falafel & Hummus with Pita and fixings

 

Noreen and Ethan with a plate full of DELICIOUS Indian Food- fish curry, rogan josh, roasted eggplant, scented rice, and I made homemade nan bread

An Indian Breakfast a la Noreen

 

Coconut Cupcakes a la Noreen

 

Email me if you’d like any recipes! Enjoy!