RAIN--SNOW--DOGS

I am so grateful.....rain and snow have finally come to Southern California. After years of praying for rain and a good winter snow pack, it has finally arrived. We still need a lot more to recover from our 4 year drought; it's happening.

(I grabbed this photo from Google images which said it was from the San Bernardino Mountains??) Jones looked a lot like this when he was a puppy--except he was black and started turning blue when he was about a year old. Sweet memories.

Now, on to important things like Venetian stemware. I am not talented photographically. I could put it on my to do list of things to improve on, but it just doesn't inspire me that much. However, when I happen to take a photo that turns out to be half-way decent, I feel a little rush of pride. The Venetian stems that I bought on Thursday (without previewing them--and that's a no-no) turned out to be pretty good--wish there were a few more..... Today I took a few shots of the stems (after I had polished them with Windex)

Not too bad. The stems are really pretty--I love the cobalt blue of the coupes and the mouth blown twisted balls forming the stems.

Claudia Strasser, author of The Paris Apartment, has challenged herself to revamp, refocus and increase the revenues of her business, The Paris Apartment, in 2016.

I love Claudia's blog and this challenge is exactly what I needed to inspire me. I had already planned to redo shop and expand a bit; Claudia has reinforced my gut motivations. Thank you, Claudia, for this 365-Day Challenge. I will be following (perhaps imitating) your daily posts and progress.

Hope that your 2016 has been great so far.

Blessings,

Mary & Jones & Cole 

BLACK EYED PEAS-----MY SOUTHERN YEARS

In honor of my many years of living in the The South, I always fix Black Eyed Peas with Ham for New Year's Day. This year, I strayed a bit from creating a purely Southern dish.

I started with 3 1 lb. packages of frozen blacked peas (you can also use the dried kind) I love the flavor of the frozen peas.

Then I started adding a bit here and there.

SOUTHERN BLACK EYED PEAS ......(A La Mary)

3- 1 lb. packages frozen Black Eyed Peas

1- cup chopped left over smoked bone-in ham (make sure to use enough of the fat for flavor)

1/2 cup chopped sweet or red onion

4 long stalks celery (de-stringed) chopped med-fine

2-3 large cloves garlic chopped fine

1 piece fresh ginger (1" x 1.5") cut into v. fine strips

8 whole cloves

1/4 t. fennel seeds

2 bay leaves

Black pepper

4 oz. mixed organic baby greens (spinach, kale, etc.)

Put peas and ham in soup pot, add water to cover plus 1 inch.

Add cloves, fennel, bay leaves and black pepper

Saute onions, celery, garlic and ginger in olive oil and add to soup.

Bring soup to full boil; turn heat down to quite low and simmer for about 45 -60 min. or until the peas are soft, but not mushy.

When the soup is ready bring it to almost a full boil.

Turn off the heat and add 4 oz. mixed baby greens; stir.

Cover and let sit for about 5 mins.

And serve------

The addition of the fennel, cloves and ginger gives a little sparkle to the peas. And deepens the flavor without making the peas spicy. Notice--I didn't add any salt.

Jones loves them, too. My boy is much much better--still haven't made it to the park as it is quite chilly here--Yeah! Finally a few days of winter. WE have even had snow in the Orange County mountains!!

Sending New Year's Blessings to all. I just read the latest post of The Paris Apartment. Claudia's study of Coco Chanel is inspiring me to shape things up a bit. I love many of Chanel's quotes--what a lady.

Joy.

Mary & Jones & Cole

****I appropriated the photos from Google Images.