Category — Linda

I haven’t been posting much this week for several reasons…

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To celebrate 5 Years of the Les Petites Gourmettes Blog, we’re gonna have a little “comment contest.” (BTW, the official birthday was August 16th, in case you want to mark your calendar and send me a card next year)

All you have to do to be eligible to win is tell me your favorite recipe that I’ve posted over these past five years (see exact details on precisely how to do that below.) It shouldn’t be too hard, there are over a thousand recipes to choose from.

It can be a recipe you’ve made … I hope you’ve made at least one that you’ve liked!

If you’ve never cooked a darn thing from here or you are new to the site, it can be recipe that looks especially tasty and that you’d like to make or have someone else make for you in the future.

Here is what you’re playing for:

One 7″ Heston Blumenthal stainless steel Santoku chef’s knife
   and
One Ballymaloe red apron

Here is why I have these two beautiful items to give away …

When I signed up for the all-day cooking class at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, I received an email with instructions to bring a chef’s knife, apron, and towel for the class.

I forgot.

So, the night before the class, I purchased the required items in The Ballymaloe Shop.

Believe me, the last thing I need is another apron or another chef’s knife. The towel, I’ll keep as a memento from the class. One can never have enough towels!

The knife and apron were gently used only one day, by me, at Ballymaloe. (See it there on the counter in the photo above?) The apron has been washed and maybe I’ll get around to ironing it before I give it to the winner… maybe not.

The price tag is still on the knife, 59.95 is the value … and that was in euros!  I don’t recall the price of the apron, but all in all, it’s a brilliant prize!

British and Irish people say “brilliant” all the time, I’m trying to incorporate it into my repertoire.

Here’s what you have to do to be eligible to win:

Find the post for that favorite recipe of yours and leave a comment on that post. Any comment will do, hopefully, something nice, like, “I made this and it was the best thing I ever ate.” Or maybe, “Linda, this recipe is a winner and I want to be a winner too. Pick ME!”

However, you’re feeling at the time is perfect.

You may enter up to five (5) times, leaving a comment on up to five posts. NOT five comments on one post, five different comments on five different recipes.

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I found a recipe on the internet that I’m going to recommend you do not make.

On Sunday, Father’s Day, I arrived home from the airport at about 3:45 and immediately began to make dinner for my dad, husband, and son.  Since I’d already been awake for 12 hours, I didn’t want to have to think too hard about what to make.

Since I have a peach tree that was full of ripe peaches, I decided to whip up a peach cobbler for dessert.

I wanted to be able to post the recipe so it needed to be somewhat different from the three peach cobbler/crumble recipes I already have posted here. For that reason, I turned to the web to find one that I could “make my own” and get done easily and quickly.

The recipe I stumbled upon first was the Pioneer Woman’s Peach Cobbler. Her version used frozen peaches and since I was using fresh, I figured that would be a perfect recipe to switch up. I made a few other minor changes, with the addition of spices and such, and popped it into the oven while I made the rest of the meal.

I’ve tried many of the Pioneer Woman’s recipes before and they’ve always been wonderful. I thought that this too would be a “sure thing.”

In fact, I’ve loved a couple of them so much that I reposted them, almost exactly as originally written. This Dip recipe and this Poppers recipe are two of my all-time favorites. So please do not take this as a bashing of the Pioneer Woman and her recipes – but this peach cobbler recipe is one that I can not endorse. No way, no how.

Instead, you should make one of the three peach cobbler/crisp recipes I’ve previously posted – one of the ones I should have made for Father’s Day.

Mason Jar Peach and Berry Cobbler

Peach-Blueberry Cobbler

Blueberry-Nectarine Crumble

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“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Arizona anymore.”

By the time you read this, I’ll be boarding the second flight of the morning on my way to Wichita, Kansas.

My dad is an Arizona Native, but his parents are originally from Germany. They came to America by way of Kansas. There is a family reunion that he wants to attend this weekend. Sloane and I are accompanying him.

It is being held in New Almelo, Kansas – population of 622.

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Happy Birthday

To my Beautiful Boy!

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There was a little glitch with the ring for the proposal that occurred on Saturday.

Jeff had the ring custom-made and although it was promised to be completed and to arrive in time for the proposal, it did not.

Jeff insisted the jeweler overnight a “stand-in” ring and they did, but then it was held up by FedEx and stuck in Oakland on Saturday.

Poor guy! After all his careful and detailed planning, others dropped the ball. So while Marissa and I were on our “Amazing Race San Francisco,” Jeff was at Macy’s buying a second “returnable” stand-in ring.

As I mentioned yesterday, he even had the foresight to have one of our pit stops on the “Race” occur at a nail salon so we could each get a mani/pedi. Here is a photo of my sad old torn-up left hand intertwined with Marissa’s young smooth pretty left hand… her’s ring free for the last few fleeting hours.

The real ring finally arrived last night.

It is exactly what Marissa wished for. A delicate platinum ring with a sapphire center stone and 2 diamonds on each side.

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This past Saturday was a very big day for our family. Mentally, I had been a little MIA for the past week or so … getting ready, emotionally, for the weekend!

Our daughter, Marissa, got engaged! She is my firstborn … and a truly magnificent daughter!

This is Marissa and her handsome fiance’ Jeff.

And this is their engagement story … as seen and experienced firsthand by a proud, excited, and loving mom.

On Thursday, April 24, 2014, Jeff flew in from San Francisco to take us to dinner and ask for Marissa’s hand in marriage.

He was so sweet and said the most beautiful and wonderful things about our beloved daughter. After we said, “yes, of course,” Jeff explained his proposal plan and asked me to be a part of it. What an honor!

You see, Marissa and I have been fans of the television show, The Amazing Race, ever since its debut in 2001. We’ve always thought that we’d be the perfect duo to run the Race and that certainly we would be the winners and take home the $1 million prize money!

Jeff created an “Amazing Race San Francisco” for us to run… unopposed … so we’d be sure to win! He had 15 envelopes containing clues and challenges for us to complete.

We began at 9:00 Saturday morning and hit the ground running.

Jeff put so much time, thought, and effort into this endeavor – it truly blew me away! He even had the forethought to have me take a photo of Marissa at each “pit stop” holding the corresponding numbered envelope and then post it on Instagram and Facebook. Each post included the hashtag #amazingracesf, so that he could follow our progress as we traveled from one side of the city to the other – over a period of about seven hours.

It also became a great way of letting their unsuspecting family and friends know that something very cool was happening and that something even bigger was on the way!

And yes, you can still log on to Instagram or Facebook, put in #amazingracesf, and see the whole event as it unfolded.

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… back in the day of newspapers. Remember what those were? When every wedding was “announced” … our kids and grandkids won’t know what that’s like.

Happy Anniversary, David. xoxo

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How was your weekend?

I spent mine deep-cleaning my house and preparing my backyard for the harsh summer conditions. The first order of business was to bag up all the patio throws and blankets we use on chilly fall and winter nights and store them in the rolling crate-ottoman.

While I was at it, I vacuumed the rug and dusted off all the furniture – a never-ending battle!

One of the prettiest things blooming in the backyard is the Lavender Snail Vine (Vigna caracalla) that is completely covering…

… the rusty arch at the far edge of the patio.

I discovered the first Canna Lily (Auguste Ferrier) of the summer. It is a promise of things to come.

Another nearly weekly activity is the cleaning and refilling of the hummingbird feeder.

I have tried all sorts of ways to clean the bottle, from bottle brushes to pipe-cleaners, but the most effective method I’ve found is this: Fill the bottle about halfway with hot tap water, add a tablespoon of bleach, and then a handful of dried beans. Shake and roll the bottle and the beans will clean the sides better than any bottle brush known to man.

Next, triple-wash the bottle and then wash it again to make certain that you’ve gotten all traces of the bleach out of there before filling it with sugar syrup. I use a mix of 1 cup sugar to 4 cups water.

I’m barely able to turn around from hanging it up before the hummers get back at it.

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By the time you read this, we will have already been in Spain for more than 36 hours. Just know that as I type this it is still Tuesday night in Arizona and it is Wednesday morning in Barcelona, but I’m setting this to post on Wednesday morning in Arizona and when it does, it will be Wednesday night where I am. I always have a hard time figuring out and communicating time differences, so from here on out, I won’t worry about my time vs. Arizona time!

Our flight on Monday morning from Phoenix to Philadelphia was packed, sold out. Sky Harbor was overflowing with travelers at 5:30 AM when we arrived. We then had a 4+ hour layover in the busy Philly airport, which we spent in the US Airways Admirals Club lounge. We drank too much free wine and ate their complementary snacks as our late breakfast.

The best news of the day came when we boarded our flight to Spain… it was empty! Just about everyone on the plane could have had his or her own center row to lay down in… and we did!

Bad news, even with the luxury of having a place to lay down and sleep the flight away, I barely slept a wink. No matter, it was a joy to have room to stretch out. Trust me, I tried to sleep, but after much tossing and turning, I ended up watching two movies instead; 2014 Best Movie Academy Award Winner, 12 Years a Slave and Enough Said with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the late, great James Gandolfini, in his last film. Recommend them both!

When we landed in Barcelona, we were shocked at the emptiness of the airport. I think our flight may have actually been the first of the morning, arriving at 7AM. It was a virtual ghost town. There were no departing flights scheduled for hours! Spaniards know how to live right!

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