Category — Random

The thing is, nothing Halloween-related is happening over here. I have put up not one decoration because remodeling is happening instead. So not scary unless you consider dust on every surface a scary thing. In fact, the only thing “Halloween” here is Halloween Harmony Boards.

When I bought my home on November 10, 2017, I had about a dozen remodel projects in mind. Here they are in order of importance to me, which translates into the order of completion.

• Build a courtyard in the front yard
• Install propane tank for gas stove and BBQ
• Resurface double-sided fireplace
• Barndoor to separate the main living area from the 4th bedroom
• Remodel the backyard, resurface the pool, add a built-in BBQ, etc.
• Built-in shelves for Harmony Boards supplies in what used to be a closet in 3rd bedroom – now office (see photo above)
• Flip the 3rd bathroom to better serve the 4th bedroom and to not open into the breakfast room … ew!
• New kitchen countertops!!!
• New carpet in 3 bedrooms * not yet done

You can click on the links above to revisit past projects.

The current projects are the 3rd bathroom flip and the new countertops. The photo above shows the old counters. It also shows the door that leads to the bathroom that is being flipped. It is between the two bookshelves filled with cookbooks. If you look closely, you can just make out the opening and framing of the door.

Below are the “before” photos of the bathroom.

I honestly think the tiny sink was meant for a trailer. The shower never worked properly and the glass doors leaked. And of course, the entry door was off the breakfast room which was my biggest pet peeve with it. Not to mention that it is basic and boring as hell.

Many thanks to all of you who played along with the 10th Blogiverary Contest!

Congratulations to our five winners. If you recall, to win you needed to follow Harmony Boards on Instagram and get two of your friends to also follow. So it seems appropriate to share the winners with you by showing their Instagram home page header.

Ten years with 2,037 posts! That is nearly 204 posts per year – and yes, I know, that calculation required the most basic and easy math. But that adds up to a big bunch of typing, talking, thoughts, cooking, memories, recipes, stories and photographs. I believe this occasion is worthy of a contest! Before I share with you exactly what it is that you have a chance to win and how you can win it, how about a few fun facts from the last 10 years?

Although I’ve had my blog since August 16, 2009, the platform I have it on, WordPress, reset the statistics in April 2013. I’m not sure how or why that happened but I no longer have the stats from August 2009 through March 2013.

With that in mind, here are the stats I have for LesPetites Gourmettes.com:

The most visited post: February 3, 2014

The recipe in that post is for Homemade San Tung “Dry-Fried” Chicken Wings. These are the absolutely scrumptious and addicting wings from San Tung Restaurant which is in the Outer Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco. That is where my darling daughter, Marissa, first lived in when she moved away after college.

• Total comments: 5,782 comments left by you wonderful people. Thank you for each and every one! Comments are what keep me motivated to keep on blogging.

• The most commented-on post: “Lost” from 2011 This post is about the death of my younger brother, Andy. Thank you for all the kindness, compassion and comfort you provided to me during not only that sad time but throughout the ups and downs of life that I’ve shared here.
• The person who has commented the most: Marissa <3
• The most visited year: 2015
• The most visited month: March 2015

OK, enough with the stats, let’s get to what we’re all here for … CONTEST TIME!

PRIZE: Five (5) Lucky entrants will join me for a Harmony Board Class. You will learn all the tips and tricks on how a Harmony Board is made. Plus each winner will make a mini-board of her/his own to take home and share, or not share, this is a judgment-free zone!

Yes, I’ve used the word TAIL in place of TALE in my title for a reason that you will soon understand. I’m going to lay out the details of this tale in a way to make it easy to follow along, at least I hope it will be easier to follow along in this way.

First, let me show you the layout of the exterior of my home that is pertinent to the story. Here is the built-in grill from the backside. The two openings are there for any possible propane gasses that may leak, hopefully never, to safely escape and dissipate.

This is the front side of the grill with the access door to the underworkings of the grill propped open. Make a mental note of the high-top round table on the far right end.

Here is the shed that houses all the items in my Miscellany Shed, a business that never really took off, but still physically exists.

When the shed was built at my new home, the ground wasn’t quite level, so one end is propped up with bricks. So, yes, now there is a crawlspace or living area underneath for creatures of a certain size. Not ideal, but that’s the way it is.

This is the gate to my front courtyard. It has a Ring Doorbell that delivery people and guests are supposed to ring when they arrive, but at least 80% of the people, come in and ring the doorbell by the front door, making it nearly useless as a doorbell. But as a camera, it is very effective, sometimes too much so.

And sadly, yes, the sign I had made is 100% necessary. Even with it hanging there, delivery people (mostly FedEx) still leave packages sitting outside the gate for all to see, thereby leaving them at risk to be stolen. I don’t get it, but that’s another tale to be told.

OK, now that you have the lay of the land, I can tell you my story.  It was about 9:30 last Wednesday morning, May 22nd. I had the windows open because of this weather! Crazy cool and wonderful for late May, seriously wonderful! Anyhow, since the windows were open I could hear what sounded like an animal in distress. I couldn’t tell what type of animal but it was crying and it sounded as though the crying was coming from my backyard neighbor’s yard. They are winter visitors, and had already left for the summer, silly them! I grabbed the stepstool from my pantry on my way out the back door to look over the fence into their yard.  I looked but saw nothing, then the crying started up again and it was coming from behind me, in my yard. I looked around and saw the tiniest sweetest orange kitten standing on its hind legs trying to get back into the holes in the backside of my grill.

I picked her up and went around the front side, figuring that if she wanted into the grill, she probably came from inside there. I opened the grill door, and sure enough, there were two more sweet little black and white kittens in there.

I put Miss Orange back in and then all three kittens ran away to the far side of the structure, around the corner to the round table part. Now I could not see them. Dang, it!

…will something from Trader Joe’s or Target be on the table for dinner? I bet you thought I was going to say, “chicken dinner.” Nope, I’ve done that before for a contest. Got to be creative over here! Today is the day to draw the name of the winner(s) of the 2,000 Post Contest. There are two $100 gift card prizes up for grabs.

Whether you left 12 comments or one, I truly appreciate you. There were eight of you in contention for the first $100 prize. To qualify for that prize, a person had to have left a comment on every blog post for the month of April.

The eight ladies in the running are Shelley, Betsy, Lisa, Anne, Lina, Debbie, Marilyn, and Shirley. Many thanks to each of you for playing along so faithfully! I would love to share with everyone just how I know each of you.

Shelley’s daughter, Elizabeth, attended my children’s cooking classes at Les Petites Gourmettes for years, and truth be told she was one of my favorite students. Is it OK to admit that? I don’t teach kids any longer, so I’m going to say that it is OK. Elizabeth is now a student at Tufts University. Amazing!

Betsy is a long-time and loyal follower of this blog. She regularly comments, even without a contest! We’ve met in person while grocery shopping and I found out she is related to a high school friend of mine, whose daughter was a grade school friend of my daughter’s. Small world!

Lisa and Anne are dear friends of mine. Lisa was my neighbor in Equestrian Manor for the 18 years I lived there. The first time we met was when she asked me to teach a cooking class for her 7-year-old daughter, Emily’s, birthday party. Emily is a grade school teacher now. Heck no, that doesn’t make me feel old at all.

Anne and I have been BFF’s since our boys met in 2nd grade. Those boys are 28 now. OK, feeling older now.

Debbie, Lina, Marilyn, and Shirley are all wonderful women I have been very fortunate to meet because they have been students at Les Gourmettes. Marilyn and Shirley are currently in my series classes, the first of which was on Wednesday night.

I took a video of myself drawing the winning name, but it won’t load here. So I had to go back and take still shots to reenact it. I’ve loaded videos on here before but I can’t figure it out and it’s after midnight, so I’m giving up and posting this for the morning. Sorry for being technically challenged today.

I’ve been busy with personal stuff this week, so not much cooking going on. Except for last night when I taught the first of my 3-class series at Les Gourmettes. Today I’m going to catch you up on what’s been going on around my house and give you a valuable tip for cutting fig leaves and branches.

I have four fig trees in my backyard, which is three too many for my needs, but I’m going with the flow. I use the figs, of course, but I also put the fig leaves to good use on the Harmony Boards. They are best used under very soft cheeses and also when mixed in with other greens for the base of our Crudités and Frudités Boards, as seen above. All of the leaves on the board above are from my yard. We’ll talk more about the garden in a moment. First I want to tell you about the issue I was having with the fig leaves.

When fig leaves or branches are cut, they immediately begin to wilt, even when quickly put into water. I don’t know if this is caused by the milky fluid they put out when they are cut or exactly what it is that causes the wilting, but it’s annoying.

I discovered that if the stem gets a fresh cut under cold running water or is cut while immersed in water, the leaves are quickly revived. They will look great for days. Amazingly, the leaves will even stay unwilted when pulled out of the water several minutes later when I use them for a board.

When I was getting ready to post these photos I was thinking, “why should my readers believe that the wilted photo was taken first and the revived photo of fresh-looking leaves taken after?”

Why, indeed?!? To prove that this is the case, here are the same photos with their timestamps. The photo above was taken at 8:06 AM and the photo below was taken at 8:40 AM. See, wilted and then refreshed after being recut under cold water. Like Magic!

If you’ve read more than a few posts here in the past nearly 10 years, then you know all about Barbara Fenzl and Les Gourmettes Cooking School. Barb started the school 36 years ago and has been selling out classes ever since. I came on board 30 years ago, but it doesn’t seem that long ago at all.

Barb has decided to hang up her apron and close the school. I understand, when you know it’s time, then it’s time. That is exactly how I felt when I closed Les Petites Gourmettes Children’s Cooking School after 18 years.

The Red Book Magazine’s April 2019 issue has the most wonderful article all about Barb and Les Gourmettes. Karen Fernau, the former food editor for the Arizona Republic, wrote a loving and lovely article. You may view and read the full article (pages 48-54) HERE. (Use the – + feature at the bottom of the pages to zoom in and be able to read the print. Also, the photos in this post are screenshots I took from the online magazine.)

Below is the last paragraph from the feature.

Good morning and a very Happy 2,000th Post Day to you!

I’ll bet you didn’t even know there was such a thing as 2,000th Post Day but there is in the world of LesPetitesGourmettes.com! This is my 2,000th post! That’s quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself. To celebrate this milestone, let’s have a contest and giveaway. Since I don’t have $2,000 laying around to give away, how about I give away 2,000 pennies? Wait, that’s only $20, that doesn’t seem like much of a treat. OK, let’s make it 2,000 dimes or $200. That’s a nice prize, right?!?

I’m going to split that in two and give away two (2) $100 gift cards to Target or Trader Joe’s. The winner(s) will have their choice since I know that not everyone has a Trader Joe’s in their town but I’m certain that a majority of you have a Target. If you can prove to me that you don’t have a Target either (Mom) I will consider making it a gift card to … Walmart. There, I said it. Don’t shop there myself but will make the exception if absolutely necessary, because I’m just that nice! There will be two ways to win and if you complete both of them, then you’ll have a chance at both gift cards or two entries in the contest.

Here is the first way you may enter to win: Leave a comment on every post here on LesPetitesGourmettes.com during the month of April. That includes this post and the previous post from April 1, 2019, and every post from now until April 30, 2019. Now, I don’t post every day, so you’ll probably only need to leave comments on about a dozen posts. I’ll remind you every now and again. I’ll gather up the names of all those who leave a comment on EVERY APRIL 2019 post and those names will go in the pot for the first $100 gift card. (This means that Shelley and Nancy already of a leg up on the rest of you since they left comments on the 4/1/19 post already. Thank you, Shelley and Nancy!)

*I should also mention that leaving comments on Facebook, where these posts show up automatically, does not count. The comments must be left here on LesPetitesGourmettes.com. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the comments there, but rules are rules, y’all!

The second way you may enter to win: Get on Instagram and if you haven’t already followed my Harmony_Boards page, do that! Next, get a minimum of five (5) of your Instagram friends and family to follow the Harmony_Boards page. Here’s the tricky part of this way to win, I will need to know that you sent them there to follow the page. So they will need to send me a DM or leave a comment on one of the photos letting me know that you suggested they follow Harmony_Boards. I understand that this is more complicated than leaving a comment on a post, but it is another way to win, a way to have two chances and maybe win BOTH of the $100 prizes. That’s pretty cool!

There is no “also-ran” in this contest. If there isn’t anyone who leaves a comment on every post for the month of April, that $100 stays in my pocket. Ditto on the Instagram portion of the contest. I’ll still love and appreciate each and every one of you, but I’m not just giving money away for nothing here! I’m not Oprah or Ellen, after all.

The winner(s) will be drawn, notified, and announced on Friday, May 3, 2019. There are no restrictions on this contest, any and everyone may play and have a chance to win. Good Luck! xoxo, This contest is not endorsed, sponsored or supported by either Trader Joe’s or Target.

Instead of a recipe, how about a little story about my experience at Costco today?

You know how you’re in a situation and after you walk away you think, “Why didn’t I say, “this that, or the other?”

Yeah, it happens all the time, you don’t think of that perfect response or come back until the situation is over and you’re away from it. Happens to me all the time too.

Do you know why? Because we don’t have TV comedy or drama writers following us around. It’s hard to think of the perfect thing to say in that second when you’re caught off guard.

Well, not today!  (actually, by the time you read this it will have been tomorrow, but as I write it, it is today.)

Today I had the perfect comeback and I couldn’t be prouder of myself. Here’s the story –

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I’m in Carlsbad, CA at my timeshare this week with Marissa and my cousin, Michelle Lorts. Michelle and I drove over on Saturday and picked up Marissa, who flew in from Austin, TX.

This is the view from our balcony. Not too shabby. We’ve had a wonderful, relaxing, and cool week thus far. Not missing the 110+ degree AZ days one single bit!

Here are Michelle and Marissa out in the front of the resort under an African tulip tree. Isn’t it gorgeous?

But the real news I have to share is the amazing deal I got on wine at Von’s (Safeway in AZ) grocery store. We went in to buy some orange juice and a couple of bottles of Michelle’s favorite Sauvignon Blanc, Brancott Estate. When we strolled down the wine aisles, we immediately noticed that all the wine was on sale with yellow tags on every shelf. The Brancott was regularly $13.99 a bottle and was on sale for $9.99. Sweet! Michelle grabbed 2 bottles.

Then I looked a little farther down the aisle and saw a couple of red tags among all the yellow. Upon further inspection, I saw that the Robert Mondavi Oakville Fum Blanc which was regularly $34.99 a bottle was on clearance for ….. wait for it…

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