day off

This is Adam Lippes. I became acquainted with him on my day off. Not in person though....too bad. :-(



This store opened on Main Street about two years ago. On Friday I braved the rain and took a walk up and down Main Street in the village. I had looked in the window of this store before...a very open space with a few racks of women's clothes on either side. A pretty dark-haired girl popped up off the sofa to greet me...eager to have a shopper in the store. I browsed the racks of high end designer clothes. Everything seemed to be priced $375. Blouse...$375. Skirt...$375. Dress....$375. There was a rack of sale items marked down to $300. Curious about the background of this store and how it got it's start, I struck up a conversation with her. She explained to me that Adam was born and raised in Buffalo. She and her husband had attended Nichols School with him. Adam graduated from Cornell with a psychology degree and then continued his studies in Paris where he focused on art history and architecture. He worked closely with Oscar de la Renta for seven years. The clothing Adam designs is sold in over 250 stores in 10 countries around the world. He now has a flagship store in NYC where he lives and designs. He has recently added three more free standing stores. One in Bryn Mawr, PA, one in the Hamptons and this one right in my little village of Williamsville. She said Adam called her up and asked her to work in the store now that her children are in school. We continued to talk and I found that she had recently moved back to Buffalo from Chicago's Lincoln Park area. So we had another nice talk about about Chicago.



Pumpkins and The Jacqueline Shoppe have both been in business even before I moved to Williamsville. The Jacqueline Shoppe has a reputation for being the place to go for Mother of the Bride dresses. They have always carried a number of lines of nice clothing and I have often found something on the sale rack as did on this day.



While I was in the shop I ran into my friend, Mary Alice, who always saves my spot for me in my Total Body Workout class at the BAC. She was looking for a dress for her son's wedding.


Pumpkins



My afternoon was spent sharing a bottle of wine with my good friend, Barb. We drove over to her daughter, Alex, new studio apartment on the edge of Glen Park. The apartment wasn't set up yet. We went so we could drag a heavy armoire in a box that UPS had delivered a little earlier in the day down a steep flight of stairs. This is Alex's new espresso click clack.


and her cute little kitchen that was way cuter when I saw it later complete with new bistro table and chairs.


And this is her view out her window....Glen Park.



and her back patio where I can picture little elves and fairies.

tax day

Not a lot of work gets done at an accounting firm on April 15th. I brought in breakfast. Five different kinds of muffins baked over two evenings time.



I organized a swap party for a little something fun to do but there were only a handful of us who thought it was fun so this won't be repeated next year.



I came home with a soup cookbook and a brand new pair of Jody Coyote earrings.



The girls in the back held their annual basketball shoot tournament...with prizes this year. Katie takes a shot.



and another



while the boys wait their turn



Every year I host a different tax game each week. I had a dozen prizes left in my Box-O-Surprizes. Last year I had a balloon popping game to get rid of the leftover prizes. This year I held a free Chinese auction.



The most sought after prize was these beer goggles which were put to good use at the evening party.

daffy down dilly

Golden expanses of daffodils are everywhere. I see these on Essjay on my way to Wegman's.



I wish I could stop on my morning drive to work on the 33 to snap photos of the fields of them I see on either side of the highway.



This little duck is living among them. Soon I will have to be watching for families of Canadian geese crossing Essjay.

melancholy twilight

I have mentioned before in my blog that twilight is my favorite time of day. I had a particularly long and frustrating day at work yesterday....the last Saturday of tax season. So when those long low rays of orange light started to peek through my western window as I was starting dinner, I had to stop and catch my breath. It is a moment of such intense beauty but also of sadness...a reminder that one more day of my life is coming to an end.



After coming to grips with myself I dashed for my camera to catch some of these fleeting scenes. They were changing and shifting before my very eyes.



This elusive orange glow lasting only minutes.



Come have a seat and bask in the glow.



Reflection of hallway blinds on the bedroom door



Sinking lower

a walk in jay's yard

easter in rochacha

our simple holiday table

B and I drove to Rochester to spend Easter day with Jay. I planned a simple meal and took all the ingredients along with me. The weather was lovely and we had such a nice relaxing lazy sort of day. I took two naps, watched two movies, cooked dinner, wandered around in the yard and played with the kitties. The lily was a gift to me from Jay.


green beans, yellow squash and roasted tomato strips before microwaving



This potato salad was so good. I boiled white fingerlings, cut them up and while still warm added them to a dish of chopped onion, lots of chopped celery with leafy tops, vinegar, olive oil and several ounces of goat cheese.


a plain green salad served up in a lovely Easter - uhmm- football bowl.


turkey breast on the grill


my Easter gift to Jay - a six pack of Mike's Hard Margaritas bottled in - where else? - but Rochester NY.

whole wheat chocolate blueberry cake

I made this cake a couple weekends ago and it was so dense and moist that it was good plain just like this. It was also good with a dollop of chocolate mousse (which I will explain later in this post) and fresh blueberries.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 egg
1 cup frozen light whipped dessert topping....which I didn't use
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In blender combine water, blueberries and the egg. Cover and blend til smooth. Add to flour mixture. Whisk until well combined. Pour into a greased 8x8x2 inch baking pan. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. Invert onto a serving platter.

Now here is where I went astray with excellent results. The recipe said to combine dessert topping and chocolate bits in a microwave-safe bowl. Micro-cook covered on 50% power for 1 minute and stir til smooth. Let cool and spread on cake. Instead I combined a half cup of whipping cream and the chocolate bits in a pan on the stove until the chocolate melted. After it cooled I tried to whip it which it would not do. So I added some more cold whipping cream and it whipped up into a delicious chocolate mousse that I dolloped onto the cake along with a sprinkle of fresh blueberries.

sammy

1999-2010

Our Sam left this sweet old world Monday March 29, 2010. Jay and I rescued this little stray from Sam's Club parking lot in August of 1999. We never knew his exact birthday because he was several months old when we found him. He had not been well for the past four years and Sammy arriving at the vet's office in two laundry baskets - a big one on bottom with a smaller one fit inside for a cover - was a familiar sight at our vet's office. Sam was known as a sweet tempered good natured handsome boy.



I was so touched today when this hand written card arrived in the mail. All three doctors who had treated Sam as well as a techician who drew his blood and the office manager had written me a note.