A Moment In Time . . . Tea Time!

It's another chilly Sunday at That Old House.

January is like that.

After church, Howard and I will continue our quest to find 

the perfect venue for daughter Alida's wedding reception this summer.

I'm taking the easy blogging road today, and re-posting something
from June of 2010, thanks to the Sunday Favorites blog party. 

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(First published June 10, 2010)

 
Ssshhhh. . . . I'm taking a few moments for a solitary cup of tea in the parlor.

You can peek if you'd like; you're family.

It's simple.
An old brown lustreware teapot.
A birthday tea cup -- July of course! -- and some vintage linen and lace.

Antique silver plate spoon.

And an old, old damask napkin edged in hand crocheted lace.
So soft, so pretty.

And that's all she wrote!

Do you have a corner in your house that is your bolt hole,
your little escape from the rest of the world?

Everyone wants to be alone, once in awhile.

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See you Monday!
Have a lovely restful Sunday -- Cass




And for more blasts from the past, visit Chari
at Happy To Design for her
Sunday Favorites link party.


Click here to go there! 

The Long And The Short (Ribs) Of It

Last Friday, I confessed to lusting after a recipe
in the current issue of Country Living magazine.

 I said I'd make it.  And I did.

I've never made short ribs -- or any kind of ribs -- before.

Ribs always struck me as what you throw away after you've finished cutting up the cow.

Kind of like wings from chickens.  

I don't see the point.

But something about this picture caught my fancy.

It just looked so wintry-good, like an old fashioned stick-to-your-ribs dinner.

:-P

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A few pictures of the process:

 I am not even sure we bought the right kind of meat,

although the package did say "short ribs."

 Meat is very unattractive when raw.

Garlic looks better:

 Wine and coarse mustard, into the pot.

 Ribs back in, cozied up with the wine, garlic, mustard and dried apricots.

Am I nuts or does this look like Hermann Munster is cooking dinner?

 Several hours later, things are looking better.

Still those bones scattered around.

Chow time!

  I roasted baby carrots and added them to the plate.

At the end of the meal, my plate was pretty clean, except for bones, and piles of stuff

I'd cut off the rib meat.  Howard's plate was totally clean, except for a couple of bones.

"Why did you leave all this stuff on the plate?" he asked me.

"Because it's fatty," I answered.

"So?" he said.

And this may explain why he eats ribs, and I don't.

The meat was delicious; fall-off-the-bone tender.

I was less pleased with the braising sauce and apricots.  Very tart.  Puckery tart.

If I were to make this again, I'd use a sweeter wine, or fiddle around with adding some

sweetener -- brown sugar, molasses, something like that -- to temper the tart.

And maybe prunes instead of apricots.

And add onions or leeks. 

We got several dinners out of this.

 It was delicious with Brussels Sprouts and baked potato.

 

We didn't share it with company; hosting a dinner with a cold?  Not a good idea.

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If you are moved to try this recipe yourself, here's it is, courtesy of the January 2011 Country Living.

Red-Wine-and-Apricot-Braised Short Ribs

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 pound(s)   short ribs
• 4 clove(s)   garlic, chopped
• 3 cup(s)   dry red wine (such as Syrah)
• 3 tablespoon(s)   coarse-grain Dijon mustard
• 2 cup(s)   (11 ounces)  dried apricots
•   Salt
•   Freshly ground pepper

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Directions

1. Season short ribs with salt  and pepper. Working in batches, brown ribs in a large Dutch oven over  medium-high heat, about 4 minutes per side. (Cass' note:  I browned them for 6 or more minutes for a good dark "crust.")  Transfer to a plate and set  aside.
2. Add garlic to pot and cook  over medium heat until browned, about 2 minutes. Add wine and mustard  and stir, scraping up browned bits from bottom of the pan. Add apricots  and reserved ribs and increase heat to high, bringing liquid to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot, and simmer until ribs are so  tender that the meat falls off the bone, about 3 hours. Skim excess fat from braising sauce.  (Alternatively, after step 1, add browned ribs and all other  ingredients to a slow cooker and cook on low, following manufacturer's  instructions, until ribs are so tender that meat falls off the bone,  about 8 hours.) Serve meat and apricots in a shallow bowl with braising  sauce.

Or, you can access the recipe online, by clicking here!

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You can find many, many more recipes and food stories

today, at Michael Lee West's Designs By Gollum blog.

Go visit Foodie Friday by clicking here!

 

Enjoy your weekend!

Howard and I will be visiting wedding venues;

Alida and Josh's summer wedding is closer than we think!   -- Cass

A Still And Snowy Morning

I know I already did a Wednesday post.

But this morning's snow is just too pretty not to join
Outdoor Wednesday and show it off.

Howard got up early, bless him, to shovel enough of the 7-inches of snow to get the Jeep out of the driveway.
I slept while he shoveled, but got up in time to share coffee with him, and witness the still white softness left by the storm.

Howard took his camera out after shoveling, for a few fresh snow shots.

Nature's attention to detail always awes me; no twig is untouched.

Our hedges look a little laden.

The grape arbor, tucked in for a long winter's nap.

Dry hydrangea blossoms sport snow cone hats.  Very chic!

The arborvitae right outside the sunroom is clobbered with snow blobbies.

More delicate and precise, fresh snow on dry sedum flower heads:

We didn't get much snow; 7-inches or so.  Parts of New England and

eastern Long Island have as much as 20-inches. 

By now the sun is fully up, and the wind is starting.

Our snow is flying, blowing off rooftops and tree limbs, and the neighborhood

has come alive with cars and snowblowers; that early hush of fresh snow is gone.

I'm glad we shared it.

Happy Outdoor Wednesday! Visit Susan at A Southern Daydreamer by clicking here.

Now go make snowballs.  -- Cass

Wear Your Jammies Inside Out

All across the North Eastern United States,

schoolchildren suddenly got religion on Tuesday.

Big time.

If you listened carefully, you could hear millions of fervent prayers being offered up at bedtime:

"Please, please, pleeeeease

make it a Snow Day tomorrow!"

 

And if you spotted a child wearing his or her pajamas inside out, that was all part of the ritual.

My girls and their friends swore by it; for some reason,

Mother Nature just can't resist the pleas of little children wearing their jammies

inside out.  It might be that she's amused watching them try and button them . . . .

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I wore my nightgowns inside out when snow was predicted, as I loved Snow Days as much as my kids did.

Homework had been done the night before and the whole day was a gift.

Hot cocoa, books and dolls, playing in the snow, and the damp smell of soggy mittens on radiators.

Since the snow started here before bedtime, local kids went to bed

pretty sure they'd wake to those sweetest words:

"No school today!"

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Not much is going on at That Old House this week.

I've been mostly inside with a bad cold, although I got out Tuesday to run some errands,

tried my best not to breathe on anyone, and now I can stay home and watch the snow fly.

And continue packing away Christmas.

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The parlor fireplace.  Gone are the greens, the white lights and the reindeer.

Pay no attention to the tree in the corner.  Ditto the lamp awaiting rewiring.  Pretend they are not there.  That's what I do.

 The glitz is gone, but the red remains.  Until Valentine's Day.

The wreath that I hung on the mirror last Fall is still there;

it's got plenty of red!

Don't you just love white woodwork?

It's like crisp clean collar and cuffs on a room.

The white fireplace surround, and the bursts of red on the mantle, while outdoors . . . all is white.

 Wonderful Winter.

Sterling Revere bowl -- a family piece.

Red crackle hurricanes, on sale at Michael's before Christmas.

Little round crackle red votive holders, Dollar Tree.  Should have bought more.

Old fashioned heavy glass balls -- gifts.  I added some other colors to the reds, to fill in.

And that's it.

Blog parties!

Today, Wednesday, is Rednesday at It's A Very Cherry World.  Visit Sue here.

And at Faded Charm Cottage, it's White Wednesday.  Click here for more wintry or other whites!

If you are hunkered down in the snowstorm, keep your beverage hot and pile on the afghans! -- Cass

First two images courtesy of The Graphics Fairy. 

And It Is Indeed . . .

  

Proof?

Outside That Old House, it is 25 degrees.

Inside That Old House, where it is a balmy 67 degrees,

I am mainlining cold medicines and hot tea,

and going through mounds of cheap tissues.

I had a post planned for today, but malware struck my desktop computer again,

and it took me hours to clear it and return to being online.

So now, I'm ready to slip a little medicinal Yukon Jack

into my medicinal orange juice, and call it a day. 

Yes, the "forever" tree is still up and decorated in the parlor.  But the fresh greens are gone from the mantle; they were so dry they cracked as we put them in bags for disposing.  The mantle is de-glitzed, but I am not ready to give up red yet.

 In checking our weather forecast, I see that both the South and the Midwest,

having decided that Misery Loves Company,

are sending their latest snowstorms to the Northeast.  

Come tomorrow night, we'll have snow coming at us from two directions.

6 to 12 inches' worth.

That's not playing fair, guys.  I think that's called bullying.

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Ah well, as I said before, it is Winter.

And we've got a roof over our heads, relatively snug walls, a fireplace if we get too chilly,

some food in the cupboards, candles we can light, books to read, and a dog to snuggle.

 Bring it on.

 See you tomorrow, my friends!  Stay warm and dry if you are in the path of nasty weather. -- Cass

White, and Peach, on a January Day

It is still cold and white outside That Old House,
and yesterday we had another light dusting of snow.
Also still with me: my darned cold.  Ick.

Winter surrounds us.

So for Sunday Favorites I took a peek back in time,

and found a post that makes me long for May.

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 First published May 2010

It greeted us this  morning --
the first iris to open its wild and woolly petals for the  season.

We've  been watching it all week, and waiting.  It's peach and white.

Howard  got up close and personal with his camera.

I  love the texture.  Can you imagine a fabric with the texture of the
very  lightest part of the petals, with their almost-not-there stripes?

Peek-A-Boo!

Isn't  it spectacular?  Iris blossoms may just be my favorite  spring flower.
Along with tulips, poppies, bleeding  hearts, lilacs, peonies  . . . .

They wear party clothes so beautifully, don't  they?

What is your favorite spring bloom?

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  Back in the present:
My plan for today was to make the lovely short ribs from Friday's post,
and have a houseful of people come to share them with us.

But that turned out to be one of those "best laid plans" deals.
My cold = no company.

But I will make the ribs.  They'll keep.

Howard is taking this Swedish-style settee:

 an old Craigslist score of mine, and a beautiful Ethan Allen piece,
down to our daughter Annie who needs it in her living room.

I love how she shops our house.

I will stay home, and cook just a little.

Have a lovely winter Sunday, my friends!

-- Cass

You can visit more Sunday Favorites on Chari's blog, Happy To Design.  Click here!