"Take the Lead" - Antonio Banderas, Music, Dance and Hope

Dear Friend,
I'm just spent 2 hours in a movie that is going to be a bore for cynics but a fun two hours for most of the rest of us. If you enjoy music and dance, young people, and want to see how one person enables hope in others then go to "Take the Lead." I thought I was going to see Antonio Banderas become John Travolta as in "Grease." But that wasn't what this movie was about. The story is inspired by Pierre DuLaine who successfully took ballroom dancing into the New York City public schools to the kids in detention. Yes it's a predictable story - sometimes that's what I want - but it I was toe tapping half way through the picture or before and left it feeling great.

I am grateful for a friend that wanted to go with me. I have good memories of my Mom and I going to the movie on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame

Quick, Easy Grilled Ham and Cheese, Marinated Green Beans

Dear Friend,

We had a very good lunch today. We ate out so everyone got exactly what they wanted. When my eyes swept over the word “tortellini” and lit on the words “lobster sauce” I knew what I was going to order. My husband ordered veal with garlic mashed potatoes. By the time I finished the chocolate bunny that the kids had brought me, I was stuffed. When supper rolled around this evening I was hungry, but didn’t need another meal as highly caloric as what I had for lunch. H- m-m-m maybe my quick supper was similar in calories, I don’t know, but it seemed lighter.

Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, marinated green beans, and an apple for dessert

To begin with, open a can of green beans and drain well. Put them in a container that has enough room for you to toss them in it. Now lightly drizzle with your favorite oil and vinegar or Italian dressing. I like to use Wishbone’s Just 2 Good Italian with a shake of balsamic vinegar added to it. Salt and pepper if so desired. Toss. Then you will put them on a couple of lettuce leaves on your plate – just to look pretty. You can dress them up with whatever you have – toasted almonds or grated hard boiled egg – or leave them plain as I did.

You know how to do grilled ham and cheese sandwiches – I use real butter and a slice and a half of American cheese in order to cover the whole piece of bread and a couple of slices of ham sandwich meat in order to add a little more protein and flavor.

I add an apple for dessert. I like the crisp texture and tart, sweet taste of an apple but I add it to this meal because I didn’t have anything crunchy yet in this meal. This takes me 15 to 20 minutes max to put together. My husband can eat two of these sandwiches even after a big lunch, but it’s still quick, easy and my version of comfort food. The marinated green bean salad recipe I got from someone years ago at Weight Watchers. If you have a favorite variation for either one of these recipes I'd love to see it. Leave it as a comment, please.

I know this isn’t a company dish, but most of the time I don’t need to cook a company dinner – I need a meal with a variety of food groups, tastes, and textures. Then it’s back to my book, my sewing, this writing, or maybe a walk with a friend. Maybe shopping on ebay. I just don’t want to spend a great deal of time cooking most of the time – nor do I want another hamburger, pizza, etc. Then there’s those times that I want to bake or make soup or something special like jalapeño potatoes. But that wasn’t tonight.

I’m experimenting with the photography software, Picassa2, that I downloaded from Google. It has a “glow” feature that I used for the first time with this picture. I’m learning. Look back to one of my earlier blogs for more information on how to get this software free.

I’m grateful for my husband tonight. He’s fun, bright, and kind. Who could ask for more? Well he is more – but those are the things that I thought about today.

You take care of you,
Maggiegladyoucame

Good reading about Iraq – Hope and Encouragement

Dear Friend,

Todays letter is a serious one but I think you will be glad that you took the time to read it and perhaps to investigate the sites that the two links lead to. Then again, you may be way ahead of me and have already found these popular sites.

Links to two sites – “Michael Yon: Online Magazine” and a video at “National Geographic” are at the end of this post.

“Michael Yon: Online Magazine” is a compilation of stories from Iraq mostly from American Service Men or articles writen by Yon from his times in Iraq and his travels visiting American Service men and women who have returned to the states. While he is a retired special forces soldier and does travel with our soldiers part of the time, his stories sound real (not propaganda) to me. Tthe articles are NOT anonymous but have names, dates, who said what – who took what picture – what and who they are - NOT anonymity. His blog is full of hope. He is an independent writer without a news agency or government salary but he has received lots of support in other ways from our armed forces. He is in many ways the voice of some of those soldiers. I am trying to paint a fair portrait of the man- but better yet - read his stuff and let me know what you think. He has been written about in many mainstream publications like “Fortune,” “Newsweek,” etc. You can see those articles on his site. Better yet, you can google him.

How does so much information (that Yon writes about) get left out of the newspapers that I read? I know that it is important to us all to know who died in Iraq today – no soldier's death should go unnoticed ever, and it is important to know of the hardships the Iraq people must endure and of those who find our presence hurtful. But there is so much more to the war – it is as if we are only seeing the stem of the peach with it’s darkening leaves and not the fruit or the seeds in the fruit that the stem holds.

The second site I am so grateful for is a very concise, pictorial summary of a longer article in “National Geographic” about the Kurds in Northern Iraq. This slide show with audio is an outline while the article contains the same information plus details. But concise is what I need, at times. This article is full of "cautious" hope. I have come back to think about what I have seen in this videoa couple of times already and I’ve only just watched/listened to it today.

In my book group, we sometimes refer to a book as a “good read.” It doesn’t have to be fiction although it may be fiction. It can be nonfiction that holds your interest and is probably even compelling to read. Both these sites are “good reads.”

Michael Yon: Online Magazine:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

National Geographic article about the progress the Kurds in Iraq have made toward freedom and self sufficiency:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0601/sights_n_sounds/index.html

I am so grateful for sites like these. I have felt as if my site is sort of Pollyann-ish at times, but it really isn’t. My letters created for the blog simply don’t represent the entire spectrum of my thought or my life. It is meant to be a source of information for us who enjoy travel, eating, nature, reading, and other pursuits that bring much happiness to my life and hopefully yours. But my pleasure in reading doesn’t just include books – it includes periodicals and any other reading that enriches my life and these two sites certainly will. Thank you for stopping by today.

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame

NYT article about blogging is interesting

Dear Friend,

I found this New York Times article about elderbloggers very interesting!

What’s the purpose of blogging for a senior citizen?
Does blogging isolate a person from authentic interaction with others?
What percent of blogs are written by people under 19 and over 50?
Where do senior choose to blog?

I don't know how long this site will be available.
If you are interested in blogs, I think you might find this short article interesting. Here’s it’s link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/business/retirement/11blogs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Take care of you,

Maggiegladyoucame

Easy, Quick Home Cooked Supper- Tomatoes, Zuchini, Chicken

Dear Friend,
Sometimes for me deciding what to fix for supper is the toughest part. So this letter isn't just a recipe, but a meal plan recipe. Hope this is of interest to you. There is a cooking show on the Food network that is somewhat like this. It's called Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee.

Let's talk about roasted chicken with broiled tomatoes and my husband's zuchini parmesean strips with ice cream or peach yogurt for dessert. Imagine this plate with red tomatoes, browned chicken and zuchini that is golden brown with touches of green. This can be a very pretty meal and we like pretty meals. On my way home for supper, I stop at the grocery store and pick up a roasted chicken in our favorite flavor. That much is done and inexpensive compared to many take out meals.

When I buy my groceries for the week, tomatoes and zuchini are always a part of my list right now. They are things that we really enjoy and have many ways to fix. I always have a little bit of parmesean somewhere in the refrigerator and I always have eggs, seasoned bread crumbs, olive oil and Italian seasoning. So the ingredients other than the roasted chicken for this dinner are in the pantry or refrigerator already.

Zuchini Parmesean Strips (That's not my photograph but one of a similar recipe.)

Turn the oven on - set for 450 degrees.
These will resemble fried in appearance and taste.

4 washed, small zuchini quartered or sliced thinly length wise.
1 egg or egg substitute to equal 1 egg
1/4 cup finely grated parmesean cheese
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Italian seasoning of your choice
salt and pepper

I crack my egg onto a plate and stir or whip with a fork for a few seconds.
I mix parmesean cheese, bread crumbs, salt and pepper on a piece of waxed paper.

Now dip those zuchini strips in the egg, roll in the parmesean mixture and place on a nonstick baking sheet or one that has been sprayed with a touch of olive oil.

Bake at 450 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Should be golden brown.

Broiled Tomatoes

This is so easy and so good . Cooking enriches the acidic taste of store bought tomatoes so that they more closely taste like picked-right-off-the-vine tomatoes than the raw tomatoes we taste in our salads.

Sometimes I fix 2 halves per person and sometimes one half. Depends of course, on the size of my tomatoes and what we had for lunch or how hungry we are.

Simply slice your tomatoes in half and brush or sprinkle olive oil or butter on top, add salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Set aside until about 10 minutes before eating.

Pop under the broiler (even a toaster oven works) for about 10 minutes depending on distance from heat source. I put mine on the top shelf of my real oven. ( When the kitchen isn't being remodeled.)

Let's see we've assembled the roasted chicken, we've got broiled tomatoes and delicious zuchini, now all we need to do is put it on the plate and enjoy.

Just in care you are a dessert fan - or someone who really likes something sweet at the end of every meal -
For dessert I often have a flavored light nonfat yogurt like peach or strawberry. Occasionally we take a very small wine glass - after dinner drink glass or something similar in size and put just a taste of ice cream in it and that is dessert. The new stemless wineglasses - the small size - would be quite attractive with your favorite ice cream in them.

I hope this page is a keeper for you or that you simply enjoyed reading it. I enjoy reading cookbooks and recipes.

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame

What a Way to Start the Day

Dear Friend,
The temperature is maybe 65 degrees this morning, there's a cool breeze, spring bulbs are in bloom – snapdragons and johnny jumpups in other people’s yards. There’s a climbing rose that has entwined itself around a couple of branches in an oak tree and so the oak tree appears to have red roses on it. So lovely. If I hadn’t walked about a mile and a half this morning, I would have missed the flowers and the breeze. What a delightful time in life. I'm glad I walked. I'm glad you are here.

I got up early this morning – because I couldn’t sleep and decided to make it a small pleasure. I plugged in my music box and turned it on to play softly. The music box is one that plays 25, one minute snippets of songs from my Mom’s era like “Up the Old Mill Stream” and 25 more choruses of Christmas music. It’s electric but the sound is of real bells playing as well as music “box music” for there are 4 real bells in it that play with the tunes. Then I sat and read the P D James Mystery that I’ve been reading and listened to my music. I ate my favorite breakfast and then went for a walk. Couldn’t have been nicer. I think I’ll give some thought to other activities that bring me enjoyment that I could incorporate into an hour and a half for a sort of mini vacation or small pleasurable time. Then the day sort of takes care of itself. Washing is in the washer, with two more loads laid out to follow. The bed is made, pills taken, list of errands and chores compiled and then there will be time for needlepoint this afternoon before going out for a casual dinner with two of our favorite people. Maybe choosing to enjoy myself is a form of gratitude – not wasting that time with worry or negative thoughts. If you’ve not taken at least one morning a month and given yourself a pedicure, right after your walk and bubble bath, followed by a breakfast you enjoy then either do it or plan what works for you!

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame

Posting about to resume - remodeling pictures

Dear Friend,
These pictures are of what used to be my kitchen. I offer them as explanation of why I haven't posted any new things this week. I'm in the midst of choosing tile, ordering a cooktop, deciding on whether to put in cabinets or drawers and how wide each should be and on and on. What a wonderful time I am having! Can't believe we are really doing this. Granite is choosen - something called Copper Canyon. Anyway keep watching - I'm going to get it together any minute now.

For those that know this house, that small window was over the sink. See the yard where the wall behind the breakfast table used to be? Do you see that they cut the rest of the wall off on the bottom after shoring up the ceiling/roof? They had to do that in order to pour the concrete this morning and get it level with the existing foundation in the old kitchen. Then they will frame in the new part and then tear down the remailing wall. Can you imagine living in this??
They do put some temporary wallboard up at the end of the day so that squirrels and other critters can't get in.

Lots more articles in various stages of progress - recipes and travel. I promise to have some useful information up soon.

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame

Eggs Golden Rod - Pretty, Quick and Easy

Dear Friends,
Aren't Saturdays great !
If you like cream gravy and eggs here’s an old favorite of mine, that few others seemed to have heard of, much less tried. My husband taught me to make this and he learned it from his Mom. I later found it in my favorite ­old cookbook. I have had many favorite cookbooks since. But I have gone back to some of the recipes in this cookbook many times.

Eggs Golden Rod
Serves 4

4 hardboiled eggs
4 pieces of toast
6 T. butter
6 T. flour
1 ½ cups milk
Salt, pepper to taste
Paprika for color

I hard boil eggs once every so often, then when I am in a hurry for breakfast I can make a deviled egg. Sometimes I dress up a salad with grated hardboiled egg on it or if I want to make an egg salad or tuna fish sandwich they are there and ready. This recipe is quick for me because I already have hardboiled eggs on hand. If you need to cook your eggs, it will take you about 15 minutes more than the 10 or 15 minutes it takes to actually make Eggs Golden Rod.

Separate hardboiled egg yolks from the white. Put the whites in something that you can dice them in – I use a large glass measuring cup. Dice them.

In small sauce pan melt the butter. When melted, stir in flour and cook for at least a minute on medium heat – bubbling – I stir mine most of the time. The butter should NOT be browning.
Then slowly add milk to the butter/flour mixture, stirring, to make a medium white sauce. That’s the gravy part. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pop the bread in the toaster.

When white sauce is thickened and ready, add the chopped whites. Heat through.

Pour white sauce over toast and grate hardboiled egg yolks over it. I like to lightly sprinkle paprika over the top for color. Isn’t that pretty!
I follow this with fresh fruit – like an apple. My husband can eat two slices. Some folks might like to add sausage to the sauce for a heavier dinner. Not as quick that way. I also make this with asparagus in the white sauce instead of egg. Very different, but still light and quick.

The pictures aren’t mine. The Eggs Golden Rod picture is from the Betty Crocker New Picture Cookbook . The cookbook picture was borrowed from ebay. This book in a pristine first edition can cost, on ebay with shipping, as much as $90. Mine was so messy from years of cooking with it, that I bought myself a new one on ebay. Just love having it.

I feel very fortunate today because we are remodeling our kitchen. It is just an empty shell right now. We've chosen a granite called Copper Canyon for the countertops and will use that as our focal point. I'm really enjoying the remodeling.

I also enjoy writing these letters. Hope you enjoy reading them. If you do and know someone else that might enjoy some of my posts, please forward a link to them so that they can join us.

Take care

Maggiegladyoucame

New Features for this blog - recipe links

Hello,
I'm working on a series of letters with recipes and will start posting tomorrow or Saturday. But in the meantime, I have created a place on the sidebar of this blog where I can put links just to the recipes I've written about. So when you want to find a recipe you can, without wading through all the travel information. Look for the list of recipe links below the archieves section to your right.

I've also added a link to my favorite travel magazine - Conde-Nast Traveller. Their website is really very helpful when making plans, whether you are choosing a spa in the United States or planning a trip to England.

Thank you for pausing in your day to read this short letter. You know how each day I like to reflect on something that I am grateful for. Well, yesterday my son sent us a copy of a DVD of his wedding. We loved watching it and while we won't watch it every Wednesday, I think we'll probably watch it near their anniversary most years. Such a strange thing to feel so grateful for, but I am grateful for video equipment today. Of course I am grateful for the lovely young woman he married also. That wedding was so much fun!

Take care and come back soon,

Maggiegladyoucame

Flight Stopovers

Dear Friend,

The Chicago Tribune has a very interesting article about flight "stopovers" that tells about how to include a second or even third city to a trip without spending much more (or some times any more)money. "According to Terry Trippler, a former travel agent and Minneapolis-based airline industry guru with Cheapseats.com, "a stopover occurs domestically when you arrive at one point and don't depart that point on the next available flight, or, within four hours, whichever comes first, for your final destination. Internationally, it's six hours or the next available flight." That quote is directly from the chicago Tribune article. Multi-flight tickets are also discussed in the article. More on this later. I have had one flight with a stopover in London on my way to Ireland from the United States scheduled, simply because I was flying with frequent flyer miles and couldn't find a seat with my miles on a more direct flight. Unfortunately that trip had to be cancelled so I didn't get to try out the stopover experience. As I try new things, I'll let you know what my experience is.

I found the Chicago Tribune article on www.Johnnyjet.com which is in my links list as a great place to read about travel "how-to." The link to the Chicago Trib article is at the bottom of this letter. If you have purposely used stop overs, I'd love to hear from you - we all would, so post your comments. I have opened the comments so that anyone, not just members of blogspot, can comment. I'm hoping that will give us some good discussion.

Love writing these.

Chicago Tribune article about stop overs.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0603250133mar26,1,7796164.story?coll=chi-travel-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

Take care

Maggiegladyoucame

Good Eating, Atmosphere in three restaurants in Washington, D.C.

Dear Friend,
We were very fortunate to get to go to Washington, D. C. in December 2005 for a few days and we had a wonderful time. We were also lucky enough to be with people who have a grown son who lived there for several years and to have friends who have also lived there. These folks steered us in the direction of some delightful eating with absolutely charming atmosphere. The first restaurant has good food any time of the year, but is a must for me in December. Filomena Ristorante at 1063 Wisconsin Ave. N. W. in Georgetown is owned by Joanna Filomena and she loves Christmas! Sometimes when a Christmas tree is too tall to fit in a room, we have to cut off part of it. We have always cut it off at the bottom of the tree. I had never seen a Christmas tree that had been cut off at the top instead of the bottom like most trees, but that’s how she does it. She must start with a huge tree, because while the tree is maybe 10 feet tall, it's maybe 40 feet around. As you can see in the pictures it is covered with toys. There are replicas of 50’s items, older dolls (even a Madame Alexander or two) in hand crocheted dresses and well – see the pictures. There are Christmas decorations everywhere. The food was good too. For some reason for me the appetizers were the most memorable – very good calamari. Desserts are a prominant part of the meal there too. Call for reservations – I think our friends called for our reservations a couple of days before we even left to go to D. C.

The second place was just lovely for lunch one day and I’d go back for dinner or Sunday lunch in a heartbeat. It’s over by the White House on 15th and probably not a touristy place – not listed in Fodors or Frommers websites nor is Filmena’s for that matter. Well of course there were other tourists at Old Ebbits Grill, but most folks were dressed in suits and looked like they work in the area. Old Ebbitt Grill is as you can see from their postcard, dark wood and white linen table clothes. We ate big fat hamburgers, crab cakes, and delicious soup. They have an oyster bar which we didn’t partake of but they are known for it. I had a crab cake sandwich and soup – maybe potato – and not only was it delicious, the service was excellent too. It is crowded and you will need to stand in line if not very early or very late. Their address is 675 15th street N W and is convenient to the Smithsonian – not right there but a short cab ride. It's two blocks from the white house. That picture is not one of mine but a post card I picked up there. They do have a website.

The third place we enjoyed eating at was the Sea Catch Restaurant and Raw Bar in Georgetown. We sat by the fireplace and enjoyed mildly seasoned fresh fish - as opposed to the ever popular "blackened" fish, crisp and original salads and very good service. It is not as dramatic in appearance as the other two restaurants, but was very nice – jackets worn by most guests, and I’d go back to that one too. They are recommended on Frommer’s website. The address for the Sea Catch Restaurant is 1054 31st street N. W. in Georgetown. The Sea Catch Restaurant is quite close to Filomena’s and the shopping in that area is not run of the mill. I found a lovely antique shop or two (Bet if I’d had more time there were many.) and a costume jewelry shop that had some very unique things that I don’t think I’ll see on everyone else. Very nice. There were other tiny, but interesting shops in that same area. Sometimes you need to ring the doorbell to get in.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. I loved the trip because it was cold and it just felt like Christmas. Besides we were with the cutest couple - lots of fun, known them forever. We had been to Washington other times, but never in December and I didn’t feel compelled to spend a lot time in museums because I’ve enjoyed them before. I was in the mood for shopping and eating. Not that we didn’t darken the door of a museum – of course we did – my husband to the Air and Space for a few hours and both of us to the Renwick Gallery (It's part of the Smithsonian.) to see the silver exhibit that was there, the George Catlin early Indian paintings and the house itself. Just nice for an hour or so. Pictures below of me with a friend on the doorstep of the Renwick and an interior shot of one wall of a room in the Renwick.

I have a wonderful picture of my husband's mother when she was a young married woman. It on the wall in our hall with other family pictures. She is wearing a pretty costume jewelry necklace in the picture very indicative of the times - the late 1930's or early 1940's. So glad to have the picure. Pictures are so important to me. You are important too.

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame