Last night I had bad dreams. Do you believe that the food that you eat, can encourage you to have bad dreams? It might be true…Larry and I had Tex Mex last night for dinner. Quesadillas, nachos, queso and chips. We had beer instead of wine and cookies were for dessert. That sounds like the makings of a bad dream or two, doesn’t it?

Our Sunday movie was OKJA. It has the most wonderful characters in it…I loved many of them. The movie though, was very sad, political and disturbing. It made me cry. When I first found the movie, Larry and I believed that it might be a childs movie, It was not. It had adult content and language. Don’t let the cute photos fool you. Have you seen this movie? What do you think? Am I over reacting?

This morning, I have letters to write and will try to get my life somewhat back to normal after the horrendous week last week. Matilda is away on holiday (my text and face -time buddy is away!) and Larry’s week is filled with all day conference calls, starting this morning at 9 going till late on Friday. (Larry loves it when he is busy)

I wish you a wonderful day.

Love you beyond the moon.

Me

This morning, I woke early, to bake a birthday pie. It is our son in laws birthday today. Lauren’s husband and Matilda’s father. Josh.

I do not like peaches, so while I am baking the pie, I never taste. Who knows how it will taste? It is ok to laugh! The pie is cooling and all the gifts are wrapped. We will go to the country to deliver birthday goodies. Larry got him a set of wonderful camping chairs and a table, we made him a batch of my famous French onion soup for their freezer and I bought him David Libovitz’s book.

One of my favorite chef/cooks extraordinaire has a new book out. It is a cocktail cookbook. David Libovitz is soooo busy, I could not get an autograph plate from him. One day on Instagram I found this autograph plate…a pretend signature I am sure, but I printed it up for Josh’s book!

Last year while in Paris, on the day that I was coming back home, David was having a signing for his then new book, My Paris Kitchen. I missed him again! ( Larry and I will be in France this autumn, 2021….perhaps he will have a signing while I am in town?) Fingers crossed and spit into the wind.

Birthdays are one of my favorite things. It is your own special holiday. I should go get ready for a little trip to the country………Have a happy weekend.

Love you beyond the moon,

Me

It has been a long time since Valentines Day 2021. The Mighty Storm put me way behind on Blog!

For Valentines Day, I had planed so much. I rented out a little theater at the Cinemark and planned to have the movie, Moonstruck shown for us ( Just Larry and me!) But the Mighty Storm came and I cancelled everything. I made dinner at The Cottage and we watched Moonstruck. For Sunday Dinner and Movie, Larry requested Rueben Casserole, a salad…and I made mini cheesecakes. Lauren Josh and Matilda gave us special cookies.

The snow continued and it got very ugly. That night our power went out, for 3 days. The temps hovered around zero and it was 37 degrees in the house. For three days. It was miserable.

As people are recovering from the storm, my heart is heavy. There is so much devastation and misery in Texas right now. Larry and I are very blessed that we have electricity and Internet.

On Valentines Day, while cooking dinner, I snuck outside to make a gift for Larry…. just a love note really.

I love Valentines Day…..

Love you beyond the Moon(struck)

Me

I have not blogged over the past few days, because The Mighty Storm of 2021 hit us hard. We lost power around 3:30 am Monday morning and it it did not come back on till around 3:30 am Thursday…that is today!

We lived under quilts. Larry worked and I read. We had no internet, but Larry has an AIR card for his work laptop. There was no TV, heat, oven. I read a lot.

We lived under quilts. Larry worked and I read. We had no internet.

Larry would warm up the car and we would go out there for hours and read. We would drive in the ice and snow to a fast food place or two near us and then take dinner to the Park and sit in the warm car while eating dinner. It was amusing, watching the people walking on the lake that was frozen over. No one ever fell in. Thank Goodness.

I have started my Lenten donation bag. Please find the information at this link.

Forty Days ~ Forty Items Challenge

Everything feels like it is getting back to normal for us right now. I am frightened that the power will vanish in a second. Life holds such trauma. How do we look past these awful moments and find the joy in…the sky, a John Denver song, donating clothes to Salvation Army, a granddaughters laugh or just a glass of wine?

I send love and crushing hugs to all of you who might be struggling with something. It is so hard getting past a bad experience. If you need to talk to me, I am here. If you would like to be a guest blogger here, and share on Toujours…..you are always welcome. If we cannot share our life and experiences with each other, what exactly is the point?

Love you beyond the moon.

Me

Larry and I have had no electricity for 35 hours. It is cold in the house but one good thing is, the Christmas Cactus loves the conditions.

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We have not heard from anyone except our daughters. Jamison and Jared are without power too, Lauren, Josh and Matilda are doing well considering the circumstances.

Please know that as this continues, you are in my prayers….we must be like the Christmas Cactus, bloom in spite of a disaster.

Love you beyond the moon.

Me

I love Valentines Day. It is almost my favorite holiday of the year.

Larry proposed to me on Valentines Day, 1977. He had flown to Richmond, Virginia, where I was living at the time and said: I cannot live without you any longer.

That made me so happy. I did not want to live without him any longer either.

Here we are, 44 years later, together every day and crazy happy. I wonder what I ever did to deserve Larry and this magical love? Larry and I wish you a happy weekend, however you spend it and with that someone special in your life. Happy Valentines Day.

There is only one happiness in life: To love and be loved.

~george sand~

Enjoy moments filled with happy love….

Me

Last Sunday I played with an old recipe….and it was wonderful. Larry finished it off last night and requested it again soon. A very old friend asked for the recipe….Dale, here you go.

Apple Tart

INGREDIENTS

CRUST:

1 package of Pillsbury Pie crusts (two crusts let sit out 1 hour before using)

TOPPING:

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

FILLING:

8 cups of thinly sliced Granny Smith apples (1/8 inches)

4 Tablespoons melted butter

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Line a 9″ pie plate with heavy duty foil. Spray it lightly with Pam. Mix 2 T melted butter, brown sugar and pecans. Spread over foil.

Over pecan mixture, place 1st pie crust tapping it lightly over the bottom and up sides.

In medium bowl combine apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and 4 Tablespoons melted butter.

Add apple mixture over pie crust.

Roll out remaining pie crust. Place it gently over the apple filling.

Turing the edges under together and fluting them.

Place the pie plate on a cookie sheet in case of drips…and bake for 50-60 minutes. Do not let the edges get to brown

Cool for 10 minutes and then invert out onto a large plate.

Serve warm or cold. It is delicious either way.

As always, Thank you for reading BLOG….stay safe and happy!

Love you beyond the moon.

Me

The dress I made for our Valentines date is almost finished. The bad news is, it is to big.

I tried it on, to mark the hem and the sweet dress was to big.

I will have to take out the side seams and move them in about 2 inches. THEN I can hem the dress and cut all of the threads.

Have you made a project and hoped that it was finished, but ended up having more work than you expected? I know that I should not complain but I am just ready to be finished.

The good news is, one of my favorite holidays is right around the corner. I LOVE Valentines Day.

Love you beyond the moon.

Me

Sunday, dinner and a movie was also Super Bowl Sunday.

We talked about football food, but because we were NOT watching the game, we decided that we would have “comfort food” instead of junk.

Sunday menu was, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. Larry made his mashed potatoes and they are the absolute BEST!

I made an apple tart for dessert. The recipe will be on BLOG later in the week.

We chose the Sunday movie last week. It is on Amazon prime and Netflix. It started out slow, but the second half of the movie was wonderful.

I loved this movie. I cried when it ended.

Have a doable Monday. Please try to smile and share you heart. Things are frustrating right now, but they WILL get better. I promise.

Love you.

Me