A Few More Photos of Our Day Out

I really wanted to get my lunch plate photo in, plus more Quilt Coop, her displays are so beautiful.

The Southwest Iowa Adventure Takes Us to a Church and a Chicken Coop

The girls and I headed over to Shenandoah to be "ladies who lunch" today. Small town Iowa usually is limited to some good diners, but lucky us, we have the Sanctuary--a church turned elegant restaurant. I even had to take a picture of my lunch--asparagus quiche and the Sanctuary salad, the odd but delicious combination of greens, bananas, cranberries and raspberry yogurt.

After lunch, back to Clarinda, stopping out in the country just outside College Springs to visit the best little quilt shop in Iowa, The Quilt Coop. Chicken coop turned fabric store, this is why I love Iowa. It was shop hop day and we got there before the busload of quilters, whew!

Touring the Southwest Corner of Iowa

Life does move slower here in the middle of nowhere, but there are some wonderful hidden gems around the countryside, I'm going to have a little picture show every day of the good things to do here. Today we went to Henkeville Greenhouses, just outside Clarinda, bought a few flowers to brighten up the front porch. I love it there, it looks like Grandma's farm, with lots of gorgeous flowers to add to the ambience.

The Clean Rooms in Clarinda

I've swept up the cable man mud and stopped to enjoy the rooms that are now clean. You can see why the washing of the curtains is such a task. Every room in the house has at least four 96" tall windows, most have 5, love the light, hate the work! Still plugging away at my listings, should be done in a few days.

Surprises on the way

I'm in Clarinda for the month of June, spent the "holiday" weekend climbing up ladders and taking down dusty curtains to wash, scrubbing floors, and other backbreaking tasks. Just got my internet hooked up and had to watch while cable man tracked mud all over freshly scrubbed floors and tried not to cry. Anyway, I had to leave my ebay stuff in Iowa City, so ended everything in the store and am going to list everything I was saving up here for my Christmas shows (may stop doing them and open a real store, one never knows....). Anyway, be on the look out for all the new listings, CUTE CUTE prims and Christmas goods, lots of stoneware bowls and white ironstone pitchers, you are going to love them!

Bureacratic Nonsense

I turned 52 this year, and apparently that is just a little too old to put up with bureaucratic nonsense anymore. I just hung up on the animal shelter here in town, before I started saying bad words... Here is the story. We decided to go to the animal shelter to see if there was a bunny to adopt, thought it was a good thing to save a shelter animal. I was mildly annoyed by the long prying questionnaire that had to be filled out, put up with being told we would have to wait 24 hours for the shelter to "check us out" before we were "allowed" to pay $75 to have a 2 year old rabbit spayed and take her home. They did not call me at the end of the 24 hour period as they said, so I called them, and was told that before they could decide, they would need to inspect our home. I said, "you've got to be kidding", they got all huffy, of course they couldn't place animals with just anyone. If only you could see the flames shooting from my eyes at that point! Long story short, I hung up on them and took the girls to the pet store where the very nice owners know us from our hamster purchases, and are lovely to my children, and who obviously love the animals they are caring for without being insane about it. Little Scooter Pie, a lion face bunny has now joined our family, currently hopping around the living room getting used to us. He is the sweetest thing, lets me scoop him up and hold him without getting skittery, seems to be a calm soul and we love him already.

Look What's For Dinner

Ebay business has slowed, giving me more time to cook and take care of other things that have been left to collect dust.     Well, ok, dust still being collected, but I am cooking.

Summertime is my favorite recipe season, vegetables straight from the garden is heaven on earth.  One of my best easy recipes for using the produce is pasta primavera, I have 2 simple and wonderful ways to make it.  First, just use whatever is ready at the time, right now tossing in some new peas and potatoes would be amazing!  I just picked up asparagus and onions and mushrooms for last night's dinner, pretty darn good.

The recipe No. 1:  Sautee veggies of choice in olive oil just a few minutes until tender, salt and pepper to taste.  Toss with pasta of choice, sprinkle with fresh parmesan and shredded fresh basil.  If it is tomato season, just chop up tomatoes and add cold and fresh on top.

The recipe No. 2:  Same as number one, but this time we add homemade alfredo sauce.  A very simple but one of the best alfredos I've ever had is to melt 1 stick of butter, add in 1 cup cream or half and half, cook and stir until the cream has warmed.  Start adding in grated parmesan a bit at a time, stirring until thick and cheese is mostly melted (total about 1 to 2 cups cheese, I just keep adding until it is the right thickness.)  Sprinkle generously with nutmeg and add to pasta and vegetables.  This makes a lot of sauce, enough to serve a large bowl of pasta to 8 or more (I think I've served up to 12 with this).  For the 4 of us, I use 1/2 stick of butter and 1/2 cup cream.