Spring Cleaning in January

I've been on a mission here at Frog Hollow Farm - attacking closets, drawers, shelves, corners - anyplace that has been collecting 'stuff', the kind of 'stuff' that makes me feel a bit closed in.  Even though our winter has been very mild, that closed in feeling is starting to get to me.   

Some of the things I re-discovered during my cleaning, clearing and straightening were:

***My Communion dress ***

My daughter Katie wore this dress for her Communion as well.

It's looking pretty sad.

It's calling out for a good, gentle washing and may even be asking to hang safely somewhere to be admired -  it's a sweet little dress

close up of the lace and trim 

Another cute little handy thing that I rediscovered, although it was only misplaced for a few weeks, was a little book of recipe bookmarks that my daughter gave me for Christmas

I think she found it at Anthropologie.

You place the card on the page you want to save and it has a little cut out that clips onto the page.

It works just like a bookmark, I'm making it sound like it's a fantastic new invention.  It's not, but it's pretty, much prettier than the post-its that I was using to mark recipe pages.  

When you close the book the top of the recipe bookmark shows on the top of the book.

By the way, this Irish Pub cookbook was given to us by our wonderful foodie friends Stephanie and Forrest - I made so many recipes from it for our last year's St. Patrick's Day celebration - and it was all delicious and the recipes I made could be made ahead of time too.

Here's the link to last year's St. Patrick's Day post.
http://froghollowfarmgirl.blogspot.com/2011/03/st-patricks-day-menu-from-irish-pub.html

Today's weather calls for temperatures in the 50s this afternoon - I am still waiting for that big, big snow storm!!!
I think it's time to do my snow dance!!
Ciao, bella!
xxoo

I'm just not feeling winter this year - maybe for a few days when we had snow on the ground.  The way things look right now I'm expecting to see the forsythia begin to bloom.  The sun is shining but I need that cold, blustery weather to get into the winter mood.  I'm confused, should I be thinking about making comfort foods or begin making salads?  I'm buying tulips every time I go to the grocery store, but I tend to do that anyway.

So, I've been cleaning out lots of our closets and drawers, which always makes me feel good.  I feel better when the things I see on shelves and in closets are all things that we use - our old farmhouse doesn't have a ton of storage so we need to maximize the space that we have and fill it with things that are functional and of course pretty and meaningful.

Even though I love clearing closets and drawers, I actually have to stop myself from buying new things to fill the spaces I've just cleared!  

Tonight we are trying a new recipe at Frog Hollow Farm, from the February 2012  issue of La Cucina Italiana that I picked up at our Whole Foods last week.  I guess I'm going with comfort foods and not salads, at least for tonight.

The recipe is called Scalloppine di Maiale all'arancia - that's Pork Scaloppine with Orange and Lentils for all of the non Italian speaking bloggers out there :).

This is the photo from the La Cucina Italiana website.

Here's the link - http://lacucinaitalianamagazine.com/recipe/pork-scaloppine--with-orange-and-lentils

If you highlight the link you should be able to link right over to it.

I already had all of the ingredients and am even trying to clear out some of my pantry and freezer items, this seemed like a healthy way to go.

For last week's Giant's game I made a new appetizer recipe from skinnytaste.com called  

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites 

I ate them all....they had me at BACON.  

I'm reading and hearing a lot about people switching over from Blogger to Word Press - I'm not sure if it's something that I need to do but began reading about it today.  I've been wanting to develop my blog into a business of sorts and have some ideas - Word Press may be the more dependable source.  

What are your feelings on switching?

Ciao, bella!

Hello Everyone!

Hi everyone, I am so happy to finally be sitting down at my computer and sharing with all of my wonderful blogger friends!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas - Thanksgiving Day was celebrated here and Christmas was with Frog Hollow Farm Boy's family.  Both days were full of fun, family, food and our signature cocktails.

So, I'm just posting a few photos to get you up to date with some things.  

Our Thanksgiving Table

Some Christmas Decorations

Our cat Olive sitting on a warm woodstove!

One more photo from our July trip to Ireland, just needed to share that blue water with you all!

Wedding dress in window in Florence, Italy

This is a magnificent photo of our brave boy Connor.  

Connor is my niece Jennifer's little boy.  He was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in late October and is being treated vigorously with different chemotherapy medications - the treatment protocol involves two years of treatment.  

This photo was take by a photographer with a company called Flashes of Hope at the hospital right when Connor was diagnosed.  Since then Connor has lost his hair.  

His prognosis is very good - we pray for him every day.  

That's all for now friends.  I will be visiting as many of you as I can - that's the fun part of blogging!

Ciao, bella!