Mr. Bonomo

It is three weeks shy of two years since I last saw Mr. Bonomo and tonight, again, like a yearly ritual, I feel his loss so completely. I think of him everyday on some level or another but mostly, I have made peace with him being gone. However, the smell of Fall in the air, the cool nights and the onset of my favorite season is now touched by his loss. Sensory memory is such a powerful thing. The morning of November 20, 2006, I went back to work full time after being on medical leave for almost seven months. That morning I said good bye to Mr. B. as he sat on the kitchen table watching me leave and I never saw him again. Was he stolen, did he wander too far, did he choose to leave? I don't know. What I do know is that his absence has broken my heart. I put out hundreds of flyers, knocked on hundreds of doors and still, he was gone. So now I have a blog. Has someone out there seen him? Probably not but maybe. As I sat in a neck brace on my back porch day after day after neck surgery, this amazing little being loved me, entertained me and inspired a book. I miss you Mr. Bonomo. Where ever you are, I wish for you a full chow dish, lots of pats and lots of love. You are my Romeo.

I have been waiting!

And now the waiting is over! Nelson DeMille's new book The Gate House is out and it's the sequel to Gold Coast. For those of you who may not know his work, he takes a bit of real life drama, puts his fiction twist on it and ends up with a readable, exciting, thought provoking story that keeps his fans waiting for more. Now this is what I call a happy day! You know you can find all of his fabulous books at amazon.com.

Fabulous French Onion Soup

I really don't like to cook much in the summer and I am awful on the barbeque so I love when the weather starts to get chilly and I am happily drawn back into the kitchen. I love Fench Onion soup and have tried many times to make it at home and until I came across this recipe at Everyday Italian, all had fallen short of what I had hoped it would be. This is so easy and can be ready in 34 minutes.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large Vidalia onions, sliced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
4 cups beef broth
4 slices ciabatta bread, cubed
4 ounces sliced fontina cheese
Special equipment: 4 (1 1/2-cup) ovenproof ramekins
Directions
In a medium, heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the thyme and broth. Simmer, uncovered, until the onions are soft, about 15 minutes.
Divide the soup between the 4 ovenproof ramekins. Divide the cubed bread among the ramekins. Top each with slices of fontina cheese. Place under the broiler, until the cheese is golden and bubbly, about 4 minutes. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

(I don't own ramekins so I use either very large oversized coffe mugs, great to use if you're not going to be sitting at a table or regular soup bowls. I have also used the pre-grated 3 cheese Italian combo as a subsitute for the suggested cheese. It melts without needing to go into the broiler)

Dreaming of next Spring

I spend a lot of time in the cold months reading gardening magazines and thinking about what I will plant next Spring. As much as I love decorating and rearranging the inside of my house, my real love is decorating the outside with gardens. I love to try new plants every year but no matter what else I do, I always drift back to the cottage garden and think about how I can put my own twist on it. Whether it's planted in the ground or in containers, there is nothing more wonderful than the chaos of color and the heady fragrance of a cottage garden. Cottage gardens are so easy to start and nurture and the best part is that there is no right or wrong way to create one. Add some herbs (mint and lavender for sure), roses, delphiniums, daisies, hollyhocks, and maybe some foxgloves and anything else you love and you have a cottage garden. Planting the plants close together does two things: gives you the look you're after and keeps the weeds at bay. Unlike some types of gardens, you don't need much room to make this come to life.

You can learn more about how to create your own cottage garden at at these sites: http://oldfashionedliving.com/gardenthemes.html http://www.uvm.edu/pss/ppp/articles/engarden.htm.

The garden above is growing in Alaska! See more pictures of this lovely yard at:http://home.gci.net/~delphinium/gardens.html

Wishing I was in MA. with you.....

I love a cozy New England cottage!

I knew the best way to start my blog was with a picture of a lovely garden. In my search for the perfect picture I came across a great website! I love finding new places while I am looking for something else completely different. Yes, this is how I lose time but the journey to get to where I didn't even know I needed to go, is always worth the trip. Here is where I ended up: Andover Ma. is a beautiful town and these paintings of their community are little jewels. I was there several years ago while visiting my sister and couldn't take enough pictures of the front doors to grand homes, and the lovely lazy front porches. Enjoy! You can find more of the same at: http://www.ourtownart.com/index.htm