Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Hunt for Weeping Angels II

      My friend Jen and I (the Nug's mother!) went on another angel search. Jen knew of a place that she thought might have a few, and oh boy was she right! I almost lept ouof the car when I saw the 1st one! Who would have thought it would be so exciting, like a treasure hunt!
 







 

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Chicken Pot Pie with All Butter Crust


    In a pie plate place cold, leftover chicken, add a cup or so of gravy, or make some up quickly with butter, flour and milk. Add your choice of cooked veggies. Leftover veg work great if you have them, I used an "Italian" frozen mix with Lima, broccoli, zucchini and carrots. Stir, season, cover with crust,
   
    This is for a top crust only, double if you want a two crust pie!

    In your food processor add 1/2 cup cold lightly salted butter,
    add a cup and a couple extra tablespoons worth of plain flour,
    also a pinch of salt and one sugar. (to aid browning)
    Blitz a few times until its crumbly,
    add ice cold water a tablespoon at a time until the mixture starts pulling together,
    it should be "clumpy" but not soggy, about 3-4 Tablespoons worth.

    Scrape out the dough and squish together, roll out on a generously floured surface. Cover pie, tuck in, crimp edges, cut vents, bake at 400' for about 30-4o min if veg are not frozen, more if they are. When the gravy bubbles out of the vents, it is done!
    YUM! The crust is a buttery, savory, crispy treat. Just like shortbread, just not sweet! Enjoy!

   

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

A walk at The Point

     I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY to be back in my old hometown, a lovely quintessential New England haven. Too far inland to be touristy, no ski slope on the doorstep, and no large city nearby. Its Town and Country! And the best part? Its walkable! For someone who doesn't drive, this is the best quality, because it gives me independence and freedom during the week to get out of the house and stretch my legs! Now that I am watching a 5 month old baby for 30-40 hours a week, I fully understand the term "stretch the legs! Come for today's walk with us!
The Gazebo!
                                   A nice place to sit and read when it rains!
 

 


   
    The little Nugget LOVES his walks! I like them too, not only for the fresh air, but f he is having one of his "crabbiness" days it gives me a break from his complaining!
    Hope you are enjoying the weather, wherever you are!

The hunt for Weeping Angels!

     It was a beautiful October day yesterday, and I was wondering how to spend it, since I was not busy watching the baby boy I take care of during the week. My good friend Katy came up with a GREAT idea! Lets go Weeping Angel Hunting! We are both HUGE Dr Who fans, though Katy takes it to a whole new level!

Photo By Katy Corbett, the State House
     We went to four different Graveyards in four different towns. Here in Maine we have some of the oldest graveyards in the country, most of the graves were over 100 years old! In the 1st Graveyard we didn't find any angels, but we found a Pensive Lady!
Photo By Katy Corbett
     She was quite impressive. It i surprising how hard it is to fine sculptures of anything other than urns, so we were happy to see her!
Photo By Katy Corbett
      DONT BLINK!!!
     But, sadly, no wings! So we had to keep looking. We went to another, smaller graveyard, no angels, so we picked up Katy's son from Preschool and took him along to another one. He had a LOT of fun, it was like going to a large park with a bunch of stones:)
Photo By Katy Corbett
     And its fun to kick leaves,,,,
Photo By Katy Corbett
     Still no angels!!! We did find a creepy cool huge fountain covered in,,, Goats??? Weird!!
     So, we headed to the last, biggest and COOLEST graveyard, it was built on a hill in the Capitol. Once you got to the top, you could see for miles!
Photo By Katy Corbett
    Getting to the top of the hill mountain was no small feat! Above is a lovely photo of me panting like a great big panty thing!

 Katy and Darien made it to the top first, but then, they are more in shape,,,,, and being four helps, why walk when you can run, right!?!?!
    Finally, after a whole afternoon of searching,,, we found one!
Photo By Katy Corbett

    She was a beauty! Not exactly "weeping" but at least she had wings! (well, one wing, her other wing was broken, poor thing! )
Photo By Katy Corbett
    She was small, but she was lovely!
Photo By Katy Corbett
    Goodbye sweet little angel, we were SOOOO glad to have found you! What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon! We are probably going to go hunting again some time, as this was so much fun!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Home improvement in the new apartment.

     As I may have said in last post, we moved into a new apartment in mid August. It is closer to my husbands work and shaves about 20 minuets off of his daily commute, and with gas prices the way they are, that is a big savings! We kind of rush moved into this place, as it was exactly the location we were wanting. It is right smack dab in the middle of the tiny downtown. A "townhouse" if such a grand word can be applied to an apartment in such a small Maine town! The building itself is over 100 years old, and it has a good old fashioned character to it, like lovely 9' ceilings in every room except the living room, and beautiful moldings around every door. The kitchen also has charming cabinets that do ALL the way up to the ceiling!
    But, as with a lot of old places, it has a few cons. Like the circa' 1975 baby poop "gold" range and fridge. I love vintage, but I am not that much of a fan of just plain old! It also came with painted plywood flooring in the large L shaped hall and the smaller bedroom that was IMPOSSIBLE to sweep cat hair and dust off of. Not to mention the whole place is painted in shades of white and baby powder blue, not my two favorite paint colors!
     So, we decided to try our hands at DIY for the first time! We got some peal and stick linoleum tiles from Lowe's and put them down in the large pantry/closet and the hallway.
     Here s the new floor all done, not perfect, but it looks MILES better, and it is removable! Painting the hallway is next on the agenda.
    Here is the smaller bedroom "before". It looks very cold, and the floor literally was like Velcro for cat hair, it could NOT be swept, my husband ended up using half a roll of tape to get it de-fuzzed after one of our cats spent the better part of a month in here after the move! The walls also had only one coat of paint, so it looked a bit "patchy".
    Here it is freshly painted and the new floor almost done! So much brighter and warmer, not to mention we really, really, REALLY love how the floor came out! We are wishing we had used it in the hallway now!
     We are very much enjoying the whole process, there is so much satisfaction at the end of a project! We still have a lot we want to do with the place, and I will keep you posted as we get each project done. Coming soon, "after" pictures for the hall!

Monday, October 15, 2012

We have moved!


     We have moved back to my home town in Winthrop Maine! I have missed this town! It is a walkable comunity, which is a wonderful thing for me, because I do not drive. I can now get out every day, and stretch my legs, and walk to my favorite place, "the point" (shown above) a little park by the lake. I go almost every day! I can go to the library, which means almost any book I want to read is right at my fingertips, for free! And I can skip across the street to the best little cafe', called The Flaky Tart, and have my favorite, a hot cup of spiced chai!
     It has been a hectic move, and the apartment we are now in was not in as good shape as the one we left, so we have been working on fixing it up and making it our own, which has involved putting down new flooring and painting walls, two things we have never done before, but have found enjoyable! NO MORE WHITE WALLS!!! I will post pictures soon, and hope to get back to some somewhat regular blogging, once I start crafting again. I also would like to get a new camera, as I never did replace the one I lost last year, and blogging is so much more fun when I can show you what I am up to!
     I hope you had had a lovely summer, and I am so excited its fall again! Time to start crafting and planning for Christmas, and time to cuddle up in the evenings by our fire with tea and homemade blankets! Talk to you again soon!
                                                                        Mrs Evans