My Favorite Salad

This is my favorite salad right now.  I guess you might want to call it a spinach and mushroom salad but I've been putting spinach in all the salads I make lately.  It's pretty easy to hide some baby spinach leaves in with the lettuce and no one really knows they're there.  A great little burst of nutrition without much whining.  But this one actually started as a spinach mushroom salad so that's what it shall remain.

There's some Romaine lettuce and some of the aforementioned baby spinach leaves.  I don't usually have red onions but I really like the color they added this time so I'll probably do that again.  

Of all mushrooms, I'd have to say I like baby portobellos the best so that's what's on this salad.  (Not the pre-sliced variety.  I really can't wrap my mind around pre-sliced mushrooms.  Don't you still have to wash them?  How does that make things any easier?)  

I like toasted pecans on top but I've used walnuts when necessary.  The cheese is parmesan but I really like it with fontina when I have it.  Fontina is also really good on cheese pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches, so why don't I have it all the time?

This salad is great with simple balsamic vinaigrette. 

Emily's New Space

We traded out the queen-size bed that took up so much space in Emily's room and replaced it with a day-bed with a trundle that her grandmother passed on to her.  (No, no, she's fine!  My mother-in-law is just redecorating.  That sounded a little morbid.)

It has opened up her room so nicely.  The queen bed just took over her little 10x10 room.  With the single bed, she has floor space to play or waller around in.  (That's Southern for laze around and relax.) Plus, I think the pretty and feminine day-bed really shows off her choice of brightly colored bed linens.

The stool under the window to make a little "window seat" was Emily's idea.  Billy helped her decide on the chair placement to make a little reading nook where she can sit with her feet up on the stool.

I love Emily's room.  It's bright and cheerful and probably the sunniest place in the house this winter.

Wonder if she'll notice if I sneak in there with a book some afternoon?

Country Living

We travel through several small rural towns on our way to the South Carolina coast to visit our family there.  We like the back roads best but really there's not a lot of choice on this particular route.  There's something about slowing down to 35 mph that really lets you see what's going on.

Forbidden fruit creates many jams.  

That was on the sign in front of a small white church in one of those towns.  It sounds like something your old granny would tell you and, oh, so true.

On one trip, I saw a chicken literally crossing the road.  Now I know there's truth behind that old joke.  He really was heading to the other side where, I believe, his homestead was located.  What made him cross over in the first place, I guess we'll never know.

Do you ever see houses off the side of the road on long trips and wonder about the families that live there? Well, here's my favorite redneck story.

There is a nicely maintained double-wide on a nice lot along one of the highways we regularly travel.  On one trip we noticed they were clearing land behind the trailer and building a foundation.  "How nice!," I thought. "They must have finally saved enough to build a bigger home!"

On subsequent trips, we watched the building take shape.  Until, at one point, it was obvious that what they were building was a very large, two-story, three-bay garage.  So, while they're still living in the trailer, their cars, boats, four-wheelers and what-not are safely stowed in their three-car garage.

Winter Beauty

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind 

than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

- George Santayana

I read this quote recently and I keep coming back to it.  I would definitely describe myself as being "hopelessly in love with spring," especially in these cold, dreary days of January and now, finally, February.  I'm trying to find, and remember, the beauty in winter.  What has helped is remembering a recent visit to the beach on a blustery January.

It was windy and as cold as you'd expect.  Not much sun, but a beautiful sky with interesting streaks of clouds brightened with sunlight.

It wasn't too cold for finding treasures!

Champ, of course, didn't mind the cold wind.  He said he much prefers it to the hot sands of August.