Race for Education SES 2013

This morning Erica and I went to SES to participate in Race for Education with Alex and Elijah. We saw many of our friends and family there and had a great time. Claire, Honey and Pop St. Dizier (Claire’s Dad) were there also.

Here are a few of us with the boys after the race was over. Alex and Eli with Claire, Erica, Me and Honey. (Claire’s mom)

Some of our friends were there too, Carter and Suri, Alicia and Gavin and cousin Natalie with Anna Claire and Abigail.

Everyone had a fun time and it was for an excellent cause! Geaux Pandas!

Bourbon French Parfums

 

Last week when I was in the French Quarter I went into the little perfumery on Royal Street to see what it was all about. I found myself engulfed first in a soft feminine scent that reminded me of my beloved paternal grandmother Eunice and in love with the quaint and adorable shop.

I took my time and smelled all of the shop’s signature perfumes and really enjoyed the scent named “Marguerite”, which is described as a light, clean, fresh spicy fragrance, which was absolutely perfect for me.

 

This perfumery has been in the French Quarter for over 170 years.  Began by August Doussan in 1843, there are brides who go into the little shop to purchase perfume which was custom blended for their own grandmother several generations back, the perfumery keeps them on file forever, and they wear the signature scent on their wedding day. I find that perfectly charming.

Bourbon French Parfums can be found online HERE.

NOLA and a New Friend

I met my friend Janie while I was heavily into designing table scapes for our home, we both were posting on the blog “Between Naps on the Porch” which is still a very favorite blog to this day. I adore keeping up with her and her family on her blog Janie’s World. She’s got a passion for entertaining, a love of her family and husband and we share so many common likes and interest, I truly admire this girl!

Thursday she and I took a relaxing drive up the river from New Orleans (while her husband was speaking at a work related conference) and visited Nottoway and Oak Alley plantations. Both are lovely but I only got a few cool photos at Nottoway as my camera battery was exhausted before Oak Alley came into view. The stories of these working plantations are truly interesting and the history is amazing, but I’m  featuring the table scape of Nottoway as this is what actually brought us together in the first place.

Here’s a shot of the two of us in front of the fireplace in the beautiful white ballroom at Nottoway plantation.

 

Friday evening Dave flew into town, after picking him up at Lakefront Airport he and I met Janie and her husband Bob at Irene’s Cuisine for a lovely meal. They brought us some fabulous “See’s” chocolates which are made near their home in California, they are truly delicious and probably worth a trip to the west coast alone! Thanks again for the treat, Dave and I really enjoyed them!

After dinner we went to Balcony Music Club and listened to the Dana Abbott Band and had a few cocktails. Dave took a photo of the two of us, it came out a bit fuzzy but I’m going to include it anyway, the others were even worse because of the dark room!

 

Looking forward to growing our friendship and seeing one another soon!

Jujube Apples

When my Mama was growing up they had a jujube apple tree and she told us about them when we were little, they called them zuzus though. One day Mama and Daddy found a tree and got one and planted it. We grew up eating them off of the tree in the yard. The apples were about the size of a small kumquat and we never did anything but eat them fresh off the tree. The jujube fruit originated in Asia and starts off green as as it ripens it becomes speckled with brown and then the entire fruit turns a pretty dark brown. The seed in the middle is shaped like a plum seed but thinner, eating around it is easy.  

We bought our tree at a nursery in Abbeville which has since closed, but it has larger fruit than the one I grew up eating. Ours are shaped like the photo above but I’m not sure what the name of it really is. Here below is a chart of several different types. There are no measurements in the description so I am not positive about the variety, but I think ours is shaped like the honeypot variety. My mom’s tree was more like the football shaped Tsao.

This is what the tree looks like. I haven’t got a photo on my computer of our tree but I will take one tomorrow.

This is a bowl of the ones that Erica picked tonight.

Last year I made some apple butter and it turned out pretty good, the tree is loaded right now so I may make some more soon. For now we’re enjoying eating them fresh off of the tree. Caroline and the twins really like them too, you will find the boys with pockets full of them as they ride the Rhino around the yard or while jumping on the trampoline. They are funny fellows.

 

You can read more information on the jujube fruit here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujube

Pear Tart with Peach Glaze

Tonight I taught Alexa how to make a pear tart, she went to my Daddy’s house this past weekend after he called her to let her know that the pears were ready to pick. I picked two medium sized pears, peeled, halved, cored and sliced into thin strips.

I put them into a bowl and tossed them with about four tablespoons of light brown sugar. Then I arranged the pear slices down the middle of the puffed pastry which I thawed and cut in half and put onto a baking sheet that was sprayed with non stick cooking spray, I like Crisco’s butter flavored spray. I took 1/3 of a block of real butter, cut it in half then cut them into 1/4 inch pieces and dotted half down the middle of each of the tarts. Using about seven pieces across each.

Next I put four tablespoons of the peach preserves I made in July into a small bowl and with a little whisk I broke it all up, but didn’t add anything to it and spooned the preserves down the middle of the pears on the tart. I slipped the tarts into the oven which was set on convection bake at 350 degrees and cooked it for about 13 minutes, Alexa checked the doneness of the pears and how much it had browned at that point and decided to put it for another five minutes.

The pears were a tiny bit crispy once cooked all the way. We let it stand and cool for a little bit before moving to a glass serving plate. Dave declared it delicious after having about 2/3 of one of them. Thanks to my Daddy for sharing these delicious fruit and to Alexa for driving over to pick them. Prep time and cooking time was only about thirty minutes and I think it would be awesome served with ice cream when having guests over or at a brunch with coffee.

Fred had a piece before he left tonight and was very impressed with how good it was for the little effort that it took to make it. The recipe was a combination of one that I’d learned on Barefoot Contessa which was made with apples and apricot jam and the Pioneer Woman’s apple and brown sugar. I sort of combined both methods and used my own fruit and home made preserves for a Cajun country Katy version.

The Twins go to Kindergarten

This Friday was Alex and Elijah’s first day of Kindergarten at SES. Their new teacher is Mrs. Mandy Haydel, one of Claire’s elementary school friends. This is going to be an amazing year for the boys.

Just before summer vacation Pop and I gave them each a new guitar to begin taking their lessons after school. They really love music and I hope they both enjoy their music lessons!

Here’s Pop giving Eli a few pointers and playing for him just after tuning his guitar.

Here’s Kali giving Eli a few tips about finger placement. She’s taken three years of guitar and is quite the little musician.

Kali’s going to continue taking lessons at SES this year as well. Can’t wait to hear these three after a year of lessons!

Elijah giving his guitar a strum after Pop tuned it for him.

Layout created using Shabby Miss Jenn Designs “Book Worm” kit, new in the store this week!

Fourteen Months

Our sweet baby girl is already fourteen months old, where has the time gone? She smiled so sweet for me when I took her photo just a little while ago. She is such a joyful baby girl and it was a treat to spend the day with her while Mama worked! Love our Linee!

New Little Panther in the Family

We have a Little Panther in the family and Kali has a pretty black, white and red plaid to sport to school this year as she enters the fourth grade at Catholic High School.  She's sporting her new red uniform shirt on orientation day and was so excited to be going to her new school this morning.  She's got a lovely new teacher named Mrs. Danielle Trahan and she's excited to see her friends from SES and to make new ones too! PANTHER PRIDE can be seen in this girl's eyes for sure! August 8, 2013

I am certainly looking forward to see Kali grow in her knowledge of the world around her and in her Catholic faith. She will be going to SES for guitar lessons and I’m sure she will really enjoy spending a little time at her beloved elementary school to continue her musical education.

I created this layout using Shabby Miss Jenn’s new kit “Book Worm”

Goodness from the Garden

Dave sure does grow some awesome chickens and they provide us with the yummiest farm fresh eggs.

I also am enjoying the basil that we planed in our little kitchen garden.

And this is the beautiful view out of the back door into the green goodness, you can see the lawn, a fig tree and some pecan trees in the side yard. I love this lush view!

It’s the little things that bring me pure joy, having the family over tonight for a spaghetti supper and looking forward to seeing each and every one of them!

Rat Pack Show

A few weeks ago Dave and I went to New Orleans to see a show at the World War II Museum featuring “The Rat Pack” revival show. This is the second show we’ve gone to there and have enjoyed both tremendously. Dave snapped this shot of me with the performers after the show.

She's Engaged!

They met in 2012, on the last day of the year, they fell in love in 2013, and our beautiful daughter Alexa Claire is engaged to be married to her fiancée in 2014. Three weeks ago Frederick Miller asked Alexa to be his wife and she said YES!  There's a whole lot of excitement going on, planning has begun and its going to be a very special occasion for our family!
Here's a photo of the newly engaged couple, they were going to a wedding when Alexa's friend Lauren snapped it of them!

Newly Engaged Fred and Alexa

New Computer: Setting up Writer Live

Setting up the new Desktop and Live Writer to get back to blogging regularly!

Graduation Time

Its not graduation time in our household but I have created a few layouts featuring our baby girl, Erica Celine, Shabby Miss Jenn Designs created this amazing kit “Graduation Time” and I had to go back and pull some grad pics from Eri’s special time in 2011!

These are the two layouts I created using it!

Two Golden Birthdays

Our sweet pumpkin Caroline is already ELEVEN months old. Krista and I are in the midst of planning Kali and Caroline’s birthday parties. Kali will be NINE on Thursday, May 9th… and her party is this Saturday and three weeks later Caroline turns ONE on June 1st and we’ve got her party scheduled on her birthdate!

We’re celebrating Kali’s birthday with a Western themed cowgirl party at the Larson Ranch ;) There will be food, games, a photo booth and maybe horse rides if Kali can convince Pop to saddle up Ca$h! Krista and I filled and decorated the favor bags I designed yesterday and they really are adorable, I will be sharing photos of them and the party pics from the weekend next week! Here’s what I designed for her birthday invitation, I used paper from Mary Fran’s Giddyup kit and elements from Kate Hadfield’s Ride Em Cowboy kit. She got dressed up in her western attire and I shot a few photos for the invite and favor topper, she really loved how it came out. they came out!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Shabby Miss Jenn’s latest kits and my layouts made using them! I am in love with the bold and brilliant colors in these kits, love the way my layouts came out using them! The first one was made using “Day of Fun” kit and the other two “See You Smile” kit.