We recently held a small surprise birthday dinner party for my husband, Scott. All intentions for a larger surprise gathering evaporated with COVID. But since this is a landmark birthday, we did try to make it a bit special regardless. Here are the grilled cheese and tomato soup ideas we created based on a grown-up theme.

Entertaining at home is limited to very small groups. We are careful to be outside in the fresh air. As much as we want to include all our friends, we are being conscientious until this whole pandemic settles down.

In planning, I need to be more aware of how food is served, social distancing and the weather conditions. Our winters in Phoenix are chilly, especially at night and in the morning.

With the help of my children, we did all the cooking while trying to keep Scott out of the kitchen (that could be a blog post in itself!). It was a bit frenetic to say the least. Before any event I am so swamped I forget to take really good pictures of the setting and food. I need to get better at this!

The Menu

The menu for the dinner is:

• Creamy Tomato Soup
• Artisanal Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
• Winter Salad
• Black Forest Cake from Tessa Huff’s Layered cookbook
• Glossy Fudge Brownies with Walnuts from Stella Park’s Bravetart cookbook

The recipes for the creamy tomato soup and artisanal grilled cheese are from Bon Appetit’s October 2012 issue. Guests design their own sandwiches from a table of curated fixings.

The Fixings

To make the sandwiches have adult appeal (but who really doesn’t love a crisp, gooey grilled cheese sandwich?) you can vary the ingredients. For this party, the meat fillings for the sandwich include: thinly sliced ham, prosciutto, smoked brisket, and crispy bacon.

Pre-shredding the cheese allows for faster and even melting. Dill havarti, sharp cheddar, pepper jack, gruyere, and smoked gouda are good cheese choices.

Sliced sourdough bread is an easy store purchase, and you can use whole grain or rye. Whole grain mustard, fig and sour cherry jam, are nice spreads to add. Though we did not include these, thinly sliced apples and sauerkraut would work too.

The Soup and Salad

This easy, delicious tomato soup can also be made ahead of time and reheated. If you haven’t made my Winter Kale salad, this is a winner. For this particular event, I did not include the wild rice, but made the salad with chopped fresh kale, feta cheese, pomegranates and toasted walnuts. See the recipe here.

The beauty of this meal is that you can prepare most of it ahead of time. On the day of the event, slice and skillet (or broil) the bread, grate the cheese, make the salad. The soup can be prepared up to 2 days earlier. Just before guests arrive, re-heat the soup and set everything out.

The Preparation

Let your guests decide their fillings, and then finish the sandwich off on the grill or in the oven~hot for consumption. It is fun to take everyone’s order and with one person grilling, the sandwiches are ready quickly.

Soup is served in mugs so everything can fit onto one large plate.

Desserts

For dessert, our guests choose from either rich, fudgy brownies or Black Forest cake or both.

This warm and comforting meal is very appropriate for a rather chilly evening outside. I was afraid the cake was too small to serve everyone, but thin slices are appropriate for this rich, dense and delicious cake. And I always forget to take off my apron!

Happy Tuesday, my friends! I guess the New Year has officially begun. How nice to have a weekend after the holiday! We are celebrating our youngest’s birthday this week and I will no longer have any teenagers at home. Where does the time go?

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A new year, a vaccine and hopefully things will be looking up for the world. A rather spontaneous series of circumstances is the basis for our New Year’s Eve celebration. Instead of having a formal meal on New Year’s Day we opted to have a dinner with family and friends on December 31st. So here’s how we welcomed in a happy 2021.

I am a big believer that setting the mood for an event happens as soon as your guests arrive. That’s why having a champagne bar out of the back of my vintage 1974 Triumph TR6 seemed like a good idea.

My son’s girlfriend, Delaney help create the vintage/luxury theme by using a fur stole, crystal garland, a tapestry shawl and sparkly trees. A copper tub holds the champagne and Prosecco and hot mulled apple cider is also offered as a non-alcoholic beverage.

Our neighbor who always finds fabulous things, brought over a jar of hibiscus flowers she found at Trader Joe’s. What a festive addition to the champagne! To see how I decorated the TR6 at another event, click here.

A sit down dinner for 10 on the back porch included: smoked turkey and ribs, salad from the garden, French onion soup, twice baked potatoes, bread pudding, mincemeat pie and persimmon bread. Then the sparklers came out which is a fun way to end a year. More fireworks were occurring on the cul-de-sac next to us, so it was an eventful night!

Onto New Year’s Day

Rather early to bed on NYE and up in time to see the first sunrise of 2021. Since we have so much foliage we never get a good view of the horizon, but it was still quiet and peaceful to watch it.

Implementing a Resolution

Probably the most important resolution for me is to get back to habitually exercising. In 2021, I am committed to doing something at least 6 days per week. For me, this doesn’t mean a high intensity workout daily (at least not yet), but easing my way back into the habit of exercise. So on New Year’s Day I took a long walk, getting my heart rate up enough to qualify as exercise. Whether it be hiking, biking, walking, going to the gym or Pilates, I am attempting to exercise each day.

Last year for Christmas I received an Apple watch. I was seeking a way to monitor my heart rate as three close friends (in my age group) had cardiac issues (one fatal). Instead of some sort of heart monitor, the family bought me this watch. I actually love the fact that it records my movements, heart rate and can also let you know if something is amiss.

Setting Goals

Here’s an example of what it records. There are 3 circles that represent your activity. Blue is for standing, yellow is for exercise and the red is for calories burned by moving. You set the parameters for this. My goals are: 12 hours of standing; 30 minutes of exercise (I should increase that); and 560 calories burned by moving. When you reach your goal, the watch notifies you and the circle is complete.

As you can see I did pretty well January 2020. To give you an idea, I completed 31 workouts for a total of 21 hours 32 minutes of exercise and burned 5,044 calories. So I started last year with good intentions. But you can see what happens over the course of the year (and COVID didn’t help). In November 2020, I did 13 workouts, 12 1/2 hours and burned 2,400 calories. Pretty pathetic.

The watch also tracks the # of steps you take per day. Lots of areas to set new goals. If you have a smart phone, the Health App also tracks several items too.

I am also using the Lose It app, which monitors your caloric intake. Surprisingly, when you write down what you eat, you tend to eat less.

So I am hoping that the combination of exercising, tracking my food intake and reporting back to you will help me in 2021.

A few of you asked about my exercise goals and hopefully this will motivate you to get started. Remember to check with your doctor if you are doing something out of the ordinary. What works for me, may not work for you. But let’s get started together. I hope to publish my monthly results in order to make myself accountable to you.

I hope you had a wonderful New Year’s celebration. Now let’s make this a fabulous year!

I cannot believe this is my last post of 2020. Well, it’s been a year, hasn’t it? When I reflect back over the course of the last 12 months, I count my blessings. We are healthy and happy, most of the time. And 2020 is a year where the world realizes that having good health is a cherished gift.

Being the eternal optimist, I contemplate and note that even though life is bittersweet, many unexpected surprises emerge from these unusual trials and tribulations.

Importance of Friends and Family

With lockdowns and restrictions, my focus is more family/home centric. With two adult children working remotely, we are lucky to have our son (who lives in DC) able to visit for longer periods of time. Our daughter loves being nearby and working from home allows her more quality time with her pets. Our youngest is at college, but within close proximity, which is comforting.

A welcomed side effect of being tethered to home is that we have strengthened relationships with our adjacent neighbors.

In the Spring, Wine at the Wall Wednesdays was a creative way to socially distance with our neighbors, yet still socialize. Bring your own glass and we would trade off who provided the wine. I don’t know about you, but I need human connections. As a result, we now have this lovely circle of friends, who also happen to live right next door. Lucky us!

Importance of Personal Responsibility

It is never too late to be healthier. Never. It takes fortitude and a change in lifestyle, but now, more than ever, we must do our part to be well. One of my top blog posts is 10 Tips to Stay Healthy, which I posted last winter and before COVID. You can see it here. There is SO much we can do to build our immune system and stay well.

Granted if you have a pre-existing condition, do what you can to make yourself less vulnerable to viruses. It is never too late to start on a healthier lifestyle.

The picture above is a card I received in my latest order from Native, which produces an aluminum free deodorant. I highly recommend their products. But doesn’t the card says it all?

Importance of Aging Well

There is no surprise here, but we are all getting older. Our aging population stresses our health care system, but getting older does not automatically mean poor health. There a plenty of older adults who enjoy an active vigorous lifestyle.

I believe happiness and aging well are choices. Granted, some days are better than others but you cannot stop trying to live an interesting, fulfilled life. If you haven’t read my 10 Tips to Aging Well, here is the link.

Kindness is Free

As I have mentioned, I have completely stopped watching the news. People who are hateful have no place in my life. No news is good news. Maybe it is naive of me to put my head in the sand, but I now have more time in the day to do something positive and productive.

In January 2019 I wrote a post on Kindness (see post here) because back then we were seeing less and less of it in the world. Then 2020 happened and it just got worse.

Instead of getting frustrated, I am committed more than ever to the mantra: JUST BE KIND. It doesn’t cost anything and you never know whose day you will make better with a random act of kindness. Can you imagine what kind of world it would be if everyone did this?

Keep Moving Forward

For me, moving forward and keeping in motion is therapeutic. Creating momentum staves off paralysis and fear. If any year provided excuses for hunkering down and doing nothing, it was 2020.

However, we tackled more house projects than ever before, with lots of fun stories in between. Remember the mystery around the antique locket found under the dishwasher (see post here)?

2020 has been the year of unexpected problems and expensive repairs with cars and plumbing. Cha-ching! For a while, it was one thing after another but let’s hope that phase has passed.

Once travel opens up, I am definitely planning a trip to recover from all the projects, both planned and unexpected in 2020.

Focus on my Blog

This year, I truly focused on making my blog more enjoyable for you. My commitment to post on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday is occurring most of the time. My new found blogging friendships are allowing me to participate in blog hops with others. These same friends are encouraging me to be better. Lucky me!

The best part is that I am learning new things each and every day (another great tip to aging well!). The goal is to update the design of my website and add more good pictures of our home so hopefully you will see more positive blog changes in 2021.

Looking Ahead to 2021

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I do and for the most part, I do stick with them for at least the first 6 months of a new year.

My first resolution is to take better care of my hands. With all the hand sanitizer and washing more than usual, my mitts feel like sandpaper. Plus having clean and tidy nails is a good thing . My hands go directly into the dirt in the garden. I wash dishes without gloves. Truly, my 10 digits are a mess. I’d post a picture of them but you would shudder.

More Time for Painting

Painting more is also high on my list for 2021. Getting into a routine where I painted every Friday afternoon would be desirable. And maybe then, I’d feel more confident in selling a few finished ones.

Re-commit to structured exercise

Pre-COVID I was exercising 6 days a week. Pathetically, I am now down to 2-3 days per week and I can feel the difference. Do you need to do more? If you are interested in my exercise goals, I am happy to post those and perhaps we can keep each other on track. It is just a matter of starting….

Reducing the Clutter

At the end of 2019, I had over 7000 emails in my inbox. It took me 9 hours to sort through them. I vowed to not have over 100 emails in my inbox. Fast forward a year later and I have 7,394 emails in that very same inbox. My goal is to officially unsubscribe to nearly all promotional emails and only allow room for ones that matter. If anyone has tips on how to stop this email madness, please let me know.

On my camera I have 52, 000 photos. Just the thought of sorting and deleting and filing those gives me angst. But it needs to be done! Again, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Celebrating the New Year

The days where I stayed up until midnight to welcome the New Year are long over. My choice would be to wake up early and watch the sun rise on a new year instead. Maybe a morning hike or walk and then home for some fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh brewed coffee would be the perfect start to the new year.

How will you be celebrating the end of this year and the beginning of the next? What resolutions, if any, are you making?

Wishing you all the best for the New Year! Remember to stay safe, stay healthy but most of all, be happy!

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I am happy to report that we had an absolutely lovely Christmas. In spite of a late night Christmas Eve, this blessed day could not have been better. With just our clan of 5, we experienced the best of family time, food and traditions. Here is a look at our post-Christmas wrap up.

Gingerbread Houses

As you may recall, I just started making a gingerbread house two years ago. Utilizing a set of templates from Martha Stewart (that are so old you can’t even find them referenced online), I select the chicken coop instead of the log cabin. To see my log cabin last year, click here.

To be honest, Martha’s chicken coop template is a rather boring structure. It looks a bit like a warehouse and doesn’t really have any resemblance to our chicken coop. But I proceed anyway, in hopes that I can add elements to make it more attractive. The log cabin design is much more interesting. Gingerbread dough is quite tasty and you can find the recipe here. I make 3 batches for all the pieces.

The pieces are assembled and “glued” together with Royal icing ~ 4 cups of confectioners sugar, 3 tablespoons meringue powder and 6 tablespoons of water.

Using shredded wheat cereal and mini-York peppermint patties, texture is added to the roof. Frosting tinted to look like adobe is painted on the sides. Pretzels trim around the entries and melted butterscotch candies make up the glass in the windows.

My attempt to make gingerbread chickens is a complete failure, so thankfully, I have these wooden chicken magnets as the coop’s occupants. Chocolate blocks become shutters and fresh greens dress up the window sills.

Camper Gingerbread

A few years ago, I saw this cute gingerbread camper by Sugar and Cloth. However, the instructions are vague and I would imagine their vintage camper was done by a professional baker.

My camper kept collapsing and the pieces didn’t really fit together. Completely frustrated, it was going in the trash. So my husband ate the wheels and a few pieces and as I’m ready to discard it, my youngest daughter insisted we not give up.

And I am so glad she did! So I baked a few more wheels and created new pieces that would fit. Candied windows and colorful lights make it look like a party camper. Though far from perfect, this became a great mother/daughter project. It is SO cute!

Raisins and chia seeds make up the walk. A paper cocktail umbrella provides shade to the lounge chair. A leftover Christmas tree cookie is placed on the roof. By the time we are finished decorating, we are belly laughing and having so much fun! A worthwhile rescue!

Unexpected Christmas Joy

On the 24th, I dropped off a present to my friend, Janie. We met at her outside back terrace and she surprised me with a cup of Christmas tea and shortbread cookies. What I thought was going to be a few minute gift exchange, turned into a lovely hour of conversation. Using her beautiful Spode tea cups and this incredible needlepoint tea cozy, made the time even more special and festive.

I don’t have a tea cozy, but I just purchased one on eBay that is identical to this! It is surprising how hot that cover kept the teapot, especially outside in the cool weather. Now I just need the cups!

Making Homemade Bacon

My daughter, Elisabeth (almost 20) is starting to learn to cook. She decided she wanted to make bacon for Christmas morning. Make bacon? So she went to the butcher and bought a 3 lb. pork belly, cured it (brown sugar, pepper, salt, distilled water and Prague powder) for several days and then smoked it for a few hours until it reached the ideal temperature.

On Christmas morning, she sliced it up and cooked it for the family and it was absolutely delicious! Who knew?

A Collaborative Cooking Day

In addition to homemade bacon, my husband and other daughter, Julianna made Eggs a la Goldenrod (see recipe here), my son picked oranges from the orchard and made fresh squeezed mimosa and I made cinnamon rolls from sourdough starter discard (delicious!). Recipe from Amy at Little Spoon Farm is here.

Disguising Gifts

After breakfast, we moved to the living room to open gifts. A rather tired looking Santa is sitting in one of the wing chairs. The children laugh about it and we go on to unwrap all the presents under the tree.

Finally, my daughter asks if she can “unwrap” Santa, which happens to be a cello for her. Though it was a bit comical trying to dress the cello as Santa, it is a good way to disguise the gift.

After we opened presents, the rest of the day is spent cooking, both indoors and out.

My dear friend, Connie let us borrow her smoker while she is out of town and we have certainly put it to good use. A rather non-traditional holiday dinner consists of smoked baby back ribs, a chicken on the rotisserie, stuffing, gravy, pear and apple chutney, spiced red cabbage with apples and oranges, twice baked potatoes, roasted vegetables, persimmon bread and mincemeat pie.

Dinner was consumed in the pink themed dining room, which just felt magical. If you missed that post, you can see it here. Needless to say, it’s time to exercise and eat greens again!

The day ended with our fabulous neighbors coming by to sing Christmas carols and deliver an amazing gift. In spite of this challenging year, I could not have asked for a more perfect day~filled with laughter, love and some of the best food I’ve ever eaten.

The time between Christmas and New Year’s is one of my favorites~enjoying the slower pace of it all and wearing elastic waist pants! With the new year, I will get back on track exercising and eating better, but for now I am giving myself permission to enjoy my family being all together and our good health.

Sending warm, relaxing wishes for the balance of 2020.

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What a week! Slowly the decorations are coming out and we will get our fresh tree this weekend. It’s a family tradition to get our main tree on or near my husband’s birthday. The goal is to have the tree up and decorated no later than next Tuesday. I know I am way behind other bloggers, but it doesn’t really matter because this is how we celebrate here at Bella Terra.

The Annual Christmas Painting

As you may recall, I started painting about five years ago (see post here). Each year I attempt a new holiday painting. Based on a wonderful photo, I painted our cat, Donovan. He is a stray Maine coon cat the girls found in the yard years ago and he is currently our only cat. After losing our very first cat, Tippy this year, I have an increased desire to capture our pets on canvas. If you follow me on Instagram (I hope you do!), you may have already seen this.

Two New Recipes

Chocolate Sourdough Babka Bread

Every Christmas, I replay the previous Christmases and holidays in my head. I feel blessed to have had many happy and joyous holidays from my childhood to now. Naturally there have been a few where loved ones are not there and occasionally my heart feels heavy from their loss. Lately, I have been thinking of my Mom and Dad, who both passed away rather unexpectedly 5 years ago, 5 months apart.

But they were very good parents and they made our holidays extra special every year. Being of Polish decent, I recall some of the traditions and foods surrounding the holidays. With fond memories of babka bread, I realize that I have never made one.

Babka is a dense cake, although it looks a little like a bread. It’s a sweet yeast dough filled with fudgy chocolate or cinnamon in layers and baked. It also sometimes has a streusel on top.

Since I am always looking for ways to use my sourdough starter discard, this recipe is a Chocolate Sourdough Babka with Streusel de Coco from Artisan Brian is perfect. You can see the recipe here.

A 2-day recipe, but well worth the effort. Also, I have never braided bread before but this is a fun learning recipe with excellent results!

Aged Egg Nog

Have you ever heard of aged egg nog? I certainly haven’t, yet my son brought up the idea at Thanksgiving.

Although most Americans think of eggnog as something they get out of a milk carton during the two-week period leading up to December 25, eggnog actually descends from sack posset, a strong, thick English beverage built upon eggs, milk, and either a fortified wine (like Madeira) or ale. 

In this recipe, you must age it for a minimum of 2 weeks, but they say a month or two would be even better. We made this on November 24 and will drink it later this month. Made with eggs, sugar, fresh nutmeg, half-and-half, whole milk, heavy cream, Jamaican rum, cognac, bourbon and a bit of kosher salt, let’s not count the calories!

It looks like it has lost a bit of volume (where would it go?). We all tasted it before it went into the refrigerator and it is delicious. Should be interesting to see how it tastes 6 weeks later. Click here for the link to the recipe.

An Easy DIY Holiday Decorating Idea

As you know, plaids are all the rage this year. During a recent trip to Michaels, they had buy one and get one free rolls of wrapping paper. So I grabbed all the plaid ones and did this simple, easy and fast DIY.

Here is the chest in my family room, before.

And look how festive it looks now with minimal effort!

I simply wrapped the books with the plaid wrapping paper, changed out the wooden beads for silver ones (a necklace of mine) and added faux greens.

In setting up a small tree at the other end of the chest, I added small wrapped packages underneath too.

I hope to show you more of our holiday decorations (if I can get my act together) next week with a holiday home tour.

Thanks for the help

If you don’t follow me on Instagram stories (I hope you do), I want to thank you for all the fabulous feedback on how to improve upon my dining room mantel. My friend, Jeanne suggested adding fairy lights and that did the trick! Most voted against adding ribbon and I think that was the right choice.

Every year I order a 75 foot roll of fresh cedar garland. Unfortunately, this year none was available from my resource. So I am hoping when we pick up the live tree this weekend, there will be fresh garland to purchase. Important areas of the house are draped in garland and this may be a year that we go without.

Enjoy your Saturday and weekend. We had our first big rain here the other day and I am hoping and praying for more. If you missed any posts this week, see how I clean our crystal chandeliers and how to make bleached pinecones.

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Happy Saturday, friends! I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as mine. From the food to the family to the weather, it couldn’t have been more perfect! I am so happy you are joining me this morning for Saturday meanderings~a glimpse into the previous week’s activities.

The Turkey

We always buy a big turkey for this holiday. Whole Foods provided the 22 pound organic bird. When I picked it up, I asked if the butcher could break it down for us, however, the turkey (though fresh) was too frozen to cut it apart. This is the first Thanksgiving my son is able to convince me to try cooking it this way. So Benjamin (a big, strong guy) googled how to break down this bird and I can say, it isn’t for weaklings. So happy he is home to do this!

Again, we used the dry brining method on the turkey 2 days prior to cooking. This year we added a different dry brine recipe that has many more spices.

I can honestly say this is the BEST TURKEY EVER! Cooking a 22 lb. turkey took 2.5 hours. And it is delicious! Moist breast, crispy skin, perfectly cooked thighs….just yummy.

Here is the link to the Bon Appetit recipe in case you want to try this. Also, I highly recommend you have your butcher break down the bird or find a handsome, strapping young fellow to do so.

The Table

The weather has been very chilly (for us) in the mornings, but the day time temperatures are perfect. On Thanksgiving Day it was 71 degrees and we decided to set up the table outside on the back terrace. We’ve never eaten our holiday meal there, so it was very pleasant and gave us the space we needed.

My son’s girlfriend, Delaney did the lettering for the place cards. Aren’t they pretty? Calligraphy will be on list of new things to tackle in 2021. Anyone else want to do that?

The Cocktail

I love this picture so much that I thought I would share this cocktail. Created in the 1970s at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, the Jungle Bird is a tropical rum cocktail featuring a bitter hint of Campari. Recipe below.

The Desserts

Our dessert selection includes pumpkin and cherry pie. My husband is responsible for the pumpkin as he has his “secret” recipe. The cherry recipe is straight from Oregon Fruit’s website. No fancy cakes this year.

Cashmere Problems

With the change in temperature, I find myself reaching for sweaters to wear in the morning. One of my favorite gray cardigan is cashmere and when I put it on I discovered dreaded moth eaten holes. I’ve never had moth damage in the closet before. Sadly, we also have a cedar closet and some of the items in there have moth damage too.

So after reading a blog post from Between Naps on the Porch, she suggested buying a cashmere bag to store your sweaters. I will try this and see if it works for the very few remaining cashmere sweaters that I have.

Christmas Jammies

As you well know, Christmas holiday decor and celebrations do not start here at Bella Terra until after Thanksgiving. In order to welcome in the new season, I just bought these fun red/white striped pajamas from Soma. The pants have pockets and a drawstring waist~so very comfortable. Even though these pajamas are featured in their catalog, I could not find them online. However, the store at the Biltmore Shopping Center does have them in stock. Plus Soma has an extensive collection of other pajamas online.

Family Photo Holiday Card

Does anyone else have difficulties getting the family together for a photo? At least this year we didn’t have to google how to set the timer and have someone run back to the group before the camera clicks! Anyway, it is time to write the family holiday letter and get the card created. The annual goal is to get cards in the mail by December 15th.

Well that wraps up the week. If you are a reader, please check out my post this week on Reading and Relaxing here. Please enjoy the last few days of November. The holiday decorating begins and next week I want to show you the gorgeous mantels my blogging friends created! Stay safe and warm!