Sylvia's Scenario

We've been home from Hawaii for 3 weeks now and the weather has decided to turn the coldest that we've had so far.  And I was just starting to get spring fever after a couple of really nice days.  Instead, I'm making soups again to stay warm.  Yesterday, we woke up to this: Brrrrrrr!  All the snow melted pretty quickly...this is Seattle, after all. It was all melted by afternoon so my neighbor and I walked to mass for Ash Wednesday at our local catholic church, neither of us had been to in years .  We're not sure what compelled us to suddenly go to church but we’re both catholic and we both felt like getting ashes smothered on our faces.   So, now we have 40 days to wait until Easter and then maybe it will be spring by then.  Ho hum...in  the meantime, I will keep making soups, stews and comfort foods to hold me over.  This is a new recipe by  Hannah Freese, RD  that we received this month.   I love making the actual...

I've been feeling like Tex-Mex food ever since I returned from my trip to Sedona last weekend.  My friend, Marge, and I took this trip as a restorative trip because of the loss of her mom and her husband recently.  It's been tough for her the past few months so we knew we needed to take this trip and we're so glad we did.  The Red Rock Country, where Sedona is located in Arizona, is known to have a very healing effect on people so that's why we headed there.  Nature is always good for the soul and the nature in Sedona is over the top.  The natural beauty is in every direction that you might look.  As if the natural beauty there wasn't enough, Sedona is also known for it's vortexes or spiritual "power spots".  This is where the energy of the life force of the earth is especially strong and they are all over the place in Sedona.  These are places that help you become more in touch with your feelings and find inner peace and solace.   There are ...

We are still having soup weather around here...rain, rain, rain.  Do you know there are six types of rain? Isn't rain just rain?  Oh no, not if you live in Seattle.  There was a whole article about it in the Sunday paper this week.  Just what we wanted to read about after a wonderful Hawaiian vacation.  UGH!  Anyway, the six types are drizzle, mist, sprinkles, "normal rain", downpours, and thunderstorms.  Isn't that just lovely and what you always wanted to know?  So, I go make myself another pot of soup for dinner and sit down to watch the drizzle, or is mist?  Maybe sprinkles?  I think it's rain.   This recipe is super easy and a perfect meal to let slowly cook away while its raining all day.  It is from  Hannah Freese, RD  and since she recommends cutting out "white carbs",  there is no bun in this cheeseburger.  Remember my  Cheeseburger Salad  from June?  When you are trying to avoid the ...

This recipe really hit the spot tonight with temperatures dropping and some snow is even in our forecast.  Will we have a white Christmas?  We always keep our fingers crossed that we will.  Bruce has been wrapping presents today, mine were mostly done and already under the tree.  Our cat isn't too happy about that.  This was his favorite place to sleep.  What happened to my cat bed? Last weekend, the grandkids joined in with the present wrapping.                                                                     You can probably tell which ones they wrapped.   The 3 year-old even wrapped two presents for his stuffed animals.  We had to look around to find something to put in a box to wrap for them, he didn't care what it was. Afterwards, he felt so accomplished and proud of...

This is a recipe that I've made three times already because everybody loves it and it's minimal work for me; a win-win situation.  I serve the beef and vegetables over quinoa since this recipe has a lot of juice that is perfect for the quinoa to soak up and adds a wonderful flavor.  When people walk in the door, the aroma coming from this recipe is amazing which is what I like about using the crockpot.  The whole house will smell great all day as it cooks.  I made this recipe when my sister and her husband came to visit and I knew I'd be busy on their first day, picking them up from the airport, plus I had a hair appointment the same day (which was convenient since my hair salon is close to the airport) but I did not have time to cook.  So, I just threw everything in the crockpot in the morning and done.  When we got home from the airport, they said, "Oh, what smells so good?!"  My nephew and his wife also came over for dinner (my sister's son) and eve...