Sylvia's Scenario

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...

Today, wa s a soup-kind-of-day...you guessed it:  rain, rain, rain.  But this dinner tasted so good, who cares about the rain?   I'll probably make this recipe again for a holiday celebration because look how festive this looks.  It has the red and green holiday theme going on. I really love the crispy prosciutto that you sprinkle on top to serve it. Along with the chopped parsley, it gives it that red and green holly, jolly feeling.  I think it would be perfect for a first course during Christmas dinner.  This was a pretty easy recipe, too, and so flavorful. This is a recipe from   Hannah Freese, RD  so you know it uses lots of healthy veggies in it and uses full fat coconut milk to make it creamy.  It doesn't have a "coconut" flavor at all, though.  Since it uses full fat coconut milk, it is very filling, satisfying and dairy-free.  You won't need crackers to go along with this recipe.  The crispy prosciutto is way better ...

Tonight, I made a pretty simple dish for dinner provided by  Hannah Freese, RD  that was chock full of flavor, fiber and healthy goodness all in a compact little ramekin dish.  It is made with chicken and riced cauliflower that I buy frozen at Trader Joe's which makes it super easy.  You can make your own riced cauliflower with fresh cauliflower and put it in a food processor to dice it up.  You only need 1-1/2 cups in this recipe so not very much.  There is also Dijon mustard mixed in this recipe giving it some spiciness, a combination that I've always love with chicken.  My favorite part was the grated cheese on top that gives that brown crispy cheese taste like "cheese crisps" on top.  It was the perfect topping and then I also sprinkled some chopped green onions on top.  As you can see, we have a guest in our home, as we are dog-sitting this week.  It has been so fun having another Samoyed in our home.  We had two "Sammies" over...

I am happy to announce that the top recipe for 2020 on my blog was one of  Hannah Freese, RD's  recipe that I make over and over again,  Pumpkin Bean Chili .  Apparently, other people liked it, as well, because it was the #1 most popular recipe on my blog for 2020.   I make this recipe a couple times per month.  I would say that this recipe has taken the place of spaghetti in our house.  We use to eat spaghetti pretty often and it would always be a staple dinner.  Now, it's the pumpkin chili.  Of course, it's been chili-type weather since I started Hannah's method of eating in September.  But interestingly, this is the most recent of the top three popular recipes, yet it got the most hits.  I don't eat pasta anymore and I cook my own pinto beans when I make this recipe.  Pinto beans cook fast so I can start them in the morning and they are ready to add to the chili by dinnertime.  But of course, you can use canned pin...

Today, we said goodbye to our little cat, Crusty.  She was the last of our Idaho animal menagerie that we received as a kitten from our neighbor who found her in her office building's parking lot.  Our neighbor knew we had kitten formula and bottles, so she brought her over for us to take care of.  She ended up being with us for sixteen years.  Lately, she had been suffering from  kidney disease but yesterday she took a turn for the worse and we knew it was time to say goodbye.  In fact, last week I got "the talk" from our vet about when to decide to end her suffering but I just didn't think she was that bad yet.  The photo above was just two days ago when she was still acting very normal, hanging around with us and doing the four critical activities of eating, drinking, pooping and peeing.   She was even eyeing the birds and going into that hunting mode.  But yesterday, she quit the four critical activities, just over night.  We had ...

 The Deck Gone Yesterday was a big day for us.  After a year and a half of planning,  Bruce and I are finally starting the remodeling project we've been working on for a new and improved Seattle home.  When we moved here in 2015, we decided we would live in our house two years and then decide what works and what needs improvement.  Well, this is going on our fourth year in Seattle and yes, it has taken us that long to figure it all out. I'm not going to lie, I've gotten impatient, but it is a process.  If you remember my post about the The Wall ,  we knew early on we needed to do something about our dinning room.  For the rest of our ideas, it was a matter of prioritizing and tweaking, determining our budget, deciding who would do it, and then all the little endless details.  It's exhausting.  As you can guess, the main focus will be the deck.  Because of our view, the deck gets used a lot and people gravitate ...