Taking a Long Vacation:

to be with my daughters and granddaughter and sister and their men. I'll be back though... hopefully relaxed and ready to share lots more! See you April 12th or so!

A Girl:

The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast --
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.

Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child -- so high -- you are,
And all this is folly to the world.

by Ezra Pound

What A Difference A Week Makes:

I looked out my front door and took a photo. Seven days later I went back to my front door and took another photo.

Last Sunday, March 21, I awoke to snow and 31 degree temperatures... this Sunday, March 28, I awoke to blooming & budding and 72 degree temperatures. Hello Spring 2010!

Get Your Motor Runnin':

I have a hard time listening to music of 1969-2005... the years my late husband and I spent together. So when I'm in the car and don't have my ipod, I listen to talk radio -- conservative talk radio. (I am in love with Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, Bill Bennett, and Dennis Miller.)

A few months ago though, I had to drive my young son-in-law's truck for a couple of hours and the radio was tuned to Lone Star 92.5 FM. Instead of switching stations, I listened to it for a while. It didn't take me long to realize that this was a hardcore guy's radio station. I had to laugh... everything about it was geared toward men. The advertising included Nascar, rock concerts, trucks, Monster Jam, Autrama, Harley Bike Nite... you get the picture. The music included rock groups like Def Leppard, Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey, Tom Petty, Queen, U2, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, and The Eagles. And the announcers talked about a variety of "manly" things, mostly sports. It was like inhaling Old Spice, dirty locker rooms, and puppy dog tails!

I'm curious to know out how many listeners they have and what their marketing data collection looks like. But why do I think this is so funny? I guess if there are "chick flicks" there can be macho radio stations as well!

Hoppi's Big Heart:
When my girls were small, a holiday tradition I established for our family was buying a yearly book. On the inside cover, I would write "The Cook Family" and then the year the book was purchased. I bought Christmas (of course!), Easter, and Halloween themed books. With each passing year, we accumulated quite a library. I would pack the books away once the holiday was over, and then pull them out as the corresponding holiday approached. I usually stacked them on the coffee table in the den/family room so that the girls could read them whenever; they became an intricate part of our "holiday decorating." Even though the girls are now in their twenties, they still love for me to pull out their holiday books. They love reminiscing past holidays through the books.

I've begun the same tradition for my granddaughter. For this Easter, I've purchased "The Easter Egg" by Jan Brett. It's a darling book about a rabbit named Hoppi. "Brett's finely detailed watercolor and gouache art is a showstopper, spotlighting lifelike — though nattily clad — rabbits decorating eggs in hopes of winning the role of the Easter Rabbit's helper. Hoppi is awed by bunnies' creations, which include an ornate chocolate egg and a 'whirling, twirling mechanical egg.' But when an egg tumbles out of a robin's nest, he keeps it safe until the baby bird hatches. Borders of twigs, pussy willows, daffodils, and ferns add greatly to the warm, visually sumptuous setting of this gentle spring story. Ages 3-5." Publishers Weekly

Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books... with over 35 million books in print (yes, I said 35 million!). She is a very talented artist who also has an amazing blog that I recommend to you.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail:

During my childhood, like most American families, we had holiday food traditions. While my Mother is an excellent cook (great, wonderful, really excellent), I grew up in the 50s/60s and our food represented the times. Easter always included: deviled eggs (made after the Easter Egg hunt!), lots o' ham, potato salad, baked beans, and ambrosia salad (you know -- canned pineapple, canned oranges, coconut, whipped cream and colored marshmallows!)

Now, don't get me wrong, I love ham -- Honeybaked ham especially -- but when it was my turn to do the choosing for my foodie family, our traditional Easter dishes changed. I try to make healthier, fresher, locally grown choices. Our menu now includes grilled lamb chops with cherry-mint sauce, sweet pea risotto, and grilled tomatoes and asparagus... dessert may include something sinful, but usually its just left over candy from the Easter Bunny!

The following recipe for cherry-mint sauce is A-MAY-ZING and amazingly easy... wish I could remember where I got it. Anyway, I promise, it will surely become your family's favorite side for lamb too.

Cherry Mint Sauce:
2 cups dried cherries
4 cups Cabernet
2 cups mint stems
1 cup mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1/8 cup cornstarch
Place cherries, wine, and mint stems in a large skillet and bring to a boil; cook until reduced by 2/3 and then remove stems. Whisk in chopped mint and sugar. In a small bowl, mix together water and cornstarch to form a slurry, and then add to the cherry sauce. Cook the sauce until it coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Get Lost In The Magic:

As I'm beginning to discover, every person walking on this earth has a story to tell... every person lives a life filled with tragedies and triumphs.

Chet Baker(1929-1988)... what can I say about this man -- this jazz trumpeter -- that hasn't been said before? "Chet Baker was one of the greatest melodic soloists of mid-century American music." Chet Baker was talented, appreciated, tormented, damaged, forgotten, rediscovered, and died. What he left behind was a body of work that touches my soul. His trumpet and voice beckon me to places I haven't been before.

While watching the Sundance Channel this weekend, I saw again an award-winning, Bruce Weber documentary about Chet Baker's life entitled, "Let's Get Lost." It is filled with his music, a fascinating series of interviews with friends, musicians, his children and ex-wife, women companions and lovers, and is interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life and some modern-day performances. The intercuts of footage from the 1950s, when he was part of West Coast Cool, are amazing and engaging. It's the young Baker, he of the beautiful face, in California and in Italy, where he appeared in at least one movie and at least one jail cell (for drug possession). And, then we see the aged Baker, detached, indifferent, his face a ruin. Shot in black and white, the film belies its age -- it doesn't look twenty-three years old.

Check out some youtube cuts of my favorite songs: Time After Time, My Funny Valentine, Tenderly, I've Never Been In Love Before, Autumn Leaves, and Arborway.