what awaits miss anna when she arrives:

quiet morning walks

and apple blossoms!

j.may

a visit from a friend!

Annie and I at the beach this morning...and yes, we are wearing winter coats!

Little Miss Annie made an appearance at The Barnacle and spent the evening with me drinking wine and eating some really delicious treats... she could only keep saying "ohhhh, you and Anna are going to have such a good time here this summer!" and I couldn't help but agree!  She got me even more excited (if at all possible) for my next visit from Miss A.C.B. in June.  The Cottage anxiously awaits your arrival!

j.m.s.

Metals..

 

a.clay

ODE TO HAWAII..

 

Discovering Picassa can be a very addicting hobby-if you like collaging and photo editing that is..

A.CLAY

it has been a while

Things have been picking up in Maine lately... a lot of baking for Squash Blossom (thankfully) and Sweets and Meats Market is coming along (double thankfully).  I have also started a yoga teacher training program that is fantastic!  However, I have lost the internet connection at my cottage which has made this keeping in touch really difficult.  So bear with me...there will be more!

j.may

Strawberry Shortcake..

 

On my way home from work the other day, i stopped by a little farm stand selling strawberries and ended up bringing a basket full home..so i decided to make a strawberry shortcake recipe i found in Tartine, which turned out to be quite delicious.  Throw in my new addiction to Picassa (thanks to Jessica) and i've got a fun collage to show off this simply lovely, old-fashioned dessert.  Without forgetting the hand whipped cream to top it off of course. I couldn't even remember the last time i had this, so it was a welcome treat for me and the boys, as well as the javabean crew whom i shared it with the next day..take a peek at the Tartine Bakery Cookbook if you are not already familiar..it is an array of exquisite, yet simple dessert creations (plus a few savory recipes but mostly sweets).  Not to mention the beautiful pictures and the full of praise forward written by Alice Waters. 

a.clay

a walk on the beach

water patterns in the sand

j.may

WYSTERIA..

Wysteria blooms around the beginning of April and man does it grow like wild fire down here in NC..it happens to be one of my favorite flowering vines, although like kudzu (an incredibly invasive vine), consumes everything in its path.  But it sure is beautious!

BROCCOLINI MELTS

So it shouldn't come as any big surprise to those that know me well, but, i LOVE broccoli.  Always have.  Broccoli soup was my fav and was what i asked for every year for my birthday meal. I was flipping through one of my Moosewood cookbooks the other day, Simple Suppers (thanks Dave Mac) and found a really simple, fairly effortless meal which involved four of my favorite food items:sharp cheddar cheese, dijon mustard, bread and a close relative of broccoli-broccolini..which looks like a shrunken version of broccoli, with small florets and long, thin stalks. It is often misidentified as young broccoli, but is a cross between broccoli and kai-lan, Chinese broccoli. A natural hybrid of the cabbage family, it was developed by the Sakata Seed Company of Yokohama, Japan. Broccolini's flavor is sweet, with hints of both broccoli and asparagus. Jess-i know how you feel about conventional broccoli so you may prefer the flavor of broccolini..and besides, it's a fun word to say! Sounds kind of italian...

Anyway, all that went into preparing this meal was spreading some dijon on the bread of your choice, toasting for a moment while sauteing the vegetable in olive oil with some garlic, salt and pepper, then pulling the toast, topping with the broccolini and laying slices of cheddar on top to broil until cheese has melted. Yum. 

a.clay 

returning to spring!

Oh wow! It has been a while and it appears as though Anna and I have been neglecting our blog.  There is a perfectly good explanation for this... we actually got to see each other in North Carolina this past week!  Oh yes, and boy, it took an 18 hour car ride from Spruce Head Island, Maine to Hendersonville, North Carolina, then another 1 1/2 hour car ride to Charlotte, NC where Anna (with boy Phil and friendy friend Nick in tow) picked me up in a hotel parking lot.  We then proceeded another hour to Star, NC.  Arriving at their second floor apartment on Main St. in Star at 9p.m.   We woke the next morning to travel 40 min. to Southern Pines (aka Star's Hollow he he) where Anna had to work all day (so I took to wandering the streets of this small town over and over again).  We did squeeze in a small demo on an old Letterpress by a friend of Anna's and a little bar-b-que with bonfire.  The next morn, we were in the car once again for the 3 1/2 hour trek back to Hendo.  Just chillin' with my gal was worth all the car time.  

The rest of the trip to North Carolina was fabulous.  Lots of good food, spirits, and laughs with old friends. . . we always love a good trip to North Caroline!!  (However, the laundry upon return was a bit daunting, but we took full advantage of the wonderful spring weather and used the line at my mothers house...ahhhhhhhh SPRING!!)

a sure sign of spring

j.may

my first button hole

We celebrated my sisters 31st birthday on the ninth...and, with things the way they are (financially) I dug through my stack of favorite prints and decided to sew her up a little hand clutch.  I found some material I had bought in France and a button from an Oregon purchase.  I added a quote that I found and typed it on my old Smith & Corona and added it to the inside of the clutch.  I hope she gets some use from it!  

j.may

yup...this is our friend!

Sambones just sent some pictures of all her....what would you call them....epoch adventures?! and this is one particularly good one.... just had to share!

j.may

oh wait....this is good too.....

Grey mornings, Meet warm thoughts...

warm thoughts....

 

j.may

after a rough day, I feel inspired!

So, while researching Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton (the legendary moonshiner who just killed himself to avoid a jail sentence for my other blog Squash Blossom), I came across a blog of his daughters, which led me to her website, which is her myspace.  Anyway, long story short, this is her quote and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it so much I want it tattooed all over my body:

"Ladies, live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders and says: "Oh, shit - she's awake!"

j.may

Salt Art

So i was peeking around on the Free People blog this afternoon and stumbled upon some very interesting art..salt art!...who knew?  Done by Motoi Yamamoto. 

This one in particular made me feel calm and reminded me of springtime which is upon us..but there are quite a few on the blog that are a million times more elaborate and amazing to look at..there is quite a story behind salt itself...so seeing it used this way only enhances it's uniqueness..check out the other pics and the artists site if you have a sec..

the sea bag...

I can always tell when it is Spring . . . 

I want to redecorate

I want every Free People item I lay my eyes on

I want to reinvent myself....  and this year, I want a Sea Bag.

I just discovered these today and they are even better in person than they are in pictures and they don't even show my favorite bag on their site!  But here are a few images to whet your appetite and I would highly recommend glancing at their web page for a better view.   All the bags are made from recycled sails so they are durable, eco-friendly, and enchanting!  What more could you ask for??...oh, did I mention they are made right here in Portland, Maine?!

j.may

A Cooking Obsession..

My love of food-good, wholesome, food-hasn’t always been such a huge part of my life, but i do believe i was destined to get there at some point when considering my upbringing. When i was  little, my mom made all of my baby food from scratch. And as i grew up, smashed apples and pureed sweet potatoes for breakfast turned into puffed wheat or cheerios. There wasn’t a whole lot of unhealthy stuff in the house (especially since my grandmother also lived with us and she refused to put sugar in ANYTHING-thankfully now, all her baking includes sugar) until i was about 15 or 16. So i grew up enjoying tastes and flavors that the most kids maybe weren't exposed to, and although i fought my mom on this tooth and nail during those lovely years of adolescence,  begging for her to buy me Lucky Charms or something that had a sugar coating on it, i am so glad that she was insistently against it. My parents also cooked almost every night, but i never wanted anything to do with the kitchen or any of the food preparations. I didn’t even want to boil water-nor could i..So it came as a shock to my mom when i became very interested in my eating habits-reading food labels, experimenting with the vegetarian diet, and eventually, cooking. Now i can’t get enough of it. I’ve become obsessed with cookbooks, buying the best ingredients, and the creative outlet and satisfaction cooking can give you. I believe the best meals are when they are shared with friends-or close family-and that has only become more true since living in a small town in the south with little to do. When we first moved down here, and i was jobless for 4 months, it was a great opportunity for me to educate myself on kitchen basics, tools and techniques, which i did by reading most of my cookbooks cover to cover. Man, i learned alot! But being bored and jobless for that amount of time also gave me the opportunity to experiment with all kinds of different recipes, and feed those experiments to a couple of hungry men..ie Phil and Nick. But above all, there is really no better feeling than cooking a meal, sitting down at your table and watching everyone enjoy the fruits of your labor.

a.clay

how i spent my afternoon

wow, I need a job.

j.may

this one's for you chris...

I found this blog and I LOVED the name so much that I checked it out.  Not so bad, I must say, but the name just out does the entire site!!  So, when I read the title, I immediately thought of my best friend over there in the great state of North Caroline and it made me laugh so hard that I couldn't resist posting it.  And really..............how GREAT is this title!  

My Love For You Is A Stampede Of Horses

j.may