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I was given the task of making a video to collaborate with The Barrows House restaurant located in Dorset, VT.

The Barrows House will be using our spätzle in one of chef Zach’s creations, lobster spätzle mac and cheese!

I am proud of how it came out! Not bad for someone with zero tech skills or making videos before this year.

Things are starting to click and I am learning more with every bit of content I make.

I hope you like it!

We’ve been having the most beautiful winter this year, with snow on the ground since Christmas time.

The small amount daily snow that we have been receiving keeps the snow white and dream like.

The other day, I had a craving for shepherd’s pie—technically, a cottage pie since I was using ground beef instead of lamb. I am not a lamb person because I don’t like the flavor.

I keep my recipe simple by browning the ground beef, adding minced onions, garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, a slight touch of tomato paste, beef broth, and peas.

My mashed potatoes are simple and basic. I always add one can of creamed corn to top the beef mixture to add moisture and additional corn as well.

After I top the corn with the mash, I grab a fork and make a design. This design reminded me of an Irish sweater!

The photo I took of the sweater pie I took on our Aga stove made me feel really Irish! I am very Irish, almost 80%, so it felt very fitting.

It was the perfect meal on a cold and snowy day. I served it was short rib gravy that Sam insisted I freeze from our Christmas dinner.

Oh, how I thanked him! It was perfect! I always make a gravy to serve with my cottage pie so this saved me a big step!

I never had shepherd’s or cottage pie growing up in New Jersey. Was it just my family Jersey friends or is it a New England?

The funny thing about me making shepherd’s pie for dinner was that Noah made one the night before! He must have been channeling me or our ancestors. 😂

My adopted mother Eileen’s family came from Ireland but we never had shepherd’s or cottage pie.

She rubbed it in my face every St. Patrick’s Day telling me I was allowed to be Irish on St. Paddy’s Day because everyone was. Thanks, mom.

This was what growing up as an adopted person hurt the most. I hated not knowing where the fuck I came from.

I guess since I didn’t find out I was Irish until I was 48 years old, I didn’t think I belonged in Irish pubs so I never saw shepherd’s pie on a menu.

Even though I don’t drink anymore I still want to visit Irish pubs. It’s more of the feeling and charm than the alcohol itself to me. I’d love to go to Ireland one day as well.

By the way, I forgot to take photos of my plate and my cottage pie. I was hungry, and so looking forward to eating it that I scoffed it right down.

Before I start writing my blog posts, I usually do some research. When I looked at images of Irish sweaters, I hit the nail on the head, thinking my pie design looked like one of the traditional Aran stitches.

My birthday is at the end of the month. Don’t tell Marty I told you this, but I really want a traditional Irish sweater for my birthday.

It’s a personal thing to pick out the design choices since they can mean different things. I do love the design the model below is wearing though. 😉

It is so weird to me asking for a specific gift. For so many years, I could never think of anything I wanted or deserved (mental illness thinking) for a gift.

I didn’t want anyone to spend money on me let alone something I didn’t need. I would always say I don’t need anything when asked what I wanted for Christmas or birthdays.

My mother Eileen took this as face value and listened to what I said and would remind what I told her, I didn’t need anything. A piece of gum would have been better than nothing.

I had a seriously warped sense of my self-worth and worthiness to others. Thank goodness I’ve worked through that bullshit!

That’s water under the bridge now, and even though I have forgiven Eileen, those painful memories pop up.

I acknowledge them, feel them, and let them go.

It’s healthy for me to do this because it makes the forgiveness continue to make me feel free from what those memories used to do to me.

I’m unsure if anyone else will see an Irish sweater woven into my cottage pie, but I do. Being Irish has slowly woven itself into my life, and I love it!

For the record, the cottage pie was delicious and delivered exactly what I was craving and feeling, a comforting meal that made me feel like I was wrapped up in an Irish sweater. ☘️

Before starting this post, I’d like to give you some background information. Marty would complain about my Irish storytelling, but I think it’s essential so you know who I was and who I am.

When I was a newlywed or a young homemaker, I used to read Martha Stewart Magazine and watch her TV show.

I loved every detail of her homes, gardens, and everything and anything she baked or cooked.

She filled my head with ideas, hopes, and dreams. She made me want to reach the unachievable. She made me want to be her in the sense of the word.

Then I got smacked in the face of reality and realized how many peons must have worked hard for her creating her lifestyle that was unattainable to most people.

I realized all of the things I loved cost a lot of money, time, and more effort than one person could ever do.

I said fuck that shit and went about my life with what I had the money for, the time and effort to make our home nice.

With all that being said, this is still kind of post that people can react to in several different ways.

A few of these things I do around the house at this point in my life cost very little, take little time and effort.

First question, is there a difference between light and bright or clean or dirty light?

Light is one of the most important things in our lives without it nothing would thrive and too much of it makes living things go berserk.

Light is important to me in our home. I love candlelight that is just bright enough to see what you need to. I love the bright sunshine shining through our windows.

In our kitchen, I like clean light for food prep and cooking. The light also affects how my food photos look.

I like soft, warm light bulbs, but nothing with a blue tone. I even purchased two hygge bulbs in our back room when we need more light.

We used to have intense bright bulbs in the back room pendant lights which made us squint.

Now when we need significant lighting, it helps us see things but not make us need sunglasses at night.

This winter whenever I was setting my dining room table for guests, I couldn’t figure out why it was so dark when I used lots of candles and the chandelier dimmed low.

This used to be the perfect about of light for dining, but over the holidays I had to turn the dimmer up making a weird light. Low and behold I figured out why this morning. 🤦🏻‍♀️

The led chandelier bulbs were filthy! They were cloudy from grease and dust was sticking to them even though I dust my chandelier usually without the lights on.

I took out the bulbs and cleaned them with a little vinegar and water. Presto! I screwed them back in and had that perfect amount of warm light. Duh!

I guess it didn’t occur to me that led lightbulbs last longer than incandescent one and basically get dirty.

These light bulbs were a few years old and I never cleaned them I don’t think. I guess I never thought about it or maybe I didn’t look up.

Now some people may say good for her if light is that important. It is important since it sets the stage for dining and the mood. People eat with their eyes.

Some may say, good for her but I don’t give a shit what the light looks like while we are eating. I get that.

Some may think I need a second job because I have too much time on my hands to notice such trivial details. I get that too.

To me, it doesn’t matter what other people think when something makes my life feel warmer, brighter, cleaner, happier, cozier, etc.

Everyone who does walk into our home at night always comments how cozy or charming it looks. I beam a little because coziness is something I love.

Coziness gets me through winter, rainy, or gray days. I am also huge into aromatherapy which also helps to create a certain kinds of atmosphere especially if it’s seasonal.

I love simmer pots, naturally scented candles or essential oils to defuse. Spending a little bit more on well-made naturally scented hand soap is another one of my must haves for a cozy life.

I went for years not having the time or energy to care about these things, but at my age I’ve learned that I deserve to indulge in small things that bring me joy or that special feeling.

House stagers are masters of this as are good real estate agents. Home designers and ads sell people that feeling of home.

This is why some realtors bake ready-made cookie dough before an open house or showing.

Personally, I’d prefer a this “place is clean” smell but not in a mothball kind of way. Mothball smell in my opinion is one of the worse smells.

Years ago, we once did a gig at someone’s old home and all I could smell was a musty mold smell which made it hard for me to perform. Ugh!

As I am typing, the globes to our kitchen lights are in the dishwasher. I use the fast setting and the globes are clean and dry in under 40 minutes.

This afternoon, I went around and cleaned all of our mirrors and other light bulbs. All of them were dirtier than I thought. It’s too early to spring clean, but this made me feel good.

Am I being ridiculous for caring? Yes and no. That’s up to you to ponder or not care at all.

Will some of you look to see how clean your light bulbs are? Will some of you clean them and be shocked by how different everything looks?

I’m sure some of you don’t give a rat’s ass and go back to whatever you were doing and never give it a second thought.

This isn’t about shaming people with filthy lightbulbs like mine were, or to inspire people to run around with ADD/ADHD behavior tendencies like me.

This post is more like the Seinfeld show where I am writing about silly or stupid things that make people tick.

Have a great rest of your weekend. I’ve put down my cleaning rags for a while to sit with my girls.

We had a whirlwind visit to NJ to visit my family. We had a great time! I had my first real biological family dinner on Sunday night.

It was a lot of fun and we had many laughs. I felt like I was part of the family and not an outsider anymore which meant a lot.

I was thrilled to finally be in a cousins photo! I am not posting the photo we took because I am keeping my promise of respecting J’s privacy.

The next day, we spent some wonderful time with J. She took us to Costco at our request where we opened an account.

A Costco is coming to Albany, NY in June. We really know our prices and there were a lot of very good deals we took advantage of.

We also went to the beach. No alcohol or drugs could ever make me feel the way the ocean does.

The second I see and smell the ocean and walk on the beach I am in my happy place. I can feel my love of the ocean in deep my soul.

We touched the ocean with our hands and it didn’t seem as cold as I thought it would be.

We went to a real Jersey diner for breakfast and I ate one of my favorite things, a pork roll, egg, & cheese sandwich

My breakfast cost only $7.45 which included home fries. I’ve been living in an expensive touristy state and was giddy when I saw the prices on the menu.

For lunch we ate at a restaurant one block from the beach that has a large gluten-free menu.

I had a steaming hot bowl of award winning New England Clam Chowder and half a turkey club sandwich.

I love that I can get soup and half a sandwich! Again, the prices on their lunch specials menu were reasonable.

We got on the road earlier than planned but we lucked out and didn’t hit that much traffic even though we were going thru the busiest part of the state at rush hour

We stopped to see my sister Jennifer on the way down. I got to see my niece Sofia and my nephew Julian too! Yay!

We were home before 8:30 pm and were so happy to see our girls. Tiredness hit hard and I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

The trip was great and my heart was happy. I do have to say, it was way too “peopley” for us in Jersey and we were to glad to get back to Vermont.

Have a great evening everyone. 🙂

Happy Saturday! It’s been a busy week of work and having dinner with friends.

The other night, we had a delicious dinner at our friend Martin’s house. I wanted to show you how lovely his dining table looked.

Today, I have belly dance practice and some cooking to do. I am bringing some dishes with us as we travel to visit my bio mom “J’s” house on Sunday morning.

J invited all of our cousins to Sunday dinner. I’m excited to see the ones I’ve already met and two I haven’t met in person yet.

I’m really looking forward to our visit. It’s been three years since we were at J’s last.

Marty is looking forward to going to the beach and seeing the ocean.

We both need to breathe in that ocean air and the weather is forecasted to be cold of course but sunny.

Our son Sam will be home taking care of Nelly and Roxy for us. They love him and are as comfortable with him as they are with us.

On our way home, we will be making a quick stop at my sister Jennifer’s house. It’s a bonus to the trip to see her as well.

I am planning on disconnecting from our business and social media while we are away and focusing on where and who I am with.

Be well everyone and I’ll catch up with you when we get back. ♥️

To see my carrot cake oats recipe in email you have to open the email and then click on the title then it makes you open it in a server.

It’s so annoying! I’m sorry, guys.

*** If the video clip isn’t appearing, please click on the blog post’s title, and then you should see it. Oy, technology!

I’ve been experimenting with my Go-Pro camera filming food demo shorts for our spätzle business.

I made a video the other night and figured out what would improve my videos.

I will have to film the Feta Tomato Spätzle demo again to make it better. The real success was that my recipe was on point.

I’ll share it with you when I am ready to post it on our spätzle social media pages. I will be including the recipe like I’ve done for this short video.

With today’s video, the mise en place and the filming took about 25 minutes, whereas it normally takes less than 10 minutes.

All of the overnight chia oat recipes I have tried are delicious, filling, and satisfying.

The chia seeds add plenty of protein to last you until lunch. When I used to eat regular oatmeal I wanted to chew my legs off from hunger.

On second thought, that’s going a bit too far; maybe a finger or two.

Here is my very first food demo short.

Overnight Carrot Cake Chia Oats

Ingredients

1 carrot shredded

1 cup rolled oats

2 tbsp chia seeds

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

2 pinches of kosher salt

1 tbsp maple syrup

4 tbsp raisins

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans 

1.5 cups milk

Additional pecans or walnuts

1/4 cup yogurt optional

Shred the carrot and divide it evenly among your serving jars or containers.

Add the oats, chia seeds, cinnamon, nuts, nutmeg, pinch of salt, maple syrup, and raisins to each jar. Stir well so the ingredients are mixed.

Pour in the milk, dividing it equally among the jars. Stir or shake the jar thoroughly to ensure all ingredients are well combined.

Cover the jars and place them in the fridge to set overnight.

Before serving, give the oats a stir. Top with pecans or walnuts, a dollop of yogurt, and, if you’d like, an extra sprinkle of shredded carrot for added crunch and flavor.

I topped mine with 3 crushed Trader Joes’s Praline Pecans in each jar.

Makes 2 servings

I hope you enjoyed my demo short. I’m tickled pink that I have been able to film and edit videos all by myself.

This my friends is a BFD (Big fucking deal) since I am not a techie at all.

I wrote this post and recipe on my iPhone so the recipe isn’t as fancy as when I write on my MacBook.

I will go back when I have a second and jazz it up a little.

Have a great night, guys. Thanks for watching! ☺️

Happy Saturday! Right now, I am eating a delicious breakfast and enjoying a steaming hot cup of Earl Gray tea.

I am also writing a new recipe to share and did some research on the topic of red dye 3.

I’m heading to Bennington to some run errands and belly dance practice with Kathleen.

When I get back, I am planning on filming a demo video for a new recipe which is part of our quick and easy one pan meals for our spätzle business.

If my recipe works, the next thing I need to do is write the recipe. The original recipe was one of those viral Tik Tok things.

I am not on Tik Tok for the very reason why it may be banned, but the recipes are popping up on YouTube and my social media platforms; which cannot be ignored.

Next comes editing the footage and talk Marty into doing a voice over with the instructions.

Marty used to be a DJ and has a great speaking voice, me not so much.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. He has two left feet and no balance.

It’s a busy weekend for me but I am excited to create and share my projects with the world.

Have a great weekend all!

** No time to edit so please ignore my errors.

Is going through a car wash a frivolous thing? Living in Vermont, if you care about preserving your vehicle and getting rid of salt that can cause rust, then the answer is no.

I love my pick up truck and we are working on paying it off sooner than when it is scheduled to be.

I plan to keep my vehicle for a long time since it’s perfect for me. It’s the right size, color, space, and gets decent fuel mileage.

It’s a total no brainer. We have unlimited passes to Hoffman Car Wash one of which opened recently in Bennington.

We use the ones in surrounding NY towns whenever we are there, but now I can go every time I am in Bennington.

Why in fuck’s name am I writing about a car wash? It’s no big deal in places other than here.

My writing mentor Jon Katz’s voice is booming in my head in regards to my readers saying, “Why should I give a shit?”

Why should you is right?

I just wanted to post my video for those who may be slightly entertained by how much more exciting a car wash is these days.

Long gone are the dark, brown, murky car washes of my youth. Long gone are the 4 guys drying your car off with towels that weren’t white anymore.

Car washes are eco friendly, colorful and wax your vehicle in a blink of an eye.

Car washes are a must to prevent your vehicle from becoming a rust bucket, which is the biggest pain-in-the-ass nightmare for auto technicians in these parts who work on rusty cars.

Let’s call this post an informative post. I have to go to Bennington today, tomorrow, and Saturday.

Yes, I will be hitting the car wash everyday to enjoy the water and light show that I find amusing.

My truck Skye will be happy to take another shower.

Have a great day!

People who really know me well are still amazed at how different I am from a year and a half ago; mentally, they mean not so much physically, but that, too.

When I learned about hygge (hue-ga or hoo-ga) I began creating a cozy environment. It changed how I felt about winter in general.

Last winter, I didn’t mind at all with this new sense of comfy-ness, acceptance, rest, and renewal.

Last winter, planning my gardens, educating myself about gardening, learning to draw, and finding joy in peace and quiet was something new.

That feeling lasted all year. It changed in the summer to watching my veggies and flowers grow, cutting beautiful bouquets, creating a cozy space on our front porch and deck.

The fall is easy to find coziness in almost everything. I found out about coziness during September last year and I haven’t looked back.

I saw this post on a hygge group on Facebook the other day. I immediately answered the question differently than the other 100 comments.

I wrote it’s a state of mind like I knew this my whole life. So many people agreed that it is a state of mind not just a bunch of fluffy pillows, blankets, drinking tea, and candles.

I looked up what a hygge state of mind is and low and behold, it’s described exactly what happened to me and many others around the world.

It’s how the Danish and Norwegian people grow up and are raised to survive their long winters.

In Billy Joel’s song, “New York state of mind,” he romanticizes the state of New York and returning home.

Hygge romanticizes winter and that feeling of home. It touches people who love to be home, preparing comfort foods, reading…you know the rest by now.

Can making a cozy home give you that state of mind? Yes and no. It’s easier if you are happy and content what you have.

It’s a lot harder if you don’t see beauty in the little things in life like a bee pollinating flowers or how a candle flickers.

Hygge helped me survive last year during the holiday season and winter like the Danish. This year I looked forward to winter.

I think I finally understand and can put into words why I act and feel so differently. I now accept and appreciate the little things in my life.

If you are unhappy or have the winter blues like I did can this state of mind help everyone? Maybe or maybe not.

People reading this may may say, “I have the winter blues but I am a happy person.”

I know from experience those two things don’t exist together. It’s like saying I am happy depressed person. I was a depressed person period.

Before I heard of hygge I could not find that state of mind when I was in a state of constant depression. I was missing something.

I think if people are looking for help with that hygge feeling, creating a cozy environment does definitely help set the mood.

Looking within and finding that cozy, grateful feeling in your heart is even more important.

I can describe it like when the Grinch’s heart grew three times that day.

Hygge is like the song by the band Boston. “It’s more than a feeling.” It’s a state of mind.