Love The Sparkle (Wordless Wednesday)

Fruit Cocktail Cobbler

I now have a new heart shaped Le Creuset dish (a Shallow Heart Cocotte with Light Gold Heart Knob! 😃) that finally just recently arrived in the mail, a gift from Bruce for our anniversary. 

It's a petite casserole dish, and it made me wonder what it would be best used for. I started thinking appetizers, and Katie suggested a cake. It would need to be a smaller sized cake, but that would be okay.  

I then remembered a mother's tea cake that Small World School would serve for the moms in the spring. It was a fruit cocktail cake, and it was so good! I had found a recipe that I thought was very similar for that cake, and put it in our family cookbook, Simple Supper, but of course, that recipe would make a much larger cake than would fit in this small dish. 

So, I got creative and found a can of fruit cocktail and half a box of lemon cake mix in the cupboard, and then ... fruit cocktail, sprinkled with lemon cake mix, and sliced butter on top in the little Le Creuset Cocotte made a pretty decent fruit cocktail cobbler!

I will still try to make the original recipe sometime soon.

Extra Special Book Club Beauties

We celebrated Mona's birthday yesterday at our March Book Club, and we celebrated an early Saint Paddy's Day, too, with Irish themed food including Shepherd's Pie, green pistachio salad from Kat, homemade Irish soda bread from Mona, a rainbow fruit salad from Cathy, and chocolate birthday cake with vanilla ice cream. Cathy is also recovering from surgery on her knee, but that didn't seem to slow her down from enjoying the party!

The Candle

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult will be extended to our next meeting in April at Mona's. Did you know that the library will only let you renew a book three times? So it was lucky that I happened to have a copy that I could lend to Cathy. A neighborhood friend, Shelley, knew that I enjoyed novels by Jodi Picoult, and had passed it on to me. And, a friend of hers had passed it on to Shelley. I love how these things work out! 

Shepherd's Pie

Mona's Irish Soda Bread

Cathy's Rainbow Fruit Salad

Kat Decorated 💕

Our Photographer was Bruce

How do people know how to do these things??

Pork Chops With Mostarda

Lucky for us, we were invited over to Jake and Brianna's for supper a couple of weeks ago. Their new living room furniture had been recently delivered, and we were excited to see it all set up. It also seems that Tony, orange cat, is quite possessive of the new furniture, as he made sure to try and squeeze underneath me as I was attempting to sit down! 

Jake cooked for us, and made pork chops with mostarda (which he describes as a "chutney-like sauce made from fruit such as plums and pears usually, and mustard seeds and spices") with a side of sautéed kale, all of it being very delicious. Plus, chocolate for dessert.

pork chop with mostarda

They seem to be loving their new home but, of course, extra responsibilities come with owning. They have a good sized yard with mature trees, and already one of their big trees fell down last fall, fortunately missing the house. This then gave Bruce and Jake a chainsaw project to work on together! 💕  

Clover Pond

I think their back yard will look lovely in all seasons of Minnesota, but Clover Pond which is down the hill of their backyard, looks especially pretty this time of year. 

Up North For The Weekend

 

fishing was great!

yummy

Nick Island

Buttsa slept pretty well in the Cabin Crib 💕