It's New Year's Eve, December 31, 2012.  My resolution will be to work on my blog!  I still want to write about my Gram, Lucy Lista, and I want to do a page devoted to my Mom's "Eleanorisims", which are things that she said to me that pop into my head from time to time.  However, today, I want to share some photographs of things that I like and also things that I believe.

Starting with what I like.  For our rental cottage I have been working on the four back to back vintage bookcases since we turned he property into a rental.  The bookcases are ever changing, but this winter I reached a point with them that makes me smile:

There is one more shelf to share.  It's the blue shelf, but I have to get the photo oriented correctly before I post it.  What I enjoy most about the shelves is although the books are ours for many years, everything else has been found here or there.  Some of the shells were found on the beach, others at Thrift stores.  Little paintings are true found treasures.  

To start the New Year off I have also decided to post a message I sent to my Hobe Sound Yogis.  It's advise about exercise.  It's my own personal philosophy based on my own experience as a person with very little talent, or natural ability, but a lot of will to try!   I can place myself inside all the people who struggle with exercising because I am one of them.  The difference is my will to never give up!  

I think to have a happy, healthy life one must have balance.  In other words, enjoy a glass of wine, but not the whole bottle!  Do not smoke as smoking effects your lungs and makes everything around you smell.  Smoking can also affect your energy level.  It's addictive and hard to quit, but the benefits of leaving it behind are so great that you must find a way!  I know, as I am a former smoker!!

Weave exercise into your life so that it's not a chore, but just part of your very existence.  Eat a balanced diet of real food vs. processed food.  Be mindful of what you eat.  Be mindful of how you treat other people when you are driving, walking, or just bumping into someone in a store, etc.  Smile first!  Always smile first!

Here is what I sent the Yogis:

Dear Hobe Sound Yogis,

Happy New Year!  It's raining on the Florida west coast this morning.  A great day to read the paper!  The following are several interesting articles for your consideration.  

As we approach the New Year and make resolutions for better health and fitness, let's all remember, especially, in Yoga, to take our time setting poses.  To listen to our body and do only what feels good and makes sense.  Make adjustments for your personal comfort.  Make a goal to gain control of your body through Yoga.  Yoga should never hurt your body.

In other words, customize  your Yoga Practice to yourself.  During the hour, lay down, slip into Child's Pose or simply stand at the top of the mat when you feel the need or want a break.  Never push beyond your personal comfort level.  Build your practice over time.  Consider a new pose and maybe try part of it, vs the full version.  Build the pose over time with the realization that you do not need to do the extreme version of the pose to benefit from the pose. Use the balance bar, wall, or sturdy chair to assist balance.  

Strive to create your very own unique practice, vs a practice that looks like another Yogi in the class.  Some arrive at Yoga after decades of dance and gymnastics training.  We cannot expect to have that type of ability without the background.  However, we can achieve satisfaction from creating our own unique practice using our own personal ability.  

If you are using Yoga to recover from an injury, take it slow.  Follow your doctor's advise and use extra caution.  Common sense and patience is required to build strength and flexibility after an injury.  Listen carefully to your body!

If you are planning a new fitness regime for your New Year's resolution, take it slow and mix it up.  Walk, bike or swim to develop cardio fitness.  Start your cardio program with 5 - 10 minutes a day and slowly increase to 15, 20, and eventually  30 minutes or more.  Try a new group exercise class, but build up your ability over several weeks vs. on the first day. Go into the gym and learn a new machine or all the equipment with the help of a Personal Trainer. To stay motivated beyond the month of January, find a fitness buddy to work out with.  Try to build exercise into your daily routine:  walk to the quick store, ride your bike to the beach.  Take a flight of stairs.   Be creative when doing chores.  

Most of all have fun!  Make it a priority to enjoy yourself and laugh and have fun.  Stay active in ways that suit your personal style so that it's not "exercise", it's just your life, your routine, your way of living and having fun.

I look forward to seeing many of you on January 3, 2013.  Have a safe and Happy New Years Eve!

Namaste!

Nancy

ANOTHER LOVE STORY

After remembering Eleanore and Mitty's Love Story, my thoughts now wander to yet another Love Story.

It all started with a slim gold wedding ring and a text message. “Hey! Mom!  You know that thin gold ring you gave me a long time ago?  The inside is  engraved  . . . TIFFANY . . . and there is more engraving that’s Nov. 3, 1914 PGL to LMD . . . what’s the story behind this???   It’s AWESOME!!!

Lucy Mary D.

Paul George L.
playing poker with Paul George L.

We were traveling in the car.  My husband of 31 years was driving, as I read the two text messages from our daughter out loud.  He immediately suggested his grandparents.  As their last name began with a "D".  I said, “no way, your Mother only gave me one piece of jewelry and it’s in the safe deposit box.  That ring came from my mother’s things.  Remember when she died and my sister kept both Mom’s and Gram’s diamond rings, and gave me that box of “junk” jewelry?  The ring I gave Lisa in High School was from that box.  Humm. . . PGL to LMD.  Paul George L. to Lucy Mary D? ” That would be my grandfather to my grandmother back in November of 1914.  At that time they lived in a small coastal town on the Jersey Shore.   Could this small ring be telling us their Love Story?  

In 1914, to buy a Tiffany ring Paul would have taken the train to NYC from Long Branch, well over an hour’s ride.  Not to mention, maybe also a ferry ride each way to get to New York City to buy a wedding ring.  From the size of the ring he obviously did not have much money, but he wanted to give Lucy a good ring and is seemed only Tiffany’s would do.  To confirm the story, when we returned home later that day I called my Aunt and Uncle.  Yes, Paul George L.  married Lucy Mary D. November 3, 1914!

We will never know if Paul  really did travel to New York City to purchase the slim, gold ring for his beloved.  No matter how he acquired the ring, this is the way I choose to remember them both.  Sadly, I never met Paul as he died when my mom and her brothers were young.  As a young widow, out of necessity, Lucy, our Gram, went on to be a full time working mother and career women at a time when very few women left home to support their families.  

Lucy

I promise to share   Lucy's remarkable story on another day.  It was only by chance that I passed the slim gold ring to Lisa.   I am thankful that by doing so, we uncovered Lucy and Paul's Love Story.

WAR TIME LOVE STORY

We fly our flags this weekend to honor our fallen heros.

We owe a great debt of thanks to all the veterans of the U.S.A.

As I think about what Memorial Day means, I remember this World War II, Love Story.

My parents met before the war. Like everyone else, when Pearl Harbor was attacked,  Mitty enlisted.   He must have taken an aptitude test because before he shipped out, he was sent to Telegraph School.  There are photographs in Mom's old album of Dad's first day at school and then at graduation.  Upon graduation he received his assignment and went directly over seas.  For months, Eleanore and Mitty wrote letters back and forth.  At some point, Dad had leave in the U.S. and landed in Kansas City, MO.  He asked my mom to get on a train and come as fast as she could to Kansas City, MO.   He asked her to marry him. 

War Time Wedding Portrait of Eleanore and Mitty

Eleanore grew up and lived in a small New Jersey coastal town.  At that point in her life, I believe the farthest she traveled from New Jersey, was to New York.  It's hard for me to imagine her taking a train across the country.  I do think her love for my father made her brave and strong.

At Sunday dinner, she announced to the family that she was going to Kansas City to marry her beloved, Mitty.  My Aunt Frances, Gram's sister and  family matriarch, said:   "No, you are not getting on a train and traveling alone across this country!"  

Lucky for my Mom, her older brother, Alfred was at dinner.  He stood up,  and firmly told Aunt Frances, "Eleanore loves Mitty.   As far as he was concerned, she was getting on the next train to Kansas City to go and marry him." That day, Uncle Alfred became the head of the family. Although Mom was close with both her brothers, I now understand why Eleanore so loved and adored her big brother, Alfred.

Dad on his ship at work sending and receiving coded messages.

I am sure that Uncle Alfred put Eleanore on that train and Mitty met her at the station in Kansas City.  They married, like so many other couples did at that time.  She stayed with him until he shipped out again, over seas.  

Happy Newlyweds strolling in downtown Kansas City, MO

Uncle Alfred in uniform

Younger brother, my Uncle Joe in uniform

Uncle Joe in the field

Uncle Alfred

Eleanore and Alfred as children

We were a lucky family.  My dad and my uncles all survived WWII.  They came home and each went their separate ways.   In spite of the distance separating everyone, the family remained close.  I have great memories of visits during holidays, vacations and birthdays.   Eleanore and Mitty remained together until his death from heart failure in 1972.  Eleanore was never the same after he left us.  She eventually succumbed to cancer in 1981.  When I think of them I always see them together: happy and completely in love.

Mitty

Eleanore

ABOUT SEWING . . .

In my last post I mentioned I had been sewing.  Over the years, I go in and out of sewing.  It started when Lisa was small and I decided to make her a dress.  

Then we planned a Birthday Party at a Chocolate Factory, and I decided to make aprons for all the party attendees.  

Then years passed and I did little or no sewing except for a Halloween costume or two, until I started practicing Yoga, again and taking a Yoga Teacher Certification course.  Then I came up with my Yogi Bags.  The Yogi bags started because I was practicing Yoga with friends in my neighborhood.  We often rode bikes to each others home to practice.  How do you carry a Yoga mat on a bike?  So, I made a simple bag for myself, and then  bags for friends, then more elaborate bags, and on and on.  

The Yogi Bags are fun to make and I learned a lot about sewing by making them.  From time to time someone needs a bag and I have a nice selection to offer.  

Earlier in the blog I posted about a small bag I had found as inspiration  to make my own small Pocket Bag.  Using fabric on hand, I eventually morphed the small Pocket Bag into a big Pocket Bag.  This is what they turned out to be:  

The bags are fun to make and like my Yogi Bags, they have one on a kind vintage buttons.  No two are exactly alike (I cannot do anything the same way, twice, anyway) and they all carry the Good Karma Yogi Bag label!  Like the Yoga Mat Bags, they are fun/addictive to make.  All it takes to get me going is some fun fabrics.  

If you are interesting in sewing, but have never sewn before, I will share with you a bit of advise from an old friend from Boston, MA,  Alice Ann.  She always said, "half of sewing is ironing."  Turns out that this is very true!  Wash and iron your fabrics first and then continue to iron all through the project.  If you can iron a straight line you can sew one, too!  

When my bags become a big business you all can say you knew me when . . . .  Now, instead of messing around on the computer, or with the sewing machine, I must focus on getting my real house in order!  

PIZZA, MEATBALLS AND TOMATO SAUCE

It's Sunday and after a bit of sewing, it's time to do some cooking!  We are running low on sauce, so I will make Gram's Meatballs and my Mom's Tomato Sauce!  Before getting started, let me share with you why I need to make homemade Tomato Sauce.  It's all about the PIZZA! 


Most Friday nights, I make Pizza.  Back in the day (Texas) I would make my own dough, but living in Florida, where we have a Publix Grocery Store, I have succumbed  to buying my dough from their bakery.  Just preheat the oven, roll out the dough, add sauce, minced garlic, salt and pepper, garlic powder, fresh basil, spinach, chicken sausage, onions, mozzarella cheese.  Well, you get the picture.  It's perfect for dinner and a movie in "The Man Cave" with a glass of red wine.


Friday night I noticed my frozen supply of Tomato Sauce was getting low, so today, I got to work cooking.  Starting with my Gram's meatballs.  What I remember most about Grandma  Lucy's meatballs is that they were delicious.  So was her sauce, but I do not have her recipe for sauce.  Anyway, they were flavorful because she used a lot of grated cheese and minced/grated/pressed garlic.  When I asked her for the recipe, she told me a handful or this and that.  Over the years, my rule of thumb is when in doubt, add more cheese, add more garlic!  They taste great every time.  

Grandma Lucy is in the middle of my Dad's sister,
Aunt Suzie  and her daughter Marie Soldo

My favorite memory of being a kid was waking up on a Saturday or Sunday morning to the smell of meatballs cooking in the kitchen.  My mom would always give me a "taste".  Fantastic, and so delicious!

I always use my Mom's large Tupperware bowl.
This is what you need for  Meatballs. 

Don't even attempt to make Meatballs without garlic.

Start with fresh "Market Ground" beef, add one egg, some
 Italian breadcrumbs, and grate Romano cheese over all.

Add minced or grated garlic, parsley, salt and pepper.

Mix all of the ingredients by hand and form balls.  

Heat Olive Oil over medium, and add some of the meatballs.

They are starting to brown up and look good!

 This is how they turned out:

Now, onto the sauce!  When I asked my Mom how to make sauce, she was very ill.  I remember sitting across from her at our kitchen table and writing it all down on the reverse of a used envelop.  I never understood why my mom saved and used everything to the last drop until I was much older.  Of course, having survived WWII, she learned how to stretch a dollar.  I admire her as the first person to influence me to conserve and reuse.  To learn how to make something out of almost nothing.  My sauce recipe started with my Mom and it has evolved over the years, so honestly, it's a combo recipe created by us both.  However, I still like to give her credit for it because no one cooked better than my Mom!

Eleanore, my Mom in our family room
at 363 Branch Ave., Little Silver, NJ 

Eleanore & Mitty (Mommy & Daddy)
young, and in love, before I was born.

First things first, start with Italian tomato's.  

The can must say imported from Italy. This is what you need.  It's so easy, why not make some homemade sauce?

I like to add the vegetables because it gives the sauce body and texture.  Start by cleaning the onion, celery, carrot and garlic and putting in the food processor.  Mince to a fine consistency.  

Brown the vegetables in the pan you used to make the meatballs.  I drain off the oil  so that the minced vegetables
do not stick to the pan, nor do they swim in oil.
Cook well until all are soft and slightly brown.

Add Tomato Paste and cook well, until the paste is slightly brown.
Remove from pan and put into your crock pot.  

De-glaze the pan with some red wine.  Add the wine and pan drippings to the crock pot.

Now, start opening up the tomato cans and puree them in your food processor.  Add the tomato's to the crock pot.

Mix the tomato, wine and vegetables.  You can thin with more red wine or beef broth.  

Take a break and "test" a meatball!

Cover the crock pot and cook on high until bubbly, then on low for several hours.

Oh, and since I am making sauce, how about Chicken Parmesan for dinner tonight?    I am running out of time and so will just post the photographs for now.  

Wash Chicken Breasts in cold water

Dip into flour seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder

Coat Chicken well in flour.  Shake off excess flour.

Dip in beaten water and egg mixture, coat in seasoned breadcrumbs.  Cook on medium in about 2 tablespoons of oil.  Drain on paper towells.

Put fried breasts in oven proof pan, top with sauce,
sprinkle with grated cheese.

Slice mozzarella cheese and place on chicken.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 - 40 minutes. Serve with spaghetti and sauce.  

This is one of my "kitchen assistants".  He likes to hang out in the event I drop something yummy!

A fresh green salad is also nice with Chicken Parmesan.