I am not a vegetarian, but I really love vegetables and eat vegetarian a few days each week.  Cooking without meat is low cost and usually takes less time in the kitchen!

With Swiss Chard being in season, I decided to make one of my favorite quick meals; a Swiss chard saute.  This can also be made with spinach, kale or escarole...take your pick!  Whatever works for you and your family.  



Swiss Chard Saute

1 Tbls olive oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 large bunch of Swiss chard, roughly chopped and stems removed
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
1 can while beans, rinsed
1/4 teas red pepper flakes

Cooked brown rice, optional

Heat olive oil in a saute pan.  When the pan is hot, add the onion and cook until softened, three to five minutes.  Add the Swiss chard and broth, cover the pan and let cook until the greens are wilted, about three minutes.  Add the beans and pepper flakes.  Toss lightly until beans are warmed through.  Serve over brown rice, other grain or serve alone as a main or side dish.






I hope you enjoy this and look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time,

A few months ago, Bill and I went on a weekend getaway to Madison, Wisconsin.  Madison is a favorite of ours; Bill went to school there and it reminds me of where I went to school in Ohio, so we always have a great time.

One store on State Street caught my eye this trip - Anthology.  It is this super-cute store with lots of creative, hand-made crafts and sophisticated crafting kits for sale.  Sophisticated crafting - yes sir, I'm your kind of gal!

I spent quite a bit of time in their great store and came out with some handmade cards and this...a kit with all of the materials for a pretty paper garland.


The kit made putting it together so easy!  All I had to do was punch holes in the triangles and then string them on the ribbon provided.


Ribbon?  Guinness heard this and got into the act.  It is nice to have such a supportive "helper."


The papers the folks at Anthology chose for this project were so happy and fun...perfect for adding an extra-special 4th of July touch to our breezeway.


And here we go...the final product.  How easy was this???  It was a little fun thing to do inside on a hot summer day in Wisconsin.  Thanks Anthology and please make sure you stop by their terrific store the next time you are in Madison for a Badger game or other special occasion.


Until next time,

Chicken, chicken, chicken.  Bill gets tired of chicken, so we haven't had it for a few weeks.  I thought tonight I would use the chicken tenders that were in the freezer and complement it with some great farmer's market finds.  I made a creamy dill sauce with chicken and beans.



I started by getting out the rice cooker and starting some Trader Joe's rice mix.  Yep, we just throw those into the rice cooker.  I think it only took about 15 minutes start to finish.

In the meantime, I tossed the tenders in a little flour and grilled them for 4 minutes on each side.  I then removed them from the pan and covered them with foil while I worked on the sauce:

Sara's Dill Sauce

1 shallot, diced
1 TBLS olive oil
1 TBLS butter
3 TBLS flour
1/4 c chicken broth
1 c heavy cream
3-4 TBLS fresh, chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste

After removing the chicken, add the olive oil to the hot pan.  Add shallots and saute, bringing up all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add the butter and, after it has melted, add the flour.  Cook the flour thoroughly, at least two to three minutes.  When there is no flour visibly present, add the chicken broth.  Then add the cream and dill.  Cook for four to five minutes until thickened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

For the beans, just steam them and add a little butter, salt and pepper prior to serving.  So easy!  In fact, this meal was ready in less than 30 minutes, so although it looks like a Sunday night special, this can easily work into any weeknight routine.



I hope you will give it a try and let me know what you think!

Well I am recently back from what was the trip of a lifetime to Paris and Barcelona.  I came back with so many photos, food memories and new ideas to share.  I thought I would put together all my photos in one album and share them with you.  I will also share other parts of my trip as time goes on, but this Flickr gallery has the highlights!  Enjoy!

June 2012 Vacation Gallery 

Hello all,
As some of you already know, I am crazy about traveling.  I like to learn about other cultures and, through the culture and its people, learn more about myself.  In about six weeks, I will be traveling for eight days in France and Spain.  Can you believe it??

I am traveling solo for this trip.  Bill does not like airplane travel and so I have decided to go it alone.  I have traveled by myself quite a bit over the years, I am generally fine with it and am looking forward to the adventure.

For five days I will be in France.  I am so very lucky to have been able to secure French Open tickets for the trip.  For those of you considering such a trip, please plan well ahead so you might be able to purchase tickets directly from the venue.  I saved a TON of money by buying direct and not working through a ticket broker.  This does mean I had to purchase my tickets in the middle of the night on February 15th, but it was well worth the bother.

The second part of my trip will be spent in Barcelona, Spain.  I have wanted to visit Barcelona since I was in high school, having heard about the city through a presentation in Spanish class. I am only spending a long weekend in the city, but am blessed to have secured a room near the Ramblas in a small family run hotel.  The owners have been just terrific through email and I am looking forward to getting to know them in person in the next few weeks!

Although I have little to report on right now, I do invite your comments regarding traveling...do you like traveling alone?  Any suggestions regarding travel attire?  I hear Parisians are generally well dressed at all times.  Also, any help in figuring out my itinerary for my free time would be greatly appreciated!  I welcome your comments.  See you soon,

Some of you know I LOVE Tennis; I just love it.  I play two to three times each week year around, which is saying a lot given I live in Wisconsin.  For me, tennis isn't just a sport or a great workout, but a lifestyle.  It is the clothes and the tennis totes.

Well the French Open is going on right now...although I actually don't really much like watching professional tennis, I do check in time to time to see what the women are wearing on the pro tour.  So today I checked in...what is in at the Open?

PURPLE

Source: www.rolandgarros.com

Victoria Azarenka shows this trend well.  Her NIKE brand tennis dress (coming soon to a tennis store near you, for sure) shows how refreshing the purple trend can be.  

BRIGHTS
Source: www.rolandgarros.com

So how can the average player translate this to real life?  Well, you will notice both these pro players are sponsored by NIKE and NIKE does a great job translating trends to their consumer line.  Go figure; both these trends are already in stores!  If you like these trends, take a look here:

 This is the Violet collection by NIKE.  I found this photo on midwestsports.com's website.  They are a favorite of mine and I order from their site often (full disclosure; I pay what you will pay!).

For those looking for something even brighter, how about the Cerise Pink collection?  Also NIKE, also from Midwest Sports:

And these are just the choices from NIKE!  Other brands have other excellent choices.

Although my league team uniform colors are black and white, I think this is the season I go for the brights! I hop you will join me!!

Hi friends!  At Christmas, I was very lucky to have a work colleague give me some honey as a gift.  It was from her own honey bees, which was really cool.    



A side note: when you move to a new town or part of the country, one of the first things you should do is find some local honey.  Using this honey will expose you to local pollens which might be new to your immunize system.  This could help reduce allergic symptoms.  It certainly won't hurt, in moderation.

Soon after the holidays, I thought I would make a really nice desert for a work colleague who was celebrating a birthday.  Chocolate seemed appropriate.

I really have good luck with Giada DiLaurentis' recipes, so when I found this recipe for a Chocolate Honey Almond Tart, I knew I had stumbled upon a good one.

It did not disappoint!  It was very easy and fast to prepare!

My secret to the crust...Chocolate Teddy Grahams!  Much cheaper (and easier to find) than chocolate graham crackers.



So pretty much all I had to do was bake this crust (for a pretty short time), heat up some cream and honey on  the stove, and then added the chocolate...



Mmmm...in minutes it turned into this!



It was yummy...the perfect choice for your Valentine!  Could not be easier folks; if you have 30 minutes you can make this fancy-looking desert!  Give it a try.

Question:  What are YOU making your HONEY this Valentine's Day?  If you are not in a relationship, how are you treating YOURSELF to something special?