Just~One~Donna

This month my parents sold the home where they raised their family, my two brothers, my sister and me.  It all happened pretty quickly.  Less than a year ago Mom and Dad decided to move to sunny Florida. Once the decision was made it took less than eight months to purchase a new home more than a thousand miles away, purge sixty years of accumulated possessions, resettle in their new home and say good-bye to the house that once nurtured their family.  Whew!  This was no small accomplishment for two people in their 80s. On the morning of the closing for the house I took one final walk through ostensibly to make sure all was in order for the new owners, but in reality to say good-bye.  As I walked through the empty rooms I remembered... I remembered that winter, long ago, when it snowed and snowed and snowed.  It snowed so much we were able to build an igloo with blocks of snow.  There's never been a winter quite like it. ...

I decided a little over a month ago that it was time to refresh my three season porch.  You know what I mean.  All of a sudden the porch went from a place where I liked to spend my time to a place I never wanted to be.  It was time to fix that. My Porch Before All of the paint in the room needed to be refreshed.  I wanted to brighten the trim around the windows by painting it with Benjamin Moore's Atrium White (PM-13).  The previously white walls needed a little color.  I chose a light butter cream color called Palm Coast Pale (330) by Benjamin Moore.  I thought the sloped ceiling might benefit from a little color as well.  I chose Benjamin Moore's Spring Mint (2040-70). The Color Palette There was some water damage on the ceiling that had to be fixed.  I turned to YouTube for some how-to advice. Water Damage on the Ceiling I was careful and didn't rush the repair.  We also decided to add some trim work that helped...

Italian Cream Cake When Hubby had a birthday recently and I wanted to make him a special cake to commemorate his day.  I thought it would be fun to try a new cake rather than rely upon one of my tried and true cakes.  I've been saving cake recipes that look delicious on my Pinterest board, Let Me Eat Cake .  So off I went to see if there was a cake there that might fit the bill. There were two cakes on the board that I thought would tickle his taste buds.  The first was the Italian Cream Cake from lynn-southernwithatwist.blogspot.com and the second was a Coconut Cream Cake from life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com.  I showed Hubby the pictures of the cakes and read the ingredients.  He chose the Italian Cream Cake. I had never heard of an Italian Cream Cake before.  Have you?   An online recipe search for Italian Cream Cake revealed recipe, after recipe, after recipe.  Where have I been all these years to have missed...

Fresh Spinach Artichoke Dip Do you love spinach and artichoke dip?  Me too!  I enjoy spinach and artichoke dip as a cold spread for crackers and as a hot, gooey dip with pita chips or French bread toasts.  What I don't like is the messy process of making it with frozen spinach.  No matter how hard I try it always seems like I end up with pieces of the frozen spinach from head to toe. The last time I made a spinach and artichoke dip I decided to experiment using chopped fresh spinach in place of the usual thawed frozen spinach used in most recipes.  It worked beautifully with no mess.  Now this is my preferred, no fuss method of making one of my favorite appetizers. If you are growing spinach in your backyard garden this recipe is a great way to use some of your spinach bounty.  If you don't have a backyard garden just grab a bag of baby spinach from the produce section of your grocery store and you'll be good to go. Donna's Fresh Spin...

Have you gotten into the smoothie habit?  A couple of months ago I started drinking smoothies as a meal replacement once a day for four or five days a week.  Some days it is a breakfast smoothie.  Other days it might be a lunch smoothie.  Occasionally I replace dinner with a smoothie.  I  have three basic recipes I rely upon, each with approximately 300 calories, or less.  Each has a very different flavor profile, so I choose the one that suits my mood and taste buds that day. A Raspberry Banana Smoothie for Breakfast or Lunch This post contains affiliate links that compensate me for your purchase. My Raspberry Banana Smoothie I've researched smoothie recipes on the Internet looking for flavorful and healthy options.  There are many, many smoothie recipes online you can try.  You'll want to be careful, though, because it is easy to pack too many calories into a smoothie and that defeats the purpose of introducing sm...