Geraniums in the Window

Ever since I was a little girl I always loved the idea of flowers in the kitchen window, in particular brilliant red geraniums. 

 Referring back to my love of vintage (doesn't vintage sound better than old?) t.v. shows like Bewitched and the Waltons. Samantha always had the bright red geraniums in her kitchen window while Olivia Walton had a softer white flower on her sill.

source

 But for the last ten years my kitchen windows have always had a lot of shade due to the beautiful maple that once stood about 25 feet from the back of our house. And since we had the shade I've always used impatiens, which I do love, in the boxes off of the kitchen windows. Well thanks to Super Storm Sandy last fall, I now have an abundance of afternoon light which will be pouring in through our kitchen windows this spring and summer, most of it being the stronger afternoon sun that I know geraniums love. So today I was on Pinterest and started pinning different ideas of geraniums in and around the house...here is some of what I pinned.

This final pic is from the Designer House Tour last spring in Bucks County Pennsylvania. Click here for the complete garden tour.

Aren't these all amazing ideas? Geraniums are simply a classic as far as I am concerned.

Although I am going to seriously miss my beautiful trees in the back, I am kind of excited about new flowers in my boxes! 

(Maybe even some new window boxes too.)

Have a great day!

XO

 Feel free to re-pin these pics from my board but not from here, I wouldn't want the owners of these photos not to receive proper credit. Just click here to re-pin.

Chicken Margarita with Tequlia~ A Family Favorite

This is a new take on the whole tequila and chicken combination. Actually it was my hubby's brain child. The idea came about the other night because I wanted to make my chicken Picatta but was out of wine, so Mr. Rosemary Lane suggested I use tequila instead. To be honest the whole idea of chicken plus tequila in a dish totally peaked my interest, so I began to Google chicken and tequila recipes. While I found a few recipes I liked, for some reason the combos I came across were not completely working for me with regard to ingredients. In my head I had the notion of tomatoes and fresh mozzarella for this dish. So I created a new recipe to reflect my taste and ideas.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. fresh cilantro, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

2 T butter

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1 small red onion, chopped

3/4 c. chicken broth

4 T tequila

3 T lime juice

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, un-drained

1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

cumin, garlic and onion powder for seasoning

1/2 cup half-n-half

dash of black pepper

10 oz. fettuccine

Fresh mozzarella sliced or

cubed into small pieces

Place a pot on the stove with salted water and heat to a boil for pasta. In a deep saucepan saute the cilantro, garlic and jalapeno in 2 T of melted butter for about 3 minutes. Add the broth, tequila and lime juice and cook for another 5-8 minutes or until the mixture is reduced by half. Then you can go ahead and add the bell peppers and onion and saute until the vegetables become soft. In the meantime add the fettuccine to boiling water and cook according to package directions for pasta to be done al dante.

To prepare the chicken just rinse and pat it dry, then pound it down flat. Season the meat with a little cumin, onion and garlic powder, plus salt and pepper. I like my meat grilled so I cooked the breast on my Foreman grill, but you can also grill it on a conventional grill, just don't overcook or you will loose too much of the meat's juice. When the chicken has cooled some, cut it into bite size cube pieces.

Once vegetables are soft add the cubed chicken and cook through. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes and then stir in the half-n-half and heat through. When the sauce thickens toss with the pasta and mozzarella, season with pepper and then serve immediately. Garnish with more cilantro.

This was well received by both Mr. Rosemary Lane and the kiddies. It is pretty easy...most of the work is in the preparation of the vegetables with regard to all the chopping and that can be done well ahead of time.

Serve it with your favorite margarita and enjoy!

The weather is finally getting nice in our little part of the world, so I'm hoping to be able to attack some of my furniture projects I have sitting in the garage. I also need to finalize a color for our master bedroom redo along with getting myself out to the yard and garage sales which are beginning to pop up. 

Spring is in the air!

XO

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Our Dude Ranch Getaway

Our kiddies have their Easter break this week and Mr. Rosemary Lane took the week off as well, so we planned a little family getaway together. For two days and one night we were in Kerhonkson New York hanging out at the Pinegrove Dude Ranch and Family resort.

The ranch getaway is an all inclusive package, and food was pretty much available from 10 am on, so Michael and Grace just ate and ate! (Mostly fries and soft serve ice cream.)

No worries though, activities at the ranch also ran from 10 am until after 10 pm every day, so there were plenty of things to do to burn off all of those extra calories! There was everything from swimming to softball and BINGO.

Our family got in a little archery...

...even some doge ball which I have not played in decades!

The kids just adored the bouncy pillow...and what kid wouldn't right???

But above all, we loved the horses best.

Horseback riding was available the nominal fee of  $20 per adult and $10 per child for a one hour horsey ride. 

I couldn't resists snapping this beautiful view of the Catskill mountains. You can tell that it's early spring, look at the tree branches above Grace with its buds ready to burst open.

We had so much fun and I have to tell you that we were all pooped out for the ride home. From now until April 18th kids under the age of 18 can stay at the ranch for free. For further information on Pinegrove Dude Ranch just click here to follow the link to their site.

XO

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Cheerios and Lattes

Over the Door Shelf

Last fall Mr. Rosemary Lane put this darling shelf up over our back slider, the only problem was that we placed it too high. Finally the other day Mr. RL lowered it so I could put up a few taller items both as decoration and storage.

I also replaced the black curtain rod with a thicker white one. A few little items from Home Goods fit nicely in the space. Some mason jars are filled with dry beans so I was able to get them out of my pantry.

We are leaving for a night's stay at a Dude ranch up in NY...never been to one before...should be loads of fun!!!

XO

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