Ray & Dom – Just Getting Started with their Premiere Game
BananaGrams – America’s Newest and Most Popular Word Game
Purchase BANANAGRAMS, a most delicious and joyfully competitive new word game, at your local drugstore or retail outlet for less than $15.00. Make or buy a Banana Cream Pie. Call 1, 2, or 3 friends, and you’ve made a party.
BananaGrams, Pie and Plates – Easy
My friends, Ray and Dominick, joined me for a “parlor party with pie” (and, cocktails) this week. These guys thrive on competition, do not like to lose and learned the game quickly. In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I will tell you that Ray won two games and Dom won the third. I seemed to corner the market on Q and Z letter tiles! Yeah, can you spell Loser!
Win or Lose, it’s fun to get together with friends, “share a few words”, and make merry. A good way to Snap Out of It!
After hanging out in America for more than 60 years, living in 6 different States, there are many things I value about this Country. The List of Gems and Treasures noted below are what presently enhance the quality of life of my entire family, ease and lessen our challenges and are possible because we live in the USA. Honoring the fact that I have two daughters and, my brother, Buck, and I have seven granddaughters, the First must be:
Women’s Rights – Friends, near & dear, far & wide – Clean Water – U.S. Postal System – Weight Watchers English Toffee Crunch Bars – iTunes – Right -to-Vote – Pandora – FDIC – Garbage Collectors – Oprah – Honeybees – Statue of Liberty – National Audubon Society – Free Speech – Interstate Highway System – Our Medical Community & American Hospitals – The New York Times – Trader Joe’s – Neighborhoods – The University System – Libraries – Religious Freedom – Trucks – The Chicago Cubs – Jeans – The Atlantic Monthly – Home Depot – Dentists – Golden Retrievers – The New Yorker – Apple Products, MacBook Pro’s to iPad’s – The Iowa State Fair – Vanilla Bean Ice Cream – Porches – Colorado Blue Spruces – Google – U.S. Park Service – The Rocky Mountains – HDTV – Aspen – Hillary Clinton – Six for Supper – Pixar Animation Studios – U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service – Yosemite National Park – NPR – Uncle Sam – Washington D.C. – Cell Phones – Walgreens – Heating & Air Conditioning – Hotshot Crews – Social Security – Skype – The Constitution – the Internet – Owls – National Audubon Society – Alice Waters – Sierra Club – Pinterest – Aspen Institute – United Airlines – Target – Las Vegas, yeah, really! – Metropolitan Museum of Art – Maps – Taylor Swift & Justin Bieber – AutoPay – Old Glory – Molto Vegas Farmer’s Market owned by Mario Batali – Jigsaw Puzzles – Band-Aids – The Colorado Rockies – Medicare – Margaritas – Dishwashers – Garage Door Openers – Volunteers – Facebook – Elizabeth Warren – VISA – Digital Cameras – Refrigerators & Freezers – U.S. Forest Service – Sierra Nevada Mountain Range – Passports – The Bill of Rights – Herb Gardens – American Wines & Cheeses – E-Mail – Joshua Trees – Hybrid Cars – Fat Tire Beer – Rhubarb Pie – Oxo Kitchen Utensils – Gail Collins – Multi-vitamins – San Diego Zoo – Jeopardy! – VISA – Our Armed Forces – BananaGrams – Peet’s Major Dickinson’s Coffee – Public Television – HBO Documentaries – Birthday Celebrations – Congressman John Lewis – Liberals, Green Geeks and Tree Huggers – PlannedParenthood – Bureau of Land Management – College Kids – Jane, Always Being Jane – Popcorn – Taxes, I don’t mind paying ‘Em – Firemen & Cops – the Barefoot Contessa – Anna Quindlen – Women Drivers – National Park System – The Lion King– Saguaro Cactus – Colorado River – Death Valley – Best Western Hotels – Rachel Maddow – Ibuprofen – The Declaration of Independence – Iowa.
On this Special Week-end of Celebration, take a Time-Out to think about what You love and value about this Country.
French Fridays with Dorie – Chunky Beets with Icy Red Onions
Dream Dinner on the Côte d’Azur
It’s All About the Beets
It’s hovering around 105 degrees in Las Vegas these days so I hosted a Dream Dinner this week. My guests chose where they would rather be (Cote d’Azur) and I did the magic. The only caveat was it had to be a destination “involving” BEETS !
Since French home cooks often don’t roast their chickens themselves – they buy them off their butcher’s rotisserie – I did the same. To the menu I added French Potato Salad Niçoise (without the tuna), Dorie’s Beet Salad, Baguettes (de ma boulangerie très française), and a couple of bottles of Sancerre. For dessert, a Raspberry Sorbet with Madeleines. Now, what could be easier that that?
Chunky Beets with Red Onions, Individually Plated
If you like Beets, this is a simple salad that can be made early. Loaded with fresh herbs, the dressing is tangy. But, the recipe calls for a teaspoon of honey. That’s all the sweetness you need.
A Dream Dinner in the South of France? Try to beet that!
It’s true that Old Glory is a bit tattered and faded. Granted, Uncle Sam’s lost his Edge. Those worry lines, permanently etched over his brows. And, isn’t Lady Liberty getting a little fleshy? Like me, she should never go sleeveless. That American dream – “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage”? Good Luck with That!
But, here’s the Question.
“For what other country would you forfeit your American citizenship?”
On our upcoming 235th Birthday, lift up Yourself by lifting up America.
