Small Kitchen Stories: Pasta with Cauliflower & Gorgonzola

I was craving a "fancy pasta" dish..... but dead-easy to make as I was tired from the day's hike. Off to Route 1 Giant you go to find the ingredients.

I am so charmed by this dish I am contemplating other choices: Broccoli and Feta or Carrots and Cheddar?

This dish requires a microwave. :-(

Pasta with Cauliflower & Gorgonzola

Pasta: I used tri-color ribbons

Cauliflower "Organic": cut into florets

Gorgonzola, crumbled

Butter

Ricotta Cheese: a nice glutinous touch but not mandatory.

Prepare the pasta and have it warm and waiting with a slathering of butter.

In a microwavable casserole dish place the vegetable and some water. Microwave until done. Drain. Mash up just enough to make small pieces.

Add in a generous wallop of the crumbled Gorgonzola, a big spoonful of the ricotta, and a dab of butter. Mix in and then cover and microwave for 1 minute (no more).

Mix again and gently toss with the warm and waiting pasta.

Desert: sliced Clementines doused with Eggnog!

Ta DA!

Mayor Diane's Holiday Message

Greetings from Dewey Beach, Delaware.

Dewey is a very friendly and relaxing place where dogs are allowed on the beach.

It’s also one of the few places where you can walk from the ocean and watch the sunset on the bay. We are experiencing an especially cold period right now but hope that all of you have a warm and wonderful holiday season.


Diane Hanson
Mayor
Town of Dewey Beach

Dewey Beach Leaseholds...... Series 1.

2004, I changed my life. I was six years into "Boot Camp", all work and no play, and it was time to have fun...... not just once in a while, but every week!

Childhood Summer memories at Dewey and Rehoboth Beach prodded me to return and find the fun. Since I loved life at the beach as a sand-crab the theory was as an adult I would too!

Summer of 2004, I looked for my beach cottage. As a kid we rented lease-hold cottages on the beach block; as an adult I wanted the same experience.

Summer 2004, what a crazy real-estate market I came into! In my humble opinion the prices for fee-simple and lease-holds were beyond inflated.

I decided not to buy a price-inflated fee-simple beach property, and instead I wanted a property not more than three blocks from the beach; and the cheapest one would do just fine. Thus I bought my Rehoboth By The Sea Leasehold "Beachy Cottage", Second Block from the ocean.

I bought a life style. I found a community of over 300 property owners that did the same as myself.

The lease-hold is the same as buying a fancy vehicle or boat. The money is spent for pleasure and not as an investment.

Sometimes, I do call my beachy-cottage: My Beached Boat.

I am happy to be moored two blocks from the finest beach in Dewey!

Beach Blessings,

Venus and Her Rip Curl Watch!

Today my beloved moon-like-pearl-face, Rip Curl Watch with Automatic Tide System analog Dials returned to me via FEDEX from repair with it's new battery and elegant but girly band.

This watch is so perfect for my beach life, that I forsook my cherished Rado of 20 years, and never looked for the Rado again until the Rip Curl without me headed to California for repair.

My Rip Curl is the only watch I wear at the beach: daytime and going out at night.

I always know the tide; I know where to head for the best beach/surf-action, and I know exactly where to place my beach chair!

I was nearly shaking from withdraw symptoms when opening the returned box. I had lived how many weeks without her on my wrist? I no longer at any time of the day could glance only to know: the tide-high/low, the tide range-highest of highs/lowest of lows, the Moon Phase! The MOON Phase!!!!!

Without my watch I was bereft and separated from a nervous-system connection to my beachy-universe. I still knew by heart and mind the date and current Moon Phase.... but not having the watch's visuals made me anxious and sad.

I bought the watch as I was tired of having a series of Timex's Triathalon Digital Watches drown and die from my swimming and beach life. I had no idea how the Rip Curl would become a gear of my daily beachy-gestalt and provide endless ticking moments of sheer joy.

Beach Blessings,

Small Kitchen Stories: Warm Cottage: Sausage Stew

Early Fall I'm out at Hawk Watch and return home cold and wind blown wanting a warming big-bowl dinner. I'm tired to pieces so the cooking needs to be mindless.

Our favorite Giant/Route 1, fills the cart for dinner.

Chicken Sausages: cooked, 3 to 4, sliced

Cream of Celery Soup: Pacific "Organic" brand

Onions, diced

Garlic, 2 cloves mashed and diced

Mushrooms, chopped

Red Sweet Pepper, chopped

Baby Carrots: "Organic", pre-peeled, whole

Green Peas, frozen, Nature's Promise, 1/2 bag.

Italian Parsley, minced

White Wine and Water, equal parts

Tarragon

Olive oil

In a favorite pot saute up the onion and sausage. Then add in the remaining ingredients. The soup says to add in equal parts water. Use wine for half of the water added. Add in the Tarragon to taste. Make certain you add in a big handful of the minced parsley.

Simmer for about 45 minutes.

Serve next to potato mashers: yellow or sweet!

Applesauce is a nice dessert served with almond biscotti.

Ta Da!

Lewes Trick or Treat: Terrified Children!

Let's face it. 400 year old Lewes is beautiful by day and spooky at night. Flower-potted tiny yards jumble up against graveyards. The entire town revs up for the event. The Fire House members in full gear "costume" hand out candy!

Last year I drove thru Lewes on Trick or Treat evening before meeting up with friends for dinner at Bethany Blues. Big mistake. The town was out on the street making driving terrifying. Yet the drive thru yielded a sight from the Victorian age. 2010 I determined, I'd walk the town.

I swooped into my secret parking space which it seems is not so secret. My goal was to take in King's Highway with its parade of Victorian homes fronted with comfy porches which keep company with at least two graveyards.

The comfy porches were transformed into stages of mini-Haunts of Horror complete with moving mechanical ghouls, light, and music to match.

One porch had to be approached thru a dark yard and a human "ghoul" waved in the kids. Scared me it did!

At another home not only did you have to get past the scary porch but you had to enter the living-room where a family of adult drinking ghouls offered the treats.

Nearly all the children were scared to bits and so was I.

Trick or Treat!

Lewes Ghost Tour! Seriously Spooky!

It took me five years to get used to Lewes: as in not be overwhelmed by the 400 years of history compressed into it's ~ 4 square miles. Lewes comes by it's spookiness honestly.

For five years I experienced Lewes as "spooky". I adore Lewes and wish to be a full time resident, but when I leave the city confines I always feel a release of it's own narrative and happy to be back in the Wild-Wild-West A.K.A. Dewey Beach.

Halloween Weekend was perfect timing for me to do the Lewes Historical Society Ghost Tour! I was ready to learn the stories!

I already knew the sad story of the unknown sailors mass graveyard which resides and is now paved over in the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Passenger Parking Lot! Every weekend when I pass by on my way to Cape Henlopen State Park, I always say a "Shalom" for the souls.

Crazy excited I was to do the tour! I arrived early and waited on the bench while the sky went dark, and I was on my cell while listening to a Halloween poem! I was in the mood!

Our leader Russ Allen comes by the Ghost Tales by his work of surveying all of Lewes 32 church graveyards: ~ 7,000 gravestones! He had us in the palm of his hand for almost two hours as we walked .5 mile from the Lewes Ryves Holt House to the Cannonball House.

We hardly took a step without Russ pointing here and there with haunted happening tales. From Russ's tales, Lewes's Second Street is almost as populated with spirits as tourists!

The reoccurring theme is that all is well until a renovation takes place at which time the resident spirits make themselves known. Another theme was when a haunted house was sold the new owner would call the old owner for ghost tale confirmations. I guess ghost sighting are not required in the real estate disclosure documents!

We ended the tour at the Cannonball House while Russ announced that we were now standing in the most haunted room of the most haunted house in Lewes! As it turned out I unknowingly stood in the very spot where a past owner of the house died from a kitchen fire!

I hope next season Russ gives the "advanced tour"!

P.S.: Yes, I still think lovely Lewes is spooky!

Beach Blessings and Shalom!