The Joy of Letter Writing

August 2, 2016August 2, 2016 carolannmccarthy6 Comments

When was the last time you wrote a personal letter for no reason other than to let a friend or relative know you were thinking of them? I wrote two letters a few hours ago. This is a daily ritual with me. It feels great to take my mind off my own life and focus on the life of someone else. I have my regular pen friends, but I also enjoy sending letters off to relatives and local friends, people I like who I don’t have the opportunity to see often or ever!

I enjoy pausing in my busy day to reflect on life for if I go, go, go and never stop life becomes one long “to do” list offering me no chance to ponder and appreciate those very things that I’m doing. I double my fun by “doing” things and then “reflecting” on those things. Lord Byron (one of my “dead friends”) had it right when he said, “A life without reflection is a sad affair.” I think reflection is important. It gives us a chance to stop and relax in between activities.

I could reflect and keep the reflections to myself, but I truly believe sharing doubles the joy, so I share my reflections in the letters I write to my pen friends. My pen friends then share their reflections with me. It’s a wonderful cycle.

I know I could use the telephone as my way to reach out to others, but I might call at an inconvenient time for my friend. Just because I’m in the mood to share doesn’t mean my friend has the time just then. A letter is polite. It arrives, but can wait to be read at whatever time is convenient. It can also be kept and read again and again and again. A letter is lasting. Why would someone want to reread a letter you ask? Well, if we write letters full of kind thoughts, compliments and beautiful ideas our friends might like to reread our letters when they need a lift.

Besides all this, there’s art involved in letter writing, not only the personal art of our handwriting, but also the opportunity for us to enjoy a little art play as we create our stationery. Creativity is very therapeutic and good for the soul. There are plenty of machine-made items in the world today but how many handmade articles do you encounter daily? A hand written letter will always stand out because not only is it personal, and handmade, but it is also quite rare in these modern days.

I love writing letters but I get equal pleasure from receiving letters like this one from my pen friend Sarah in Viroqua, Wisconsin. With lots of pen friends the whole world becomes your friendly neighborhood. As you write to all sorts of people with all sorts of interests and experiences your life is enriched.

My pen friend Sarah is a real health food person. She shares all sorts of healthful recipes with me and whether or not I make these things I enjoy reading about them – things like her snacks of yogurt with carob powder and sorghum. Sarah eats sorghum morning and night. She says it digests slowly and is a good fuel source. Did you ever eat sorghum?

Sarah buys grass fed beef hot dogs, chops up 2 eggs right out of the shell, adds celery seed with a liberal pad of butter, some spinach, parsley or cilantro, and cooks it all up to create a lunch she loves. Well, it’s not exactly a lunch I would love, but I enjoy the subject of food and discussing it in letters is interesting to me. Would you find this subject interesting too?

Sarah said she doesn’t eat much bread but if she does indulge it has to be Sprouted Organic Ancient Grains – The Queen’s Khorasan. Ever hear of it? I hadn’t. It’s made with sprouted khorasan wheat, an ancient grain that entertained Egyptian royalty more than 5,000 years ago. Who would know? Pen friends teach me all sorts of things about food and about many other subjects as well.

I may not be able to hop on a plane and travel to far off places, but because I have pen friends in those far off places it’s easy for me to enjoy virtual outings whenever these friends write to me sharing their world. One such special friend is Joanna who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Besides her beautiful handwriting and her Scottish news I love to see the stamps on her envelopes.

Joanna also shares picture postcards from her travels. These post cards always contain lovely descriptions and lots of background information. I could just read The New York Times travel section (which I do read) or National Geographic, but there’s something special in getting a friend’s personal reaction to a place. Do you recognize the picture above? It’s a picture of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Joanna visited it recently and found it interesting that in any other Renaissance building most people would spend hours admiring the painted ceilings, the immense collection of classical sculptures and the portraits of European monarchs of the 16th and 17th centuries, but she noticed no one was paying any attention to any of those features at the Uffizi Gallery because they were too busy looking at the other paintings. I too love art and my pen friends help me see things I would otherwise not have a chance to see.

Did I just say I love art? Yes I did, all kinds of art, so you can see why I enjoy finding creative letter envelopes in my mailbox. This one is from my pen friend Kathy who lives in York, Pennsylvania. Kathy loves cats. She often draws a cat on her letter envelope among other things). I love seeing her art work. She especially loves her cat Alice, but Kathy loves lots of good things that I also appreciate, especially her love of classical music and singing in a choir.

No, this isn’t Kathy’s Alice, but I wonder if Kathy would dress Alice up in this way. Kathy tells me there was a “dress up your pet contest” and this cat pictured was a winner. I wonder if Alice would put up with a hat and earrings. My dog would never have heard of such a thing. But to each his own. I have some catnip in my garden and I’m planning to send it to Alice via Kathy. I never had a cat, but I do love animals, and any friend of Kathy’s is a friend of mine, a friend deserving of a little present now and then.

Letters are wonderful. I can’t imagine living without them. Some letters are serious and others are whimsical. Some letters educate and others just share simple pleasures. Letters add so much to my life and I know they would add as much to your life too.

I hope you are a letter writer. I hope you have lots of lovely pen friends as I do. I hope you enjoy art play creating your very own stationery. It’s all so good! The Art of Letter Writing is not a lost art. It still exists. All it needs is You! Write your friends and relatives. Join The Letter Exchange if you need a few new interesting pen friends. Leave a comment on this post. I’d love to hear from you myself.

Just Write!

Afternoon Tea on the Porch

November 2, 2015November 18, 2015 carolannmccarthy10 Comments

Afternoon tea is all about relaxation, enjoyment, and taking time to refresh the spirit.

Creating a daily tea ritual is one way to bring a little grace into modern life and sharing our tea ritual with others only doubles that grace. Everyone seems to be busy these days but how nice it is to stop the comings and goings now and then to spend time around the tea table with friends and family. This is a most simple but elegant way to entertain.

We have the telephone, e-mail, text messages and social media, but to sit across from our guests, listening and sharing in person… that’s special. Hosting afternoon teas is one very nice way to celebrate the importance of relationships.

And so today I’ve invited three dear friends to join me in my afternoon tea ritual. The door is open ready to receive my guests. We could be meeting at a tea establishment, but I think there’s something special about sharing tea in a home. After all, we work to make our homes cozy and comfortable. These efforts should not be for ourselves alone. Sharing our home doubles the joy our home gives us. Sharing anything and everything doubles the joy. Sharing in life is important. What have you shared lately?

Each of my teas is served in a different setting. Creating these different sets in different rooms is a large part of my fun. I choose different linen, different china, different flowers and at least one different food item at each tea. Today I’ll be serving on the porch, but as guests arrive, one by one, we’ll gather in the library, then go out to the porch all together.

An afternoon tea party is a little like a theatrical presentation. Having details in place and a plan of action helps to make things run smoothly. Also it’s nice to have pretty things for your guests to enjoy – music, fresh flowers here and there, fragrance… These and other little niceties may not be necessary but they will delight your guests and make their visit more enjoyable.

Earlier in the day I made scones, my basic recipe. Over the years I’ve learned it’s not important that the food served be elaborate or very plentiful, just that there’s something to nibble on. The most important thing at tea is the tea itself and the sparkle of joyful eyes as they share, listen, laugh and enjoy each other.

Raspberry preserves and clotted cream are a perfect accompaniment to the scones and really all the food one would need for afternoon tea is not only about the food. It’s about the sharing and relaxing together. Simple and easy does it. But if you do enjoy cooking and baking the sky is the limit.

I decided to add some Caper Deviled Eggs and Cucumber Canapes

with Lemon-Pepper Aioli to today’s tea menu. Something old, something new.

The ingredients for the eggs are: 6 hard-boiled eggs, 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard, 1 tablespoon very finely chopped celery, 1 tablespoon very finely minced capers, 1/8th teaspoon salt and a garnish of parsley.

The aioli is made by combining 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice, 1/8th teaspoon of pepper with 1/8th teaspoon of salt. This aioli is piped atop a thin slice of English cucumber which sits on a thin slice of white bread.

Scones, deviled eggs, cucumber slices, simple items, quick and easy to make, but pretty finger foods to present at table.

And though the food is simple I try to make the place settings special by adding flowers. Simple but lovely, flowers create magic with their beauty and grace. Of course if you love to collect pretty things as I do now is the time to use the embroidered linen napkins, the silver, the cutwork tablecloth and the antique china. These things shouldn’t be collecting dust in the cabinets. They should be used and enjoyed regularly.

Without very much work at all the table is ready to receive my guests.

And here they are. Terri, Carol and Joni, three lovely ladies who make my day and my tea a very enjoyable experience.

The porch got a going over before the girls arrived… a little dusting and polishing. Cleaning is never my idea of great fun, but when company is coming I have a good reason to do that cleaning and then not only is the house nice and shiny for the company, it’s also nice and shiny for me and my husband.

So I encourage you to host your own afternoon tea. You may think tea parties are a thing of the past, but you’re wrong. There’s something about an afternoon tea that makes it seem just right for us now. It’s a complete treat – a physical pleasure. a social gathering, a chance for intellectual exchange and a spiritual experience for we’re sharing plenty of spirit at tea.

Most of all the afternoon tea experience enriches everyday life by gilding the moment with importance. It celebrates life in a most genteel way. When your tea is over you’ll sit back on your porch remembering all the fun you had and you’ll feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that you and your creativity brought people together sharing joy.

Only you can loosen your day’s demands.

Treat yourself and your guests to the old world pleasure of

Afternoon Tea.

“I say, old chap. you’ve been invited to join me for tea!”

August 19, 2015 carolannmccarthy7 Comments

On this Country Inn Day I, the Innkeeper, will be hosting a high tea. As usual I invite someone old, (an old acquaintance) someone new, (a person I like but don’t know very well, (yet) and someone borrowed maybe two (one or both my guests may be asked to bring along a friend. And of course I’m now inviting you to come along and join in my fun.

My guests today are Andy, an old friend, Mary Fran in the flowered jacket who I met recently at a most joyful funeral and Robin who is Mary Fran’s good friend. A more spirit-filled threesome would be hard to find.

As Innkeeper I rose early and began setting the stage for tea. After all, staging a high tea is very much like staging a theatrical production. The setting is most important if we expect our guests to feel serene and special. I decided this particular tea will be served in the formal dining room. As Innkeeper I enjoy presenting tea in various locations in and around the Inn. On a beautiful day it could be tea in the Secret Garden with the birdies singing for everyone’s enjoyment or on an Autumn’s day I might serve tea in the Outbuilding with a fragrant wood fire blazing in its old fireplace. Variety adds spice to life and to the Inn’s entertaining.

There’s much to do in order to be ready for my guests. As Innkeeper I’m in charge of choosing the china, crystal, linens and menu. I’m also in charge of the flowers.

Flowers are a must at tea. Their beauty soothes the savage soul and we all have those savage moments in modern day life. Roses are my favorite and very nice in the formal dining room.

I’m also in charge of polishing the silver. Every tea need not use silver, but high tea in the Inn’s dining room requires nothing less.

Though I’ll be serving three different teas today – Darjeeling, Oolong and Apricot tea I do enjoy serving a glass of Carolans Irish Cream as a postlude treat.

How many Innkeepers have a luscious blend of Irish cream, honey and mellow Irish spirits named after them? My name is CarolAnn, CarolAnn McCarthy – very Irish (though I was born 100% Polish) so it’s rather nice to serve a beverage made in Ireland at this “CarolAnn’s Country Inn.”

I, the Innkeeper, can’t do everything for this tea. I turn the food over to the Inn cook. Of course the Inn cook also happens to be me, but whatever. Cook planned three courses for today’s tea – first a plate containing chicken salad in puff pastry, broccoli salad and fruit.

In case you might like to whip up the chicken salad here’s the recipe.

Chicken salad

2 cups cooked chicken, cubed, 1 cup celery, finely chopped, 4 small green onions, chopped, 1 cup mayonnaise, 2 tsp. Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste, frozen puff pastry, thawed and baked and caramelized pecans chopped. (To carmelize pecans simply heat 1/2 cup sugar till melted stirring constantly, then add the pecans. Turn the pecans out onto wax paper and then chop).

The second course is Scones

The scones were baked and then cut into squares. Scones are simple to make and usually loved by all. Here’s Carol Ann’s recipe: Mix 2 cups flour with 1 T. baking powder, 1/4 t of salt and 4 T of sugar. Cut in 6 T of butter and then combine 2 eggs with 1/3 cup of cream and mix into the dry ingredients. Shape into two round or square large scones, put a bit of cream on top and sugar, then bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

Cook loves to use the French Bonne Maman’ preserves with English Double Devon Cream atop the Irish scones making then an international hit.

This tea cake is the thrid course. It is a new recipe Cook made for today’s tea. It’s nice to try out one new recipe at each tea keeping the rest of the menu tried and true. Luckily this cake came out beautifully and was quite yummy. You ought to try it yourself. I think you’ll like it.

The recipe comes from this book called “The Great Tea Rooms of America”. It’s written by Bruce Richardson. Let me share the recipe for today’s tea cake with you.

Ahrens Tea Cake

1/2 up butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tsp. vanilla,2 cups all purpose flour,2 tsp. baking powder,1 tsp. baking soda, 1 cup sour cream.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together and add eggs and vanilla. Combine and mix flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add to butter mixture. Fold in sour cream. Spoon half of the batter into a greased and floured bundt pan.

Filling

1/2 cup sliced almonds toasted, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 cup brown sugar

Combine almonds, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Sprinkle onto the middle of the batter. Cover the filling with the remaining batter and bake for 35 minutes.

If you bake this tea cake you can serve it at your very own tea. You are planning to have a tea of your own soon, aren’t you? I certainly hope so. Tea is all about enjoyment, relaxation, and taking the time to refresh your spirit and the spirit of others. Like letter writing it’s a beautiful and gracious art that must not be forgotten.

So the food is prepared and the table is set.

The buffet holds the tea cake and the Irish Cream.

The guests arrive and the next few hours are a wonderful time where joy is shared, old friendship is nourished and new ones are cultivated. Work and worry are sturdy weeds you know, but joy requires cultivation. Sharing tea is one wonderful way to cultivate joy!

It’s been such fun talking, nibbling and sipping tea as I was transformed once again from Innkeeper and Cook into just another Inn Guest. Quite magical how this happens on my Country Inn Days. But all good things must come to an end. The guests leave reluctantly and I’m transformed one last time, now into Inn Maid.

The dishes need washing.

The crystal too must be cleaned and made ready for the Inn’s next entertaining event.

And the linen used today is washed and hung to dry.

The tea party now exists only in my memory and in this blog, but I’m left with a lovely afterglow. What a nice experience it was. Yes, there was some work involved, but that work was actually fun and well rewarded. Not only did I have the chance to exercise my creativity and use those things I collect and love, but I gave of myself to others and everyone knows…

When you give good things come back to you.

That’s for sure. The glow of friendship is like nothing else and my guests at this tea were so full of spirit and love I came away feeling blessed, in fact, at one point they actually placed hands on me and prayed that my cancer treatments go well . When was the last time your friends prayed over you? Like I said, these were very special guests.

And besides the glow of friendship (as if that’s not fabulous enough) Mary Fran and Robin sent me a present, ordering it from their smart phone right at the tea table. It was a cd, “Music from a Secret Garden.” You see, I mentioned my Secret Garden to them and they told me they had the perfect thing for the next tea I host there. How sweet is that?

Very sweet indeed!

So that’s about it for yet another very blessed and wonderful Country Inn Day. My next Inn Day may take me off to a spa or out into nature or perhaps on an adventure or two, but whatever the Inn Day I know it will be wonderful fun and I hope you come along. So till then be sure you live abundantly. That’s what God has in mind for all of us and it’s up to us to make that happen.

Go to it!

Country Inn “Lunch Out” Day

April 2, 2014July 7, 2015 carolannmccarthyLeave a comment

If you’re like me you enjoy good food, and if you’re like me, you also enjoy going out to lunch for that good food every now and then – and not going out just anywhere, but going out to exceptional establishments that create scrumptious food and present that food with flair.

If you’re like me you enjoy ambiance, a setting that’s beautiful in some way, a setting that lifts you up. So when I’m choosing a restaurant I always look for a place that offers its diners some form of beauty. The restaurant might be situated in a lovely natural setting or it might be in the middle of an exciting city aglow with bright lights and activity. I might choose a restaurant with European flair or historic significance, but whatever sort of place it is I expect it to ooze beauty in some way. Beauty is important to me and yes, I’m particular, but I think we all should be particular. Going out for food is not just about the food.

And if you’re like me, though you’re perfectly capable of dining out all on your own or taking a “dead friend” along via a book, you may also know the pleasure of dining out with a good friend or two or three.

So, because I love good food, lovely friends and places of beauty, I have designed certain Country Inn Days to combine these three elements creating a “triple treat day”. I call these days of delight Country Inn Lunch Out Days. Variety is the spice of life you know, so each of my Country Inn Days has its own special focus and today that focus is “lunch out”. Yum!

I hop into my car and drive 45 minutes northwest, venturing into the city of Cleveland. There, just west of downtown, in a neighborhood called Ohio City, exists one of my very favorite restaurants, The Crop Bistro.

This restaurant is in a building which was constructed in 1924 and opened in 1925 as the United Bank Building. It was designed by Cleveland’s foremost architectural firm, Walker and Weeks, men who attended The Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying a form of academic neoclassical architecture called Beaux-Arts. Their work progressed from neoclassical styles, through Italian Renaissance, and ultimately ended in Art Deco/Moderne.

This was the bank of industrialists John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. It is no wonder the building has a feeling of prosperity and splendor.

Every detail in this building is beautiful, a work of art, from its opulent coffered ceiling

to its massive marble pillars

to its generous windows and wall fresco.

It’s no wonder Chef Steve Schimoler admired this building and decided to restore it, converting it into his own very special restaurant. He designed the Crop Bistro in a minimalist fashion in order to maintain its integrity and beauty. The restaurant’s dramatic setting takes diners back to an era of pure grandeur and there’s nothing like a little (or a lot) of grandeur on my Country Inn Days.

I arrive at the Crop and take my place. It’s a taste treat just to imagine all the entrees that are offered.

A few minutes later Sarah comes on the scene to serve me. She is just the nicest gal with a warm, sincere smile and a lovely manner. A nice restaurant can be spoiled if the employees aren’t nice too. Sarah earns a gold star from me.

A few minutes later my luncheon companion arrives and here we are. Meet my friend Connie. We’ve known each other since high school days and aren’t old friends just the best? We order a bottle of wine today because this “Country Inn Lunch Out Day” is a day to celebrate life. Of course every day is a day to celebrate life, but perhaps not always with a bottle of wine.

We talk, Sarah serves us our delicious lunch and then she suggests we take a little tour of what’s down below the dining room. Connie and I are surprised there’s anything down below which we are encouraged to see, but Sarah being an excellent employee, promotes all that the Crop Bistro offers its clientele.

Sarah point us to Chris Romero who is the restaurant manager and he takes us down below to what was the basement of the United Bank Building, but is now a kitchen and area for private parties. Steve is very nice too, which again speaks so well for The Crop Bistro.

And here we are in the kitchen. Such fun! It’s like going behind stage at a Broadway play.

We meet Chris. Guess what he’s making in his big jumbo pot? He’s making soup, and he tells us the soup here is extra delicious because there’s a water purifying system in the building (Kinetico) which chef Schimoler installed so that all his food would be the very purest and the best! Chris is a very nice guy too. I think The Crop Bistro must insist all their employees are nice and friendly people and I like this policy very much.

We see the vaults where all the money was kept in the old days,

yes, actually vaults (plural)

because Rockefeller and Carnegie obviously had a great deal of money to store in this bank.

We were also taken to the private closet-like rooms where bank customers of days gone by would study the contents of their safety deposit boxes.

And we saw the board room of this historic bank. It was fun and easy to imagine that we were standing in this room way back in the 1920’s.

I expected Country Inn Lunch Out Day to be a delicious treat with a nice friend in a lovely place, but I didn’t expect it to also be An ADVENTURE DAY, but AN ADVENTURE DAY it truly was. Now I’m thinking I need to go to a library and pick up a book about the Industrial revolution so I can read all about Rockefeller and Carnegie because these two men are now on my mind.

But that’s a Country Inn Days for you. Country Inn Days take me out of my usual daily routines. They help me discover new places and new things. They inspire new thoughts. They refresh my mind, body and spirit. Every Country Inn Day is a little different. And another one is coming up soon.

What will it be? An “In” Day, an “Outing Day”, a “Dinner Party Day”? You’ll just have to wait and see. But whatever kind of day it will be I know it will be a day of delight. I hope you are having your own delightful days because life is short and we must all seize the magic!

So till next time then… Take Joy, and remember,

Sharing doubles the joy!

Another Country Inn Day – Hudson Day

February 4, 2014July 7, 2015 carolannmccarthyLeave a comment

On some Country Inn Days I like to stay close to the Inn, only venturing out into the neighborhood if and when I need to stretch my legs. After all, there’s a time for adventure, but there’s also a time to lay low. A day spent at the Inn, stepping out of regular routines and enjoying quiet pleasures with just a little larking about in town is exactly what I need every now and then, like today on this Country Inn Day, this Hudson Day.

Hudson, like my beloved Boston, is a mixture of old and new. The town was founded in 1799 so there’s a lot of historic architecture to enjoy here and this I happen to love, but Hudson’s downtown area bustles with new establishments. These establishments offer a nice mix of shops, restaurants and culture.

The culture is found at The Hudson Library and Historical Society. It’s here I begin Hudson Days and most other Country Inn Days as well. The library is a wonderful place to meet my beloved “dead friends” by way of books and old letters kept in the library archives.

Here at the library spirits come alive. I bring many of them back to the Inn with me so at tea time or cocktails I can visit with them and hear the tales of their interesting lives lived long ago or sometimes lived right in our present day. On this Country Inn Day I connect with C.S. Lewis, Claude Monet and the Duke of Windsor. The aisles of the library are full of wonderful biographies just hoping people will pick them up in order to discover the lives described on their pages.

Just imagine each of these books to be a live person dying to tell you his or her story. And with a little imagination that’s exactly what happens for me . Country Inn Days are days full of imagination you know, the perfect time to get to know all these interesting personalities captured in books.

I love to stroll around The Hudson library and its many different areas. It’s a very big place. One could spend the whole day here enjoying different rooms. This is the main floor open space with magazines on the right, cd’s on the left, a seating area for reading at the windows and beyond the windows there is a great outdoor patio.

Of course today it’s a bit too snowy and cold to sit on the patio, but come May you’ll know where I will be regularly.

Today it’s a lot more comfortable reading and sipping a cappuccino here in the library cafe, and if your cup is covered you can take it up to the reference library.

This reference room is beautiful with windows looking out over the town. How lucky we are in Hudson to have such a facility. There’s an archivist on duty most days too. Any library is a grand place to hang out, but for a small city like Hudson this library is quite stupendous… and it’s free! What a treasure.

But after a nice time at the library I decide to walk through the new Village Green and pop into a shop or too. This Green (now quite white with snow) is lined with shops and restaurants. There’s even an ice skating rink to the front of the pergolas.

I first come upon a Talbots and it’s quite nice that the store happens to be having a big sale just in time for my Country Inn Day visit.

I take a few garments into this very lovely dressing room and end up with a new cashmere sweater, co-ordinating sweater jacket, plus a very nice blouse. Every now and then a girl likes something new to wear. Don’t you agree? And who doesn’t like a sale?

From Talbots I stroll down the lane and pop into another nice shop. This one is called Heather’s Heat and Flavor. At this shop I find a most interesting cookbook. It’s called “The French Slow Cooker” by Michele Scicolone.

Did you think it was possible to make Creme Anglaise or Creme Brulee or an Orange Souffle in a slow cooker? I certainly didn’t, but this book promises that even a novice can turn out dishes that taste as though they came straight out of the kitchen of a French grandmere. I love French food so I had to buy this book. I’ll let you know if my results are as magnifique as the book promises.

Well, with those purchases I decided I spent enough money for one Country Inn Day so I moved along deciding to take a little walk around the neighborhood before returning to the Inn. Let me share with you some of the sights along my way.

There were quiet streets lined with old, charming houses.

Big houses

Smaller ones

and all sorts in between

Beige ones

And white ones

And brick ones too,

but the quiet streets also have lots of public buildings which are fun to view while strolling along.

Churches

Buildings on the Western Reserve Academy Campus like the Chapel

and historic Main Street with the older shop buildings that have been around for more than a hundred years.

Hudson is a great town for walkers and that’s me, so a Country Inn Hudson Day is great fun any time of year. But it is getting late. These Country Inn Days just fly by. It’s time to get back to the Inn.

And here I am

stepping through the garden all covered with snow and entering the Inn itself.

After all that walking in the cold it’s nice to be all cozy and warm inside sitting at the piano where I decide to play for a while as cocktails are being prepared. Playing the piano is one of my favorite things and Country Inn Days are devoted to the enjoyment of favorite things. You know what that famous song from “The Sound of Music” says – “I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so bad”. But it’s not just when we’re feeling bad that we should enjoy our favorite things. We should take time for them regularly in order to prevent feeling bad.

So as I play the piano a fire is lit and my husband acts as Innkeeper setting out crackers, cheese and drinks. Here, just as in the lounge of my favorite Red Lion Inn, we relax, chat, and make dinner plans. We decide to dine out of the Inn this evening, going to a fairly new Hudson establishment called The Three Palms. It’s a gourmet pizza place.

This is the exterior of The Three Palms restaurant by day.

And this is the interior of the restaurant by night. My husband and I sit at the bar so we can look right across the way to the kitchen where the staff is working busily. Sometimes on Inn Days I am the one-woman kitchen staff, the Inn chef, but on other Inn Days like today I am pure Inn guest. It is nice to be served now and then.

It’s fun watching this fellow prepare the pizza dough, throwing it into the air. He’s good, never dropped it even once. A little entertainment while we sip our wine.

I enjoy the food here and I enjoy the setting too. The lighting is very pleasant creating an ambiance just right for a romantic Country Inn Day.

So all in all I’d say this Country Inn Day was quite the success. Though it was too short, as all days seem to be, it did provide rest, relaxation, imagination and sights and experiences outside of my regular routines. That’s all I can ask for on any Country Inn Day so I’m quite content.

I hope you’re happy too, having your own Days of Imagination and Fun, your own version of my Country Inn Days. You are the artist of your life. Only you can create the sort of days which will make your life glisten and glow… so seize the day and remember…

If you can imagine a perfect day you can make it so.

Enjoy!

It’s a Country Inn Day – Culture Day

January 25, 2014July 7, 2015 carolannmccarthy1 Comment

cleveland art museum — The Cleveland Museum of Art

On this snowy Country Inn Day I decided a cultural outing was in order so I left my cozy Inn mid-morning and took a 45 minute drive north to the University Circle neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland. This neighborhood always makes me feel more intelligent just by driving through it because genius seems to be in the air here; that’s because University Circle is home to many fine institutions and brilliant minds. There’s Case Western Reserve University, Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Botanical Garden, The Natural History Museum, The Cleveland Institute of Music where I went to school, University hospitals, and many more outstanding establishments, but today I’m after Art!

The Cleveland Museum of Art is a wonderful place. It was established in 1913. It has had a number of additions, but my favorite part of the museum is its original, very classical building. This museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, but it also houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000 works from all around the world. And best of all it has remained historically true to the vision of its founders, keeping general admission free to the public. This is possible because the museum has a $600 million endowment. It is one of the wealthiest museums in the world.

The museum has a lovely lagoon and garden out front. This is how it looks in Winter, but it’s really gorgeous on a Summer’s day.

See?

But since it’s not Summer, today I appreciate the newly constructed Atrium with its glass roof which is now covered in snow. Better the roof covered in snow than me. The Atrium connects the new part of the museum to the old part. It has beds of grass-like greenery at one end.

This greenery is most interesting. It has a moss-like appearance, but I couldn’t identify exactly what the plant material was. Also interesting is the way it grows in slanting hills and valleys.

The other end of the Atrium is a great place to sit and relax. Here you might pause for some refreshment purchased at the cafe or read over the material you just bought at the gift shop which is a few steps away.

Ah, the gift shop! I always enjoy browsing in this shop and today I had some delightful conversations with museum employees. Ohioans are so friendly. Even when I go off on a Country Inn Day outing all by myself I always find nice people with whom to strike up a conversation. When I’m here I always buy museum postcards and note cards to send my many pen friends. But the shop has so much more – books, jewelry, prints, etcaetera etcaeterorum.

But how ’bout I show you a few things around the museum? Would you like to see the Armor Court?

Follow me through this grand room with its marble pillars.

And here we are. I was told this armor collection, popular with the children, was put into the museum because Cleveland was a steel town way back when so armor seemed to be just the thing to get the museum off and running.

I happen to love portraiture. Here we have the portrait of Elizabeth Beltzhoaver Mason . It was painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1803. Stuart was an American artist who lived from 1755 to 1828.

And this is a portrait of Hugh Hope painted by the Scottish artist Henry Raeburn in 1810. Raeburn lived from 1756 to 1823. I love the clothing of these early times. How ’bout I show you one more portrait though I enjoyed looking at lots and lots of them.

This painting is called “Portrait of a woman” It is quite old. Rembrandt van Rijn painted it in 1635 or earlier. You may know Rembrandt was Dutch and he lived from 1606 to 1669.

I know I said just one more portrait, but I lied. I have to show you another. It is perhaps my favorite, or at least one of my favorites.

This is a self-portrait of a Belgiun named Joseph Paelivick. He lived from 1781 to 1839. He created this painting in 1812. I love his pose. I love his clothing. I love his expression. I love portraiture.

But as I said earlier there is so very much to see here, 43,000 works. Each time I visit the museum it’s all almost all new to me. Of course I always enjoy revisiting my favorite things…

things like this great doorway from the Issac Gillet House. It was created by the famous American artist, Jonathon Goldsmith back in 1821. Goldsmith lived from 1783 to 1847. He and all the other artists I admire are not forgotten when I leave the museum. I try to get to know these people by reading their biographies. Many become my “dead friends”.

Viewing exceptional art, viewing anything beautiful, becomes us. Just walking through the elegant rooms of this museum is energizing and uplifting. Come along. Look at this!

And this!

a close up of a Louis XV Savonnerie carpet with royal arms made of wool and hemp somewhere around 1740.

And these Tiffany lamps dated 1898 to 1910 made by The Tiffany glass and decorating company of New York.

And when we pass a window don’t forget to look outside at the beautiful snow-covered garden below.

We pass gallery talks in progress. This one is all about Monet and other Impressionists. I stick around for a few minutes, but it’s time for a ‘sit down’.

I find an empty table in the Atrium, order a cappuccino and relax for a bit with a little letter writing. I tell my friend in Rhode Island all the things I’ve been seeing. Sharing doubles the joy you know. That’s why I enjoy sharing my Country Inn Days with you too.

I’m getting hungry. I could stay at the museum longer and have some food in the charming restaurant here.

This restaurant has a view of nature out its windows – beauty in art, beauty in nature, and culinary beauty to boot, but no, after my cappuccino I must get back to the Inn. Once there the magic of Country Inn Days will transform me from Inn Guest into Inn Chef and I will create a masterpiece of my own.

It’s called Dinner

IMG_6246[1] — Tagliatelle with Red Wine Bolognese Sauce

The recipe

Ingredients: 1 onion, 1 small carrot, 1 celery stick, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 tbsp olive oil, 14oz minced beef, 1 and 1/2 cups red wine, 1 cup tomato puree, a small handful of oregano, parsley to garnish, 1 and 1/2 cup beef stock, 1 lb tagliatelle pasta, salt and pepper

Process:

1. Chop vegetables finely. Heat oil, add vegetables and cook over low heat 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Add the minced beef and cook 5 minutes. Stir in wine and mix well.

3. Cook 2 minutes. Add tomato puree, herbs and stock. Salt and pepper to taste.

4. Cover pan and cook slowly for 30 minutes.

5. Meanwhile cook pasta.

6. Add a salad and a glass of wine.

7. Light a candle or two and enjoy!

I am now transformed once again from Inn Chef back into Inn Guest. Ah, the magic of Country Inn Days!

And though this particular Country Inn Day held many other delights, I will leave you here, sharing more next time. So until we meet again, be sure to exercise your own imagination and live richly experiencing much beauty. Remember

Leave behind ordinary. It’s not enough!

A letter of Joy

August 5, 2013July 9, 2015 carolannmccarthy2 Comments

I’m a lucky girl. I have some wonderful pen friends, and wonderful pen friends are essential to the full enjoyment of the Art of Letter Writing. This could be part of the reason why some people never fall in love with letters. They lack quality correspondents, quality correspondents like my friend Joy. Joy is a treasure. She shares my love and appreciation for beauty so each of her letters is a feast for the eyes and a feast for the spirit. Even before I read what Joy has to say I’m delighted by the sheer look of her letters.

Joy’s letters always contain some visual surprises. Take the envelope above. When was the last time you received a letter addressed to you with the individual letters of your name cut out from a magazine? Now there’s a fun idea I may have to copy in one of my next letters. Creative pen friends give each other all sorts of fun, artistic ideas.

I’m always saying “sharing doubles the joy’, but as you can see, sharing also doubles, or at least stimulates, our creativity.

Joy had been living in Switzerland until recently so she subscribes to a Swiss magazine and she shares it with me in bits and pieces. The above picture posted at the start of her letter, with the inviting table setting, ( which inspired me to create my own pretty table) bears the inscription – Life is beautiful, See what I mean? Joy is always sharing beauty in her letters – literally!

Joy and I both enjoy cooking and baking so we’ll often exchange recipes in our letters, recipes we’ve tried and liked. The salad above was one of Joy’s favorites. Don’t you love cookbooks with pictures? I sure do, so I appreciated the picture of this salad every bit as much as its recipe – and now I share both with you. Why? You know. Sharing doubles the joy!

GRILLED VEGGIES WITH MOZZARELLA

You’ll need: 3 red onions, 4 small tomatoes, 1 yellow bell pepper, 1-2 zucchini, olive oil, 2 mozzarella balls, lemon juice (fresh), freshly ground pepper, salt, fresh basil

To Prepare: Peel onion. Wash veggies. Wash basil and dry. Slice tomatoes and onion into halves. Slice the peppers into quarters. Slice the zucchini. Brush the veggies with olive oil and grill. Leave the tomatoes off for last. Cut up the mozzarella into small chucks. Mix veggies, cheese and basil together on a plate. Sprinkle olive oil and lemon juice over top and salt and pepper to your liking. ENJOY!

Naturally a great pen friend like Joy deserves good letters in return, so I try my best to reciprocate with pizzazz. I’ll sometimes look through my collection of art books to inspire my stationery designs for Joy’s letters. Children’s books are especially delightful sources for inspiration. Take this one:

“The Little Hands Art Book” by Judy Press. This book may have been designed for 2 to 6 year olds, but it has lots of wonderful art ideas for those of us who happen to be a wee bit older. Consider paper dolls. Have you ever made paper dolls? I hadn’t. Somehow this skill escaped me till I recently came upon this great little book.

Once you learn the technique of making paper dolls you can make paper anything to decorate your personal stationery – paper snowflakes, paper music notes, paper houses, or how about my paper flowers?

These flowers were so fun and easy to make – I drew them, cut them out, painted them and then affixed them to my paper using a glue stick, allowing their petals to flutter freely in the breeze. A little grass drawn beneath the flowers and voilá!

one- of -a- kind art work for my special penfriend’s letter

And before I seal the envelope on the letter I’m sending off to Joy I just may tuck in one of my new tested recipes. After all, one good recipe shared deserves another, and I discovered a great recipe for baked yeast doughnuts recently. Here you see the donuts raising on parchment paper. Maybe you’d like the recipe too. I’ll add it to this post. It comes from a wonderful blog called Maggiesonebuttkitchen or was it Poppy’s Patisserie? Both blogs have great recipes. If you visit either one tell them Carol Ann says hello.

No Fry Doughnuts

Ingredients: 2 pkg. active yeast, 1/4 cup warm water, 1 and a half cups whole milk, 2 eggs at room temperature, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/3 cup shortening, 4 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 cup melted butter

process: Dissolve yeast in warm water and mix, add milk, sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, eggs, shortening and 2 cups of flour. Mix at low speed i minute scraping bowl. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed scraping bowl. Stir in remaining flour and mix till smooth. Cover. Let rise till double.

Turn dough onto floured board. Roll dough around to coat with flour. The dough is soft. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with floured doughnut cutter. (2 1/2 inch with 1/2 inch hole in center.)

Place two inches apart on parchment paper, cover and double in size.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake 8 to 10 minutes till golden. Brush with butter and then glaze as you wish.

Glazes

Cinnamon sugar: 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon (toss in bag)

Chocolate glaze: 4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips, 1/3 cup butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla, hot water (Melt butter and chocolate, add sugar and vanilla and stir. Add enough hot water to make glaze.

Vanilla Glaze: 1/3 cup butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla, hot water

Note: The chocolate glaze is nice with sprinkles and the vanilla glaze is nice with coconut

Happy Baking!

And so I come to the end of another visit with you. It’s been a pleasure sharing my joy – my friend Joy, the joy I receive from her letters, and the joy I find every day in The beautiful Art of Letter Writing.

Till we meet again

TAKE JOY!

It’s Apple Blossom Time for Sharing Tea – Visiting Day!

May 8, 2013July 20, 2015 carolannmccarthy4 Comments

There’s a time to work and a time to play.

Today is a play day. Today I’m going visiting. Today I’m not playing the part of hostess. Today I am playing the part of guest!

Today it’s my friend Andy who is playing the part of host. He’s invited me to tea.

Andy has also invited my friend Evelyna to tea.

When was the last time you were invited to tea?

When you give, good things come back to you. If you entertain now and then, chances are, from time to time you will be entertained as well.

It’s another beautiful day in my neighborhood, a grand day to go visiting, but then any day is a grand day for friendship and visiting.

Evelyna and I arrive at Andy’s house and we are greeted by a glorious apple tree bursting with color. It is apple blossom time you know!

Evelyna is so delighted with this tree she runs up to it and caresses its blossoms I can’t blame her. I want to do the same thing.

The beauty of nature is all around us here in Andy’s yard.

There are all sorts of romantic, old fashioned garden structures at every turn. They enchant us.

We approach the wisteria-covered arbor and slowly make our way to the door , all the while admiring the beauty of nature on this lovely Spring day.

When finally at the door we knock and…

Andy appears – all smiles. “We’re here”, we say. “And we’re bearing hostess gifts. Evelyna brought one of her famous pumpkins rolls and I brought Andy one of my favorite books of spiritual meditation.

We sit relaxing like ladies of leisure, talking to Andy from the next room while he fusses in the kitchen with last minute details…

and then it’s off to the tea table which is set beautifully just for our pleasure. How wonderful!

More fresh apple blossoms grace the table and Andy has set little boxes of chocolates at our plates. They serve as sweet favors.

Lunch is simple, but delicious – chicken salad croissants accompanied by fresh fruit.

Andy even decorated our plates with apple blossoms. What a guy! When it’s apple blossom time we should all take advantage of the splendor and bring those blossoms in to be enjoyed up close. That’s true of all the lovely flowers blooming in our Springtime gardens – lilacs, lily of the valley… Everything!

The ice water on our table was garnished with orange slices and the tea was cherry flavored. There was also a delicious broccoli soup.

Our tummies were happy and full, but there was more. Evelyna, being a master baker, decided to bring a bit of dessert,

It’s nice to have friends who are master bakers… masters at anything, especially if they share their mastery with their friends.

Evelyna brought us two goodies. She made raspberry lemon tartletts. They consisted of a butter cookie shell filled with lemon curd and garnished with fresh bursting raspberries and mint. She also made walnut mocha squares. These squares are a Croatian recipe. They consist of brown sugar pastry topped with espresso infused mocha cream (YUM!) and garnished with chocolate beans.

Evelyna tells us the delicious chocolate beans are hard to find, but she has a source – shops called “Earth Fare”. They carry the luscious little gems should you want to buy some for yourself.

We ate. We drank. (tea) We chatted.

Though all of us are busy, it is so very nice, and quite civilized, to pause now and then taking time for tea – taking time to appreciate nature – taking time to foster friendship. Two hours of this repast and off we went… refreshed! We returned to our lives with renewed contentment and the warm fuzzy glow that only beauty and friendship can provide.

Take Time! Take Tea! Take Joy!

French food anyone?

February 8, 2013 carolannmccarthy1 Comment

I love French food – so yummy, French people – so chic, the French language – so musical, and a trip to France – so romantic, so naturally when I heard about a French cafe and bakery I had to investigate

Friends told me about this establishment, the Blue Door Cafe, and it’s aptly named, for it truly does have a blue entrance door, but curious and hungry minds like mine (and maybe like yours) want to know just exactly what is behind this blue door. I took it upon myself to find out.

I stepped inside and was shown to a table. A quick look around told me the place was clean and that’s always most important in a restaurant. The Blue Door is not a fancy place, but that’s ok with me because restaurants that are too slick often lack charm. (And if you’ve ever been to Europe you’ll agree that many of the restaurants in small villages there are quite unpretentious too.)

I was smart to arrive at The Blue Door on an off hour, not the morning breakfast time nor the busy lunch rush, so the place wasn’t very crowded.

This was good for me because I was able to talk to the staff, ask many questions, and of course, Take Pictures!

And here they are! Meet the people behind the scene who make the kitchen run like clockwork. Happy-looking people, aren’t they? Maybe they’re so happy because their work day is nearly over and they’ll be free to go home soon, but I suspect they’re always happy because they love their work, and happy bakers make happy, delicious food.

And here are the girls who take the orders, work behind the counter, deliver the food, do the cleanup and probably do a lot more too … they do it all with big smiles on their faces and I think that’s very important. My spiritual directives tell me we should all be of service to others, but we must do our work with joy or it doesn’t count at all.

IMG_2278[1] — Mike, The owner and head baker

And here’s THE MAN, the man behind the whole operation. This is Mike. He told me about his training and some of his plans for the restaurant. I applaud him. It’s important we all pursue our dreams and that’s exactly was Mike is doing, and I’ll tell you, he makes a mean croissant. Take a look at the delicious sandwich I ordered.

This sandwich is the Blue Door’s version of a traditional French Bistro style sandwich (using a house made large croissant) with extra bold imported Dijon mustard, Leoncini ham, cave-aged imported Gruyere, and house-made bechamel/ served with house-made chips. I enjoyed it very much along with a cup of their delicious house ground Angel Falls coffee, coffee that is made right here in Akron, Ohio.

If you have a chance to go to France… Go! … by all means, but if not, go to the Blue Door Cafe for breakfast or for lunch. Watch a little of A Year in Provence first, and then step into the cafe and let the food take you the rest of the way, away to a French experience – at least to a French food experience.

The mission of the Blue Door Cafe is to offer you, their guest, an ever-changing menu full of healthy, creative and house-made dishes using as many of the freshest, high-quality and local ingredients as possible.

If you love good food as I do, good French food, and if you live anywhere near Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio this place is for you, but if you’re reading this from some far off location I hope I haven’t made you too hungry. I hope you can find a good French cafe and bakery to enjoy in your own area, but if not, take out your cook books and try to make your own croissants and brioche. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Bon Appetite!