December '10 / January '11

I'm in a food coma.  Today was my last hurrah before a fresh start tomorrow...back to work with an IV drip of coffee attached to me.  I vowed to start entertaining so I thought I'd kick off the new year with a lunch for some of the women in my family.  I make this lasagna a lot, only today I used sweet Italian sausage instead of turkey.  And this is the perfect salad to pair with it; I make this a lot, too (sorry, these aren't precise measurements and it was a Giada recipe that I can't find a link to).  Mix the following:

a package of 3 heads of romaine lettuce
1 can of cannellini beans (white kidney beans)
as many kalamata olives as you wish, halved
a small carton of feta cheese
about a quarter of a red onion, sliced thinly
juice of 2 lemons
olive oil to your liking
salt & pepper

I was excited to finally set my table in this house...notice I let my flowers be a little wild instead of stripping all the leaves and making a tight bunch.  I am really liking this look.  

But the party is officially over.  Goodbye to these:

Hello to this:

The tree is coming down, too.  Goodbye to this:

And hello to this:

(4th image via; 5th & 6th image via)