Italian Cluck

     It is meet, right and proper to give credit where it is due. I saw a similar recipe to what I like to call my Italian Cluck on Facebook, but now I can't find it. As usual, if you know who posted it, please contact me at graciousjanemarie@yahoo.com and I will post their name and thank them.
     So, from memory, I put the ingredients together, with little measuring, and the result was so good,  Bruce and I polished it off in two days. (I always hope there are leftovers I can freeze for a quick meal, but not this time.)

You'll need:
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (your favorite brand)
6 ounces or so of shredded Italian cheese (in the bag)
Basil ( I used dry because I had no fresh.)
6 large chicken finger sized parts of the breast, rinsed
1/2 cup or so Italian breadcrumbs
6 or so ounces of shredded Parmesan cheese (in the bag)

     In an 8 inch by 8 inch glass dish sprayed with non-stick coating, pour the entire jar of sauce in the bottom and spread evenly.  Sprinkle all the shredded Italian cheese next.  Sprinkle some basil.   Lay the chicken pieces on top.  Mix the breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese in a separate bowl then sprinkle on top of the chicken.  Bake 1 1/2 hours at 375 degrees with a layer of foil laid loosely across the dish to keep the breadcrumbs and cheese from getting too brown.  Serve with spaghetti noodles, if desired, but we only had a salad to save on carbs. This serves 4 singles, can easily be doubled and is good enough for company!

                        Enjoy,  Jane Marie

Perfect Two-Some aka Details, Details, I Love the Details

     I recently attended our Writers by the Sea meeting in Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida.  A lot of effort goes into organizing the membership and coming up with programs, etc.  Thank you to Nadine Vaughan D'Ardenne, the leader of this wonderful pack of creative folks. 
     We had two interesting speakers. Our local award-winning poet, Nola Perez, shared her rich story and how it impacted her poems. The second speaker was Linda Hart Green, retired from Christian ministry  and an artist on and off through the years. She and three partners have opened The Shady Ladies Art Studios and Gallery. Located on 8th Street in Fern, as our family calls the town, the name of the shop was inspired by the huge oak tree out front. 
     One thing stood out to me as I listened to Linda.  My words, not hers:  Artists and writers are the eyes for the world.  As I thought about this, I realized I am and always have been an observer.  I could not have written my Goodbye Lie series of novels and had this blog for five years without being observant.  Here is what I mean. 
     I was going through some photos I had taken and found this wonderfully sweet picture of the two "lizzies" on the heads of the cherub statue in my front flower bed at Stately Martha Manor.*  Now some out there may just have passed by and never noticed the lizards, let alone take a picture of them.  It's that old stop and smell the roses thing.  I'm all about that.  To this day, our granddaughter, Ava, and I will see a picture or look upon a swatch of patterned material and search for as many different colors, shapes, identifiable images, etc., as we can. 
     I love details.  When my husband, Bruce, and I watch an old recorded movie, I will rewind it to see the costuming or reread the closed caption to make sure I heard it correctly in the first place, if I didn't quite understand the dialogue.  Or in  musicals, I love them with closed caption.  You can read the lyrics of what the chorus is singing. 
    As for these four legged little guys on the statue heads, note they aren't looking at each other. Perhaps they had a spat over who ate the biggest gnat, yet because they are resting on those cement angels, it makes me think of a  couple committed to each other for life.  Maybe the angels beneath their tiny feet are their way of being blessed by God.  All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.   
     So, I beg you, slow down every once in a while, pick an object of some sort and just plain examine it to see how it's put together.  In the meantime,  I will continue to observe and share in my writings what I discover.  May what I see and write about in this blog and my novels, bring you wonder, entertainment, drama, mystery, romance and peace.

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*We used to call our home Stately Malcolm Manor.  Yes, it's a direct rip-off of Batman's Stately Wayne Manor.  When Martha Bear entered our lives and hearts, she quickly took over. Everybody knows we live in Martha Bear's house. -jmm

Double-Duty Curtain - The Goodbye Lie Diaries - Miss Ella

One woman's shower curtain

is another woman's parlor curtain!

     My daughter, Barbra, is a good cook and has wonderful taste. Oh, she decorates beautifully, too. 😉 Well, the first time I saw her shower curtain, the one in the photo, I fell in love with it. When she was ready for something new, I snatched it up. The embroidered flowers and delicate feel are perfect for our parlor.  Hanging from a tension rod, I gathered it in the center with a pink satin ribbon and attached a bejeweled butterfly ornament on the bow.   It's so me!      

                             -Jane Marie, present day

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The Goodbye Lie Diaries

Late 1880s

Fernandina, Amelia Island, Florida

Miss Ella writes: That curtain is lovely. It's very feminine.  I can imagine its gentle undulations against our bedroom window.  Michael is

Miss Ella

impartial to such things and would not appreciate it, but Breelan, Carolena and Marie and Grammy and Peeper would.

     And I appreciate that you have found a second purpose for it. Now that the war is over and we are all nearly rebuilt and recovered, as much as one can be after such a horror, some are less than appreciative with their possessions and are almost wasteful with them. That is a shameful thing I am forever preaching to my family to avoid. Everything has value.  Often, the more worn items are, the more love has been poured upon them. So may you ever enjoy your curtain. 

     I am curious as to what you will do with it once you take it down.  Perhaps a table covering or piano shawl or doll clothes? So many possibilities, aren't there?

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Miss Ella Dunnigan is matriarch and mother of Breelan, Carolena, Marie and Jack Patrick.  A good and Godly woman, she is respected by friends and beloved by family.