Two Chums | Two Chums

Mar 16

A Touch of the Blarney

Have you ever noticed that on March 17^th no matter where you were born or what your family heritage is, everyone seems to be at least a little Irish? My family is no exception. We all don something green and have a St. Paddy’s Day celebration complete with corned beef and cabbage for dinner. So it was no surprise that as Jackie and I discussed what we would write about for today’s posting, it would have to be something to do with the worldwide celebration tomorrow of St. Patrick’s Day.

Mar 15

3 Comments

Kitchen Essentials

A good friend, David, asked us to talk about two things he wanted to know more about….essential tools for the kitchen and how to work within a small kitchen space. I have some experience with both, but today will focus on the essential kitchen tools and leave the subject of working in a small kitchen for another day.

Mar 14

A Kitchen Face Lift

Many hours are spent in the Kitchen and, for this reason, we feel that it is really important to make that space not only very practical, but also comfortable, and cheerful. We are firm believers in the fact that things can be both practical and beautiful at the same time. One is not exclusive to the other – in fact, one doesn’t do well without the other, in our minds! Read more

Mar 13

15 Comments

Savvy Secrets

Here we are again with ten more “Savvy Secrets”! We hear of these wonderful helpful hints and cannot help but want to share them. Our dear friend Nancie shared these with us. If you have some helpful hints or some savvy secrets we would love to hear them.
Read more

Mar 12

7 Comments

Rise and Shine!

We have some new additions to our family. Back in October Bianca, Colette, Edith, Fiona and Giselle joined us. You will probably hear about them from time to time, they are the feathered members of our family….our chickens. They arrived via the US Postal Service from My Pet Chicken when they were just about 24 hours old.

Mar 9

7 Comments

What’s for Dinner? – Spaghetti

We’ve all been there from time to time. Kitchen doors swing open and all across the country that sometimes dreaded question “What’s for dinner?” is asked as mothers cringe trying to come up with the answer. I guess this image says it all. Read more

Mar 8

10 Comments

A Grandmother’s Love

I believe that there comes a point in every life where there is, if only for a fleeting moment, a sense of completeness. For me it came as I stood by my grandmother’s hospital bed, holding her hand as she left this world and went on to the next.

The profoundness of birth and death give definition to our lives, which seem otherwise often to be just so many ordinary days strung together like a sentence and punctuated by a few very high and low moments.

Mar 7

12 Comments

Onesies and Burp Cloths and Babies…Oh My!

What, besides love, does a baby need more than onesies and burp cloths? It seems that a new mother cannot have enough of these two items.

We are very fond of giving these as gifts to a brand new baby and have great fun creating our own designs. We are going to share with you how you, too, can do this. Read more

Mar 6

8 Comments

Mind Your Manners!

Mind your manners, sounds like it is coming from a rigid Third Grade teacher with a stick in hand. On the contrary, one of the most loving things parents can do is to teach their children good manners. It will help them to be successful on the playground, in the classroom, throughout college, in the workplace and in all of their relationships.

I am sure we have all met children with especially good manners. What a delight they are to be around and how charming they sound! They stand out in contrast to those who have not been taught good manners. Read more

Mar 5

11 Comments

Eat Your Vegetables!

Eat your vegetables! Most people have either heard or said those words because we all have parents or are parents ourselves. Our parents said them to us, and we in turn have passed on this dreaded edict to our offspring. The sad part is, it is almost always said in response to a child who has declined to even taste something from the vegetable category of the food pyramid.

Mar 2

13 Comments

Southern Comfort

I grew up a native of Los Angeles, a fourth generation Angelino on my father’s side. The roots of my soul however, grow deep in a place that I have never actually lived. My mother, and her side of my family tree, originated in the South, and thus those were the lessons I learned of food and family and fun times. Read more

Mar 1

11 Comments

That’s Right ~ Carnations!

I, along with a lot of other people, used to poo poo carnations. What, carnations for a dinner party centerpiece? Are you crazy? Carnations are only used for funerals because they are hearty and last a long time! Read more

Feb 29

3 Comments

The Little Black Dress and A Strand of Pearls

No matter what your style is, there are two things that are timeless ~ the “little black dress” and pearls.

In the 1920’s Coco Chanel brought us the “little black dress” that eventually became, and continues to be, a symbol of chic and sophisticated simplicity. As Vogue magazine predicted at the time, it became, “a uniform for all women of taste”. Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffanys epitomized the standard for wearing the little black dress accessorized with pearls. Read more

Feb 28

10 Comments

To quote Coco Chanel…

“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” ~ Coco Chanel

Oh Coco, what inspired words you speak!

This past Sunday, while the world watched the Oscars, there were many fabulous, stylish women who walked the red carpet.

I think that we all agree that there were, on the other hand, some pretty unfortunate dresses.

Feb 27

7 Comments

Minny’s Chocolate Pie

Last night was one of my favorite of the year. It was Oscar night, or as my husband refers to it, “the super bowl for women”. He isn’t much interested in all the Red Carpet interviews with the stars and the clothes and jewelry, some of the things I LOVE about this event, but he participates because he enjoys movies almost as much as I do, and besides, he knows there will be food involved. Every year there is a small group of us who watch the Oscars together and the entree is themed around one of the Best Picture nominees. Read more

Feb 24

20 Comments

Tomato Bisque and Toasted Cheese Sandwiches

When food can be considered simple enough to be comfort food and be sophisticated enough to be served at smart cocktail parties, it isn’t hard to understand why we would want to share it with you. Tomato Bisque and Toasted Cheese Squares are really dressed up names for tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

When I was in college I spent a summer in England, mostly in the north in a little town called Burrough-in-Furness. There was a little sandwich shop that made the best cheese sandwiches I had ever tasted. They were a cousin of the grilled cheese sandwich I was used to from home, but MUCH better because they were not grilled in a pan but instead they were toasted.

Feb 21

10 Comments

Savvy Secrets

Synonymous with Two Chums is love, joy, and abundant living. We have found that there is nothing stopping anyone, at any time, from feeling love, joy and enjoying an abundant life. We can feel love by loving and have joy by being joyous. An abundant life comes with having an abundant thought. Read more

Feb 20

9 Comments

A Cherry on Top

Today as a nation we celebrate Presidents’ Day, which is basically a combined celebration of the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. When I was a child Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays were separate holidays and celebrated on their actual birthdays, which meant we had two days off of school unless, of course, one of them fell on a weekend. Read more

Feb 17

30 Comments

A Story of Meatloaf and Butterscotch Pudding

“What do meatloaf and butterscotch pudding have to do with each other?” you may well be asking yourself. Unless you are me, the answer is most likely, “Nothing.”

The year was 1977 and I was married less than a year, pregnant, and horribly sick. I did not have morning sickness that lasted the usual first 3 months when one is expecting. I had all day and all night, constant, unrelenting nausea and vomiting, which I have since learned was due to something with a weird name that basically means I was highly allergic to being pregnant. Not to my precious daughter, Sara, but to whatever hormones my body was making to keep the pregnancy going. I was a mess.

Feb 16

14 Comments

A Note From Lady Churchill

Because my darling father was an international banker, I had the absolute pleasure of travelling the world and living in many different countries. We lived in Trinidad and Hong Kong, New York and London, and finally, Nassau, Bahamas. I would take on accents by osmosis. Being Canadian, we would return to Canada in the summertime and our relatives would always know where we were living by the way I was talking. It offered me an amazing education. I met so many interesting people and what it taught me was that we are all the same, the world over, having the basic need of being able to love and being loved.

Feb 15

2 Comments

And the Oscar goes to…

Over the years, some very well known and glamorous people have leapt to their feet and taken the stage when hearing this familiar phrase. Though most of us will never be in their situation, we can all identify with the excitement of being acknowledged for a job well done. In the film industry, Oscar is the icon synonymous with excellence.

There are many stories floating around as to how Oscar got his name but one legend has it that Eleanor Lilleberg, a Norwegian-American, who was the Executive Secretary to Louis B. Mayer exclaimed when viewing the statuette, “It looks like King Oscar II!” Before leaving for the day, she asked, “What should we do with Oscar? Put him in the vault?” and the name stuck.

Oscar, today, is made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base. During World War II, with a desire to support the War effort, the statuettes were made of plaster, and later, traded in for gold ones when the War ended. Oscar is 13½ inches tall and weighs 8½ pounds. He is actually a knight designed in the art deco style, holding a crusader’s sword, while standing on a reel of film with five spokes. Each of these spokes represents a branch of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.

America is in love with this, her favorite award show. We love to see the clothes, we love to hear the interviews, and we love to speculate on who the winners will be, most certainly, “Best Actress”, “Best Actor” and “Best Picture”.

Feb 14

12 Comments

But the greatest of these is Love.

The two people pictured here don’t represent, for most of us, the classic picture of love and romance. They aren’t the “beautiful people” we have come to associate with tabloid and magazine covers depicting the latest celebrity romance or breakup. They are two ordinary people who taught me an extraordinary lesson about real love. They are my maternal grandparents, John and Willie Ridgway, or Papaw and Nanner to me.

Their 66 year marriage was not what I would call an epic romance. It was a great love story. In their 66 years together they weathered the Great Depression, the tragic and sudden death of a 20 year old daughter leaving behind a 4 month old daughter of her own for them to help raise, a cross country relocation, multiple muggings after moving to California, and the other sundry challenges and hardships you might imagine that any two people who lived together for 66 years would have to encounter. Read more

Feb 13

22 Comments

Love is in the Air

Love is the air or, at least the SMELL of love is in the air!

Nothing smells more like love and comfort than the aroma of fresh bread and we have a wonderful, easy, foolproof recipe for French bread. If you have not had a love affair with yeast, but, in fact, have had what a psychologist would call “an avoidance issue”, now is your chance for some therapeutic intervention. This recipe has all the makings of a great love story: it’s warm, inviting, and oh so steamy! Whether you are cooking tomorrow or not, try this bread. You will LOVE it and will be loved every time you make it. We guarantee it.

Feb 10

60 Comments

The Perfect Chocolate Cake

This is the story of how I came to have a recipe for THE PERFECT CHOCOLATE CAKE.

I am blessed with a husband who is extremely easy to please, at least as far as food is concerned. We will have been married 36 years on the 28th of this month, and in all that time he has never complained or had a negative comment about anything I have made for him. Anything, that is, except chocolate cake.

I love to bake (probably because I love to eat, but that’s another story) and I learned early on in our relationship that chocolate cake is Randy’s favorite. So, since I love to bake and I love Randy, I wanted to make him the best chocolate cake he had ever eaten on the first Valentine’s Day after we were married. I used a delicious sounding Bon Appetit recipe I had been saving and was thrilled at how it turned out. But to my dismay, when I served him my masterpiece, he was underwhelmed to say the least. I was sooooo disappointed because I wanted badly to make him happy and knowing that he was so easy to please about everything else, I was perplexed as to why he wasn’t delighted with the cake I had made especially for him.

Feb 9

10 Comments

Love Letters

My dear chum,

“To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say and to finish without knowing what you have written.”
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Printed cards that one buys certainly have their place, and sometimes say exactly what you are feeling, but hand written notes from the heart are probably the most cherished gifts one could receive. There is no better way to tell someone how you feel about them – start writing and just let it flow. It will be felt, deep into the soul of the receiver. Read more

Feb 8

1 Comment

Roses Are Red

{Photos by Two Chums)

Why red roses for love? As the story has it, the red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and, since then, the red rose has been associated with lovers. The tradition lives on. From timeless pieces of art and classical poetry to modern day music and media, red roses are seen depicting the message of love.

For most people, red roses simply mean “I love you” and that is why, in the United States, one hundred and ten million roses, the majority being red, will be sold and delivered within the three-day time period around Valentine’s Day. Amazing!

Robin and I do most of our flower shopping at the Los Angeles Flower Market in downtown Los Angeles. Read more

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