My sister just brought this dish to my house for a family get-together. She brought all the ingredients and had it made before I had everything chopped for the fruit salad. It was incredibly delicious. My sister and I get a lot of recipes from Recipezaar.com. It is a great website where people post recipes and then they are rated by cooks who have tried them. Want a recipe for mac-n-cheese? Type it in and poof….99 different recipes come up. This is #8930 and was posted by Carol Bullock.

Warning it is hard to stop eating this…..

Vegan Chile Con Queso

Serves 10

16 ounces Better Than Cream Cheese cream cheese subsitite

2 (12 ounce) cans of vegetarian chili

1 (4 ounce) can of chopped green chilies

1 (16 ounce) jar of salsa

1 minced red onion

tortilla chips

1. Combine all ingredients, except chips, in a crockpot and cook for about an hour on high, stirring occasionally.

2. Reduce temp to low until ready to serve with chips for dipping.

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Last night I met artist Leslie Lanzotti at a friend’s get-together. Her studio is in the same block as his so he walked me down to meet her. She is painting a new series of Frankenstien paintings that she was working on when we barged in on her. I know it sounds crazy, but the paintings were incredible. I had seen her work before at Artspace111 in downtown Fort Worth. She did a series of amazing portraits of local artists that you can view on the Artspace111 website. (www.artspace111.com) Below is a portrait she did of the daughter of a friend of mine along with some of the portraits of local artists. I would love to have a painting of my kids done by her….I am going to start saving up. It is so inspiring to meet talented people.

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My favorite birthday present this year is a Hatch print of an Airstream from Page and our mutual friend, Crystal. Will T. Hatch (1886-1952) was an artist who printed posters from carved woodblocks that were used as advertisements for a variety of products throughout America. Hatch Prints are now sold in downtown Nashville by the Country Music Foundation. It is one of the oldest show poster print shops in the United States. Their website is www.countrymusichalloffame.com.

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A few years ago I bought a kinetic sculpture by Andrew Carson at an arts festival. My husband and I installed it in our backyard. I can see it from my kitchen window when I look outside and it is amazing how much happiness it brings me. It is almost always moving even with the slightest breeze so it always catches my eye. If I won the lottery I would buy art ….after I bought my coveted Airstream. I have a friend who has a Warhol in the entryway of her home. Can you imagine the joy of  walking in your house and being greeted by a Warhol every day? I went back to the arts festival this year and took a few pictures to share with you of Andrew Carson’s work. You can email him at mail@windsculpture.com or call him at 206-524-9782.

Sculpture in my backyard

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When Martha and I started Nelle & Lizzy, we would have to say we really did not realize the impact our rings would have on some families. We wanted to design a simple but sophisticated piece of jewelry that would remind the wearer of the people they love. As the years have gone by, we receive emails and phone calls from people who tell us their stories of how their rings hold special meaning to them. I think the first story that had the biggest impact on us was from a man whose wife was dying of cancer. He needed the ring rushed because his wife had requested that instead of being buried with her wedding ring she wanted one of our rings with the names of her children. He wanted to present it to his wife before she passed. You can imagine what that story meant to us.

Then, at the end of last month, we got the following email from a mother: “I realize from the outset that sending a fan letter to a jewelry company is a bit odd. But, here it is.  Today my husband and I mark the 13^th anniversary of our daughter’s death.   My husband purchased my triple ring for Mother’s Day last year. It has the name of ALL three of my kids.  You cannot imagine what this ring means to me.  I show it to everyone.   Throughout the year, I talk with moms who grieve, and now I always tell them about your rings.  There something healing about having that name visible to everyone.  Thank you for being a significant part of my healing.”

We posted on Facebook last month that every week we stamp hundreds of rings and charms and often wonder who the name represents. Many people posted adorable pictures of their kids and it was really fun to see. This is the audience that we originally designed the rings for — mothers of cute kids. It is just an added bonus that our line can hold such a special place in some people’s lives. Thanks for sharing! We really think about the stories behind the rings and hope that every piece we send out will have a special meaning to someone.

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So it’s been almost a month since my decision to become more green.  I am happy to report my herb garden is overflowing!  I would like to say this is because of my impeccable gardening skills but I think it is because of the dirt the nice lady at Walmart told me to buy and my son, Jack, watering and watching all our bounty grow daily.  I am enclosing a picture because I honestly can’t believe how fast everything has grown.  I made a great pork tenderloin using the rosemary, a pico de gallo using the cilantro, our salads have been freshened up with dill and we are making pasta tonight with the basil so all together it really has been a great investment.

Now to the veggie co-op.  I have figured out that this might not be the best route for our family.  When I (actually Martha) sat down and did the math we realized it costs $17/week for each of our boxes of fresh garden vegetables.  But there are two problems.  The first is we are a family of 5 and 3 of us are 13 and under.  There are vegetables in the box I have never encountered, such as kahlrabi (?) and while it is great to expose the kids to new things, they really don’t eat more than a couple of bites.  The second, and really the big problem, is we pick up our box between 4:30-6:00 p.m. on Thursdays.  I am not sure about the rest of the world but my kitchen shuts down Thursdays about 8:00 p.m. and does not re-open for hot food until Sunday evening.  Thus the fresh veggies are no longer fresh.  Call me lazy – or just call our family crazy but the kids (and we) are going in 5 different directions starting about 3:00 on Friday.  I think herbs which I can pick daily and are low maintenance are all I have thyme for at this point in life.   :)

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Martha never ceases to amaze me.  She is a vegetarian and while I believe she thinks I tell too many people, it is because I am in awe that someone can only eat vegetables and have as much energy.  Now, when you compare dress sizes (she is about a 4 and I am a solid 14) it should put things in perspective pretty quick.  Vegetarianism now seems to be spreading …our office manager, Ella, and her boyfriend both became veggies last year.  In an effort to keep up with all of these “greenies” I have joined an organic farm coop…and Martha copied me ~ I was thrilled to lead the way when it came to nutrition, even if it was just this one time.  (But as a side bar, I found out last week that she had never tasted spaghetti squash – in my small mind I thought every vegetarian had a vast knowledge for all things vegetable.  Mark another victory to this omnivore).

Nelle & Lizzy shares office space with another company, Putnam House (www.putnamhouse.com or www.putnamprints.com) which I have owned for the past 11 years.  (And for another lengthy side note, Martha was a realtor before we founded Nelle & Lizzy so she has another “side” job too).  I regress….for our office birthday celebrations we always do a potluck lunch.  They are becoming more of a vegetarian feast!  I always bring the plates and napkins.  But you probably could have guessed that.  So if you have any great ideas for potluck, vegetarian friendly, easy-to-make lunch recipes, send them my way!

Just so you know I am not a total loss to the green wave crossing our country, I bought an old wash tub at an antique fair last weekend and planted my own herb garden to try and spice up my family meals.  I am
enclosing a picture here.  It is two days since planting and everything is still alive….stay tuned. 

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I am the mother of a preteen girl which is wonderful and scary at the same time. Many of my friends have girls the same age and we support each other along the way.  A friend just came up with a great idea.  She has started a group called M.O.P.’s (Mother’s of Pre-Teens) and we had our first meeting last week.  As we sat around sipping wine and eating cheese and crackers we shared stories and insight about raising our beautiful, strong and increasingly independent daughters.  It was our first meeting so we discussed a myriad of subjects. In future meetings we plan to have guest speakers and narrow the discussion to one topic per meeting.   I encourage all Moms to tap into your greatest resource – your friends.  Start a group in your area…. it is very therapeutic and enlightening.

The group agreed the American Girl book “The Care and Keeping of You” is a great source for our daughters. It discusses the preteen girl’s body, body imagine and the changes that their bodies will be going through in the years to come. It can be ordered at www.americangirl.com along with other helpful books for girls.

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To blog or not to blog…that is the latest question we had for our internet guru.  His answer was yes, and we thought we had a lot to say, so here we are.  We aren’t really sure what you are interested in, but we do know the most asked question or comment we get is “How did you get started?”  The answer is pretty easy, we saw a niche that wasn’t being filled and we decided to figure out how to fill it.  Yes, there are more details on exactly how it happened but how it happened isn’t nearly as important as why it happened.  We were two moms, who both needed to work and more importantly, both liked to work.  And when we say like to work, we knew we wanted to work but work for ourselves.  I think a lot of women get discouraged with their lives because motherhood is such an overwhelming task in and of itself.  They think, how could I possibly take on something else?  Patience is probably one of the most needed attributes when starting a business.  Nelle & Lizzy did not start overnight.  It took almost 2 years of research and planning before it came to fruition.  While there are many other attributes that are important, it was patience that started Nelle & Lizzy….and a lot of sweat!

And to give you a little more insight into Nelle & Lizzy, we thought it would be fun to tell you a little bit about us (btw, the name Nelle & Lizzy came from our middle names, Martha Nelle and Page Elizabeth)  .

 Martha is a vegetarian, mother of two.  She has parachuted out of an airplane and if she were to win the lottery she would buy an Airstream Trailer and travel the country.  She recently baked some semi-vegan chocolate chip cookies (we say semi vegan because the chocolate ruins the true vegan-ness of the cookie) and we share the recipe below.

Page was a geology (!) major at Vanderbilt University and has not used her degree yet (much to her dad’s dismay).  She is an omnivore but still likes Martha’s vegan chocolate chip cookies.  She is a reality TV junkie and her life fantasy would be to be on the Amazing Race.

In our future blogs, we are going to share things that are important to us but we also want to know what you want to hear about.  So let us know, if we feel we have insight into something we will definitely write about it!

Martha’s Almost-Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups   unbleached  flour

2 tsp      baking powder

1 tsp      baking soda

½ cup    sugar

½ tsp     sea salt

2/3 cup pure maple syrup

2-3 tsp  vanilla extract

½ tsp     blackstrap molasses

½ cup canola oil

1 cup     chocolate chips

½ cup    pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all dry ingredients in bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients and stir.  Add to dry ingredients.  Mix, then add chocolate chips and nuts.  Place in large spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet  and bake for 11 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on baking rack.

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