HAPPY FEET....HAPPY STORE

HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY AROUND HERE. I OWE A HUGE THANKS TO ALL MY GALS FOR THEIR HARD WORK GETTING THE DOVES NEST DRESSED FOR THE HOLIDAYS..TAKE A LOOK.....

CHILLED AVOCADO SOUP

My new blogger friend, The Blushing Hostess, emailed me the other day, to say she had a bushel of avocados that needed to be used in a good recipe. Our Chilled Avocado Soup is the perfect choice this time of year. I am always happy to share a Doves Nest recipe. Thanks Catherine...enjoy.

CHILLED AVOCADO SOUP
Yields 10-12 servings

4 ripe avocados, peeled, seeded
1 clove of garlic, minced
4 green onions, chopped
5 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped jalapenos with juice
½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
3 cups sour cream
1 cup buttermilk
8 cups chicken broth, chilled, fat removed
Slat and pepper to taste
Chopped green onions

Process the avocados, garlic, 4 green onions, cilantro, jalapenos and Tabasco sauce in a blender until smooth. Add the sour cream. Process until blended.
Pour into a large bowl. Stir in the buttermilk and chicken broth.
Season with salt and pepper and chill covered for several hours. Ladle into soup bowls, sprinkle with chopped cilantro and green onion

A CURIOUS ROUND TOP

Me and Deb Dusenberry at Royer's

I took my mom to Round Top. It was her first time and she had a ball. Of course we ate dinner each night at Royers Round Top Cafe, and the second night Bud put us at his community table with Curious Sofa's Deb Dusenberry, and her junkin gal pal , Sandee. We all had such fun sitting around Royers big table talking shop. My favorite rep from One Coast Dallas market, Ed Greer, and his darlin wife Katy, was also with us. I told Debbie my girls back at The Doves Nest would never believe I got to have dinner with her..so she wrote each of them a personal note on the back of her Curious Sofa business cards, and then Ed took this picture of us. For all you Curious Sofa "groupies", Miss Deb is just like she reads....full of curiosity, creativity and charm.

Everyone has been postings their Round Top experiences, since the Spring show ended a couple of weeks ago. For me, and many others I have talked to, the show was a huge success. I found GREAT things and have already sold quite a few of the pieces I bought for the store. I mostly found good shabby pieces to add to our cottage look we have going these days. Our friend, known as RUGMAN, who sets up in Warrenton, had his best show EVER...and he has been coming to Round Top for over 10 years. He sold antique oushaks to some of the top designers in the country, including Rachel Ashwell. He was really nervous flying in from Istanbul, with over $300,000 worth of rugs in his inventory but as I told him we are NOT feeling this so called recession down here in Texas. Last year was our best year EVER and we are right on target to repeat it this year. Our Waxahachie realtor's say the housing market is still good, our local car dealers are selling new SUV's everyday, and our customers are buying and dining just as they always are. If other parts of the country are feeling a crunch, we are thankful and blessed it hasn't trickled down yet.

COOKBOOK REVIEW

I recieved an email last week from Catherine Coughlin, a retired fashion executive from North Salen, New York. She bought our cookbook in a gift store in Park City, Utah and wrote the most awesome review on it...THANK YOU CATHERINE

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN TEXAS
Waxahachie, Texas, outside Dallas, has it's own little Paula Deen who might be a bit more of an upscale, southwestern food matriarch in the making. Cindy Burch, runs restaurant and catering business there called the Dove's Nest Restaurant. More importantly, Cindy wrote a little book with a big, big impact. This book is non-offender on the book shelf: Paper cover beautifully embellished, all of 144 pages. It is light as a feather. But inside this book are many things carefully honed down and perfected, the instructions to food you can actually eat, and might even want to make because they do not seem as though they will be lengthy, painful experiences (ala The Brisket). The book will get used time and time again. As I looked at a long shelf yesterday trying to think what else I might do to avoid the side of beef, my eyes floated to that little book as they so often do. For something comforting in the face of that beef. For something written with as little extraneous motion that it reminds one of the way great chef's move: Arms in, efficiency in every movement, get to the task, make it perfect.

BURCH LOFT

Customers ask, almost daily, when our loft will be on tour again? The Doves Nest, and our loft, is

housed in a 12,000 square foot historic building built in 1913 by Will Moore. The building served as the main hardware store in downtown Waxahahcie, Texas until the late 1980's. We bought the building in 1992 and renovated our loft in 1998. We have been on the Christmas Home Tour three times, featured on the Designing Texas TV show, and photographed for magazines. We have lived above our business almost ten years and continue to enjoy every minute we are there. Since it is so hard and time consuming to prepare for a home tour, I have decided to post some pictures, taken when the crew was here filming for the Designing Texas show. If anything, I am hoping it will buy me time if people can view the pictures on my blog.

SEIZE THE DAY

A Periodic Column by Cindy Burch

For whatever reason, some people spend their life dreaming about places they would love to visit but never do, while there are others that find ways to fulfill their dreams, no matter the cost or sacrifice. Obviously there are places some of us would love to visit but just cannot afford, be it time, money, or circumstance. As a contributing writer for Living Magazine, I have the opportunity throughout the year to share with you some of my travels. I am amazed at the number of readers that tell me they have always wanted to go to a certain destination, but just haven't done it yet. My reply is always the same, “What are you waiting for?” There is so much to see and learn around the world, and so many destinations to experience. I'm not big on making New Year resolutions, but I would like to encourage you not to dream away the future. My father always said he had no desire to travel overseas, until he had seen all of America. Unfortunately, he died at the young age of 65, long before he accomplished either goal. So often we get caught up in the details of day to day living that we don't take the time to seize an opportunity. We've got deadlines and commitments, problems and priorities, distractions and obstacles, and though we really want more fulfillment from every single day, we don't often take the time we need to rest, relax, and recharge. Meredith Grey, the lead character on the hit TV show Grey's Anatomy, summed it up for some of us by saying “We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. Never leave that till tomorrow, which you can do today.” My husband's father was a banker for years, and very conservative about everything. My in-law's held back from experiencing a lot of extras in life, fearing they might one day become a financial burden on their two sons. Although that is an admiral trait, we encouraged them to enjoy their lives, and quit worrying about a future they have no control over. After years of persuasion, they are now more relaxed. At sixty years old, they applied for a passport, started traveling, and even got certified in scuba diving. In the past five years they have been to Turkey, Canada, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and the Turks and Caicos islands. Another prime example of seizing the day is my dear friend, and long time Ellis county resident, Beverly Worthington. After raising a family, and being a caregiver to her husband for years, she decided to start doing some things, that earlier in her life, she might have thought twice about. At age 70, she has gone hang gliding in Brazil, a canopy zip line tour in Costa Rica, climbed Machu Picchu in Peru, trekked with me in the underground world of Cappadocia, Turkey, and even climbed the Great Wall of China, twice. Whether your ideal vacation involves a passport, or an RV, don't just watch the Travel Channel, but visit the places you have always wanted to see, and experience the sites you have dreamed of. Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. It's not going to happen yesterday, and we can't put it off until tomorrow, because tomorrow may not come. It's a real challenge to face the present, because it means you can no longer say, "One of these days I'll take that Alaskan cruise, drive across the country, ski the Swiss Alps, or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.” Seize the day and vow to make this year the beginning of some new life adventures.

VILLA SOUNION

Last year was the busiest our catering business has ever seen, so we were really needing some rest and relaxation after the holidays. We decided some sun and scuba diving in the British West Indies was just what we needed...especially after finding out American Airlines was flying nonstop, from DFW to Turks and Caicos islands, during high season.

Last week was our second time to vacation on Providenciales. Our first trip was about one and a half years ago, on Labor Day weekend. You always remember where you were when something big or devastating happens in the world. I remember how surreal it seemed having just come in from scuba diving, and hearing of Steve Irwin's death from a stingray barb piercing his chest. Although we were staying on one of the top ten beaches in the world, we found ourselves glued to CNN and very saddend by the news. Fortunetly, this past trip was absolutely perfect. The weather could not have been better, the scuba diving was top notch and we just had a great time.

We have learned, from our years of traveling, that we really prefer to rent vacation homes, over staying in a hotel or resort. If you are willing to fill a villa with friends and family, you will almost always pay less, per room, than a hotel will cost. I have had my eye on Villa Sounion for some time, and finally we were able to experience it's magnificient location. Villa Sounion is owned by a British family, and rests on a cliff overlooking Grace Bay beach. It has three levels with five bedrooms, five and one half baths, a huge gourmet kitchen and plenty of common living areas. Although Villa Sounion normally rents for $9000/week in January, they accepted my offer of $5500, when I explained we would not need all of the bedrooms. We had eight friends and family and paid less than $200/night to stay in a $2 million villa. It was as wonderful as it looks.