Obamicon.Me.com

This is so fun! Check it out.... www.ombanicon.Me.com It is so fun and it will upload your photo to Facebook or Twitter if you want all your friends to see it. Of course, I did that! I love this feature because it does not show your age. You can't see all the fine lines on my face-big relief!

Perfect Roast Chicken

I am roasting a chicken for dinner tonight. When it is cold outside, I take the opportunity to warm the house by roasting all kinds of food in the oven. Most of the year, I don't roast for long periods of time because then we have to turn the air conditioning down- and it costs money! I know that you feel bad for us down here in the Sunshine State!

I love Ina Garten. Her recipes are simple and delicious. I adapted this recipe for what I have available and it still turns out delicious. Publix didn't have fennel- so we won't have fennel tonight. I have fresh rosemary so I am adding that to it. I love rosemary.

Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Chicken

INGREDIENTS
1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
Olive oil


METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

3. Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminium foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

What are you eating for dinner tonight? Anything that you would like to share?

Pirate Ship Shirt for Gasparilla

We are going to the Gasparilla Children's Parade this weekend. I decided to make the girls matching shirts for the event. I decided on a pirate ship since I just couldn't come to terms with putting a skull on my little girls. I appliqued the pirate ship on the front and I used a freezer paper stencil to put the letters on the back. One girl has "Ahoy" on her shirt- the other "Matey" so when they stand together- you will see "Ahoy Matey." I am happy with the final product.

Ellen M. Bozman -My Great Aunt

Ellen M. Bozman; Arlington Activist

Ellen M. Bozman served six terms as Arlington County Board chairwoman and worked with many civic groups. (1983 Photo By Frank Sweets -- The Washington Post)

By Lauren WisemanWashington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 9, 2009; Page B07

Ellen M. Bozman, 83, a prominent civic leader and Arlington County community activist for nearly four decades who served six terms as chairwoman of the Arlington County Board, died Jan. 8 at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington of complications from breast cancer.
Mrs. Bozman was on the county's governing board from 1974 to 1997 and was its longest-serving member. She helped advocate for issues ranging from after-school programs to eldercare, from social service programs to mass transit.

She played a key role in the county's Metro transit development, which transformed Arlington from a sleepy bedroom community into a thriving urban center. Because of her efforts, the idea of high-rises with retail, living and office space centered on Metro stations was embraced, said Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington).

In addition to her County Board work, Mrs. Bozman served on numerous civic boards, including the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

As a young woman, she had been a personnel analyst with the Bureau of the Budget and was raising her family when she was drawn into politics in the early 1960s. As voter services chairwoman for the Arlington League of Women Voters, she supported the desegregation of the county's schools. She was president of the league from 1963 to 1965.
Later, as chairwoman of a local fundraising organization called the Health and Welfare Council, Mrs. Bozman oversaw a study of children with working parents and spearheaded the creation of after-school programs for those children. About that time, she also took the lead in helping to create Arlington's first nursing homes.

"Civic responsibility was part of her ethic," said John Milliken, a former County Board member who served with Mrs. Bozman during the 1980s.
On the County Board, Mrs. Bozman advocated for affordable housing, public education and integrated social services programs. She was responsible for the creation of the county's first farmers market at the Arlington Courthouse in the late-1970s as well as Neighborhood Day, an annual countywide block party that started in the 1990s.

Mrs. Bozman ran for the County Board as an independent until her last campaign, when she ran as a Democrat. In each election, though, she was endorsed by the Arlington Democratic Committee and the nonpartisan political coalition Arlingtonians for a Better County.

Ellen Marie McConnell was born April 21, 1925, in Springfield, Ill. After graduating from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in political science, she moved to Washington for an internship at the National Institute of Public Affairs.
Mrs. Bozman once told The Washington Post that she "did not envision retirement." Until her death, she remained involved in the community as a board member for the Arlington Community Foundation, an organization she helped found in the early 1990s to raise money for local nonprofit groups and college scholarships.

Survivors include her husband of 59 years, William H. Bozman of Arlington; three children, William M. Bozman of Winchester, Va., Martha Bozman of Arlington and Bruce H. Bozman of Bristol, Wis.; and four grandchildren.

This article came from the Washington Post.

Ellen M. Bozman -My Great Aunt

Ellen M. Bozman
An intrepid champion of intelligent governance (My Great Aunt)

Saturday, January 10, 2009; Page A12 (The Washing Post)
ARLINGTON County has been blessed over the years with talented and knowledgeable leaders who have contributed mightily to its reputation as a home of good government. Longtime residents speak fondly of "the Arlington Way" -- a tradition of clean, progressive civic activism that has guided the county from its days as a serene rural outpost of the capital to its emergence as a smoothly run center of attractive urban-suburban living. In the forefront of those who led this "Way" was Ellen M. Bozman, an immensely popular public figure well beyond the county's borders. Ms. Bozman, who died Thursday at the age of 83, served six terms as chairman of the Arlington County Board during her more than four decades of tireless community activity.

Heavy homework -- a zeal for exploring complicated issues -- was Ms. Bozman's valuable trademark on the county board and in the region's neighborhoods. She warned early on that air and water pollution were hazards that transcended jurisdictional lines and needed to be addressed through concerted metropolitan efforts. She was unfazed by the initial glazed looks and groaning yawns of many constituents hearing her recitations of facts and figures and her calls for government action.

With style, grace and a healthy dose of no-nonsense tutoring, Ms. Bozman would open constituents' eyes to the importance and intricacies of housing policies, education, mass transit, health and welfare programs, and the need for after-school activities for children with working parents.

In the 1950s and later as president of the Arlington League of Women Voters, Ms. Bozman was a strong supporter of desegregating the county's public schools -- flying in the face of the fierce "massive resistance" efforts that were poisoning the air elsewhere in the Old Dominion. Serving on the County Board from 1974 to 1997, she embellished her civic expertise by taking on posts with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and numerous civic boards. Until her death, Ms. Bozman was an active board member for the Arlington Community Foundation, which she helped create in the early 1990s to raise money for college scholarships and nonprofit organizations.

The evolution of Arlington County remains a demographic work in progress, but so much of what is in place today for tomorrow's residents -- the rich inheritance of the Arlington Way -- came thanks to the exceptional contributions of Ellen Bozman.