Quotable Thursday!

I Googled this - no idea who the image belongs to,
but it's perfect for tonight's quote...

Brand new quote tonight! Like seriously - Brand. Spankin'. New. I read it *tonight* and it struck me as so awesome I am putting it in my quote book *And* using it for tonight's quote. 

It's from this book called The Fault In Our Stars, which I will admit, I am way behind the times on. I had sort of heard of the book, didn't even realize it was a movie, and well... here we are, lol. Some students in one of my classes elected to read it, so I figured I should, as well, so I know what it's about, all that good teacher stuff.

I have had trouble putting the book down long enough to write this, lol. I have a feeling there will be other quotes from it that end up in the Quote Book, but for now, here goes. And as always, sorry I can't seem to get my own pithy thoughts organized better to share them with you...

"(This is an old argument in the field of Thinking About Suffering, and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries, but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not in any way affect the taste of chocolate.)"

John Green

The Fault In Our Stars

I read that quote, and read it again, read it out loud... and it just struck me. Hard and deep. Maybe one of these days I will tackle explaining why and how many of these quotes resonate with me. For now, however, take from them, this one especially, what you will. It would be great to hear what you think!

:)

Eggplant Lasagna Part II

So here I am - back with the pseudo recipe for Eggplant Lasagna, ha! For those of you who enjoy that sort of thing, lol. 

I'll begin with the recipes I started with. These are the two I got most of my "inspiration" from. 

This is the main one Here. Of course, as I go along, I'll tell the things I changed.

And Here is the one I got about using eggplant. I basically only used the part of cooking the eggplant ahead of time from this one. 

So first thing - the meat sauce. Here's a picture of it. Doesn't it look Ah-May-Zing?! I started with the recipe, but this is what I did.

Sauteed onions and green peppers, added the ground beef. I used more ground beef than the recipe called for (with an eye toward freezing any leftovers to make spaghetti out of later). I also added fresh parsley and basil from the garden, of course! Some oregano and ground pepper. Once it all seemed cooked, I added one big can of diced tomatoes (plain, not the flavored ones the recipe calls for), and one big can of tomato sauce (again, plain).

Let's stop for just a moment. You may have noticed it by now, but if you haven't, let me point it out to you. There is NO garlic in my recipe. *sigh* Alas, I love, love, love garlic, but it hates, hates, hates me. I'll put this as delicately as I can... if I eat even a little garlic, it is um... rejected by my stomach a few minutes later. So no garlic, which totally sucks. But that is just a fact of my life...

So to continue, lol. I peeled and sliced the eggplant, sprayed a baking sheet with cooking oil, salted and peppered the eggplant, and put it in the oven. Cooked it at 450 for five minutes a side. Here it is ready to go in.

Once all that was ready to go, I made the ricotta cheese mixture just as the recipe said to, though I did make half again as much. I'm a pretty cheesy person, what can I say? Lol. Just wanted to be sure there was a little extra, and figured if too much, I'd put it in the fridge and use it on macaroni or something, too.

Cooking spray in the dish. Then it was time to layer... 

Hit "Read More" to see the rest!

Eggplant Lasagna Part 1

I know I've been going on and on about this eggplant that I've grown. It's all just so shocking and surprising for a number of reasons, lol. First - that it grew, and grew so well! And second - that I was excited about that fact - ha! But as was pointed out to me, eggplant is so nebulous, it more absorbs the flavor of what it's cooked with. So why not grow it, I figured. Because that's true - if I cook it with something good, it'll taste good  :D

But ever since I heard about using eggplant rather than noodles in lasagna, I knew I was even more sold. And this is going to be a two parter because it took me two days to make it, for one. It takes a while to get it all out about what I did, too, for anyone that actually wants to know the steps, lol.

First - I had to harvest the stuff! Everything I read told me that harvesting eggplant was difficult and to have some garden shears or something because the stems are tough to cut through. Well, the websites were right. And since I don't have garden shears, I got out the loppers - as you can see here.

Second - I have never made lasagna before tonight. It took prep work last night, and more stuff tonight, but I'm just going to say... it was Y-U-M-M-Y!

Third - It's late and there's a lot involved in the recipe. So I'll get working on the details tomorrow. Suffice it to say, I will absolutely make this again! Tons to freeze, too, which is always a plus! Check back tomorrow for more pictures and my own recipe that I made up as I went along... lol.

:)

Teaser...

Just a quick teaser for tomorrow, hehe. It was supposed to be tonight, but man did part of this take a lot longer than I thought it would... Lol. 

Stay tuned! If all goes well, something awesomely yummy tomorrow!

:)

Post Card Sunday

Better late than never, right? Tonight we return to the historical postcards, this one from 1911 if the postmark is to be believed. But up here we have the front. Nice pic!

As we see here, the postcard is from Rhode Island, someplace with a funny name - Woonsocket, lol. It is a real place, and now, apparently the corporate headquarters of CVS, among other things. Not a huge city though, but not tiny. Google and Wikipedia know all... Lol.

Anyway - as is plain here from the back, the postmark reads 1911. The address is a name, city, and state - no more. Presumably it got there. It got somewhere!

Here's the message. I'm pretty sure this is what it says, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. Maybe it does to the recipient... 

Oh you cutie arrived here at 3:30 stiff and sore this looks like a good little berg
Yours truly
Geo McCure

Yep, just like that. No punctuation or capitals, just that. I guess we all get the point though. Hopefully so, lol.

Anyway - another cool oldie! Hope you enjoyed!

:)

Birthday Party Delay

Got invited to a birthday party tonight, so that's why Post Card Saturday will again be Post Card Sunday this week. Sure I could have done it far earlier in the day, but well... I didn't, lol. But tomorrow for sure!

:)

Quotable Thursday!

Here we are again, one day away from Fantastic Friday! And that means that it's Quotable Thursday  :D

I'm kind of digging this feature, I'll be honest. It makes me go through my quote book on a weekly basis and that's some history there, it is. Stuff that really struck a chord with me at certain times in my life and stuff. I wonder if I'd put some of those same quotes in there now if I was just seeing them for the first time, or if they really are "time specific". A lot of them still resonate in some way, but I suspect much of it might be because of the memories. Reminding me of what I have learned - and what I am still working on, haha.

Things ring true for all different reasons. What does it for you?

Tonight's quote is sort of more pithy in nature, but I like it, and it's good advice I think. It's by Theodore Roosevelt, and I don't remember where I saw it. But clearly I liked it enough to put it in the book, and I still like it now. So here we go...

"Nine tenths of wisdom is being wise in time."

Theodore Roosevelt.

Could that be more true? Hindsight is great, but if only we could always be aware of the right choice to make, the best course of action in any given situation. Unfortunately we have to muddle through as best we can, right? And learn for the next time.

In the meantime, Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading!

:)

Four! Count 'Em!

I must be going blind. Like, really. Because when I was checking bean plants a couple of days ago, I found *another* eggplant! One I had not noticed before. Now, for all I know, they really can grow fast, but considering I saw the progress of a couple of them... Nope, I just missed it and I don't know how I managed to do that.

So yep, that's one pic there, and here's the other picture of the other two of them. I've been reading about how and when to harvest eggplant, if it can be frozen (it can), and now it looks like I'm going to need some recipes, hehe. 

Anyone who's known me over the years is probably reeling at the fact that I'm excited about eggplant. Well, I sort of am. It's something my garden is producing lots of, for one thing. And sometimes our tastes change. I've eaten it in the past and didn't mind it. That's what I"m hoping for this time around, too, lol.

They just gotta hang on until this weekend...

:)

Parsley With a Side of Rosemary

This pot is always so cheery - a big yellow pot full of bushy parsley. More than I can probably ever use, but it grows so nicely so I let it. And next to the parsley is its best friend - a rosemary. You see the rosemary flowering, which I didn't realize for the longest time it would do. But the flowers are pretty, don't you think?

Just a pretty picture all around.

:)

Escape!

One thing my sister always says is that plants *want* to grow. That is their purpose and they will do it as best they can. I think I am proving that over and over and over... lol.

Because here are some escapees, lol. If you remember, I found sweet potatoes growing under another tub (go Here to see that!). They have also moved to another tub without any assistance or even knowledge for a while, but I'll have pictures of that another day, lol.

Up top there you see some lettuce growing all on its own. Not that the lettuce I had in tubs didn't go to seed, because it did. But it's been a while, and then a few weeks ago I noticed what looked like lettuce growing in the ground. You can see now that that's just what it is.

Here's some more, with some escapee basil plants! 

Another basil in the yard. I've pulled all these basils up and put them in pots again, so I guess I'll see how that goes.

So yep, proof that plants really want to grow. Even when I'm lazy and don't do all a good gardener should, lol.

:)

Post Card Sunday

Oh yeah, yesterday totally got away from me... But here it is, at least!  :D

These are more cards from my personal collection. I have a student from Kazakhstan. Yes, you read that correctly (even though I could not spell it, lol). Of course, as soon as I met him, I got very excited and told him that when he visited home again, to send me a post card!

He did not do that. What he did do, which was awesome, is tell his father who was coming for a visit to bring some cards with him. If you see here, they aren't true postcards like what we think of. He said they don't have that kind in their country. 

But you know what - these are soooo awesome! And who would have ever thought I'd get cards from Kazakhstan!? 

This is their president, apparently. 

The outline of the country. I'm assuming these all say something like "Come visit Kazakhstan, the greatest place on earth!" or some such. Since I don't read any Russian whatsoever, well... I'm going to stick with that, lol.

Anyway - aren't these cool?! I think they are awesome. Hope they make up for being a day late.

:)

We Made It!

Whew! Friday at last! This crazy week is drawing to a close, thank goodness. I'm looking forward to a great weekend. And here's hoping next week is better for us all, right?

:)

Quotable Thursday

Got another one that seems pretty dang apropos for what's going on with me this week. Let's hope I get it posted while it's still Thursday, ha!

Tuesday I was in a car accident. I'm fine, just a small bruise on one knee I'm not even sure how I got. But my car - totaled. It's a goner, I'm pretty sure. I won't know for certain until it's checked out, but yeah...

And some other stuff has been going on, sort of coming to a head these days. I've been a pretty unhappy camper this week. The thing is, I know I shouldn't be. I'm alive, for one. Have a job, my fur babies are okay, and I even got a handful of tomatoes from the garden today. We can't help our feelings sometimes though. But this quote speaks to it all, I think.

"If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is

on fire - then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Life is inconvenience. Life is lumpy."

Robert Fulghum

I wonder if he's ever ready anything by Douglas Adams? Points to any of you who know what I am referring to, lol. I may even give you the answer tomorrow.

In the meantime, go hug someone, talk and laugh and eat well. Enjoy life while you got it.

:)

Good and Bad

Just a few days sure can make a difference, can't it? Yesterday was stressful - had a car accident. Yes, I'm fine, but my car is totaled. *sigh*.And I had to do something really difficult tonight. Tough, but necessary.

On the plus side - there are actually *three* eggplants out on the one plant, and the golden cherry tomatoes are starting to really produce. A good sized handful of them every other day or so. The bean plants are giving their last, I think, but I still have time to replant and get beans before it gets too hot.

So - pictures soon, of the eggplant and anything else that seems good. Oh - did I mention that both lettuce and basil are growing in the yard? Yeah, they are... all on their own, lol. Good and bad, right?

:)

Spring Cookies

Yep, just what the title says. A friend came over last week and we made some cookies, the same sugar cookie recipe I use at Christmas and Here. But these are Easter/Spring shapes:  flowers, butterflies, carrots, and eggs. And clearly my friend is a bit more talented in the decorating department, lol. But we had fun, and man are these cookies goooooodd.

:)

Sad News

It's about Jorge, the lime tree. Remember when he had all these teeny, tiny limes, like in this picture?

Well, no more. There was torrential downpour yesterday. *All* day long. It was super heavy, like the bottom just dropped out and all the water in the world hit hard.

All but two of his little limes were beaten off the branches.  :(  I'm very sad, too, because I don't think he'll get any more this season. *sigh*

When it rains, it pours, right? 

:)