Latest Cooking

Whew! Time flies! I have no idea how it got to be Tuesday already! haha

Saturday was busy, having people over and cooking for said people. As well as just doing the house cleaning stuff that one does extra when they are going to have guests. It was great though, a fun time was had by all.

What, pray tell, did I cook? Well, I will do better - I will even show you!

The Before Pic

Main course - Aji chicken enchiladas. 

After coming out of the oven.

My own creation, and tomorrow I will even give you the recipe. For now though, here is the after to the previous before picture.

And for dessert? Why, my world famous cheesecake, of course! Though I'll be honest, I didn't let the cream cheese soften enough (or at all), so the texture was off. Still tasted marvelous though.

So there you have it for now. Have a yummy night, day, whenever you might be reading this!

:)

Post Card Satur... er, Sunday!

Busy-ness and fun ensued yesterday, but kept me from posting on time. But here it is, Post Card Saturday! Only it's on Sunday this week, obviously. And an interesting one it is - I learned something cool! So without further ado...

Another pretty one of Washington, DC, with the cherry blossoms in bloom and the Washington Monument in the distance. Here's the whole back to start with.

The message part. As far as I can tell it says:

Dear Mother!
We arrived here at 7:00. We went to the Rialto and swa "Held by the Law." We are in the hotel now. It is 11:45. Love to all
Clara

So there you go - there's the 20s version of a check in call? Lol. Because again, Mother wouldn't know what her kids were up to immediately unless it happened in the same place, most likely. Again, I just love that stuff!

But that's not what I learned. Look here at the postmark - 1927. And look at what was stamped along with the postcard "Let's Go! Citizens Military Training Camp". I had no idea what that was, so of course, I Googled it. To see the wikipedia link, go here. And here's another page about it that I found - here. I had no idea we did this here in the good ol' US, and I am definitely going to read more about it. 

I realize Wikipedia is not a "real" source, to quote in papers and the like, but it does give a good general explanation of a lot of things. And I have no idea how reliable that second page is. But I got the gist of it, and now I'm interested. That's a good thing, righ?

So there you have it - the latest in the series. More next Saturday!

:)

Order Out of Chaos, 2

So before and mostly during my mom's visit, this is what my patio looked like, or a good chunk of it:

Good grief did we work! We planted, re-potted, straightened, moved about a gazillion plants, seeds, seedlings... Exhausting!

But it was worth it! Most everything is doing fabulously and also looks fabulous! More pictures of the garden and the "tomato field" once I put the finishing touches on them this weekend. 

But for your viewing pleasure, here is the newly usable patio! Well, usable for what it's actually supposed to be used for, ha ha!

And here's another, just 'cause it's so awesome!





More coming on the rest, no worries.

:)

Impulse Buy

So most women make impulse buys. Men, too, we all know they do. But the types of impulse buys do tend to differ, even among the same gender. I know the perception is that women's impulse buys run along the lines of shoes or purses or clothes. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've made those sorts if impulsive purchases, lol. 

No - here is my latest impulse buy...








Yes, you are seeing that right. 25 pounds of flour. I eye them every time I go to Costco, and I'd been buying a lot of flour the past few months. So I bought one a few weeks ago. 

Where is it now, you might ask? Well, take a look...

Yet another accomplishment of my mom's and me. Yep, we bagged up all that flour in Ziplocs and put it in the freezer. I left one of them out to use, of course. And what did I use it for already, you may ask?

Why - my world famous pizza, of course! There's more flour to be used before I hit the freezer again, but it's a start, right?

:)

Memorial Day

There's a lot I could post here tonight, but really, I think this day is too important to do more than say Thank You to the soldiers and their families who gave their lives for us to live how we do. 

Memorial Day - To remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. I thank you.

:)

Post Card Saturday!

It's that time again! Post Card Saturday! 

Here is the front of today's offering:

Obviously another shot of Washington, DC. Even back then, the cherry blossoms were famous (not that I know exactly when "back then" was More below on that..) It's a very pretty picture, however.  

And the back. Once again, you might notice there's no correspondence. I can make a few guesses as to time period, but they would be super vague and a wide range, lol. One of these days, maybe I'll actually do some research.

If you notice, this one also has a blurb about the place. A lot of super early ones don't. 

And here's the postage side. As you see, this one still has the instruction where to put the address, so it can't be so common place that everyone is expected to already know. And of course, the postage amount still blows me away, lol.

I know these without anything on them might not be as exciting, but they are still pretty enough that someone saved them. I really am going to do some research, too, and see if I can nail down some of this stuff.

But enjoy this one for now!

:)

Post Card Saturday - and Sunday...

Sort of a hint of things to come... 

It's been a long day today, no doubt about it. I am wiped out and have to get up in the morning. So Post Card Saturday will happen on Sunday this week, ha ha! Along with loads of other stuff that's gotten accomplished over the past week. Not all at once, but hopefully interesting enough to post about for the coming few days.

More tomorrow!

:)

It's Only Thursday, Right?

In progress, but looking *much* better!

Whew! This garden overhaul/redo is taking a *lot* of time. A lot more even than it did to set it up in the first place. That's probably a testament to how well stuff grows down here. Or to my growing gardening ambition or something. Who knows, but that's the "garden" garden right now, with more to come. And not even counting the patio stuff that is still, well... chaos, as you see here...

But progress is being made, I swear! For example, here are the basil plants before...

...And after, ha ha! It's actually really hard to show them at the moment because they are in about a zillion little pots and glasses to root. The tiny plants that were growing from seeds are in little pots of dirt, though they seem to be doing well. 

The plant that was still growing has been shorn of what was growing and there are now a bunch of small cups of water to root. Mom's going to take some home when she goes, and then... I'll have more basil than I'll know what to do with. That's a good thing, right?

But here - take a look at these babies! Remember the poor pepper plants? Still growing peppers despite looking so forlorn?

Here they are in their new digs! (ha ha! Pun sort of intended.) The poor plants were so root bound, roots were growing out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pots they were in. Mom and I hated to move them while they had peppers and blossoms on them, but it really was now or never. Keep your fingers crossed they continue to do well. They seem happier already...

Today is a day off! :D  We are headed to a Marlins game in a little while. But we'll be back at it tomorrow. We have more to plant and transplant, move and rearrange, clean up and organize, so that everything is easy to get to, and I can once again enjoy my patio for more than just watering plants, ha ha!

More as it happens!

:)

Order Out of Chaos, Part 1

So - a lot of things around my house have needed some work for a while. Plant and garden things, I mean.  Imagine that - ha ha!

And  since I have help here (ie - my awesome mother!) for a few days, it's been time for a garden overhaul. Or as much of one as can be, as well as the front beds that kinda got... overgrown. Or undergrown. Or just kind of... not really shaped much after Mom planted all kinds of cool stuff in empty beds several years ago.

Well, that's changed. I have to admit, I don't have any before pictures of this part, though here are a few after pics:

This is a bed in the front of the house that never was filled with anything but rocks and some trash. We cleaned it up, added dirt, and also some lantanas that were on clearance at Lowes. Keep your fingers crossed - this has potential.

We also trimmed back a lot of the palms that were at the window. And then - cut back some of the plants, pulled out an odd shrub/tree thingy, cleared out tons of weeds that had grown around the planted stuff... Also added some lemon balm and flowers, too. So here are more results...

Work is also being done in the back. Transplanting stuff, repotting, re-arranging tubs in the garden, just tons of stuff. More pictures of before and after there when there's more "after" and less "before", lol. It's all just chaos right now. But it's taking shape, slowly but surely. Or so I hope. Keep your fingers crossed...

:)

Post Card Saturday

Hurray! Time for another one! This one is purely from a historical context, even though I have no idea when that is, ha ha. But here's the front:

Yep, the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a really nice picture. However, if you look at the back:

You see there is no address, postmark, etc. So this was just in a collection of unsent post cards and I have no idea when this one was printed. Because as you can see, if you look again, there was no copyright year on it. None that I can see.

Look here, though. It's an actual blurb about the place. Some of the earlier post cards don't have that, so that does at least tell me (from my unscientific experience, lol), that it's later than 1910 ish or so. Or maybe not. I suppose I should make a chronological list of what I have sometime. It's not going to be today, however, lol.

So there is is, on time and everything! And I hope you caught the bonus post card this week! If not, go here and you can check it out. It's super awesome!

:)