Reflections on a Semi-Wasted Week

Periodically, I get a week off from my job. It's not paid, but a week off is a week off, right? If I must have it, I want to do something with it. I always start off with a huge list of things I want to get done.

You probably know where this is going.

It is Thursday already, and I have less than half done that I wanted to. Probably less than a third. Maybe a quarter... Errands that shouldn't take much time end up taking an hour longer. A workman has to come to the house so I have to take care of that. Those pesky naps that insist they be taken carve out a chunk of time... ha ha!

Sure, all that is to blame. I've also noticed that I've been letting some happenings and some people get me down more than I ought to. I'm an adult, after all, in charge of my feelings, and no one can really make me feel bad or annoyed or like I'm not doing the best I can unless I let them. 

That's gonna stop today.

Today is gorgeous, as close to real fall as we get here in South Florida. There are a few crunchy leaves, the air feels and smells like fall... I'll take it. These pictures were taken just a little while ago outside, so you can partake of the gorgeous weather that we are experiencing in this part of the country. 

Today I'm getting lots done, including posting to this blog that has also been victim to the down-bringers of life. I have a feeling that nothing I get done today will actually show all that much except to a few people. But *I* will know I got it done, and that's all that has to matter anymore.

I hope you also have a great, productive, enjoyable day today!

:)

Quick - Look There!

Quick - look at this picture! What do you see?

Haha - No, not Lily, though she is gorgeous, of course. No... look closer now...

Here's a better one in case you can't see...

Yes Ma'am! Or Sir! That, my friends, is an avocado lying on the ground under the tree. It was still *in* the tree yesterday, so it's as fresh as it's going to get, I reckon. 

The poor avocado tree gets flush with flowers in the spring (what passes for spring here, haha!) but this is the first year for *any* avocados. There were three. The first fell off when it was really small. The second one I pulled off (it was eye level). Well, I tugged and it came free, so I figured it was good to go. 

Then this last one hung there forever. And finally, here it is! Guacamole for dinner, I tell ya'! 

Yum!

:)

More 'Maters

Tomato update! There's good and there's bad, as always.

Bad - this one. It was an heirloom variety, and never seemed particularly inclined to live. I tried to give it tomato love and such anyway. But it didn't take long for it to get like this. 

Here are the other two. They are hybrids bred for heat and clearly it seems to be working. They are doing much better, and growing. Always a great thing!

I had a long conversation with my sister this past weekend, about the state of my garden. She made some awesome suggestions, pointed out what problems I could likely fix. Problem is, it would take more money and work than I might be willing to put in, lol. I don't know though, I'll give it all a thought.

In the meantime, mixed results so far for the rest of the garden overhaul. I'll work on updates as I go along. Wish me luck!

:)

Post Card Saturday/Sunday

Today is another installment of my own personal postcards! Nothing historical, but these are super cool anyway. I think so anyway, ha ha.

This is a closer look at the last batch from The Most Excellent Mail Carrier on the Planet. I posted when I got them, and now I've done a little more closer up. I am still humbled and excited that she took both the time and trouble to send these to me, knowing about my collection! Her vacation to Puerto Rico netted me this awesomeness.

There are seven of them, so it was hard to decide how to get them all here. As you see from above, I've combined them to make it easier to see. 

If you also notice, they are all numbered  :D  I think that's so awesome. So above you have Cards # 1-4. And here are the backs in relative position.If you look closely, you can see the numbers.

Here are the second set, numbers 5 and 6, and one with no number. I'm guessing that's the extra for the pot like when you cook, lol. 

And here are the backs.

How awesome is all that? Pretty dang amazing if you ask me. 

:)

Quickie Update!

Just a quick one tonight. I'll update about the garden in more depth over the weekend, but here's one for now.

Basil!

If you recall, I replanted some in pots. It's just growing like crazy and I have no idea what to do with it all. But here's the picture from last weekend.

And here it is now. Yep, it's growing nicely. There's another couple of pots out by the garden that are full of tiny little basil sprouts. What the heck am I going to do with it all?!

More this weekend!

:)

Pot Pie Part Duex

As promised, I will try to reproduce the recipe for the Chicken Pot Pie I made yesterday. No guarantees, but I'll do my best. Shakespeare might have said that the course of true love never did run smooth. Well, mostly neither does my cooking *sigh*. At least the end results are tasty, even if gotten there in a more roundabout manner. 

First off - the Crust.

Several months ago, I made these quiches that were really good. And I had found this amazing cheese crust for quiche recipe. (To see that recipe, go Here). I ended up with some extras, but liked it so much, I froze them. I decided to use those for the crust for this pot pie.

Problem was, the fridge might be too cold, because when I wanted the crusts (that had been in there a couple of days), they weren't thawed. Which meant I tossed them in the microwave, and it gave them a really funny texture. So I added some Bisquick, kneaded them some, and *then* rolled them out. You might want to just try a more conventional crust, lol..

So the gooey stuff...

This is the recipe I started with. Why yes, yes that is. Right out of the plain ol' Betty Crocker cookbook. I just didn't like any of the recipes I found online. I figured this would give me a place to start and I'd wing the rest. See for yourself how it turned out.

Yeah, this sort of grew by leaps and bounds. I misread the first ingredient, and for some reason was thinking of ten ounces *each* of peas and carrots. So I eyeballed that much. First mistake, but okay, not too bad. I used more butter than it calls for, because I knew I had more chicken broth, cream, and chicken. 

One whole stick was melted and a chopped half of a small onion sauteed in it for a few minutes. Then as the recipe calls for, I added the pepper, salt, flour, and let it get bubbly. I added cream (instead of milk) and chicken broth. Cream was closer to a cup, and the chicken broth about 2 cups. 

You see why this stuff outgrows the original when I cook... :D

Then add the chicken. Several months ago when I went on my crazed chicken cooking and broth rant, I ended up with several zippered bags full of chicken. This recipe calls for 2 1/2 to 3 cups, and I probably had 3 1/2. Not bad, given all the extra stuff I had already added... lol.

Put it all together, made my slits. Here it is before it goes in the oven.

For some reason, I also didn't read the temperature it was supposed to cook on. So the crust was getting really done and not the insides. I looked again, saw the discrepancy, and turned it up. (That's why the crust on top is so brown. But it was still really good!)

Here's the inside of it. You can sort of see it anyway. 

So anyway - for those few of you who actually read this *and* cook, I don't know if that was helpful or not, lol. But I promised it, and so here it is. Enjoy!

:)

Cooking Patience is a Virtue

This was dinner tonight! It's homemade chicken pot pie. It's late, and I'm a little sleepy tonight, so I'll go into the particulars and the "recipe" I followed tomorrow. Just wanted to give a quick word on something I realized tonight.

Impatience.

No, that's no surprise to anyone who knows me. I'm probably one of the most impatient people on the planet, lol. But I realized tonight as I was rushing to get this put together that - I didn't need to rush. What was the big hurry? I have no idea, but I've been noticing myself do that a lot lately. Or rather, that I've always done stuff like that.

I have a few theories on that, that I won't bore you with, lol. But my point is - I like cooking and creating, for example, so why am I always in a hurry to get it done? Unless there's a deadline I'm about to miss, and there are precious few of those I really have.

Patience. I need to get some, slow down and enjoy. Yeah, we'll see how that works, ha ha!

:)

So Sorry! Have Some Soup :)

I have been a complete bum the past few days. I mean, really a bum. I was struck by an attack of the lazies and couldn't seem to get out of it. I promise Post Card Saturday will be back this week, and there actually have been some happenings on the ol' faux homestead! More on those as the week goes on and I get caught up.


Tonight though... I tried an experiment. Soup!

Specifically, butternut squash soup. That's a picture up top. 

I have an odd history with butternut squash soup. It always looks so dang good, but I've run the gamut from just plain disliking it to being... disappointed. I happened to have some butternut squash, and a recipe came across my search, so I decided to try it out for myself.

For the recipe I started with, click Here.

Of course, I made some variations, lol. For starters, by the time I cut up the butternut squash, I ended up with not-quite 8 cups of cubed squash. So I multiplied by a third for proportion. I changed just one thing, really. Here it is as I did it:

I sauteed 8-9 Tablespoons of chopped onion (I got distracted after 7, so I wasn't sure if I'd done 8 or not. So I added 2 more, lol). I added the squash, 4 cups of chicken broth (rather than the water and bullion. I happen to have gracious plenty chicken broth, lol), marjoram, pepper, and a dash of cayenne. 

Boil until the squash is tender. Then remove the squash from the broth. In batches, I blended it with 20 ounces of softened cream cheese. Once smooth, added it back to the broth, stirred to get them all mixed, and heated until it was hot. 

Served it with biscuits. Here's the result:

I don't know how other people get their butternut squash soup to look so orange. Yes, my squash was orange when it started, but by the time the whole thing came together, it was this neat cream color. Tasted pretty good, too.

And yep, that's a Halloween tablecloth you see there  :D  More on that later, too. 

So there you have it - another new recipe successfully tried out!

:)

Multi-Tasking

Nope, nothing to do with this post,
just for the First day of October!

So I was reading this article on multi-tasking. All research seems to show that multi-tasking is bad for concentration, and also produces inferior work. Thing is, we all already know that, but we can't seem to keep from doing it! Lol

One thing about the garden though - can't do two things at once. And I don't know if it could be considered a form of multi-tasking when I listen to a book on CD while I embroider. I do it when I cook, I know I do, but that seems to work all right.

But there are things... writing, reading, that just can't be done with trying to work on something else. Not for me anyway, but I'm old.

Anyway - I realize this isn't my usual, but this article got me to thinking. Now, I'm gonna go finish it, ha ha! (And if you want to read it, click Here)

:)

Garden-Gedden Pics

Last night I actually got *two* posts out! Yay me! And this is in addition to the actual garden stuff, lol. But I was too tired and dirty to get pictures of it all yesterday, and I did promise them. So here they are!

(Well, most of them. The stuff that's just seeds in dirt I didn't worry about pictures of those yet, lol.)

First - Tomatoes!

Here's a picture of all the freshly planted tomato plants. Three different types - An Heirloom variety I don't remember the name of, lol. The other two are hybrids for hot climates. Phoenix is one of those, but I don't remember the other either, ha ha! I'll take a look next time I'm outside.

Second - Pepper!

And this is the new pepper plant! Along with a close up of the buds on it. I'm really, really hoping it will supplement the plants, rather than... supplant (HAHA! Couldn't help myself.). One of the other plants is full of buds, too, and the one I broke is hangin' in there. So keep your fingers crossed.

Bud Close Up

Third - Basil!

These are the replanted and repotted basil plants. One per pot, all healthy so far. Still didn't get the other stuff cleaned up yet, and I'm going to root some purple basil to go along with these. But aren't they cute, all nice and lined up like that? 

So there you have it. Chives, spinach, beans, and pumpkin are seeds in dirt right now. At least a few days before any of those can be up, so pictures when it happens.

In the meantime, there ya' go!

:)