Choice Morsels

The Mama Kat Prompt Topic for today is: "Something You Cooked that Nobody Liked."   I suppose we've all had those days. I admit there's even been a couple recipes I've tried that I didn't even like. However, this particular case involved my husband not liking something.   Normally, when it comes to my cooking, he's my biggest fan. And he's easy to cook for, since he'll likes most anything and is always willing to try something new. I know I'm lucky he's a good eater. I've met plenty of women with husbands who are picky-eaters, who won't touch vegetables or don't like casseroles or left-overs or some other peculiarity. Now one thing I love is canned salmon and making salmon patties. It's something we ate growing up. Plus they make pretty healthy meal. Some years ago I decided to make salmon patties for dinner. My husband sat down at the table and I set a plate loaded with a nicely browned salmon patty and a side

  Welcome back! Finally got the guest room all cleaned and put in order. I planted my tomatoes I took so much trouble to raise indoors outside, but they promptly keeled over and didn't take. :( So I planted seeds in those spots and, at my Mother's suggestion, covered them with milk cartons cut for the purpose. You leave the cap off and it creates something of a terrerium enviroment. The seed is new, so maybe I'll come back to some baby tomatoes growing under there. Today's Garden Picture of the Day is of a type of lily called a "Hot Poker." It gets that name for it's coloration. The tiny unopened blossoms are orange and the open are yellow. As they open, the yellow color progresses upward.   (That bit of blue in the foreground is Sea Holly.)   I bought a bag of Hot Poker roots from Walmart last spring and this one is the first of them to bloom. I have another Hot Poker plant that I ordered from a catalog many years ago that is gr

   Welcome to the last week of March! Today's good eating topic is some how-to's on stir-frying.   I had a Japanese room-mate, while in college many years ago, who taught me that stir-frying has an specific order as to what you put in the pan first, second and so on. In general, you can use a wok or an electric skillet or a regular skillet. I use my largest iron skillet. If you were cooking a large quantity of stir-fry, a deep wok might be better. Next, you want to pre-cut everything you're planning on stir-frying into bite-size pieces.   The original purpose of this bite-size format was for ease of eating with chop-sticks. But beauty is also very important in oriental cooking, so you want lots of bright colors and shapes in your stir-fry, so it's also pleasing to the eye.   Now the order of cooking: I usually add a little olive oil & garlic to my pan and saute the garlic just enough to flavor the oil. First, the really dense veggies: c

10 Random Things  I DON'T know how to do: 1) Knit.   I think I might someday like to learn, since knitting is handier for actually making clothing then crochet, but currently it's not something I know. 2)  Scuba Dive . I've never had any interest in learning that particular hobby/sport. Besides not being interested in swimming under water, everyone I know who has taken lessons has come away with an ear-drum damage. How fun is that? How to Make Crepes. That's something I've never bothered to try. Just not interested   4)  Making Pasta From Scratch . Nope. Not when it's soooo much easier to by the stuff ready-made in a box. 5)  Ballroom Dance . Too expensive to take up, even if I could talk hubby into it. I did a sample Fred Astaire thing once, though, where they show you a couple steps, then try and sell you an expensive program. I said forget it. 6)  Ball Sports . Like baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. I mean I understand the rules

Greetings! Another new Monday! My husband came with me to my interval class at the YMCA this morning. He lasted only 30 min. He was doing the cardio section a little too high impact, then using too heavy weights for the strength portions. I didn't think he'd believe a mere 5 lb weight adequate if I'd suggested he limit himself to that.  Though, it is. And there is a learning curve of endurance one must build, too. He's going to try it again next Monday, though with lighter weights and lower-impact cardio moves. We had a leak under the guest bath sink and because the carpeted guest bedroom is next door, the carpet soaked up a goodly amount along that side of the room. Luckily, numerous cardboard boxes out of the storage closet were sitting there and they help asorb it. So, I've had fans blowing on the carpet and the vanity for several days now. Today's Good Eating topic is cake-mix based "Quick Snack Cakes." I call them coffee cake, since

The Mama Kat Challenge Topic for this week is: "6 Things I Didn't Learn In School."   (And wished I did.)   #1)  Sentence structure, punctuation and other composition-type topics. We had to buy a composition book every year from 7th to 9th grade, but rarely cracked it open. It was early 70's. My English teachers were young, just-out-of-college hippies, who cared more about expressive freedom and creative writing. What's a predicate anyway?  #2)  American History beyond the Civil War The Pilgrims, the Revolution and the Civil War seemed to get the biggest emphasis, then it sort of petered out after that. Rarely did we even discuss WW1 and WW2 and certainly not the Korean War. Presidents after Abe Lincoln seemed of little importance. #3)  Algebra My high school teacher wasn't any good at communicating this subject in a manner I could understand, so I didn't get it. I scraped by with a "D". Later in college, however, I pass

Unfortunately, Mama Kat Thursday turned into Friday because I needed to get the guest bath back together yesterday for dinner company and that took an unexpected amount of time---though it looks beautiful! I liked the prompt, so decided to post it anyway. The prompt was: to share 10 random things I know how to do:   1) I write. I have a ton of fan fiction to my name and, on occasion, I can wax poetic. I wrote an original spring haiku for the Spring Daffodil Haiku card I designed. 2)  I know how to sew outfits, though I haven't for awhile. To get the sewing machine out for a clothing project means a mess on the dining room table for at least a concentrated week of my attention. 3)  I know how to crochet and I enjoy doing yarn projects like afghans, baby blankets and pot holders.  The repaired trim as it looks now. 4)  Turns out I know how to fix my trim. I just trotted down to Ace Hardware, got fresh finish nails, a nail-set tool and wood putty. I have to credit

   While I love our new floor, I didn't love how the installers put the trim back on the base-boards. They were here from 10 to 3 this last Saturday, the 4th day of what should of been a 2-day job, because their Dad, who was the carpet store manager, kept calling them to go do this and that all over the county. So they kept disappeared for hours at a time. On Saturday absolutely all the grouting was still left to do throughout the main body of the house, plus they needed to put all the wood trim back in place. But it was Saturday and they didn't want to stay till 5pm, so they rushed everything. Now, if they'd done an excellent job replacing the trim, I might been able to over-look the delay, but they did a horrible, horrible job with the trim . I found trim segments just resting in place without nails , trim jammed into place in such a way as to splinter both trim ends and the base board,  nails not hammered all the way in or trim sections  forced into place o

  First, before I share my good eating recipe, I have a side-by-side set of photos of my old floor and new floor for to see! What a fantastic difference!   Before                                          After And a photo of the entry way with the new braided rug! My husband said, "Wow, it practically fills the space!" and I replied, "That was the plan. I measured." A larger version of this will be the living room centerpiece.     My tasks today include: *Finish cleaning/oiling baseboards (T hank goodness for Old English Scratch Cover! It's a lifesaver!) *Sand spackle spots & touch-up paint the wall where the entertainment center goes, so we can move that back in place tonight and have TV. (I w ant to watch Castle!) *Clean the decorations that sit on the high shelves mounted on the wall that are thick with dust bunnies that are presently stacked on the dining table, waiting for me.  (Out of of sight, out of mind.) *  Plumber coming

 Still stuck in the den while the guys work on the floor---though it's looking fabulous! Thought I'd share some witty favs from my husband's Facebook: