Choice Morsels

The Mama Kat prompt for today is: "Share something that scared you when you were young...are you still afraid?" I can think of a couple things. First, cockroaches.  They totally creep me out. That's because one day, back when I was in early grade school, I remember feeling something tickling me under my clothes. So I went to the ladies room to investigate. Entering a stall, I peeled off my clothes and a small cockroach fell out onto the floor. Ew. Ever since then, just seeing a cockroach gives me the creepy-crawlies. However, what fell out of my clothes all those years ago has nothing--NOTHING on the HUGE cockroaches I see here in Florida.  They run from 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches in size and thick as a stick. I swatted one I found standing in the bathroom with my slipper just the other morning. (I can't stand stepping on them with my actual foot in a shoe--I hate the feel.) *Gag*   The other fear I have is of heights. I remember the day I first acqu...

Today's Garden Pic of the Day is a "mini-me" Box Turtle I saw just sitting on the block wall on Monday as Hubby and I were walking up the walk after coming home from the Fitness Center. He's sitting in my Hubby's hands, all of 2 inches in size! Such big eyes! Baby Box Turtle We released him in the back yard. Boxies are territorial--maybe he'll stay. ***** Today's other projects: Move the Houseplants Inside! It will be getting down into the 40's this weekend at night! All my houseplants happily spend spring & summer outside. This year though, one of the variegated Spider plants died. So I have one pot with a bushy Spider plant hanging in the kitchen and one that has just a few Spider babies in it. I hang a Dracaena plant in the guest bath and I have a Silver Arrowhead in the master bath, though, I must say, that Arrowhead was in pitiful shape and had to have a complete re-potting. Both it and the one Spider plant will need to re-gr...

Greetings!  It's the last week of October! What will you be doing for Halloween?   I think I'll dress as a pirate and wait to see if any little matey's come to my door trick or treating. Hubby will be up on base with other guys from our Bible Study passing out bags of candy that include Airmen Center cards and pens. Today's Good Eating recipe is one I haven't tried yet, but now that it's cooling down and baking in the oven is more appealing, I'm looking forward to trying it!  This recipe is from Pinterest: Crispy Smashed Red Potatoes   #1) Boil a selection of small red potatoes  in water with salt added until they're cooked through and fork tender. (red have thin skins and cook quickly, making them ideal for this.) #2) Oil spray or drizzle a cookie sheet with olive oil. Then drain and let cool 10 minutes. Arrange potatoes on cookie sheet in rows, smashing each with bottom of a glass to flatten somewhat. #3)  Brush tops of sm...

Today's Garden Pic of the Day is a nice shot of my Pineapple Sage that has just recently come into bloom! Here in north Florida it blooms now and through-out winter. I still have a Hummingbird or two visiting my feeder, so they might yet get to enjoy these! For more on growing Pineapple Sage and a couple recipes for using it, you can visit this older post:  Herb Savvy with Pineapple Sage . For Bible Study on base last night I made M&M Blondies with peanut butter & peanut M&M's. (I had 1/2 a bag of each.) Such a delicious recipe!  **** Come back tomorrow for Mama Kat!

Greetings on this lovely fall day! Today's Good Eating recipe is one I'm trying tonight that that I saw on Pinterest called, "Sausage & Peppers Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Boats." I bought a spaghetti squash, knowing I'd have Johnsonville Sweet Sausages left-over from Sunday's cookout, just so I could try this recipe. To me, most squash is bland tasting, so the challenge is always making it flavorful. While I find spaghetti squash fairly often quite tasty if it's seasoned right, I would never, ever try and pass it off as a real substitute for pasta. It's more like virtual spaghetti.  Pasta is pasta and spaghetti squash is still squash and neither shall the twain meet. However, I have sausages to use and I love Italian, so I'm going to give it a go. Sausage & Pepper Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Boats Ingredients: 1 (4 pound) spaghetti squash 2 tablespoons olive oil Kosher salt and pepper, to taste 1 pound Italian sausage (spicy or swe...

The Mama Kat prompt topic this week is: "My list 6 retired TVshows I'd like to see come back (as good as before)." Before I get into my list, let me qualify that I want these shows back as good as they were the first time, under the following conditions:   * Without making them risque & sleazy, like so many modern shows & comedies are.  * Without adding a bunch of extra foul language.  * And I want them to high caliber, well-written , good family hour story telling on network television. With that said, here's my list: #1)   The A-Team:   But like it was with lots campy of action that didn't really kill anyone, a sense of humor and an ability to escape any situation while helping people out of a jam.  Of course, George Peppard will remain irreplaceable. #2)   Airwolf:   But like it was in the first 2 seasons: helping people with lots of just plain adventure flying around in a secret, impossibly f ast co...

Greetings!  Another fine October day! It's getting into that nice fall-ish weather that, here in north Florida, ranges from 60 at night to 70's or 80's during the day with next to no humidity--great for doing all that fall yard clean up!  I finished mowing the back yard today, which included policing up a bunch of pine cones and branches thrown around by a recent rain storm. Then spread the mowing mulch around various beds and especially stacking it around new shrubs in back. I'd done the front yesterday, so today's work polished off the lawn mowing, which conveniently vacuums up all the pine needles. I don't like to rake---ever tried raking up the long southern type pine needles? Today's Pic of the Day is a shot I took this afternoon of my rose topiary against banana trees and late-day sun. We spent all day this past Saturday at the Pirates of the Sea Festival in Panana City Beach, Florida, from about 2:30 pm until after the Fireworks at ...

Today's accomplished garden projects include: planting 9 baby broccoli, planting the last of my Romaine lettuce seeds, planting 5 Hyacinth bulbs, so in the spring I'll have 6 instead of just 1; planting baby Easter Lily Bulbs.  It was funny---I had a Easter Lilly in my large pot garden out front, but at end of season, I found a just dead stem with a deposit of about a dozen round, green infant bulbs around it, scattered on top of the soil.  I collected them and saved them for planting--which I did today. I put them around a pine tree in the woodsy area in back.  Easter Lily's are great for naturalizing & spread by side-shoot roots as well as bulbs. They can take over a bed over a period of years. Today's Garden Pics are Fall themed Mums & Marigolds: First, Mums: I recently bought these at Walmart and planted them along the front wall, because the ones I planted lasted fall have had a hard year and weren't looking so good. I like how the ...

Since September 29th was National Coffee Day, the Mama Kat prompt topic for today is: "How do you like your cup of coffee?" Abstract Coffee &Donuts Mug I like my coffee very fresh and very hot with a spoonful of powdered Coffeemate Creamer and one packet of either a Stevia sweetner or Splenda. I like just a touch of sweetness, but not enough to obscure the flavor, since I like the taste of coffee. We usually do a 50-50 "light"mix of regular and decaf in the coffeemaker with a dash of cinnamon, preferably using the brand 8 O'clock.  (Which won best tasting coffee against other common brands a couple years ago.)  Sometimes we buy the Folgers specialty flavored coffee if we don't have a coupon for 8 O'clock, but I find Folgers has a sour, dark taste. My favorite break time snack is that creamer + sweetner cup of coffee with 2 dark chocolate Hershey Kisses. And I'll wrap up by sharing a few of my favorite Pinterest coffee pins: ...

Today's Pic of the Day: Spider Lilies. These bare, leafless flower stalks faithfully pop up all over the deep south every September. Also called,"Red Magic Lilies," they're members of the general Magic Lily family "Lycoris," which is part of the larger Amaryllis family. I love them! This one was just opening when I took the picture! I also spent today planting about 50 bulbs for spring: Mixed Daffodils & Woods Hyacinths. Great naturalizers, I planted them through-out the woodsy area in back around the maple tree. Also today: before and after shots of my new lighting fixtures: The previous fixtures were 24 years old and in real need of replacing with fresh, energy efficient units! First the old kitchen light and the new one: And the new fixture in the garage: It's still a 2 bulb unit, but with a cover now instead of just bare bulbs. Now that I know who to call, I'll probably look into gradually updating a couple o...