Choice Morsels

Today's Mama Kat blog writing topic is,  "Write about something that made you laugh this week." I call it audio auto-fill. You know like what your phone does, except this is what your brain does when your ears hear words you can't quite make out clearly, so your brain "fills" in with other words---sometimes with hilarious results. Hubby and I have had two of those this past week: We were eating dinner and I said, "Tomorrow I need to refill the bird feeder." Hubby's  fork stopped in midair as he looked at me like a horn popped out of my forehead. "What did you say?" he asked. I repeated. He chuckled. "I thought you said you had to sell some beer tomorrow." Another day we were eating lunch. Hubby likes to eat chocolate rice cakes with peanut butter and honey. Sometimes he makes a peanut butter rice cake sandwich with two rice cakes. I'd seen him slather one rice cake with peanut butter, then, when I looked...

I learned about Italian Cream Cake when I asked a college girl in our Bible Study, who would be leaving in the fall, what her favorite cake was and she said "Italian Cream Cake." Since I prefer a 9 x 13 pan cake, I looked through Pinterest for a recipe and found this one: I gave this recipe a test run with a few modifications, such as applesauce instead of oil, and it came out soooo delicious. It's a keeper! I've made it several time since! Here's my version of that Pinterest recipe: Quick Italian Cream Cake! Cake: 1 box of white cake mix 1 small package of instant vanilla pudding (3 1/2 oz) 3 whole eggs 2 1/2 Tablespoons Evaporated Milk 1/2 cup natural unsweetened applesauce (instead of canola oil) 1 1/2 cups water 1 cup flaked coconut Frosting: 2 Tbsp lite butter, melted 6 oz cream cheese, softened (I used 2/3 cup whipped kind) 1 Tbsp Evaporated milk (up to 2) 1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar (for a 9 x 13 pan cake) 1 cup fla...

T he Mama Kat blog writing prompt topic for today is, "Describe a awkward moment." I had an awkward event happen right in front of me this week. I didn't cause it. I try to avoid that.   I just was there when it happened.  Awkward moments are generally like a toilet overflowing--you can't stop it. It's gonna do what it's gonna do and poopy water will be hitting the floor! This particularly noteworthy moment occurred at our Tuesday night Bible study we hold in the Airman's Center. The people who attend are largely 19 to 24 year old active duty Air Force plus a smattering of civilians employed on the base. For the past few weeks we've been studying the Bible book of Daniel and to make it fun, when a chapter involves a dream or a vision, we break them into small groups with crayons and poster board to let them express their own creativity. Sometimes the main drawing gets accessorized by a Jeep grill or Sponge Bob and all sorts of oddities of imag...

Today I finished the last section of the yard for mowing and cleaned up day lily stems from beds.  It was stifling out. A couple days ago I was checking my corner rain garden that's full of Bugleweed to make sure the Hydrangea in the middle is clear---and guess what I found! A tiny baby Box Turtle! It was just a little bigger then the size of  a quarter!  I'm thinking it hatched this year.  Probably right there. Today I put a couple small watermelon rinds under that hydrangea for baby. It's cool, shady and sheltered under all that Bugleweed. I noticed this past week something was drilling into my Zucchini and eating it on the inside, so I lost 4 or 5. I had sprinkle the squash with Sevin dust.  Tomatoes are starting to get ripe. Time to start thinking what I'm going to do with them!  Tacos, spaghetti sauce, tomato-basil soup and pasta salad will soon be on the menu! The last of the blackberries are getting ready to ripen and once they're do...

Today's Good Eating recipe is  "Slow-Cooker Baked Sweet Potatoes." This was a Pinterest recipe I tried out--and it works fantastic! I love baked sweet potatoes, but they take so long in the oven and I don't like using it in summer. So, I read this recipe for baking them in a slow-cooker. Tried it. Loved it.  Have used it twice already.  I decided baked sweet potatoes with a Birdseye Steamable veggie would be my lunch Mon. thru Thur. this week! Ingredients: 4 to 6 medium sweet potatoes. (5 - 6 inches)  Directions: Spray slow-cooker with cooking oil spray, because the sweet potatoes release juices while cooking. Scrub/wash sweet potatoes thoroughly to get rid of exterior roots & dirt. Dry. Poke with knife or fork several times, so steam will vent. Put in slow-cooker. Cover. C ook 3 to 4 hours on high.  (Mine, which were small, were done within 3 hours.) Serve how you like. You can split them or peel them. (The skin peels off ea...

In 1915, Kazimir Malevich painted a single solid black square on a linen canvas and called it art. He called his abstract style "cubo-futuristic," leading the way into a movement later called, "suprematism art."  Abstract art is art that is the opposite of realistic, so suprematism art was an abstract style comprised of just basic colored shapes, such as squares, lines, rectangles or circles and so on.  A sample of Malevich's art: The German Bauhaus school of design was influenced by this Suprematism art style: Here's an example of a Bauhaus graphic design. Here you see basic shapes of color combined  with black text design: When I recently redesigned my Zazzle store category thumbnails, I set out to create designs consisting of just a interesting black text accented with nothing but a few simple colored shapes.   Once done, I like this look so much , I was inspired to expand some of those same designs for broader use on fabric, wall ...

This morning I did some morning, but it was gray like a thunderstorm was looming and I could hear distant thunder, so I just did the north side and quit. But nothing came of it and a couple hours later it was sunny again--still I hear distant rumbling even now, when it's nearly 4 pm  It's that time of year. I did later go back out to collect blackberries and tie up tomatoes. My front flower beds are a vision of loveliness at night, thanks in particular to all those 4 O'clocks! So today's first Garden Pics are of my blooming night garden: These photos are at 9 pm last night: Above, my red Petunias, yellow Million Bells and yellow Paint 4 O'clocks all stay awake at night to feed the moths! I saw in Burpee a white night blooming flower called a "Moon Flower," that looks like a Morning Glory. It needs at trellis, so it's a vine like that. Next: My Veggie Bed Tomatoes, Zucchini & Melon. Also, a couple baby watermelon plants ...

Greetings! Another steamy week of June! Today I cut some of my basil, Greek oregano & chocolate mint to put in the dehydrator to dry! Luckily a ton of basil came back from seed by itself ! The garage smells delicious. My other outside task was hedging up the last 3 Azalea bushes in the back yard and also the Gardenia topiary tree, which has finished blooming.  The Azaleas all needed treating with Neem oil as well--scale has been a problem this year. Then, when Hubby came home, we grabbed dinner at the Panda Express because Panda was contributing proceeds from every meal today to Feeding America. We fed 24 people by eating there today. Today's Good Eating Recipe is one I've used before, saw on Pinterest and decided to make again for Air Force Bible Study group on base tomorrow night. It's called, "Two Ingredient Pumpkin Brownies." They were moist and yummy last time I made them and it's a such an easy way to make a chocolate treat that's ...

Today's Mama Kat topic is:  "Write a post that ends with the word: Again." When I used to work at a flower shop, customers often said to me, " It must be so wonderful working with flowers all day. " In reality, that job made my clothes and hands stained & filthy, involved lifting dozens of heavy buckets of water daily, I was standing on my feet all day long and, on holidays, it was really high pressure. Now I work at home as a graphic designer creating art for printable products for an online print-on-demand company. On the upside: I don't have to stand on my feet all day and there's no pressure. I work when I want. On the down side, nothing is as simple as it might appear. There 's a learning curve involved with applying art work to these various products and getting it fitted just right; especially new products I've never tried before. First I design the art in my graphic software, then I upload it to Zazzle, then put i...

We had a nice, much needed little thunder shower yesterday! I recently replanted a mix variety of lettuce seeds in a pot of rich garden soil that I put near the front door in the strawberry bed. Also a short row of radish seed.  The strawberries don't like the end of the bed near my front door, so I use it as an auxiliary garden. I didn't find the lettuce seed performed that well in the veggie bed. Not sure why. Maybe the sun is too intense. But I have gotten good performance from it in a pot--usually one that's more shaded. That's a trick about gardening in Florida--things that like full sun further north, needed partial shade here. Today's Garden Pics are my gorgeous Hardy Hibiscus! This is not the tropical form, which is a shrub, but the tall upright variety that dies back in winter and returns from root every spring. They average 4 to 5 feet tall and run in a variety of shades from light pink to deep burgundy red, plus white and I believe a ...

Greetings! I have a flock of Purple Finches visiting the feeder now--it's two pairs of parents bringing their kids to the restaurant!  Driving back from the fitness center this morning we can see an active Osprey nest in a bare tree overlooking the bay. One of the parents was sitting in it. They are a breed of hawk that dines on fish. Very common around here. They mate for life and this particular pair built their first nest in this tree months ago and I've been watching them every time we drive by to the fitness center. My observation impression is this is their 3rd round of off-spring. It looks like they just build a new nest on top of old and go again. Though, I'm not sure about the habits of Osprey.  Today's Good Eating recipe is a no-bake recipe from Honeymaid Graham Crackers that I tried called, "Creamy Layered Lemon Squares." It came out looking just like the picture, but I thought the layer of strawberries in the middle lent an unpleasant sour...