Choice Morsels

This afternoon I spent about 90 minutes weeding the flower bed along the north side of the house, then for dinner, we met one of the military guys from our Bible Study  at a restaurant, because he's been reassigned to a base in Massachusetts and will be leaving at the end of the week. Today's Good Eating is about "Cruciferious" (krew+SIH-fer-uhs) vegetables.   Interestingly, this scientific name comes from the flowers of these veggies, which, if they bloom, have 4 petals that resemble a cross. Who knew? Cruciferious veggies are everything in the cabbage family, which includes many veggies you wouldn't even guess are cabbage relatives! The family includes, all cabbages, of course: Red, White & Savoy Cabbages Chinese Cabbage And Also:  Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi,  cauliflower, radishes, turnips rutabagas,  Collards, kale, mustard greens, Swiss chard, Bok choy, watercress, arugula and--big surprise--horseradish!

First, before I get to the Chili, let me talk about the recent severe storm activity on the Gulf Coast, particularly around Pensacola.  A city slightly north of Pensacola, called Century, had been hard hit by an F3 tornado just a couple weeks ago, so Pensacola was a little nervous about this storm, which was rated as a tornado-laden "Super Cell," such as is common in the mid-west in Tornado Alley, but almost unheard of here. We live 50 miles away from Pensacola and that storm wasn't due to cross our area until  9 to 10 pm and we could tell from the online Accu Weather map that, by then, only the thinnest bottom tail portion of that storm would be passing over our county. So we carried on with normal activity, driving up to base for the singles Bible Study we do there, then being home shortly after 9. It ended up being no more then just a regular "severe storm warning," for our area.  It was blustery outside and it rained & thundered, but that was all. Not

The tree-cutters came this week and took down the cedar tree in the front yard. I was able to save a inch thick disc of trunk I thought I'd dry and do something with. It's about 6 inches in diameter. Just waiting for the stump-grinder yet to polish off what's left, then we'll be able to plant the Holly tree . I've got Cubed Steak cooking in the Slow Cooker right now that is smelling delicous!  It was a Pinterest recipe I featured in Good Eating. (The links will take you to previous blog posts featuring the Holly & the Slow Cooker Cube Steak recipe!) Today's Garden Pics are signs of Spring here in northern Florida:  Summer Snowflakes are the cutest things! They're a relative of Snow Drops and both are members of the Amaryllis family. This patch of Daffodils in my front bed faithfully blooms first and earliest of all my yellow Daffodils! What a patch of Easter Lilies looks like before it blooms. Classed as a "natura

For a fast, elegant dessert, there's nothing like a store-bought angel food cake, strawberries and whipped topping! I like the convenience of using a store bought angel food  cake to making my own, but you can bake your own if your prefer. This is a cool, fancy treat for Spring & Summer occasions, whenever Strawberries are in season! (The photo is a just to give an idea of the general appearance and doesn't really represent this exact cake.) So today's Good Eating recipe is Strawberry Layered Angel Food Cake! Strawberry Layered Angel Food: Ingredients: 1 angel food cake (grocery pre-made or baked yourself) 1 quart of good sized strawberries 1 8oz (or 12oz if you want a little extra) container of whipped topping, any kind, thawed Directions: Strawberries : Wash, remove leaves, then slice each strawberry lengthwise, top to bottom, into 3 or 4 slices, depending on size of berry. Set aside Cake: Put angel food cake on a plate. Cut the cake into

The definition of "Squatter," is someone who takes up residence in a home or property they do not legally own, without authority or permission to do so. The Case: Last spring I remodeled this old, dilapidated bat-house into a nice nesting box suitable for a medium bird, such as a wood-pecker. I designed it with a hinged wood flap on the bottom that's wired shut on one-side, so I could open it later in the year and clean it out. Being it's for wood peckers, I had also added a generous amount of wood-shavings, so they wouldn't tear up the box making a nest. Birds here in the Deep South, seem to have long nesting seasons, so I didn't do anything about emptying it until the end of January. So, Hubby got out the step later for me and I dutifully climbed up to drop the hatch, empty it and refill it with fresh shavings for this season. I lowered the hatch slowly and discovered and unexpected resident! The Squatter : As I lowered the hatch-d

One of the fun things about gardening is the little surprises--like finding things that just plant themselves. Like this Hardy Cyclamen.   I didn't even know what it was. I just noticed a pair of these pretty variegated heart-shaped leaves growing in this location a couple years ago. It was just a pair of leaves at first. Just there, green all year along. Then this year, year it seemed to take off and suddenly is now blooming! Upon looking it up, I learned this is a Hardy Cyclamen.   It's a kind of a woodsy, shade-loving plant hardy to frost that can winter through fairly cold temps. It's an attractive fushia-pink. The petals fold back, kind of like a woman's hair in the wind, and the stamens are actually facing the fence. There are many kinds of Cyclamen. The kind commonly sold by in flower shops is called, "Florist Cyclamen," which is an indoor flowering plant.  If you have one of those, you should look up best care practices for Florist Cycl

Today's Good Eating recipe is another new Pinterest recipe I decided to try out. It was on my Mama Kat Thursday list of " 5 New Pins, " a couple weeks ago.  The result : it was much more "cakey" like a coffee cake then blondie-like.   In fact, it'd be perhaps better in a 8x8 square baking dish with raisins added and served as a coffee cake. It doesn't come out chewy. The recipe calls for a 9x9 baking pan and used a 8x10 and it still came out like cake. It was dry tasting, too. Plus the bars are dark colored, so anyone assuming they're about to bite into something chocolate flavored get a little surprise. If I made it again, I'd replace the 1/2 cup butter with applesauce for better moisture and I'd make coffee cake. My M&M Blondie recipe uses only 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and NO baking powder, so if you really want blondies, skipping the baking powder might do the trick. And the recipe has a lot of steps that seem frivolous

There was a flurry of crafty or editable Valentine ideas on my Pinterest board last week I thought I would share in case some of you might feel like you want to do something creative for your kids or your Valentine! So today's "Finds" are some home-made Valentine ideas: Sweet Valentine Messages on Fruit: A cute idea for a Valentine's centerpiece on the family table or for packing in kids or Hubby's lunches. This idea comes from a blog called, The Cake Whiz , where you can see ideas for all her messages! You'll want edible markers for this project! How About Colorful Rice Krispie Hearts! This idea comes from a blog called Pint Sized Treasure s , where you can get the recipe & details for making this sweet Valentines treat as either cookies or heart-pops!  Here's a Fun Idea: White Chocolate Popcorn With Heart Sprinkles & Candy Hearts! This comes from a blog called, Gimme Some Oven , where you'll

I'd describe my husband's marriage proposal as unconventional. Not because of anything he did or said, but because of the symbol for our engagement that he gave me. We had already had agreed to be married. There was just the formality of the proposal left. So he flew from Washington D.C. to Indiana and took me out to a local favorite restaurant my family. The thing of it is I'm not a ring person and I'd told him I didn't want an engagement ring for an engagement symbol. I do too much with my hands, like digging in dirt or painting and I didn't want a decoration on my finger to worry about or have get in the way.  I wanted something else. He asked if a necklace would be okay and I had said yes. Since he'd come to associate roses with me, because of a certain rose scented cologne I was always wearing, he cleverly chose a simple pendent necklace with a little gold-metal rose that had a rhinestone in the center to offer me for our engagement. I loved it

It rained today. The same system that's bringing snow across the Midwest had it's tail end down here, dropping rain along the Gulf Coast in a blustery thunderstorm. A yard project Hubby and I got to last weekend was adding this edging along our sidewalk: It's an interlocking, poundable edging that comes in individual pieces that just slide together. Nice, neat, easy to use.  My spring plans for this area is to add some bags of topsoil along the edging and grass plugs, but I do need to dig around and clip out some of the pine root density of small over-lapping roots.The pine roots just steal all the water. The edging is there to help control run-off and erosion and I could see with today's rain how much that helped! Next: A side-by-side set of photos of what a hard, fast rain looks like in my back yard: Keep in mind this rain fall amounted a total of .7 inches worth of rain. That a tiny fraction of an i nch. It just came down fast off and on for 120 m