Choice Morsels

T he Mama Kat prompt for today is about "a kitchen mistake," and though I've certainly made my own, none is as good as Hubby's "cornbread" mishap. He usually laughingly denies being able to cook. He'll tell people that "he burns water when he boils it." The truth is he actually CAN cook. Usually just simple things like frying eggs or mixing up a box of Kraft mac & cheese. Little does anyone know he actually used to bake made-from-scratch cornbread from a recipe off the corn meal box that I had copied onto an index card we had pinned on the frig with a magnet. Sea Sponge He didn't do it often. Just once in a while, which was apparently seldom enough for him for forget the difference between the abbreviation for "teaspoon" (tsp) and "Tablespoon," (Tbsp). The cornbread recipe called for 3 "tsp" Baking Powder."  He mistook it for "Tbsp" and put in 3 Tablespoons of Baking Powder. The

The week 2 in the next round of bloggers age 50 or more in the "Between the Lines Series," is up! To read about the how and why all these older featured bloggers got into blogging, visit their  Interviews @ Katherine's Corner . Here's A Few of My Favorites: Turn Around @ 50 Feathering Nest Facing 50 With Humour Living By Choice You'll want to stay tuned---I'm going to be featured on May 10th! ***** For today's Garden Pics, I have a beautiful shot of my front bed Blooming Blue & my patio container Blooming Red & Purple! Blooming Blue : This is as pretty as my front bed as has ever looked!   This is Purple Salvia & Siberian Iris! Blooming Red & Violet! This container sits on my back patio. It's one of three. This is Red Salvia & Violet Petunias. The Salvia wintered over & the petunias were I found at Walmart for 50% off. I put them in all my patio containers. I find Petunias do better i

I came home from a conference this past weekend with a slight cold, so I felt inspired today to write about some of the surprising  herbs & spices right in your cabinet or even in your frig that can help your body fight off that cold or flu! So today's Good Eating topic is common herbs, spices & foods you have right on hand to help fight colds & flu! \ Eat Extra Vitamin C:  Known for boosting the immune system, a little extra Vitamin C when you're sick can't hurt! Common foods full of Vitamin C include not only Citrus, like oranges, tangerines, lemons & grapefruit, but also Kiwi, Broccoli, Strawberries, Yellow & Red Bell Peppers and surprise--Cooked Tomatoes! Turmeric : This yellow spice is great for helping clear out chest congestion. I always keep some on hand for this reason, since colds tend to go to my chest. For congestion,  mix 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric into a quarter cup of milk , stir well and swig it down. Do this every 4 hours

The Mama Kat topic for today is, "Share a local news story that's a buzz in your neck of the woods," but my buzzy news story actually comes from Terre Haute, where I enjoyed reading about it in the morning newspaper most days we were there visiting my Mom & sister recently. I call it, "The Great Square Donut Battle!" There's an iconic local family business  in Terre Haute, Indiana called, "Square Donuts of Terre Haute." It was established in 1967. Eventually, the family opened a few other locations and everything was smooth-sailing until 2005, when a Convenience Store chain based out of Valparaiso, Indiana randomly decided to start selling their own version of square donuts they labeled as,"Square Donuts." Now this Convenience Store chain, like most convenience chains, sells lots and lots of other products besides donuts. Donuts are not their specialty, but for the Terre Haute business, donuts is what they do and they'

I'm going to be a Guest Blogger next month at Katherine's Corner !  It's something I've never done before. The series I'll be Guest Blogging for is called "Between the Lines," and features women bloggers all over the age of 50!  The interview questions & posts will be centered around what it's like getting into blogging as an older person and what we're blogging about.   My post will be featured on Tuesday, May 10th! And here's the best of this week's batch of "Between the Lines" posts: Paper Seedlings The Interior Frugalista Between the Lines with Marilyn's Treats To read the full interviews of this weeks participants, go here ! For today's Garden Pics, I've created a collage of all 3 kinds of Iris that are currently blooming in my garden: Being in Florida, I've learned certain Iris like this climate and perform magnificently!      Yellow Flag Iris: This one likes bogs and the e

I'm doing yard work, but I'm taking a snack break right now and having a little rest before I go back out. I have about a 7 x 8 garden patch I was turning the dirt over on. Part of my rest break is posting today's Good Eating Recipe, which is a new Pinterest recipe I tried out last Tuesday for "Quick Amish Bread," or "Cinnamon Bread." It's "quick" because it's just a stir together recipe that has a muffin like texture and can even be baked as muffins rather then a loaf versus a yeast-based bread. This recipe comes from a blog called Redfly Creations . (You should read her "About Me" page, if you visit!) I decided to make it, then realized I didn't have enough all-purpose flour and I needed 4 cups. But I had quick oats and some wheat flour on hand, so I made up the difference with those. Everyone at Bible Study liked it. I think I'd add raisins next time. It just seemed to me to needed that extra something from r

It's raining today, so any of my plans for working outside got put on hold. We scheduled a A/C system check for today and a guy is here doing that. I'm sitting here, freezing with the A/C on, while he's doing that. Burrr. Also new is we added an ice-maker water filter to the back of our frig. Why? Well, the Pex pipe used to replumb gives the ice and faucet water a slightly plastic taste, kind of like water tastes after getting warm and sitting in a plastic cup overnight.  It doesn't smell. Just tastes. We hope it will wear off in time, but in the meantime--filtering.  The garden looks so pretty in spring, when it's fresh and so much is coming into bloom! So, I have 3 garden pictures to share today: First, this beautiful trail of sunny yellow & white Million Bells  in my front container garden: It's Latin name is Calibrochoa. Here in the Deep South, Million Bells can winter over. This plant did. They make an excellent "spiller" in eith

I'm running late posting tonight.  I  had too much fun "playing" outside in the flower bed, getting it dug and seeds planted. After that it was supper time, then Monday is my one big TV watching night for me with 3 shows I like: Super Girl, Scorpion, then Castle.  Today's Good Eating recipe is based on Pinterest recipe for Slow Cooker Bean & Veggie Soup! After we got home from a week away visiting family, I wanted to have a veggie soup to eat on for a few days.  What I made isn't an exact copy of the Pinterest recipe, but my own version of it, since a high fiber, low fat vegetable soup with beans can be comprised of any combination of things you like.  It's a healthy meatless soup intended to be high in vegetable protein & fiber.  Anyway, here's the basic ingredients I used for my  Slow-Cooker Bean & Veggie Soup: 1 (32oz) box of chicken stock ( or any broth favor you prefer ) 1 cup matchstick carrots (or sliced carrots) 1 zucchini,

In Florida, Spring starts "springing" around the first of March, though the Azalea's are already done and everything else is still prepping to bloom. So for Mama Kat today,  we have a brief tour of what's Springing in my neck of the woods: Piles of Pink Shamrocks! This display is in a large oval bed out front that's centered by a large Gardenia shrub. This pile of Shamrocks actually planted themselves here and periodically I move clumps of them to other places, since they do make such a wonderful ground cover. On the other side of the Gardenia in the same oval bed, I have this container garden: It's centered with Gladiolas surrounded by cheerful golden-colored Creeping Jenny, which stays beautiful all winter! I added the Dusty Miller as well, for visual interested doing the drab days of winter, since it also thrives through the cold. Next is another bed in front, this one closer to the house. It fills the corner between driveway and sid

 We had a nice visit with family over Easter and now that we're home, yard work galore awaits! Today I was planting things: 4 O'clock seeds & Zinnia seeds saved from last year and some Stargazer lily bulbs I purchased. Also moved several Red Salvia volunteer seedlings to locations in the front bed. The Salvia re-seeded abundantly  and I have more yet to move. Recycled Ventilated Shelves for A Decorative Mini-Garden Fence: I've had about a half-dozen old ventilated shelves of varying lengths sitting in my garage for years just waiting for me to decide what to use them for. Since we have a problem with our neighbors landscaping crew randomly blowing all the pine needles, sticks and pine cones from his yard into mine as their method of clean up, I decided those old shelves would work perfectly as a mini-garden fence! Since, I need something narrow enough to keep the yard rubbish from getting blown through it. So, I got these in yesterday. It's just 3 shelf s