Choice Morsels

Garden Pic Wednesday: Yellow Gerber Daisies! I have several in-ground Gerber Daisies in several colors, including these sunny yellow ones!  The winter over and come back yearly, but I must not have done enough for them in the way of fertilizer last fall, because in early spring the plants looked pitiful. So I dug in some time-release fertilizer, then put down newspaper topped with mulch to stop weeds and hold moisture. I guess it helped because all the plants got healthy looking and have been blooming along pretty well. This yellow has been blooming extra-profusely this year!

Two photos for Garden Pics today, both new additions to my garden:   New Daylily : This rich maroon beauty with the bright yellow eye is called  "Night Beacon."  I love it! I planted it last fall and it's blooming profusely now. I just found it in a bulb in a garden shop somewhere. It's a "rebloomer," so it should bloom again later. New Petunias: I know I was thinking of not having Petunias this year, but I saw these unique looking ones at the Ace Hardware and thought they'd go perfect in this pot that's not far from the Night Beacons. They pick up the color of the soft pink and yellow Lantana, the  Night Beacon daylily and Golden Creeping Jenny that are all nearby.

This dish is a bloggers recipe from Pinterest: Bacon, Cabbage & Noodles!  It's a easy, tasty and an excellent side dish! It's basically a style of Haluski, which is the Slavic/Polish name for this dish, though they don't usually use bacon, but the bacon adds extra flavor!   Just cook up some wide noodles, drain, fry up a little bacon, then saute everything else together in a skillet and done. (I use Real Bacon Bits instead of frying up bacon, because it's less messy, so you can do that as well.) I think if you wanted it to be a meal, just thin slice in your favorite style of Kielbasa and add at the same time as onions to skillet. (The photo is mine of my bacon, cabbage & noddles in my iron skillet.) Serves 4. Bacon, Cabbage & Noodles Ingredients About 2 cups uncooked Wide Egg Noodles (I used about half a bag) 1/4 teaspoon Paprika 1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder 1/4 teaspoon dried Oregano 1/4 teaspoon Salt 2 pinches of Black Peppe...

Today's post is another notably amusing memory from my childhood visits to Grandma Robbins house. Our house in Indiana, where my sisters and I grew up, had windows and curtains and that was it. We'd never seen a pull-down window shade in person, but just  on cartoons where the characters were always pulling them down, then letting them snap up to roll crazily at the the top. (Amazingly, I couldn't find a single window shade gif of Looney-Toons or Tom & Jerry, pulling down window shades, though it was pretty common on those shows.  So I drew one.) But our Grandma Robbins had real window shades on her windows---the old fashioned vinyl draw-down kind with a pull-string. I recall that string had a ring on the end  that was encircled with pretty ecru colored crochet and that the shade had a floral print. I was probably trendy decorating for the early to mid-20th century.  But because my sisters and I had only ever seen window shades on cartoons, w...

The good thing about spring and early summer around here is the profusion of flowers! My Gardenia: It's thick with blossoms this year! This one usually blooms heavy now, then lightly for the rest of the year. It's a funny bush. A Riot of Color: These big bushy things are 4 O'clocks.  I saw them this morning and grabbed this shot! Here in the deep south, where the ground doesn't freeze, these are perennials and return yearly.  My Mother's Day Bouquet: I filled a vase with what was blooming outside: Easter lilies, Gerber Daisies, Gardenia's and Glads. The Gardenia and Easter lilies are very fragrant.

Today's recipe is something I make often for myself:  Cabbage Stir-fry.  I used "home" in the title because it's home-made. The beauty of stir-fry is it's like soup: you can add whatever you like that's on hand. It can be meatless or you can add meat. I often use sliced hot-dogs, but you can use anything you prefer. Cabbage is the bulk of the recipe. One quarter wedge is what I use for Hubby and myself. For just me, I use just half a quarter wedge.  A half wedge of cabbage with lots of other veggies mixed in should suffice for 4. For the rice, I like to use the Minute Rice single serving cups of Jasmine Rice. It's the perfect amount. The first photo is a veggie batch I made for myself for lunch and the next shot has some of my purple bush beans in the skillet with matchstick carrots. (They turn green when cooked.) This recipe as is for about two servings, though actual quantities are really up to you. Cabbage Home Stir-Fry Base...

I have two pictures today. First, My Beautiful Amaryllis That Bloomed in April: Next: My Veggie Garden Photographed Yesterday We left for a week and when we came home, this. There's a ripe purple bell out there I plan on bringing in for dinner. Also my native daylilies and Easter lilies exploded into bloom! You can see some of them along the back of this photo. And one final happy note: I have Bluebirds building a fresh nest in the nest box again!  Very likely the same pair who used it previously. Bluebirds are unique that way. If you provide them a house, they'll stick with it. Youngsters from the last brood often stay with the parents and help build the nest and even care for the next brood. ***** We're having new windows installed on Thursday, so I won't be able to be at my computer, so no posts until Good Eating Monday!