Plain Old Kristi

We Went Fishing!

2012-02-11T19:54:00.004-06:00

Shell Beach in St. Bernard Louisiana

Houses or Camp Houses?

Brown Pelican

Katrina Memorial

Many People Died During Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard Parish

Brown Pelicans are every where now.

Hell Divers and Pelicans

Beautiful

Umm..no we didn't catch any fish!

Recent Harvest & Soil Blocks

2012-02-02T15:26:00.000-06:00

A recent harvest: broccoli, 3 cauliflower heads, large green onions, and oodles of carrots!

The carrots were planted in the fall and this year's harvest is the prettiest and sweetest that I've ever grown. It must be how I prepared the bed. Before planting I topped the bed with several wheel barrel loads of composted deep bedding from the chicken yard. Lovely! Carrots come in so many brilliant colors...red, yellow, orange, purple...I've read that the red carrots are especially healthy! I must say the Chantenay red core carrots are the sweetest I've tasted so far! The "Amarillo" yellow carrots have a distinctive delicious mild flavor. It's amazing how many people do not know that carrot tops are edible and can eaten in so many ways! Delish!

My newest garden tool from Johnny Seeds. I bought the micro soil block maker from the Heritage Festival at Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello last fall. I love it, but the seeds quickly out grew the tiny squares...then I discovered the 2" SOIL block maker....that can be fitted with the cutest....

...dibble just the size of the micro blocks. Then you can just tuck those tiny cubes in. It allows you not to waste seeds or soil (which you must purchase or carefully save). The tiny soil cubes that contain seeds that do not germinate can be thrown into the compost bucket. Only the small cubes that germinate are put into the larger cubes (obviously). Any ol' ways your not wasting a 2" cube with a sorry seed! It'sa ver nice!

This is the seed starting mixture I use for the cubes.....

....you wet it just enough to make it stick together, but not soggy...um' those are not unmatched socks....
Larger seeds such as squash, cucumber, pumpkin, bean, okra, etc...are best planted directly where they will be growing...since they don't transplant so well.

This is peppers in the micro blocks....notice that all the blocks do not have a plant yet...there will be more....but those that don't germinate...into to the compost bucket....

....see the little t'mater block all tucked in it's new home?

Why I Love Bentos & Seedlings

2012-01-25T13:47:00.000-06:00

This year I have made the girls bento lunches everyday for school. There's many reasons I love these lunches. They're so practical. Ha! You're most likely saying..."Those are the most impractical lunches with all the forming and decor...and they must take hours to make." Nope, not really. I haven't had so much fun fixing lunches in my life. I used to hate making lunches and I would get lazy and skip. Then my girls had to get lunch in the cafeteria, and we know what those taste like.

When I was in high school I would take my lunch money everyday and buy a candy bar, a bag of chips and

a coke. Wonder what my Mom would have thought if she only knew. My girls love these lunches, and I know. Each day they let me know exactly what they liked and sometimes didn't. Mostly I get rave reviews from my girls in the bento dept.

The Things I Like About Bento:

They are fun to make and eat

It's easier to include healthful choices that your children will eat

The containers moderate portion sizes

and there is absolutely zero trash to throw a way

Here is a couple of bentos I made the girls recently.

Baby boiled egg wrapped in a pink soy "lacy blanket" with flowers. The oranges are from my trees. The carrots are from the garden and the eggs are from my chickens.

AAAwwwww! I used a paper punch to make the lace on the soy blanket.

It's really easy to decorate it up. The carrots cut in two ways make a nice sun on fried rice.

Fried Rice Recipe

Cooked rice 2 to 3 cups

Sesame oil 2 tblsps

chopped onions 1/4 cup chopped fine

Thai garlic chili paste 1/2 teaspoon

Chopped green onions 2 or 3 stalks

soy sauce 2 tblsps

2 to 3 eggs

salt to taste

pepper to taste

bean sprouts

Put everything but rice, bean sprouts and eggs in wok or skillet. Not sure on portions. I just use the amount I like of each seasoning. Saute until onions are clear. Add rice and stir until completely covered. Once rice heats up push to sides of pan. Crack eggs in pan. Gently scramble until done then mix rice and eggs together. Sprinkle salt pepper and sprouts on top and serve. Of course you can make numerous variations.

Picks are an easy way to brighten up the bento. They make my girls smile. It's King Cake time in New Orleans and Ponchatoula Strawberry time. Mmmmm these strawberries were sweeter than Louisiana strawberries typically are.

They stack up nicely and are held together with a felt or elastic band. When the girls finish their lunch they put their box in their book bags and bring them home to be washed. I include chopsticks, spoons or forks when needed. I just slide them under the strap. Absolutely ZERO Waste.

That's important to me. My girls' schools actually serve lunches on disposable Styrofoam trays, plastic utensils, paper napkins, and cardboard cartons...Seleste says that each child has a small mountain of trash on their disposable tray to throw a way each day!

That's just our little community....3,000 little mountains of trash EVERY DAY. DOES THIS MAKE SENSE TO ANYONE?????!!! I was told that they didn't have the finances to hire someone to run the machines to wash the trays. THEY HAVE TRAYS AND A MACHINE AND DON'T USE THEM! THIS IS SINFUL! anyway...it really doesn't make sense to me. Even if you have no prob with the trash....wouldn't you rather use the money to pay someone to have an actual job in the community rather than send it off to purchase landfill fodder?

My seeds are sprouting! I used a micro soil blocker tool to plant the seeds. I will move them into larger squares once they develop some roots.

Lookin' good

You'll be in the ground before you know it!

The Sauerkraut is Finished & my Wonder Mill Junior

2012-01-23T10:23:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I shredded, salted and stored two cabbages in my new crock...now we get to see if there's anything edible inside!!!!

First I soaked up all the water from the rim...

...pulled the lid off and hmmm...smells like sauerkraut...whether that's good or bad depends on the person....the liquid is clear...no yucky smells, scum, or color....so I pulled the weighting stones off and the large cabbage leaf beneath....and....

...yummy sauerkraut...It's very different from the sauerkraut I have bought in the jar. The jar type is vinegary and soft. I suppose that is because it must be heated to can. This fresh kraut is very crispy, no sliminess at all and slightly tart and vinegary. Talia gobbled up a fresh bowl full in no time. Fresh kraut is supposed to be extremely good for you and loaded with little living things that are good for your digestive system...hmmm....we will see.

..the two large cabbages made a total of 5 quarts. I put some in a pint jar to give to my mother to try. I really shoved the jars full. Success!!!!!!

One of my other Christmas gifts was a hand cranked stone grain mill. This mill is called the "Wonder Mill Junior Deluxe". It came with stone and steel burs. The stone is for grains and the steel is for oily things such as peanuts. Yes it makes peanut butter!

Tera and Byron helped me mill enough hard red organic wheat berries to make one loaf of bread. Eeeks...I needed Byron and Tera's help. I'm sure we'd eat less bread if I had to do this daily. We'd probably have no need to watch our weight either! My abs would be as rock hard as Brennen's (That's my nephew...I'm scoring brownie points.") Whoa those women back in the day worked hard....It's no wonder they'd rather haul their grains to the local mill!

I am excited about having this though. We can mill grains if we'd like and my girls think it's great fun! I think...it's great that they can have fun while learning a whole boatload of useful things. Tera insisted on milling most of it. She smiled the whole time. I wonder how long it would last if I woke her up each day to this chore.

Speaking of Tera, she is such a sweet (most of the time) practical sensible girl Her name Tera (meaning earth) is so appropriate for her. Her feet are really grounded. I'm very proud of her desire to be independent and her fearlessness in learning new skills. Saturday I awoke to her rattling around in the kitchen. She had unloaded the dishwasher and was making breakfast. All on her own she made skillet fried potatoes and onions, fried eggs and biscuits. We ate the biscuits with some pure cane syrup my Mother bought for me recently from her hometown, Jayess, MS. Yep...pronounced - J - S. When I was young I spelled it that way!

(look at my micro seed blocks all planted in the back)

On another note. My carrots are just fabulous this year!!!!! Sweet crunchy and yum!

How To Make a $3 Rocket Stove

2012-01-18T13:03:00.002-06:00

Hee Hee, This is so much fun. I love projects such as this. You get to play with fire outside. Really we tried this project out to see if maybe it would work as a simple stove we could use when we camp on/visit our property in Mississippi.

It works really well too! The water was boiling in very little time once Byron figured out the trick to working it. The materials cost about $3.00 at Home Depot (you might even find these materials lying around your place) and it took Byron all of a few minutes to make it.

The materials needed are:

1 cinder block
1 1/2 cinder block
small flat brick
three stones (to act as trivet on top, I plan to find a discarded trivet from an old stove to use instead)

Then: Knock out 2/3 of the divider in the whole cinder block using a hammer and chisel. Stack the 1/2 block on top. Next put the small flat brick on the front 1/2 of the open side of the whole cinder block.

The trick to working the stove effectively is to collect small twigs and sticks to use as fuel. Once Byron started putting in large pieces the whole stove went out. Small sticks and twigs work best. You start a small fire under the "chimney" then add small twigs through the opening to build the fire and keep it going.

Recently we put our gate up on our property. Next we plan to spend lots of time observing and taking notes in order to decide where best to install swales and ponds. I want to do it right the first time. Also it will save time and money when we have to bring in large equipment to move earth.

Since we will be spending time there without a cabin or house...we'll camp! Which suits me just fine. I adore sleeping outside. So these rocket stoves will come in handy as a free and easy way to cook. There is abundant wood on the property and finding fuel for the stove is as easy as picking up the sticks that are already lying around. I'm also thinking that...this may be a good way to cook during the summer right here! Save on A/C bills maybe!

Gardening in The New Orleans Area and Lemons

2012-01-11T09:02:00.000-06:00

Again, two topics - one blog post.

I receive lots of questions about gardening in our zone and unique environment. Gardening is very different here than most of the United States. We have very few freezes and can grow all year long. Generic gardening books aren't that helpful. So I am going to do a series on gardening in zone 9a (although I think some of my micro climates are a little warmer than this).

Each land area is very unique and affected by bodies of water, mountains, forests, etc...so it's very important to know your zone and try something new and different even if it may not be recommended. Go HERE to find out your zone. Talking to other gardeners and visiting gardens in your area is soooo important. I often visit our local botanical garden and take notes on what I like and what's blooming or fruiting at that time. Journals are invaluable. That's one reason I started this blog.

Also, my eyes are always checking out what's growing in the yards as I travel through different areas of town. I love to see what's growing in the community gardens of Bywater and at times the crape myrtles carpet the streets with hot pink blossoms and large clumps of banana trees hang heavy with their large purple blossoms and tiny growing green bananas. The formal gardens of the garden district landscapes specialize in the contrast of color and form to accent their historic grand homes. The Chinese fringe trees framing the wedding cake house are magnificent. So spy on your neighbors. It'll help you know when to plant.

Most of all....don't be discouraged by failure. Use your failure as a learning tool. Wear failure like a badge. Because it means you weren't afraid! But soon your successes will far outweigh your failures.

January Garden Notes:

Plant seeds for spring transplants (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and herbs)
Prepare beds for spring planting by removing dead and finished plants (compost them)
Apply organic fertilizer to beds
Keep winter weeds at bay (do not allow to seed)
Plant any quick growing winter crops such as lettuce, radish, beets and greens (feel free to push the envelope with other types of crops if you wish)
Begin to keep a garden journal (include photos, and seasonal notes as well as dreams and wishes)

Personal January Garden Details and Plans:

Currently in the garden: A recent frost nipped the tropicals so they are tinged with brown. I am weeding the raised beds and putting cardboard down on the paths to prepare for spring mulching. I'm going to remove the dead bean vines and other plants that are ready to go and prepare those beds for planting by heaping compost and chicken manure on top.

I am going to try planting a late winter crop of lettuce and beets. I always plan to faithfully plant lettuce every few weeks during the winter to keep a steady flow of ready lettuce, but I've been a bit lazy in that matter. I'll plant a little now and a couple of weeks later I'll plant more and etc...until about the end of February. Once temperatures reach 80 degrees the lettuce will taste bitter. I do allow my lettuce to go to seed and collect the seed.

I also am preparing for spring planting. I am planting tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds inside. That way the transplants will be nice and large by March. I will plant them outside mid-March. The tomato varieties I chose are Brandy Wine Pink, Pineapple (my fav), Cherokee purple, Cour di Bue, and some seeds I received at a seed exchange: Australian Heart and Amazon Chocolate. Eggplant varieties are Cambodian Green and Fengyuan Purple. My fav eggplants are the long thin purple Asian varieties. I just like the flavor best. I went a little wild on the peppers but I'm planting: Cayenne, Thai long sweet, India Jwala, Spanish Mammoth, Tampiqueno, Anaheim, Texas Bird Pepper, and Fish Pepper Whew....

I plan to plant the corn near the end of February and keep my fingers crossed. The corn does so much better when I get it in the ground early. Virtually no pests. This year I chose two non GMO varieties: Cherokee White Eagle, Golden Bantam and some Red Flint corn I got at a seed exchange.

The large row garden is weeded and I plan to lift the plastic and add chicken manure and compost. I am trying to keep this garden going without any tilling by using plastic mulch to keep the weeds at bay and each spring and fall I plan to add compost, mulch and manure to raise the rows and fertilize. I'll let you know how my no till method is working for me.

Soon I will do a post on my complete planting schedule.

Pics of some of my seeds I am planting now.

A few of the companies I bought seeds from. I also love seed exchanges. You prepare little packets of seeds you grew and bring them labeled with the date (not everyone does this but I do as a convenience for others). Bring empty envelopes and a pen for labeling for yourself. Then exchange with those there to your hearts content!

Lemon crop is bountiful! So I gotta save 'em. The freezer in ice cube trays is easiest for me. I then make what I want with the juice throughout the year. I do believe I am going to look into canning the juice...you know those hurricanes and power outages aren't nice to the stuff in the freezer.

Look to the right...see what's laying again! The chickens are laying again!

Cut in quarters, peel and juice!

Freeze in trays...

Save....

...and make lemon curd, lemon bars, lemonade, lemon yogurt....and Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake! Possibilities...endless!

Living South of Lake Pontchartrain and How To Make Sauerkraut

2012-01-01T22:51:00.000-06:00

Okay, two posts in one. I'll start with the first. I live "south of the lake". Really, south of New Orleans. Lake Pontchartrain is a fairly large lake north of New Orleans that is spanned by the world's longest continuous bridge over water. The bridge is called the "Causeway", and I spent many an anxious night as a very young girl peering at the tail lights of the car in front of us as we traveled home on this bridge from some late night Bible Conference that my Pastor Father loved to attend.

My secret childish fear was that a concrete span surely one day would break and simply fall into the lake, and all the unsuspecting drivers would like lemmings fall over it's cement edge. I wonder if my Father ever knew his tired little girl struggled to keep her eye lids open on those long late nights.   For surely my alertness would save the whole family from plunging into lake Pontchartrain and sending all our souls to a horrible watery grave. My plan was to scream loudly if the preceding car's tail lights suddenly disappeared thus causing my Father to slam the brakes and save us from an early demise.

Now, I love to cross the causeway.   There's always a sailboat or someone trawling. The water shimmers and glistens and on a really windy day there are white caps. But, once you get south of Lake Pontchartrain.....climate wise....things change. Slightly milder weather allows citrus to be planted in the ground, and unless a once in 25 year freeze happens, your trees grow larger and more productive each year.

Today I was marveling at the abundance I find in my garden. It's no wonder that the city is called "The Big Easy". So much of living here is so easy. The abundance, the food, the exuberance, the special brand of Jazz, the closeness of families.....many things. I've looked at blogs from way north and marveled at the blankets of frost and snow that cover their landscapes. Like squirrels people work at preserving the bounty of their garden for winter consumption.

I too love to can. I canned green beans, carrots, pickled cauliflower, preserves and fruit of all types. I dry produce and freeze it....but sometimes it seems as if I rarely use these wonderful put ups. Fresh fruit and veggies from the garden always come first when planning my menu for the next few days. And, they always are available! Of course I want to feed my family the freshest foods first.

Such as beets boiled until tender and sprinkled with salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar, coleslaw made from a fresh picked cabbage, salsa from the green onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, garlic, lemon, lime, and onion (yes, I'm still picking them), cauliflower omelets, yummy tennis ball lettuce salad, greens and cornbread, sugared pecans, roasted carrots with deer roast, boiled turnips and butter....wow the list really goes on and on.....

With the winter abundance our local climate gives I rarely find a reason to use the canned items I have hoarded on the top my large dish cabinet (not really a china cabinet). I find preserving berries is the most useful of all since they are so perishable. Jams, butters, and frozen (especially frozen blueberries). Dehydrating herbs is really nice too. Especially garlic and parsley. I'd rather use herbs fresh if possible. yet sweet basil is too tender for even our mild climate. But the other things I've canned....useful?....not so much. I'm actually trying to work them in to keep them from being on top of the cabinet for too long.

So what's a girl to do? What's the best thing to do. I think I've narrowed down the best things for preserving and storing in our climate.   The rest.....you can pretty much get local or grow yourself all year. Here goes:

The List of The Best Things To Preserve, Freeze or Dehydrate if You Live in or Around New Orleans:

Canned tomatoes
jams
jellies
fruit butters
sauces
dilly beans
frozen purple hull peas
frozen Lima beans
frozen baby green beans
frozen corn
frozen blueberries
dried basil
dried parsley
dried mushrooms
dried garlic (a small creole variety I have keeps fresh pretty well)
homegrown popcorn
dried onion

That's all...I think. What is available fresh in the yard right now is too numerous to completely list. Some examples are: All types of greens, carrots, lettuces, herbs, cabbage, broccoli, Romanesque, cauliflower, green onion, tomatoes, jalapenos, kale, collards, turnips, beets, onion, winged bean, arugula, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, satsumas, pecans. So.......... fresh it is for the "Big Easy"!

Some pecans recently shelled.

Sample of what's up in the gardens......

Now on to the second post: How To Make Sauerkraut

When I was growing up sauerkraut was for hot dogs and Rueben sandwiches...yum. My husband family eats it cooked as a side to go with sausages and paneed, breaded and fried pork. They love it, and they are certainly not German. Growing so much cabbage has made me interested in trying my hand at making sauerkraut....So, Byron, finding this out, bought me a really awesome 10 liter Harsch fermenting crock. Yea!!

So, let the experiment begin. Wow, look at that opening. How does this work?

First, thinly shred the fresh cabbage.

Oh, by the way, here are all the pieces to the crock, the crock itself, the weighting stone, and the lid.

After shredding the cabbage, sprinkle a little salt on layers of cabbage. A few tablespoons will do. After sprinkling the salt, mix thoroughly while crushing the cabbage. Exert lots of pressure, this helps the cabbage release it's juices and create it's own brine. If the cabbage doesn't release enough water you can make a brine by boiling water and adding salt.

Once done with the above step, put the cabbage and it's brine into the clean crock. Put a fresh washed large cabbage leaf on top and then the stone to weigh down the mixture underneath the brine. The brine should cover the cabbage nicely.

Next put on the lid and fill the moat surrounding the lid with water. As the mixture sits, check and make sure the water in the moat doesn't evaporate. Add more if needed. See the little mouse hole in the lid (that's what I call it) The water level should cover that. It will allow gasses to escape, but keep the mixture sealed.

Then......Wait....six weeks.....I'll let you know how it turns out. Keep your fingers crossed for good results!

Snowmen

2011-12-19T08:19:00.000-06:00

I bought a couple of these cute little snowmen packs for my Sunday School class. They enjoyed creating happy little snowmen during our Christmas party after lesson. The extras I packed up and brought home. So Talia decided she would take advantage of these spares and make a few to decorate the mantle.

This one...very sweet, cute, happy,...then from there it just seemed to ....

digress...this Ninja Snowman is really cute and little edgy...just reverse the ear muffs and the scarf, add a button mouth and upside down mouth eyes, a hat shirt (I think) and Talia has a really cool Ninja....but a fighting snowman? I'm not sure....maybe Talia should bring some....

humor to the snowmen....awwww look how cute, the scarf becomes a tie when trimmed and red snowflake confetti makes an awesome red fro...is it me, or are clowns a bit freaky?....then...

...Talia, A Devil Snowman? Wouldn't he melt?....

Getting Ready For Christmas!

2011-12-18T08:48:00.000-06:00

Me loves Christmas! ...and this year I seem to be especially feeling it! I don't know....just sorta happier than usual. I'm not supersticious...I don't think anyway...but when I get like this I sorta keep looking over my shoulder thinking maybe something is going to happen to ruin it...maybe it will, maybe it won't, but I'm going to have fun regardless. I'm learning a little more each day to plan for the future...but don't forget to LIVE in the moment.
Here are the bento's I made for the girls recently. Penguins! It's hard boiled eggs wrapped in nori and accented with cheddar cheese beak and feet and nori eyes. The teachers love to look at the girls lunches! I really hated waking and making traditional lunches everyday. I actually look forward to making these lunches!

Close up of Artie the penguin.

We decided this Saturday would be sweets making day. Tera helped by making brownies for the Youth Group Party that night and making the cupcakes for my Sunday School class this Sunday. I teach the 10, 11 and 12 year olds. I have between 25 and 30 of them every Sunday. Challenging fun!

Don't you love Tera's improvised cooling rack? It's the top part of a broiler pan on top of a food storage container. Yeah and that's our prize winning, butt kicking ginger bread house in the back. (minus a few eaten and falling off pieces) Everyone else did traditional. We did a beach and surf theme...the "Ho Ho Cabana". Bring it on Doug and Debbie... :-)...

Talia helping make treats to give to the girls teachers. Very yum and easy...just spread peanut butter on town house crackers and dip in melted chocolate. Talia became a world class dipper yesterday.... We also dipped pretzel rods and twists in chocolate and decorated with sprinkles and white chocolate.

These are Tera's hardworking hands perched on her retro apron. See those clipped nails? She forgoes the lovely nail look just like her Mother. She really loves the lovely nail look, but she loves being able to play the violin unhindered a lot more. I really try to steer my girls completely away from our societies idea that girls value is in their beauty. I teach them that beauty is really nice...but very fleeting....I see 50 year old woman running flat out every day trying to catch it and not quite succeeding...beauty really is in who and what you become...and skills, talent and quality character you develop usually far outlast any beauty you might have been given at birth....I love my girls....

Look at that gurl dip!

Now for the icing on the cake...

....and pictures of the finished treats for the teachers!

...and a little holly for some Christmas cheer!

...lovely Tera....

...mmmmhhmmmm....

... an easy nice decoration touch...a red rose in the middle of a mint julep cup surrounded by holly berries and herbs!

My Arm Hurts & Around The House and Gardens & Spicy Pecan Recipe

2011-12-14T08:44:00.000-06:00

My arm hurts from standing on a six foot ladder and finally finishing the sky on my living room ceiling. Next I'm adding a reproduction of the "Creation of Adam" from the Sistine Chapel surrounded by a migration of monarch butterflies...and I'll lie on my couch and enjoy...

sigh not really....I'll probably add a few monarchs flitting about and call it finished finally! Must say it's worth the deltoid pain...I do like to lie on my sofa and stare up at my "sky" ceiling...

Yesterday as I rushed to Tera's violin lessons I realized...oops!...last lesson before Christmas and no good tidings of joyous gifts to bring...

hmmm...ran back in grabbed a bag and filled it with turnips, mustards, collards, carrots and a head of lettuce....good tidings of joy! Before I left lessons that night Tera's teacher's wife came in smiling with a tray of cut up seasoned veggies ready for roasting and explanation of what she planned to do with the rest of the veggies the next day. I'm still smiling!

I'm also still getting a crop of figs....unbelievable...even with the cold weather the "Alma" variety of fig is still bearing. Duly impressed....

...I think turnips are lovely....they make me smile....

...with a light frost blanket I've been able to hobble more tomatoes from my large bush. This vine is still covered with tomatoes in various stages of ripeness. I pick them as soon as I see a hint of red and let them ripen inside...just in case....

When my Mom-In-Law cleaned out her home we found these cool old ornaments. I haven't really decorated for Christmas yet. The girls and I are going to make some natural decorations once they get out of school....but ....I love these old ornaments. My M.I.L. thinks she bought them when my husband was small at Audubon Park and Zoo in New Orleans.

Cute little crossed eyed tiger and patient adoring sweet deer....

...mischievous kitty...

...fun loving piggy....with giant overlord bird....

....not disease carrying mouse (unlike the ones currently partying in my attic) with still fresh plastic holly....

...and surprised looking angel with deer herd...

...this is a gift I'm working on....will post when finished. It's a very easy baby blanket...that is if you can crochet and if you can't....learn!....it's easy too. Just cut two pieces of groovy flannel the same size (baby blanket size)...put the back sides together and pin....blanket stitch the edges together using crochet thread (size 10)....my tiny steel crochet needle goes through the flannel with little difficulty...do a triple chain stitch around that and then finish with a shell stitch to make it lacy! I like to use stitches without large openings to keep baby fingers and things from getting caught. Will post when finished. But don't you just love these groovy prints....they're from a line called Urban Flannels.

Now here is a spicy pecan recipe for all my garden club friends. I got it from Martha Stewart's Christmas Cookbook. Luckily it's simple for Martha. I didn't have to travel or rob anyone to get the ingredients.

Spicy Pecans

1 tblsp coarse salt

2 tblsp cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 cup sugar

2 large egg whites

5 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine salt, cayenne, paprika and sugar.

whisk egg whites until foamy.

whisk in spice mixture.

stir in pecans and coat well

spread on baking sheets

bake 15 minutes

reduce heat to 250 degrees F.

Rotate sheets in oven and cook until nuts are browned and fragrant about 10 minutes more.

Transfer to another sheet of parchment and let cool

Yum and addictive!

Around The House And Gardens & What's up

2011-11-28T17:12:00.000-06:00

This month has been a full speed ahead hectic, emotional, traumatic, crazy month...My Father-In-Law has Alzheimer's and has taken a downward turn. My Mother-In-Law can no longer take care of him in their home. So we had to make the very hard decision to place him in a nursing home.

Eeeeks...I never knew how traumatic that would be. Especially for my Mom-In-Law and for myself as well to a lesser degree. It felt as if we were abandoning him, although we knew that it was the best decision for Him and Her. Many tears later we are getting used to it. It still doesn't seem right that he isn't sitting in his recliner when we go to visit.

Then many, many other things have happened at the same time. Trying to me, but trying for you to read, so I'll spare you. Hopefully I'm on the other side of hard and it'll get easier.

The girls went back to school today...so...I made them this cute froggie couple with cauliflower clouds, Cheddar flowers, and tomato cherries....

Talia's is a little different with cheese and ham roll ups on a bed of lettuce since she "doesn't like" cauliflower. I still put a little piece in case she wanted to try it. The bottom tier was filled with satsumas and pecans. The cauliflower and satsumas were grown by neighbors. The pecans, tomatoes, and lettuce I grew myself. The ham was from a local company. So the only things I don't know were it came from is the rice and cheddar.

Supposedly it's best to eat local first, then organic, then otherwise if you choose.

The pecan crop isn't so hot this year. Usually it's every other year and last year was bumper. My Mom's trees are doing pretty well though. So I'm scrounging every single pecan I can to make Praline or Sugared pecans.

Delicious yummy praline coated pecans cooling and waiting....

to be weighed and placed in....

six ounce bags....

to sell at my neighbor's Farmers Market. I make 30 bags at a time and it seems I'm barely home and she's sold out. That's how yummy they are. If you use a candy thermometer they come out perfect every time. I actually let the coating mixture get a couple of degrees above soft boil to make sure they get hard. The recipe is HERE. I posted it a few years ago.

Today's harvest: carrots, Thai winged beans, habanero peppers, tomatoes, green beans, tennis ball lettuce (seed I got from Thomas Jefferson Heritage Festival at Monticello), and eggplant.

Love this tennis ball lettuce .... soo sweet....My friend told me that someone told her it was too late to plant in this area...ha! Here's proof. This is the best time ever to plant around here!

Everything washed up and ready for the fridge...all except the tomatoes. They go on the counter top to finish ripening. Love these food grade storage containers for veggies in the fridge. The veggies last perfectly in them. But they are too yummy to last long.

Foggy November

2011-11-21T08:25:00.000-06:00

Around The House And Gardens

2011-11-08T05:37:00.000-06:00

The citrus is ripening and we've already picked all the fruit from the early ripening satsuma tree. Seleste single handedly ate most of them! She would run out to the tree before or after school, pick a satsuma and drop peelings all the way back to the house. I began to call her Gretel. She could just follow her trail back to the tree and home again! The satsumas are first and now the Paige Mandarins and Meyers Lemons. The navel oranges are huge! They should be ripe in December. I also have Louisiana sweets, pink grapefruit, and blood oranges. The blood orange trees are new this year so no fruit.

Everyone should be a little Johnny Appleseed and plant a fruit bearing tree where ever they live no matter how long they plan to stay. Think of all the joy you'll give yourself and someone else. Plant a fruit tree this year!

The carrots are doing well. They seem to have been tiny then all of sudden large! Maybe I've just been distracted and not in the garden as much. I usually go out to the garden 4 or 5 times a day. Not possible lately.

The tennis ball lettuce seed I bought at the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Festival is getting large too! See the onions poking up? The onion seed I planted didn't do very well. Only one variety had a good germination rate. The fact that one variety did come up so well makes me wonder about the quality of the other seed. Hmmmmm

I planted some early maturing pie pumpkins late in the season. They are large and starting to mature. I pushed the envelope this year and planted a lot of varieties I might not have this late in the season. Unless we have a very early frost I think they'll do well. If one is predicted I plan to construct a poly tunnel over them in hopes to preserve them.

I believe with a little effort in our zone we could grow tender vegetables almost all year long. The hardest months would be December, January and maybe February. I plant my corn at the end of February. If I wait any later it doesn't do as well. Whew, it takes years of experience to work out the micro climate nuances of your land and the weather loves to throw a lot of unpredictability in there to keep you scrambling. Lots of fun!

Cauliflower and more lettuce!

And here is something I've been working on for a while! Thai winged beans! I planted this variety in the spring and it did nothing. The plants grew and grew over our hot summer without a blossom to be seen. I allowed it to take up my precious bed. Now in the beginning of November....Winged Beans! I wonder if this is something to do with the Asian varieties. If you look back the same thing happened with my Chinese Asparagus long beans. They must need an extremely long growing season or perfect 70's and 80's weather with cooler nights!? If this bean doesn't taste wonderfully awsome...I'm not sure if I'm willing to give up a precious bed for that long again. Maybe it'll be banished to the fence line.

Here's the beginning of one of it's beautiful blue green blossoms!

The green bean patch is giving me basketfuls of sweet yummy green beans. Yesterday I put this batch in the crock pot (you can use your sun oven too...I didn't because I had too big a batch for my sun oven pot....I need a larger one). I cooked down an onion and some sausage in a little sunflower oil and threw that in the crock pot with a little salt and pepper and crocked it all day....yummmmm......Oh I Love My Garden!

Yummiest Blue Berry Pie Recipe Ever and Recent Wedding

2011-10-25T15:59:00.000-05:00

My sister NeeKee gave me this recipe for blueberry pie and it's the bestest ever!!! Everyone adores this pie...some people even steal it from funerals (snicker...Miss Riya!)....

Blue Berry Pie

1 pie crust

1 1/2 cups frozen Blue Berries

1 stick melted butter

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup all purpose flour

Put blue berries in crust. Mix all other ingredients, pour on top and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees!

Wow that's easy! But more yummy than easy!

Pictures from the recent wedding I did at the New Orleans Botanical Gardens....such a lovely night....the wedding was perfect!

Pork Dumplings

2011-10-19T10:01:00.000-05:00

I'm not a bit Asian...but My Family (including me!) loves Asian food. I'm determined to learn the basics of their cooking....There's so much to learn, and each Asian culture has their own unique way of seasoning and preparing their food. I love the simplicity and attention to aesthetics that the Japanese pay to their food....Really....I'm not even sure if the food I try in restaurants is really authentic....but I love the fact that there are lots and lots of veggies used in most dishes. I love Thai food and the unique seasonings they use.....I know .....I'm rambling....but you get the idea. I wanna learn to cook Asian food! I am learning too! Sometimes I even make up my own recipes....like ginger garlic shrimp on bamboo skewers....served over rice...yummmmmm

This recipe calls for Chinese cabbage, which I did not have at the moment....so I just skipped it. My family devoured them!
Basically it's as easy as mixing up the seasonings and the ground pork. I bought a large pork roast on sale and ground it myself using the grinder attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer (Did I ever tell you I adore my Kitchen Aid mixer? It's without a doubt the most used small appliance in my kitchen not including the microwave.). After making 54 dumplings I still had 1/2 the Asian pork mixture left, and a 1 pound and 1 1/2 pound ziplock bag for the freezer.

Put a heaping teaspoon of the mixture in the wonton wrapper, moisten the edges and fold over...

steam for 20 minutes and yer dun!!! I used a bamboo steamer I bought from our local Asian market. Hong Kong Market.

Here's the recipe:

Pork Dumplings

100 wonton wrappers
2 lbs ground pork
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (I used more)
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tblsp thin sliced green onions
4 tblsp of soy sauce
3 tblsp of sesame oil
1 egg beaten
5 cups of finely shredded Chinese cabbage ( I skipped because I didn't have)

Mix it all up then make those yummy dumplings! Serve with fried rice, broccoli, egg plant...whatever!

Around The House And Gardens

2011-10-17T08:05:00.000-05:00

How To Make Pear Sauce!

2011-10-05T13:02:00.000-05:00

My girls love apple sauce....So when I saw my pear trees dripping with pears this year I decided to make pear sauce! It's really yummy and totally organic. I modified the recipe for apple sauce in the "Complete Book of Home Preserving by Ball" on page 182. I'll post the modified recipe at the end of this post.

I picked quite a few pears....peeled and peeled....

....chopped and chopped.....the water has citric acid in it to prevent browning. You can also use lemon juice....

....cooked the slices until just tender.....

...pureed in the food processor until very fine (I love my old Pyrex bowls)....

....added some sugar, lime juice (I had frozen lime juice from the trees on hand)...and heated up the sauce....

Jarred the sauce....yummmmmm......

...canned the jars in a water bath....then....11 pints of yummy pear sauce to eat right now and later!

Pear Sauce Recipe

Makes around 11 to 12 pints

25 lbs (about) of pears peeled and sliced in chunks away from core

Put cores and peelings in your compost bucket!

3 cups of granulated sugar

4 tblsps of lime or lemon juice

Prepare jars and canner

(wash jars then boil to sterilize...I save the boiled water for canning later)

Cook chunks of pear until just tender (add enough water to keep from sticking)

Dip chunks of pear from water (discard or drink water) and puree in food processor until fine

Return puree to large pot

Add sugar and lime or lemon juice

Heat until bubbly

Fill prepared jars leaving 1/2 inch head space

Cap with prepared lid and band

Place in canner with water at least two inches above top of jars

Bring to a boil

Process 20 minutes at a rapid boil

Turn off heat and let set 5 minutes

Remove from canner and allow to cool!

Jars will make a popping sound when sealed

Do Not push down button that indicates sealing on lid

Festival Loot

2011-09-22T11:02:00.000-05:00

Happily there were soil block makers for sale at the Heritage Festival. I've always thought they looked pretty cool when I seen them on the Internet, but wasn't quite sure if they'd work well. The Gardeners Workshop had a booth and was demonstrating them. You could even try your hand at making a set of soil blocks. I was sold and bought the small size to try at home first. If it works as I think it will....I won't need to purchase the large block maker.
The soil block maker is a device that makes little soil cubes for starting seeds from a specially mixed soil that holds together. The benefit is there is no plastic pots to mess with and the roots do not become pot bound...they simply grow out of the block. The only caution you must take is when watering. You must water the blocks from the bottom gently as not to wash the soil blocks apart.

Here is a link to The Gardener's Workshop if you might like to purchase one....I'm going to explore the site some more later...it looks like it might have a lot of interesting information.

I bought a small bag of already mixed soil so I could start sowing seeds as soon as I arrived home from the festival. September is a huge planting month here. Yesterday I planted 5 carrot varieties, 6 onion varieties. and 5 squash varieties. I know it seems a little late to start squash....but I'm trying something a little different. Our occasional light frost or freeze doesnt' really happen until late December or January. I'm betting I can get a crop before then, and if I protect the plants they may keep producing right until spring. These seeds I directly sowed in the garden. In my soil cubes I sowed 4 types of lettuce, 6 types of cabbage, 2 types of kale, cauliflower, Romanesque, broccoli, cilantro, leeks, celery...um...I think that's it....anyway I think all around the soil block maker is going to make sowing certain seeds and spacing them much easier....and less wasteful of the seeds.

Here is a picture of the soil block maker and the left over soil!

Soil blocks.

Two days after and seeds are already sprouting.

I also bought a couple of books I've wanted for while. It's amazing how often I look at things on the Internet and never buy them...but if I get them in my hands....well...I can tell right away if it is worth the money or not. These two were....others...not so much.

The Solar Food Dryer by Eben Fodor. It contains complete plans for making a sturdy long lasting solar dryer as well as solar info, tips and recipes. Byron loves it. He already has plans to make a dryer.

This is a book I've thought about for a while. I compared it to a more extensive book on growing grains and figured this good overview is my style for starting. I've purchased rice seeds and am determined to grow them. I'll let you know how that goes even if I fail....failure is something I'm no longer afraid of ....we're good friends....he boosts me up to help me succeed the next time...KEEP TRYING AND TRY AGAIN!

An added picture of a Monarch chrysalis we found on an okra pod in the garden....My friend Mary is going to be thrilled when I send her this pic! Look at the gold on it...

Heritage Festival At Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

2011-09-20T09:59:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Byron and I traveled to Virginia to attend the Heritage Festival at Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello. I had been drooling over the advertisements in my Mother Earth magazine when Byron announced, "You want to go? Let's go!" Byron made it happen. We drove straight to Asheville, NC. The next day we took the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Charlottesville, VA.

We had to travel up a little winding road called Township Road to get to the Parkway. When we're looking for them we never see them, but rounding the bend we saw a mother black bear and her two chubby cubs tussling in the roadway! Even with my heart beating so fast I manage to get out my camera, stand through the sun roof, and shoot a few pictures! This was a huge highlight in the trip for me!

The good little mama hurried her cubs into the brush and then stood on her hind legs bobbing slightly up and down and back and forth trying to figure out what we were up to. Should she run or should she fight. I was glad I was in a car and not on a bike at that moment!

Finally after winding up the mountain we arrived at the Parkway and headed north.

The parkway is a beautiful winding road. You rarely can safely go over 40 miles per hour and often only 30 and 35. So, you really must have time to do the whole thing. I would like maybe to bike some of it one day. There were hiking trails crisscrossing the Parkway and the Appalachian trail crossed several times as well. I will do part or all of the Appalachian trail one day...Lord willin!!!

It was overcast and cold (43 degrees), but the views were still lovely!

We also saw a flock of wild turkeys!

....and highland cattle. Byron loves cattle. He quickly pulled over and snapped these shots. Such funny beautiful critters. They'd probably keel over and die with all that hair in Louisiana.

Cute!

After a while we realized at the pace we were going we'd reach Charlottesville after midnight, so we made our way back to the interstate. On the way we saw this field full of drying tobacco.

The next day we went to the festival and started taking in the demos and classes. We went to a vinegar making class....so I will be making vinegar maybe soon....there was so many things happening at once you couldn't possible take them all in .....so we did as much as possible!

We watched this sheep get sheared....He was all too happy to sit and let it happen. Almost like a day at the spa....

There was this sweet lady who showed me how to make these awesome rugs from small scraps of fabric....

....I watched her spin for a while....pretty groovy.....

....I gazed at this beautiful cashmere goat for awhile....

...We took a tour of Thomas Jefferson's house....

....and a tour of the garden. They try to grow as many varieties as possible the Thomas Jefferson grew. All of those varieties are marked with a TJ. I bought several varieties that he grew to try in my garden at home. This is one of them...

...awesome caracalla bean. The flower is a corkscrew shape! There wasn't a dry pod left on the plant! You could tell there was a bunch of gardeners walking around! ...um ...I did look for one for myself....

This is Peter Hatch. He gave the tour of the garden. I had to pay extra to attend this tour....worth it...He has been the head gardener at Monticello since 1977. His insight was fun and his knowledge of Thomas Jefferson's writings and happenings at Monticello...which he gave with dates....was amazing. His newest book will be out in April it is called "Revolutionary Garden".

Byron....Make me these!!!!

This huge old tree is growing on the front lawn of the house...sigh....majestic.

...I'll be sharing some pictures of my loot next!!!...there was a seed exchange!

Today's Bento

2011-09-14T07:04:00.000-05:00

A little messy, but still cute! Teddy bear rice molds decorated a little different makes cute frogs! The rice is dyed green.

Bentos and Fall Garden Cleaning

2011-09-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

This cool weather that followed tropical storm Lee has me feeling energetic and inspired! The garden has needed a good weeding, pruning and cleaning for a while (typical summer), but 95 degree weather tempted me to put it off to the next day....no excuse now!

Cleaning is coming along really well, and fall planting will start today! Fall is really our best growing season here. Even eggplant hangs it's head in our heat and humidity. Only melons and sweet potatoes seem to revel in searing sun.

Today the girls' bentos had a heart shaped pink rice ball (tinted with Wilton's pink dye paste for icing...works well for other things too)....

Sweet little cheddar cut outs and small bottles of soy sauce for the egg rolls so "kawaii" (cute in Japanese)...

...pears from the trees with kawaii picks :-)... and a Greek pepper (the girls like the juice on their rice)...So yumm

Here is the front garden all trimmed back...The roses are just sticks currently...they were a little out of control so I pruned them rather severely...should be fine.

I dug out the shabby buddelia and put a pot in its place. I plan on putting some type of focal point in it...maybe a gazing ball...and then planting some sort of trailing succulent around the focal point.

...the mounds of red dianthus survived the winter and summer (I sheared them occasionally) but I think I'll remove them. The red just isn't the right color for the front garden. It's too harsh. I prefer yellows, oranges, pinks, and white in this garden. I also had to dig up the Aztec grass to remove some stubborn weeds. After separating the weed roots from the Aztec grass roots I replanted a larger more spread out clump. I also removed the yellow mounding lantana. It tended to get too leggy over the path and it's roots too had bundles of weed roots that were removed as well. In the process I was able to dig up my hurricane lilies or naked ladies (as you choose) bulbs. I plan to plant them in a better spot this weekend. I would like to enjoy them more.

As this garden matures I've had to make decisions on what to remove. This reminds me of a permaculture practice. Newly planted areas are over planted with legume trees then later as the planting matures they are removed to make room for the plants that their roots collected nitrogen for. Did you get that...maybe it was too run on-ish...anyways....Look at that mound of cuttings. I'm going to put them in another part of the garden until the leaves fall off (the leaves will become mulch). Then I'll put the stems in a brush pile that I am forming to make a hugelkulture bed. I think I spelled that right.

I also pruned my lorepetalums or "plum delight fringe shrub". The cuttings were just dropped right underneath. They're nice and flat (the cuttings) and make a perfect "chop and drop" scenario for returning nutrients to the soil and providing mulch that shades out weeds and keeps the soil moist.

My garden this morning with the sun breaking through the trees on the batture (batture is the area between the levee and the river). With the cool weather weeding is actually pleasurable...time to think, plan, and contemplate.

Sweet potatoes on a rampage...Sooooooo excited about these....smile...grin....smile.....

The egg plants are recovering from Lee....they were a little wilted for a while....

Had to put wire cages over the pumpkin seedlings....because of marauding chickens...I'll have to think of a solution to this soon.

Getting Out Of Debt

2011-09-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

About 8 years ago I had this uncontrollable desire to get out of debt. It consumed me. It felt as if I had no other choice. Boy I'm glad now I listened to this inner urging. I was diagnosed just before Hurricane Katrina with Graves disease. For years I knew I really hadn't felt well and thought something just wasn't right. After several years of going to doctors and describing my symptoms I still wasn't diagnosed. Not until my hands were shaking uncontrollably and I could barely climb stairs did a doctor finally recognize what this might be and he did a blood test that confirmed Graves disease was the problem.

Graves disease causes mental issues as well and I really thought for a time I was losing my mind. Thankfully my faith in God kept me tethered to the ground during those hugely emotional times. The doctors prescribed radioactive iodine treatment to stymie my thyroids out of control hormone production. Now I have to take thyroid hormone to regulate the levels in my body and deal with the subsequent battle against weight gain. Boy it was easy to stay thin when my metabolism was working overtime...Not so anymore so cutting down on the excessive calories I had to consume before has been an issue I'm dealing with as late.

THANKFULLY...Debt is not an added concern on top of all the other challenges I face day to day...and I am so HAPPY HAPPY this is the case.

Byron and I are not any different than the average God fearing American couple. We love our family, church and community and work hard to do the best for them all. Unfortunately, most people have turned more to the marketers than God to determine how best to live their life.

Marketing and our own pride has convinced us that to be, or more accurately appear, to be successful we must have the right accoutrement's which include a new car....new clothes...coolest cell phone... Unfortunately, with the way most people choose to live their life, and the way I did at one time, you must borrow to afford these things. I found out quickly that this life was a huge weight and it chaffed against my knowledge of how I must live as a follower of Jesus. The Bible simply states:

1.Proverbs 22:7

The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender.

Proverbs 22:6-8 (in Context) Proverbs 22 (Whole Chapter)

I want to be a slave to no man and only a servant to God. Geez, actually if chaffs against the whole idea of what it means to be a free American. (So does many other things, but I won't go there now.) I realized that my indebtedness actually made me a slave! All of mine and Byron's future earnings were already owed to the overseer. We weren't working for the future....we were working for the past!

I discovered Dave Ramsey through some friends, and thought Wow! This is what I have needed for so long! Instruction on real people real life money management. His ideas made so much sense. I found myself struggling up hill at first trying to do it on my own, but with enthusiasm and daily gentle encouragement and lots of love....I finally convinced Byron to get on board the get out of debt train and once we were united in a single goal as a couple .....we cruised through the steps!!!

It was so freeing to be out of debt! No credit cards at all! No car note at all! Basically no house note at all (another long story maybe I'll tell one day). We were free to work for our future instead of our past, give more to our church and do things we only dreamed of doing....like hiking to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon (an experience I will never forget.)

I found myself wanting to share this with everyone! I foolishly ran out and told everyone and shared it with everyone I knew. Hey you don't have to be a slave to debt. That's when I found out that most people like their debt chains. Most really would rather you shut up. They think you're crazy when you say they can pay cash for the car they want or they can go on vacation without using a credit card, or you can give up the false security of having a credit card "just in case" there's an emergency or you don't have to live from paycheck to paycheck. It's the simple old fashioned...."Live Beneath Your Means!"
I think that most people have to much pride to drive a car or dress in a way that most people consider...'sniff' beneath their class in life. There's a scripture for that too:

1.Proverbs 16:18

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:17-19 (in Context) Proverbs 16 (Whole Chapter)

Many people find themselves in financial straights because of pride, and then call out for God to deliver them from the snare that he warned them of in the beginning. You must deliver yourself, then God will bless and help.

How many people have I heard poor mouth about not knowing how they will pay their bills then pull out their I-phone....Really? Not trying to be judgemental. It just makes you wonder. My husband drove my Father's old Suburban that my parents gave us with no air condition even during Louisiana summers. Yes, he had to endure jokes from people he worked with about having the junkiest car at work, and people really do judge you by the car you drive. Shallow, yes! But we experienced this during our getting out of debt time We did it though!

I would like to encourage anyone who is having trouble to seriously consider Dave Ramsey's advice. He has a great website. You can listen to his radio show and there are many other resources...just google it...it's there.

I will tell you. It's a load off the mind not to owe....and without stress....I'm a lot healthier now!

Here is one of Dave Ramsey's videos to start you off!

How To Make A Strawberry Pincushion...and Todays Bento

2011-08-30T12:52:00.000-05:00

School has started and I'm just starting to get back into the routine...not quite there yet. There is a huge marsh fire burning in New Orleans East and the wind is sending the gigantic smoke cloud in our direction...gaaackk...it's hard to breath at times. I'll just have to stay inside and keep the doors and windows shut tight. So much for working in the garden today.....but...there's plenty...more than enough...to do inside.

I did make this cool little strawberry pincushion I saw directions for in a magazine. A small bowl of these would be adorable and usefull sitting on my sewing shelf.

First cut out a fabric circle about the size of a CD. Also cut out an additional circle the same size of fusible interfacing (to stiffen up and reinforce the fabric circle). Iron the fusible interfacing to the back side of the fabric circle...

...then cut in half. This will make two strawberries...

...fold in half with wrong side facing out and sew a seam forming a cone. Trim the tip a little bit and then turn the cone so that the right side of the fabric is on the outside....this is just a random pic of my thread and scrap yarn balls I now store beautifully in jars (I love the way it looks and I get to enjoy the color!).

...back to the pincushion...(see the fabric sewn cones in the back?)....put the cone in a small cup fill the cone with sand about 1/2 way. I put too much at first and had to dump some out....Next poke a little stuffing on top of the sand...

...use heavy duty thread to gather up the edges of the cone and bring it snugly together...you have to keep poking the stuffing back in! Tie off.

Make a cute little topping of your choice. I used a piece of leftover bias tape. You can use rick rack, fabric scraps, you can even sew a ring on the top to hold on your finger...sew cute!

Todays bento. Back to school and making fun bentos again. This method of packing lunches actually motivates me to make sure my girls have healthy lunches from home instead of the yuck they feed them at school...Today their lunches included...Organic chicken (I saved part of the breast from the chicken I boiled to make gumbo for last nights dinner.) on everything bagel with Tony's (Tony Chacheries a cajun spice), a white cheddar baby bel cheese, green greek pickled pepper, carrot sticks, banana bread and dried cranberries....

....and a happy litle animal to say" hi" and " mommy can't wait to see you this afternoon...do good in school!"

School's Starting!

2011-08-08T14:21:00.000-05:00

School's starting Wednesday so I've been sewing the girls new school skirts. It's difficult to find modest uniform skirts that go below the knee...so my girls love to tell me what type of skirt they like and let me design it. I have this wonderful book "Sew What! Skirts" by Francesca Denhartog & Carole Anne Camp. It gives good and simple directions on how to create your own patterns for skirts using your specific measurements. I use some old Christmas wrapping paper to make the patterns. Then I write the girls name and date on their pattern and save it.

Here's a close up of my notes for Seleste.

We're both happy with the way it turned out! One more to go for Seleste and two for Talia. Talia's is going to be quite different....I'll post a pic.

Don't be afraid to try sewing if you want to learn! I had no one to really teach me so....I just started reading and looking at how to videos on line. I'll post some video links that really helped me soon. Dive in girl!

How to make a serviceable but old book bag fun and new for the new year....Seleste's plan is to add a cute patch and wrap the back straps in zebra print duct tape...you go Seleste!

Around The House And Gardens

2011-07-28T12:37:00.000-05:00

Brown Turkey Figs

Yes, We don't mind sharing with birds.

Lady Margaret passion flower

Branches sagging with pears

Gulf fritillary caterpillars love passion vine

...but it's hard to get a pic of the butterfly...they never slow down!

The chickens love large overripe watermelons!

...they also love the shade of the mulberry tree...they love mulberries in the spring too!

...Our dominant rooster struts around all day making sure every one's behaving....

...the compost is ready!

...gorgeous!...This is Seleste's hand...she always has the most beautiful hair and nails!

..eeks...more rain. It's rained and rained and rained around here. Drought to Flood...sigh...I love Louisiana!

...the rain has brought mushrooms. They're magical...

...well not really...they just have a magical feel! Maybe there are little fairies hiding in there.

Caftan

2011-07-16T18:17:00.000-05:00

Sewing project! I know it doesn't look that difficult...but the panel in the front and the neck facing ..@*#$%()*(not really)...I learned new skills anyway! And it actually fits right. I want to sew several light cotton slip over caftans for working in the garden when it is so hot. This one is from knit material (actually not recommended for the pattern), but I like the way it turned out. I dressed it up with a little crocheted embellishment I made myself.

Not so good close up of the embellishment.

Around The House And Gardens

2011-07-12T23:01:00.000-05:00

It is so humid and hot outside. Just working in the garden for a minutes leaves me dripping with sweat. Then any dust, mud or particles stick straight to my skin leaving me looking like some sort of prehistoric person lacking the means of personal hygiene doing the gathering part of hunting and gathering.....Regardless....the garden is beautiful and abundant. The permaculture aspects of my garden are really becoming more and more evident as I learn more and more.

One important aspect of permaculture is to use nitrogen fixing plants and trees to enrich the soil with nitrogen. Geoff Lawton refers to them as "legume" trees List of Leguminous Plants. Ummm...I had never heard of such...so I began to research. Then I realized that I have several nitrogen fixing trees already in my garden and this is one of them. It's a very beautiful plant and if it dies down from a freeze it returns from the roots. I've heard of it growing well as far north as Georgia.
Cassia bicapsularis pronounced KASSee-uh bye-kap-soo-LAIR-iss From what I have read, Leguminous Plants produce pods that contain it's seeds.

My "Pride of Barbados" plant also makes pods containing it's seeds. It's in the "pea" family so it too is a nitrogen fixer. Also the "trash tree" as some people call it, Mimosa is also a nitrogen fixer. Mimosa has earned it's name as a plant that rushes in when the soil is empty an begins to grow. It really deserves the name of "healer" since it protects the soil from being swept away, drops it's flowers and leaves to nourish the soil with organic material, and it's roots grab nitrogen from the air and fixes it in the soil making it available to other plants. I have so much to learn.

My newest pear trees are drooping with fruit even though over half of the fruit was removed to keep it from taxing the small branches.

The side garden is doing well. I have more work to do such as putting down more mulch. I think it has all of the trees it can support. Some lower growing plants need to be planted once the majority of the grass and weeds are suppressed using mulch. Maybe sweet potatoes, squash, melons, and herbs. There are banana, pomegranate, 3 types of fig, loquat, and bay trees in this small garden along with many perennials such as crinum, Louisiana phlox, amaryllis, cannas, angel trumpet tree, pineapple sage, four o'clocks, agapanthus, iris, Mexican sage, guara, and crybaby tree. I may have even missed some!

Here is the view looking back at the house in the front garden. Everything is so large and beautiful. My swamp sunflowers (name I gave it!) that volunteered a few years ago reliably comes back larger and more beautiful each year. I really need to identify it exactly! Any ideas? The boxes in the front have been collected to use as mulch. Pine straw will be placed on top to hide them. This works really well for me.

The windmill palm in the front garden is far surpassing the other three that are planted around the yard without the benefit of companion planting and mulching.

Here is a view of the front garden looking toward the raised bed garden. The Aztec grass really pops in front of the weedy look of the guara. Guara is prettiest in the morning when it's blossoms have freshly bloomed. By mid afternoon the flowers have wilted and all the busy bees have finished harvesting it's nectar and are busy elsewhere. In the morning guara vibrates and hums with industrious bees mining it's gold. The guara in this part of the garden volunteered from some guara that I planted near the door.

The veggie garden is a bit overgrown and weedy. That's not unusual for this time of year. The heat and humidity causes every seed that can to germinate. A blessing and a curse. Even in it's current stressed state it's still quite abundant!

The chickens have been getting most of their nutrition from foraging lately. They clean up dropped fruit (that's what this chicken was doing under the pear tree), eat insects, scratch the soil, and fertilize with their droppings as well as giving eggs and meat. According to all permaculture authorities, the perfect permaculture animal.

My persimmon tree has two persimmons on it. The very first for my tree!

I love my little sitting area under the pergola. I've lit the tiki torches and spent many evenings enjoying the purple martins and bats that dart around catching insects. Sometimes the mosquitoes drive us in. Maybe I could rig up some netting? It's the perfect place to drink a glass of iced tea while taking a break from planting or pulling.

Muscadines! The vines are slowly covering the trellis in their second year. Next year I expect them the completely cover it and need to be trimmed severely!

Around six or seven brown turkey figs ripen each day. They are so huge that this is just right for my family. There will be so many to share once the tree grows larger.

Fiery Zinnia

Delicate Zinnia

This banana tree was obtained at half price at a local nursery because of it's shabby appearance due to a hail storm. It's sprouting new leaves and doing just fine. It is called Musa "ice cream" it is supposed to grow up to 15 feet and have delicious edible fruit. We'll see!

Some of the satsumas are already showing a little bit or orange!

The navels are getting plump!

And ....Oh yes, I've harvested quite a few perfectly ripe watermelons! Success at last! Yummm!

Tree Self Education

2011-07-05T18:31:00.000-05:00

On the fourth, Byron and I spent the day scoping out our new piece of property and trying to find all of the boundary posts the surveyor established. There is a total of 21 acres and most of it is densely forested. Animal trails criss cross the property, and the old logging road that cuts it's way diagonally across it is dotted with their tracks.

In an effort to really get the feel of the land, I spent the day just observing the lay and aspects of the land without making any immediate decisions like, "Oh, here is where we'll put the cabin!", or "There is a perfect place for a small pasture." This is more difficult than it seems. But....the first order of business in establishing a permaculture garden (which I plan to do here since I will not be here that often) is to learn what nature is already doing here. How does the water flow? What plants are here? What animals are here? How are the hills situated? What areas aren't easily accessible? What areas naturally hold water? etc...

But one thing I really wanted to do was identify the trees that are on the property. Identifying trees is not one of my strong points....So I set about yesterday with the following book to identify as many trees as possible. Quite a few of them proved elusive, but many others I've pinpointed with shaky certainty. If I've made any mistakes please point it out and why.

Here is the book I used. Needles and leaves were sticking out at all angles by the end of the day! I find that this book was the most useful one I could find. It has a really good introduction that explains exactly what to look for when identifying a tree. It also gave a lot of additional useful information. Each tree entry has a picture of the mature tree, it's leaves and stem, any flowers or berries as well as it's bark. The description also includes any particularities of the tree such as branch shape, thorns, smells, etc... It also has a map showing where they naturally grow in the United States.

We have long leaf pine....betcha don't know how I knew that was a long leaf pine....

Short leaf pine...

Spruce pine....

Laural Oak (not certain on this one)...

Post Oak (used for making fence posts, railroad ties etc...)...

Blackjack Oak (this is an oak that grows in poor sandy soils. It's not surprising that they are growing here since the land was clear cut about 8 years ago. Let the healing begin!)...

Southern Red Oak (the underside of this oak leaf is a rusty color)...

American Crab apple...

Aren't the little apples so cute?!

Looks like a maple leaf...but it's not! It's a sweet gum. Ammunition for the kids (they make a very prickly ball seed pod that's great fun to throw at people but not so fun to run across barefoot!) I've also heard that it's sap is sweet and edible...I'll have to check that to be sure....

Parsley leaf hawthorn...such a frilly and delicate looking tree...

Southern Red Oak...

Red Maple....

Sweet Bay Magnolia....This smells so nice when the leaves are crushed...like...well a bay tree...The underside of the leaf is a blue grey. A regular magnolia has a furry brown underside....

Winged sumac....

I also identified flowering dogwood...no pic....there are so many more plants there to identify. This just scratches the surface! O.K. so did I make any mistakes? Hope not!

Okra

2011-06-24T15:53:00.000-05:00

It's hotter'an Hades around here right now, and it seems the only crops doing very well are the melons and the okra. The hotter it gets. The more they like it.

We finally got what I call a rain. It's looking and smelling like Louisiana again. My mom had maybe hundreds of okra plants volunteer in her garden this year. So she just let them grow. I helped her harvest them the other day and snagged all the 3 to 1 inch pods to pickle. My girls love pickled okra, and I have never grown enough to pickle.

First I washed them really well...

...and cut the stems short.

I took out dill weed seed and garlic, both from the garden.

I put 2 cups of vinegar, two cups of water, 2 teaspoons of dill seed, and 1/3 cup of canning salt in a pot and brought to a boil. I packed the fresh okra into pint jars, added two cloves of garlic and some red pepper flakes. I filled the jars with the boiling vinegar mixture leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Then I sealed them with a lid and band and processed in a boiling canner for 15 minutes. They turned out really yummy. I waited a few days before opening a jar. Mommy...I hope you'd like me to help you pick okra again!!!

I finally picked the large melon in my garden. Guess how much it weighed?......

39.6 pounds! You should have seen me lugging this thing back to the house. I should have just used the wagon!

Around The House And Gardens

2011-06-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

I guess we are in the drought I suspected. The Regional Drought Monitor confirms this. We have had a slight rain or two but no where near the rains we usually have in the summer time. This lack of precipitation helped lessen the impact of the flooding from the Mississippi in this area...or so I have heard. The good news is I'm appearing to have more success with my watermelons than I usually do.

I'm attributing that slightly to the dryer weather or maybe it's the new white woven mulch technique I am trying this year. So far it's impressed me! Everything grown on it seems to have done better. It suppresses our aggressive weeds and reflects additional light. This area of my garden is more traditional. I grew peas, beans, corn, potatoes and watermelon so far in it and the yields have been fairly good!

But the watermelons....I'm thrilled. At first glance it just resembles a tangle of aggressive vines. In Louisiana all vines are aggressive.

But look closer! Nestled in those mounds of leaves are melons! Medium sized...

...young and small....

...I read in my Mother Earth News Magazine that to tell if a watermelon is ripe the tendril closest to the melon turns brown. Well this one is yellow. Maybe a few more days?

Some are just huge. I planted two varieties. I can't think of the names right now, but one is red fleshed and I believe this striped long one is orange.

There are about 20 melons growing in the patch already and the vines are still growing. I wonder how many we will wind up with.

This is the striped zucchini. I have decided this one is my favorite zucchini. It taste great and grows to a large size before the seeds get too large. My Mother-In-Law loves to take a large one wash it and cut a slice off and munch on it. She munches on a raw zucchini for several days. She says it's because these zucchinis are sooooo delicious.

My other melons... well something is in a lot of trouble. My Silverline melons were larger this year than they have ever been. Something else loves them as well. Maybe my chickens? I think I'm going to cover them with chicken wire. If that helps I'll know they were the culprit. Every single Silverline melon has at least one little yummy bite munched out of them or a lot more as you can see...smile.

This is a sleeping beauty melon. I've never grown them before and am excited to try them. I read that all other melons besides watermelons are ready when they slip readily from the vine. Some indicate their ripeness by getting a color glow. Such as cantaloupes get a orange glow under the netting when they are ripe.

This volunteer squash vine is turning out to be a type of gourd. They are really pretty with stripes, wings, and warts. I am going to use them to decorate in the fall.

The okra loves this hot weather....

...so do the aphids. There are ladybugs in the garden, but not enough to handle the current population of aphids. I'll have to do something about this.

I'm working on the side garden. I have put down clear plastic in an attempt to kill aggressive dollar weed and other weeds. I also read that it will get hot enough under there to kill any seeds. We will see!

It's already turning brown under there after one day.

Here is Mr. Slug checking out the new roof on his digs.

Blueberries and The First Fig

2011-06-13T23:47:00.000-05:00

Byron's uncle has some friends with huge old blueberry bushes in their yard. Unbelievably, they don't pick them! So when they are ripe they call Byron's Uncle, who calls Byron's Father, who calls us! Then, we all pile into the car with water bottles and sunscreen and drive up to Mississippi to pick plump juicy sweet and sometimes tart blueberries! This year we picked plenty to freeze...

...eat fresh right away...

...and dry! This is the first time I've ever dried blueberries. I may have dried them a little much, but they'll most likely be fine for baking. I'll just rehydrate them a little. The book said to blanch them in boiling water first for 30 seconds. I did and this is what they looked like when I put them on to dry.

Today I walked my usual rounds checking on everything and I noticed the figs are getting a little glow to them. When I peeked a little closer I noticed under a large leaf this huge fig! It's beautiful... the color is so rich....and did I say it's huge!

Inside...Me, Seleste and Talia shared it. We each got a nice piece of only one fig! I hope the rest are as yummy!

This Weekend's Wedding

2011-06-06T22:55:00.000-05:00

The flowers I did for the wedding this weekend were bright and beautiful. They contrasted nicely with the steady green of the golf course. The colors certainly needed to be bright to compete with the heat! It was 97 degrees! The ceremony was at 7:30 so luckily it had cooled down to a lovely 89 degrees....I smelled myself after setting up this wedding! I did wait until the last possible minute to put the flowers in the wilting heat.

These roses....lovely!

Pomanders punctuated the candelabras....I love my black iron labras....so New Orleans....

Tera helping me set up....

I didn't spy any gators....although I've heard there are some there....

Bridesmaid's bouquets....

...and an adorable flower girl that insisted on holding her pomander like a bouquet....guess she wanted to be like the big girls...

....this little guy didn't want to walk in a stupid wedding....

....especially not with any dumb girls....

...and to be greeted by huge grinning people is just plain scary...

....my husband called this the "walk of shame"....the little ring bearer was not happy and he let everyone know!

...then always the best part...the Bride and her Father....

...the pomanders served double duty as centerpieces later....a nice way to save a buck.

What's Up In The Garden

2011-05-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

The peach tree is dripping with peaches. Ms. Rivero came over and she and I peeled a passel of them. We froze them on trays and then put them in bags. They are so yummy to eat frozen on hot humid summer days.

My mouth waters just looking at this pic. Those peaches are sooo juicy and sweet. We also experimented and dried a few. They turned out pretty yummy. I plan to make some peach jam as well. We also had a bubbling hot peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream when we finished.

In order of how I like peaches: Fresh, cobbler, frozen, jam, then dried.

Easy Yummy Fruit Cobbler Recipe

2 cups sugar (divided)
1 cup self rising flour
3/4 to 1 cup milk
1 stick of butter
Fresh Fruit (I like peach, blackberry and blue berry)

Melt butter and pour into 9 X 13 inch pan. Mix 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour and 3/4 to 1 cup of milk. Drizzle batter into pan over butter (don't stir!). Sprinkle desired amount of fruit evenly over top use less or more depending on your likes. Sprinkle 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar over top (depending on your likes!). Then bake until golden at 350 degrees. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream. Sooo Yum.

It's always wonderful to have a little extra help, no matter how fleeting.

This was some of today's harvest: squash, cucumber, Lima beans, purple hull peas, corn, and green beans. There also was some more onions ready, okra, and cherry tomatoes. I picked the sunflowers a few days ago...and they're still beautiful! As you can see in the background I'm still cracking pecans and surprisingly they're still good.

...and lastly...The Federated Council of New Orleans Garden Clubs awarded me the "Woman Of The Year Award". I knew something was up when I walked into the luncheon and my Mother and two of my sisters were sitting there. Not usuallllllll.....anyway....I was very surprised and thrilled! I'm still smiling!

Homemade Italian Sausage and Pasta - Making Things Yourself

2011-05-16T16:32:00.000-05:00

The girls helped me put together an Italian dinner of homemade pasta, homemade Italian sausage, squash, zucchini and onions, and salad.

I'm so loving learning to do things myself. It's a lot of fun to make things that previously you thought...."I have to buy those things." Not so.

I enjoy watching my girls realize that some flour, salt and eggs from the backyard makes Pasta! Pasta doesn't have to come in a plastic bag. Talia rolled out the pasta, I cut, then she placed the noodles around the perimeter of a colander until we were ready to boil them. They also can be dried and kept up to a week. I've seen pictures of pasta drying on a dowel rack. I'll have to rig something up!

Pasta:

Two cups of flour
1/2 tsp of salt
3 eggs plus one yolk
Mix together, roll out very thin, then cut into strips.
Hang to dry

Bring water with salt to a boil and drop noodles in. Boil them to desired tenderness.

Tera chopping up the Romaine lettuce. We served it with tomatoes, feta cheese, kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Striped zucchini and onions ready to chop.

I made the Italian sausage myself as well. It tastes so much better when you make it, and it's cheaper as well. Hey, I like that.

Italian Sausage

2 lb ground pork
1 Tbls Salt
1 Tbls Ground Fennel Seed (Start w/ Whole seed then grind fine)
1 1/2 Tbls Sweet Paprika
1 Tbls Finely minced Fresh Garlic
1 Tbls Sugar
1 tsp black pepper
3 Tbls red wine vinegar

Mix all ingredients well.

Making Italian Sausage meatballs.

Yummmmm.......

A Little Update About New Orleans Prep For Flood

2011-05-12T15:00:00.000-05:00

Around The House And Gardens

2011-05-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

You've probably heard all the news about the Mississippi flooding....Well here it is behind my house. Not quite what I'd call high...yet....It's been much higher in the past. I've seen it just inches from the top of the levee. I'm sure all the spillways they've opened has lessened the pressure here. We do live below sea level, but there are methods to deal with the annual deluge from snow melt and precipitation up north....

Now, the pollution from industry and farming those from up north are sending south....We nor the critters in the Gulf know what to do with or how to deal with that. When people criticize B.P. then spray pesticides on their lawns, farms, or gardens....Well, I consider them hypocrites. They're doing their part to pollute the Mississippi Delta and Gulf as well. What you do does matter. Consider the dead zone in the Gulf.

But, there is plenty of pesticide free habitat in my garden. Look what greeted me from the herb wheel....

...a nice fat healthy garter snake. Beautiful. So far no poisonous ones.

A recent harvest, green beans, wax beans, stripped zucchini, scallop squash, yellow squash, volunteer squash, and dill seed. I pickled the wax beans and canned the green.

Onions drying in the sun.

The cherry tomatoes are ripening.

Figs are getting big!

This is one sunflower stalk! Isn't it magnificent?

Bento pics from the past few days...Did I mention bentos were fun to make?

So Much.....

2011-05-09T10:21:00.000-05:00

There is so much going on right now...So many things to post about.....I may even post twice today......plenty for the rest of the week....I did not have a relaxing Mother's Day...busy...but not relaxing. My husband let me know my gift was going to be on Tuesday...so we'll see tomorrow! On Sunday after church he wanted to take me to the "Air Show" at the base. I'm sure this was a totally selfless gesture on his part, but I wanted to spend the day with my Mom so I declined. Byron did pout for a while after...not sure why.

Our church gave a Mother's-Daughter-Grand Daughter- Friends Luncheon on Saturday for Mother's Day. I volunteered to help with the decoration and a little entertainment.

This photo reminds me of our Ladies' meetings....lot's of socializing scarfing up good food, yakking and having fun.

Ladies' Meeting

These 1/2 gallon mason jars are filled with flowers from my garden and tied with miscellaneous ribbons. Afterwards we pulled the flowers out tied them with the ribbons and sent them home with ladies. The jars I took home! I'll have them if they need them again. In the mean time they'll be holding my crop of green beans!

Our theme was A Farmer's Market. My niece made these adorable swags to hang from the ceiling. It's pretty paper folded in an accordian style and stapled into a circle, holes punched and threaded on twine. Adorable! The chalkboards are foam board sprayed with chalkboard paint then drawn with "farmer's market signs". These are now donated to the young ladies' class to use. The backdrop was covered with real and not so real quilts. The one on the left is a very precious one my Grandmother Tera made for me. We even had eggs, veggie and flower plants, and preserves for sale. One enterprising little girl made adorable headbands to sell. Buying plants and homemade things are the best!

My daughter was a hardworking helper that day and didn't eat her lunch until well after everyone else was finished. Proud of that girl.

Getting ready for the generation gap game....Popular lyrics from songs of each generation are printed and given to the opposite generation. They have to sing it without any prompting. The results are hilarious.

Hmmmm...How do I sing this song. Danita sorta sang/talked her's, Jennifer channeled her younger 80's hairband days, and Gail assumed that if she rapped it....it would work.

Jennifer wondering what in the world she got herself into.

Angela and Judy won the crowns in the Mother/Daughter look a like contest!

Fun! Hope you all were surrounded with lot's of love on Mother's Day!

Today's Bento

2011-05-04T09:59:00.000-05:00

This bento stuff is fun. I never looked forward to making my girl's lunches until now! It's like I get to play...anyways...Today's bento has a singing bird theme. I usually do not buy the orange slices of cheese wrapped in cellophane...but my husband grumped enough that "it's the only cheese I like on scrambled eggs", I bought a pack and funny enough....Byron has ate very little and this pack is lasting forever (another reason why it scares me). I don't think it's quite as good as he remembered.

It does make great little cut out bird for the top of the homemade bread ham sandwiches. The recipe for the bread is HERE. I also use this bread recipe to make my sub rolls. I use 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white.

I added a little musical note pick with olives to show how the birds are just sing their little hearts out!

The babybel cheese also has a cut out of the bird in it's red wax. There are some carrot sticks, some Zap's (chips), and praline pecans (pecans from my tree this fall). My girls gave their gushing approval!

This is one of the many reasons why I pack my girls lunches: Pink Slime. Recently Talia came home and informed me that she couldn't bring her refillable water bottle anymore. She had to bring a "factory sealed drink" or it would be confiscated. Apparently to avoid children bringing "banned drinks" to school such as alcohol or coke. Sighhhhhhh.....Please, Please common sense prevail!!!! I guess I'll have to call the school..........

Today's Harvest

2011-05-03T11:01:00.000-05:00

This morning after getting the girls off to school, I grabbed my very fav cultivator tine hand garden tool and went out to see what how the potatoes did....And here it is! My potato harvest! This is by far the best number of potatoes that I have ever grown. I feel confident that I will do even better next time.

Trying and trying again is the key to succeeding with gardening. Sometimes you just have to figure out what a certain veggie likes in your climate and garden. That's why keeping notes is so important. Now I know that potatoes and corn do best if planted in February here...even if I do have to protect them from the rare frost. Those rare frosts have come a lot more often in the past two years.

Yes the potatoes are mostly a really nice size. Seeing them next to the garlic makes them look smaller than they are. The garlic is just really big! I put three of the garlic in the horticulture show and people kept asking if it was elephant garlic. Nope, It's just really big garlic. Thank you chickens for all that awesome fertilizer!

There's also some scallop squash, yellow squash and zucchini, bok choy, wax beans, and blue lake green beans. I find the bush beans do best for me. There's a red onion in there and some herbs: parsley, thyme, and basil. I think tonight's dinner will be completely from the garden!

Close up of my beautiful herbs and beans.

View of the garden from the front garden path.

This is one of my favorite plants for pots, angel wing begonias. It does well when I forget to water it. It gets a little leggy, but with a trim it bushes out nice and full. It also roots easily in water.

Around The House And Gardens

2011-05-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

Every morning the the guara is vibrating and buzzing with bees. By the afternoon they've moved on and the guara is silent...I guess the nectar flows in the guara best in the morning?...

The first gladiola has bloomed, and it is beautiful.

My onions are beautiful this year. This is the first year I have had any significant success with onions. Not for the lack of trying. Year after year I have planted and failed with onions.....with gardening....you just have to keep trying....it makes the success all the more sweeter!!! Yes, this red onion is really sweet tasting as well!

White onions plumping up!

Cherry tomatoes...mmmm....

Little yellow squash...I'm keeping a close eye out for squash vine borers. If you see saw dust looking crumbs at the base of your squash plants you know you've got them. The only way to get rid of them is surgery that may or may not work. Cut a slit long ways (along the length of the vine not across) at the end of the trail the vine borer has made through the vine stem. Peel it open gently and find the vine borer and pull the disgusting little thing out and squish it.

Here is a vine that volunteered. I love volunteers...you never know what you may get. This is maybe a cross between a squash and a gourd???...hmmm....pretty anyway.

Cosmos!

A view across the garden.

Big juicy blackberries are ripening on the trellis near the levee.

Baby muscadine grapes.

I'm already harvesting garlic. The small creole garlic matured first and then this much larger variety I bought at a local grocery store. It's really beautiful...I love the textures, colors and the way it looks all piled up after pulling. See the rosy tint underneath the dirt. I find the garlic matured pretty quickly this year.

Romaine lettuce seeding.

Butterfly bush.

This is the bento I made my girls this morning. I know...ladybugs again. I'm still new at this and need to learn some tricks! The flowers are rice cooked in pink tinted water with pickled okra centers. There are carrot flowers, of course the babybel cheese ladybug, Ritz crackers and cheese hearts, dried cranberries and candied pineapple with a couple of ginger snap rounds.

Here is a site that shows how to make cute things with food! I can't wait to peruse it more!

Cute Food For Kids

Easter and Collecting Seeds

2011-04-27T16:33:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter. After going to church and seeing a small drama which included brief sketches with appropriate songs sang by singers who gave me goose bumps, and the Pastor finishing up with an artfully told story of the crucifixtion...I must say the story of the sacrifice Christ made for mankind never ceases to pierce my heart and bring tears to my eyes...it makes me examine myself and vow to weed the garden of my heart of self will, jealousy, hatred, selfishness....I do want to be more like Christ daily....the family goes to my Sister's house.

.....I love our Easter tradition of going to my Sister's house and having a potluck lunch and an Easter egg hunt with all the adorable eggs my nieces and nephews decorated and dyed...crack, crunched, perfect or not....they all are embodiments of the dyers' personalities!

Here is a pic of the teen and not so teen girls posing....Leanne (my red headed step sister's kiddo), Fragile (niece), Liver' (niece), Tear Tear (daughter), Tina Fish (I wouldn't mind if she was my daughter.), and Auntie Nita trying to sneak in the pic.

...cameras were everywhere....I'm scared of the angles they're taking these photos at...me and my sisters are on the other side...we can just imagine how this makes our thighs look!....

...Vangie (niece) discussing the prettiest and coolest eggs with Ave (nephew)...

...my brother in law Mike in an adorable moment with his two youngest children...I wonder what they are telling him...

....Tally and her eggs....she's lamenting the fact that she only has one more year before she's too old to hunt and will have to hide....

....Jake (nephew)...holding up his friends and cousins with his amazing mental strength...

....collapsing pyramid...

....Big Bro....I think he went this far off for privacy....not possible in this family...there's always someone (like me hee hee) who will go out of their way to bug you....

....It's very important to me to be able to save my own seed....I want my garden to be able to support itself and feed my family whether I can buy seed or not. Regardless, being able to save my own seed makes good money sense too. My garden shouldn't cost more than purchasing food, and It doesn't.

I allow many of my plants to bolt or go to seed. I know it takes up space where other things could be growing, but I plan to plant heat loving plants immediately into their spots after the seed matures and I remove the plant. I find bolting and seeding plants are beautiful in their own right and the flowers provide nectar for bees and encourage pollinators to visit the garden.

This is dill producing seed. The seed can be planted and used in recipes as well.

...the kale seed pods are finally starting to dry.

...onion going to seed.

Curly Mustard seed. I love this variety of mustard...spicy and yummy.

Some of the flowers blooming in the garden.

The sunflowers volunteered from the seed dropped last year. I have them all over the garden. This is the first one to bloom. Another benefit of allowing plants to seed are all the volunteers around the garden and yard.

...see the bee up close. The bee is actually checking out a beetle that was on the sunflower. I keep an eye on the different insects that visit my garden. Very few require any action. The garden just seems to do a good job on it's own of balancing out the insect population.

So far this year I have saved seed from: broccoli, curly mustard, dill, and arugula.

Bentos and Flower Shows

2011-04-20T12:28:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my Sister Terri I discovered Bento Boxes. Bento lunches are adorable lunches packed in stackable boxes and secured with a strap. This style of lunch packing comes from Japan. I'm now addicted to looking at bento blogs since I've discovered them! On my side bar I have a link to a bento blog which in turn has tons of links to other wonderful bento blogs.

So I started packing bentos for my girls. Not very good at it yet...but....I love to make them! Making lunch for my girls is soooo much fun now. It's like getting to do a little art project each morning. It also makes you look at what is possible for lunches in a different way. I find myself packing things I might not have before!

My girls at first were a little shy to bring their bentos to school. Now they relish all of the attention! Lately I've been picking mulberries each morning from the tree and filling the bottom tier of their bentos with them. When I asked Seleste if she liked them...she replied, "Yes, but everyone begs for them!!!" It appears that the children all crowd around and ask Seleste to give them some of her mulberries....Now mommies..(pause and sigh) ..I hope that isn't your child begging my daughter for her lunch.....Get Rid Of The Doritos and PLANT A MULBERRY TREE.....LIKE YESTERDAY!!!!! :) My girls love eating their bentos....I find they eat their lunches much better now. The boxes always come back empty....their bags never did.

A happy Babybel cheese ladybug...pecans from the tree...peanut butter crackers...cranberries...

Recently I gave in to my longing and bought bento tools I'd been drooling over....mind you....I didn't buy all the ones I'd been drooling over.....just a few....

...Sweet little bunny picks for decorating and eating berries and other such things with....

...caa..ute..little picks for the same thing....

...these are the tiniest little cups for packing condiments and sauces...

...the shapes on the left are for shaping rice balls into little bears and flowers...More about rice balls later...the tall silver cutters are for cutting veggies such as cucumbers and carrots and other things into cute decorative shapes...

....some cutsie cutters for cheese and meat etc...

...these are groovy...boiled egg molds!! after hard boiling the egg you peel it, put it into the mold, drop into ice water for a minute, remove and voila....a bunny or bear shaped egg....how cute....my girls love boiled eggs in their lunches and the chickens are laying plenty!

...these are little cutters for cutting bread and other things into shapes...It makes adorable sandwiches...

I've also been knitting new dishrags for my kitchen. My old kitchen linens have been transferred to the carwash/house cleaning rag basket and I have and am making new ones....the old rags were...um...well...raggedy...!

It's spring and it's flower show time. Myself and two friends from my garden club conspired to interpret a painting with flowers for Art In Bloom at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Much to our delight we won first and an overall award for "Best Interpretation". I remember going to Art In Bloom as a teen and wishing to my sister Terri that I could participate. This is my fourth year doing so....God does so like to give his children the desires of their hearts!

I submitted quite a bit of horticulture in the Federated Council of New Orleans Garden Clubs and Jefferson Parish Council of Garden Club's flower show. I was thrilled with the awards my specimens won. Eleven blue, two red and an honorable mention. As well as two of the five coveted overall awards.....

This large green ribbon was the Arboreal award for my crybaby tree. I was able to cut a long large perfect branch filled to the top with red calla lily like blossoms....stunning....I was thrilled to win (most of the cuttings I threw out after the show rather than transport them home again...things that could be rooted we shared with one another).

This award of merit was for the large perfect leaf from my Tropicana canna lily. This canna is grown mainly for it spectacular foliage which is yellow, lime green and green bordered with red edge. Again...I was smiling ear to ear...!!!

Chamomile Tea and the Garden & my camera

2011-04-12T12:33:00.000-05:00

The flowers are blooming faster than I thought possible. Every thing's brown then wham...not anymore! There are small citrus, peach and pear fruit on the trees. We're already picking mulberries and loquats. My small creole garlic is turning brown already. So, I pulled one up to discover a perfect garlic bulb with a rosy tinge...the lettuce, greens, and turnips are bolting...I'll save the seed. The beans and pea plants are getting tall....loving it.

My Moonglow Iris...

...they do glow in the moonlight!

...I've had a terrible respiratory infection....despite...I went outside to pick some chamomile flowers...

....I plan to make chamomile tea with them....I love chamomile tea at night. It does make me drowsy and I love it's naturally sweet honey flavor. It doesn't need any sweeteners at all.....I'm so excited about brewing my first cup of homegrown chamomile. I planted it last fall. I'm not sure how it will fare in the long run in our hot humid climate...but it did just fine even during the frosty snaps this winter. I'll save some seed for planting in case the plant doesn't make it.

My garlic bed runneth over!!!! I plan to dry much of it.

Bachelor buttons, kale flowers, and bean poles.

More on Chamomile

Leslie asked "...exactly what kind of camera do you use?" I use a Nikon D40. It's actually my husbands...which I gave him a hard time about buying. He loves to point this out when I use the camera. I love this camera....I do a lot of cropping....but very very rarely any color adjustment. I find taking pictures in the morning, evening or when it is overcast gives the best color. I never use flash if I can help it....I just hate the way flash makes things look....Never regretted buying this camera...I just won't admit it to Byron!

Around The House And Gardens

2011-03-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

Yeah....It's Spring....and there is sssoooo much to do....Here's Delta napping with her favorite pink raccoon.

Lettuce, carrots, and radishes for today's salad.

Black Knight Sweet Peas

Butter Nut squash coming up.....

...a small artichoke bud barely peeking out....

....cucumbers sprouting....

...today's harvest....

...bachelor buttons...

....a bento style picnic lunch for the girls....

....light fluffy yummy sub rolls fresh from the oven...I'll share this recipe soon....

...the beautiful days are to blame for dishes being in the sink at noon....I'd rather be outside...so house work will just have to wait until tonight...

Property In Mississippi

2011-03-22T08:54:00.000-05:00

Byron and I have been looking to purchase property for a while now...finally we found it....the piece we had been looking for...a wild overgrown 21 acre place in Mississippi...that had been basically clear cut about eight years ago.

It was really an eye opener when we started looking for land. The majority of the land we looked at had been clear cut or abused in some way. It seemed as if most owners didn't appreciate the land for what it was...or could be...it appeared to be about how much money they could get from the land through cutting the trees down...or selling its mineral resources...most of the land was ugly...abused...or raped seems like a fitting word. Even when selling the land they all wanted to hang on to the mineral rights in case there was some big find (like they hadn't already tried)....I wanted the mineral rights so I could prevent huge industrial tracks on our land once I began laying out the permaculture food forest.

I wanted to buy an ugly clear cut piece of property and "heal" it. Byron wanted to find a cultivated cared for piece of land and add our own plans to it....This is our compromise! I'm glad he partially got his way....Guess I'm too optimistic at times...Anyway...

I really love the piece we bought and I can't wait to cut through the brambles and discover all of it's surprises...good....or bad! We plan to leave part of it wild with gentle changes for improvement. A few acres will be planted with a food forest. Eventually we would like to have a small cabin.

There is a sixteen foot flood wall going up north of my current home which totally excludes myself and many neighborhoods from the Federal flood protection projects that are going on. The government assures us that they will take care of us and we shouldn't care so much about their insane plans...snort...(that's me laughing in a cynical way).

I really hope their plans work...but nature doesn't work very well with those who try to thwart it and not work with it. Instead of stopping the practices that are destroying the wet lands they are going to try to contain the Gulf with a sixteen foot concrete wall. So this piece of property will also be an above sea level stopping off point if Katrina happens again....and beyond all that....I was born in Mississippi and always wanted a piece of property there....So....look for future posts on our Mississippi Permaculture food forest progress!!!

There is an old logging road that runs through the length of the property....and the trees are really getting quite tall....some areas need thinning...

...there are some tall pines on the property and a few oaks...

...the logging road is like a animal super highway....I guess they like to walk without being scratched by brush as well...this is a deer track...

...Byron explained to me that this is a buck track, you can tell by the two "toenail" type marks in the front...

...there are many cat tracks...every time we go there are fresh cat tracks....and this is a big cat. These marks are at least 3 1/2 to 4 inches wide. I am going to measure them next time I go. Bobcat? Panther? They say Panthers are extinct in Mississippi, but the locals say, "Not So". Maybe a game camera along the trail will tell the tale.

We must have startled this deer when we pulled up. See how sharp the crumbs are around the track, and it's still wet in the track even though the sun was hot that day.

...OK help....what kind of track is this?

...Another view along the logging road...

...this is a grassy clearing at the top of the hill on the property...it makes me wonder if maybe someone lived here before...or was there once an oil rig here?

...we stumbled across this stream of water. The brush was too thick to follow it far. I'm anxious to find out what it's source is...is it a seasonal stream...is it always there? The ditch it flows through is pretty deep and it meanders over an old road and continues flowing on the neighbor's property...

I can't wait to find out what types of trees, foliage and flowers are growing on the property and identify them. Here are a few of them. Let me know if you know what these are...

...I think this is a dogwood....

....I think this is Carolina Jasmine, there is quite a bit of it scattered around. I also saw some rose canes with a few tiny pink roses on them.

...this is pink buds about to bloom on a tree...what kinda tree? Don't know.

While walking a trail along the fence line we encountered some young cows. They looked at us, seemed to confer, then deemed us dangerous, and hurriedly trotted off while looking over their shoulders...we laughed...it reminded us of our girls when some strange person comes down the drive...they all run straight home...smart girls.

...these horses however trotted right over and wanted their heads scratched and their necks rubbed...I think they thought we might have good candy...

Tera's 15 & Garden Stuff

2011-03-15T11:50:00.000-05:00

I cannot write this blog post without saying I am thinking about Japan...Praying for the people in Japan....We went through Hurricane Katrina and St. Bernard and part of Plaquemines looked just like the tsunami hit areas of Japan.....

...but.....we had warning.....days ahead we knew it was coming.....authorities begged begged begged people to leave....and they still wouldn't.....Japan had no warning. There are warnings going out now about other things. You know there are ways and things that you need to change in your life....Don't make people beg you...if they have to beg you probably will not listen to good sense anyway........

My daughter turned 15 this month, and it's scary what a little woman she is turning into. Quite capable and confident would be two words to describe Tera. Attributes that make me proud. They'll take her far in life.....

Louisiana strawberries are in season....Yeah! So a Happy Birthday Strawberry Shortcake was in order....Yum.

Talia and I anticipating the local strawberries and fresh made whip cream ....mmmmmm

This picture is for my sister Monique. See how wonderful Dad is doing. My Father had a severe stroke almost a year ago. Physically he is fine, but he now has aphasia. Aphasia is very hard for the family and more so for the victim. My Father doesn't have the spirit of a victim....He is an over comer...he tackles his speech therapy with the same spirit of fight that he tackled the many problems that came his way in every season of his life. I like to think I got my spunk from him....but my good looks from my Mom! -Smile- Everyday he is communicating with more and more words. I love you Daddy.

Spring cleaning in the garden is underway. I'm cutting back all the dead tropical plants. I didn't want to do it too soon because the leaves protect the roots from any way ward frosts.....

A big ship making a lot of noise all night anchored behind the house. Crew boats are noisy...arghh

This morning the greens are in the solar oven and the fish will be soon....the temp is already almost 300 in the oven...I love my solar oven...it keeps the heat out of the house durning the summer.

This chickens are laying terrific numbers of eggs again....To me eggs are beautiful...

...inside of one of the red cabbages I grew...look how tightly packed it is...

...these two beds are just full of goodness....beet greens, turnip greens, (The roots have been in the ground and are too tough to eat at this point. I am leaving them there for the leaves and seeds.) Four types of garlic, romaine lettuce, radishes, and the plant I am so excited about....chamomile...this is my first year growing it....and....

.....it's making buds!!!!!! YEAAAAAA!!!! I love chamomile tea!

Around The House And Gardens

2011-03-03T08:35:00.000-06:00

I woke up and it was Spring! It seemed like overnight everything started budding and turning green...70 degree weather and warm breezes, swamp flies or mosquito hawks or whatever they are that people call them...hundreds...thousands...maybe millions of them started bumbling around the lawn and into the house...scaring Talia...and announcing...HEY!!! It's getting warmer!!!........AND YOU BETTER GET BUSY!!!!......

I harvested the last of my cabbage. There are still plenty of carrots. This is my first try at purple cabbage. They got off to a slow start at first. My chickens attacked them. I've come to the conclusion that chickens prefer purple cabbage. They left my green cabbage alone and only attacked the purple ornamental and edible cabbages. The cabbages over all were truly beautiful this year and very very very Sweet.

....Close up....see the tiny Thumbelina carrots....

....This is my very most favorite hand tool....luv luv luv...I bought it on vacation last year when I visited Baker's Creek Heirloom seed...it is a piece from a cultivator plow that has been welded to a handle..chops up anything....I use it to dig out grass clumps. It's the best for our stubborn deep grasses. Also it makes short work of chopping through the thick cabbage stems to harvest them....but be careful...I've cut myself pretty bad with it...

...Josie checking out all the flowering winter veggies....

....peach tree blossom....

....pear tree blossoms.....

....Mulberry tree blossoms...so Yum!...The berries, not sure about the blossoms...but anticipating those berries....

...The still mostly bare trees reveal all the multitude of bird and squirrel nests in the trees....

....New fig leaves....

...new citrus leaves....

....another view of the flowering winter veggies....gonna save some seed......

....rusty Fleur Di Lis tucked in the clouds of flowers....

....first bachelor button blossom of the year.....

.....onions.....Kale in the back....oh yes it's flowering too....

....the artichokes re-emerging...collards in the back...purple Japanese mustard in the front....

....this is so delightful....my windmill palm is putting out flower stalks...Tropicals are so vibrant...the pink is a lorapetalum blooming in the back, it makes a fringe shaped flower and turns the purple bush to glowing pink in the spring...it's also called plum delight...very easy to find in garden centers....

....traditionally planted potatoes....beautiful.....

....enjoy the warm breezes...and run from the mosquitoes!

Take a walk with me....

2011-02-15T13:01:00.000-06:00

...along the mighty Mississippi. My home is on the Mississippi river. When a day dawns this beautiful, I can't resist a walk along the levee to soak up the rare winter sunshine and see whats up. It's so warm today that sandals are just fine to wear....I brought my walking pole just incase I see any coyotes or mean stray dogs....

...this ship is just outside my window....

....the citrus orchards are picked clean....

...sigh...clearing out the woods for a new home....I know it's necessary...but...at least they didn't clear everything...

...that gully is usually full of water....It'll make a great path out to the rocks....

....so still and pretty....

...not for long....here comes a crew boat heading out towards the gulf....

....wow....I think this is the lowest I've ever seen the river....

....you can actually see the sand....

...it's hard to imagine that once the snow starts melting up north the river will reach near the top of the levee....maybe 14 to 16 feet higher?...I have a healthy respect for the strength of the Mississippi...even when it's low...

...can't resist...I've just got to draw something in the sand with my walking pole...hmmm...a graceful bird perched on a delicate twig...

....these look like river pebbles...but when I pick them up...they're really balls of very fine silty clay...wow...I wonder if you could use it to make pottery?...

...see them...don't they look like pebbles...

...ha....coyote tracks....we heard them howling the other night...I gues this one was checking out the sandbar...

...looks like water's been dripping...

...hmmm...dew from the overhanging trees....

....a whole slab of that silty clay stuff out on the sandbar...

...I've never seen this before...it looks like it grew from a vine in the tree...I'll have to look this up...

...this clear area for the pipeline makes a great place to approach the river...

...someone has made a trail through the woods here....I like to follow it....

...whats in this huge old stump?...nothing....interesting anyway...

...there are very old brick fragments everywhere....they look handformed...I wonder what used to be here...I wonder if this old stump was once a beautiful oak planted by a home made of these bricks...or maybe these bricks were part of industry along the river once...the willow leaves seem to be flowing around the brick fragments...

...up there...a coast guard helicopter....

...looks like some citrus left on that tree....

....four ships anchored...I noticed they are anchored further out in the river than they usually are....must be because the river is so low...

...looks like a push boat and a fuel barge....must be going to fuel up a ship....

....things are slowly turning green again...the wildflowers are peeping out...

...the neighbor's palm farm is so pretty...and they are getting really big....

...back home again...wow...my neighbor works so hard...his tree nursery is really pretty...I just wish he'd cut back on the chemicals...

...I've been seeing these little yellow bellied birds chirping in the trees lately....they're really friendly...

...that was fun.

Wellllll....I was going to...

2011-02-14T12:45:00.000-06:00

........tell you about my wonderful idea to avoid buying anything new unless reeeeealllly necessary. Then, my husband does this.........................................

............Yes, he does. He spoils me rotten. All of the time......... He doesn't always spoil me by buying me stuff....but in other ways....like when he makes me coffee every morning and makes sure I take my medicine. Taking the medicine is a little nicer when he brings it to me. I hate taking medicine.

Or when he unloads the dishwasher before going to work in the morning, or when he gathers up the dirty clothes and brings them to the laundry room, or when he pulls all of the dead pepper plants, egg plants, and okra plants out of the garden for me, or when he figures out how to do the crazy idea for the garden I came up with....you get it............Thank you Byron for my wonderful Valentine presents. I Love You!

...I'll never have to buy those overpriced monstrous plastic razors with a zillion edges again. I have my very own non disposable razor....sigh.....I love it. Yes, The straight razor is Byron's, and he's becoming quite a pro at using it.....um yes....he did have a bunch of nicks and one pretty serious cut....the price of manliness :-). I'm delighted with both of these.....Find someone to hug today.

Around The House And Gardens

2011-01-27T08:06:00.000-06:00

The carrots are coming in...very sweet and beautiful, there are red, purple, yellow and orange varieties.

I decided to put my seedling stand in my bedroom. I'm running out of room! Time to de-clutter. Hopefully I can find homes for items that need to go. I have given myself a new challenge this year....more about that later.

All of the tomato seedlings are up and a few eggplant. No sign of the peppers yet.

The chickies are finally laying again. Boy I've missed those eggs. I bought eggs around Christmas time. Other than that we've just done without. It does bring new appreciation to these eggs....

My friend Beppi gave me some fabric she found at a thrift store. She thought I could make some aprons from it....oh yes, you bet I can Beppi!!! I love these fabrics. They're so 60ish maybe? The rose print reminds me of some pictures of little girl dresses from that era...reminds me of my sisters Terri and Melba.

Little short dresses...hair in piggies with fluffy yarn bows...knee boots...and freezing booties!!! Personal memories from my Sister Terri. She said my Mom dressed them in shorter dresses because they looked so cute...Terri just remembers her booty freezing! Maybe that's why my sister Melba stood so close to the gas heater when she was little and melted and shrunk the backside of her synthetic dress!!!...hee hee hee

Close up....Lovely....

I'm trying to be patient....Spring come soon!

Sessie's Minnies

2011-01-26T11:22:00.000-06:00

Sessie (my middle daughter) loves nature. Often I find little odd nature items tucked away here and there. I've chased more than one acorn that fell out of her pocket around the round tub of my washing machine.

Recently she's used these items and lots of hot glue :-) to create these adorable birds. Seleste purposely goes on walks and picks up interesting items then tries to make them into something. She has such a talent for seeing what an item can be. We are truly made in Gods image, and the creator part of it is manifested in Sessie's adorable little critters.

I also threw in a pic of a precious clay rabbit and veggies Sess made in Art.

Humming Bird

Goose?

Penguin? (I love the body. It's made from a Polyphemus Moth cocoon.)

Rabbit

Owl

1920's Apron

2011-01-17T14:31:00.000-06:00

My Sister bought me the book "Vintage Notions" by Amy Barickman. It's a tribute to Mary Brooks Picken and "The Women's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences" which she helped found.

It's a wonderful collection of articles, recipes, advice and patterns dating from around 1918 to the 1930's. The books is such a fun read. Lot's of this and that making it really easy to hop here to there in the book.

When I found this 1920's apron pattern I couldn't wait to try it. So I bought some inexpensive bright feminine fabric and a happy contrasting bias tape....and hopped right in. It's made from a yard of fabric folded on the bias and cut out paper doll fashion. All edges are bound with the bias tape. Then ties are sewn and attached...then voila!!!...cute little slip over apron!

Seleste agreed to model for me....umm...it's a little...no a lot large...but you get the idea!

...a little overlapping bow....

...scalloped bottom edge....

...I want to do this again!!!

Lately...

2011-01-15T15:28:00.000-06:00

There have been so many thoughts going on in my head lately....maybe...just maybe...I'll write them here soon...but here are a few pictures of things from my life lately....and a recipe....

Byron knocked on the door and I answered to find him standing there holding a very agitated rooster. I looked at him inquiringly.....He just wanted to show me how pretty the rooster was getting....Byron loves animals and that makes me happy...

....a close up of Mr. Rooster...

Byron bought me an easel for Christmas....I think he's not so subtly urging me to start painting again!!! I do believe I will....and soon....I propped up a sketch I quickly did recently on it....Talia informed me, "I Luuuoove it!", and "Please!!! Can I have it!!!!" That makes me smile.

Yes, I am going to start painting and drawing again. Really, I can't help but draw...I can no more resist a piece of paper and pencil or pen placed in front of me than....well....I don't know...No more than something anyway!

Seleste noticed some of the potatoes sprouting, so I told her how when we were kids we used to prop them up above water using toothpicks and let them grow in a window....I returned to find....Not one, but this.....

It's planting time here. I just finished planting eight varieties of tomatoes, eight varieties of peppers, and four varieties of eggplant. Byron and I planted the Irish potatoes outside as well.

These are the varieties we planted. Really, It's planting time here!

This morning Byron made these yummy bagel sandwiches for breakfast. See those beautiful navel oranges in the background? I must say these are the juiciest sweetest oranges I've ever had, and they're right off our tree!

...Anyway....I want to give you the recipe for this breakfast sausage. It's yummier and less greasy than other sausages and you can make it a lot cheaper. I used pork rump roast. I think it's also called Boston butt...anyway you use ground pork. I ground the pork myself. The meat cost $1.89 a pound and that's not on sale. When our local store puts it on sale it's around $1.29 a pound. Jimmy Dean at our local stores cost anywhere from $2.98 a pound to almost $4.00 a pound.

Making this yourself and freezing it in 1 pound packages can save you quite a bit. It you buy the meat on sale you can save anywhere from $1.69 to $2.69 or so a pound....hmmm....pretty significant. I got the recipe off of the Internet somewhere and just jotted it down instead of printing, so I'm not really sure where I found it. Here it is anyway....

Yummy Breakfast Sausage

2 lbs ground pork (you can use 1/2 venison or wild pig as well)

2 tsp Dried Sage

2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Marjoram

1 tblsp Brown Sugar

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I more than double this because we like spicy!)

1 pinch Ground Cloves

Mix it all up real good. Use what you want and freeze the rest.

We like to use it in breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, white gravy, and dressings. You can use it anyway you use a Jimmy Dean type sausage. Try it. I know you'll be surprised.

The Winter Garden and This Year....

2011-01-05T08:57:00.000-06:00

This year I hope you decide to grow something for yourself....maybe some herbs outside the kitchen door or a five gallon bucket with some cherry tomatoes or a tray of salad greens or maybe you will decide to plant a fruit tree in the landscape....Each time I walk in the garden there is a new surprise...a new lesson....a new disappointment...yes disappointment...everything doesn't work...often I try something several times before I am successful with it....all those disappointments make the delight of success many times greater!!!

Cabbages are one of those things. I've got growing these babies down pat now! I think.....or I hope!

This is the ornamental ones from the front garden. Their bright dots of cheer stand out among all of the dead foliage. We've had a freeze (very odd) already and the tropicals are dreary shades of grey and brown. They'll have to stay there and protect the roots until spring when I prune away all the ugliness and the new bright foliage emerges. Grey and wet, that's the best way to describe our winter. Thank God for the garden.

Lots of citrus still on the trees. We pick as we need it. The fruit keeps much better on the trees.

All of my garlic is up and growing....

The kumquats didn't fare very well in the recent freeze...so much for the predicted mild winter :-)

Broccoli!

....this is an example of delight after many disappointments. I have never successfully grown Brussels sprouts. Here is my first semblance of success. I cannot tell you how delighted I was to see this.

My first try at red cabbages got off to a disappointing start. They were attacked viciously by something...well attacked hungrily by something is more accurate. I believe the vicious or hungry attackers were my chickens!

...and here is Delta modeling my very finished first afghan. It's more of a lap blanket size. Very time consuming...and heavy...and warm.....

....REALLY! You ought to grow something this year!

I Hope...

2010-12-28T22:48:00.000-06:00

...Your Christmas....

...was filled with friends and family....

...Sharing love and traditions....

...companionship and joy...

...advice and secrets...

...abundance to give...

...simple pleasure of just being and working together....

...experimentation and something new...

...pride in accomplishment...

...and unbearable cuteness!!! (our Delta's growing)

Our Italian fig cookies were made at Grandma Rivero's house and the recipe was similar to this one Italian Fig Cookies.

When my Mother-In-Law was a very very young mother (17 years old) she lived on a street with quite a few Italian families. My Father-In-Law worked on tug boats which kept him away from home most of the time. Her Italian neighbors thought she was widowed and began to call her the "little widow". They took her under their wing and shared their wonderful food with her and how to make it.

These cookies were made at Christmas time and for St. Joseph's altars. All of the ingredients for the altar had to be begged for door to door. All of the ladies got together and made huge batches of these cookies. Each lady having their own responsibility.

One day my Father-In-Law was home and all of the ladies were delighted to see the little widow "had a boyfriend". Eventually they were learned that this was her husband and even many years later they laughed about the young "little widow".

Our filling included:

raisins

dates

figs

pecans

walnuts

orange peel

nutmeg

cinnamon

allspice

Steen's cane syrup

If allowed to dry a couple of days and then sealed, these cookies last up to a year!

...oh yes, I like them dripping with icing and covered in those adorable dots.

This Saturday's Wedding

2010-12-13T09:03:00.000-06:00

I so enjoyed doing the flowers for this Saturday's wedding...I love the delicate ultra feminine look...here is a pic of the filled silver tussie mussies the mothers carried....sweet...

The bridal bouquet was a teardrop of blue hydrangeas and white roses...um....um....I am so ready for the strapless look to exit the wedding scene...it's been ten years!!!...arghhhhhhh....something different please designers....designers?.....designers?....are you listening to me?!...anyway the bride was beautiful....

...the bridesmaids carried a swanky arm bouquet of callas and peacock feathers wrapped in gold ribbon...it reminds me of the '20's for some reason.....really like them....especially since it is a departure from the round pave' bridesmaid bouquet look....

This is the bride's son....he was an adorable stinker....I overheard this conversation....

...between him and this little girl....boy, "...I hate all this..", little girl.." you bettah not say dat...you remembah what ya mamah said huh?...Let's go have a convahsation?!" ...hmmm? I guess his mammah had been having some convincing conversations about proper wedding behavior! Oh, too cute....I adore, adore, adore, children in weddings......

...making sure the musician has his equipment set up and in working order before the wedding begins...

Simple delicate cake topper....I love this location for weddings...It's a shabby chic plantation home and an old church...The weddings take place in the house or the grounds and the reception in the church...huh?...but I love it!

...the giant old palms and cypress trees are breath taking...Looks like the groom is saying..."c'mon guys line up!"

...this is the front of the home. These old plantation homes were designed to be seen from the Mississippi river when they were built long ago. Now the levee blocks the view of the river, and the back of the house faces to highway. If you climb to the top of the levee you can imagine how beautiful the view of the plantation homes must have been from the deck of a steamboat.

This particular home "Woodland Plantation" has the particular fame of being the home featured on the Southern Comfort bottle...

...there's also a beautiful swampy area complete with gators and snakes...ha ha...no really...there are gators and snakes....did I mention this place is kid friendly?...

...the ceremony area presided over by a great old Louisiana bald cypress...

...and a simple bouquet of blue hydrangeas to adorn the church....

Click here to see other wedding flowers I've done.

This Amazes Me

2010-12-09T09:56:00.000-06:00

It's amazing how much food that can be grown with part time effort. All of this is from my garden! Much of it was grown with minimal effort.

The citrus was as simple as planting a tree in the spring, giving it a little water every now and then during dry spells the first year, watering it during any extended dry spells the next year, spreading a little composted chicken manure around it twice a year, and when black soot appeared giving it a spray of neem tree oil once a week several times at twilight....and now....a beautiful tree that gives abundant fruit chock full of nutrition and goodness!!!! I would encourage anyone to try it...

So much idle ground being mowed, trimmed, treated and fed...taking up time, effort, and money....why? Your land has so much to give you...plant a seed....a tree....a plant......and let it give......

Green beans from the garden...(the frost last night has just about killed them....but oh what bounty while they lasted!)

...dried chili peppers ready to crush...

....PECANS! (I have twelve gallons of pecan meat in the freezer right now. I plan to make praline pecans as presents to teachers and friends....super yum...I'll post the recipe later.)

Pickled Cauliflower and canned green beans from the garden. Super juicy yummy sweet grapefruit and navel oranges from the trees....

Green onions, green peppers, green cucumbers, and yes...potatoes!!! From the towers...I must recommend the towers...I'll tell more later. There's my compost bucket. I never chop anything without having my bucket ready....those are stalks of dried basil seed I need to save....

Summer stuffed artichokes from the freezer warming up.....

...and a very sweet and crisp cabbage freshly picked from the garden...

....my Mother-in-law and I made the most delicious venison sausage from two large roasts a cousin gave us. This is soooo delicious...It is mixed with ground pork 1/2 and 1/2. After figuring all of our expenses we estimated the cost to be $1.05 a pound....compare that to $3.89 that a local grocery charges for a similar product.

...there's plenty to store and plenty share...

....value the land....be nice to the land...and It'll will give to you....

Recent Harvest

2010-11-29T10:51:00.001-06:00

68 and 12 years and canning and...

2010-11-19T12:23:00.000-06:00

cooking cauliflower, and baking bread, and all other kinds of good things. It's been a good week. My two beautiful cauliflowers were large enough to supply one breakfast, one side for dinner and six pints of pickles.

Byron loves to saute cauliflower florets lightly in a little butter, salt and pepper. He then adds some eggs and scrambles them in the cauliflower and tops with an Italian cheese mix. This is good eatin' in the morning according to Byron. I doubtfully took a nibble off of his plate not expecting much...I cleaned the rest up...yummmmm

Here are store bought carrots, home grown cauliflower, green chilies and red bell peppers soaking in salt water while I prepared the jars....

Next I boil the jars to sterilize them, and then I put a lid on the pot and reserve the hot water for the canning water bath...

Here are the packed jars waiting to be covered by the seasoned vinegar mixture I have made in another pot...

...after filling the jars with the seasoned vinegar mixture, lidding and capping the jars I processed them in a boiling water canner for ten minutes. Here are the beautiful jars of pickled cauliflower and carrots. My girls just opened one.....yummmmmmmm

For dinner I sauteed the cauliflower in a little butter, sprinkled a little Italian cheese mix on top and served as a side with turkey spaghetti and.....

fresh baked bread. Byron then discovered that the cauliflower tastes great with the turkey tomato sauce on top....maybe I can skip the noodles next time? Hmmm?

My friend Debbie has been teaching me to decorate traditional birthday cake style. My roses were a little droopy because my house was a little to warm. Not too bad though...Fun to do...very fun. This is a carrot cake with cream cheese icing....Seleste's request...and again...yummmmmmm!

This is my Dad's first birthday since his terrible stroke in April. He is 68. We celebrated his and Seleste's birthday together. He always called Seleste one-baby because she was born one day after his birthday. She turned 12..eek.

My heart was so happy to see my Dad enjoying himself and participating like he always used to do. He was teasing the kids, clapping and singing "Happy Birthday". Even though every word he sang wasn't understandable, it was the most beautifully I've ever heard him sing....I love you sooo much Daddy.

Seleste loved all her presents....and Naomi was wondering why she didn't get any presents...it was her birthday too....at least according to Naomi....Naomi you're just the cutest little pumpkin liver ever...I love that little Bootsie Barker...and Seleste...I love you soo much...continue to be the wise little owl that you are!

Life is beautiful and so are turnips...

2010-11-17T15:31:00.000-06:00

...and cabbage and cauliflower and peppers and potato plants and....all veggies...they're just beautiful. Look at them really well....form, line, color, pattern, and....function! Beautiful and useful....sometimes I catch myself just sitting, looking, absorbing and admiring all the beauty of veggie plants....

This a great time of year for planting in south Louisiana. Some summer plants are still producing such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, basil and squash. I even have an Asian silver line and banana melon or two. Until frost hits they'll keep on loving the warm days....

....almost every flower is loving the warm not scorching days and are blooming and blooming....

....there are few pests this time of year. They mostly consist of children (who knocked several large navel oranges out of my tree with the golf cart) the occasional stray caterpillar, and a couple of other bothersome bugs...see the little caterpillar trying to escape my view....squish....

...my second try a tater towers...the others went kaput...I think blight. I'm trying it again using pine straw to fill the towers instead of compost...I will post on the results and whether I think it is worth it or not. This advice should be taken with consideration of my very limited experience in growing potatoes.

These cauliflowers take my breath away. They are so fluid and lovely looking.

The cabbages are forming heads nicely. The lines in cabbage are a thing of beauty as well.

The peppers are still chugging along....

My wagon load of harvest....oh yes... the satsumas are ready. Mine are yummy because I watered them. There was a drought in October. We didn't have rain for eight weeks, so many of the growers locally who didn't irrigate have a very limited crop of citrus this year.

And inside....I have been crocheting these really cute popular headband/ear warmers. They sell downtown in the French Market for $10.00 to $15.00. I plan to sell a few for extra Christmas money and make some for gifts....

...and presenting the newest member of our family.......(drum roll)....DELTA....Isn't she completely adorable...and yes she is as sweet as she looks!!!

The Girls Dressed For The Harvest Party

2010-11-08T12:43:00.000-06:00

My computer finally died and Byron's best efforts at resuscitation failed....So I'm typing at my very new computer. So much has happened since I've last been able to post so.....expect a barrage of unrelated posts...

Here are my girls dressed for the harvest party....An eighties girl complete with working walkman (looks exactly like I did as a teenager)...a Greek princess....and a flower!

....Byron as a cowboy....I love cowboys....