It could not possibly be more beautiful outside, and I am itching to get out there. The other day I planted seeds of zucchini, cherry tomatoes, Brandywine tomatoes, and basil, in paper cups. I have some green beans seeds I may just plant in the soil this afternoon. They aren't hard to get to grow. I ordered seeds from Amazon of butter lettuce and brussels sprouts.
I need to carefully plan a trip to Pike's to get my gardening mojo really going. I started a list on my phone of everything I need.
I have been composting most of the winter, and much to my amazement, I have some really healthy looking volunteer plants that have come up, that I cannot identify. Can you? If so, dorp me a comment. I took this photo a few days ago and these are already about 6 inches high!
Now, these are the veggie scraps that get thrown out a lot around here: asparagus, onion [already seeing those come up], garlic [seeing those too, yay!], brussels sprouts, tomatoes, bananas, potato peels, lemon peels...
Of course, these little plants may not be any of those.
Not a lot going on around here, but let's see...
Lola has been having a lot of peeing issues - like, lots of accidents in the house, excessive water drinking, etc. We finally got her to the vet yesterday and he diagnosed her with a likely bladder infection and gave us some antibiotics for her. Huge pills. Flavored. She gobbles them down. With our last babydog, Coco, we had a horrible time trying to give her medication. She was so tiny [like, 8 lbs.] and her mouth was tiny, and she wouldn't take pills, not even bathed in butter or peanut butter. It was a nightmare. However, 60 lb. Lola is a breeze. Hallelujah!
I say "finally got her to the vet" because we were all set to take her the other day and we postponed the trip because Michael lost his wallet and was in a complete tizzy. He eventually found it, and learned a lesson. That's all I can really say about THAT.
I am reading a terrific book by an author I really like, Susan Meissner, called Stars Over Sunset Boulevard. We recently read another book of hers, Secrets of a Charmed Life, and it was excellent. Mother read the Sunset Boulevard book first, which often happens. She pointed out something we both thought peculiar. One of the main characters is from Alabama. She fixes what's supposedly a typical southern meal, and there are two issues there. One, she fixes succotash. I've never eaten succotash and I've lived in the South my entire life. Two, she shows an Alabama girl eating fried chicken with a knife and fork. Huh?!? Dear Susan Meissner, please don't write Southern characters that do such non-southern things! I've never eaten fried chicken with a knife and fork. Yikes.
I have become an expert maker of pimento cheese, something my mother used to make but I never liked. I like it now. I don't like pimentos, however. It's a texture thing. Ugh. I have learned to drain the pimentos and liquefy them with a hand blender, along with a couple of cloves or garlic and some tabasco. Yes, our pimento cheese has a bit of a kick, y'all. Michael, who spends most evenings out with his friends and is rarely home for dinner these days, will eat my pimento cheese late at night when he comes in. Hallelujah! I can leave his supper on a plate wrapped in foil and he won't nuke it. He wants food that literally you don't have to fix at all - easy food. Hoisting some pimento cheese onto a piece of bread fits the bill. He also likes chicken salad, but I have not mastered that, yet. [My friend LeeAnn gave us some chicken salad a while back and Michael practically licked the bowl clean.]
I have also -- after years of practice -- finally become a fairly decent chili maker. Our chili is different than most, in that we never use tough beans. Only Bush's pinto beans labeled chili beans. There is a crock pot full of chili cooking right now. I chopped up almost an entire onion, and threw in a can of Rotel along with several cloves of garlic. I like to liquefy my tomatoes and Rotel. I also use good ground sirloin.
Yes, I will admit it. I don't like chunks in my food. I liquefy a LOT of stuff around here. Of course, I am feeding my mother who is 82 and has a lot of teeth problems, so she appreciates it. We don't eat a lot of chewy food here or tough meat. We cook "low and slow" too - which is really more tasty, in all honesty. Even if Mom weren't here I would probably cook about the same way.
Below, an old photo I recently unearthed, taken just before Mom and Dad married, late 1956.
