Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Great Pumpkin and a blues lovin' squirrel


PUMPKIN 2008
"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" returns for its second year as Richard and I try our gardening skills. This year, we deliberately planted pumpkins and got one very nice pumpkin for our trouble. I don't guess we are ever going to make very effective farmers, given the limited yield of our crop, but in the end, it's all about quality, not quantity.

I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE
The other neat thing that happened today is that we've had a squirrel visiting our feeder. So far, he's been pretty polite about it and is somewhat solitary in his foraging. Today, I discovered the squirrel likes Billie Holiday. I'm working at the kitchen table, doing some ads with the windows wide open and the breeze a blowing. I look up and the squirrel is braving the cats and sitting on the deck right outside the window, listening to Billie Holiday's greatest hits with me. It's nice to know that even rodents have taste in music.

WHAT'S UP, DOC?
Speaking of rodents. I have been remiss in introducing a new member of the family on the blog. Mary has a new Hamster named Doctor Who or "Doc" for short. He is very handsome and has many fine hamster qualities that I get to hear about every evening and often witness over a program called Skype.

SO WHAT'S SKYPE?
Skype is a program that allows you to do video chat over the internet (if both people have webcams). It's really easy to set up, free to dowload from www.skype.com and is free when you are skyping someone else with skype. (You can also use the program to make phone calls to phones instead of computers, but this does cost something). The quality isn't always great, but it's a nice way to talk to someone face to face.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Pepper Lime Chicken

PEPPER LIME CHICKEN

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 teaspoon finely shredded lime peel
1/3 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme or basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
bottled salsa (optional)
lime wedges (optional)

Place chicken breast halves in resealable plastic bag set in a shallow dish. For marinade, stir together lime peel, lime juice, oil, thyme, pepper, salt, and garlic. Pour over chicken; seal bag. Marinade in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat broiler. Drain chicken, reserving marinade. Place chicken on the unheated rack of a broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat about 6 minutes or until golden brown.

Turn chicken and brush lightly with reserved marinade. Discard any remaining marinade. Broil for 6 to 8 minutes more or until chicken is no longer pink (170 ° F)
If desired, serve with salsa and lime wedges.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

The Julia Child of Spring Hill

This is Mary making French Silk Pie. The expression on her face is very much "stop taking pictures of me!" Mary has recently discovered a love for the culinary arts. Tonight for dinner, we had lime-pepper chicken with the pie for dessert. Everything was very tasty. :-)

scenes from the garden

The white Rose of Sharon bushes are blooming, although the red ones haven't started yet.



The Bees are really enjoying the Bee Balm


The garden is starting to bloom and the bees and butterflies are certainly happy about it. Here are some shots of the pretty flowers.