Went out to eat lunch on Sunday and drove through a couple of restaurant parking lots looking for a parking spot before we ended up at the Cracker Barrel. For those who haven’t heard of the Cracker Barrel – it’s a restaurant that serves ‘home style’ foods – chicken and dumplings, meat loaf, chicken fried steak, etc.  

BUT – the fun part is the shopping you can do while waiting for your table. WOW – I was on ‘honey look at this’ overload. They had something for everyone – candy, clothes, toys, souvenirs, and the list goes on and on. I mention this only because we were surprised to see they had sugar free maple syrup – just opposite the huge candy display I might add.

Since David was diagnosed with diabetes some 15 years ago – we’ve tried a lot of maple syrups – none of them outstanding . . . until now. We couldn’t resist buying a bottle of the SF syrup and tried it out Monday on some home made pancakes – it was delicious. For the first time – ever – David can enjoy the real maple flavor of syrup on his pancakes and waffles. We plan to stop by the next Cracker Barrel we see and get a couple more bottles of syrup to add to our ‘stash’.

Went to Nancy’s on Tuesday to pick up my Celebrating Home (CH) order. I love going to Nancy’s house – it always makes me feel like I’ve gone ‘home’ – you know that feeling you’d get when – as a kid – you’d walk in the door and everything was cozy and welcoming . . that’s Nancy’s house. Sadly, as we get older those feelings don’t come around as often.. . . . but, back to CH.  I’d not ordered anything from CH before so I was very pleased to find my decorator items to be really high quality. My candlesticks are very sturdy and well made – and the Christmas stand is just too cute. When flipped over it doubles as a chip and dip dish perfect for . . .

Nano’s ‘Sweet-n-Spicey’ Jalapeno Cheese Spread

Nancy is an excellent cook (BTW – she also fixed lunch for us Tuesday) – so a meal at her house is a real treat. She spoiled David this time with his favorite . . . fried shrimp – and in addition, had a delicious new spread for snacking – or as far as I’m concerned – dessert.

She had taken Texas Pepper Works – Candy-Krisp Jalapenos – chopped and blended them into creamed cheese. She did say she added in a little of the liquid they come packed in – and then served them up on Club crackers.    We of course couldn’t help but think about maybe even adding  in some other ingredients, i.e., chopped nuts, water chestnuts, celery, etc. – sky’s the limit on this one.

 Of course while in town, I had to dash to the store before coming home and get a jar for myself and made up half a package of the cream cheese spread for home. While whipping this up decided to add some of the chopped jalapenos in to the macaroni salad I was making for lunch. The salad already has sweet relish in it – so the candied jalapenos wouldn’t clash with the flavor but add just a hint of spicy-hot. Bet that macaroni salad will be even better tomorrow after it’s had a little time to ‘sit’.

Next-Day Macaroni Salad

We enjoyed it with some chicken finger strips, black-eyed peas, and fresh kale.  This salad recipe is based on the macaroni salad served at one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Houston – Gigolo’s – sadly they closed many years ago. 

Macaroni Salad Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked elbow macaroni
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup finely chopped bell pepper
• 2/3 cup finely chopped celery
• 1/3 cup sweet relish (or substitute chopped ‘sweet pickles from dill’ for even more flavor)
• 2 chopped boiled eggs
• 1/2 – 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• salt-pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and chill. This salad will keep in the fridge and seems to get better with each passing day.

If you can’t find   Texas Candy-Krisp Jalapenos  in your area you can order them on line from Amazon from this link – Texas Pepper Works. They are delicious!

Don’t Forget to Laugh

Want to leave you with a smile today. David’s cousin Lyndall sent us this video and it is so funny – particularly to those of us a little further down the road of life. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  (The really funny part starts at about the 1:30 mark.)

After much talk, we decided to get some quotes to have the job professionally done. You’d think with the economy the way it is – people would be glad to have business – not necessarily. However, Wolf came to the house with his crew, measured everything, gave David a blow-by-blow of what he would do (put in a step for me to get from the walk to carport) and what needed to be done before they even started (lots of prep work) and then quoted a price. That’s all it took for us to know we were in way over our heads with this job.

We contracted Wolf to do the work – ‘country style’ with a handshake – and the rest is history. Wolf and his crew – including Wiggy, Henry, Bear  and Meatball  - got the job finished in 2 days of work . . .and a beautiful job it was. So after 12 years of dirt floors, we now have cement in the garage, carport area and the tractor shed! What an incentive to keep everything in order and clean – and I can get into the big freezer without having to stand on a box now that the floor is about 6 inches higher.

Moon and Mars

If you’ve received an email about how Mars will be close to Earth and it will look like we have two moons on Friday night (August 27) – sorry to tell you it’s a hoax. So don’t bother to set the alarm to get up.   Bummer – that would have been pretty cool – until you realize the problems it would cause. If you’d like to read more about this hoax and what effects we would suffer if it ever did happen, visit this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_hoax

Quick Tips

We love yeast rolls but don’t have them very often because we don’t know when to quite eating them. But when I do decide to bake up a batch,  I put them on the back porch in a glass pan covered with plastic wrap and leave them to rise.  (I would never have done this when I lived in the city – but out here it seems the normal thing to do.) 

I spray the underside of the plastic wrap before placing it over the rolls to keep it from sticking to their tops. When I’m ready to bake them, plastic lifts off nice and easy.   I had planned to put up a picture of how nice and brown they looked when they came out of the oven – but, we were so over come with the aroma of hot yeast rolls I totally forgot to take the picture…. see what I mean when I say we have no control. 

I like making things easier to do almost as much as I like saving money  around the house  – that being said here are a few of my most used (and favorite)  kitchen shortcuts and $ savers -

• Before putting food, i.e., bread, pancakes, meat, etc. in a zip bag wrap it in plastic so you can re-use the bag.
• Now, those bags you want to re-use, keep them in the freezer section until you’re ready for them.
• Save zip bags you can’t recycle for stinky bits of garbage, helps keep the kitchen odor down and smelling good. (Keep mine under the sink for quick, easy access.)
• Keep cookie sheets clean by lining them with aluminum foil before you use them, makes for a quick clean-up.  (If you really want to recycle, rinse and keep the foil to use for cleaning your silver flatware or serving pieces.  Get the non-chemical formula here.)
• Clean burned pans by placing 1 Tablespoon of dishwasher detergent in the pan and fill with hot water, let sit over night and almost rinse clean the next morning.
• Making cupcakes, muffins – spritz a quick squirt of spray oil in the bottom of the paper liner, your muffins will release from the paper much easier.
• When baking a covered cheese casserole, spray the underside of the foil with oil and the foil won’t stick when you remove it.

Don’t forget – visit www.ICantBelieveItsSugarFree.com for great recipes.  If you haven’t gotten your copy of Secret Restaurant Recipes AND your bonus cookbooks yet . . .  get it here. 

While moving one of the sprinklers yesterday – saw this huge spider in the maple tree out front. Couldn’t find anything in the spider book that looked like this one – and from looking at it, I would have to guess he must be a couple of inches from top to bottom of legs (maybe more but I’ve got no plans to get close enough to measure). Really creepy looking. I don’t like spiders but think I’ll leave him where he is just to see how much bigger he’ll get.

Our appetites seem to wain when it gets hot – so we’ve been eating cooler meals. Lot’s of salads . . . all kinds. One of my favorites is a regular green salad where you toss in a chopped boiled egg and some bite-sized bits of cold leftover fried chicken tenders . . . top that with some homemade honey mustard sauce and you’re good to go.

Most of the store bought dressings have a ‘artificial’ taste so I make my own honey-mustard dipping sauce and dressing. It’s very easy to make and any leftovers keep covered very well in the fridge.

Honey-Mustard Sauce/Dressing

This recipe makes about 3/4 cup, but you can double or triple it if you need more. And, it’s easy to adjust the flavor.  If you like your dressing a little more sweet or tart – just increase either the amount of honey (sweet)  or mustard (tart)  you add in. (Haven’t found a way yet to make this one sugar-free.)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup mayonnaise (use low-fat if you watching calories)
• 2 Tablespoons mustard
• 2 Tablespoons honey

Mix ingredients together until uniform in color. Enjoy immediately or cover and refrigerate for later.

Smothered Steaks

Have you noticed that when you buy one of the Omaha steak ‘packages’ – yes, you get delicious steaks – but you also get a lot of other stuff you may not particularly want, i.e, franks, potatoes, beef patties. The franks make good hot dogs and I’ve found a way to make the potatoes better, but my problem is with the beef patties. They are not like traditional hamburger meat from the store. It almost seems to me like they take the trimmings from the steaks, process it somehow and then form it into ‘patties’.

We’ve tried grilling some for hamburgers and they just didn’t taste right… let me clarify that, they tasted OK – it was the texture… definitely not what we think a hamburger patty should be. So I tried another fix yesterday and they turned out great. Didn’t have a problem with the texture and the serving size was perfect.

What got me to thinking about fixing them like this was that when Mom and I used to go shopping downtown when I was a child, we’d eat lunch out.   My all time favorite meal was smothered steak, mashed potatoes and cole slaw. Today is Mom’s birthday, so I thought I’d try and recapture a favorite childhood memory with some remembered food. While it wasn’t exactly the same – it was close enough and we enjoyed it immensely.

If you’d like to try this with any Omaha hamburger patties you might have, or if you’d like to try it with your own homemade hamburger patties, here is the recipe:

• 4 Hamburger steaks
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 Package brown gravy mix
• 1/2 Medium-sized onion sliced into rings (or chopped)
• 1 to 1-1/2 Cups water
• 1 Can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• Salt-pepper to taste

1.  Place the oil and hamburger steaks into the skillet and cook over medium heat turning frequently (do not let the meat burn; reduce the heat some if necessary).

2.  About half way through the cooking process add in the the sliced onions, continue to cook, turning  the meat along with the onions.  (The onions will  brown along with the meat. )

3.  Continue to cook until the meat is done.

4.  In a separate bowl, mix together the brown gravy mix, soup and water with a whisk - no lumps allowed (start by using only 1 cup of water).

5.  Pour this mixture over the cooked steaks, add the tablespoon of butter, cover and let simmer over low heat for about another 3-5 minutes. Give the steaks a stir about half-way through.

Note:  If you find the gravy too thick add a little more of the water until you have the consistency you want.

6.  Remove from heat and let steaks rest for about 3 minutes.

7.  Serve with mashed potatoes (my favorite), rice or noodles.

You’ve heard me say how certain things can trigger a fond memory -  and I think food is one of the best triggers. If you’ve got a favorite restaurant food you’ve eaten and  you’d like to be able to eat it at home, get your copy of secret restaurant recipes  . . .  you’ll also get  7 bonus cookbooks  with more great recipes.

 David and I are firm believers in taking vitamins, herbs and supplements like Q-10, Niacin, etc.  – and we’ve seen doctor’s reports that support our taking these supplements.    So when I received this email about asparagus playing a role in curing health problems and diseases,  I knew I had to share it.    But wait – for those doubters out there and  before any  of you read any further, let me say, I don’t have any first hand knowledge of this; I’m just putting it out there for you to read and come to your own conclusions.  And, while you may or may not believe in ‘natural’ cures…. hey – it’s asparagus… we should be eating it anyway.

Note:  We tried the recommended preparation today.  I blended the canned asparagus in my blender/processor and then combined the suggested amount of liquefied asparagus into a small glass of V-8 juice.  The addition didn’t change the flavor or consistency of the juice at all.  David didn’t even complain – and he is very anti-green veggie. 

The email Becky received from her friend is below followed by part of the  ’article’ .  If you want to read the complete article, there is a link at the bottom.  

[ Begin quote ]

THE EMAIL:

My Mom had been taking the full-stalk canned style asparagus that she pureed and she took 4 tablespoons in the morning and 4 tablespoons later in the day. She did this for over a month. She is on chemo pills for Stage 3 lung cancer in the pleural area and her cancer cell count went from 386 down to 125 as of this past week. Her oncologist said she does not need to see him for 3 months.

THE ARTICLE:

Several years ago, I had a man seeking asparagus for a  friend who had cancer. He gave me a photocopied copy of an article, entitled, Asparagus for cancer ‘printed in Cancer News Journal, December 1979. I will share it here, just as it was shared with me: I am a biochemist, and have specialized in the relation of diet to health or over 50 years. Several years ago, I learned of the discovery of Richard R. Vensal, D.D.S. that asparagus might cure cancer. Since then, I have worked with him on his project We have accumulated a number of favorable case histories. Here are a few examples:   [ Read the rest of the article here ]

The party was hosted by Nancy and Lori with Nancy’s daughter – Shalane  – representing the comapny.  (BTW – if you haven’t heard Shalane sing, you’re missing a treat.  Click here to hear a couple of her songs. )  All of the items were very attractive and waaaaay more modern that the antique bowls and casseroles I use, but for now – I’ve got plenty of stuff.   However, the gourmet food was another story.   While all of the mixes sounded delicious – I had to stay away from the sweet ones – we have enough trouble keeping sugar out of David’s diet as it is without putting any more temptations in his way – but I couldn’t help myself – had to order some of their delicious dip and soup mixes.

After much deliberating, and – of course – repeated samplings of the dips on the buffet, I decided to try the Key West Shrimp, the Salsa Ranch, and the BLT which Lori told me was so good I would want to sit down and eat the whole bowl by yourself. Hmmmm – sounds like that one might spell trouble.

Also ordered the Chicken Enchilada Soup Mix… it looked wonderful too. Can’t wait to get my order in.   While perusing the catalog, decided to get a pair of star wall sconces. We want to re-do the guest bath; so I may use those there …. or may end up putting them outside.  They had a rustic look in the photo and if they don’t work in the bath – thought they might look good in the kitchen area on the deck  (maybe next to the bar )  - but we’ll have to wait and see if they can take the weather out there. 

After relaxing and snacking my way through Saturday afternoon – came home to find ‘something’ had breached the lower wire barricade along the fence, dug holes and scattered mulch in almost every bed.   When we first moved up here this was an every day occurrence until David and I put a 2 foot secondary wire fence along the bottom of the existing fence to keep out unwanted night visitors. It had been working really well until this last weekend. 

Today, after hanging out my clothes – don’t you just love that fresh smell? – I checked along the fence to see where that ‘something’ might be getting in. Found one place where the lower wire had been bent back. Don’t know if this is the entry place, but I got some of those plastic tie thing-ees the guys use for bundling wire and put a whole bunch of them along the fence line making the wire as tight to the fence as I could.   Guess I’ll have to wait and see now if that solves the problem. Sure hope so. 

We’re doing some work in the house right now and the den is in chaos. Sometimes you just have to make a few changes to freshen things and get a little perk.

 Plans are to replace the drapes and put some oak paneling on the wall where the windows are -other than that don’t think I’ll tackle anything else there – just start on another room.     

Side note – we are putting radiant barrier behind the paneling to help reflect the afternoon sun since that’s the West side of the house. We had radiant barrier put under the roof when it was replaced and it definitely makes a difference . . . along with the solar screens.

The screens are advertised to cut approximately 80% of the heat with minimal loss of vision.  Another nice thing about them, while you can see out – people outside can’t see in (unless there is a light on in the room.)  And, while some people say they’re not ‘pretty’ and don’t like having their view obscured,  I’ll take a cooler house with lower electric bills any day over ‘pretty’ screens – or worse yet…no screens.

That being said thought I share some of the low-fat recipes we’ve been enjoying.

Pork Tender Loin with Italian Herbs

• Pork tender loin sliced into single serving portions (about 1″ thick)
• Olive Oil
• Garlic power
• Onion Powder
• Italian Seasoning
• Thyme
• Salt
• Pepper

1. In a heavy skillet, heat enough olive oil to very thinly cover the bottom.
2.  Place the tenderloin slices into the pre-heated skillet and then sprinkle them with the spices. You can pretty much season to taste – no set amount or spice . . . and, if you don’t like something …. like garlic – don’t use it.
3. Allow the portions to brown and then turn over.
4. Continue cooking until browned on other side; they’re ready to serve or refrigerate for later.

Fettuccine Alfredo – low fat

A really tasty side dish for the pork tenderloin above is Fettuccine Alfredo – low fat.  This is one of my favorite recipes from the Healthy Homestyle Cookbook  … available from Amazon for under $10.00.   This recipe cuts the calories per serving by about 50% and cuts the fat content from 44g (traditional) to 13g (healthy style).

And, if you’re watching your cholesterol, an original recipe would typically have around 139mg of cholesterol,  while this recipe only has 35mg. Best part, it tastes just as good as the ‘richer ingredient’ version.

You’ll need:

• 12 Ounces fettuccine
• 1 Cup evaporated skim milk
• 1/2 Cup half-and-half
• 2 Tablespoons butter (cut these into small pieces)
• 1-1/2 Cups grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tablespoons snipped fresh chives (green onions work well if you don’t have chives)

1. Cook pasta according to directions.
2. In the meantime, in a medium sized saucepan heat the milk, half-and-half and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted and the liquid is hot (not boiling).
3. Gradually stir in 1-1/4 cups of the Parmesan cheese. Continue to cook (and continue stirring) until the cheese has melted.
4. To this mixture add the cooked and drained pasta. Toss until well coated.
5. Serve by sprinkling some of the remaining Parmesan cheese over the top along with some chives to garnish. (Serves 6)

Leftovers

If you have any leftovers, both of these can be used for other meals. I like to use the leftover meat sliced and stir-fried with broccoli, onions and a little soy sauce. It’s extra good if you have a packet of  Chinese stir-fry seasoning to add in – just adds a little more flavor.

The Fettuccini noodles are really good re-heated and served with shrimp that have been sauteed in butter and garlic.

If you like more ‘sauce’ with your shrimp, give this a try. 

Once you’ve cooked the shrimp,  remove them to plate and to the same pan with the garlic/butter, add a little chicken broth (about 1/2 cup)  along with enough corn starch (1-2 teaspoons) to get the thickness you like.   Cook this sauce over medium-low heat, stirring continuously until thickened. 

You can adjust the sauce recipe to make more sauce if you like, but  be careful – if you add in too much chicken broth and corn starch, you’ll loose that nice buttery-garlic flavor. 

This recipe also works well with sliced chicken breast if you don’t like shrimp.

Update. . . . After a week of light scattered rain showers and some un-cooperative equipment, they got the hay baled. Got a good cut this time – and thought you’d like to see how big the rolls are.

And, don’t forget you can calculate the value of your gold jewelry before you sell it using the free online tools at Gold Coins-Silver Bullion.   Don’t do like a lady we heard about and take your jewelry to the pawn shop and get $7.00 for your 14K gold ring!!  That’s criminal.

You’ve probably seen some of the new paints out there for plastic, vinyl, metal, concrete, etc. and wondered if they work. Well I can’t speak for the metal, concrete paint – but I can say that the Krylon plastic/vinyl paint works very well – and it has a spray head that sprays evenly.

After cleaning the shutters and allowing them to dry, the paint went on smoothly and with no drips. It dried in about half-hour and was ready for another coat. My only complaint – if you can call it that – is that we only found a very limited number of colors to choose from. Only about five or so at our store. You may find more in a larger city.

The shutters were originally dark green but since that color wasn’t available – we opted for red. I might add it was a very bright red, however, after applying it over the ‘green undercoat’ it mellowed out and looked pretty good. We were pleased and now we’ll wait to see how well it performs in the weather.  (Those are my paints on the table, I was in the middle of painting the totem pole when I decided to take the picture.  And, don’t those pink geraniums clash something awful with that red!  They will definitely have to be replaced….)

After re-hanging the clean shutters, the little totem pole I have on the front porch looked bad. So I got out my box of acrylic paints and gave it a freshening up. Did not do a thing to it before painting – didn’t even dust off the spider webs – just painted right over everything.  It was just too hot to fuss over it too much.   Have to say it turned out looking pretty good too.

While I was painting the totem pole, David was painting our target. We both practice target shooting right off the front porch. I’m not nearly as accurate as David but I can hit the big one! 

Peaches…Again

When we planted the peach trees, we planted different varieties so we could have fruit throughout the summer. But…. didn’t know this would mean I’d be fighting crows and squirrels all summer as well. They both just love peaches.

I haven’t put a bird-net over the tree this year (although I have one) but have tried putting net ‘socks’ over the limbs that have peaches about to ripen. These net socks are the plastic mesh bags the popsicles come in. We don’t throw much away and these bags seem to be working so far. It’s taken me all these many years to figure out how to manage the fruit trees, i.e., pruning, feeding, etc. – so I’m hopeful that next year I’ll have all my ducks in a row so that we get lots and lots of peaches.

Even though the harvest this year is a bit skinny, we’ve gotten enough to enjoy some fried pies and fruit salad. Chopped up some fresh peaches along with a cantelope and surprisingly – it was really good.

For those reading this that remember Grandma’s peach trees out on the farm, these peaches taste and smell just like the ones we used to pick all those many years ago. What a wonderful memory! Went looking for a picture I know I have of Grandma with a pail of peaches on her arm…. but sadly couldn’t find it. If I come across it anytime soon, I’ll put it up.

BTW – we’re not having a drought (brown field above), they’ve just cut the hay and will be baling it next day or so.  I hope.

Living where we do there are no lights after dark. Sometimes it is so dark you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face. This makes it perfect for sitting out in our zero-gravity chairs and watching the stars. That’s exactly what we did about 10 o’clock the other night. Hauled the chairs out into the front yard away from the trees and kicked back.   We could see the Big Dipper and the Milky Way – along with millions of other stars. Even saw some ‘shooting stars’ and satellites. We ended up staying out there until almost midnight – and hated to come in but we were both about to fall asleep.   Seems the longer we stayed the darker it got and the more stars we could see. There was a nice breeze and we had our ‘mosquito fans’ running. You’ve probably seen those on TV. We don’t have very many mosquitoes here – not like in Houston where they would just about carry you off .  Don’t know if it was the breeze, the fan or ‘lack of’  but we didn’t get one bite. Can’t wait for another clear night to do it again. Seeing all those stars sure makes you feel small.

Saw a strange site couple of days ago. At first it looked like a large, no it looked huge – plane being towed by a small plane. But have to say I’ve never heard of any airplane being towed while in flight. Called David to come take a look and he thought it must be a mid-air refueling. Whatever it was – it was something we’ve not seen up here . . . and we have seen some peculiar things since we seem to be in a fly-over path for some of the military planes.

The peaches on one tree have all ripened – at one time – and I now have bowls of peaches . . . with the other tree (a different type) also being loaded and getting ripe. Had so many peaches I went on line to see if I could freeze them somehow and maybe use them later.

Found a website that said you could freeze them whole, unwashed.   All you had to do was place the individual peach on a cookie sheet, place them in the freezer until frozen and transfer to a plastic freezer bag. (My freezer won’t hold a cookie sheet so I put them in a meat loaf pan – worked just as well and they didn’t roll anywhere.)  Then when you need some – take them out, run under water or microwave for a few seconds. I’ve got several bags of them frozen – it should be interesting to see how they taste and cook up later on.

Fortunately, freezing them doesn’t do anything to them. You can set a fresh peach next to a frozen peach  and not tell any difference. I thought they might turn dark … but they haven’t. They are hard as rocks though, I’ll have to be careful not to drop on on my foot.

If you haven’t had a chance – visit GoldCoins-SilverBullion.com.      I’ve got the pages up where you can calculate the current market value for your gold jewelry as long as you know the weight and karat. Once you’re on the website, click on the Free Online Tools link.

This is really good especially if you’re planning on selling some of your gold jewelry. You’ll have an idea of the value before you sell it.  One other thought, if you’re selling your gold for scrap – you might want to take the gem stones out before selling or shipping.  Doubt if you’ll get any extra $$ for the gems so why not keep them.

Plan on putting up a couple of new recipes on I Can’t Believe It’s Sugar Free  next few days (time permitting). We’re re-painting the shutters (actually David’s painting – I’m just holding the ladder) on the front of the house and it is a chore to get behind the shrubs to take them down. Back to the recipes – one is for Orange-Ginger Glazed Chicken and the other is for easy Creamed New Potatoes – made without whole milk or cream. The creamed potatoes are delicious and since they don’t use any milk keep a long time in the fridge if you have any leftovers. 

And, don’t forget if you want to enjoy restaurant  food at home without the expensive tab – get your copy of  Secret Restaurant Recipes  and for a limited time get  7 Free Bonus Cookbooks.

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of attending a fish fry at their country place over the Fourth and per usual – everything was out of this world. We sat in lawn chairs out under the trees and just enjoyed the day. It was like a mini-reunion in that all the family living close by came – cousins, their grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc.   You can see there was a lot of visiting going on and it was nice to get caught up with what everyone is doing.  Wasn’t too hot and surprisingly there were no mosquitoes and no flies!

Of course, the food was great – fried fish, chicken, hush puppies, coleslaw, french fries, garden tomatoes, watermelon, two apple cakes . . . and some very interesting cucumber pickles. At first we thought they were pickled beets but after one bite you knew you’d eaten a cucumber – a red cucumber! Judy’s sister – Janice – had made them and they were wonderful. I’d not ever even seen any.  They crunched just like a pickle and tasted faintly of  those little cinnamon red hot candies. I looked the recipe up on the Net and found several variations… all of them lots of work. Don’t think we’ll be having any of those around here. When it comes to cooking, my motto is “quick and easy”.

Saw this beautiful sunset on the way home.

Since Monday was a holiday – I got caught up on picking peaches, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and peas. David kept busy cleaning the goldfish pond pump which is always a bit of a pain but since we planted the Iris plants in the biological filter doesn’t seem we clean it quite as often. The iris plants thrive on the ‘enriched’ pond water.

David also replaced the bakers rack we had on the deck with a barn wood shelf that looks and fits in much better with the rustic look. It’s an old one we bought at auction. It’s kind of wobbly and not exactly square but we like it. It has lots of character along with brands burned on it so it goes well with rest of the stuff out there.

David had to raise the shelf up a little off the floor so that air could circulate and hopefully help keep the rain from puddling under it and rotting the boards. He then screwed it to the deck floor so that it wouldn’t blow over. He used his DeWalt 18V power screwdriver for that – makes quick work of anything. Those battery operated tools (drills, saws, etc.) are really nice for working away from the house where there’s no electricity – but, you need more than one battery. David had a couple of the batteries but one died.    (I’m not so sure it totally died – just wouldn’t hold a charge long enough.)

The 18V batteries are not cheap if you’re out shopping – but we found them online at Amazon.com – DeWalt Batteries for about $65.00 and we got free shipping! What a deal!! That’s a far cry from the $100+ at some of the stores where we priced them. In fact some of the stores were so expensive, we could buy two from Amazon for the price of one store battery. 

The battery arrived yesterday via UPS and is just exactly the same as the higher priced ones at the stores. We’re thrilled. Until we moved to the country, we never did much ordering online but have found that in most cases we can get the exact same item for less money and get free shipping to boot. Nothing wrong with that.

There is a storm in the Gulf (just watched the 10 o’clock news and it’s made landfall) – and it would seem that maybe we’re getting a small part of that storm . . . . the really far northeast part. I do hope we’re able to sneak by without getting any major hurricanes this year. I really don’t like them nor all the damage they do.

Have been busy this week mostly with computer work. Little bit of client work – but major part of the time has been spent putting some pages together for our new site www.goldcoins-silverbullion.com.   

These pages should be helpful because if you want to get an idea of what your jewelry is worth before you sell it - you can input a little  information  – gram weight and karat mark - then hit a ‘get estimate button’ to calculate its estimated gold value. Does all the work and gives you a page with the info ready to print. This way no one can take advantage of you if you take it somewhere to sell because you’ll have an idea of its gold value before you go. Really pushing to get these pages finished by the weekend.

Squeezed in time to make a new cake. I’m not sure what to call it – it’s a caramel-lemon concoction. Uses a regular cake mix (with added pudding), lemon mousse and caramel. It’s served chilled and is very tasty. I’ll be putting the recipe up on I Can’t Believe It’s Sugar Free later this week. Would loved to have made this one sugar free but could only manage part of it being SF by using SF pudding and SF whipped topping. Guess you might say it’s 20% sugar free?

High point of the week was finding a song on YouTube that I’d heard 30+ years ago (YIKES!!  has it been that long?!)  and could only remember one line of the lyrics… “if you should see a red dog running free…”.

The reason I could finally do this was because we just recently were able to get DLS out here.  (YEAH!!)   So now we can listen to music and watch all those videos on line without having to wait for them to download.   Anyway – I ‘googled’ the one and only bit of lyric I could remember and got a couple of hits that eventually lead me to the song. It’s a crazy kind of song – one that sticks in your head ( duh….no kidding – it’s been knocking around in my head for years!) It’s called Abergavenny… which FYI is a city in Wales.   If you’ve got a couple of minutes – give it a listen.