Category Archives: cooking

Oct9

Bam! Look what I made Emeril…

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Last night I made Emeril’s Seafood Mac and Cheese from Everyday Food magazine:

I used shrimp. The hardest part was the roux and it was a bit expensive, but I got to separate it in three containers-one to freeze, one to give away and one for leftovers! It has three cheeses in it-not lowfat except for the milk. I didn’t have the Asian breadcrumbs(panko) or the Creole spices, so I made due with what I had.  I thought stewed tomatoes would go good with this. Pure comfort food!

And here are the one two smallish eggplants that I grew:

I’m a bit fed up with vegetable gardening. I think our garden soil is eroded. We need to add top soil and nutrients to it again. I spent some moola making the Martha Stewart tomato tepees, and the tomatoes were sad. We didn’t water the garden that much, and we could have mulched it more, so those were issues too.

I did feel better yesterday and went food shopping. Not that hungry though. Seems ‘my peeps’ lay off complaining when they hear I want to go to the doctor. Is this a good thing, for my stress level-yes! : ) I’m wondering if I am developing more and more food allergies or sensitivities to food too.

Jay Leno just did a great parody about the debate Wednesday night, pinpointing McCain’s frequent use of ‘my friends’-holding up a ‘Friends’ tv show DVD and asking who the people were on his MySpace page. Obama’s sound bytes mentioned shopping and Delaware-lol-because that is what we do to save paying taxes. : )

Thanks for your comments! I am always thrilled to get them!

Sep30

Did good

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I’ll have to remember to schedule my yearly appts on Tuesdays, as I was in and out of the doctor’s office in 30 minutes-there weren’t any other people in the waiting room! The young woman who checked me out heard about things that were bothering me like the tingling from my back to my front, etc. I wrote stuff down. Got the script for a mammogram. Seems if you get a benign on the biopsy, it’s like starting from scratch again. I’ll have to schedule that. (I hope you caught Oprah today. Christina Applegate was on and talked about early detection as she was only 36 when she found out she had breast cancer. 70% of women who get breast cancer don’t have a family history. So be aware of any change in your breasts, even if you aren’t 40+)

I went in a few stores on the way home- a Hallmark store and then Walmart. I wanted to look at the Halloween things in the Hallmark and got my niece the cute singing  ‘trembling toads’ decoration in the black cauldron special for this year and reduced in price there.  My brother and his family absolutely love Halloween. That’s why we all head there each year.

I also got Sean a birthday card that almost made me cry in the store, but when I tried to read it to his dad, I was a blubbering fool. It mentions about the first heartbeat of his to growing up to be a fine man who is my friend too. That’s how I feel about him too.

I wanted to get some cute cropped pants I saw in a magazine in the doctor’s office that were sold at Walmart, but when I got there, one of the sales gals said they didn’t get Metros in this year. I founds some others. Also wanted some spray paint to freshen up my art desk.

I’ve been cooking more from scratch, thanks to Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine. Last night we had pork and broccoli stir fry which was good, but I’d have to tweak the size of the meat cubes (I cut them too large) and the sauce. Tonight I had herb encrusted Salmon (both recipes from the Sept issue-I think it’s #55) and it was delicious! Also made the tomato and white bean salad. It called for cannellini beans and all I had was butterbeans. They are good too. Bri enjoyed the dinners, plus I am serving some heart healthy meals too. Goes to show I like new recipes, especially if they are quick to get together. That magazine is wonderful.

Aug6

Art and cooking

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Different ideas same background ATCs, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I was looking through stuff as I sorted last week. This week seems to be a bust because of my back issues. The sore spots like to move around, but Advil and the heating pad are my pals. It doesn’t bother my rest, just when I am sitting a lot which isn’t good.
I found a really neat page in a landscape catalog we picked up at the Philadelphia Flower show this year. These are what I made from the one page-all these cards’ backgrounds! I know, my imagination tends to run wild. I loved her eyes in the one image of Clara Bow, so they became the focus of the card. The other lady card is indeed Clara Bow again. She was gorgeous in my opinion.

The Michelangelo prophets are from a Dover Publications sticker book. I used both Isaiah and Jeremiah on my cards then did a google search to find out that Isaiah literally put the fear of God in people and Jeremiah was know as ‘the broken hearted’ prophet. Interesting!
Here is what we had for dinner last night called Frittata Al Tonno.
Frittata Al Tonno
Found it on the Chicken of the Sea website. I wanted to use tuna, and it also has eggs (of course), zucchini, onion, basil and tomatoes-mostly fresh from our garden. The secret was to cover the pan and steam the eggs for about 5 minutes. Both guys asked if it was quiche!
And speaking of eating-on the opposite end of the spectrum, our cute little mop top and bottom moths are cannibals! I found a completely bare stem of milkweed and there was only bits and pieces of a bunch of the critters left on it. Not saying a bird or two didn’t get to them. But I am sure I haven’t seen too many of the moths around.

My mom has loved paperdolls since she’s been a little girl and has collected Tom Tierney (also from Dover Pubs) for many years. Look what Mr. Tierney just came up with, no surprise to me. I’m thinking their clothes can’t be too exciting, maybe Senator Obama’s?

And three cute little girls-two fairly famous-you know who they are (belong to B and A):

and a little girl I found on etsy-on her mom Adrianne’s store:

I photoshopped this a bit. As you can see, I live vicariously through those who have daughters. : ) I’m still hoping for a granddaughter or two someday.

Sean and I are off to BJs Wholesale Club tomorrow. I broke down and bought a membership there. Dangerous-big quantities of things-must buy-!!!!

Jul4

Ka-boom!

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The above is in our driveway. Sean bought a big package of fireworks. It started to rain right as they were finishing up ‘their show’.

And my dinner:

Baby back ribs, coconut shrimp, a little drumstick, red potato salad, tomato with EVOO and fresh basil, green bean salad and cucumber salad. We had brownies for dessert. It would have looked nicer on a pretty plate. After we ate outside (just the 3 of us), it started to drizzle. Mom is over my Uncle Don’s for a few days.

Jun9

June or August?

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The heat got turned on full blast two months too soon! Eek! It’s horrible. We’ve been holed up inside and only venture out after the sun goes down like vampires. Last night, Sean helped me water things, proclaiming that his dear old ma had a lot of flowers. : ) I will say we ate well on Sunday. First we had scrambled eggs and bacon, then Bri ran out (we needed a few things at the store) and picked up a taco pizza-that was yummy. The same place that made the cheesesteak pizza we had a few weeks back. They are a new place nearby, but I think they need to advertise their ‘gourmet’ pizzas. For dinner I had oven roasted red potatoes and pork tenderloin. And to top that off, Sean took me to Brusters and I had a turtle sundae! I’ve been sweating a lot-calories are getting burned, I swear!

Not much else is new. My Uncle Don turns 85 on the 12th and not sure if we will have a get together. There is so much family tension. Mom needs to have her starter replaced. My younger brother usually works on the car, but something is up-I guess he is so busy! I would love him to charge my a/c in the van one of these days. Poor guy!

Hopefully the heat will break by Wednesday. Bri can’t understand why the air has to run so much. It’s midnight and still around 80!

Thanks to Missy for her link to the peony page. It said my peony may need to be reset and divided. Makes sense to me!

May26

Memorial Day

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We had our first barbecue of the season today. First Bri and I had to run down to the store to get the charcoal and meat! Before we went, I had cooked Red Bliss potatoes and some eggs for salad and deviled eggs. Getting everything cooked wasn’t that bad. I even made some ‘ham dogs’ burger meat in the shape of hot dogs as I had bought 12 hot dog rolls. I even cut up fruit for a salad and added a bit of honey to it to give it a little sweetness. Oh, we had corn on the cob too.

Bri planted tomatoes and peppers yesterday and mulched them today. I have to plant the other side with the zucchini and green beans. I am trying a Martha Stewart support approach for the tomatoes-you make a support out of bamboo or sticks in the shape of a tepee and have twine for the tomatoes. Hope it works! We have the tomatoes planted in circles. (Update-just purchased trellis clips, twine and 24-5′ bamboo stakes from 2 different internet stores! Sure beats running around from store to store with the price of gas).

I did make some ATCs, one for Emily’s food challenge (over at Floss Box) and will have to take pictures tomorrow and post them. I did do a little looking for solar lights that change color and found some in the shape of mushrooms, so I ordered them (from Amazon and a lady who bought them liked them a bunch!)

What fun!

Have a pleasant Tuesday!

May22

Pretty things

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I had my Mother’s Day gifts in for a few nights when it was really chilly. It’s in the 50s tonight, so hopefully they’ll be fine. The red one is being shy about blooming, but the yellow one seems to have two plants in one pot-yellow and peach and the flowers are different too! I thought they were pretty enough to share.

I had some chicken tender strips defrosted and was looking for a quick recipe. I wasn’t really in the mood to look as the food photos made my tummy hurt (I’m getting better), but I improvised (green pepper instead of yellow, mandarin oranges instead of navel, bagged salad instead of Arugula) and the guys really liked it! It’s so easy to broil the tenders. I would change the spices a bit, but I do think they tasted better broiled. What a cinch to broil peppers too. I should do it more often.

Got outside between raindrops to plant yellow flowers in the Yucca bed next to the road; Victoria Blue salvia in the woodland garden; and the long looked for Pineapple sage in the pond area. Still some planting to do, but lots more mulching!

Trivia-well-sort of-I saw in my pal Barbara’s blog that her son was doing a walk and the one Dutch word had ‘Avon’ in it. Now not sure if I ever looked this up, but I live in Avondale-Avon meaning ‘river’ and ‘dale’ meaning valley dweller. So this is true as we live in a valley not far from the Brandywine River. : )

Apr27

Chasing my tail!

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Yep, what to do, what to do? Do I continue outside because that’s what I really want to do or clean my house? There’s so much to do in both locations. I did sort through a huge pile of junk mail, but I should have done that Thursday as Friday is recycling day. Now it will be sitting around all week.

My gardens are getting there. We had a cooler day and a little rain last night, so I was able to get to the lilies. There are so many weeds in there, I chopped off a few lilies by mistake. I do that every year!

I got my first iris today! It’s a pretty all white one! A few dianthus are blooming too. We went to Walmart and I must say their flowers and veggies are pretty decent this year and I bought a bunch last night. I planted more dianthus (Sweet William) that are named ‘Diana’ something. The ones from last year are coming along nicely.

Heard brother #2 has been planting a bunch of things at mom’s. This is good, but I use to help her with that. He also found her a nice used bed set (with a double bed) on Craig’s List and they went and looked at it and bought it! She has been sleeping on a twin bed and couldn’t stretch out right. I hope she is sleeping now as she was exhausted getting the room tidied up for the new additions. She is suppose to have a cat scan tomorrow and wants me to go along (I went with her when she had an MRI a few years back and waiting freaked me out a bit as I knew she was in that closed machine all that time). The weather is suppose to be rainy too.

That’s about all the news. I did sit after dinner and make one ATC! I haven’t made one for weeks. Speaking of dinner, I made the Rachael Ray turkey burgers which are so good! All you do is grate a small white onion in the ground turkey and toss in some seasoning like parsley and poultry seasonings. Next you make the patties and roll them around in pecan pieces and instant potato flakes and fry them up!

I am doing a little cross stitch at night. I am trying to finish off a Christmas ornament that I started back in ’05. I have to do birds over one stitch and it’s hard! Plus the design isn’t right at the top, and I can’t figure out why. It’s pretty though.

Apr23

Get out the weed whacker!

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It’s time for me to do a little trimming-actually a lot of trimming. I might as well get the hoe out too! The weather is fab, I’m feeling better good (except for an on and off itchy throat and post nasal), but it’s the spring and everything is blooming and leafing like crazy.This makes me think of Sean. Many of you know Sean is a Geography major with a climatology influence and he’s finishing up a 15 research paper on climate changes in the Northeast. I proof his papers and I learn a lot too. Actually what I proofed last night had to do with how early warming is causing problems with animals and their food chain. The example was saying that chickadee babies eat moths that need to hatch when oaks are blooming which are maturing before they hatch and destroying them and affecting the birds. (I thought it was effect and Sean’s prof says affect). Interesting stuff. He is going to be doing an internship nearby in Delaware at Ashland Nature Center where he volunteered in high school. It’s really pretty there. He tried to get in Longwood Gardens, but they didn’t need anymore interns.

I did make the pasta, arugula and cannellini beans for dinner. It really fills you up, but I was hungry at 6:30 this morning! I had to get a Special K bar then. I have to recommend this yummy peanut butter mix called Better n’ Peanut butter that I purchased at Trader Joe’s the other day. It’s not all peanut butter, but it’s only 2 grams of fat and tastes like roasted peanuts! I had some on whole grain bread this morning. I have to recommend their chocolate meringue drops again-if you love chocolate, these are a good fix!

Here’s a photo of our dinner from last night (with a topping of toasted walnuts):


It needs Parmesan to boost the flavor! Also, don’t overwilt the arugula as it gets stringy. The actual recipe looks like it uses more than I did.

Mar4

The clean up begins

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I was outside raking on Monday. It was close to 60 here and a bit breezy. My circular iris garden was all overgrown with field grass (you’ll see the pear tree in the background which won’t be looking that green this year). I am confessing to you all that I will mulch that garden this year! It would probably save me a ton of work. I have little box hedges around the perimeter of this garden and two or three of them are missing. I think Bri cut them down with the mower! So they will have to be replaced eventually. I also got out most of the old sunflower, zinnia and cosmos stalks next to the irises. I have a big blister from my raking- I should wear work gloves!

Made little turkey meatloaves and oven fried red potatoes-inspired by Everyday Food magazine. Yep, I was thinking about my post below and handled the turkey gingerly. : )

I’m on a roll with ATCs. I made 9 of them in the last few days. Making some gifts helps. Cutting up new books and having pretty papers is also a bonus I received a giftie ATC from Tootie over at <—-Honey Girl Studios (see above).  Tootie has lots of her St Paddy’s and Easter art for sale right now.

I watched the show on the Royals last night. I have to say that I just adore William and Harry. They turned out so nice, their mom would be proud. And I watched them grow up as they are only a few years older than Sean.