I'm Really Glad We Went for Ice Cream...

Thanks!!!

FILE Magazine for publishing this photo today. :) And thanks to the Mister for taking me for ice cream. It was worth every calorie - for so many reasons. :)

Green, Green and More Green!

I came from a long line of Iowa farmers. My grand-parents were elderly by the time I came along, so I don't have too many memories of them; but one thing I do remember is my Grandpa's garden. Once they left the farm and "moved to town" (a rite of passage and reward for years of back-breaking work), many farmers maintained beautiful gardens in their backyards. I wish I had photographs of my Grandfather's... I see it in my mind as if I were walking thru it today. And the scent of marigolds take me right back. Grandpa always planted them around the perimeter of the garden to keep certain insects away.

So I guess it's not unusual that I enjoy growing things. At one point in my life while living in the foothills of Colorado, I had over 100 indoor plants (including alfalfa and bean sprouts and avocado pits sprouting green "trees" on the kitchen windowsill) and a small garden in front of my house. My guys were little then and really enjoyed helping me harvest (among other things) the green beans, peas and zucchinis; the big orange pumpkins in October were a real hit, too.

Then I moved to town and became limited to container gardening on my porch and deck. And this year - for the first time - my vegetable plants outnumber my flowers ~ by design. Lettuce (which is almost gone and we plan to buy additional plants), green onions, leeks, cucumbers, zucchini, spaghetti squash, pumpkins and tomatoes and hot chili peppers galore. Of course not all are ready to harvest, but as things are ripening, it's so much fun to step on the deck and gather a salad for dinner.

In the interest of keeping things green (literally and figuratively), I remembered a recipe for homemade all natural plant fertilizer my sister shared with me a few years back. Super easy and seems to do the job! So, here's Pat's Plant Fertilizer:

1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. Epsom salts
1/2 tsp. household ammonia
1 gallon luke-warm water

Mix and pour. :) Pat recommends using every 2 weeks.

And it seems to be in the genes. My younger son planted his own "balcony garden" this year for the first time. He went even more green by planting everything from seed!!

Here's to all kinds of green. :)

And Now For Something Completely Different

I actually do other things besides sew all day. ;-)

The mister and I had a craving for guacamole, so on a recent trip to Costco, picked up a bag of avocados. And you know how that goes... it takes a few days for them to ripen and when they do - they are ripe and you'd better move fast! Well, they were definitely ripe yesterday.

Since my son works in our home office on Wednesdays I thought a little guac and chips would be a nice little "happy hour" treat at the end of the day. We even added a Scrabble game in for good measure. Of course he beat the pants off the old folks, but we had a good time anyway!

It's hard to make guacamole look attractive; it is what it is - yummy, but not too pretty! And when I bought the ingredients I misread the recipe so what you see in the photo is a yellow bell pepper, not a yellow onion. Duh. But I did have a yellow onion in the pantry, so saved the yellow pepper for salad tonight. We like our guac chunky so when you get a bite, you really get a bite; I'm sure if you like it smoother that's an option as well.

I have been using the same tired old guac recipe for years, so decided to Google a new one. This is Tyler Florence's version of guacamole and it was indeed yum! The only thing I added were tomatoes, because we like the punch of color and flavor that tomatoes add.

Tyler Florence's Guacamole
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 1 hour
Serves: About 4 cups

6 ripe avocados
3 limes, juiced
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed then minced
2 serrano chiles
1 big handful fresh cilantro, with stems (about 1/2 cup finely chopped)
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper

Halve and pit the avocados; scoop out the flesh into bowl. Mash the avocados using either a fork or potato masher, leaving them a big chunky. Add remaining ingredients and fold everything together. Drizzle with olive oil, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and it one final mix.

Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly and tightly on the surface of the guacamole (a new trick - this keeps it from turning brown!) and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Like I said I added the tomatoes; forgot to drizzle with the olive oil and didn't add pepper because the mister is allergic to it. Of course we didn't refrigerate for an hour - are you kidding? We ate it immediately. Thumbs up from all three of us.

(Oh, and P.S. - the platters in the picture? Both are hand-crafted by artisans in British Columbia! I bought the green fish platter in the quaint little village of Coombs, BC while visiting Vancouver Island last summer. I so love it - and the memories it holds... And the purple one was a gift from my Canadian SIL ~ it was made by an artisan in Nanaimo, BC - also located on the island. They're both special to me.) :)