Cucumber salad, anyone?
My dad is really talented when it comes to working with wood. Because of his health, he doesn’t get to do things very often, but every once in a while he will make something. The bluebird houses that he made many years ago for my mom and Nanny were very tired, so he made a few new ones. While he was making theirs, he made one for C & myself.
The ones he built several years ago had a lift-up roof to make it easier to clean out the old nesting material before the bluebirds nested again. The only downside to this was wind. If there was a strong wind, and that is pretty common around here, the roof would lift open and damage the hinge. Eventually the hinge would give and the roof would come off completely. Dad came up with a new design that is pretty ingenious! Take a look…
As you can see, the front “porch” lifts off and the front “door” swings up for easy clean-out, so there is no danger of wind damage! Our house is new, so we don’t have family in it yet, but we have plenty of bluebirds here so hopefully it won’t be long before we have some tenants! Thanks, Dad!
Also, in other exciting news, we have green strawberries! Yay! I know, I shouldn’t be this excited over GREEN strawberries, but that means that RED strawberries can’t be far off, and that is always good news. We also dined on the first 2 little cucumbers from our garden yesterday at lunch. They tasted great and we can’t wait for more.
I hope this is a good week for everyone!
Posted in Gardening, Pets/Animals |
It is now the first of June! This year is really flying by. I wanted everyone to see the progress of our little garden project. The first photo shows the overall bed, and, my, how it has grown. I have already harvested several heads of lettuce, and the cucumbers are not far behind. They are loaded down with blooms and baby cucumbers. I do have a bare spot where the carrots were supposed to be. New planted carrot seeds + hard heavy rains = NO CARROTS! The seeds washed away. I have now resown them, so hopefully we will see evidence soon. The cucumbers are climbing the tomato cages well, as you can see in the second photo. I can’t wait for this certain cucumber salad recipe that I have. I will have 2 of the ingredients freshly grown in my garden, the cukes and the dill. I will pass along that recipe when I have the good stuff ready.
Above are the potato plants. We have added dirt, or “hilled”, them several times. The foliage is beautiful, and so far we have had no problems with bugs, despite absolutely no spraying. Most of the strawberry plants are blooming now even though they are still small. I love to watch things grow and know that my food is safe and delicious to eat!
Posted in Gardening |
Sorry it has been slow blogging the last couple of weeks. C & I have been having major allergy issues and have been really busy. I promise to get back on the wagon very very soon!
Posted in Uncategorized |
I am so happy with the progress in our raised garden bed. The potatoes are growing like crazy. I am putting extra dirt and compost around them every few days and there are still new plants sprouting. The cucumber plants have blooms and baby cucumbers on them, and the sweet pepper plants are starting to bud. The herbs are growing as well as the lettuce. Our strawberries are doing great, too. Even though they are small, they are still getting ready to bloom! We do have a very sad note to add to this, Baby-Cat is no longer with us. Tuesday evening, we found her under the bay window and she was so weak she wouldn’t respond at all. We started feeding her with a dropper and took her into the utility room for safety. She lived until Thursday morning when she died in C’s arms while he was trying to feed her. We have been so sad in losing Baby-C. She was only here for a short time, but we loved her very much. She didn’t look sick at all, so we think that a male cat may have tried to hurt her to get to her mother. Godspeed, Baby-C! We will miss you!
C & I did something last night that neither one of us have ever done. We went to a minor league baseball game. Bowling Green, Kentucky, which is about an hour from where we live, is now home to the Bowling Green Hot Rods Class A team. They are a farm team for the Tampa Bay Rays and this is their first year. The name comes from two sources: Bowling Green is home to the only Corvette factory in the world and Beech Bend Park Race strip is located here. We had noticed the advertisements on TV and C said he wanted to go. I ordered tickets and t-shirts for his birthday.
I have been to a couple of Cincinnati Reds games many years ago and have always enjoyed baseball. I was the only child and grandchild of 2 baseball fans, so instead of being taught softball like most girls, we played baseball in the backyard.
The Hot Rods’ field is really nice. It is a new stadium called simply enough Bowling Green Ballpark.
The game was originally scheduled for 7:05pm against the Charleston Riverdogs, but since Friday’s game was a rain-out, tonight was a double-header with each game being 7 innings. The first game started at 6:05pm and we got there soon after the doors opened at 5:00. It was “Bucket Hat Giveaway Night” sponsored by Crazy Eddie’s Furniture. Of course, we had to do a self-portrait to model our new head gear.
The game started well, with the Hot Rods in the lead until the top of the seventh inning, and then everything started going right for Charleston. The final score ended up being 6-2 in favor of Charleston. It was getting pretty late, so we skipped out on the second game which Bowling Green won 5-4. We had a great time and will definitely being going back. The seats we had were great! We were about 6 rows behind the BG dugout just left of home plate.
The mascot was really cute. His name is Axle the Bear and whoever works in that suit does a super job!
The staff gave away prizes throughout the night. Right above, Axle is throwing t-shirts to the crowd. Some of the other staff used a t-shirt launcher to give them away (C LOVED the t-shirt launcher). All in all, this was great, great fun and I would highly recommend anyone getting away to the ballpark for a game!
Posted in Fun |
It is strawberry time, folks! Here is another recipe (yes, I know, I am addicted to strawberries) that can use either fresh or frozen. The pretzel crust gives it a salty kick to go with the creamy filling and sweet strawberry topping.
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
For Crust:
1 cup pretzels, crushed
1 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
For Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
8 oz. Cool Whip
1/2 cup granulated sugar
For Topping:
1 large box strawberry Jell-O
2 cups boiling water
2 cups cold water
4 cups sliced strawberries (if using frozen, thaw and drain well)
Crust: Place pretzels in a zip-top bag and seal. Crush with a rolling pin. Combine crumbs with melted butter and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Press into a greased 13×9” pan. (Since I was taking it to 2 dinners, I used two 8” pans. It will not be quite as thick.)
Filling: Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in Cool Whip and 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Spread over crusts.
Topping: Prepare Jell-O according to package directions. After 1 1/2 hours of fridge time, stir in the strawberries and spread over the cream cheese layer.
Chill and enjoy!
Posted in Cooking | 1 Comment »
I know I already had a Wordless Wednesday post, but I was so excited with what we accomplished today that I just couldn’t wait. C & I are working on a few landscaping projects this spring. I plan on doing a before and after photo show when these are done, but I had to throw in a few “during” shots. Since rain is expected for the next few days, we were trying to finish up the planting in front of the garage. We leveled the dirt Monday and yesterday, and I had hoped to get the chance to plant today if we could beat the rain. We did!! Also, there was a package on my front porch when I got home from Miller’s Nurseries in New York. Guess what, now I had 25 Tribute strawberry plants as well! Can you believe it…we got it all done! YAY! Here is the proof. The 3rd picture is the strawberry bed.
Picture Perfect Cooking 