The frog kettle

Saturday morning....nothing to pick or water. Mr. Hoffman took the dog on a hike. Desi is chasing Tigerlily all over the house. And I seem to have found the time to blog on the frog kettle.

Here it is. Daughter tossed the whistle under the porch, and I haven't retrieved it yet. The lid is still sitting out back with the flower pots. Dave has yet to drill holes in the bottom of this thing. I've never drilled metal, so waiting for him....someday. It belonged to Dave's mom (Lynn), and Dave burned it dry and ruined the finish. I saved it for a planter. It's growing frogs.

A new frog this morning!

July Garden Update

The cucumber hill~

The Pumpkins

Looks like a bumper crop of pumpkin this year. We already have many that look like this, and they are still growing and flowering.

Not everything is doing great. The spaghetti squash leaves a bit to be desired.

The Roma Tomatoes

This will be our first ripe Early Girl.

The beans are producing a meal every 2-3 days now.

And so are the sugar peas.

The onions

The lettuce. Mr. Hoffman doesn't seem to mind the bitterness. My second planting did not take off as expected. I think it may be too hot right now. It's a learning curve for me at this point. I planted more again
The bell peppers are doing well. The hot peppers are not doing so hot. Not sure why. I worry that I over water them, then I worry they are not getting enough. Sometimes these things just take off, with little regard to their care. So, I'm waiting on the hot peppers right now.

The Blackberry Hill

They really belong to our neighbors. We've cut them back to their property. Their back yard is very "natural". I don't see much changing any time soon.

Looks like enough to share this year!

And some of them are already getting ripe. More picking.....I know Mr. Hoffman needs to become more involved when I look at these berries.

The Butternut Squash Hill

Some of the plants are doing very well. And some....well....let's take a look!

A nice healthy summer squash looking specimen. I'm happy with this plant.

Pretty variegated leaves. The plants of this variety all look great.

And this poor thing, looks like the spaghetti squash that I have planted elsewhere.

I went back to Walmart for more of their Burpee seeds. Seems Burpee recalled them. All these plants came from packages called "Butternut". It may be a surprise to see what they really are.

Gabriel April 2003-July 2009 "He left his mark on me"

I look down at my thigh and I see the scar from the recent puncture wounds inflicted by a cat who got freaked by the dog and girl while sitting on my lap. It seems strange to see the scar and cat is gone.

Gabriel. We adopted him before the girl was born from the Hayward CA animal shelter. They have these little rooms you can take the prospective pet into and spend time with it, get to know it, before you take it home. David and Nick picked him out, and then brought me in to meet him. He was a little timid, but warmed up quickly. He had short hair----he was lying!. He appealed to Dave and my boy. I wanted the orange Manx instead. 2 against one....I lost.

So, we did the paper work and took him home. I discovered he had a fondness for mac and cheese, and he had earmites. When we took him back to be fixed, the doc fixed the earmites as well. I surmised he had been born and raised thus far, outside. With us, he was to be an inside kitty. I declined the feline luekemia vaccine because if he was going to get it, he had already contracted it before he came to us.

Nick named him as we were picking out the name of the baby. Baby was to be a girl, so I asked Nick what his favorite boy name was, and he decided on "Gabriel". He grew rather quickly in body, but he stayed a baby in his mind for a very long time. Truthfully, I think he was a bit slow for a cat. I would say that he was too stupid to go outside, he wouldn't last long. Dave called him "Zorro!" because of his black mask. I would say that he wasn't bright enough to be Zorro! and we laughed. Gabriel would forget to swallow when he was petted. Then he would drool. EEwww! He must have been weaned too early. He was my baby before the girl was born. When she arrived, he did his best to reclaim his spot on my chest. I would be holding the baby and him, and before I knew it, he inched the baby to the outside and landed his rightful place in the middle of my person. Before too long, he gave up, and Dave became "his person".

He moved to Minnesota with us, along with his brother Dino. Dino was allowed outside, and met his demise on the farm. I am very glad that I never let Gabriel out. Grandma was not too fond of house cats, but she did seem to enjoy him a bit. I taught him to kiss my chin, and Grandma did not find that trait as endearing as I did. Then he made the move to Oregon with us and claimed Tigerlily for a sister. She did not like him for a very long time. After about a year, you could hear the 2 of them running through the house like a little herd of elephants. After we bought our house in the country, we adopted Roy, our yellow lab. Gabriel and Roy had a few different games they played. Mornings always found Roy on the couch, and Gabriel on the window sill next to him.

Recently, I picked the cat up and discovered he had lost a lot of weight. At his most, Gabriel was 15 lbs. I knew he probably had leukemia, based on his past, and his condition. This is not the first cat I've put down with the disease. Dave and I talked, and we agreed that when he seemed too sick to enjoy life, we would put him down. There was no more game playing with Roy. Desi was not allowed to pick him up. The day came....and we had a Marley-esk burial, and started our own pet cemetery. Desirae knows that "Gabriel died". Tonight she wanted to see him when we were down at the tree, and I inspected the grave. Pets are good for children. They provide an understanding about death in a kinder and gentler way. I explained that Gabriel's spirit left his body. I think she almost gets it.

Throughout my life I've had many cats, and other pets that "have left their mark" on me. There was Shep, my first dog who left a huge scar on my heart. The little black kitten that earned me the nickname "Boo-Hoo Brenda Brown" when she was hit by a car. There was Prince, the first cat I put down. James, who literally left his mark on both Nick and I, both of us have a scar on our thigh. There's the scar on my wrist from Athena. And I imagine these puncture marks from Gabriel will fade in time. I almost wish they wouldn't.

Chicken Stir Fry in Garlic Sauce featuring Peas and Egg plant.

Dinner tonight was really good, so I thought I would share what I did.

I stir fried 2 cups of chicken with 3 cloves minced fresh garlic. (used minced garlic, it has a slight different flavor than crushed). I added a few dashes of soy sauce as it finished cooking and then removed it from the pan and set it aside.

I added 1 onion, chunked

4 stocks of celery chunked

2 cups of pea pods

1 egg plant chunked

to the pan (sprayed with Pam).

I first stir fry the onion and celery for a few minutes then added the peas for a few minutes and then dumped in the eggplant. (different cooking times for different veggies). I also added about 5 cloves of minced garlic. When I was satisfied with how done it was, I added the chicken and made my sauce.

1 c of water with 1 1/2 teaspoons of beef base. I then added 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch and a dash of soy sauce. Poured it into the stir fry. It was a bit thick and kind of salty, so I added my secret ingredient---Apple Juice. I just poured it in....maybe 2/3 cup. Enough to thin out the sauce and cut the saltiness. Served over brown rice.

It was a hit...at least for me. Dave is not so crazy for eggplant. Desi does not eat anything green or resembling a veggie. Her loss, more for me! (joking) .

Salsa

Tomato Mango Salsa

6 diced fresh tomatoes

1/2 large onion, diced

2 minced jalapenos(to taste, we like it hot)

1 diced mango

a lot of minced cilantro

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c vinegar

salt to taste

When in a pinch, I take the jar of Pace and add fresh jalapenos and cilantro. Such a huge difference in the flavor. I also open a can of diced tomatoes and add onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro (lots!) vinegar and salt. Or I chop my own tomatoes (the yummiest) and add the rest of the ingredients.

We love Mexican in every way, shape and form. I have no recipes, I throw stuff together and it works. Mexican is very forgiving. And forget those "packets" of seasonings. I use chili powder, cumin, crushed red pepper, dried cilantro, garlic, and salt. I use tomatoes for moisture. I do use the cans of re fried beans. They are so easy compared to cooking up your own beans (which is not hard at all, and I've done it). Years ago, I lived in the "barrio"(the neighbor hood) and was taught Mexican cooking by some of my neighbors. They used soy sauce in their fajitas! I've never made tamales or tortillas. Tamales look very time consuming, and tortillas are too cheap to justify making them from scratch. Spanish rice....is rice and a jar of salsa. How easy is that??

So, later, for Tami, I'll come up with some recipes. I have a yummy enchilada one I'm thinking of.