Thankful Sunday--August 3, 2014

I am thankful for family and friends.

Some of the family and friends I spent the weekend with.

This weekend I went to a family reunion and caught up with family and friends. A good time was had by all, and I enjoyed three kinds of deviled eggs, played cornhole, and learned that my paternal 4th great grandmother was a famous Indian fighter.

Details, details:

• Not only did I enjoy three kinds of deviled eggs, I had a slice of a Twinkie Cake--chocolate cake with cream filling topped with chocolate icing. I guess it could be more appropriately named, a "Hostess Cupcake Cake" but whatever it was, it was good. :)
• Yes, I did win the cornhole game I played because Ward was my partner. Let's just say that I am a little wild with my throws and not a big scorer.
• My 4th great grandmother was born in England 1761 and after coming to this country she was kidnapped by Indians and all of her children were killed. After a period in captivity, she made it home to her husband. Then she had some more children of which I am descended from. Apparently, she was famous and has been written up in several books, but I had no idea she existed until recently. Now I have stories about my brave grandmother to go with stories about my great, great uncle's moonshine business. (However, I guess that business took a certain kind of bravery too.)

A Second Look--July 30, 2014

Here is what I saw this week during a Second Look.

The majority of the day lilies are done blooming, but some are still providing nice color.

The ever-faithful balloon flower (platycodon).

The hummingbirds sometime perch on the suet cage now instead of hovering all of the time around the feeder. Look how long the beak is on this one.

Salvia

This dove was right outside the cats' favorite window causing them to be quite excited.

Since last week, the last two wren eggs hatched and the chicks are starting to grow feathers.

The butterflies are starting to increase in numbers. Notice the long proboscis on the skipper butterflies on this coneflower.

From L-R: Top Row--Blackeyed Susan, Celosia, Gay Feather,  Bottom Row: Cone Flowers, Little White flowers that I don't know the name of, Coreopsis

Second Look Update

Immature green stink bug

In last week's Second Look post, I showed a picture of a shiny, green insect that I could not identify. Courtesy of What's that Bug, I now know that it was an immature green stink bug. 

If you're not familiar with the What's that Bug website, it's a great place for all of your bug information. One of the highlights is that you can send in a picture or description of a bug and they will try to identify it for you. All the work is done by volunteers, so they don't guarantee that they can handle the volume of questions they get. However, since a friend told me about this website last year, I've sent in three questions and had them answered.

Thankful Sunday--July 27, 2014

I am thankful for these coneflowers.

We have this little patch of dirt between the sidewalk and driveway right outside our garage door. For years, it was grass which slowly turned into weeds, and this year it became a bed for these extra coneflowers. The bed is small and simple, but these pink flowers make me smile every time I go by--which is several times a day. For this small pleasure, I am thankful.

Food Waste Friday & True Food Confessions-Jul. 25, 2014

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions. Occasionally, if our eating is going okay, I'll talk about some other food topic.

This Week's Food Waste

NONE

I had my eye on the prize this week, so I had no food waste. I plan to keep this vigilance up for next week. Wish me luck.

This Week's True Food Confessions

The meals this week were focused on preventing food waste as mentioned above. First, we had some left-over chicken and some yellow zucchini to use. This turned into a zucchini casserole with chicken and a salad. The salad had cherry tomatoes in it that were just starting to shrivel. The zuchinni-chicken meal lasted us for two nights. 

Next, I had some hamburger buns and pizza crust languishing in the fridge. The pizza crust came from an almost disaster a few days before. As I was taking a pizza out of the oven, it started to slide off the pan. I managed to catch it before it hit the floor, but about a quarter of it lost it's toppings during the save. So I retopped it with jar sauce and some fresh tomatoes and mushrooms that needed to be used. I also added cheddar and feta cheese for a really tasty result. I did the same thing with the hamburger buns after toasting them. 

Now I had a jar of open tomato sauce, so we had this over spaghetti the next night. I added some fresh tomatoes and basil to fix it up a bit and to use them up before they started to go bad. I also made a fruit salad to add to this meal from some ripe peaches and blueberries. And speaking of fruit, we also had some very good yellow water melon from Uncle Billy's garden. 

It was good week. I realize that some of you cook like this three meals a day, but not me. My interests and time usually lie elsewhere, so I'm gonna have to say that I am very pleased with this effort on both the Food Waste and Food Confessions fronts. :)

Until next time...