Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Ripples of a trip to Ybor City

These are some of the wonderful tiles that you can see outside of the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City.if you are in Tampa, you want to go there and see for yourself.  The food is delicious too!  I won't go there without getting some of their Spanish bean soup and their 1905 salad- very unique and wonderful tastes!  Here's a link https://www.columbiarestaurant.com/pdfs/menu_lunch.pdf
 

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Saving the freshness


Last Saturday, I brought enough rosemary, purple basil, and garlic chives from TTCG to fill 3 pint jars with leaves.  My plan was to make jelly bases for each of them.  Added the purple basil to 2 cups of boiling cranberry juice cocktail, crushed and added the leaves and let it steep for 15 minutes.  then bottled and froze it to make jelly another day.  It was good enough to drink- cranberry predominated but the basil added color and richness to the brew.

The next day, I took a cup of apricot nectar mixed with a cup of water, boiled it then brewed it for 15 minutes with the crushed rosemary leaves.  The rosemary predominated and I'm not sure that this experiment was a success but I also froze it and bottled it for another day.

Found this recipe for garlic jelly online.  Used 2 cups white vinegar instead of white wine vinegar with a half cup of crushed garlic- the smell in the kitchen was overwhelming- we were really coughing, and I steep but did not boil for 15 minutes and strained the liquid immediately instead of 24 hours later.  The resulting vinegar lends a wonderful garlic flavor to dishes.  I may just add the garlic chives to that and refrigerate.  Tomorrow, its time for thyme!  I have some from A Simpler Place in Time that I need to use. Wonder what thyme and pineapple juice would do?

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Retirement Dreams: What kind of jelly do I make?

Fresh purple basil from my TTCG plot 2 patch.

My dream is to retire travelling to four areas of the country where my family lives in each of my three favorite months in that area.  To do that, I have to find a way to generate income in each of those areas- either with the house and land during the months I'm not there- or to find a way to support the property in that area during the three months I am in the area.  Yesterday, I arrived at a plan.  I could make jelly! Now jelly is  not that big of a profit maker, but I know that you can make jelly, tea, and wine out of almost everything that you can grow anywhere.  So here's my plan:  April through June, I want to live in the New Haven area in a place like this.  There I would plant all kinds of flowering bushes and trees and even have a meadow full of edible flowers.  Flowers that bloom in the spring in Connecticut like roses, violets, Queen Anne's lace, Lilacs, dandelions, and apple blossoms make wonderful jelly.  When I am not making jelly, I can visit the churches and libraries in the area for clues about my genealogy, visit with my cousins, and go into New York City for the day.  What a wonderful time!  I would leave the area after my Mom's birthday on July 10th every year.

Then on to Stone Lake Wisconsin where I would love to live in a house like this one.  In July, August and September, all kinds of berries in the area are ready for harvest- including cranberries (yum!), so then I would make berry jellies and jams.  At the beginning of October, they have a Cranberry Festival that would be a great time to sell my wares.

I love New England in the fall. Apples and pumpkins, the leaves, and the holidays.  That is also my favorite time to visit the historical sites there.  Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family in New England and all kinds of butters, cakes, and cookies...

By New Years', I am ready to come back to Florida- Rob would want to have a place in Tampa because that is all he knows.  This time of the year is sometimes not so great for veggies because there are frosts from time to time (gardening is better earlier) but this is still a good time of the year to grow all kinds of herbs and spices- you can even harvest beauty berries at this time of the year.  So winter in Florida would be a good time to make herb and spice jellies.

Now making jellies for consumption is a lot of work and short on profit- but there is something that would be more profitable- writing books about making jellies, travelling the country and using those jellies and jams in recipes: Cookies, candies, savory dishes- and lots and lots of pictures and stories.

So what I am doing about this dream today?  Well in my kitchen, a tea of cranberry juice and purple basil is brewing.  What a taste and color! The purple basil tones down the color of the cranberries and adds a rich earthiness to the taste.  The color is a wonderful deep pink!  Hope to make the jelly from this brew tonight!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

What's growing Plot 2 Temple Terrace Community Garden 7/20/13

What's growing in the heat of the summer?  TTCG plot 2 looked fairly chipper yesterday.
The flowers in the thief's garden looked great!

A brand new bed of black eyed peas was growing like crazy!  And in the back you can see that marigolds and okra are thriving!
This lemon grass looks very happy

Eggplants are happy..


And there are a ton of gorgeous flowers!

Here's a close up of okra flowering- I've decided to add some okra.

Here's my plot in the garden

Volunteer boniato is taking over- finally something I can train up my trellis! Arugala is also very happy in the shade.

Long beans and Seminole pumpkin are not too happy. Celery is dead.
Sunflowers grown from Publix raw sunflower kernels are taking off!

Purple basil is just amazing!  In the back you can see part of my flower tower.


Better photo of my flower tower phase 1.

Regular basil and garlic chives very happy.  Zucchini seed planted in the shade is growing nicely too.  Ones planted in the sun did not germinate.

Close up on the zucchini

There's a happy pepper growing in the shade too.

Here's what I brought to add to the flower tower which now looks more like a tower now!  They were bought at Grace's last week and have been getting used to the Florida heat on my porch until yesterday.  Now we will see how they do in the tower.

So,if you want to add something now, I recommend flowers,okra, black eyed peas, growing in the shade of a trellis, and maybe a flower tower(but that is a ton of work and takes about 3 dozen plants! )








Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Porch Garden June 26, 2013


Been a while since I've posted pictures of my porch garden.  This is what it looks like today.

These are the plants I got at Grace's.  Thinking of using them in a plant tower which I'm experimenting with in my Plot 2 space at Temple Terrace Community Garden.

Plant nursery far left side

Plant Nursery middle

Plant nursery right
Don't know what I'm going to do with these- might see what space is left at my plot or get some more containers
Dill, oregano, and Mexican oregano ready to go somewhere
This is the active kitchen portion of my garden
Left to right rear: oregano, geranium(mostly hidden), winter savory, and scented geranium.  Front left to right is rosemary and sage.  Looks like we're seeing some of the lettuce box on the bottom
This is the lettuce box- off to the left is rosemary.  As you can see- if it is sufficiently young, kept cropped, shaded and watered, you CAN grow lettuce in Florida in June.
Mint in front- just coming back after nearing dying.  I cut back everything before it left- then it came back like gangbusters- maybe it just needed a trim!  On the right is my lavendar which is a little worse for the summer heat- need to cut off the dead parts there too.


These are plants from my 'under the table' nursery getting lots of shade and not a lot of water
    
My poinsettas growing happily under my picnic table.  They don't like a lot of water- only water them when the soil is dry.
Aloe growing happily under the table- don't water this at all- it gets water when the porch is flooded or when the poinsettas drain.
These are my table top pots- one on the right has seen better days


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Homemade Cream Cheese!

Friday I bought milk but found out that I had a quart left- and if we didn't find a recipe to use it- that milk would go bad...  My son suggested that we make cream cheese- after all, you can make cream cheese from yogurt and yogurt from cream cheese- so why not make cream cheese?  So yesterday, I bought a small container of plain yogurt and this is the result! 

How did I do it?  I took a quart of milk and gently heated in the microwave until it was just barely lukewarm - just heated it 30 seconds at a time until it stopped feeling cold.  Then I added 3 tablespoons of the plain yogurt and simply put it out on my porch (hot day) for about 7 hours in a covered container.  It made a yummy creamy yogurt!  Then I brought it inside, lined a strainer with cheese cloth (you want a nice thickness), placed it over a bowl, and covered it.  Before I went to bed, I drained the liquid to make sure that the yogurt wouldn't be sitting in whey overnight. After about 3 hours- had over a cup of whey sitting in the bowl.  Left it sitting overnight.  Knew it was done because there was no more dripping liquid- and voila- some creamy cream cheese!  It isn't a block like regular cream cheese- but this is just yummy! So next time, you have a little extra milk- don't let it go bad- make cream cheese!  This is really easy!

Friday, May 17, 2013

Curves Progress Update!


   Yesterday, I was concocting my lunch on the cutting board and it was so pretty, I wanted to take a picture!  Yesterday was also a day when my lunch carried me through the day.  It was healthy and entirely vegan, so we're meeting a goal.  Starting at the top, we have a dozen triscuits.  Also packed with the lunch was a jar of peanut butter.  If you put just a teaspoon between every two crackers, that is the two tablespoon serving size.  Every time I was hungry, I grabbed a couple of crackers, a piece of celery and a carrot stick.  Below that pack is my water bottle that was frozen in the freezer.  A couple of oranges, some lettuce and spinach and my lovely salad in a jar.  Bottom layer is avocado ranch dressing, then tomatoes, then cucumbers that I grew in my plot at the Temple Terrace Community Garden. Topped off with a few olives and I'm ready for work!

Making progress.  Can't say enough how the only way to see that you are making progress is to record where you have been.  Today, I went to Curves- just getting started again.  Last time I got started was a year ago and maybe went 3 times- but I've been working- you've all seen me.  So it was great to see that since March 2012, I've lost nearly 14 pounds and more than 16 inches!  And if I keep my goal- will be able to report that I've made 200 visits to Curves in my lifetime by the end of next week!  

Feel like I'm living the Discipline of Self Esteem again.  New insight- the Discipline of Self-Esteem and the Addition Principle are more closely linked than I thought.  You can't build discipline without starting- so you need to make the first step- and those steps add up bit by bit.  The principle of inertia states that a body in motion remains in motion- so once you start- then there is some momentum- and building that momentum leads to success- at least according to Donald Trump:

And so- to build the Discipline of Self-Esteem, you have to start somewhere- anywhere- do anything- as in the Addition Principle.  That start will build energy and create momentum.  As for timing, I believe that in building self-esteem- the moment is when you decide to start.  Every second sitting on the couch feeling awful is a moment wasted- and our life is to short to waste moments.

the song that has been running through my head lately is "Every drop of rain, every grain of sand, makes the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.  Never let a minute, lie upon the shelf- for in that little minute is all of life itself..."  It's a Judy Garland song on a record my Mom bought for us when I was seven.

As for quoting Donald, I'll try as much as possible, to let you know the GOOD stuff that Donald posts.  He has two minds- the inner mind that is as good as they come- and that has advice that people would do well to follow- and an outer mind of half-baked ideas that are formed from reading things that agree with his opinions and ignoring the rest- and those we should all ignore because they are what they are.  For more on this idea- you should see Mark Bittman's post today.  And I shall try- with all my heart to do my best to bring you the best of what my inner mind produces. Until tommorow!

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Getting Into a Walking Routine

This morning, I walked 1.3 miles in 32 minutes which is 24.6 minutes per mile.  The week of April 20th, I was walking at 28 minutes per mile, so in 4 weeks, the speed increased 13.75% or a little over 3% a week!  That's pretty good considering that my walk schedule is far from consistent.
Four weeks ago, I wanted to follow the schedule here:From 0 to 30 in 10 Weeks.  That would have a person running 30 minutes per day in 10 weeks.  But I can't make it through that time without limping and feeling that tiny pain in the chest I feel when my heart starts it's stress reaction (which thanks to my thorough hear exam this year I know is safe- just time to slow down).  While I didn't want to run, I definitely thought that I could brisk-walk the entire time starting out-about 5 minutes in, realized that wasn't going to happen, so slowed to a moderate walk for 5 minutes, then a slow walk for 5 minutes, then repeated the cycle.  By the time I got home, realized that I could follow the 0 to 30 schedule by substituting brisk walking for running, doing moderate walking as much as possible, the slow walking when needed.  Will keep you posted on that plan.

What does the photo have o do with this?  Nothing- but I like posting with photos- don't always take my camera with me, and have thousands of pictures on my hard drive.  This was one of my early patio garden back in August 2010.  When I look at all the plants I have now, it's amazing how much my garden has grown in less than 3 years!  Which may be how this ties into the post- we started out small with a patio garden- now the patio is full and have a 3 by 10 community garden plot too!  Maybe 3 years from now, I'll be amazed at how far I've come in my exercise!  Here's hoping!  

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Update on dieting week

Donald Trump summed up my life in a sentence today! https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/334381240482410497
Success is going from failure to failure with enthusiasm! This is a quote from Winston Churchill.  Not sure that I got the wording exact, so click on the link!  This week, I held steady on my weight according to the Weight Watchers scale.  This backs up the need to track my points along with the VB6 approach.  Tracking points is always a good exercise and always leads to more success.  Lots of catch-up work today, so this is a short post.  If I want to succeed in this weight loss journey- need to get back to basics- diet and exercise. Still working on VB6, but a also realize that this seems to be more work than I can fit into my life at the moment.  But also need to always remember that everything that you do to improve, is better than doing nothing at all- which is probably the logic behind that Churchill quote!

Monday, May 13, 2013

New Approach to Food: Vegan Before 6

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a long weekend before my birthday.  One of the shows I like to catch on weekdays when I am home is Dr. Oz.  This time, Mark Bittman was on and he was promoting his new book Vegan Before 6.  I thought that this was a super-cool approach/  The time that I lost weight and had low cholesterol was when I was trying vegan.  But never eating meat, cheese, eggs, and cream ever again was just too unrealistic for me- just adore good food too much.  So this approach seemed really cool.  To date, I have not really implemented this too much.  Doing the best I can to be be vegan before 6 and eating as usual after 6.  Keeping up with Weight Watchers, so I have some way to monitor the nutritional values of the approach.  Made some new discoveries.  Discovered that almond milk is only 30 calories compared to 150 calories for whole milk- coffee is just not that enjoyable.  Some of my 'vegan' choices are a little un-vegan- like getting chili and a side salad at Wendy's- but that is a very good choice (6 points)- even if it is not that vegan.  On the other hand, the veggie burger at Johnny Rockets is 11 points which is not huge- but a lot more than I expected.  Running late today- there will be a lot more later.  Sort of easing into this- will report in Wednesday on whether I have lost any weight on this approach yet.

Tommorrow, I will talk about my attempts to make a vegan ranch dressing!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Retirement Dream

My dream for my retirement is to live in four places at different times of the year. 

From Easter to Mom's birthday weekend (near July 10th), I want to live in the country near New Haven in the Orange-Seymour-Derby area where my Mom's ancestors lived.  I love Spring in New England and being in New Haven leaves that time of the year to make frequent trips to New York to shop for fashion, spend my birthday with my family in CT and MA, get over to Medway for the Memorial Day parade, have some time to do genealogy research locally, be within commuting distance of the Boston Marathon (which I intend to enter after I finish my training regimen), plant my New England garden, and still be there for my sister's annual family reunion party and Mom's birthday.

From the time I leave New England until the Stone Lake Cranberry Festival (first weekend in October), I want to live in Stone Lake.  I love trees and lakes and they have plenty there.  It's a little late to start a garden (unless I swing over and plant one on my way to New England) but it's the coolest place to spend the summer (literally) and I'll have plenty of time to spend with Bill and his daughters and just enjoy the natural beauty.  I just love trees and water- and they have plenty of that there.

From the time I leave the Great Woods until Christmas, I want to live in or near Medway MA.  I love fall in Massachusetts and the natural beauty of the foliage along I-495 (which passes through Medway) is known to be one of the prettiest.  This also gives me a chance to harvest the New England garden.  There is no better place to spend Thanksgiving than New England, and would love to tour all the old historical places in Massachusetts in the Fall.  Also gives me a chance to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family- and to see the Christmas parade in Medway.

From New Years to Easter, I want to be in Florida.  Florida gardening season last from September to December and March to July, so this plan really doesn't include a Florida garden unless I swing south between Stone Lake and Medway to plant and then come back down between New Haven and Stone Lake to harvest.  In Florida, I can catch up with old friends, visit with my family in the Orlando area, and visit theme parks with my son.

The main problem with all this is financing.  I will have the income to just live simply but not have the assets to travel and maintain four homes.  It might help to rent out those homes on a weekly or monthly basis while I am not there, but there is the problem with down payments and all the travel etc.  I have to find a way to make a living writing to make this dream feasible at all. So here I start over again with this blog.  One way to make this more fun is the idea of being the Answer Lady.  I find that whenever anyone wants to know anything, I can find the answers- either with my research or my problem-solving abilities (both of which are considerable).  One of the most popular times with this blog was when I was doing the DOSE series where I essentially chronicled all the answers to the questions that I asked myself each day.  But if would be more fun (and challenging) if other people asked the questions or posed the problems.  So if you have a question- ask in the comments- and I'll write a blog about it the next morning.

Tomorrow I'm going to discuss my question about finding a way to get rid of gray hair by understanding the natural processes that produce gray hair in the first place.  Until then!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Frost at the Temple Terrace Community Garden

As expected at the Saturday work day, late Sunday afternoon, there was a freeze watch posted on Sunday afternoon for midnight until 9AM on Monday morning.  About 4 PM, I went down to the garden and found another work day!  Carrie and Nancy decided to harvest everything they had prior to the frost and added some top soil.  Another person was down placing blankets on her crops.  I tented mine (wish I had taken a picture of that- it was quite a scene).  Hank (Travis' young son) got down close to the ground to help me close all the cracks.  Then Hank, Travis and I got a lot of wood and anchored down the covers.  Travis also promised me that he would take down my covers in the morning when he brought Hank to school (Thanks Travis- I had a very hard morning!)

By 7PM, the freeze watch had turned to a freeze warning.  It was going to get below 32 degrees for several hours and plants that were not covered or brought in doors were going to  be at risk.  Jennifer Marshall went down early the next morning and took these pictures (posted at the TTCG Facebook page):

My heart sunk. Everything was covered with frost! Would my covers be enough?  After work today, I had a few minutes of day light and rushed down to my plants to see if there was damage.  
 
From a distance, the garden looked like nothing had changed:


Here is the sunflower that greets us as we come in from the south.  Looks bright and sunny.




But then here is my tomato- think that the plants will survive and the tomatoes looked great. But almost all the growth at the top of the tomatoes was dead- lost about a foot of height.






 Here were selected parts of the garden that look as if nothing has happened:
Cabbage like plants look happy and fresh.  Carrots were unharmed.  These were plants that were not covered.

My herbs (covered) were well and happy

Even tiny carrot plants looked fine

Look at the this beautiful lettuce!  These were not covered.

Petunias in the thieves garden look great!

Brussels sprouts look ready to keep growing

Dill flowers are still blooming

Collards are just gorgeous

There were some plants that were devastated.  Most of the uncovered tomatoes were pretty sad, but some were untouched.  New plants that are not cabbage-family, carrots, or lettuce look wilted.  My new plants that were covered with Spanish moss were very not affected- so this is something to remember for the future. All in all, from the perspective of my untrained eye this evening, we weathered the frost fairly well.  Let's hope that things look this good on Saturday.  

Just like Florida, this evening it was 70 degrees and the temperature is not expected to drop below 50 in the next few days.  Let you know what I see on Saturday!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Green Tomato Topped Macaroni and Cheese

Last week I tried adding sliced green tomatoes to my ordinary macaroni and cheese (which I love).  Took some photos yesterday of a more complicated recipe that I didn't like as well, so I will give you the correct recipe here and those photos from yesterday that more or less match it (if you see onions and prosciutto please ignore them- and if you add onions and prosciutto to yours don't add the green tomatoes because they don't go together).

(Post in progress)...
Topping of sliced green tomatoes with a little panko bread crumbs over macaroni and cheese sauce.  After adding sauce and topping bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Start by adding 2 tbsp better and 2 tbsp flour to a 2 cup container

Add milk up to the one cup mark- then microwave 30 seconds at a time until thick- add 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

This is a small green tomato- it was used to create all the slices seen in photo up top- slice very thin

Great-Grandma Weber's Summer German Potato Salad

 This was a staple at our family's summer outings for as long as I can remember.  My youngest sister asked me for the recipe so I though...