Taking a break

If I have some time to myself during the next two weeks, I'll try to post.  But starting with Saturday, Jeannie's birthday, and through the next week and a half, at least, I will be very involved with family events.

It's going to be pretty special for me, as the oldest of eight, to be able to get all eight of us together.    I feel so fortunate, and I just want to devote every minute I can to being with family.  I'm sure there will be much reminiscing, as well as good-natured joking about our childhood memories.

I'll be back as I get the chance.   

I'm still alive and well!

Some things in my life go fairly well, and others give me a few problems.  I'm pretty sure that's the same for most of us.

I have a couple of photos of Rocky - I wish I knew how to touch up photos, as one of them shows the terrible condition of the hardwood floor.  The prior residents had two big dogs and the floor shows it.  I think I mentioned it on my walk-through, but thought I could live with it because I figured my dog would scratch the floor as well.  He has, and it just adds to the poor condition of it.  The discoloration shows in one of the photos, and I can't help it.  Click to enlarge.  Also, he is not the easiest dog to photograph, and he is way more beautiful than the photos show.

I'm not too thrilled with my gardening efforts this year.  I got a late start because of my move, and the fall planting got a late start because I had to wait for someone to use the rototiller in the additional beds.  So this year has so far produced a lot of tasty squash and tomatoes.  I have peas growing now, and some other things - I think carrots and possible some leafy greens - maybe kale and chard.  As I mentioned, I really didn't think anything would come up so I didn't keep records of what I planted where.  As they come up, I can sort of figure out what some of them are while others are still a mystery.  The grass is sure growing well in the garden, however.

I have to leave in a few minutes to meet my granddaughter, Autumn, when she gets out of school.  I guess the 1st quarter grades came out, and she got a 4.0 score, which is perfect!  All of her classes except for Math are honors classes, and when I see the kind of homework she has, I just don't know how she can keep up with it, or how any 7th grader could for that matter .  

And while I'm bragging, I got an email from Steve, about my grandson, Liam.  

Liam won the confidence award at school.  This is given to one kid per class for their confidence in their work, and classroom leadership.

There are so many distractions for kids today and I know it is a great achievement for both Autumn and Liam.  I'm so happy for them and proud of them.

Well I was gone for about 15-20 minutes.  I left two individually wrapped, boneless-skinless chicken breasts at the back of the countertop to thaw.  (You know where this is going!)   When I got back I found an empty wrapper - he must have eaten one of them, still frozen, and the other was on the floor but intact in its heavy plastic wrapper.  Right now you can imagine which of my lists he is on!

More about the lentils

I hope you are not sick of hearing about this, but I just want to add a little more about my experience trying something new - something I never in my life thought I would like.  Perhaps it has something to do with the way I cooked and seasoned them, but they will be a part of my diet from now on.

First of all, I didn't cook them until they got all mashed into a paste.  You can still see the individual lentil in the soup, and I can tell you it is as good the next day as it was yesterday!

I started with a couple of tbsp of "Better than Bullion" paste.  It is is organic, reduced sodium, roasted chicken base, and I stirred it into the pan of water.  I added some chopped onion and celery, along with a can of Muir's Glen organic cubed tomatoes.  I added the lentils when I had brought the liquid to a boil, and only boiled them for about 20 minutes, before they turned mushy but were thoroughly cooked.  I threw in a few shakes of pepper, and maybe a tsp of cumin.  If I did anything else I can no longer remember it!  (oh yes, I did dice a chicken breast and added it to the pot.)  Delicious.

The high winds we experienced a few days ago certainly left a mess of dust & dirt, leaves, and other debris.  Fortunately for us, there wasn't damage to speak of in our area, although I don't have TV so I might not be aware of it.   It seems like the winds are picking up again today so it's not worth raking leaves or cleaning the driveway/carport.

Stay safe, wherever you are.


 

The verdict on lentils

I looked over many recipes for cooking lentils and finally found some suggestions that appealed to me.  I don't eat spicy foods these days if I can avoid them, so that whittled down the list.  What I did was take the ingredients from several different recipes and made my own concoction, to my own taste.  I'll have to say that I think lentils are tasteless in themselves, but with other ingredients and spices, I ended up with a pretty tasty lentil soup.  I think I will buy more lentils to have on hand while they are relatively inexpensive, and from what I've read about them, they are nutritious.  I used red lentils, but will probably buy some green ones to compare.  Thanks to everyone who responded with suggestions, recipes, etc.  I probably included a little bit from each suggestion and it turned out well for me.

Thank goodness the winds have died down here.   If they caused much damage in the Sacramento area, I haven't heard about it.  The winds came in gusts that looked and sounded pretty ominous.  At one point Rocky wanted to go out, and a bit later I saw him sitting on the backyard slope, his floppy ears blowing up and down in the wind.

I think I'm going to have another bowl of my lentil soup!  The lentils are not mushy, though I thought they would be.  Wonder if freezing them will cause them to get mushy when thawing for later use.

Now I'm too full and need a rest before continuing on with the little jobs I've been doing this morning.  I wish everyone a good week ahead, and hope you all stay safe from the disasters that seem to be in all parts of the country.  My heart goes out to all the California residents threatened by the fires, as well as to the brave men and women who are fighting them.

Answers

I'd like to say thanks those who responded to the questions I had in my last post.  I am planning to try the lentils within the next couple of days.

Rocky and I took our usual 4 block walk a few minutes ago.  He did so well on the final block - I guess he just needs to settle down a bit for the first part, although I'm going to try to get him to do it correctly from the time we go out the door.  I think a big part of the problem is me - I am not the most consistent person on the planet, and tend to be too easy going and lenient.
   
I'm going to cook lentils this afternoon (or maybe tomorrow), and I'll let you know how it turns out.  It will be a new taste for me and I'm eager to try them, although I don't cook very often these days.  Costco has such an amazing array of foods/meals that just have to be put into the oven or heated on the stove.  I've gotten lazy about cooking things from scratch.

As for my garden, I don't have the energy to get out there and work on it the past few days.  Grass is growing faster than I can pull it, and I don't understand why I didn't have a grass problem with the first garden square - the one with tomatoes and zucchini (as well as the marigolds).  The marigolds seem to be the best crop yet!  The second blooming is absolutely gorgeous.  They are now twice the size they were when they first bloomed.  I can take photos of them, but when I try to transfer them from my phone to the computer, I just can't make it happen.

I'm not sure if I covered all the questions in my last post, but I think I have.  Rocky and I have been feeling a little "off" today, so I hope things improve over the weekend, and a good weekend for all of you!

Questions

I have a few.  For any gardeners out there, can you tell me if I need to stake and tie up pea plants?  My plants are growing well, but I really am not sure how tall they will get or anything about them.  I had a seed packet and took out half the seeds for myself, giving the rest of them along with the packet to Ara.  So now I'm really not sure how to handle them, and don't find much help from the internet.  Thanks to anyone who has some advice about growing these plants.

Another question is for dog owners, particularly those with labs.  I just walked Rocky for about 4 blocks, and I want him to match my pace and to heel.  He wants to keep his head to the ground and sniff everything, and in his excitement he wants to pull me along at the pace he prefers.  By the halfway point in our walk he settled down pretty well to my pace, but he certainly isn't very disciplined.  I think part of it is his natural puppy disposition, and I certainly don't want to mess with that.  It is such a joy to try to see the world through his eyes, although I think most of what he knows about the world is through his nose!  He is so big and bold, but got his comeuppance when the garbage truck rolled by.  Rocky crouched in terror as far away as his leash would permit.  Unfortunately, this entire neighborhood as well as those surrounding it, have no sidewalks.  The property owners want to retain the "rural" nature although it is certainly no longer rural.  I'd vote for sidewalks and pavement that isn't cracked or buckled up.  It's no longer a joy for me to go walking with Rocky or on my own.  I miss my old neighborhood for things like that.  I seem to have  lost my original question, which is:  should I be more strict with Rocky, or should I hold off until he has a few more months under his collar?  He is very good about some things, like coming when called, but with others the little devil in his head distracts him completely.

My last question for now is about food, specifically, lentils.  I have never eaten them in my life, but have decided to try them and bought some red lentils.  There are many youtube videos that feature cooking with lentils, but most are of recipes with a Asian accent.  As I grow older I find myself returning to the foods I ate as a child - seasoned, but not too strongly, and certainly not highly spicy.  So I'm basically looking for a way to eat this grain (I think it is categorized as a grain).  Any recommendations will be appreciated.  My mom's cooking was southern, but she learned to like the German influence of my dad's sisters' cooking, so mom's was a great mix of those two cuisines.  Seasoned well but not too spicy.

I am trying to load photos into my blog, but it rarely works out.  I use my cellphone and the option to forward a photo to my email account, but nothing ever appears.  Of course you might note that once in a while I can post a picture and I have no idea how it happens or what I might have done differently.  My personal opinion is that smart phones are too smart for many of the people using them.  And who wants to be outsmarted by a phone - either a smart or stupid phone!

Here's to a new week

I wanted to include this photo in my last blog, but couldn't get it to work.  I will post it here, but it certainly isn't the best photo I've ever taken.  I keep saying I want to go back to a regular camera, but when I tried it I couldn't navigate through all the steps to simply snap a picture.  Why, oh why, do things have to be so complicated.  I think they do it on purpose to make people my age feel dumb!  And I refuse to feel dumb!  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

I think we are going to have a week in the 80's and then drop back to the 70's & 60's.  I'm anxious to see what is going to do well in my garden, as most of the plants are cool-weather varieties.  The grass in my garden is growing spectacularly, and I need to get out there and pull it before it's an overwhelming job.  When I look out the back door and see it, I feel overwhelmed already!

I've noticed that in the past several years I crave sweets more than ever before.  I've always preferred salty foods, but something happened to me.  Today I watched a couple of programs that say sugar is not healthy for the brain, and lord only knows, I want to hold on to as much brain power as I can.  I already find that I can't keep a thought in my head for over a minute or two and then it flies off into the wild blue yonder!  It's going to be hard to do without ice  cream, but I'd rather retain my memory!

Here's to a good week ahead for us all.  I am thinking about the folks in the Dallas area who have been affected by the tornado yesterday, and hope they can start the recovery process soon.