Broccoli in March

Back in November, I bragged about how beautiful my plants still were in the greenhouse.  I had geraniums galore and I had just started broccoli seeds.  Soon after that, we had a freeze and that was the end of the geraniums.  Go look and see how luscious they were back then.

I predicted that my broccoli might be ready around January.  Broccoli is pretty hardy and even without the greenhouse, I've grown my summer broccoli until December or so.  I figured without heat in the greenhouse and just the protection from the wind and actual snow, I'd probably be able to grow broccoli and maybe chard through the winter.

It's a little later than January, but I did manage to grow this through the winter:

We ate the broccoli the other night and the chard is really coming along nicely.  It's great when there are no slugs to munch on the young plants!

Sunlight really makes a difference.  These plants had no trouble with the cold, it was the lack of sunlight that made them slow.  They moved very slowly through the winter.  And, it was an exceptionally mild winter.  I don't know how they would have done if we'd had weeks of below freezing weather, like we often do.

The way I grow broccoli is against what everything says to do.  I take the florets as they come, and seem to get months worth of broccoli instead of cutting just the head that comes and then pulling them out of the ground.  These plants have some new florets growing, but with the 90+ degree heat in the greenhouse on a sunny day, they are heat stressed.  I think I will move them outside and see what happens.

I'm at it again, already starting lots of seeds for this summer and planning to do lots of succession planting so I always have something ready. 

I kind of like beets and I've never grown them, so that's one thing I'd like to try this year.  And maybe celery.  But I've got to get looking and find them soon.

God's Crazy Bitches

Forget about the coupons.

Bridezillas can take a number.

Toddlers in Tiaras should take a powder.

ABC put together a new show that they knew would be right up my alley as far as trashy TV goes.  It combines a little church, a little sass, some southern accents and lots of laughs. 

I usually reserve such drivel for summer reading books, but now I can rot my brain any time I want thanks to ABC and the internet.

Because GCB has arrived on ABC.  GCB?  Good Christian Bitches.  I guess there's a book by that title  but ABC can't call their show something with BITCH in it, right?

I was cracking up through the first show. It's totally a soap opera.  And it has Kristen Chenoweth and David James Elliott, so no show could be better.  Kristen Chenoweth's one liners had me rolling.

K-ster is pretty sure it's God's Crazy Bitches.  And it totally is.  And I love it.

Forget Cinnabon, These Will Win Everyone's Hearts!

Ok, I'm not even sure what Cinnabon is, but using my deductive reasoning skills, I think it's another chain that is causing American's to expand their girth too much.  I think they sell sticky buns that are to die for.  I think you can even get things flavored as a Cinnabon bun.  I swear I saw that somewhere.

I thought all cinnamon rolls were supposed to be very cinnamony, very sticky and huge and very bad for you. I don't really like them. Cinnamon is one of the things I can't tolerate anymore.

Instead, I created these marvelous, magical, mouth pleasing circles of goodness from part of a recipe and part of my imagination. The recipe is at the bottom, so keep going if you really want to make them.

I like to have apples in these buns, so I chop up 2 apples, any kind, and throw in some brown sugar (maybe 2 large tablespoons) and a sprinkle of cinnamon and let it sit while I'm getting the rest ready.

Then I get out my marble board for rolling the dough. I love this marble board because I always know it's clean, unlike my counters which I am never sure I can get clean. I only use this board for rolling dough and wash it immediately, so I know that nothing gets put on there that shouldn't be.

See that gap between the cabinet and the refrigerator?  That's where the marble gets to live because I can't find anywhere else to put it.  If I lay it flat somewhere, I know things will get put on top of it and then I'll get lazy and never want to move the things off of it.  Then that would be the end of any dough ever made by me.

It's pretty heavy, so when I drag it out of its home, it scrapes on the floor.  If we ever replace the floor, I will have to do something different because I won't be allowed to scrape new linoleum.  This linoleum from 1978 is impenetrable, so I'm not too worried.

Once you make the dough (recipe below) roll it out.  I like to roll it fairly thin and as big as I can get it.  You're going to roll it into a log, so think ahead.  Then you toss the apples onto the dough, in a haphazard manner, but remember that you're going to roll it up, so don't put too much in any one place.

Begin rolling, pushing any apples that fall out back in, somewhere.

I like to leave the seam side down when I'm done so it will stay together better when I cut it into the separate rolls.

As with the rest of this, there isn't much precision.  I cut it into maybe 1 inch thick pieces and then I count how many I have.  I try to figure out which dish will work the best for the number of pieces I have.  See the open piece?  I just move it around and make it fit.  I wasn't worried that I'd ruined anything.  You really can't ruin this.

My stoneware is kind of big, but I wanted to use it, so I just squished them in like this, and let the rest be empty.  They should all touch each other so that when they bake, they will spread out a little.

Bake them and WATCH OUT!  They will vanish before your very eyes!!

I actually like these even better the next day because the moisture from the apples makes them a little bit gooier.  Kind of like the bottom of an apple piece crust gets gooey as the days go by.

Here's the recipe:

2 c. flour
3/4 t. baking soda
1/4 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 c. oil
3/4 c. yogurt (these are especially good with lemon, but plain is fine)

Mix dry ingredients and then add oil and yogurt and mix until a dough forms.  If it's not quite wet enough, add a little water until it becomes a kneadable dough.  Roll out as described above and bake at 425 for 15-17 minutes.

Linking here:
http://www.glitterglueandpaint.com/
http://www.skiptomylou.org/
http://yesteachercrafts.com/

Two Little Nuggets of Joy

Joining up with  today.

When I bought the new couch last year, I made sure it would work for a temporary bed because many nights, k-ster snores before I can get to sleep and he keeps me up.  So, I take to the couch, fall asleep and then go to bed later.  Thankfully, it's a comfortable couch, so I don't wake up feeling like I slept on the floor.

But I'd like to stay in my bed.  All night.  Every night.

I tried ear plugs a long time ago, but they didn't stay in my ears and I was always afraid I wouldn't hear important things like the alarm, or God forbid, the smoke alarm.


When I was in France, j-ster turned out to be quite a snorer.  Since we were camping out in the living room of e-ster's apartment, there was nowhere else to go.

Enter the earplugs given to us on the Air France flight over.  Many people used these on the plane, but since I was sitting upright on the plane, I just used my noise cancelling headphones.  But, I can't sleep on my back, so the headphones won't work for real sleep, so I got out my little earplugs and hoped they'd work.

SWEET JESUS, where have these been all my life????

They dulled the sound enough that it sounded far away and I was able to lull my way to sleep listening to my own inner sounds (do you know what it sounds like to listen to your own mouth when wearing earplugs????).

K-ster now has some sort of cold thing going on, and I think perhaps you can hear him snoring where you live.  Even you ladies in Australia.  Usually, if I tell him to roll over, he will and the snoring will stop long enough for me to fall asleep, but lately, he's already on the other side and there's nothing to do.

After 2 nights on the couch, one of which even required TWO trips to the couch from all the snoring,  I decided to whip out a new pair of Air France earplugs.

I fell asleep so hard the first night, I slept for 1 hour and woke up feeling so refreshed at midnight, I thought it was the next day.

All hail the mighty earplug! 

Here's a little extra fun for you.  I have a strange obsession with chewing things that are spongy by nature.  Like these little gems. 

Do you know about the circus peanut?  They are nothing but marshmallows, but there is something about the way the chew, I can't stop eating them once I start.  Oh I'm fantasizing about them RIGHT.NOW.  Yummm, chew, chew, chew.....

Earplugs are spongy and sometimes they are the same color as circus peanuts.

When I first wore the earplugs in France, I found that they fell out during the night.  Not wanting to lose them when I woke up to go to the bathroom, I  would carry them with me since it was so dark everywhere, they would probably disappear.

I also learned that when you are wearing earplugs in the dark, your sense of balance is a little altered.

So, the first time I carried them with me to the bathroom, I had to keep telling myself "don't eat the earplugs, don't eat the earplugs".

Because they have that texture.....

And then I couldn't find one for a moment and thought "OH MY GOD, I ATE AN EARPLUG".

But it was on the floor beside my air mattress.

Once A Tomgirl, Always A Tomgirl

If you're a fan of mine, you probably have seen posts where I've shown pictures of my yard and the trucks that we have here.  If not, click here and you can see some in snow (note, the horses are not in my yard but it sure looks like they could be!)

The scene has not changed much in my lifetime.  Different trucks, different colors, but pretty much the same scene.

When you grow up in a yard like mine, with tractors and trucks and plows up the wazoo, you don't mind getting dirty, driving these trucks, tractors and plows (well, I mind the plows a little) and thus, the tomgirl in my title.

For the past few  years, one of my father's many jobs is to fly to Wisconsin or Florida to get fire trucks and apparatus for a local dealership.  He flies out, gets the truck and then drives back.  He loves this.  I will never understand the thrill of driving anything, let alone a fire truck, ambulance or anything else that is truck like. 

A lot of the time, he gets home after the dealership has closed for the night, so he brings whatever he has to our yard.  It's not at all unusual to come home and see things like this.

In fact, this has happened so many times, I suppose if there was a fire and there were trucks here for a real reason, I'd pay no attention and carry on about my business!  Like crying wolf, having fire stuff in the yard is nothing new.

We've had huge ladder trucks here.  Once, he even let us go up in the basket so we could see the beach from the top!  My mother couldn't go any higher than the roof top but I went all the way up.

People are exclaim with amazement when they see these things in the yard or if they hear about it.  I just shrug and think it's really no big deal.

I remember my father actually owning a fire truck at one point and he made a sanding truck out of it.   If he had millions of dollars, he'd probably have a giant shop where he refashioned fire trucks into things on a regular basis.

Over the years, we've had lots of different trucks in varying stages of decay that he was going to make pretty again and he did that with a few.  A few others have been put out to pasture, or as we like to say "behind the fence".

No good ever comes of being put "behind the fence".   Being "out back" is just one step away from  being put "behind the fence".  There's also "somewhere around here" but I digress.

I'm not sure why I was surprised by the following scene, but this one might have totally blown away any piece of metal we've ever had in the yard before.

Let me explain, for you truck virgins out there.  Yes, you are seeing 3 trucks.  Yes, one truck is indeed being pulled by what looks like a much lesser truck.  No, that big truck did not break the trailer, it's just sitting funny.  No, that truck with the orange sander is not part of this, it's just in the background.

So, I pulled in to the yard and did a quadrupole take.  What on God's earth was he up to this time??  And that white truck isn't even his!

Knowing that he would drive anything, anywhere, the local fire school asked if he'd go get a truck for them.  But no, this isn't any truck.  This is an ex military truck that isn't just a truck.  OH NO!  It's a whole machine shop inside!  A whole MACHINE SHOP!  Say this to some guy who knows that means and he'll wet his pants with excitement, right on the spot.

They say you open up the two sides of that truck and there is all sorts of machinery inside.  The sides prop up like awnings so you can do all sorts of repair work with all of that marvelous machinery.  The fire school was very excited to get this piece of equipment and all of the very exciting things that were locked up inside.

I'm not so convinced all of this great machinery was still inside, I mean wouldn't the military like to have that back?  But little boys can dream.

As for the white truck,  someone let him use it to go get the truck (because his has that orange sander on it, above) and it was quite an awful ride.  And pulling that big ass machine behind him couldn't have made it any better.

Sometimes, I think k-ster just sticks around to see what the next exciting thing will be to appear in the yard.  Probably an airplane is the only thing that could top what we've had.  But please don't tell k-ster or my father.  We have no room anywhere for an airplane!!

If Only I Had A Sharpie

Speed BUMP.  It's SPEED BUMP, you idiots, not SPEED HUMP!!!!

Drumming Up Business Any Way They Can

The day of the Superbowl, this is what the digital sign outside our local police station said.