Good Stuff

January 30

2012-01-30T16:08:00.000-05:00

The rosemary continues to thrive indoors. We're having such a mild
winter, it might have survived if I'd left it in the ground. Much handier
to have it inside, though, to snip whenever I need it.

January 29

2012-01-29T17:39:00.001-05:00

Kind of a cool odometer, doncha think? On the way home from Asheville.

January 28

2012-01-28T16:23:00.003-05:00

It is entirely possible to stay true to a low-carb eating plan at an Indian buffet.

January 27

2012-01-27T16:34:00.001-05:00

Maybe I should have taken a picture of the food,
but I was a little embarrassed to do so. Instead,
an image of the logo of a BBQ place in Asheville,
NC, where President Obama and I ate.
Not at the same time, though. Heh.

January 26

2012-01-26T18:13:00.001-05:00

I wish I could take a picture of warm. Despite how moody blue this
photo is, it is soooo warm outside! Way too warm for January!

January 25

2012-01-25T07:57:00.001-05:00

A most amazing sunrise this morning. Very dreamy, foggy, lovely.

January 24

2012-01-24T16:26:00.001-05:00

Okay, back to food for today. Red bell peppers stuffed with
browned grass-fed beef and Miracle Rice. Low carb deliciousness!

January 23

2012-01-23T15:13:00.005-05:00

My new gym! Joined today. Lots of equipment, not many people. Perfect!

January 22

2012-01-23T15:12:00.006-05:00

Blue ribbon. Giving up on the whole idea of dedicating the blog to food pix.

January 21

2012-01-23T15:12:00.001-05:00

The indoor celery garden.

January 20

2012-01-20T13:27:00.001-05:00

A little early for this nonsense!

January 19

2012-01-19T17:48:00.001-05:00

Food for the soul today … one of those sky-blue pink sunsets my mother loved.

January 18

2012-01-18T17:57:00.000-05:00

A Thai stir-fry that turned out great! I should write down what I did ...

January 17

2012-01-17T07:44:00.004-05:00

So messy. So good. I wonder if a pretty omelet would be less tasty?

January 16

2012-01-17T06:03:00.001-05:00

Roasted cauliflower and steak – perfect low-carb dinner!

January 15

2012-01-17T06:02:00.001-05:00

The last two Meyer lemons … and future ones, too!

January 14

2012-01-16T07:34:00.001-05:00

My favorite soup - sausage, beans and kale,
and my new favorite salad dressing - pesto
whisked with oil and vinegar.

January 13

2012-01-13T17:39:00.001-05:00

My favorite beverage in one of my favorite cups.

January 12

2012-01-12T10:54:00.001-05:00

You can find recipes for these South Beach-friendly breakfast egg "muffins"
all over the internet. This is the recipe I used.

January 11

2012-01-12T10:52:00.002-05:00

Foreground, fresh kale and garlic sautéed in olive oil.
Behind it, the best cauliflower I've ever eaten.
(I swapped mushrooms for the olives.)

January 10

2012-01-10T07:42:00.002-05:00

Water. Or lunch. Take your pick. Also? Another crappy phone shot.

January 9

2012-01-10T07:41:00.000-05:00

All right I really wanted to be using the Rebel for all of this year's photos.
Not. Possible. A crappy phone shot of my granddaughter's mushroom-barley
soup at Noshville, in Franklin, Tennessee.

January 8

2012-01-08T08:30:00.002-05:00

Past its prime – DEFINITELY!

January 7

2012-01-08T08:29:00.004-05:00

Past its prime ... but just barely.

January 6

2012-01-06T15:49:00.003-05:00

That leftover cup of morning coffee really hits the spot mid-afternoon.

January 5

2012-01-05T06:19:00.002-05:00

Had an orange at halftime of the Orange Bowl. Mountaineers blew out Clemson!

January 4

2012-01-04T09:17:00.000-05:00

My favorite breakfast: plain yogurt, orange marmalade, granola. All homemade!

January 3

2012-01-03T16:10:00.002-05:00

A one-ounce portion of colby-jack makes a nice afternoon snack.

January 2

2012-01-02T17:31:00.001-05:00

Curried Lentil Soup … mmm, mmm, good.

It was a cold, cold day today, perfect for a spicy curried lentil dish.

The recipe doesn't include mushrooms, but I think they're good in almost anything!

Beginning again. Again.

2012-01-01T20:10:00.000-05:00

I did much better last year (year 3) in my attempt to take a picture every day. While it's easier to snap a quick one with the BlackBerry, I really want to use the Rebel more.

Right now, this morning, I think I want the focus of this year's efforts to be on food. Good food. Real food. The food I want to eat in order to support my health. I'm not going to record every meal, but for now the daily shot is going to be of at least one of my daily meals.

Probably won't post every day, but there will be a daily photo recorded here for as long as I can manage.

January 1: Dried black-eyed peas, prior to shelling, cooking and eating.

January 1: Foreground - dried black-eyed peas turned into Hoppin' John,
the consumption of which is supposed to bring good luck in the new year.
Background - raw kale salad with roasted squash and maple dressing. Mmmm.

315

2011-11-11T07:06:00.001-05:00

The full moon at around six this morning. Very spooky out there.

302

2011-10-29T09:45:00.000-04:00

Drying the last of the parsley and sage. The
rosemary is going to (hopefully) overwinter
in a pot and the thyme? I'll plant more next spring.
La la laaaaaa la la la la laaa.

301

2011-10-28T03:47:00.003-04:00

Another shot of yesterday morning's amazing golden hillside. It was over,
replaced by grey and rain and gloom, all too soon.

300

2011-10-27T18:51:00.000-04:00

I love these dramatic skyscapes.

299

2011-10-26T18:50:00.000-04:00

I found the fabulous popcorn pictures! Here's what you get when you mix together …

a big bowl of popcorn ...

with a saucepan of honey-caramel sauce.

Popcorn balls that taste like Cracker Jacks! YUM!

Grrr.

2011-10-26T12:41:00.003-04:00

I had three really good photos of caramel popcorn balls, in progress and finished, and I deleted them from my camera card before I made sure they were actually saved to the computer. They might have been the best popcorn pictures I've every taken. Heh.

298

2011-10-25T16:09:00.002-04:00

As much as I don't like mowing, especially so late
in the season, if I hadn't been on the mower I wouldn't
have seen these beautiful leaves crawling down
the trunk of the Bradford pear tree.

297

2011-10-24T17:59:00.001-04:00

I've skipped a few days, due to a short trip. I had the camera with me, but never took it out of the bag. Back home, and here is our Food Day feast!

Chili made with grass-fed beef, homegrown peppers and tomatoes and cooked
dried beans. The butter was made from fresh cow's cream. The cornbread is the
tried-and-true recipe from the red plaid cookbook – didn't want to fiddle around
with a whole-wheat version. Delicious!

289

2011-10-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

Still picking crops! It's so nice to have fresh onions for soup.

288

2011-10-15T13:34:00.003-04:00

I love the high contrast between the pine trees and the sky.

287

2011-10-14T16:05:00.000-04:00

Diamonds on daylilies.

286

2011-10-13T05:37:00.000-04:00

The veil for my granddaughter's Halloween costume.
She's going to be a "princess bride!"

285

2011-10-11T08:21:00.000-04:00

Sage drop biscuits. When you put too much milk into the bowl, you make drop biscuits. Heh.

284

2011-10-10T08:18:00.001-04:00

On my walks, I can really only take long shots of landscapes. These leaves
are on the maple tree in the front yard.

283

2011-10-09T14:28:00.002-04:00

A series of shots from my morning walk. Fall color is nearly at its peak, and it's glorious this year.

282

2011-10-08T13:55:00.001-04:00

A camera phone just doesn't do this view justice.
The Rebel is too heavy to carry on a long walk, though.

281

2011-10-08T06:17:00.000-04:00

This is really good stuff. Made-from-scratch whole-wheat crust, fresh homemade
mozzarella, onions and tomatoes from the garden. I love putting the cheese on
the crust and then adding the toppings. Delicious!

280

2011-10-07T06:13:00.000-04:00

I planted five hills of carving pumpkins. This is one of two fruits that might
be big enough to carve by the end of the month. Not a total crop failure,
but close!

279

2011-10-06T18:28:00.000-04:00

In the background, fresh-from-the-oven wheat bread.
In the center, frozen :( mixed vegetables. (I've not
had good luck with broccoli, carrots and cauliflower.)
In the foreground, fancy mac-and-cheese. Mmmm.

278

2011-10-05T15:14:00.002-04:00

Hershey, waiting for a piece of food to magically
jump off Mike's plate and into her mouth.

277

2011-10-04T16:43:00.000-04:00

I hope you're not tired of seeing pictures of the hibiscus.
I'm clearly not tired of taking them!

276

2011-10-04T16:42:00.002-04:00

A seriously dramatic, early morning skyscape.

274

2011-10-04T16:41:00.003-04:00

Saturday night dessert: Spice cake with brown sugar/cream cheese frosting.

273

2011-10-04T16:40:00.000-04:00

Chocolate and walnut filled meringues, a treat for our weekend guests.

272

2011-09-29T08:25:00.003-04:00

My husband copied this from a book he's reading. Such a sweet thing to do.

271

2011-09-28T16:19:00.003-04:00

To a bowl of romaine, add basil, tomatoes, a green onion, a red pepper …

salad for lunch. Topped it with feta and olives. Haven't had salad in a long time.

270

2011-09-27T07:07:00.002-04:00

How to eat like a kid again! Homemade wheat bread, natural peanut
butter (crunchy) and homemade strawberry jam. Yum!

269

2011-09-26T08:52:00.002-04:00

Potato-Dill Soup (recipe at Epicurious). I added the baked-potato toppings.
Delicious, no leftovers, definitely will make this again!

268

2011-09-25T18:43:00.002-04:00

The potato soup recipe I made tonight called for celery.
None in the refrigerator crisper, but plenty in the garden!

267

2011-09-25T18:42:00.001-04:00

A diamond-shaped paperweight – the favor we got at the WVFDW dinner last weekend.

266

2011-09-25T18:41:00.001-04:00

I know they're just as nutritious as white-shelled eggs, but it makes
me happy to see a bowl of brown eggs. At $2 a dozen from
the Amish farm down the road, you can't beat it!
(And, if you do, you can make an omelette. Heh.)

262

2011-09-19T18:05:00.003-04:00

Pesto Day! Harvested the last of the basil; the freezer is well-stocked.

253

2011-09-14T07:10:00.004-04:00

Pico de gallo, with everything but the onion picked fresh from the garden. Mmmm!

251

2011-09-14T07:08:00.001-04:00

We've had the most amazing sunsets lately. I was a little too late on this one,
but still thought the sky was dramatic enough to shoot.

246

2011-09-14T07:07:00.001-04:00

My first trip to a butterfly garden. Not a great shot, but I like how the foreground
and background are both blurry, leaving the butterfly in focus. Don't ask me
how that happened. I could probably never do it again.

255

2011-09-12T10:21:00.002-04:00

Not the best quality, but I think it's a pretty shot of a little valley
I see on my usual walk, this morning shrouded in clouds.

251

2011-09-09T07:51:00.000-04:00

Dramatic skyscape, I only wish I'd had the good camera with me.
But thank you, BlackBerry, for being so handy!

249

2011-09-06T07:40:00.002-04:00

This is what one day of solid rain looks like.

244

2011-09-01T19:56:00.003-04:00

I thought my tomato slice looked a little like a peace symbol.
We could all use a little more peace these days, wherever we can find it.

243

2011-08-31T07:28:00.002-04:00

Sunrise.

241

2011-08-30T07:23:00.000-04:00

I can't seem to take enough pictures of the spectacular cloudscapes we've
enjoyed lately. This is a view of a little church taken from the parking lot
at our local post office.

Out the side window of the car, driving home from Charleston yesterday.
There were little wispy clouds floating by, so close I felt I could touch them.

239

2011-08-28T06:49:00.000-04:00

We didn't get any rain from Hurricane Irene, but were on the outermost
edge of the wind effect. These clouds rolled by quickly as I watched the sunset.

238

2011-08-26T07:05:00.001-04:00

What a beautiful thing to wake up to this morning!
I can see it from my kitchen window.

Close-up. But I like the other shot better. I fertilized it when I planted it,
but I guess it needed more than that initial dose.

236

2011-08-25T07:51:00.001-04:00

Mmmmm. Spaghetti squash. First of four from this year's garden.

234

2011-08-22T18:13:00.004-04:00

Six pounds of cabbage, one ounce of kosher salt and lots o' chopping …

turns into two gallons (more or less) of sauerkraut. Ready to eat in six weeks.

232

2011-08-20T17:54:00.002-04:00

Elefante et finis!

231

2011-08-19T10:14:00.003-04:00

I really, really, really hope the hibiscus blooms before fall gets here.
It's been at this tight-bud stage for ages.

230

2011-08-19T10:13:00.002-04:00

This little – actually it was kinda big! – guy was
hanging out on my front door this afternoon. I tried
to get a picture of the underside from the other side
of the door, but no details showed up. Too dark.

224

2011-08-12T07:17:00.003-04:00

The morning sun rose through a thick layer of fog. Lovely, spooky.

223

2011-08-11T15:22:00.004-04:00

A row of walking onions, with tomatoes and corn and edamame in the
background. I picked 26 ounces of edamame today. Now to go shell it!

222

2011-08-10T16:03:00.004-04:00

If life gives you okra, make okra pickles. Yum.

221

2011-08-09T10:21:00.003-04:00

Sparkly asparagus plants. I'm sure they're as
grateful for the rain as I am!

220

2011-08-08T16:00:00.000-04:00

A friend who is a canning virgin came over with mega-pounds of cucumbers,
which we then turned into pickles, both dill and bread-and-butter.
The non-pickles jars on the right are my peach preserves.

219

2011-08-07T16:23:00.004-04:00

I just turned 17 pounds of tomatoes into seven quarts. Yay!
So far I've picked 29 pounds of tomatoes from this year's garden.

213

2011-08-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

Starting the body of Elefante. The legs are done.

212

2011-08-01T07:59:00.003-04:00

Black-eyed Susan from my garden.

211

2011-08-01T07:58:00.004-04:00

Yes, I'm starting a new knitting project.

211

2011-07-29T08:22:00.000-04:00

The third 8-ounce jar of dill seed I've saved from this year's crop.
That is a lot of dill.

210

2011-07-28T07:11:00.004-04:00

Waaaaaay off in the distance you can see the white tail of a fawn who had
gotten separated from her mother. Hershey made sure she didn't stick
around and eat too many of the perennials.

209

2011-07-27T07:25:00.002-04:00

My mother used to say, on mornings like this,
"It's kind of froggy out there." I'm smiling at the memory.

208

2011-07-27T07:24:00.002-04:00

It make me feel so self-sufficient to go pick a lime off my tree when I need
lime juice for a recipe. There are a couple more biggish ones, like this,
and about a dozen teeny baby ones. I hope they don't get blown off
the branches before they get big enough to survive.

207

2011-07-26T12:49:00.001-04:00

Missed a couple of days. Oh, well.

I so seldom see cilantro in the produce aisle at Tiny Kroger that I just HAD to buy some!

204

2011-07-25T06:49:00.001-04:00

It's very hard to take a photo of your own glasses when you need to be
wearing your glasses to get the shot. That said, I really like how the
light from the window hit the left lens. Believe me, I didn't plan that!

203

2011-07-23T12:45:00.000-04:00

I had no idea there were enough beans to pick. Got about six ounces,
which we'll have for dinner tonight.

202

2011-07-22T16:38:00.001-04:00

Mmmm. This is what summer's all about. Tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, onion
and pepper – all from the garden – about to be sliced and diced and sautéed
with sliced chicken sausage. Everything then gets tossed into a bowl of pasta
with pesto sauce, topped generously with freshly grated Parmesan.

201

2011-07-21T13:22:00.002-04:00

The first zucchini. About damned time!

200

2011-07-21T13:04:00.001-04:00

Not really "before," more like during: topsoil added, rocks lining the bed,
almost everything planted.

Done! Although I'm told landscaping is never done. The mulch was delivered and
spread this morning, everything's watered and smoothed and tidied up
and it all looks so gorgeous!

199

2011-07-20T09:09:00.004-04:00

The tallest ear of corn, and the first tassle.

198

2011-07-18T18:48:00.001-04:00

I've put a bunch of dill heads in the freezer for future pickles, and gathered almost
two ounces of seeds from half a dozen heads. They don't call it dillweed for nothing!

196

2011-07-18T18:46:00.002-04:00

Mmmm … taboulleh! Fresh-from-the-garden onions, tomatoes and parsley, the juice
of a lime from my little tree and organic bulgar. I love taboulleh!