HiHoRosie's Place

This picture is of some wild flowers (weeds probably) growi ng in our second garden plot. They’re too cheery to rip out and are harmless enough where they’re growing so we left them. Today, I saw amongst the small orange flowers these poppy-like ones. I know pretty much zippo about flowers but they sure are pretty to look at, including those innocuous ones. And to continue with the orange theme, may I present our lunch in the garden: Mmmm…papayas. We also feasted on organic bananas and Valencia oranges. Oh and lots o’water! Hey, did I just say “garden?” Why yes! This is going to be a garden update. Orange you glad?! I just had to say that….this is where the orange theme ends. This past weekend we worked a lot in the garden, I even took Friday off from work to go g arden. Couldn’t help it – summer’s officially underway and the sun was shining so brightly – it was great to be out. And anyone who thinks Seattle doesn’t get sun or heat, think again! Saturday and Sunday were both over 90 ...

Our first strawberry pickin's! They are shown amongst some fresh spinach given to us by another gardener. We're discovering though that SLUGS love to EAT our STRAWBERRIES! Slugs are gross and need to find a new place to live. Stupid ugly slimy things. Grr! Hubby went out to the garden the other day and ate a bunch since they were ripe and didn't want the slugs to get them first. He said they were the best he's ever had. It was as though he'd never had one before. I believe him. Strawberries are the best! Especially if they're organic and more especially if they're from your own garden. Off to the garden now. Update to follow. Just what you wanted to hear. heh heh! Pretty soon I won't be talking about my garden for months so just bear with me for now.

Be the Best of Whatever You Are If you can't be a pine on the top of a hill Be a scrub in the valley--but be The best little scrub by the side of the rill; Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a bush be a bit of the grass, And some highway happier make; If you can't be a muskie then just be a bass-- But the liveliest bass in the lake! We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew, There's something for all of us here. There's big work to do and there's lesser work too, And the task we must do is the near. If you can't be a highway then just be a trail, If you can't be the sun be a star; For it isn't by size that you win or you fail-- Be the best of whatever you are! -by Douglas Malloch

Every couple of months (or possibly monthly) in my office building the local blood bank sets up station in the building's large conference room encouraging anyone and everyone who can donate blood to donate blood. I went in hopes of doing my good deed for the day by donating a pint of my lovely red blood. The man who greeted me and verified my info to get me started pointed out that today was a special day for me if I was able to donate. Currently I'm at seven pints donated so far so today would've been eight. Eight pints equals ONE GALLON! Wow! With one gallon logged I would've received my commemorative gallon pin. Could you've imagined the celebration for such a milestone?! Well, unfortunately, I have a history of "hit or miss" when it comes to donating that many times I don't bother with the blood drive because I'm turned down so often. This is due to my low iron. However, today I was feeling really good about donating. It's like the stars a...

Pictures of a tiger lily that greets us everyday outside our front door. The bush is full of buds so there's going to be a lot of them blooming soon this just happened to be first one to do so.

Who's excited for another garden post? Raise your hands! Oooh oooh oooh! Anyone? Hello? Bueller ? Hmm...just what I thought. But I've got pictures. Well, anyway...ah yes...gardening...it's been fun and a learning experience. We have said many times through this new experience "live and learn." Basically, we're learning many things as we go along or The Hard Way. Such is life right? As you know, this is our first year gardening and whaddya know? we end up having the worst spring season EVER! Not enough sun or heat to get things growing. As a result, our tomato and pepper plants are looking kinda sad these days...wonder if we'll get more than these two tomatoes? Do you see the baby tomato left of the large one? Sniff... A couple of sad looking plants. Bell pepper on the left and a tomato plant on the right. Oh and my allergies. Ever present. Yeah, good times. Deer keep trampling thru our garden, slugs keep slugging and critters have eaten some of our corn ...

I have a sweet tooth. Okay, I have a sweet tooth AND a salty tooth. But I've always loved the "fou-fou" type drinks, you know the sweet fruity ones? Yeah, so here's one I borrowed from a blog buddy's site who said it was okay to share with everyone. So if you like sweet juices check this one out: Radiant Juice 1 large eating apple, quartered 1 orange, peeled but with some pith 2 large carrots, topped, tailed, and peeled if not organic 1-inch piece of fresh gingerroot, peeled and sliced Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor and whiz until smooth. My notes: I didn't read the directions part the first time and ran all ingredients thru my Champion juicer. I might try the blender next time but the juice is awesome. And voila! Doesn't it look pretty?

You asked now I answer. An indepth review of those green bags I had previously mentioned . What are those green bags? How do they work? How long do they work? Where to get them? Green bags are great for storing all of your fresh produce to make them last longer. I had heard about them but first tried them when I was a customer of an organic delivery service and since it was the first place I knew of that had them I gave them a whirl. One of the great things about these bags is they are reusable . I forgot to explain that to hubby in the beginning so some were mistakenly thrown away after one use. Whoopsie. Using these bags you'll be saving your produce while saving money on disposable ziploc bags (if you use them), although, we're starting to reuse some of those too. No sense in wasting them each time if you can help it. Saving = yay! But the produce bags really work at keeping the various fruits and veggies fresh longer. How? Well, according to legend they are made with Oya,...

Some of you were asking about the marinara sauce and the "cheese" I used on the zucchini post , so here are those recipes. The Parmesan cheese topping is a recipe I got from Raw Goddess Heathy , which I blogged about here . I also include the link to her original post; you should check it out anyway as it includes an array of her incredibleness. When I grow up I hope to be like her. :D The marinara sauce I found online. You can find many raw sauce recipes by just googling it but here's the one I like. Unfortunately, the website I found it from no longer works so I'm sorry to whoever I got this from but I can't give you credit as a result. Marinara Sauce 1/2 c sun-dried tomatoes* 1 fresh tomato 3 cloves garlic 1 TBS EVOO 1 TBS agave 2 tsp basil 2 tsp oregano 1 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper water BLEND! Add water in as needed for desired consistency. *My notes: 1) I'm GUESSING on the amount of sun-dried tomatoes (BTW, I use dried sun-dried tomatoes and no...

I recently made the Almond Toast from the Café Gratitude book . Whoa! Are these puppies good! Not that I eat puppies mind you but these toasts do have a crunch and texture like toast. The first time I made these they were half eaten by hubby, who obviously loved them, so there wasn’t enough left to do anything with them. Not that I cared; they made great snacks. I made them again, a double batch, with the intention of making half the plain version and the other half the rosemary version but was too lazy to do the rosemary one as it was getting late in the evening when I was doing this. Again, I missed out on doing anything more with these than eating them with salads or as snacks. My intention is that for next time is to make the tomato-basil bruschetta topping for these. You know it’s gotta be good! Serve them up as an appetizer to zucchini pasta with pesto…oh now, that sounds divine. I did the lazy-man’s way of dehydrating these. My M.O. if you will. You’re supposed to take the mixt...

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone: TV Reviews I snagged this from Mama's Losin' It .

Our lunch, Cabbage Mustard Garlic salad , recipe courtesy of Leora : Mine doesn't look as lovely as hers but it was oh so very D-LISH! The following is Leora's salad recipe: Ingredients 1 savoy cabbage or napa cabbage olive oil to coat brown mustard to coat 2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves salt, pepper to taste juice of 1/2 fresh orange or lemon for color: bits of shredded purple cabbage and/or carrot (optional) Chop the cabbage into bite size pieces (that’s the most complicated part of this recipe). Add the shredded carrots and/or purple cabbage. Put in a large bowl. Coat the cabbage with olive oil. Then coat it with mustard. Crush in your garlic cloves, and mix. Sprinkle with salt and/or pepper to taste. Squeeze on lemon or orange juice, and mix well. Tip on shredded carrots: you can use your food processor, or you can peel off little piece of carrot with your carrot peeler. My notes: I used napa cabbage. I have never used it before or recall ever having it but I really love it. ...

…it’s what’s for dinner. Remember those old beef commercials? Yeah, replace beef with whatever is fitting instead. In this case, it was zukes. Now, I’m sure a lot of you have had zucchini pasta in some fo rm or another. It is good isn’t it? When making “pasta” I used my trusty vegetable peeler for fettuccine type noodles but really wanted a veggie spiralizer; just unsure which one to buy. We recently bought the Lurch Spiralo , which is super. Of course, I’ve never had a spiralizer before so I can’t compare it to anything else but from what I understand about the others out there this one is better, possibly best. I dunno - I just know it works for us. It makes beautiful looong ribbons of noodles out of anything you can spiral. Oodles of noodles! Yay! The entrée we served up….ta da! Zucchini spaghetti with marinara sauce top with a nut "parmesan cheese." Next time I'd like to try topping my pasta with Carmella's alfredo sauce . This sounds like the real deal. Now go e...