Why I love cooking shows

I'm an OK cook. Not great, not bad. I can do some things great, and try to avoid bad at all costs. In the last year, I've only had one disaster. I accidentally turned the lemon pepper upside down on my chicken, and it WAS NOT on the sprinkle side. Blech.  I have had freinds comment that I am a very "messy" cook.  That does not surprise me.

I mainly watch the Top Chef series. I think the dessert one is dumb. I adore No Reservations, but that's more of a travel/food show, not a cooking show. I get a kick out of Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I even friended two contestants from Season 6 on Facebook. Amazingly, they accepted. I think the "contestants" are a hoot, and Gordon Ramsay cracks me up. Sometimes when I'm cooking I can hear him in my head giving his oh, so subtle input. "Don't burn the garlic you cow!"

All these shows post their recipes, but I've never made one. I'll do that sometime. Tonight is an excellent example of why I love cooking shows. I found a recipe for mini meatloaves, and it looked yummy and easy.  The recipe called for an indentation on the top to put ketchup in. Don't get me wrong, I really dig ketchup. But it just seemed so, blah. So I took a sliver of garlic, roasted red pepper strips and diced tomatoes and put them in instead. 15m until detante, so we'll see how that goes.

Hey, that was pretty good.  I'm going to add more spices next time, and not use as large a portion of wet ingredients that they did.  My idea for the top turned out great.  Here is my first food picture I think.  Produce doesn't count.

Mixed Borders are where it's at.

There's no reason to separate your veggies from your flower borders.  Combining the two is good for all the plants, makes it so the pollinators can do their job easier, and it looks great.

Dahlia and Dill

Carrots, Cilantro, Annual flowers, and Daisies.

Now for just some random flowers.

Snapdragon with a critter on it.

A very fragrant Lily.  Thank goodness, because there is a dead deer up on our hill, and this helps mask the stink.

Hanna in the garden

I think I'll post pictures of the bunnies tomorrow.

It's been a great summer so far.

In June, we stayed a few days in Boise while I was at a conference.  I went to a few rewarding seminars while Kermit walked around downtown.  We stayed at a nice place, ate some good meals, had one fantastic meal at Asiago's in downtown Boise. 

We visited the museum and got to see an artist installing an exhibition.  It's a large, very large, wood piece.  Hard to describe.  I'll see if they have a link to it on their site.  One set of pieces that I just LOVED was a woman that took old handwriting samples from journals and put it into large scale artworks.  Just lovely.  The main exhibit was a shoe show, where artists did pieces around shoes.  Some were brilliant, some silly, and of course, some totally self absorbed and over thought.  Artists, you know.  It is my theory that if you have to explain the piece to your audience, you have FAILED in relaying the thought.  Your goal is that people should be able to look at it and GET IT.  If not, it's just an inside thought, and you shouldn't explain what you did, just let it be.

Then Kermit had a lot of days off.  We went to Dayton and saw a graduate of mine, Heather Stearns.  Look her up, Heather the Bard.  She's good!  We had a nice meal with her and her husband, went and listened to her play.  Stayed at the Weinhard Hotel in Dayton.  The bed was sooooo comfy.  Wonderful service, good latte's and breakfast.  It had an inviting roof top garden.  The hosts were friendly and had some great suggestions for excursions.

We got the local map on a self guided walking tour of Historic Houses.  Kermit and I did the north one, full of Queen Anne, Four Square, and my person favorite, Craftsman.  I have come to the conclusion that our house is "American Mishmash."  It has some Craftsman attributes, but is missing some key ingredients. As with any other style you try to attribute to it.

Dayton has a Grandpa Death House!  You know the type, falling down, but someone mysterious lives there. From what I understand, he's not old though.  But in my mind, he's Grandpa Death.  Donnie Darko fans will understand this.

Now we are home, cooking good meals, enjoying the pond and yard, cuddling with the pooches.  Life is very good.

New Walk Part II

Flowers and whatnot on the trail.  There would have been Fauna, but I only bring the small powershot on walks, and I couldn't adjust fast enough to get a pic of a grouse and babies.

New Walk! Part I

Kermit had me graduate to a new walk.  It is definitely more of a challenge.  When we went on our old walk last week, it was much easier than before.

Here is the trail head

The Boy Scout that did this is a student of mine - I'm sure he would be pleased that his work is giving me a work out.

And up we go!  It's steeper than the regular walk, but so much prettier.  There's always pictures of Kermit and Penny because I'm always behind them.  Luey was visiting us this weekend, and he went with us.

About half way up the hill...

It's a beautiful view from the top.

If we do the loop, the way down is the same as the regular walk with going down an extra hill.

Next time, I'll post flora and fauna pics from the trail.

Cedar Waxwings are visiting our yard...

They are very pretty.  They sit up in the fir trees or our neighbor's birch, then they'll swoop down to sit in the Japanese Maple and bathe in the water.

About a year ago, Kermit dug a new pond for us. 
http://irisfleuron.blogspot.com/2011/01/no-new-pics-today.html   
Did a little landscaping.  This Spring, we've been working on it, and here it is now

Had some new Dahlia blooms today, so I took a picture of that too.  

I put in a LOT of annuals the other day.  Dianthus, Zinna, some hot and sweet peppers. I fertilized them today, so hopefully that helps.  Something is eating one of my Wave Petunias.  Not both.  I do not see any new damage, so it will probably recover.

Beautiful Day!

Sorry, no pics for now. I forgot the camera at school again.  I'll pick it up tonight so I can show you compost pictures.

Speaking of compost, I have a good amount of it!  I sifted the "done" pile this morning.  Nice fluffy dirt.  I do the cold composting method.  Meaning I pile it, turn it once in a great while.  Try to chip/shred it before it gets piled.

I Love Worms!  If you are cold composting and are not finding lots of worms, you need to add food scraps, good dirt, dried tree leaves, and leafy greens.  If your debri is composting and you have no worms, you probably got an accidental hot compost.  It makes me really happy when I go to plant something anywhere in my yard and always find worms.  A sign of healthy soil.  

I gave up tilling about 3 years ago.  Now I just keep piling on the compost, and turn the soil with a garden fork if I feel like it.  When I plant, I can usually go down a good 7" with little effort.

Put some seeds out too.  Marjoram and Sean Conway Sunflowers.

Last night we made a ring for the Water Hyacinth out of foam pipe insulation and a PVC piece to connect the ends into a circle.  It moves around the pond in a really nice circle.  I'm going to buy small solar lights that float to put in the ring and around the pond.  That will be a good subject for a long exposure shot.

Laze around this afternoon, maybe go shopping, get mail.  This evening is a retirement party for some very special people.  It should be seriously fun.