Jury Duty

I reported for jury duty at  8:00 this morning. I ha stopped off at Dunkin' Donuts to get a dunkaccino(my guilty pleasure) and a cinnamon raisin bagel for lunch. I was early and walked across the parking lot and up the stairs to the scanner and metal detector.

"You have scissors in your bag?"

Now this bag I packed for Jury Duty would have put Mary Poppins to shame.

"Um, probably"

"You have knitting needles in the bag?"

I was excited because I knew the answer to that question.

"YES!" (OK maybe a bit too much exuberance)

"You can't come in here with knitting needles or scissors."

Did I mention that the knitting needles were plastic and the scissors were safety scissors?

"I can't?"

"You can't what?"

I was getting confused at this point.

"I can't come in with safety scissors or plastic knitting needles...?"

So I slowly turned, walked back down the steps, across the parking lot, opened my car and deposited my weaponish safety scissors and plastic knitting needles. Then back across the parking lot, up the stairs, and through the scanner and metal detector(again).

The guard said to me, "If you had wooden knitting needles that would have been ok."

"Because they are...what...less pointy?" I say.

"No because they are wooden."

I love Jury Duty.  'Nuff said.

"Homegrown Herbs" A Book Review

I have been researching herbal gardens. I finally found a great book, "Homegrown Herbs: A Complete Guide to Growing, Using, and enjoying More than 100 Herbs" by Tammi Hartung. 

This book was exactly what I was looking for. It covered everything from designing the herbal garden to soil preparation, propagation methods for different herbs, pest and disease control to harvesting herbs, drying them, making tinctures, cooking...so many topics.

The book is very well written. It is very concise and to the point. Finding the  information you are looking for is very easy. I especially love the charts that are provided - they make finding information about specific herbs sooo easy.

Just reading my gardening books is getting me so excited for gardening time to begin!!!

Book Review: "The Commonsense Kitchen"

Last week I got a really great book through my book club. "The Commonsense Kitchen" by Tom Hudgens. 

It is a pretty big book. 607 pages. 607 pages filled with recipes and "lessons" for a "hand-crafted" life.

Tom Hudgens was Head Chef at Deep Springs College. The College was founded in 1917 and is situated on a working ranch in California. It is a two year college and only 26 men attend. They accept about 13 students a year. You can read more about the College and its programs in the book.

The book starts off covering "Kitchen Basics" - what tools, spices etc. you should have on hand in your kitchen. Specific kitchen terms are also covered.  Every kind of comfort food and just , well, commonsense recipe is given.  

Canning, bread making, gooey desserts, all kinds of meats, poultry and fish dishes, cakes , pies, tarts, vegetables, breakfast, lunch and dinner are all covered . Sample menus are shared, as well as recipes for taking care of all sorts of stains!

I have been having some difficulty with my bread making and so the first section I turned to was "Bread Making". The recipe and instructions seem to be very comprehensive. A time line is even shown (I could really use that). I will be trying the bread recipe tomorrow and hopefully will have a keeper. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime...live, laugh and love...

Baking All Day for Relaxation

I really needed to relax my mind today. The best way for me to do that - get into the kitchen and start cooking!

I started out trying to make a plain white bread. It looked good  - but it never did rise. Now if anyone ever needed a weapon, something that one could throw at another's head and do some serious damage - well then these two "loaves" would it the bill! I am going to give it another try tomorrow. Then I figure three strikes and I'm out (at least for a week).

I also made mini donuts. I bought a small pan an inside was a recipe to bake donuts. They are very tasty. I think that the ground cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg seal the deal on the tastiness. The donuts are also topped with a confectioners sugar icing - I pop a little orange extract into it to give it a punch.

Let's see - in the midst of this I made spaghetti sauce and then some meatballs to pop into the sauce.

Followed by a really good yellow cake. It was the Everyday Cake recipe from Martha Stewart's original cookbook.  I also made the icing - but it was just OK - it called for a teaspoon of vanilla which kind of left it to alcohol-y (new word) tasting to suit me.

It felt really good to get all of the cooking done. It even felt good to be at the sink and wash all of the dishes. I just wish that the bread had turned out.....

Spring Clean for the Craft Room

I finally did it today - spring cleaning for the craft room. 

I moved some things around and went thtrough many of my bins. I discovered things I didn't even know that I had. I found a bunch of old felted sweater cuffs that I think I am going to work on tomorrow. They will make some really great insulated cup holders. When I go to get my coffee I won't need to take the cardboard cup holders. Small steps....

I was also able to work on a small sunflower painting today. I really got the look that I wanted with it. I think I may transfer the image to some ACEO cards.

The weather was also crazy today. I woke up and looked out the back door and saw...snow. It snowed a bit, rained a bit, sleeted and hailed a bit and then BOOM! Thunder and lightning!! Mother Nature was trying to get in every type of weather today. It is still suppose to rain tomorrow but that is ok by me...more time to spend in the craft room...

"Mother" was finished being fed today and I tried my hand at a loaf of sourdough bread. The top was crusty but separated from the bottom and it wasn't done all the way through. I am going to keep feeding "Mother" this week and give it another go. Tomorrow I am going to tr to make a plain yeast bread.

Remember live, laugh and love...

Is This Winter or Spring?

Just to update - the weekend went wonderfully. SJ and I had a great time in AC and Last night in NYC at the Elton John concert was phenomenal. 

This morning I had to make the drive back into NYC to see the doctor. I was all set for the first full day of Spring!!! At 8 this morning I was driving through ....SNOW! ARGH!! Snow should be gone and birds should be singing. LOL.

Now that things are calming down  have been able to get to work on many crafting projects. Knitting baby hats, felting and beading eyeglass cases. I have been trying to get pictures developed onto to disc to load onto this site. I am starting to think that it is time to get a new camera with a hookup to the computer so I can just download pictures.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Busy Weekend

OOOOH I have a very busy weekend coming up but I don't mind at all. Tomorrow night my baby, SJ (20) and myself are going to AC to see KC& The Sunshine Band. We saw him last year in AC and he was fantastic!  My husband refuses to even acknowledge that we are going(LOL).

Sunday SJ and I are heading into NYC for dinner and to meet my parents at MSG to see Elton John. I really can't wait to see him. 

The only bad part of this weekend is the amount of driving -- but I'll have excellent company!

It was 79 degrees today and beautiful at the Jersey Shore! I was so happy that my dad and I were able to get to Lowes and buy the lumber and screws to make two more raised beds for my new and improved garden.

I had just enough time to squeeze in a run to JoAnn Fabrics and found some really great fabric on sale to make a beach bag for this summer.

Of course the best part of the day is sitting outside and talking to my neighbors. I am very lucky to have such great neighbors. As the weather gets nicer we all head outside and grab our chairs and sit and talk and laugh and laugh!

Keeping you all posted on "Mother". I have been feeding her every day and she seems to be 'percolating'. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

PaperBack Swap

I have received most of my wonderful books through  the website paperbackswap.com.

 It is free to join. You open an account, post your books and wait for the requests to come in. Once you get a request you can print out a label and mail out the book to the requester. The only cost to you is the postage. Now you receive one point and can use that point to request a book - which will be sent to you.

I have received craft books, mysteries, self - help, cookbooks, classic novels, best-sellers, you name it! My daughter even was able to trade some of her textbooks from school!

I know I hate to throw out books - so trading them is the next best thing for me!

Bread Day

So today I started "Mother". Hopefully, if I feed her this week by Tuesday I can make a nice loaf of bread. I used organic King Arthur's flour and distilled water. Mixed them together, covered with a damp towel and left on my counter. I'll feed her tomorrow and keep everyone updated.

Since I am such an impatient person I also made a loaf of sweet Hawiian bread that was ready by this afternoon. It made the whole house smell so good. It was a great pm snack with a cup of hot tea.

It was rainy this morning but later in the afternoon it cleared up enough to go outside. I really didn't want to go out back because  I knew it wold be too mush to actually do any work on the garden. I think I will go buy the lumber and the screws to make my new boxes tomorrow.

I am going to finish knitting up baby hats for one of the farm girls to donate to Mongolian babies. I like to do things like hat because I feel that I am giving back and it makes me feel good.

During this season of Lent I am going to try to do one random act of kindness a day. Something that I have to go out of my way to do. An action, a help, not just a donation of money.  it makes me happy to do small things for people, I really like to do them anonymously if it's possible. I better put my thinking cap on for tomorrow...

Too Many Thoughts in My Head!

Whew - substituted again today!

Ever have that kind of a day where you have so many thoughts in your head that your head starts spinning? That was me today. 

The weather is still warming up (mid 30s) and my thoughts are turning more and more to the garden. I can't wait for that tiller from e-bay to come in. I can till the plots.

 I also have to make a trip to Lowes to get the lumber to make the extra raised beds. I am also going to check into fence posts to paint and put around the garden and then staple chicken wire to them.

Then I wanted to get my "mother" started to make some homemade bread. of course that turned my mind to bread machines. *sigh*

Little voices call to me from my craft room. Projects that I really want to wrap up. How many hours are in a day again? I think I may use all of them tomorrow.

Then again - a hot cup of tea, a cinnamon roll, and a stack of Mary Jane's Farm magazines sound like a gift from God.

My Other Love ~ Teaching

I had to take a break from the garden planning and crafting today because I was called in to substitute teach. 

I have been an educator for over 23 years. I have taught, I have been a Vice Principal and Principal. Unfortunately, during my tenure as Principal I became ill and had to resign. I am doing much better now and often go into to substitute.

I have to say that I really look forward to my teaching days. I enjoy being with the kids. I love watching their faces when they "get" something that they have been working on.

I really enjoy embracing a teachable moment...you ever know when they are going to turn up...the classroom...the garden...life....

Tiller Purchased

I am so excited. A I mentioned before, I am going to try the "lasagna" method to get some of the plots in my garden going. However, I also need to till the other plots. The last few years I have been doing this with a hoe, shovel, rake and every neighborhood kid that I could find. Enough already.

Last night I was able to purchase a mini tiller on e-bay. Very low cost and shipped straight to my house. I can't wait for it to come in because it has to be easier than the ways I have been trying to till.

I was also very fortunate today to find a link to Harris seeds through the chat room on MaryJane's website. I placed the order for my seeds and now  I just have to wait for them to come in.

My craft room was calling me today. There were a few projects that I needed to wrap up. I am going to try to post pictures soon.

In the meantime...live, laugh and love...

Almost Spring

It is almost spring here at the Jersey Shore. It doesn't feel like it yet. 

I keep walking around in my backyard pacing out and planning out the new addition to my garden. I am going to almost double the gardening space. I just can't wait to get started!

I just received my new issue of "MaryJane's Farm" magazine(www.MaryJanesFarm.org)  and I am going to try the "lasagna gardening" method found there. If there is an easier way to do this I would love to know about it!

I am having so much fun reading through all the seed catalogues that I have saved up through the winter. My gardening books are strewn across my kitchen table and I have a hot cup of steaming Earl Gray at my elbow. *sigh* This is truly heaven!