Saturday, September 8, 2012

PARDON ME MA'AM IS THAT A PEPPER IN YOUR POCKET

I had a kinda embarrassing moment in Whole Foods Market. I was walking thru produce and I started to feel like something was wrong with the back of my dress. All the sudden this woman comes up and says Ma'am and reaches behind me and pulls a long Green Chile Relleno off my butt. Some how the stem had gotten caught in the crochet of my dress and I was walking around with a tail...lol

HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE


 Fossil of a snake . I found it to be beautiful in its own way
 The slothzilla is rumored to be extinct but I am not buying it for a minute. I see them everywhere. Slothzilla will now become a frequently used word in my vocabulary.
 
This is one of the famed Crystal skulls. As much as I admired it, I didnt feel any of the psychic energy its suppossed to impart. I walked away with no new Super powers, damn it!

KATHY REICHS PRIVATE ENGAGEMENT



 Dr. Kathy Reichs
 Kerry Reichs
 Debra Miner
Kathy Goodwin
 
 
I had a fabulous time . This has to be the best event I have attended. Kathy Reichs is informative, witty funny. I Thouroughly enjoyed every minute of the presentation. She covered the work she does forensically, writing,  Producing a TV show as well as going over many of her books.
 
Kerry Reichs is Kathys daughter and a writer herself. The apple dosnt fall fa from the tree. She was an absolute delight and I look foward to reading her work as well.
 
Debra Miner is Kathy's sister, who is a character called Harriet in many of Kathy Reichs novels. She is a wild woman who can do anything and has done some incredible things in her life.
 
They were all so very personable and talked to you about anything. I loved Kathy Reichs novels before, now that I have met her I love them even more.
 
The photos are not great I had to use my cell phone camera.My Sony Cybershot P200's battery has been discontinued, so I found a place that had a few and it was on order. Ofcourse it came in the day after this event. I threw the bottom photo of myself in as I am never in any photos.

MY COTTAGE GARDEN

 These are all Heirloom varieties of cherry tomatoes. They are so beautiful and vibrant. I keep them in a bowl dip them in sea salt and have them as a healthy snack.
 These are lemons from my tree. For the first several years I didn't use them. Then after our Thailand trip when I saw that the lemons and oranges in the market there also had green peels yet were ripe. I began to wonder about my own. Our yard guy routinely takes bag fulls of them . So I tried them, sure enough despite the skin being green they are perfectly ripe and ready to use . The reason they do not turn yellow here is because our climate is so warm. A citrus as well as other fruit trees needs a certain number of chill hours in a growing season for them to ripen and change to the yellow color.
 The Sunflower journal is my record book for planting, my garden diagrams and my chicken and egg production. The Squirrel is a new nut cracker I just bought. with all the rain we have had this summer, it looks as if pecan crops are going to be great. So I am getting prepared for all the nuts I will be shelling.
 These are the 2 eggs my hens laid this week. Egg production has been pretty slow the past few weeks. Lately I have seen the girls eating alot more laying feed. Hopefully this will help increase production. The eating of heartier feed makes me think they are bulking up for a cold winter.
I planted the garden last week with vegetable seeds. It looks like my Daikon, Turnip and a late batch of cantaloupes are sprouting nicely.

Fall

 I have been predicting an early fall and a cold winter. When I lived on the island someone once said the only way they had of telling what season it was , was by my yard decoations. You couldn't tell by the weather. Well Its still pretty hot here in the upper 90's, but that didnt stop me from putting out the fall decorations.

Pickled Daikon Root Recipe- Daigo


Ingredients:
6 Daikon radishes-peeled,
sliced about 1/4 inch thick and cut into half moons.
1/2 C Sea Salt
1 C Sugar
4 C vinegar
1 tsp tumeric
10-20 Boonie Peppers or birds eye peppers (cut and crushed)
4 C. water
 
I used a 1/2 Gallon canning jar. I put Daikon  and peppers in jar. I covered with the boiled brine made from remaining ingredients . What room was left in jar I topped with Vinegar. Let steep atleast 2 days.
 
When I lived in Guam there were 6 foods I fell in love with there that have become my comfort foods.
Chicken Keleguen
Pickled Daigo
Finedine sauce
Pickled Papaya
Dried Squid
Slurpees

Kathy's Chicken Lulu Playing Tic Tac Toe