Random Quote #204

Happy Birthday New York

Presidential Visits to Foreign Nations

To celebrate President Obama's historic visit as president to his ancestral paternal homeland, I updated from March 2014 my graphic of all presidential visits to foreign nations and am re-posting it here.

Click on the image to see it in its entirety.

An Appealing Photo of a Sycamore?

Cauliflower Florentine Casserole

I had a head of cauliflower and I wanted to make something different with it for dinner. This is what I came up with: Cauliflower Florentine casserole. Not only can I make up good tasting food, I can give it a fancy name! (I served it with some homemade coleslaw on the right side of the plate.)

This is how I made it:

I mixed up: 

1 can condensed Cream of Onion Soup
1 8 oz container Sour Cream
1 pkg frozen Creamed Spinach (thawed but not reheated)

Added in this order: 

Some grated Colby Jack Cheese--I dunno maybe 3 oz? (I only buy block cheese, btw because companies add cellulose to pre-grated cheese to keep it from clumping in the bags and then charge you 50% more for the sawdust...)
Half a little box of Orzo pasta (cooked)
1 Ham Steak cubed
1 lrg head of Cauliflower cut into bite sizes and blanched

All mixed into a covered casserole dish, topped with those Cheddar Cheese Fried Onions and baked for 45 minutes at 325˚.

Pride Birthdays and Memorials for the Week ~ July 26th to August 1st

Where Does Our Food Come From?

Not where is it grown, but where did evolve.  I made this poster to record my findings.  Summer project.

He's Like A Snotty Nosed Little Child

The Boy Clown on the Clown Car speaks.

A Delightful Distraction

Stumbled upon this wonderful little farce, "Another Period" on comedy central.  It's like "When Things Were Rotten" mashed up with "The Vicar of Dibley," a sash of "By Any Other Name" and "Mary Hartmann, Mary Hartmann".

Today's Sermon

ODE TO TOMATOES

The street
filled with tomatoes,
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhaustible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it's time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

~ Pablo Neruda, 1904 - 1973

In The Non-Lily Parts Of My Gardens

Random Quote #203

What I'm Ready #85

This is wonderfully insight memoir and informative text on the world of moss mash-up.  Robin Wall Kimmerer is a biologist  and poet all in one.  I love science, and when it comes wrapped in such well written prose it is doubly irresistible.  I a word: Marvelous.   

Lily-iscious Summer Blooms!

The air is thick with the syrupy sweet aroma of my Asiatic Lilies.

Meat Sauce on Linguini

Just the easiest meal ever.

Cooked Sweet Italian Sausage, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, scallions, and tomato sauce.   Served on a bed of Fini Linguini.

Breakfast Pizza

This is mostly the result of the fact that I am trying no waste food and had this one lone personal pan pre-made pizza dough to use.  Oh, and it was breakfast time.

Breakfast Pizza

Pre-made Dough

Pizza Sauce

Scambled Eggs with Onions

Sausage

Green Peppers

Colby Jack Cheese

Assemble and place in oven to melt the cheese.

Pride Birthdays and Memorials for the Week ~ July 19th to July 25th

Make Way For Ducklings!

Romeo discovered this brood of Mallard duckling yesterday down at the creek during our walk.  We were able to find them again, today.  I love how the mama duck is such a good mama to guide them and maintain a watch for their safety.

Today's Sermon

PITTSBURGH

I burn your Highland Park. I acid your Carnegie
car dealerships. Your Squirrel Hill, sheer terror
in winter. But most of all, I hate your Liberty Avenue,
the last place, one night, I saw my closest friend
saying, Wait here, outside the after-hours club. I wait,
hating your Strip, half your Shadyside, all of Bloomfield,
the bluffs and flats where my friend trades himself.
I wait hours, then trace your Mexican War
Streets looking for his car, so I could declare a truce
in the battle he was fighting against himself. Your Hot
Metal, your Fort Pitt Bridge that leads headfirst
into the Monongahela. In the morning, he’s home.
He cannot tell me where it hurts. I help him shower
off the Duquesne residue, the priesting old world
shame. Pittsburgh, you’re all grit and gristle turning crystal
track marks, turning a man meth mouth. I feed him,
put him to bed. I’ll keep watch tonight in a cable car
ascending Mt. Washington, your smokestacks
blowing clouds over the confluence until all you are,
Pittsburgh, is a sleepless shimmer I will watch
diminish down to the savaged seed of morning,
as impossible to watch as you are to name.

~ James Allen Hall, 

Random Quote #202

Romeo's Big Adventure

Well, the headline is a little misleading...  We just went to the National Arboretum together yesterday.  I try to take Romeo every couple of months.  It's not too far from here.  He can smell so many amazing things!--which is his favorite thing to do in all the world.  We often encounter other dogs, which gives him more practice in the arena of social skills.  It's also a good walk for me, a chance to practice and grow my tree, flower, plant identification accuracy.  Oh, and did I mention that it's free?

 We always start our adventure in the area of the 50 state trees.  This is a place to piss and shit around and get all of that out of someone's system before we proceed.  Here is the stand of White Pines that honor Maine.

 I took Romeo in the shaded center in hopes of getting a good photo....

But he just kept looking off into the direction of what he knew was going to be the heart of our explorations.  I love how he knows this place well enough to know what to expect and what he wants.  I love this kid so much.

Our next stop was an area given over to replicating the tall-grass prairies.  There was a wonderful view of the Capitol Columns monument from there, too.

Berries and flowers to taste and enjoy.  Then on to the woods!

From this point the entrance starts on a bridge.

 It wasn't that hot.  I think he was just panting out of sheer excitement!  What a boy.

 Roots that resemble antlers...way cool, right?

 Such a beautiful iridescent dragonfly.

 I relented at let my boy wade in the water....  There were lots of frog calls, turtle sightings and so I thought it was safe enough.

 Ouch!  A problem?  And later (below) we saw the source.  A fallen tree from the many violent storms of this atypically wet summer.

This area of the National Arboretum is called "Fern Valley" after all!

Summer Beet and Slaw Salad

Another easy recipe.

This is super easy!

Cole Slaw

1) Combine coarsely chopped 1/2 head Red Cabbage, 1 sliced Green Pepper, and 1 grated Carrot with Marzetti Cole Slaw Dressing. (I do not receive any renumeration from the company that makes this stuff.)

2) Arrange on plate and add Pickled Beets.

3) Insert Celery Greens to garnish (but don't forget to eat them, too!)

4) Voila!