Starting.....now!

Did you ever say that as a kid?

Him: "Let's have a staring contest, starting Now!"  "
Me: "You blinked!"
Him: "No, wait, I wasn't ready.  Starting...Now!"
Me: "You blinked!"
Him: "No, wait, I wasn't ready. Starting...Now!"
Me: "You blinked!"

Him: "No, wait, I wasn't ready. Starting...Now!"

Ad nauseum.

I remember my brother doing it all the time, and being really annoyed by it.  I suppose I must have done it too, and been really annoying to others as well.  But, well, here I am doing it to you!

So, I'm back....Starting Now!

Our sweet valley is finally warming up.  We've had three tremendous floods so far this year, with another one on the way.  So that's been a lot of fun. 

I built eleventy tomato trellises for the Master Gardener plant sale, and all of them sold, so I'm hoping the old timers of the club will decide to keep me.  The sale was a lot of fun, albeit a lot of work.  The proceeds go toward all our volunteer work around the county for the year.  We have several demonstration gardens and classes for all types of gardeners (kids, veggie growers, flower gardeners, etc.) and at each of those we have printed information available for people to take home.  Photocopying costs add up quickly....

I also built two for my own garden.  My tomatoes have some growing to do...

In other words, Mr. Boom got his turkey.  I still have to get mine, and the pressure is really on, now!  The season ends at the end of the month.    From his 16 pound turkey, I put seven meals in the freezer.  Not bad!  Last night, we had the drumsticks with morels from the same trip as well as spinach from the garden.  Yummmmmy. 

In my defense, he may have shot the first bird, but I found the first through the seventh morels of the season.  Just sayin'.

Right now I'm listening to Eddie Vedder's new ukulele album.  What a kick!  I only wish it were a mandolin.  Then I'd feel just a little bit cooler concerning my new hobby.  I can't remember if I told you I also found a second-hand banjo?  Tony Furtado, my inspiration, needn't worry about any competition from me. Let's just leave it at that...

In other news, I finished up planting the garden this morning, and then hung the laundry out to dry.  It's now raining.  Good for the little seeds, bad for the t-shirts and such.  Oh well.

Finally, my thanks goes out to the Pollinatrix for the gorgeous collage she sent.  Soooo pretty.  And tranquil.  and just perfect in all ways.

And really finally (starting...now finally?), you know I'll be back tomorrow because it's the 27th, i.e. the reveal date for the May Daring Bakers challenge.  I better get going on that.  It's a doozy!

FFwD: Paris Mushroom Soup

Okay, so that challenge I issued?  The one about grabbing one item off your resolutions list and doing. it. right. now? 

I failed.  Instead of doing one of two big things I've been wanting to do for the blog, I ran off to the big city far away to take my grandma to visit her son who was visiting his son.  After dropping Grandma off, we went to Mr. Boom's brother's home to spend a few days. New Year's was a blast, but I felt guilty the whole time about not doing what I said I would.  So guilty, in fact, that I haven't been able to show my face around here. 

Enough is enough, though.  I'll just throw those two items on the list of my regular resolutions.  I hope they'll happen!  So much of that list never gets done, which is why I really like the challenge of crossing one off before the new year even starts.

My birthday was on Monday, and my most favoritest present of all was a mandolin.  I've been practicing and practicing and I think my fingers might fall off any minute now.  I'm grimacing as I type this, having just finished up a "jam session" with Mr. Boom who is a very accomplished (at least in my mind) guitar player.

I'm getting a little bit better every day, and I can now play five chords!  Five whole chords, people!  Furthermore, the cats aren't running out of the room every time I pick up my pretty little mandolin to play.  That's progress right there, baby!

This week's French Friday's with Dorie challenge was Paris Mushroom Soup. 

You don't need a recipe for this soup, per se, although I wouldn't dissuade anyone from buying this book, ever!

But really, soften up an onion and garlic in butter,

add a pound of mushrooms, and a bit of white wine

(I had no white wine on hand, so I left this out).

Cook until dry, then add chicken broth.

Whiz it all up (I used an immersion blender) and serve.

It's not pretty, but it's really fast, really good, and very creamy despite the fact that it doesn't have any cream in it at all.

Best served with a side of "Rocky Top" chorus chords jotted on the back of an envelope.

Chirp-chirp made this recipe for tiramisu up all by herself.  I love the fact that she's so comfortable going into the kitchen and experimenting with ingredients.  She made a ganache and a cream-coffee-nutmeg-cinnamon dip for Nilla Wafers.  There's also some (instant) coconut pudding and I'm not sure what else in there. 

Yummm.  In fact, I'm going back for more!

Weekend recap


This past weekend was by far one of the most productive weekends we've had around here for awhile. 


Saturday morning started out cold and dreary, with me staring at the bathroom floor.  Not only were we STILL not going to Crater Lake (boring old family, anyway!) but the bathroom floor didn't get repainted this summer and now it was cold and wintry and I'd have to stare at this stupid old not-very-well painted floor for another whole winter because I was too lazy to do it this summer and it's all just stupid anyhow, isn't it, and my toes are starting to look kinda old.


Then I had some coffee and the sun came out and the forecast said it would get into the low 80's.  Boo-yah! 

This weekend I cleaned and repainted the bathroom floor, Mr. Boom repainted the house trim I accidentally stripped off, then not-so-accidentally finished stripping a week ago.  We repainted the swinging bench on the back porch, and I even (finally!) got around to finishing up the paint job on the front porch columns, a job started (I kid you not) about six years ago.


Oh, and I also opened the beehive to check on the health of my favorite little hymenopteras, and give them a little bit of a menthol mixture proclaimed to be the best at preventing bees from getting mites or dying off in other mysterious ways.  Also, we managed to mow the lawn and till some straw into a garden bed that needs some serious help with its vegetative content. 

Sunday morning I woke up ridiculously early and persuaded Mr. Boom to get out of bed to go hunting.  And guess what?!! We (he) finally brought home a grouse for supper!  In case you're keeping count, we're up to grouse-6 and humans-1.  I also found a rather nice cep which was served up as the best little side dish to the best little grouse breast and leg ever.  Yummy! 



Oh, and doughnuts.  We also made more doughnuts on Sunday.  Yum.  Oh, and twice-baked potatoes.  Mr. Boom makes a killer twice-baked.  We had those for dessert a few hours after our grouse entree.

Yes, a great weekend here.  The touch-up work on the front porch continues, but the weather is holding up for now, and is expected to stay nice for the rest of the week.  I think we'll get it finished and I won't be fretting it over the winter through.

I love fall!