OUTDOOR NIGHTTIME DINING, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Nighttime Dining, photo courtesy of Houzz.com

We're not quite here yet, but that's why we save/post these photos, so that when we ARE ready, we have inspiration.  Seeing this tree, the wide open pasture, the table for two and the hanging lanterns...I can't imagine a more perfect dinner outside someday.  

It looks like the first thing I need to do is keep an eye out for a sale on lanterns somewhere, ha. Hope you are having a good week.  I've been getting home late and haven't had a chance to get to reply to your wonderful snake comments (and yesterday's) but I'll catch up.

Be inspired!

MIXED MINI POTATOES

We stopped at a Farmer's Market and found two bags of these mixed potatoes.  They are small and the few we've had so far are very tasty.

Plus, with the variety of colors, they just look so pretty in the bowl, ha.

Red, white and purple small potatoes

So far, we've had some smashed potatoes, and some just sliced and oven roasted with rosemary and olive oil.  We still have another bowl full.

Any good potato recipe suggestions?

OH HELL NO

SO...here is what greeted me at the farm this weekend.  I walked into the kitchen and saw this and thought "what is THAT"?

Then I looked closer...SNAKE SKIN!!  

Are you freaking kidding me?

Where did it come from?

Shed snake skin

I peered around the corner...  

Not only was it like 20  17  4 feet LONG...it started from inside the guest room closet!  It looks like it went around the corner, shedding it's skin...and then disappeared elsewhere into the house.

You can't imagine how much courage it took to open this door...but slowly, my heart racing, I pulled it open...

OK, so it wasn't anything as terrifying as this...it was just an empty closet.  

But every cabinet I looked in, drawer I opened, bed I looked under, I did so hesitantly.  Wherever it came in (and we have NO idea where) it apparently found its way back out.  2nd Man and I are torn.

We thought about some sort of snake repellent (does that even work?)...but of course we also haven't had any mouse activity (KNOCK ON WOOD) in months.  Is it our resident snake taking care of things?  Does it live under the house and just hangs around feeding on mice?  It's a pier and beam house elevated off the ground, so it could be underneath somewhere.

If so, where is it now?  In a hiding place we haven't discovered yet?  I can tell you that it does give us pause about the next time we spend the night out there.  No one wants to get up in the middle of the night and step on a snake.

Anyone ever had to deal with a snake in the house?

I guess I struck a chord with the snakes!  We love all the comments you have left and will reply to all, thank you!

LABOR DAY 2015

Off to run more errands today...

We're doing a lot of stuff at the house in town, I'll give you updates later!  

Hope that if you have the day off today you get to enjoy this long weekend!

FATS FUEL FOR FIGHTERS, VINTAGE POSTER SUNDAY

Most every Sunday, we try to post an image of old posters that we find during online surfing.  We enjoy them because we often wonder if anyone today would heed the kind of advice they gave back then...enjoy!

Fats are Fuel, vintage poster image courtesy of US National Archives

This is a very interesting poster image.  It dates from WWI and the United States Food Administration.  It's a different approach to urging citizens to save fats that were used as fuel for the men fighting on the front lines in the war.  

In this one, people were urged to "bake - boil - and broil more....fry less".  Fascinating that back then it was to save fat for another use, today that would be a great strategy for anyone wanting a healthier lifestyle. 

Hope you are having a great weekend!

VINTAGE ART THRIFT STORE FINDS

Found a couple of cool items at the thrift store this week.  

Vintage Mexican painted batea bowl

The first is this bowl. It's hard to tell that it's a bowl, but it's a shallow wooden bowl, hand painted with beautiful flowers.  It's called a batea, which is Spanish for "shallow bowl or pan".  Interesting side note, batea is also what the pans used in panning for gold are called.  This is a folk art piece and is vintage.  

It will hang on the wall in the guest room. 

Vintage Fruit and Flowers print

And this is another vintage piece, not sure what you call these but they are sort of an old version of a modern day print, only on a cardboard type of paper.  

When I saw the edibles in the picture, I immediately thought it will be perfect on the kitchen wall at the farm.

Both for the grand total of:  $7.25!

Lots of errands today, but since a long weekend, will head to the farm at some point later.  Hope your weekend is off to a great start!

PLANT IDENTIFICATION NEEDED

Can someone ID this plant?  

Desert Rose

We have it in a small clay pot on the back porch in town and we want to take it to the farm but need to know what kind of care it takes before we just randomly place it out there.  Someone gave it to us and it didn't have a tag with it, not even sure they knew what it was.

It's done pretty well where it is, but with us paring down and moving stuff to the farm, it's time to figure out what to do with this little one.

Any thoughts?

Update:  Thank you to all wonderful commenters that chimed in.  It seems pretty unanimous that it's a Desert Rose...Wiki Entry HERE.

Now I'm not sure how we've managed not to kill it since I never covered it in a freeze but then again, it is in town and tucked away in a back corner of the deck, protected from winds.  Probably also warmed by the house.  Now we have to rethink having it at the farm...so maybe it can just be inside in the Winter.

Thanks again!!

TULIP CUTTING GARDEN, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Tulip Garden Row - image via Southernliving.com

Love this strip of a tulip cutting garden.  This seems like something that wouldn't be too hard to replicate...though I'm guessing that 10 months out of the year it's just a dirt strip?  Not sure how one handles that when you have a dedicated bulb bed...

Still it looks absolutely beautiful.  Heck, it's so pretty, I'd be hesitant to cut them to bring inside because they are so gorgeous as they are, ha.  

Be inspired!

BACON WRAPPED ASPARAGUS BUNDLES RECIPE

Here's a quick treat, great for a party, great as a side dish, great as a snack...bacon wrapped asparagus bundles.  

Bacon and Asparagus Bundles

I missed photographing a couple of steps because I got into the preparation before 2nd Man reminded me to take pics.  

First we make a "compound butter".  We take a 1/2 cup (1 stick) of softened butter, depending on how many you are making, and mix it up with 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tsp onion powder and 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes (optional, if you like the heat).  You are basically making a garlic herb butter spread.  After it's mixed, we like to pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to firm it up a bit.  If you have leftover, spread on bread and broil.  

Next, cut a strip of uncooked bacon in half.  Take three pieces of fresh asparagus and cut them in half.  Place the six pieces on the bacon side by side so the bacon is in the middle to lower 1/3 of the asparagus stalk.

Take the softened herb butter and spread over the asparagus.  Lastly, roll up the bacon so that it all sort of folds over itself and the asparagus bunches up and sticks together with the butter.  

You can see that in the photos below:

Lay the bacon wrapped bundles on a foil lined baking sheet.  As the butter melts and the bacon cooks, it will mess up a pan without foil.  Place the pan into the preheated oven...

...and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until bacon starts to turn crispy on the edges (your oven may vary).  I know it looks like a hot mess here but trust me...

Asparagus and Bacon Bundles

...they are wonderful!  What happens during the process is that the butter melts out and sautés and seasons the asparagus, along with some bacon fat of course.  The asparagus is tender and crispy, and the bacon is delicious.

Enjoy!

A BEEUTIFUL GIFT

Our very dear friend "D" joined us for a special event recently and she surprised us with a gift bag.  In it was this:

Her daughter "S", who we've known since she was in school, now she has flown the nest and is on her own, drew this picture of vintage style beehive artwork for us, complete with bees flying around.  So sweet that she took the time after work every night to create this for us.  And really cool, they even found a picture frame that was a shabby chic kind of honeycomb pattern.  We were very excited to get it and it will go in a special spot at the farm.  

We also love that she found a great gift bag to put it in that had a heavy hang tag.  It's made of wood with attached cord, so it's very much a lasting 'extra' gift.  We decided to hang it on the dining room cabinet knob.  The perfect spot!

It says "Eat, Drink and be Awesome".  

Yeah, I think we can handle the eat and drink part, we'll work on the awesome!

Thank you "D" and "S"!

RAIN SUIT FROM DULUTH

After the epic rains we had this Spring, there were a few times when I was at the farm and got caught in a downpour and all I could do it wait it out on the porch.  That got me to thinking that we need a rain suit of some sort for the farm.  If I had to go out and do something on the property in the rain, it would be nice to have a means to get around without getting soaked.

I've recently started shopping for some other things at Duluth Trading (more on those purchases later) when I stumbled across their rain suit.  It had great reviews and the yellow was on "special clearance" because of an issue with the color.  Instead of just a basic yellow, it was a bit more fluorescent yellow and had some small barely visible spots.  It was about half price.  Great deal!

It just came via UPS the other day. 

Duluth Trading Yellow Rain Suit

It is definitely a fluorescent yellow.  2nd Man looked at it and he said "um, yeah, I'll be able to see you anywhere on the property...and probably Google Earth satellites too", LOL.  The regular one (not on the super clearance) is blue.  Oh well, it will be easy to see in the rain and that's OK if I'm out in a monsoon, at least he (and Google) can keep an eye on me.  It's two pieces, an upper jacket with protective hood and built in visor, and then pants with numerous pockets.  There are even inner pocket zippers so you can get to the pockets of the clothing you are wearing underneath.  They have zippered ankles to tighten up around your rubber boots.  It is made of a super water repellent coated fabric and is very lightweight.  Oh, did I mention it's fluorescent yellow?  HA!

It is one more of the things that we felt would be good to have at the farm "just in case" we need it.  Obviously, I don't plan on gardening in the rain, but someday we just might have to get out in a heavy downpour and do something like tie down an item that has come loose, put a tarp on a roof, close a barn door or window, move a car, etc, and we'll definitely be grateful to have this item hanging in the closet.  

And by the way, nothing for me from Duluth in exchange for this, just me sharing something I found online that we like (but of course, if Duluth would like to contact me, the button is above, LOL!).

Anyone else have a rain suit?  

How do you use yours if you do?

FAT IS FUEL FOR FIGHTERS, VINTAGE POSTER SUNDAY

Fat is Fuel for Fighters, vintage poster image courtesy of NYPubliclibrary archives

Here is an interesting poster image I found online recently.  It comes from WWI, and urged farmers to raise pigs because they help feed soldiers.  

A soldier's daily ration had 1 lb of meat in it and so a sow and her brood of ten would feed 3000 men in one day.  The tag line is that fat is fuel to fighters!  Hmm, I guess since I could easily eat a pound of pork in a day too, does that mean it's fuel to office workers now?  HA!

Hope you are having a good weekend!  More later this evening!

BISCUITS IN THE MORNING

Woke up to a mess in the kitchen...

...but it was because of this!

YUM!

Homemade Biscuits

2nd Man had made fresh, homemade biscuits...sigh...one of my favorite things. We had them with real butter, homemade dewberry jam (our second to last jar).

BISCUIT RECIPE HERE

It was a good start to the weekend...hope you are having a great start to your weekend as well.  We have some cool "ish" weather, just running errands and not sure how the weekend will play out.  We have an event to attend tonight in downtown Houston so we'll be in town today.

GREAT ENTRANCE SIGN

We LOVE this sign...

We want something exactly like this at the entrance to the property.  We thought it would be neat to have it on a split rail fence near the spot where the driveway begins going toward our house.

A great reminder when you pull in to leave all your troubles and worries behind.  Hmm, maybe a smart phone/tablet free zone sign too?  LOL!

It's been a crazy busy week, I will catch up on all your wonderful comments this weekend.  Hey, just remember...

MORE FLOWERS, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Flower garden, image courtesy of Sunsetliving.com

For those new to the blog, every Thursday, we post up a photo that we have found online, sometimes years ago, sometimes recently.  The purpose is twofold...one we will be able to save them to remind us later of things we would like to do, that inspire us, and of course to share with you.

This is a lovely patch of flowers.  Here in the dog days of Summer, when everything is parched and dry, we love seeing something like this.  The colors all just blend so nicely together.  We'd love to have a patch (or two or three) like this scattered around the yard.  Someday!

Be inspired!

OVEN ROASTED GREENS RECIPE

This is a super easy and wonderful side dish.  We use purple and green cabbage, broccoli and kale.  2nd Man runs it through a shredder attachment on our food processor.  We also mince up about 4 garlic cloves.

Spread it all out on a baking sheet.  Drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper over the top and toss well so that it's evenly distributed throughout.

Roast it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Since they are shredded, they will cook fast so keep an eye on them.

They shrink up a bit too, as expected since they are greens but they are so delicious.  A bit crispy and full of goodness.  Here we had them with pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Ingredients:

1 cup each shredded cabbage (purple/green), broccoli and kale
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
salt/pepper to taste

POP UP FLOWERS

What's that little yellow spot?

Went to the farm this weekend and after the rains last week, the grass had started greening up nicely.  Then we noticed that these little yellow flowers were coming up all over.  

They are tiny little things...

Rain Lily

...one long, slender stem, no leaves, just coming up in random spots all around the yard in the full sun areas.

Copper Lily aka Rain Lily

Even though they no bigger than a dime, they are absolutely stunning up close.  This is a super close-up photo...isn't it beautiful?  I'm sure they will be fleeting, see them once, blink, and they're gone but hey, at least we captured the image.

We call them pop up flowers but I'm sure they have a "real" name, ha.

Anyone know what they are? 

Update:  Thanks to all the kind commenters who gave us the info.  The actual name is "Copper Lily"...also known as "Rio Grande Copper Lily" and the one we like best of all, "Rain Lily"...because rain is what brought them to our yard!

Thanks again everyone!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES

Above is the driveway as seen from the porch last weekend, a week ago today as a matter of fact.  This was after several weeks of no rain.  

Everything was turning brown and crispy...

This is the same camera angle today, after several days of nice slow rain showers.  The grass is greening up and even the trees look happier.  

Mother Nature sure bounces back doesn't she?

If we get a few more showers this coming week, next weekend I just might have to get on the zen machine for the first time in OVER A MONTH!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

WEEKEND IS IN FULL SWING

We have rain!  

Who would have thought we'd be excited for that after the Spring we had?

We've had about an inch at the farm.

We stopped at a little resale shop today while running errands and saw this feed bag.  It's for Hubbard's Chicken Feed, I'm sure it's a reproduction, but it's still pretty neat.  For now it will stay folded up in a drawer until we decide the best thing to do with it.

We'll take the rain...we've had about an inch at the farm.  Good for the grass, the trees, and most importantly, the bees!

We are staying in town today, in between the rains it's still hot though low 90's is a welcome relief from low 100's.  Will head to the farm tomorrow and drop off some stuff (including more rocks, LOL!) and just check everything. 

Hope you are are having a great weekend!

NEW VLASIC FARMERS GARDEN PICKLES

Farmer's Garden by Vlasic

Never been a big fan of store bought pickles vs fresh homemade (we usually buy ours at a local farmer's market).  Someday I'll tackle making our own but until then, when we do buy regular grocery store pickles, we do like Vlasic brand.  They are always crunchy and always good.  So imagine our surprise when we were in the store recently (a grocery store out by the farm, ironically) and saw these jars.

It is something new that Vlasic is trying.  They are pickles of course, but made just like you might if you were canning them yourselves.  No fake colors, no artificial ingredients, just veggies, seasonings and distilled water.

Farmers Garden pickle jar vs Ball canning jar

They are hand packed and bottled in a jar very similar to a standard Mason or Ball jar.  Alas, I was hoping that the rings might just fit these jars but they do not.  Oh well.  The jars, once cleaned out, would still make for nice glass jar storage of things.  There are five varieties according to the VLASIC WEBSITE.

So how do they taste?  

Strangely enough, not as good as we had hoped.  Vlasic pickles are usually very crispy (they know how to do that), but these were a bit limp and the carrots were a bit mushy as well.  They might be hand packed but they are definitely over processed.  The seasonings were also a bit lacking.  In a jar such as this, I would hope to see some fresh dill, some peppercorns or maybe even some mustard seeds floating but nope, it's just the veggies and water.  There just wasn't much flavor.  In all fairness, it's possible we picked up an older jar that was maybe on the shelf longer than it should be.  There is no way to know that for certain and it wasn't near the 'sell by' date.  We appreciate the fact that they do not use artificial colorings and flavorings but feel these could be much better.  To be honest, we like their regular Vlasic pickles better. 

Alas, we think this might be more of a marketing ploy than anything else.  That is a double edged sword...on the one hand, it could make people want to try more farmers market/fresher type foods or it could have the opposite effect...make some people think "farm fresh goods aren't all they are cracked up to be after all".  And that would not be a good thing.

But hey, at least the jars are cool!

2 1/2 STARS OUT OF FIVE