What a Read!

The only book I packed for our vacation turned out to be a great read and I wanted to share. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford will be a great addition to your reading list this summer.

This book is a well developed tale of friendship, love, loss, and independence. The characters are so easy to relate to, with great dialogue and insight to their internal struggles. Henry is a 12 year old boy struggling to gain independence from his rigid traditional Chinese father. Keiko is a second generation Japanese American citizen from a family who believes in the American dream and whose father is an American educated attorney. The characters paths cross when they are the only two non-white students at Ranier Intermediate in Seattle. The author writes from Henry's perspective and the book shifts between the 1940's and current day (set as 1980's.)

While the author clearly states the book is fiction, he based the story around the events during WWII when Japanese American citizens were 'relocated' to "safety camps" in inland portions of the country.

This book peaked my interest and I followed up with some research about these events during the 1940's.

I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in an incredible story of strength, and friendship, with a realistic taste of bitterness and loss as well.

Grand Indeed

I just returned to Fort Worth after spending 7 nights in Wyoming. We enjoyed a vacation to Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. It was an amazing vacation with the perfect mix of adventure/exploring and relaxation.

Needless to say, I took A LOT of pictures and hope to get my "Top 50" list compiled tomorrow for a coffee table book, but in the mean time, here's a few sneak PEAKS.

That was easy!

When we planted the garden in mid March, I took a chance on red potato bulbs. I only had about 8 bulbs and planted them along a two and a half foot space that remained at the edge of the garden. The potatoes sprouted quickly, and the plant tops grew to almost a foot and a half tall, but began to die about 2 months after I planted the bulbs. I decided to cut the dead parts away and realized that the entire 'plant portion' was basically dead.

I googled potatoes online, and of course read about a hundred different methods to grow potatoes. I decided we mine should start digging and see what happened underground over the last 2 months.

Low and behold, A LOT happened! We had about 20 potatoes! It was extra fun because my mother in law and 2 year old niece were over the day we decided to dig. My sweet niece Baylee had a lot of fun and may now think that when she digs in the ground, she will find potatoes (everywhere)! "Diggin for potatoes??..." (phrased as a question) was the quote of the day!

Let me Count thy Ways

...to cook squash. Squash is like a weed. You can pick it on Monday and in just a few short days you have MORE squash! I previously mentioned the many ways I have prepared squash, but included some photos today.

Stuffed Squash:
1. Boil the whole squash for ~ 30 minutes (until you can somewhat easily puncture the skin with a knife)
2. Let squash cool
3. After the squash cools, cut each one in half (I used 4 squash)
4. Use a grapefruit spoon to clean out seeds/middle part

Stuffing:
1. Follow directions to prepare 1 box of Jiffy cornbread. (I used the cornbread mix, skim milk, 1 egg and cooked in an 8x8 pan so it was a bit thin.)
2. Begin a saute with 3/4 stick of butter, diced green onion (fresh from the garden) and celery (which I was out of so I used green banana pepper from the garden) I think bell pepper would be really good, but ours were too small to pick yesterday
3. Add parsley to the simmer with the butter, onion, and pepper (or celery)
4. Break up 1/2 the pan of cornbread with your hands in a mixing bowl
5. Pour in the saute mix and knead together
6. Add Cayenne pepper or red pepper (I added a bit too much red pepper for my taste, but Derek liked it)



Final:
1. Stuff the cornbread stuffing mix into each squash (Note: I added a little bit of the squash seeds, about 2 spoon fulls, to the stuffing mix to make it a bit more moist as well as another quarter of the pan of cornbread)
2. Option: lightly salt the entire squash once they are stuffed
3. Place in the oven for ~ 13 minutes at 300 degrees before you serve

Produce - ability

The garden has indeed grown! We have enjoyed squash, peppers, and green onions so far. We have our first zucchini that I plan to use for dinner tomorrow night, and I picked a coffee can full of green beans on Tuesday! The squash grows like a weed. We've enjoyed boiled, sauteed, and grilled squash in addition to my squash casserole and stuffed squash (Thanks Mom - stuffed is our favorite!)

I am anxious for our tomatoes to turn red! More photos to come soon!

Fog Magic

I woke up early this morning, unable to sleep. I headed to the barn and between the time I fed Scout (the horse) and the barn kitties, a heavy blanket of fog rolled into our pasture. I decided Scout deserved some play time in the pasture this morning and quickly realized I had better run inside and get my camera to capture the following images.

This mornings photo shoot reminded me of a book that was a childhood favorite. It is called Fog Magic and is written by Julia L. Sauer. I think I may try to find a copy at the library, because I remember my imagination soared when I read this book.

Status Report

Over a month ago, we planted our garden and today was the first day I noticed our first product. A green pepper! I don't love peppers, but I was still happy to see Mr. Pepper...and surprised I missed him. We switched from hand watering to a sprinkler a few weeks ago, so, the lesson learned is that I need to manually investigate more often.

I plan to try Mr. Pepper tomorrow night....or make Derek try it. :)



Our row of okra...


and French Fillet green beans...


Zucchini (and lots of squash not pictured)


And, hopefully these are still a sign of good luck... :)