January 28, 2013 - Harvest Monday: Plain Dinners and the Cutest Thing Ever

Daphne, over at Daphne's Dandelions (Harvest Monday), commented on how plain her meals are. She tries for a green and an orange with each dinner.  Well, Daphne, you are not alone.  We have been eating very plain evening meals, usually consisting of grilled chicken or fish, with something green and something orange or red, and a salad.  I looked at our dinner plates tonight, and thought "that could be served to Daphne!"

We're still eating green beans from the freezer, and butternut squash from the garage storage spot.  

The winter squash is still as fresh tasting and delicious as it was last fall, and I haven't seen any spoilage on them at all.  It looks as though we won't have any problem consuming all 100+ pounds that I grew in 2012.  I have several bags of summer squash and zucchini in the freezer.  We just don't eat those very often, and much prefer them fresh.

I still have one fall cabbage left.  The little Gonzales cabbages stored well in the refrigerator, and will be grown again in 2013 for winter meals as well as sauerkraut.  Mr. Granny, daughter Amy and granddaughter Alicia all loved the sauerkraut, which wasn't quite as sour as some they had eaten.

The best beans from the freezer have been Fortex.  They taste just as good as they did fresh.

The pickled beets are all gone, so I really need to grow and can more this year.

We've both been cutting way back on sweets, so hardly any of the jams have been eaten.  I have a feeling many jars will be given to the kids.  

We've hardly made a dent in the pickle relish, so none will be canned this year.

I ran out of canned tomatoes long ago, but still have a good supply of sauce, ketchup and sweet chili sauce.  I'd like to make more tomato juice this year, but without lemon juice.  I'm hoping by adding citric acid instead, it won't have that sour off-taste.

Now....on to something  thought was really cute.  Granddaughter Alicyn (age 4) heard the story of The Three Little Pigs yesterday, and today she recited it for the camera.  I think the girl is going to be an actress!

Alicyn recites The Three Little Pigs

I might be just a bit prejudiced, but I think that's pretty darned good for a four year old who just heard the story once!

January 26, 2013 Old Woman #2

The real me looks darned near as old as that photo I posted earlier!

Amy, Alicia and Alicyn stopped by with a lively orchid plant and birthday cupcakes.

 They couldn't get 74 candles on the cupcake, so I settled for 1.

If you had gone 59 days without a dessert (I've lost 12 pounds!), you'd be grinning like a Cheshire Cat  at the thoughts of sinking your teeth into a luscious lemon cupcake too!

The girls brought me an orchid plant!  I've never grown one before, so it will be a learning experience for me.  I've never met a houseplant I couldn't kill  :-0

Mr. Granny was manning the camera.  We were trying to give him instructions, and he wasn't doing a very good job of following them!  More than once he got me laughing at his attempts, but we did get a few decent photos out of him.  I won't say how many pictures he got of his finger.  It definitely made for a happy birthday!

January 26, 2103 - Old Woman!

I woke up this morning, stumbled into the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

An old woman stared back at me.

Oh, OK.  It wasn't quite that bad, but I did turn 74 today!

Mom, Why Don't You Blog Any More?

That was the question my youngest daughter asked yesterday.

"It's 28 degrees outside.  I can't work in the garden."

"It's too early to start seeds indoors."

"Your Dad and I are both on a diet, so I'm not cooking anything of interest."

In other words............

"I got nuthin"!

January 16, 2013 - There's an App For That!

Granddaughter Alicia took a few funny photos of the birthday kids today (they're five years old!)....

Annie says "OK, Granny, I know you are on a diet.  But do we all have to suffer?"

Otto replies "You think she's starving you?  I've shrunk to practically nothing!"

Annie says "Maybe if I scare her with the old evil eye she'll cook me a hamburger.  With bacon."

Otto says "Well, I'll just double myself and maybe she'll feed me twice."

Photos by Alicia and the iPhone CamWow app.

Happy birthday, Annie and Otto!

January 8, 2013 - Guess Who Got.....

 A new puppy!  An addition to Alicyn's family, not mine.  I'm happy being the one who gets to spoil her and then send her home.

First they got comfy with some soft cuddling.

 Then, being such girly-girls, they went shopping.

 Dezi Lu, pretty in her new pink sweater.

Then it was nighty-night time for a pooped out puppy.

Jake was not impressed with his new little sister.

January 7, 2013 - It's Beginning!

There is snow on the ground, but signs of spring in Granny's House.  

 Wish books have arrived.

 Granddaughter comes to visit just in time to help shell the Fortex bean seeds.

She has learned to sort the good seeds from the bad.

 Her cup runneth over!

Almost finished.

Between the two of us, we ended up with almost four ounces of seeds,

 plenty for the 2013 garden!

 A seed inventory was then made, with most of the old seeds disposed of.  All of the "good" seeds that have been inventoried are in the red boxes, the others are still waiting to be done.  It doesn't look like many seeds, but about 55 packets are on the inventory list, counting the order that has been placed and should be here this week.

Spring will be here before we know it!