Meet a friend
Here is one of my bird friends. Isn't she pretty?
Oh people..
Why do I bother?
I'm tempted to end this blog and do my own thing elsewhere so I don't get any expectations from you visit the blog several times a day but say/ do nothing type people.
☹ ☹ ☹ ☹ ☹
I'm looking for inspiration
Don't be shy click on one choice, click on vote, then click view to see the results.
No one will spam you [Mom], you won't be hijacked to some bad website [Mom], it won't give your computer a virus [Mom]. And you will be helping me out by inspiring me -- especially if you choose to write other ideas in the comments section. :-) Thanks!
Lime bars- a culinary thrill in the making
Here is the crust for the lime bars. Butter and sugar-- gulp! Very good.. and I have to remind myself NOT to pig out when the bars are done. For those at home taking notes I am using an 8x8x2 pan.
Here is the lime, egg, more sugar, and a little flour mixture that is poured into the crust. The brown speckles come from coconut that I swiped from a coconut tapioca pudding mix. [Thievery in the kitchen is good.]
Uh oh.. not enough crust-o. Check out my diagram of crustological stratum. B.t.w I hope you all appreciate the extra time spent photo-chopping pictures on this blog.
The pudding which is now minus a few pinches of toasted coconut.
Hey now, nice tan!! This looks nothing like my fellow blogger's version of lime bars. Check it out, and don't tell me it's due to the fact I don't have a green parrot in the photo.
The tan is due to the fact I blog and surf the web while cooking. This, boys and girls is a no-no. Just look at the evidence:
Since I have no Severe macaw to sample my dessert and tell you how delightful it is I will have to take on the responsibility myself. First impressions.. Ow it's HOT! Kidding. It is very cake like at the edges and quite moist towards the middle. Very limey, and not too sweet ( I couldn't stand the thought of adding 1 1/2 cups of sugar so I made the filling with only 1 cup.) As if 1 cup of sugar isn't enough already. I'm sorry I didn't have the lime zest to throw in there, but limes were too expensive when I went shopping for them.
I have to say that Nellie and Joe's key lime juice is pretty good to use in this recipe- and for key lime pie for that matter. It is unsweetened and contains some lime floaties too (don't ask me what they are as the fluid isn't clear)--- okay this sounding like a toxic waste liquid. Back to the lime bars... The final vote: very yummy, but don't eat too many -remember there is a whole stick of butter in that crust!
Lentils are falling
Why is it one seldom if ever hears a weatherman say "hail to the size of lentils"? I suppose it isn't as dramatic as pea sized, or nickle sized.. or even hail the size of golf balls!
I had lentil size hail. Ho hum. I'll let you squint at my photograph to spot it.
More fun in the kitchen
I'm going to make lime bars today.
Meanwhile a thunderstorm is looming at the edge of my neighborhood. It has gotten very dark all of a sudden.
We're both damp :)
My friend and I had a spray bottle shower.
She has a brief post about the event on her blog.
One day in May
I haven't done much the past few days except roast garlic, bake beet & carrot crisps, then eat lots of garlic and beet & carrot crisps. Being avid readers of the Flatland blog you know this already- so let me tell you about one day in May when I was in the Bay Area at the family compound, lounging poolside behind high stucco walls.
I soaked up the bright sunshine, and filled my lungs with warm, dry air as I prowled around the estate with my camera. However I had this odd feeling that I was being followed..
He assured me however that his fair coloration would not draw attention as we wandered about the property together. He was right. He was a pasty-blond kitty and blended in nicely with the surroundings.
Since the fauna had found me, I moved on to the flora..
Then kitty and I sought shelter from the hot sunshine and played guitar hero together. He really had an advantage over me with those dexterous, pink paw pads. My score was abysmal.
Beets and tree leaves
I enjoy finding new blogs to read because I often learn new things when I do. Thanks to reading the Parrot Musings blog I have learned about a new cook book titled How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.
The first thing I tried were the beet crisps I had read about on Parrot Musings blog. The beets turned out very good... just not crispy enough. I think next time I will make thinner slices in spite of Mr. Bittman's advice to keep them at 1/8 inch thickness.
Here they are very lightly coated in corn oil and spread out on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.
12 minutes later they are out and ready to be turned over. I let them go 12 more minutes and then turned them again... still not enough crunchiness going on. I think a wire mesh cooking sheet might also be a good idea, but I'll start with a thinner slice on the beets next time.
While the beets were baking the sun was lighting up the tops of the trees and I ran out to take a few pictures. We had some passing showers this afternoon and I thought the bright green of the leaves were so pretty against the dark sky. Unfortunately the contrast between sky and trees isn't very clear in these shots. You'll have to take my word for it :)
Going outside
I took my little friend outside today to enjoy some bright sunshine that was peeking between the dark gray clouds. She really enjoyed it and wasn't worried at all, in fact she ruffled up so much she reminded me of a little puffer fish all inflated. She basked for a little while even raising her wings but not fully extending them. Then the first airplane flew over and that made her wary, then another one flew over a few minutes later and it was much closer to the house, so that pretty much broke the calm we had. Still, she wasn't very worried so that's a good sign. I took her back in while it was still a nice experience for her.
I'm working on touching her all over her body, under her wings, to prepare her for wearing the harness. I want to introduce it to her over time so it won't worry her and then we can look forward to regular outings.
Craving some Allium sativum L.
I have this Middle Eastern herb mix called Za'atar that I like to mix with olive oil and some fresh garlic puree that we buy from the Lebanese Taverna market. I eat the herb/garlic mixture on a pita bread. Today I didn't have the garlic spread so I cut a clove in half and pressed it into my mixture of herbs and oil. I spread this on the pita and put it under the broiler till the bread got a little crispy on the edges.
So good and garlicky.. but apparently that wasn't enough to satisfy my craving for garlic. So I put these guys in the oven with a nice drizzle of olive oil and a dash of salt. They are SO good...I've eaten 5 cloves already! Something tells me I'm going to smell be very aromatic this week.
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