What's for dinner?

I guess I can't even cook dinner without taking pictures:-)

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All my life I have said over and over that I don't like fish.  I was the little Catholic girl who during Lent refused to eat fish on Friday when my parents went to Howard Johnson's (Bordentown, NJ)  for their weekly fish fry.  They relented and let me have a hamburger, peas, and gravy, but don't tell anyone;-)  Over the years I decided that fried shrimp was another good vehicle for eating my beloved ketchup.  After a while, I'd even got to where I'd eat cocktail shrimp and sauce.  Finally I graduated to sauteed shrimp with lots of butter.  Notice a trend?  The shrimp had to be camouflaged. But still, I refused to eat any other kind of shrimp.

Donnie likes fish, and I'm really game for trying new stuff these days, so I bought some Salmon from Whole Foods a few weeks ago.  I managed to cook it reasonably well by pan frying it in the cast iron skillet, and I honestly had no trouble eating it up.  I stopped short of saying it was great though.

Carolina Grown has a lot of trout on their menu but also has fish like Almaco Jack from Haag & Sons Seafood.  This week I decided to have some Almaco Jack delivered with my order.  Now boy was that fish good!  I loosely followed the recipe on Carolina Grown's food blog using lime juice, a hint of basil and coconut oil along with salt and pepper and white wine.  The fish was mild, flaky, no ones, and YUMMY!  Served up with some onions and sweet bell pepper (orange) along with snow peas and a hearts of romaine salad.  Very satisfying.

So if you were asking what's for dinner now you know!  :-)

Bacon! It's for Breakfast!

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As I promised a day or so ago when I was talking about bacon from Rainbow Meadow Farms through Carolina Grown, I'm back with pictures and the cooking steps for baking the bacon instead of pan frying.  If you don't eat bacon because you don't like the mess cooking it in the skillet makes, give this a try.

I set my oven on convection bake 350.  My friend Patricia says regular baking at 375 works too.  For a pound, I line two cookie sheets with parchment paper (well one is a cake pan, but you get the gist).  Whatever the pan, it should have an edge on it to keep the oil contained as the bacon cooks.  I used scissors to cut the paper to fit just so after watching Donnie do it so carefully last time.  Lay the bacon on top of the parchment paper in a single layer.  Bake on a middle oven rack for 10-25 minutes depending on your oven and whether or not you want any bacon wiggle or just like it crunchy.  Use tongs to move the bacon to a plate with paper towels on top to drain and then serve.  I drain the very pure looking oil into a glass jar to use in seasoning something else later on and store the jar in the fridge.  Throw the parchment paper away and let the dishwasher take care of the cookie sheets.  No fuss, no muss, and everyone is happy to have bacon with their eggs!  Donnie said this AM it was the best bacon he ever had.  Yum!    

Note, you can cook up a pound over the weekend when you've got extra time and just gently reheat during the week.  Make in advance and enjoy!

Also note how flat the bacon is.  With this method, you avoid the bacon curling up on you too much!

Dreamy Daisies

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We continue to have a good bit of rain, so many of the flower pics I take are wet.  I took some roadside and neighborhood flower  pics on the school run and a short errand trip yesterday.  I liked the tiny daisy shot best for it's dreaminess and being something unique relative to what I've already posted this year.  But these wet lilies sure are pretty too!

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Cute anole lizard in my yard.

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And mourning dove love birds.

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That's a thistle sock for the goldfinch (not pictured) behind them.


Donnie and I had a chance to go to the Museum of Life and Science last night for their adult Disco Tech party.  Our good friends Joe and Debbie (below) invited us.  It was a fundraiser with a silent and live auction plus lots of adults dressed in their 70's best having too much fun dancing to the Bee Gees.  My kindof music!  Debbie and I waited until 10PM to get on the dance floor and then danced on and off with the guys for the next hour.  I left out of breath, sweaty, and with a big smile on my face!

The following shots were taken on the train ride.  Yes, the dressed up adults got to go without kids on the train!  Woo hoo!

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Back inside the museum, we had a bit more fun too:-)  Who says museums are just for kids!

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My Carolina Grown Order from 060112

I order from Carolina Grown sometime from Sunday 6AM - Tuesday midnight and they deliver the following Friday or Saturday. My order has always come on Friday so far. I thought you might like to see what the coolers look like, what the food looks like, the packaging, etc.

Included in this order was fresh butter and mozzarella cheese, fresh bacon, purple scallions, snow peas, and almaco jack fish fillets.

So far I am very satisfied with the website for ordering, delivery service and the food.  You can read more about Carolina Grown on their website, but basically it's a business the seeks out and buys organic produce and grass fed meats and buys the food so that members don't have to run around hunting out these items for themselves.

I plan to take pictures baking that bacon this weekend!  And probably of the fish and snow pea meal too!

Flutterby

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This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail showed up on my butterfly bush yesterday.  Technically I was late to go get the boys from school already, but I just had to get out of my car and take a few pics before i headed down the road.  This was the best one I got for sharpness and color and exposure.  I hate it the leaf is in front of his head:-(

This shot is Madi's dog Salvo poolside yesterday.  He's so handsome!  We love this dog.  He's such a well behaved boy!

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This is Joey asking to have his picture taken.  He was really enjoyed the water!  Thanks to Teen and Madi for having us over!

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All my kid shots at the pool were blurry.  Too much action and not enough light but at least when the shade is over the pool we can sip the sunscreen/chemicals and no worry about sunburn.  The water was reasonably warm.  It felt great!  The kids are doing this new thing this year where they somersault into the pool:-)  I did talk to them about neck safety since the pool is not that deep.  I think they're OK with what they are doing at least this year.

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The video describes it better:-)

And the obligatory daily food shot.  How to have a hamburger without a bun.  Put homemade cheese sauce on it and then add a little sour cream salsa mixture as a pseudo ketchup.  Yum!

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Sending Sunshine

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The rain moved out and the skies finally cleared after Tropical Storm Beryl moved out to sea.  My rain guage said 1.25 inches.

These lovely flowers, gloriosa daisy I believe, are growing in my front perennial garden.  They have come back fuller than ever.  I am pleased!  They remind me of sunshine and seem full of cheer.

Also blooming in my yard are hydrangea (lower right), oak leaf hydrangea (lower left), and gardenia (can you smell it?).

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I continue to try try to cook whole and healthy meals and to document them with pictures.  Below is green beans, onions, chicken breast, and a romaine lettuce salad with fresh guacamole sour cream dressing.  The dressing was a smidge thick but tasted yummy.

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My girlfriend, Patricia, pointed me to the blog 100 Days of Real Food.  The writer, Lisa Leake, recently documented everything that her family ate for a week with a picture.  She broke it up into breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner.  Very interesting stuff at least to me.  She is allowing and serving way more carbs than I am but I still enjoyed reading her posts.

Fabric Art

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I took some coneflower pics yesterday, but I'm not satisfied with them, so you're getting another picture from Monday.  This is a curtain in the window of the old house down the road.  I adjusted the contrast and brought out the details.  I  think it's kindof cool.  Here's the window.

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Here's the best coneflower shot, but it's grainy and not well focused:-(

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A double.

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TS Beryl or what's left of him is here this AM and it's pouring!

Quintessential Country Barn Scene

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While out running errands yesterday, I noticed a bed of orange lilies in front of a tobacco barn and thought it was so pretty that I just had to turn around and go back for a picture.  I have used HDR with Photomatix to enhance the details and color in my daily shot.  Here's an alternate view.  I used the Color Efex Pro Detail Extractor filter to pp this shot.  The bracketed images were not aligned enough for crisp detail, so I had to work with just one image.  I find the Detail Extractor filter a good back-up when HDR isn't working out.

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I'm still doing my best to cook healthy meals.  Of course I realize what one considers healthy another may consider the opposite.  At any point, instead of swinging into McDonald's for lunch because it was lunchtime and we were all starved, we came home and I pan fried some onions and chicken breasts in coconut oil.  I also steamed some sugar snap peas that came in my weekly Carolina Grown food order.  I'm happy to say that Joey readily ate the peas just as he would string beans or asparagus.  I threw the steamed peas into the frying pan after the other food was done to give them a bit of added flavor.  Oh, and we're using sour cream mixed with some salsa instead of ranch dressing or ketchup now.  There's no sugar in that mixture like there is in the others.

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I saw this interesting wrapped Xb at Cameron village yesterday.  Every Woman Needs a Bailey's Box.  It was a jewelry store ad.  Wrapping cars to make money advertising is a common sight around here, but I had not seen that unique metal bow on top before!

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Back to school and back to work today.  I know it's just going to be a 4 day week, but can it be Friday already?  Not really wanting to wish the days away just not looking forward to the grind either.

Launch!

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It's tradition on Memorial Day weekend for the Kidd Family pool (Madi's house) to open for the season with a picnic.  I always have tons of shots of the kids in the pool and on the waterslide.  Yesterday was no exception.

We did pause to remember those that died serving our country and enjoyed the day exercising the freedoms that they secured for us.

I decided to post a collage showing Donnie taking turns launching Madi and Johnny into the water.  They just could not get enough of this and kept coming back for more!  Joey and a few of the other kids got launched too, but it was Madi and Johnny that were most delighted.  Even though Donnie has the cold that's been going around now and wasn't feeling 100%, he spent a ton of time in the pool with the kids lifting and throwing and splashing and running circles to make a whirlpool.  I am so appreciative, and I know the kids think he's the best.

A huge thanks to Danny and Christine (Teen) for opening up their pool and house and throwing such a great party!  Danny rebuilt the pool this year including the deck, and his efforts really paid off.   Teen did a great job organizing the party and setting up.  Everything was great!

Here's a collage showing my 28 favorite shots.  I was shooting in continuous shooting mode most of the time, and some of my shots were out of focus.  It was a trade-off of not missing the moment but compromising a bit on image quality.

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From my cell.  Delighted kids ready for action!

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I love this picture of Joey and his water gun:-)  He did end up 'losing' it later in the day.  I wonder why!

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Danny taking the plunge and getting the best inflight shot of the day!

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Donnie racing around the outer edge of the pool to create a whirlpool.  The current can get going good enough to carry you around!

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The kids are almost too big for the waterslide now.  It rocked, it flattened out a bit, but it stayed up and was a ton of fun.  We try to encourage one at a time.  No walking back up it.  Feet first.  Butcha now in the moment of fun it can get crazy:-)

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I was able to get my arms up over my head enough to enjoy playing volleyball in the pool, and I was able to enjoy wearing a new swimsuit.  All in all a great day!

Lake Wheeler Car Show

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Donnie, the boys, and I attended the Piedmont Classic Chevy Car Show at Lake Wheeler yesterday.

"The Piedmont Classis Chevy Club will hold their 23rd Annual car show the 26th of May. Location will be at Lake Wheeler as it has been for the past several years. Registration  8:00 until 12:00. Proceeds will go to the Raleigh children's "Hilltop Home". The show is open to US made cars 1988 and older."

I estimate 150 or so cars.  This was Johnny's first car show, and he was so excited to look for green cars, learn what a convertible was, look under the hoods for the various horns, and learn what a radiator was.  Donnie has fond memories at shows like this of the cars he had growing up.  One was a 1970 Chevrolet SS Chevelle red with black racing stripes and a 396 cubic inch 4-speed.  There were several similar cars at the show.  Donnie wishes he still had that car, and I wish I'd picked up the 1959 Caddy I had an option to buy 20 years ago and passed up on.  There were two old Caddy's there, and I fondly remembered the 1966 I drove for a while.  Wrecked it in high school:-(  But mostly for me it's all about the reflections and chrome:-)

Here's Johnny in the wheel cover of a very nice looking Buick.  Doesn't he look like he's having a good time!  I told him to look at the chrome.  I should have told him to look at me in the chrome.

This Buick is the same car as the daily shot.  You can see Johnny and Donnie in his yellow shirt in the daily shot if you look close.

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I loved the bright orange and yellow combo here!  I was shooting around noon, so the light was as harsh as can be:-(

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Donnie said he has never seen this car before.  It's a 1937 Chevy Coupe Pickup.  Donnie said it was an El Camino before El Camino's were in fashion:-)

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I'm always fascinated with the Road Runner cars and their extra artwork and of course the Beep Beep horns.  Unfortunately, Johnny didn't get to hear it, but he enjoyed looking at it.

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You can almost see me in this one.  See that sun and those pretty Carolina Sky clouds?  Got me a bit of sunburn on the tops of my shoulders.

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This is just too sweet...  He forgot his shorts and had his baseball pants on from an earlier practice.  Cute in everything!

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I am feeling better but the cough lingers and kicks in at night and is rough.  Still, I'll take better, and thanks for your well wishes.  Donnie has it now, but he's a big, tough guy and he'll shake it quick.

Time for the annual Kidd Family Memorial Pool opening today!  The kids are super excited!