the cruelest fruit...

...pears. They are the best of fruits , they are the worst of fruits. You buy them in a rock hard unripe state. You baby them. You place them lovingly in a bowl with a lovely view. You watch them and hope for the best. You pinch them softly to see if they are just soft enough. You decide they are just right and slice them. They will either be the grainiest , least flavorful thing you have ever eaten...or...the most delicious , sweetest , juiciest fruit ever. There is no in between.

I took a chance and purchased this one. I will keep you posted on our journey. We are still at the rock hard stage.

 

Okay. Dinner tonight will be Honey mustard pork chops and grilled corn. I have never cooked corn this way , but Bobby Flay guided me.

 

 

Husks are left on. A few mushrooms sautéed.

 

 

They look good and browned.

Pork chops as usual look great with a tan.

 

 

Leftover communion naan got grilled as well.

 

Sprayed it with olive oil spray and put it directly on the grill.

 

New purchase for our bathroom...new towel rack. The big jar y'all may remember from the Sea Monkey story. My mamaw kept them or guppies in this big ole jar. I put in glass balls from Kalalou. Love that place. Also notice the aluminum tray. That pressed aluminum was all the rage in the early part of the 20th century. I would love to collect more.

 



 









 

Random images

More spring flowers on my walk. I've heard them called snow drops and other names. What do you call them?

 

 

As long as we are going with a green and white theme...

 

This little lizard was sunning himself outside Amy's office.

 

Just wanted to point out, that something about this chocolate disturbs me.

 

 

I just feel better eating bunnies, eggs etc.

 

And talk about disturbing. All Jackson needs is a rifle named in it's honor.

 

Now here is a cute one.

 

This is how big Gibbs is now! look at those legs.

 

One last pic...just remember no matter how together you think you are...

 

...you could always emerge from the restroom with toilet paper on your shoe. And your friends will gladly point it out.

 





 



 

 

Spring color

Flowers are here...if only in a greenhouse. Candy wanted to go to Moore's, our favorite local plant nursery. I told her it is too soon, but she wanted to go anyway. It was so beautiful. They were completely stocked up , as it has been too cold so far to sell. Take a look.

it was like this everywhere you looked.

 

 

wish I had enough sun to grow bougainvillea

 

They had these gorgeous coleus in so many varieties.

 

Candy bought 3 varieties like this one. They will look so good with her purple house. Good luck lugging them in when the next freeze comes. Did I mention they are gigantic?

As I'm writing this it is still so cold outside. I'm trying to get the motivation up to go walk. I know it will soon be hot and I will hate that much worse. Oh I just thought of my motivation...I'm sitting on it...my big behind.



 



update

Remember the poor axe murdered tree I posted about? It sent out that brave little branch of blooms? Well It got hacked down even further and persisted in holding out its little flower show.

They hired a stump grinding company to finish the hack job they had begun. Here it is at the street. I could not help but admire it's tenacity. I would have had to cut that branch and taken it inside.

 

Winter's end

...or is that Ed's end?

 

Oh , wait it is the end of winter. This officially ends this long cold season. The last fire in our fireplace. I know we will have more cold but the powers that be have decided that this is it. We enjoyed it so much this year. The next day he emptied the ashes and vacuumed the firebox.

 

Linda came for the weekend and we had fun. Of course I did not take pictures. We had a shrimp boil at Jan's house. Then on Sunday we took her to Sal and Phil's for more seafood. She swears that Memphis does not do good seafood. She brought us all something that makes us happy and we cannot get here.

 

This is the best salt free seasoning.

 

Here is a good dinner I made.

 



Oven barbequed chicken, broccoli and corn salad (made out of the leftover shrimp boil corn). For the chicken, all you do is put in roasting pan and top with thinly sliced onions and BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's) and bake. It is so moist and perfect.

On a sad note...my Uncle Woody died. He was really my Dad's first cousin, but we called him Uncle. The funeral was so sweet and it was obvious so many people loved him. He and my dad met up in Honolulu during WWII. Dad in the Navy and Woody in the Army. It was sheer coincidence that they were both there. Influenced by the era (and possibly some cocktails), they got matching tattoos featuring palm trees and a beach front with a banner spelling out Honolulu. He was the last of the Ellis boys. 





 

that makes scents...

...as in good smells. I've heard that the sense of smell is our most primitive sense, linked directly to our old brain function. I believe that is true. It only takes a whiff of certain things to transport me back in time through an old memory. The smell of my mom's night cream as she kissed me goodnight, the smell of food cooking at the fair, the smell of the plastic of a new doll all pull me straight back to the past. Here is one of my strong memory smells.

Carolina jasmine. Jan and I saw this on a fence during our walk. It reminds me of visiting Greenville with my friend Jennie. Her grandmother lived there and we would go stay with her. It was an old house in downtown Greenville. Huge trees towered over the sidewalk lined streets. They even had a golf cart we got to drive around town. On one of my visits the jasmine was blooming. The smell permeated the air all around and especially on the "sleeping porch". This was a screened porch with real furniture on it, even a TV. For breakfast their cook made little tiny sweet potato biscuits about the size of a half dollar. We ate at the huge dining table and Mama Jody (Jennie's grandmother) never came downstairs unless she was fully dressed and made up. Needless to say I was impressed. When I came back home Mom and I tried to make those biscuits. They were never quite as good. What a good memory.

 

Also saw these tulips on our walk.

 

 

Ok here is my stab at a healthy pizza.

 

 

Whole wheat crust

 

Turkey pepperoni, turkey sausage, mushrooms and on my side, jalapeno. It was pretty good. It was no Pizza Shack pizza of course.





The chew

...or grazing on the grass. Mom likes to give her poems alternate titles to give more insight into the subject. So , Candy is on the diet train with us all now. She made this impromptu lunch for us.

It was a coleslaw made with cabbage, carrots, cucumber, pumpkin seeds and golden raisins in a dressing with rice vinegar and I'm not sure what else. Yummy and fibrous. So we chewed and talked and chewed and chewed some more.

 

I like to save glass jars with lids to reuse. They are good for leftovers and to take food to someone in need. Well this jar of pasta sauce was not a willing candidate. There was glue under almost all of the label and it would not succumb to soaking or scrubbing. I am not willing to go to any other effort to remove the label such as solvents, etc. So I decided to send an email to Fresh Market and tell them! I mean, that seems to me like a waste of glue and could possibly be counter to their eco friendly ways.

We will see what they say. I told them I would tell my blog followers.

 

 

Here is a little story about making the best of things. A neighbor attempted to cut down some huge Bradford pear trees a couple of weeks ago. It must have proved too big a job for him because it basically looked like an axe murder had happened. The jagged stumps were left looming in the yard. But look what happened over the last few days.

 

See the little blooming branch. I'm not sure if it is a symbol of survival or a flag of surrender. 

 



bad hair day

Now you must understand that my hair has never been my best feature. Back in the early 70's when long straight basically flat hair was what everyone wanted, I was good to go. When the late part of that decade rolled around, big hair was the thing. Then I had to get perms to poof it up. One old college yearbook photo has my do actually touching the edges of the picture. Wow , what a proud day that was. I used to say that we would only be happy when our hair was wider than our hips. Had to abandon that notion when it became apparent that a 3 foot wide hairdo was impractical. Last summer's beach trip had us all going through old pictures from previous beach years. I was voted most varieties of hair styles. I've tried them all. Maybe I'll do a hair blog...

Anyway back to the present. On a clear, cool, non-humid day, my hair can look ok. We have had a few of those lately. So I couldn't figure out why my hair looked so bad. It was flat as a pancake from the get go and got progressively worse. Next morning I decided to check out the shampoo I had used.

Can you spot the problem? Hey I was just trying to get a little body here. Can you blame me? BODY wash. I promise you they were together on the shelf. Oh well , at least I know my hair is not that bad.

Falling off the diet wagon

...it's more like I fell under it and it rolled over me. It started here.

Jerry's catfish igloo. I've seen this restaurant for years on Hwy 49 near Richland. Paul and Sophie told us it was great. Well it was but I couldn't resist the fried catfish.

It was soooo good. I must report that Mom was virtuous and ordered hers grilled.

The tables were plastered with business ads. It was a little disconcerting to eat my greens with this lady looking at me.

Next adventure. When a planned trip fell through I had to come up with an alternate plan.

My willing cohort. We set off in search for vintage vinyl (records). We headed for Raymond, but missed it. How do you miss a town? We came upon these great pecan groves. They are owned by the Bass pecan company.

Wish I was a painter. This would be a perfect scene.

Our destination. The Little Big store. It was an old depot. It was such an old hippie place.

There was even incense burning.

Yes , that is Lynard Skynard.

Mary Grace bought me this copy of the first 45 I ever purchased myself. I love the 69 cent price tag.

I asked to use the restroom and was directed to go through the bead curtain, out the door and around the side to this.

Next we went to eat where the locals lunch. Now remember we have both been on diets.

It was ridiculously good. I had artichoke crusted tilapia. She had country fried steak. I assume hers was good. Obviously I did not get a bite.

Then we explored the town. Apparently nothing has happened there since the Civil War.

Enlarge and read the inscription.

Found a cool old cemetery.

Looks like Sarah broke out.

Here are more pics. Skip if you aren't interested.

Confederate dead were peaceful.

Well, back on the diet wagon

Headed to lunch...

















procrastintion pays off

You know how when the weather changes and you can't remember what on earth you wore when the temperature was different? You look in the closet and realize you were apparently wearing rags last year? Well it happened to me. It was warm and all those sweaters looked ridiculous. I was loading stuff in the car and saw a "to be returned bag" in the back. Low and behold it was a denim shirt that needed returning because it was too SMALL. Guess what...it fit and I wore it. Absolutely no fashion tape needed for that button placket.

I love Mexican food. Restaurant food usually spells disaster with the chips and dip. But  at home it can be very healthy. Here are my favorites for healthy tacos.

These are the best shells.

 

Make the meat with half beans. I usually use turkey but this was lean beef from Fresh Market.

 

Mozzarella has less fat and calories

 

Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I have since found that Fage brand is better. Sorry Stamos.

 

Don't forget these. Hardly any calories. And yes I buy them by the gallon.

 

Bury it in tons of greens and tomatoes. I only had one shell left so that is a few blue corn chips. Found out that they are much better for not raising blood sugar.