Spring Celebration.

Tomorrow some wonderful gardens friends are gathering together for a celebration of spring lunch. So here is my contribution. What do you think? We may have snow on the ground but we have daffodils.


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Yes they are blooming!

Ok. I did find pansies but decided to wait to plant. Good thought as it has been very cold this week. Hopefully I will plant next week. But good news the daffodils are starting to pop open.

My father planted over a thousand daffodils in his life time of 89 years. So I have followed suit.

So OK, Dad the first bloom appeared on Monday March 11th. These daffodils have struggled this year with the weather, but I think they will make it.




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In Search of Pansies.

So it is finally March. I am on a mission this morning to finish cleaning my Office. No one needs to have 30 years of receipts. So they will be burned.

I have been distracted by a commercial on the radio that let me know that they have pansies for sale. I am addicted to pansies and pride myself on being the first on the block to have them around my mailbox. My existing pansies are starting to pop open. I am very surprised that any of them have made it through this crazy winter.





I did get fun news from my Mom. The daffodil wands I took up to last week have opened up. So my amazing 94 year old Mom and her best friend Burke
have the first daffodils of the season.





My Mom shares my love of pansies, so I will pot her up some if I am successful in my search.



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Turnips Two Ways.

Saturday night the 16th, was so fun. We had our lifelong buddies here to celebrate Valentines Day. We had great plans but the Indiana vs Purdue basketball game got in the way. In Kentucky you cannot head east from Shelbyville , when UK is playing and expect any bar to have the IU game on. So plan B.

The boys watched the game at our house and the ladies shopped Shelbyville. Then we had great fun cooking, eating and playing Board games.

One success for the evening was the Warm Turnip Green Dip. Plus a bonus meal, the next night I turned it into Turnip Cream Soup.

Recipe
5 Slices Bacon, chopped
1/2 sweet onion,chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup white wine
1(16oz) packaged frozen chopped turnip greens , thawed
12 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces
1(8oz) container sour cream
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Garnish: dried crushed red pepper

Assorted crackers, flatbreads, and crackers

1. Cook bacon in a skillet over medium heat 5 to 6 minutes or until crisp Remove bacon and drain on paper towels , reserving 1 Tbsp

2. Saute onion and garlic in hot dripping 3 to 4 minutes. Add wine and cook1 to 2 minutes stirring to loosen particles from the pan. Stir in the turnip greens , next 4 ingredients, and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Cook, stirring often 6 to8 minutes or until cream cheese is melted and mixture is heated thru and thru.
Transfer to a lightly greased 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

3. Cover and chill 8 hours. Bake covered with foil for 30 minutes at350 degrees. Uncover and bake 30 minutes. Then sprinkle with bacon. Serve with assorted crackers.

This was wonderful and loved.

So the next day, I added some chicken broth and made a great soup. So it was 2 for 1.

Enjoy, the original recipe was adapted from Southern Living!








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Signs of Spring

So today it is 50 degrees(barely) but close enough. The sun is shinning so I feel like a big gray winter cloud has been lifted of me. I had lunch with my favorite lady, my 94 year old mom and shared my latest Hot Plant article in "Kentucky Gardener" with her. It was on Virginia Bluebells, one of her favorite woodland perennials.

I also took her some daffodils wands. Mom loves daffodils as my Father planted thousands in his life time. I have continued that tradition. So Mom is going to have the first blooms from my garden.




Anyway, back to signs of Spring. Here is a pictorial of what is currently trying hard to peek out from under the leaves. No worries not quite ready to pull all the leaves off but soon very soon.





Snow Drops, always one of the first


to let me know to hang in there Spring is coming...

And not to be outdone, here come the anemones...



The Crocus,which give me the Spring garden the most amazing purple, yellow, and white blossoms after a dull winter.


One finally small bloom. Just a hint of color to come. Please sun do not go away!!!!!

My Personal Bucket List. # 1

Having been absorbed in self pity the last couple months, I decided the time to change was now. Falling into the debts of gloom over things that I cannot change does not do anyone any good. Things such as the grayness and cold of winter, the sluggishness of this economy, the trials and tribulations of owning your own business and then not getting to go spend enough time with my daughter and grand babies. Well, the last two I can change and I am working on that!!! Maybe this all has something to do with turning 60 this year but that is still a bad excuse.

So I am accepting that everything is working perfectly and tackling my goals one by one. It is to easy to get caught in my trap of what I cannot do or where I cannot go or what I cannot buy. But that is the total wrong approach. So I am off that path and headed towards Spring. I can do anything I want to do!!!

I have been talking about organizing my home office space for years. I want an area to write, to organize my article collections, travel info and pictures, plus much much more. I may hate myself in the morning, but after not being able to sleep I am up working through the night on Step # 1 .

#1. Organize my massive collection of writing cards, birthday cards, get well cards and so forth.

Now you may say, no one sends cards any more...oh but we do. My daughter always sends me thank you notes, birthday cards and writes letters. My mother randomly sends me cards with articles of "interest" in them and my daughter in law is great with notes as well. See the tradition continues.

Both Kalee and I love buying notecards and stationary. My mother was the same way and now I have been given a big box full of a amazing assortment of Virginia Stoner's card collection.

For years they have been stuffed in three drawers. I would randomly rifle through them as the need arose. Not anymore. I have pulled them all out sorted them and they are neatly place in a plastic shoe rack inside my Office closet door. The envelopes are still in a big pile on the floor but that will be for another sleepless night.


Tomorrow I am sending two cards, one to my Mom and one to Kalee. Just to let them know that I think they are two of the most sincere wonderful individuals that I know and that I love them very much.


Here is one of the cards......


Very cool.....wouldn't you love to receive it in the mail. Maybe if we all write letters we could save the Saturday mail delivery.

Saturday Soup.

Plans changed we were going down to Athens GA to see my baby Kalee and her wonderful husband Kalee, but Randy needed to work. So know wonderful dinner at my fav restaurant.

So lunch is what we have on hand. Since I had some kale still in the garden and some left over Cajun sausage from my Super Bowl appetizer, the Portuguese Kale Soup recipe was calling me. So it was great. Enjoy.







It was a great use of leftovers and the end of the garden...I think Randy enjoyed the fresh lunch.



So here is the recipe ....

1 to 2 lbs fresh kale.
1 large yellow onion
Cajun style sausage
8 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup olive oil
6 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 can cannelloni beans
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 hot pepper seeded
1/3 teaspoon paprika
Season with salt and pepper.

Slice the sausage and sauté in a 1/4 cup of olive oil, onion,and chopped garlic. Add the garlic but make sure it does not burn or turn brown. Add the liquid and allow to simmer for 10 minutes

Add the beans, kale, and simmer an additional 30 minutes.

Enjoy.