a blurry picture of a lone turkey

Well, I didn't get a picture of the red fox, but I was looking out my window and saw this lone turkey. We call them the "teenagers". You need to look very hard on the left side of the tree. The closer I got, the faster it began to walk. And then when I thought I got another picture, it mosied on into the bushes. Too bad. There will be others, I'm sure. We counted 16 one time.

Candy Melts roses

These are pictures of my "candy melts" flowers. I think they are very pretty. They take a while to make, but are worth the effort, wouldn't you agree?

Cecilia's birthday cake

This is the finished cake I made for my friend's daughter. It was short notice, so I used the flowers I had on hand. I would have liked it to have had something more fitting a one year old, but didn't have the time. It's a three layer chiffon with strawberries and whipped cream filling. The flowers are made from candy melts. My friend said that everyone enjoyed the cake. I liked the results. Oh and by the way, I know longer say "cake decorating". A more appropriate definition of this wonderful and time consuming craft is "cake construction". I like that better.
I am going to post a cake tutorial soon. I love the chiffon cakes. Light, airy and always moist.

Ground meat tips

I had London broil beef ground. I tell you, I never buy ground meat. I only pick out something in the meat case and ask to have it ground. I learned this from my father-in-law. He turned me on to this and I've followed his advice for over 40years. I make meatballs, meatloaf and an occasional hamburger. If I can't get my meat ground, none of these get made.
The total cost of the meat was $6.36, the meat was $2.29 a lb. I made 10 nice sized burgers. They will go into the freezer. You can take one out individually, or take out as many as needed to make meatballs or meatloaf. Also, when you freeze meat in smaller quantities, it defrosts faster. I wanted to show the meat labels, but could not put another picture on this post. I'm going to try again. Well, I tried and it didn't work. I will do another post. I hope you enjoyed this simple bit of info. Oh, by the way, I formed the burgers in a cottage cheese lid. Nice size.

I could make a cake everyday...

My friend's daughter is turning 1 this week. She asked me to make her cake. She already had a big party last weekend. This is just for her family. So I will make a cake and post it in the next few days. It will be an orange chiffon with whipped cream frosting. I'll keep you all posted.

are these beets, umm delicious

The finished product, salmon, beet greens and golden beets
delish!



Salmon seasoned with lemon, salt, and this fabulous seasoning. I get it in the organic section of my market.


Salmon, beets and zucchini

Golden Beets







We went out for breakfast and stopped at two farmer's markets on the way home. There is a new one in North Easton. Just starting up, nice produce. Bought golden beets, which I just made.
We went to another and bought raspberries and some other things. We ended up at the local supermarket to get fish. They had Sockeye Salmon on sale. I bought a pound and am making it for supper. Will be posting the pictures.
I just started making beets. I also use the greens for a side dish. This is the first time I made the golden beets. I wonder if they will be as sweet as the red beets.

early morning photography and a fox

Went out back to take pictures of my plants. They are looking nice, of course, not as nice as my brother's. I went down to one that is on the steps to my deck. I was down taking a picture and heard a rustle. I quickly turned and saw the spindly legs and red bushy tail of a red fox heading back into the bushes. I didn't get scared and hoped he would come out for my blackberry. No luck, but we will continue to look every morning to see him. I hope I remember to have my camera handy.
I'm very pleased with the first plant. (The one I was taking a picture of when I saw the back end of the red fox). The spike and vinca made it over the winter in my basement. The ivy in the second picture also survived the cold basement. I think they look pretty good. The little pony tail plant is cute. Not sure if it will look green, but I love the gracefulness of it.

Earlier, when I was putting a wash in, I was looking at my baking equipment. I love the leveler that I recently purchased. No guess work when I have to cut one of my cakes to make layers. I love it, it reminds me of a hack saw. I also am looking forward to working with Duff's fondant. Michael's carries it, along with cakes, frostings and other things. The next cake will be covered in it. I've also used Satin ice. It tasted pretty good. The company was very nice when I called and they sent me a sample. I was able to buy it in a great little store that is a bit of a distance from me. But it has absolutely everything you could need to put a cake together. I have pictures of my cakes and will continue to post them.

flowers from tootsie rolls and salt water taffy

I was thinking about different mediums to make flowers for my cakes. I know you can make them with tootsie rolls. I made them one night and they came out very nice, And the tootsie roll was easy to work with and held up nicely.
When I was on the plane going to Jersey, I was thinking about making flowers for a cake while I was there. I thought I could use salt water taffy. Well, I bought a box and sure enough, I made flowers for my Aunt Mary's cake. I didn't tell anyone until I was sure they looked ok. Unfortunately, I have a lousy picture of the cake, but maybe I can do something with it to post it. The tootsie roll worked very well. I will make more of them and post them. I think they would be nice for a boy's cake. I was also thinking about a candy that we ate years ago. It was called Turkish Taffy. I bet that would have worked beautifully.
I'll be back. I have alot on my mind tonight.

Julia childs and other interests

I read "the lovely bones" on vacation. I had a hard time getting through the first chapter, and skimmed the description of the assault. I did enjoy the rest of the book. It was good, wouldn't read it again, like I have wanted to do with so many books that I love. I haven't seen the movie and probably will when it comes to cable or Netflix. I did see the movie Julia and Julia. (was that the name of it?) It was very good and Meryl Streep was fabulous. She was the highlight of the movie. I watched Julia Child during my younger days. I learned alot from her. Some good techniques. I will try to share some with you with photos sometime. It was interesting how they portrayed Julia as such a sensual woman. She just does not look the part. I found the story to be quite interesting. She was not an overnight success. If I remember correctly, it looks like it took about ten years for her to gain her fame and have her book published. Oh well, there's hope for all of us.

I wanted to share some of my plants from last year. This years are still getting started. Will post them when they are nice and full.

Some of the recipes I will be posting in the distant future

In the future, I will be posting some of my really good recipes. It is going to be hard for me to reveal some of them.
My list of recipes will be:
Biscotti
Meatballs and Gravy
Baked fish
Sweet potato fries (really good)
Butternut squash
Maybe my butter cookies, and that's a big maybe
Ahh, my cakes, and that's another real big maybe
I hope you follow me in this adventure

Two of my cakes that I think are very nice, all my own designs

I wanted to add two cakes that I made for graduations. The three tiered is Jessica's graduation cake. She is going to school for Marine Biology.
The sheet cake is for a friend's granddaughter.

Another recipe, string beans and potatoes

I also made stringbeans and potatoes. Thats an old recipe that most Italians make. Lots of chopped garlic, olive oil and fresh string beans.
Boil the string beans in a frying pan with a bit of salt. The frying pan keeps the beans green. Boil a few potatoes cut into 1inch pieces in another pot. Remove the string beans when they are to your liking. Clean pan and put olive oil and lots of chopped garlic. Saute until soft then add the beans. Drain the potatoes and add to the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste. And of course, add plenty of chopped fresh parsley.
Real Good!

I ended up sauteing the tenderloin. I put olive oil in a pan and added lots of chopped garlic, fried it until it was soft, but not brown. I added a few bay leaves and fresh parsley.
When this was nicely aromatic and the garlic cooked, I removed it and added the pork to the pan to brown it. After browning, I put the garlic mixture back in the pan so the pork would pick up the wonderful taste of the fresh herbs. I then put the pork mixture in a bowl and added a few tablespoons of apricot preserves to the pan. I heated that through until it melted down a bit and added the pork. Heated through and spooned the apricot over the pork. It tasted very good.

The big bang...

It looks like bloggers start out with a bang they it subsides. Just looked at a few. First year many posts then they dwindle down to very few. I hope I can keep my interest up. I kinda like it.

I actually kept my mouth shut...

On the way to work yesterday, I stopped to get my lottery tickets. There was a young kid ahead of me. He was looking for some tobacco product. I wanted to say, "Save your money, save your life". I didn't. Pretty good. Then he asks the young girl behind the counter if she wanted to see his ID. She waved her hand and said, "No, that's alright". After the kid left and while she was scanning my tickets, I wanted to tell her that she made a poor decision not to check the ID. A few years back, I was on the Board of Health of a small town. One of the constant problems on the table was the fact that a local gas station was not carding kids. They would send in young kids to see if the gas station was following the rules. They never did. They were shut down a few times. It kind of bothered me, but hey, they were trying to protect the kids from tobacco. Anyway, I could not tell this clerk all this and I actually kept my mouth shut. Who am I, the tobacco police? If I see her do that again, I might say something. And not be able to actually keep my mouth shut.
Now I 'm going to begin to prepare a pork tenderloin. I will fumble around with recipes, but end up with the same basic ingredients, garlic, bay leaves, etc. I'll let you know how it turns out.
(Just did the spell check and no misspelled words, pretty good)

Why the cake?

I'm going pretty crazy trying to figure out how to do alot of things others just take for granted. I added a cake picture. I was very happy when I saw it, but it really has nothing to do with my original blog. Oh well, I'll get this eventually. Right now, I'm also trying to find out how others see this blog. Maybe I'll be back. The fruit was delicious.

Summer vacation

I just started this after returning from my vacation. I thought it would be nice to start a diary of events. I return each summer and at various times throughout the year to our summer home in Brigantine, NJ. I had an unsettling feeling about the "ladies". The two that are left of the 9 that built the summer home. At 92 and 87, they are slow and have many ailments. I wonder if any of us will live as long. The cousins did the cooking. We did the cleaning. Not much of either was done. It was too hot and the "cookers" and "cleaners" were on vacation from their jobs. We were just too tired to do too much of anything but talk, eat and sit on the beach.
We, of course, mentioned how lucky we are to have such a wonderful home and closeness. We have been going there since the 50's. The home was started by my grandmother. We have little black and white pictures of her and my dad and uncles when they were casing out the island for a lot to start building. It was at a time when there was nothing there. A few homes, and at the end of the street a lifted pavement that ended and a street of sand. It was great. But some of us kids thought we were in the boon docks. There were the famous "greenhead" flies that bit like bees. This is the beginning of my story. I have many stories that I will share. Right now I have to go eat some fruit.