A wonderful way to add pops of color, varieties of height and interest to your herb and vegetable gardens is to add edible flowers!

Besides the edible Beach Rose (!) in the middle of the picture above, near her right leg are some red nasturtium, and near her left leg, some yellow ones.  And of course sunflowers in the back of the raised bed.

Here are just some of the flowers you may want to include in the plan of your garden this year:

• Yellow Gem Marigolds
• Nasturtiums
• Sunflowers
• Violets
• Day Lilies
• Pansies
• Roses
• Tulips
• Chamomile

Just to name a few!  Check out the list of varieties of edible flowers available on this site .

 

If you’ve ever taken a shower and have had the shower curtain dancing around and between your legs throughout it, while you try desperately to disentangle yourself from it, you know what I mean.  And you don’t want that experience again!

Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!

Make sure that you purchase the “heavy-duty” shower liner.  This one feels bulky and usually costs about twice what the light or medium liners go for.

But, the cost is so worth it.

A) You won’t be wrestling with a plastic liner every time you try to take a nice relaxing shower.

and

B) You can wash it at least 4 times in the washing machine to re-use before throwing it away to get a new one.  Forget washing the lighter liners.  They’ll just tear and you’ll end up with swiss cheese!

 

That’s right!  Up to a week longer…

Such an easy trick and will help your bananas stay fresher and yellow.  Just wrap the stems of the bunch really tightly around and around in plastic wrap.

That’s it!

And if you’re really ambitious and want them to last even longer…

pull them apart from each other and wrap each stem, individually, with the plastic wrap.

Good to know, right?!

What a story.  What a read.  What lessons of life.  What a writer.  What kind of mind puts forth such beauty, in such great detail, so perfectly worded?

One of “The Greats”, that’s who.  Charles Dickens.  Heralded as a literary genius.

This book is incredibly touching and pulls at your heartstrings, throughout…

It tells the story of a young, orphaned boy, Pip, who grows up in poverty raised by his wretch of a sister and wise, simple, loving brother-in-law.  The boy is given a glimpse of high society when he is summoned by a rich, heartless woman to use as a pawn in her game of raising her adopted daughter, Estella, to be heartless towards boys.  He falls in love with her and becomes humiliated and ashamed of his position, his upbringing and his guardians. He is given the opportunity to live out “his great expectations” by an unknown benefactor of riches.  As he starts to lead this life of luxury, he virtually disowns his loyal brother-in-law, Joe.  And makes no progress winning over the cold heart of Estella, who marries another for money. Because of the good in his heart, Pip, sets up his best friend to be financially secure for the rest of his life and reunites with Joe, begging forgiveness.  A decade and a half later, his broken heart is finally mended with the return of Estella, who’s softened with love for Pip.

It reads like a classic.  It is extremely rich in detail and sesquipedalian (meaning: big word.  Like that?!) vocabulary.  It is so very worth your time and effort and you will want to be a better person after you’ve finished reading it.

the fresher the veggie!

I just purchased this zucchini at the grocery store yesterday and noticed immediately how very fresh it looked.  Its skin was dark green, firm and had no blemishes.  It was heavier than it looked which is always another sign.

But the tell-tale sign that a zucchini or summer squash is fresh or it isn’t, is the length of its stem.  If it’s long, than it is extremely fresh.  Because, as the days go by your grocer will start to cut back the brown on the stem, so that shoppers are still enticed to buy.

So, if you notice that your zucchini’s have nubs as stems, safe to say that they are past their prime!

So many times a recipe will call for shredded chicken.  What’s an easy, sure-fire way to make shredded chicken?  Follow along and find out!

In a large saucepan, add 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 15 ounces (2 cups) of chicken broth, 1 teaspoon dried oregano,

1/2 teaspoon ground thyme,

and 1 bay leaf.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Then reduce the heat to medium and cook for 20 minutes.

Cover the saucepan.  Turn off heat and let pan sit until cool.  Remove chicken and rinse it with cold water.  Use 2 forks to shred!

Servings: 3 cups

Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!

 

 

Here you go!

Never be at a loss again. Does the knife go over here?  Do you put the dessert spoon near the dinner fork? Where does the napkin go?

When you’re having guests over, when you’re setting the table yourself, or teaching your child this is the proper way to set the table!

Study, study, study…

and if you want to go over the top, you can use a yard stick to measure that the dishes are a precise distance from the utensils, which are a precise distance from the napkins, which  are a precise distance from the glasses, etc, etc….. a la Downton Abbey!

Yup.  That’s right…worms in your lettuce.  And why wouldn’t they burrow in there?  If your lettuce is fresh picked, it’s probably got large deposits of soil in amongst its leaves and thus the likelihood of finding a slithering friend or 2 on a plate of your favorite Caesar salad.

And that is exactly what happened to me and my oh-so-lucky husband.  “Oh no, honey!  We don’t need to wash the lettuce.  Most of them are pre-washed, especially the pre-packaged ones and the ones that advertise the ‘hearts’ of the lettuce brand!”

And that evening, he practically dined on a ranch-coated inchworm that was fleeing for its life on his fork tines!

Maybe I shoulda read the package more closely.  As it does clearly state that you should Wash Before Eating.  And it’s not brain surgery or very time-consuming.

Place cut lettuce leaves in salad spinner basket.  Rinse under cold water.  Set into spinner.  Spin until water is gone/dry.  Pretty basic concept and one that you’d think I would have paid heed to…

Just one more thing I learned through trial and ERROR and would love to pass along to you…