The best part about the month of February is the days really start to get longer.

 

 

 

I know there’s food styling but I had to do some last minute Fridge styling for this photo. Yikes, you did not want to see it before.

 

Just add butter.

 

Unless you’ve tried it, you have no idea how hard it is to take a picture with your left hand! These things are not designed for lefties. I don’t mean the camera I ‘m holding in my right  hand, I’m talking about the one I’m afraid I’m about to drop that I’m awkwardly shooting with and just barely reaching my finger around to the shutter. How do left handed people do it?

 

I also had these guys in my hand.

 

 

 

Only good cabbage is a dead cabbage in my book, I mean cooked cabbage.

 

What’s with this 28 degree stuff? I’m ready for spring.

 

 

Even if it was only in my mind.

 

 

 

Blueberry pie and ice cream for breakfast.

 

 

I loved reading books by L.M. Montgomery and was very sad when I’d read them all.

 

 

This guy is a stickler, when you get done reading this you’ll know

There is no berry in library,

Drowned has one syllable. The pronunciation DROWN-ded is beastly.

 

Just when I think I’m doing alright I get to Semi and find out I might be a nitwit.

“Semi  SEM-ee (rhymes with Emmy), not SEM-eye.

Only a nitwit would say sem-eye-colon and sem-eye-circle, so why the big attraction to SEM-eye in so many other semi-words? “Don’t follow those who affectedly make the i long,” counsels Opdycke (1939). Avoid the appearance of semiliterate affectation. For all words beginning with the combining form semi-, say SEM-ee.”

Hmm, I’m just not going to call a tractor trailer a “Semee”.

Oh, wait, he says “However, for the word semi, meaning a tractor-trailer, SEM-eye is acceptable.”

Oh, that makes me feel better. Acceptable is way better than being beastly.

Ok, I’m putting this book away. It’s distracting me.

 

 

I really like this lavender and aloe lotion.

 

 

Please don’t ask me what kind of a car this is. All I’ll be able to tell you is it’s old, it’s from when this color of turquoise was a cool color for cars. Does that help?

 

 

 

 

That's all for February.

 

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The George Disney trail is said to be one of the most difficult short trails in Georgia.

It’s only about a 2-3 mile round trip but you feel it on the way up and on the way back down.

Beautiful views from the top and well worth the climb.

 

 

The trail starts in Dalton GA behind the Church of the Nazarene in the corner of the gravel parking lot next to the family life building. There’s a little sign at the edge of the parking lot.

 

I went to meet Rebecca's new baby donkey, Valentine. Yup you guessed it, Valentine was born on Valentine's day. We made such a ruckus running though the pasture that I think,

 

 

I think we scared them and they ran off.

 

 

They ran down the valley.

 

 

Roasted Red Pepper and Pumpkin Curry Soup with Farfalle, so nice on a cold day.

If you cook everything ahead it’s very quick and easy to make.

 

 

cook and drain the farfalle.

 

 

 

In the pot with the noodle water add the vegetables (a little cooked sweet potatoes also found their way into the pot)

 

 

now take to stove, the light is bad at the stove so I had to take photos here.

Bring to boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.

 

blend with a hand blender. These things are pretty cool.

 

 

till smooth

 

 

about like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

add coconut milk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and curry paste

 

 

and water or the saved noodle water.

 

 

sauté chicken while the rest heats

 

 

for a couple of minutes.

 

 

Add the farfalle and the chicken to the pot

 

 

Serve warm and garnish with cilantro.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Curry soup

ingredients

 

• 1/2 13 oz package mini vegetable farfalle, (carrot is particularly  pretty)
• 1and 1/2 cup water
• 2/3 cup sautéed onions
• 1/2 cup cooked sliced carrots
• 1 15oz can pumpkin, or 2 cups cooked pumpkin cubes
• 1 12oz jar roasted red peppers, or 1and 1/2 cups of your own  roasted reds
• 1 quart chicken broth or water1 13oz can coconut milk, regular or light
• 2 Tbsp red curry paste
• 1-2 tsp salt, or to taste
• a few turns of fresh pepper, (white if you have it, otherwise black will do
• 2 cups chicken cut into small pieces, sautéed
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, snipped  (optional) to garnish
• More water, as desired

 

DIRECTIONS;
Cook the farfalle in the water for barely 4 minutes in a large pot;  remove the farfalle to a bowl, and return the noodle water to the pot

Add next 5 ingredients (up to and including chicken broth)

Bring to boil and simmer for about 10 minutes

Blend with stick blender or regular blender until smooth

**** At this point you can save out about 1 to 1/2 cups into another pot, for your non-spicy eater, if you have one) and about 2 Tbsp coconut milk, heat, add about 1/4 cup farfalle and about 2-3 Tbsp chicken, and water depending on how thick you like your soup.

Now add the curry paste and the rest of the coconut milk  to the big pot and heat and stir gently.

Add the farfalle and the rest of the chicken to the big pot; warm, adding more water if desired, and serve; sprinkle with cilantro.

 

 

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Proctor-Silex 59738 Hand Blender

 

My first memory of Grammy was of her arriving in her little green “Grammy Green” as we called it, diesel VW rabbit with ice cream. From then on I just assumed all grandmothers brought ice cream when they came to visit.

 

 

She told us grandkids stories about doing so well in school that she skipped 3rd grade.

I’m sad that there are no childhood photos of her. None.

 

Grammy and Grampy are the two on the left. He was the best dancer at the USO so she knew he was a keeper.

 

At 50 something she earned her bachelors degree and then went on to earn a masters. She loved doing crossword puzzles. Preferred the New York times puzzle.

She was quite the artist and wanted to teach me the right way to draw at age 4 but I drew stick figures and preferred to make smears of color on the page. She’d get a bit lecture-y at times so I’d just wait until she’d hand me all her crayons or colored pencils and some of her high quality drawing paper and she’d go back to reading or doing crossword puzzles.

She was about the coolest Gramma you could ask for. She took me to calligraphy class when I needed a ride. She drove like Richard Petty and had an amazing way of getting out of tickets.

She was well read and had a vocabulary that could build bridges or burn ‘em down.

 

She spent her last few years in the living room at the edge of all the coming and going of daily household life.

Over time her stories got more jumbled and blended with others.

She’d forget things from five minutes ago, which was a very good thing if you’d just been given four or five Irish curses. You just had to walk out of the room, take a deep breath and come back talking about something different and all would be forgotten.

 

 

 

A lot of things may have changed over the years but her love for ice Cream was not one of them!

 

 

 

She loved going out for ice cream.

 

 

She liked to get a Neapolitan.

 

 

There was never a wrong time to eat ice cream.

 

 

Not Ever.

 

 

 

She was one of the motivators for me to a get a better camera and take more photos.

She always preached finding your talents and developing them. Though to her art did not have anything to do with that black box I kept holding up to my face.

 

 

 

 

Some favorite lines of hers that we still use and smile every time we  say them:

 

“You should start a restaurant in New York.” When ever someone has made a dish you really like.

 

“You can’t leave an odd number of cookies on a plate.” When you are justifying eating one more cookie.

 

“Don’t take NO for an answer.”

 

 

We miss you Grammy.

 

~PN