God's Gift to the Single Girl

Rotisserie chicken. So simple, yet so easily overlooked.

Rotisserie chicken is god's gift to the single girl.  For a mere $6.99 ($5.99 if you find it on sale) you have a delicious, well cooked bird.  You can heat up some frozen veggies, toss them in a little butter and garlic add some potatoes (Bob Evans does a mean heat & serve version) and you've got a great "homemade" nutritionally balanced meal - go easy on the butter, we're just trying to add flavor here, not a heart attack.

The next day, take the second breast for lunch. Add a piece of fruit, yogurt and a bottle of water - DONE!

Dinner the night after...you can shred it into a salad.  You can dice it up and toss it into a pasta dish.  You can stand up in your kitchen and pick the bird clean with your fingers.

So many options!! How do YOU like your rotisserie chicken?!

My Favorite Moment in a Relationship

Is when its over.

It’s that crystal clear moment when I realize the person I’ve been dating has nothing to do with the person I thought I had been dating.

They look the same.
They speak the same.

But they are different.

It’s the moment when you realize everything you thought and hoped and wished for is naught. Ain’t there. Doesn’t exist. They are not who you thought they were.

After 34 years of dating, ok, not quite 34 years. More like 18 years of dating, I’d like to think I’d catch on sooner. That I would be able to spot the crazy. The lunatic. The nut job...a little bit sooner.

This one only took 46 days.

Could have been worse.

New Swallowtail!!

I left home with a chrysalis on the counter and came home to...

Butterfly Garden - List of Plants - Zone 7

Here is a list of the plants currently in my butterfly garden:

• Butterfly bush (white)
• Bee balm
• Aster
• Salvia (variety)
• Marigolds
• Cosmos
• Hyssop
• Flat leaf parsley
• Dill
• Yarrow (yellow & peach)
• Confederate jasmine
• Lantana
• Verbena (tall leggy & purple)
• Coreopsis
• Climbing hydrangea (not doing well)
• Unknown shrubs (2)

I have noticed this year that the butterflies spend a lot of time in the tops of my photinia's and white pine. I think they like the dense canopy.

Butterfly's in the Garden!

I am so excited about and proud of my butterfly garden!  Here are a few of the visitors I've managed to capture on film this year.

Monarch on Buddlea (Butterfly Bush)

Horace's Duskywing Skipper on Salvia leaf

Lola & the Swallowtail (perched on cosmos)

Grey Hairstreak on purple Verbena

Green Lynx Spider at home on a Cosmo plant

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Butterfly Bush

The Madness of Oak leaf Hydrangea's!

Oak leaf hydrangea's, Maple, cast iron plants

My big Labor Day 2010 project was to plant 3 Oak leaf hydrangea's.  Under a 60 year old Maple tree of unknown variety.  Hence, the "madness!"

I knew it was going to be a tough dig.  What I didn't know was that it wasn't going to be so much of a dig as a hack at the teeny spaces between the giant roots, curse, take a deep breathe, remember that I love gardening, hack...repeat.  Eventually, I found three decent spots under the tree which were not anywhere near where my landscape plan showed planting the oak leafs, but that's ok.  They are in and I think they look fantastic.

I also dug up and divided some cast iron plants and pocket planted them amongst the hydrangea's and along the slope behind the Maple.  I relocated a coral bell and painted fern that were not happy elsewhere in the garden.  After watering everything in, I sat down with a big glass of ice cold water and enjoyed the view.

Mushroom Pomodoro

or, at least that's what I'm going to call it!

Ingredients: sea shell pasta, mushrooms, tomatos, garlic, green onion, red pepper flakes, olive oil, basil, parmesan cheese, salt & pepper.  Adjust ingredients based on how many servings you'd like to make.

Boil pasta, drain, reserve some pasta water
sauté mushrooms & garlic in olive oil (quite possibly the BEST smell on this planet!)
add diced fresh tomato
add pat of butter
little more olive oil
chiffonade basil, add to heated mixture right before you toss with pasta - - give it just a second or two on the heat.
Combine all ingredients.
Add pasta water as necessary - if it's dry.
Grate fresh parm on top, serve immediately.

Delicious!!  Very tasty post yoga vegetarian dinner.  Enjoy!
If you try it out, let me know what you think in the comments.