How many dishes can you make out of leftovers? Not separate dishes. More like turning leftovers into something left over for more leftovers. It was either Monday or Tuesday last week that I made pork ribs by first simmering them with fresh garlic and Cajun spices, then broiling them in a toaster oven. For the BBQ sauce, I mixed leftover homemade pizza sauce, made a few days earlier, with horseradish. Sounds horrible, but it tasted mighty good, so the Husband said. Even though it was a small slab of ribs, we had leftovers. Not enough for two people though. A couple days later, I added the meat to a concoction of garbanzo beans, peas, linguisa, and leftover sauteed onions and mushrooms. I also threw in a couple of frozen tomatoes. That delectable dish was served with Jasmine rice. There were leftovers. On Saturday, we happened to be standing in front of a Mexican restaurant. Its doors were wide open so we could enjoy yummy smells. Although mouthwatering, we weren't hungry enough t

Lately, it's like pulling teeth to get me to go beyond the mailbox. Some of my reticence is not wanting to catch any virus out there in the public. Some, not wanting to put on a bra and shoes. A little, the annoyance of possibly feeling a whiff of fear and hostility of someone judging me or others around me as not being allowed to exist among them. Yes, there is that. A bit, the pain of my so-called arthritic knees, which I prefer to describe as having no more cartilage. But, mostly, I haven't felt the need or urge to go out. Yesterday afternoon, I didn't talk myself out of going out because we needed to fill up the pantry and refrigerator again. If I'm going to cook more, then I need ingredients to create decent meals. So off to the organic farm stand and the grocery store we went, along with a stop for a couple of beer growlers from Brewery Twenty-Five in San Juan Bautista. I'll write more about them another day. Our stroll from the car to the beer plac

It was only yesterday morning that I organized the crayon box according to their hues. There above in the photo is my proof. By the way, isn't he a cutie patootie, the Huband? The crayon box is one of the few things I've organized in the past few weeks. Maybe the only thing indoors. Tsk, tsk. Last night, I put the opened box of crayons on the couch beside me and whaddayaknow many of them tumbled out of the box and between the cushions. I was able to find almost all of them. Yeah, the crayon box is already out of sorts. Such is to be expected, and that's okay. The cool thing about this box of crayons is it's from the 1980s, maybe earlier. We found it in one of the Husband's parents' boxes, which we're slowly opening after nearly 14 years in storage.  I doubt I would've gone out and bought crayons otherwise. It's a holiday of gifts whenever we look inside the boxes. Joy, joy, joy!

Pens and Pencils in Every Room!  That would be my tagline if I were a candidate for political office, never mind what. Forget about a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. For me, it's pens and pencils in every room. Sure, if you'd like, paper, too. Ideally, I'd also add a dictionary on every floor in the house, along with an atlas or at least a world map and map of the United States on the walls. While I'm at it, a current set of the World Book Encyclopedia . Yes, I'm talking actual books. And, let them be in big print. Oooh-la-la, I love me the big print. Don't get me wrong. I still want an up-to-date Mac computer with decent access to the Internet. That's for research and such. But, for sudden thoughts that must be quickly written, it's very important that I have pens and pencils in every room. Every room! I thank you for your time. Giggle.  

What do you think that edited photo is? Did you guess young apricot tree stumps and roots? I didn't think so. Here's the original shot. I was hacking away at the stumps this afternoon. It was either now or never, getting rid of these apricot trees that were grown from seeds that the Mama planted maybe seven or eight years ago. The trees are too close to the fence, and if all five apricot trees reached full growth, well that's a lot of shade back there. Nothing else would be able to grow. Not to say the neighbors would gripe about the mess of fruit falling over the fence. (I am leaving one tree intact.) I thought I could dig the tree stumps out. Ha! As I sawed the trunks as close to the ground as possible, I started seeing possibilities of garden art out of these things. So, we shall see.