Easy Sweet Corn

Marsha, from The Better Baker, told how she prepares sweet corn

and it looked too easy to be for real! No big pot of boiling water

to heat up your kitchen in the summer? Could this be true?

These ears go into the microwave and steam in their own

husks and are ready to eat in 8 minutes.

They were tender and delicious and perfectly done.

*******

First, take a pair of kitchen shears and cut off the darkened

silk and leaves from the top.

It should look like this. Then peel off layers of husk until you have just a couple layers covering the ears.

Place ears 4 at a time on a wet paper towel.

Microwave on high for 4 minutes.

Turn ears over and cook another 4 minutes.

Look how easy the husk and silk comes off all in one piece!

They are ready to eat!

And if you want to cut it off the cobs, the easiest way is to stand

each ear in the center of a tube pan. Cut from top to bottom and

let the kernels fall into the pan. Rotate the ear and cut until

you have removed all of the kernels. I did this to 4 dozen

ears of Silver King today and put it in the freezer.

Thank you, Marsha!

Yum!

♥

The Locomotion

♥

What I Did Wednesday #4

1. Noticed the pretty morning light on my desk.
2. Watched kittens from the window chasing a butterfly.
3. Picked tomatoes from the garden.
4. Filled The Mister's peanut jar.
5. Swept the walk ways.
6. Sliced a watermelon.
7. Watched after boys.
8. Put on my tennies and got on the treadmill.
9. Found corn cobs in my bathroom sink, complements of Alex.
10. Noticed some lacy mushrooms.
11. Worked in the garden.
12. Played with Mustache. Ooops! He got the camera!
13. Started my grocery list.
14. Washed a bowl of bing cherries.
15. Snacked on a handful of pistachios.
16. Enjoyed a Diet Coke while answering some emails.
17. Watered the flowers outside that don't get the rain.
18. Made a black bean salad with a lime, cumin and cilantro dressing.

♥

Happy Thoughts

bees in zucchini blossom 7-26-11

1. A tiny break in the weather with the heat index at 88 today instead of the 115 we had last week.
2. Continued rain a few times a week so I haven't had to water the garden.
3. Laughing at little Tiger who had the hiccups, and also at his antics of trying to attack my ponytail.
4. As The Mister was in the shower the other morning, Alex came in and took his spot in our bed while I was still asleep. A while later he was asleep himself and letting out loud giggles during an apparently hilarious dream. An amusing way for me to wake up.
5. Fresh veggies from the garden.
6. Grace, forgiveness, love and laughter with my dearest friend.
7. A very smooth summer so far with the boys. They are happy, and that is most important.
8. Forty five minutes alone this morning with coffee and silence before the 4 boys woke up. So very unual as they are usually up before the sun.
9. Loving the relationship my oldest and I have. Love how he chats if he comes home for lunch. Love the spontaneous and unsolicited thank yous he gives. Love his sense of humor.
10. We've had the most amazing skies lately..huge clouds, beautiful sunsets.

♥

Dancing on Air

from my desk windows 7-24-11

I'm not sure I would have wanted to be on this plane!

Doesn't look like the pilot was completely focused!

or maybe this is what happened...

"How can you practice dancing in an airplane?

There are laws against it!"

George Murphy

American Dancer

1902-1992

Lemondrop Melon

A new-to-me fruit that I had to try!

A Lemondrop Melon! It's about the size of a softball.

It tastes like a Honey Dew except

with a distinct lemon twist.

And I love that light green color. :)

♥

Twins

♥

Zucchini

Only one plant, but I had a handful of zucchini ready to pick all in

one day this week. The day turned into a baking day!

Tomato zucchini savory pie, zucchini bread, muffins

and chocolate zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting.

Lots of it went into the freezer after we had a serving.

This winter it will be nice to pull it out, ready to serve!

For my tomato zucchini pie recipe, click HERE!

Cake recipe link is HERE, with changes in the comments.

*****

Zillions from one plant, hiding

Under huge umbrella leaves!

Capturing them while tiny is best,

'Cause they can turn into the

Hugest Goodyear Blimp

I've ever seen just over

Night.

Incredible!

♥

Christmas In July

Cedarville, Ohio 7-20-11

The sky was beautiful Wednesday evening and I couldn't help

but see Santa and his sleigh in this cloud!

A right jolly old elf with pointy nose and silver beard!

This is a Sky Watch Friday post!

click HERE to see more entries!

♥

What I Did Wednesday #3

1. Made the beds.
2. Refilled the soap dispenser.
3. Trimmed my bangs, or 'fringe' as Jo calls them.
4. Found a robin's egg shell.
5. Chatted with Taylor. Told him that I have to stand on my tip toes to see the top of the refrigerator. Also noted muscles and sun tan. ha.
6. Met a friend for lunch. A little local place that roasts their own coffee beans.
7. Picked zucchini, trying to catch them before they are as big as boats!
8. Cleaned out my purse. Alex was happy to handle all of the trash for me.
9. Sewed a button back on.
10. Cheered Alex on to completely unloading the dishwasher alone! He knew where everything went, too! The Mister can't even do that! lol!
11. Trimmed 60 nails. Thankfully Taylor and The Mister do their own! ha.
12. Watched Tiger as he tried to figure out how to get to the birds on the roof.
13. Enjoyed a postcard to Harry and a seed packet to myself from Amy. Thanks, dear!
14. Cleaned out the parakeets' cage.
15. Grilled burgers for dinner.
16. Emptied all of the trash cans.

There really is beauty in the ordinary.

I hope you've had a beautiful day!

♥

Random Thoughts

There was a little mishap with the garage door!

I didn't do it! Taylor didn't do it!

that leaves only one other driver in our family!

1. We had severe storms in the night with the loudest thunder and lowest lightening we had ever experienced. And we're used to severe weather here in the Midwest! One particularly loud lightening strike literally raised us out of bed! It seemed to have hit right outside our window. I commented that it sounded like it hit a house it was so low! Sure enough, 2 of our neighbor's homes were hit! One had an attic fire as a result. We were without power for about 3 hours this afternoon while repairs were made.
2. While the power was out, The Mister ran home to change into a suit and tie for a meeting he was to attend. He said he was going to take my jeep and left through the garage, only to come back in a minute later. With the power off, the garage door did not raise completely and he crumpled the bottom panel with the luggage rack as he tried to leave. Taylor and I commented that we are SO glad he did the damage and not one of us! He's so much easier on himself, you know. lol. Funny thing, when he got to his meeting he called me to say, "Don't go taking pictures of that garage door and posting them on your blog!" Ha ha! Shh, don't tell! :)
3. The boys, being the electronic junkies that they are, did great with the power outage It was all thanks to their new laptops and the battery usage. After a couple of hours, Spencer asked for the internet and actually looked like he understood when I expained the situation. He even tried a light switch and said "On". When it finally did come on, I said, "Spencer! The power is back on!" And he said, "On! Good!" Yay...loved that little two way conversation!
4. The weather is amazingly hot and humid! 106 with the heat index! I'm so thankful for air conditioning!
5. I must have picked up a spider on my yoga pants the other day when I was outside. A few minutes later as I was in the kitchen, I felt a bite like a bee sting on the inside on my thigh. I brushed off the area, looked around and couldn't find anything. This happened a couple more times! Wouldn't you know that this spider bit me 5 times before I finally took off the pants and shook them out. Don't worry...I made sure the window blind was down first...just in case Mr. Neighbor Man was lurking too close to the window again! ha ha. I had 5 itchy, sore bites in the space of about three inches. And I really looked funny after getting bandaids on all of them to go along with the ones covered with mosquito bites. I think this is the first time ever that I've had more bandaids on me than my boys! Come to think of it, maybe that big web in my yard was to catch me, as revenge from spider relatives. lol!!!
6. And I knew this before, but it has become evident again, that nobody spills food on a dirty kitchen floor. Spills always happen right after you mop! The same thing goes for the rug at the kitchen sink. Dirty? Nothing happens. Fresh and fluffy from the dryer...big spills. lol!

I hope your week is going well!

It's only Tuesday! hahaha!

♥

Web

Sunday morning very early I was in our backyard

picking lettuces for Nugget's breakfast and

filling the kitten's bowls. It was incredibly humid and foggy!

There was enough moisture in the air to highlight this

huge spider web! The web itself was about 4 feet

in diameter and the rope of webbing that connected

it between two trees was about 30 feet long!

That little orange spider in the center must have had

a busy night! I'm glad I wasn't there to see her

jump from one tree to the other! Yikes!

I think she was trying to catch a human

with the size of that web!

*

Will you walk into my parlour? Said a spider to a fly;

'Tis the prettiest little parlour That ever you did spy.

(Quote by - Mary Howitt)

♥

Blackberries

I couldn't resist these huge blackberries at the grocery

this week! Too beautiful to make into preserves,

we're just popping them into our mouths

as a healthy snack!

♥

How Do You Sleep?

Arms over your head?

Head upside down? Ready to run at a moment's notice?

yes, Brian... we remember your poem!

Legs hanging off the side of the bed? Under the stars? In a big pile? This may sound weird to some, but it's perfectly normal with our triplets. ha. While still sitting up in your chair? A-hem, Silver! And just so others know, he's fallen asleep while having email conversations with me! Yes, it has given me a complex that my emails are boring! haha! If you have insomnia, just send me a note. I'll see what I can do! lol. Or maybe you have a 'family bed'? Any parents out there ever done this with their little kids? The kids sleep great...the parents? Not so much! HA. And yes, they sleep like this...sideways with their toes digging into your side! Come to think of it, our cats used to do this exact same thing! Or how about sleeping with your feet stretched up beside your head?

Well, however you do it, I hope it's restful!

♥

This is how mothers sleep when they still do night time baby feedings.

Like you're flying?

Tiger looks like "the cat jumped over the moon" here!

Snuggled with someone that licks your ears?

Human or pet?

Hmmm.

I think Spencer has been using the floor register

as a trash can! Maybe with all of those

little slots, he thought it was a

paper shredder! Sigh.

♥

B

hosta, 7-13-11

Bee having

Breakfast on

Betsy's

Beautiful

Back yard

Bloom

♥

What I Did Wednesday #2

click to enlarge

1. Breakfast ~ bagel, blackberry preserves, coffee!
2. Checked on the first ripening tomato!
3. Gave boys there meds and vitamins. Harry tried to take Spencer's after taking his own. I literally had to pry his mouth open and remove pills. That's a first. Geesh!
4. Washed all of the bath towels.
5. From my desk, watched Alex happily swinging on the porch swing.
6. Loaded the dishwasher.
7. Unloaded the dishwasher.
8. Wrote down a new recipe to try.
9. Organized the pantry.
10. Counted zucchini blossoms.
11. Wiped out the microwave.
12. Gave Nugget a good brushing.
13. Marvelled at the size of the zucchini plant leaves. See my little thumb at the bottom?
14. Did some baking.
15. Tasted the baking!
16. Found kitties sleeping in the hostas.
17. Welcomed the first jalapeno.
18. Watered the flowers.
19. Clipped coupons and made my grocery list.
20. Lifted my girlie weights.
21. Cut some herbs.
22. Had some afternoon tea.
23. Admired the clouds.
24. Washed up lettuces from the garden.

There really is beauty in the ordinary!

Hope you noticed some beauty in your day!

♥

Betsy

Have you ever done a google search of your name?

I don't mean your full name to find yourself, but just your

first or last name to see what comes up? I did a search of

"Betsy" and these are some of the things I found ~

A street with my name! That would be kind of fun

to live on a street with your own name!

The Betsy Hotel on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, Florida.

It's a 5 Star hotel right on the beach.

Rooms start a $350 a night. Lovely!

I want that awning with my name on it! :)

And the historically preserved Betsy-Tacy house.

Named for the well-loved characters of the series written by

author Maud Hart Lovelace. It's in Mankato, MN.

The home is now preserved and run by the

Betsy-Tacy Society. Interestingly enough, I never heard

of these books growing up. I happened upon a "This Old House"

type of renovation show on TV and saw parts of the makeover

last year.

And then there's Betsy Ross, famous for sewing our country's flag.

And Betsy was her nickname for Elizabeth, just like me!

She was Elizabeth Griscom Ross, who owned an upholstery shop

during the Revolutionary War. She made George Washington's

shirts and was asked by the committee from the Continental

Congress (of which he was a member) to make the flag.

And last but not least, the famous Betsy Wetsy doll!

I didn't have one of these growing up! She was first made

in 1934 by Abraham Katz and named after his daughter.

She was the first doll to not only wet her diapers

but her eyes closed when you laid her down.

So, anybody else out there ever found anything

interesting associated with their name?

all photos from googeimages.com

♥

Shopping with Harry

Harry's first trip to the grocery with me went just fine!

In fact, I forgot to document it here and it's his turn again

already this week! We had gone to Sam's Club and he was

very excited that it was his turn! :)

This was also before he gave himself that haircut! ha.

He found some very nice train documentary DVD's in the movie aisle! But his favorite was the 2 big bags of potato chips! Of course, if you know Harry, that is no surprise at all! He even remembered that at Sam's, it's a Buy Any Two deal. How fun for a chip-loving boy! I think that look is "Can I open these now?" The most fun part of shopping with mom is that she lets you eat in the Jeep on the way home. :) Nice to see a little traffic! We don't have that in our little village!

Back to long empty roads and corn fields!

Still, there's nothing more peaceful than red barns,

green fields, and blue skies!

Just like his brothers, Harry did a great job!

Very obedient and pleasant to have around.

He even helped load groceries on the conveyor belt

while we were in the check out line.

He also answered 'hi' to the greeter when the man

talked to him. :)

♥