What We Leave Behind

This month has been tough. The original Bunny Haven Manor has a new caretaker. Someone else to watch over the flowers and bunnies. She's a gardener, so it will be okay. 

Always a Peony

There is a phrase about roses - bud, bloom or blown, a rose is always a rose. We forget at times in our search for blooming perfection that what we see, even if not perfect, is still perfectly a rose.

May 2015 Books

"Every lady needs a signature weapon."  It may be my favorite line from Waistcoats & Weaponry. I started that this month - and then got distracted.

Books are flowing from the original Bunny Haven Manor to Bunny Haven Manor East. Tiger Eyes, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Jacob I Have Loved, Wrinkle in Time. As they pass through my hands to the new space, I've remembered why I love them. For me the books that resonated most were about being different, not fitting in and succeeding in your own way. It's something to which I still aspire.

Take-away - We are shaped. By others. By our choices. How does what shaped you then resonate with you now?

May Extra - Basketball coaches like books too. This is Steve Kerr's reading list.

Posts also of potential interest...

• April 2015 Books
• March 2015 Books - That Weren't
• February 2015 Books
• January 2015 Books

The Incredible Edible Egg

Asparagus and red pepper frittata

Breakfast should be easy. On the weekends, it should be sumptuous, but still easy. Eggs are always super easy plus nutritious. To upgrade your egg experience,  if you have cheese + vegetables, go with a fritatta!

You can Google "fritatta" and come up with any number of recipes.  The basics are this:

- Saute vegetables on a medium heat

- Add eggs at a medium low heat

- When the eggs are almost set, top with cheese and pop the pan in the oven on broil for about 6-8 minutes.

Frittatas are the original "use what you have" meal. You can vary out the cheese. You can vary out the vegetables. You can vary the spices or herbs you prefer in the eggs. You can add milk or not. Here's the one trick, use an oven-proof saute pan. 

My recipe - For the frittata above, I melted less than 1/2 a tablespoon of butter and sauteed 1 red pepper (washed and diced) and 1 bunch of asparagus (washed and snapped into 1 inch pieces) with salt+pepper. 5 eggs, whipped with a touch (less than 1/4 cup) of milk and salt+ pepper, that went in the pan while I lowered the heat and turned on the broiler. I had about a 1/2 cup of a 3 cheese mix (asiago, parmesan, and romano) which I then added on top just before popping in the broiler. In about 7 minutes, it was perfect. The cheese will be melty and the eggs dry and fluffy. We also had biscuits. (I cheated and used store bought.) This is Saturday morning at Bunny Haven Manor East.

Take-away - Sometimes you deserve a little luxury, even if you have to make it yourself.

Pretty: And I love this Instagram pic of individual frittatas! What a great "meal to go" idea.
Sound bonus: Ever heard the Incredible Edible Egg song?

April 2015 books

This was definitely a reading month! Not only was there a lovely vacation late in the month, but also a bonus day off for Good Friday. Which meant I got a chance to read a number of books in April, including a bit of "mind-candy".

Welcome to Paradise

Learning to slow down. Learning to accept. Learning to enjoy. 

Take-away - All experiences teach you. Are you paying attention. 

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The March 2015 Books That Weren't

Great Ides of March!

It's been a month. I basically didn't read a book - except that February cookbook - for the better part of 7 weeks. Mostly for a good cause - lasik. Weird but true - my eyes had to "recover" from my contacts for 5 weeks before they'd even check me for lasik. And my glasses are not computer happy - so at the end of every workday my eyes were too tired to read.

Spring

My heart greets the signs of spring with joy. 

Tiny though they may be (enlarged crocus)

Take-away - Keep watch for what makes your heart glad and rejoice. 

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Here's Coco!

If you've reviewed The Herd page recently, you may have noticed the Herd has gotten a bit bigger. Her name is Coco, and she's been with us about a 6 weeks. True to any new family member, I can't imagine life without her!

On the right is how she looked when I first saw her at a Pet Refuge event. Purring. T.S. Elliot's kind of jellicle. Missing a front fang. Adorable. And needing brushed. (On the left is Day One at Bunny Haven Manor East after much brushing.) She decided in the first 5 minutes that this was her house and she was good with that. (She's much like Griffin.)

Beets! And Other Opportunities

Part of the healthy eating plan this week included beets. Many of my co-workers dreaded the thought. Not me! I love beets. My Russian grandmother's fabulous summer borscht was always a craveable favorite but there are many delicious ways to make beets. Roast them. Yum. Saute them. Yum. Make sugar from them! Double yum, even though I have not done that one personally, just had the results, Pioneer Sugar.

February 2015 Books

What I bought - three fabulous new books....

Sarah Addison Allen of Garden Spells. I love the everyday magical reality of her books. I follow her on Twitter and noticed she tweeted about First Frost. Serendipitously, Lost Lake was on sale at the bookstore.

The Crescent City

New Orleans is one of my favorite US cities - the music, the history, the food, the cultures! The Crescent City is beyond compare. Luckily, last fall, I had a work thing in New Orleans (NOLA), and we decided to make it a working vacation. We tacked on a few extra days and stayed through the weekend.

Why?

• He loves NOLA (as do I*)
• We really needed a break

Raw Food - Why?

It's been a weird month.

As part of a commitment to healthier living, I'm taking part in a 10 week cleansing diet. The first week was raw food. After that, only "clean" foods - no chemicals, no preservatives, nothing that's not natural + limited wheat and dairy. None of that Semi-Homemade stuff. All made at home or with ingredients that can be seen.

Most of my meals looked like this (left image) for the first week. (Blackberries + water, "power greens", apple, walnut and a touch of flax.) I detoxed off the sugar and preservatives in my diet. It was tiring.

January 2015 Books

The beginning of the year is a great time to evaluate the prior year. In 2014, I started noting what I read each month on this space and posting a piece on books the last day of the month. The aspirations were lofty; I used to read erudite books with some degree of regularity. The reasoning was also humble as I felt like I might not be reading "enough", and I wanted to have an honest record of what I read. What I found was, as always, a bit of self-revelation.

Spring Planning

It's arrived! One of the main sources of my covetous, material  longing -  The White Flower Farm catalog.

The catalogs arrive seasonally, ready for planning and planting the next season. Temptation by post. A gateway into the future. I've already got my shade garden picked out.

Take-away - a season to plan, a season to plant. All things have a time. What's it time to plan for in your life?

All That Glitters

The winter holiday season can be a bit glittery. Lots of silver and gold. Prettily wrapped presents. It's a little superficial, but enjoyable to make your own bits of pretty whether they be presents or household decorations as the mother nature does her decorating outside with trees draped in icicles and sparkly frost.

Over the ground lies a mantle of white

A heaven of diamonds shines down through the night

To create the seasonal look in a house, sparkle and glitter are a prerequisite. Some sparkle we are given. Some we make. (And I did.) Some glitter we buy. 

The human male bought the tree at left as part of a fundraiser for Alzheimer's. It is decorated in gold and penguins with other birds as accents. The size is perfect for the limited floor space in our dual pet household. The tree has a special sparkle because it was created for a good cause.

December 2014 Books

Oh, the holidays and a bit of time-off! Which means ample time for my guilty pleasure of reading "mind candy" - in this case, of the steampunk genre - to wind down and defrag from the stresses of life.

An Orchid Year

I've never grown orchids. While gorgeous, and enjoyable in bouquets, they have always seemed a fussy flower to me. 

According to the press release, the 2014 color of the year is,  "An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm.” (Read full release here)

And yet in all of 2014 I never warmed to "Radiant Orchid". Perhaps it's my climate - in places like Florida, orchids easily grow in trees. I'd expected to like this Pantone choice more - after all one of my favorite flavors comes from an orchid (vanilla) and I do love my food! Plus, it's an old flower "family" and quite diverse. (Old flower lines always offer unexpected options.) But yet, NO. Radiant Orchid was a no from the get-go for me. 

November 2014 Books

This month started with a plane trip, so I finished The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman on that plane.

Next up - a guilty pleasure read to help recoup from the prior month's stresses: Undead and Unwary by MaryJanice Davidson.

Left-overs (Part 2)

Pumpkin Plus

It's pie time! I made a pumpkin pie a few weeks ago for a family event. I exactly followed the recipe on the back of the Libby's can*. And the recipe for "pie insides" made just a bit too much pie for the single pie crust the recipe said was called for. 

Well, gosh! What to do with that left-over 1/2 a cup of "pie insides"? I do hate waste, so I covered extra and put it in the refrigerator until I had more thoughts on the matter (and until after we enjoyed the family event.)

Small Changes

The word "change" makes people think: make-over, sweeping changes, new lives. But that's not true. Change that lasts and becomes part of your world, every day, is incremental. Lasting change starts small and builds. Less sugar. 10 minutes more of exercise. More vegetables. Add a color to your wardrobe. Sit down to dinner together 1x a week rather than eat in front of the TV.  (And conversely, not being kind to your spouse, not picking up the clutter of the day before, eating dessert every day or sleeping through "gym time" creep up on you, too.)

Left-overs (Part 1)

Bottom of the refrigerator stew. That's what my mother called taking all the left-over "bits" for the week and making something delicious.

Today I made my own version. It turned out delicious! (Let's be honest, sometimes it's better than others. Today was a really good day - so good the human male asked if I'll make it again soon please.) 

The recipe started with left-over vegetable broth and pasta. And a packet of soup mix purchased 3 months ago for a different recipe, and languishing in my cupboard. Then there was that can of kidney beans I accidentally purchased; the jalapenos left-over from a recipe last week, and the yellow pepper getting a bit wrinkly at the bottom of the fridge....

October 2014 Books

What I didn't read

It was a Mercedes kind of month. 

Mercedes Lackey that is! Blood Red and the House of the Four Winds were both on the book list. Plus Jesus Calling and 5 Minutes on Mondays made it back into the rotation - neither complete of course, as both are meant to be read in pieces. On the way to New Orleans, I started The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman and made it to about page 132 before business travel took over. 

Fall Garden

Every gardener plants hope. More so in a new space.

These late tomato blooms astound me

This year (and last fall)  at Bunny Haven Manor East, I planted salvia, hosta, canna, lemon balm, spiderwort, bee balm and more to add pizzazz to the roses and lilacs that were already there. 

Plus a small garden - peppers, tomatoes, basil, oregano, cucumbers, squash and chives - went in the corner of the yard. Some plants grew better than others. (The lemon balm - as anyone who knows mints knows - took off! The cucumbers and tomatoes were also very prolific). A garden is always a work in progress. 

Unbacon Green Beans

Sometimes the male human says "I want vegetables with dinner". I'm really never sure how to answer that since, as a vegetarian, I pretty much only cook vegetables! It seems to mean he'd like a single side of something - broccoli or green beans - rather than the more common mix of veggies I make (red peppers, mushroom and garlic go with almost anything!) on a regular basis.

Often when you have green beans at a restaurant, the green beans achieve flavor via bacon. And that's out. So, over the years, I've created another option, the "un-bacon green beans". They have been well received - and even requested - whenever I serve them. They are easy to make (everyone who knows me knows the "5 ingredients rule"!) and have a nice, rich, almost smoky flavor.