Just looking at the view

Famous Star of India with Halloween sails out.

20 white roses arrangement I made for us....

View down the balcony of the pool, pretty cool picture huh......

One of the 40 or so art "trees" which line about 1/4 mile of Harbor drive, they are quite interesting and all by different artists, they are auctioned off then new ones are installed each year.

Cruise ship leaving the Harbor....it was a beauty, sorry I didn't snap a picture sooner, but didn't realize it was going away!

That's our hotel room, in the second building, first full floor you can see, just to the right of the one whose door is open. The elevator is glass all around to get full view value.

What a beautiful view of the San Diego Harbor. A lot of these pictures were taken off the 10th floor balcony of our Holiday Inn were we stayed for two nights this October as part of our 20th anniversary celebration.

We ate dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse, right next door, then at Anthony's Fish Grotto right across the street, then the various deli offerings in and around the hotel. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Of course, there was more than just eating, it was just great to relax and be together, we also walked along Harbor drive taking in all the sights, then took a pedicab when our legs gave out.

Dreaming of owning this million dollar yacht some day.....

Sculpture of famous picture, installed right next to the USS Midway which is now a museum. Just to the left of our hotel.

After dinner at Anthony's, picture taken by chef as he was heading home!

We plan to visit often just for day trips, there is something special about San Diego Harbor!

Turkeys Are Here

These are three floral turkeys I made for our Thanksgiving day. The one on the left is from floral class and has googly eyes and a waddle of chenille stem...the others I made from leftover flowers and stuff from the yard. The middle one is more of a wild turkey shape and has two candles in the middle, making them look quite striking at night.

Floral class turkeys, they all came out beautiful, some took theirs home before I could snap the pics. The one on the left is mine.


Home for the holiday....also got to make bud vase turkeys in class, if the big turkey sold in a florist shop, it would be about $45.00, the bud vase around $12.00, mine cost around $8.00 total (china mums for the breasts and poms for the body) and the birds of paradise were cut right here in Paradise! We learned how to "open up" the birds to get their full value, very slimy, guess that's why hummingbirds love them.

Just couldn't stop making arrangements!

Here's how it looks in El Cajon on Thanksgiving eve, just perfect.

Orange you glad I showed these pictures????

I'm making "do nothing" turkey, Stove top dressing, Costco mashed taters, roasted Brussels, Ocean spray cranberry sauce, frozen pearl onions, and Henry's pumpkin pie, gotta have a rest after all those floral designs.....phew...........

Oh and the do nothing turkey recipe I found somewhere on the web, is for a 12 pounder, you just use olive oil, salt and pepper, then place it on ribs of celery and roast for 2 hours, I have to check the temp (I think it was 375), for two hours, then tent for 1/2 hour and done. It says to discard giblets, but that I will not do since giblet gravy is my specialty, and that will get the "Scarborough Fair" treatment, you know, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, all from my garden..........

Can't wait to smell that turkey cooking, Steve loves the legs, otherwise I would make the breast only, but you have to admit, nothing looks better than a perfectly roasted turkey! Wish me luck :).

We are NOT shopping on Friday, just putting up Christmas lights and eating turkey sandwiches. YUM. Have a nice Thanksgiving, we have a lot to be thankful for.

Halloween's Over but Thanksgiving is Coming

I decided to make sweet potato soup and embellish it with a spider web, tasted good and was kinda fun to make. I kept my Halloween menu on the simpler side this year, I did manage my deviled egg "eyeballs", and had leftover frozen beef curry , so just heated it up and called it "ghoulash", then made "bear claws" out of biscuits I just cut four slits around.

SWEET POTATO SOUP

1.5 pounds sweet potatoes (about three medium), peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
1 stalk celery, cut into chunks
1 medium shallot, chopped

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 slice fresh ginger (1/4 inch circle)

Dash of Madeira wine (ginger juice, see note)

1 16 oz. can chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon salt

Few fresh cracks fresh black pepper

1/2 cup half and half

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons honey

additional salt to taste

2-3 Tablespoons sour cream thinned with half and half

Note: I keep fresh sliced ginger in a covered container, covered with sherry or Madeira and use the juice as seasoning and just keep adding more ginger and sherry, it keeps forever in the fridge it seems.

Cook the potatoes, celery, shallot, thyme, salt, pepper, ginger and Madeira with the can of chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer about 35 to 45 minutes, until veg are very tender. Remove thyme stem and ginger round. Puree with immersion blender while adding the half and half, may need a little extra, if too thick. You want soup to be somewhat thick, not watery. Season with the butter, honey, and taste for salt and add more if needed.

Place sour cream and half and half in a plastic baggy, mix around and snip end, pipe concentric circles, drag from inner circle out to edge with a toothpick. My second try came out better, but I didn't snap a picture of the good one!

Makes enough for about 4 servings.

I think this would be nice for Thanksgiving, sans spider web, but perhaps some other design such as dots with the tips dragged out like the chefs do :).

We got no trick or treaters :(
Well, it's time to put the decorations away, I only have a sorta small collection (lots larger than Easter, but MUCH less than Christmas, oh my....), anyway I kinda hate to see them go away for a whole 'nother year, Furby actually talks from inside his box every once in awhile, spooky!!! This year, I am going to put them all in two boxes only, then discard the old stuff, I swear! I've gotten this far in collecting them all from their various locations, just can't seem to put them away yet......Steve was kind enough to offer to help me tomorrow to pack it all up and put up our Thanksgiving stuff which consists of a bad wreath and a fake corn swag, I'm upgrading that and will be making fresh floral turkeys I'll share later....

Miss Kitty always getting into the action, she is facinated by Furby and got quite engaged with it.

Lucky Weekend

This past weekend, it was Oktoberfest in La Mesa, where I met my husband 21 years ago. He lived on Lemon Avenue and I lived about three blocks away......also on Lemon Avenue...

Now that we have moved from Lemon, we have to drive and park, so this year we were able to find a spot right by his old house and asked the lot attendant to take a picture of us.

I always had walked downtown to the affair; back then it was a more authentic Oktoberfest with German dancing, food, and of course beer. I would stop by a certain bar for a draft beer and it was always crowded and a lot of fun activities going on (normally I don't drink beer too much, but it was a kind of tradition back then). Now it is more of a large craft fair, with a beer garden all fenced off and way away from any festivities, not really that much fun because of all the people and strollers, etc.....but let me get back to my story...

Actually to make a long story short, I was walking home early evening on Saturday October 4, 1988, down the Lemon Avenue alley behind the bar, and as I passed by Steve's little house, the only one in the alley, several men approached me and began to harass me with sexist comments, and he came out and told them to quit bothering me. It turned out he knew these men as they would come around each Oktoberfest and drink a lot of beer and get very bold and ask to use his restroom! Pretty soon, the girlfriends of the men came out of the bar too and we all started talking and joking around outside his house. He offered me a beer, but I just thanked him for assisting me and told him I was going home and then to get something to eat. We got to talking about Mexican food, so next thing I knew, we had hopped into his Chevy truck and went to the local Roberto's, with the others following along. I invited them all back to my place to eat the take-out carne asada tortas and I would make coffee before everyone drove back home.

That's when I found out that Steve's elderly, widowed mother lived right across the street from me, also on Lemon Avenue!

I'll leave the rest of the details private, but, we were married one year later and have been inseparable ever since! We go the the Oktoberfest every year and we used to always eat at Roberto's, but they changed ownership and the carne asada is no longer as tasty, so we abandoned that tradition years ago, however we still walk down that alley and reminisce.

In another week, we will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, on October 14. We like to make memories rather than give gifts. Since the traditional gift for 20 years is China, we have decided to go out to a nice Chinese restaurant in the Gaslamp, and that is also significant since our first "date" after meeting was at a Chinese restaurant!

I know, kinda corny, but we love doing things like that that have meaning only to the two of us......

Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit....

Beans for breakfast, beans for lunch....we just love beans. One of our favorite hearty breakfasts is made using refried beans, spread over toasted English muffins, topped with a few thin slices of ham, a slice of tomato, then thin slices of cheese. I usually heat up the beans and ham first so it gets nice and hot. Once assembled, it is baked at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes until cheese melts (I use my toaster oven). For fun, we alternate slices of Monterrey Jack and mild Cheddar. You have to cut it with a knife and fork to eat it, but you will not be hungry for at least 5 hours after eating this.

Everyone probably knows how to make beans, I use a few ham hocks, a sliced onion, and small red beans. When the beans have simmered 2 or 3 hours, and are nice and tender, remove the hocks and render the meat, smash a few beans against the side of the pot to thicken then, season with salt, a little vinegar, and hot sauce. Serve over pain white rice and make Jiffy cornbread (I use my toaster oven). Serve with additional hot sauce, and onions soaked in vinegar. You will feel full for the rest of the day!

This is a cool lemon from our tree.

Yikes! Neon is Here!

We have been having hot, dry weather here in Paradise this last week. Yesterday, I was watering some plants on the patio and I spotted this little snake looking up at me as it sipped some water off the pavement. As soon as I went in to get my camera, it got spooked and started to slither away, so I only managed to get this shot. It disappeared so fast, while shaking it's rounded, black head at me that is just out of the shot.....the amazing thing is that as it entered the little garden a few feet away, it changed to a green color and slithered up the branches of the Hawthorne bush and completely disappeared! We named it "Neon" and hope it is happy now, here in Paradise. It is more afraid of us, than we are of it, but I wondered what kind of snake it was, it looked black and yellow before turning green.....it looks big here, but is really only about the size of two pencils end-to-end. After some research, I decided it was a baby California King snake, I tried to upload a video from YouTube, but it failed, however, I did manage to post it to my Facebook. It looks just like the one I saw, doing the same thing mine did.....

This was the pave-style floral design we made in floral class yesterday. It will be wilted in a few hours with this weather....sigh....I got the flowers fresh from Trader Joe's right before class. They open at 8:00a.m., and have the freshest, nicest flowers, this bouquet was less than $6.00.

I thought this would be a also a good spot to show my decorative bowl I made in ceramic class. I used a sprig mold I made to create Miss Kitty faces on a slumped free-form slab, then after bisque firing, used Easy Stroke glaze to color the faces, then clear glaze over all, then placed pieces of glass to melt into interesting shapes, they came out looking kind of cool!

Just had to show Miss Kitty trying to stay cool resting her head on the chair rung....pretty smart!

Shrimp cocktail for two for dinner; too hot to cook for sure....I always try to keep frozen shrimp (Trader Joe's again) in stock, so I just defrosted them under cold running water, then mixed a sauce of ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, and hot sauce. Then made a bed of lettuce and celery, placed the shrimp on top, spooned the sauce over, and served with Saltine crackers. A very yummy, light, and cool dinner for a hot summer night here in Paradise!

Just Need ID and Money

Sunflower smily face I made at floral class yesterday; that is Joe Lizura, our local meteorologist, predicting higher temperatures in El Cajon....supposed to be back in the 100's in a few days, sigh....

Here's my latest creation, needle felted design on felted sweater, a lightweight evening bag for your ID and money......oh, and a lipstick of course!
Started with a picture of a pretty floral arrangement I made, copied the design using needle felting method.

Fulfilling a Promise :)

A few weeks ago, and a couple of failures later, I decided I was ready to make the simple purse I had been promising myslef I would complete. I had some free Saturday morning time, so went to work and within a few hours, I was done......Since I already had somewhat of a master plan; I knew the basic shape and design and that I just needed to hand sew the outer felt, and machine sew the lining, then hand-stitch it in place. I was deciding on embellishments, so I needle felted a design to coordinate with the colors and pattern of the lining. It came out so cute!! Anyway, I am using it as a sewing/felting kit and I just love how it looks and functions so have been re-inspired to keep experimenting with my techniques. As previously mentioned, I have now studied my book a little more and have new information, such as using dissoluble stabilizer when machine sewing felt....for now, I intend to mostly hand sew with embroidery floss or silk ribbon and I know my machine will appreciate that =^..^=

Then I made stuffed mini sweet peppers I purchased at the 99 Cents Only store. They had the nicest produce yesterday, stocked up on beautiful celery, carrots, onions, raspberries, and limes...I couldn't resist these colorful peppers and I remembered I had made stuffed peppers like these once and wrote the recipe down because it was easy and good. I don't really even like sweet peppers always, but I like them prepared this way and they smell really good cooking. I am serving them later, re-heated, with some leftover sauteed kale with ham and garlic, and some frozen stuffed potatoes, also from 99C. It is too hot still to cook at night, so I have been busy cooking this morning, to last us a few meals. Red beans with ham hocks are boiling away now, to have for a nice late lunch with Steve tomorrow with fresh cornbread.

I imagine most folks know how to make beans, and cornbread using Jiffy mix is so easy, but you may be interested in the stuffed peppers. Here's how I wrote out the recipe, since I only had half a dozen or so peppers, I halved the recipe, for the meat, and breadcrumbs...I did use a whole egg, and whole can of soup, and didn't change the seasonings, except a little less salt. They came out really good and I had a little extra filling, so I just baked it in patties next to the peppers.

1 lb lean ground beef or turkey

6 medium green bell peppers (I used mini Hungarian sweet peppers)

1 cup soft breadcrumbs (rye is good)

1/2 t. salt

dash pepper

1 egg

2 T. minced onion (I used red)

1 can condensed tomato soup, divided

Cut off tops, remove seeds from peppers and steam shells for five minutes (in microwave steamer). Let cool till you can handle them.

Combine stuffing and mix with HALF a can of the soup.

Fill peppers, then bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Spoon rest of soup over each pepper and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes, no longer than an hour.

Note: if you have leftover filling, shape into patties and bake and serve alongside the peppers.

Birthday for Miss Kitty

Miss Kitty had her fifth birthday, so we decided to give her a little party. She participated just like she knew what she was doing! She got a new cat couch scratching pad, some special kitty foods, and some toys.

We had an herb crusted rack of lamb with roasted potatoes and steamed artichokes, then fresh peach and strawberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

The meal turned out really well and Miss Kitty (and us) had a good time here in Paradise.

Here is a simple cobbler recipe:

Two to three cups of fresh fruit cut up (I used fresh peeled peaches, and strawberries)

Sprinkle with about 1/2 cup sugar (depending of sweetness of fruit, we like it tart), sprinkle of cinnamon, sprinkle of lemon juice, about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, and 2 tablespoons of softened butter

Mix together in a baking dish

In a mixing bowl, add in 1 cup of Bisquick, about 1/2 cup of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and enough milk to make it smooth but still thick enough to hold it's shape

Dollop onto fruit mixture and bake at 375 for about 40 to 45 minutes till bubbly and biscuits are light brown on top. Let cool for 15-20 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream

If At First You Don't Succeed LOL and Try, Try Again

Cut out slipper tops, decorated with needle felting, beading, embroidery

Slipper pieces ready to sew

LOL My feet do not look like these!

This was my first attempt to make slippers out of my brown felted wool sweater. I got the directions off the Internet. The process was pretty straightforward, trace your foot, cut a pattern, cut four pieces, sew, etc. Well, I decided to needle felt a butterfly on each top and added some beads and outlined with embroidery. Good plan, but the instructions indicated not to add seam allowance since the wool would stretch....wrong...this wool did not stretch right and they turned out terrible, unwearable. I will cut the design out and use it in another application such as a bracelet or embellishment. LOL and try again. These other pieces will next be turned into a lined purse. This time I bought an instruction booklet with a lot of cute ideas and another slipper pattern. Now I just need another sweater to felt. I combed two thrift stores yesterday and came up empty-handed except for some wool yard swatches.

Try, try again!

Here are snaps from the book I bought, Vivian Peritts is the artist:

Stay tuned.....