Weekend Update

Hello friends, I hope you had a wonderful and full weekend. I meant to get this posted yesterday but I had to go to Knoxville for an appointment with the doctor for my annual physical. I am happy to report all is well and I don’t have to return for a year. My sister went with me and we did a little shopping afterwards. So it was late when I got home and I didn’t get to post. So here we go back to Saturday and the weekend.

On Saturday I decided I needed to get out of the house. I had a long weekend off because of my mother in law’s funeral. I posted about that a couple of days ago and if you missed it you can read about it here.

I had planned to go out and buy groceries, and for several weeks I had been wanting to get to the Mennonite Farm Market that is near our house. I thought this would be a good time to go. My nephew, Chris, had recently mentioned that he and his wife wanted to go as well. I called him to see if they would like to go with me. His wife had to work but I met him in town and we drove out to the Mennonite farm.

The Market is always packed on Saturdays. We got there a little after 10:00 AM and barely found a parking spot. The building is small and open. The minute you walk in you are greeted with so many fresh vegetable smells. It is hustling and bustling as the Mennonite farmers go back and forth refilling the vegetable bins. They are constantly refilling the baked goods as well. They only take cash and the cash registers are the old fashioned ones with the big buttons and the hand crank that totals everything. Only the men work in the market. You never see women working with the customers. They also have a couple of signs at the entrance letting you know that only appropriate clothing is to be worn inside.

The farm market has the most beautiful and yummy vegetables. They also sell baked goods. I bought cinnamon rolls and cookies. I also bought cucumbers, squash, potatoes, corn on the cob, a watermelon, cantaloupe, and some okra. I cooked some of that on Sunday and we had a feast.

Just look at these lovely peppers. They are so colorful.

Collard Greens. These are not my favorite but my husband loves them. I am sorry to say I have never cooked them for him. I think they smell terrible when they are cooking. My mama used to cook them when I lived at home and it made the entire house so stinky. That is just my opinion you may love them and their smell.

Chris bought some garlic. He loves to cook and he is great at knowing just how to season things.

I got several ears of corn. I think I may go back and get more to put in the freezer. Corn on the cob would taste wonderful in the middle of winter.

I love the canned chow chow, and the sweet pepper jam, and the apple butter. There are so many different things to choose from. I will have to stock up before they close for the winter.

After the trip to the market we drove on into Tellico Plains. The drive itself is something you just have to see to believe. The rolling countryside, farm animals and barns are just beautiful. This scenery always reminds me of why I love living in Tennessee. Chris and I got hungry so we decided to grab some lunch at a fairly new restaurant I had heard a lot about, Peach Street Grill. It just opened last year. It has such a great atmosphere. The food is very unique and there is a full bar and lounge as well. It was still early in the day and we had no trouble getting a table. Our waitress was just lovely and we shared some stories and she shared some stories with us. Chris is just like me, he never meets a stranger and talks easily to everyone.

We ordered the trout dip for an appetizer. I have had trout dip before and it was served hot. This dip was chilled. It was served with veggie slices and toast and it was so good.

I decided to get the trout cakes and truffle fries. The truffle fries were so good I could have made an entire meal on just those.

Chris got the shrimp tacos. Don’t they look yummy.

We also stopped in at a little antique store near the Grill. I found this cat ornament, well actually Chris spotted it first and we thought it looked like Gus so I had to buy it. I have temporarily hung it on my bird tree that I have in the kitchen.

I also found this little riser. I just love the color. I think I will put one of my orchids on it.

And I saw this little planter. These were so popular back in the day. Their back ends are open so you can plant something in them. I guess. Most of them have the weirdest faces, most of them are animals. I recently bought a dog and I just had to have this siamese? cat? I’m drawn to them. I don’t know why. I am sure I will look for more of them. Just what I need something else to collect.

I dropped Chris back at his car and went to buy my groceries. It was such a fun day. It was so good to get out and spend time with Chris and get my mind off of a lot of sad things. I am a true believer in being with people and spending time doing things you enjoy as much as you possibly can. Life is short, it is meant to be lived while we are here.

Sunday was a lazy day. I did laundry, read a great book and cooked a lot of the vegetables I bought at the market. What fun things have you done lately?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Hello Monday

Hello and happy Memorial Day. How was your week and weekend? Hopefully it was a nice long one for you. I am so humbled and awe stricken to think of the men and women who have served our country and gave everything in doing so. Let us never forget the reason we observe Memorial Day.

Have you ever had a week that felt like it was a month long? Well that is how work was for me last week. It seems like all I did was come home, eat some dinner and go to bed.

On Wednesday we noticed a dog running around the yard. We saw it on our blink security camera. We thought he belonged to someone visiting one of the neighbors. We kept seeing him and then when Mark came home on Wednesday he, turns out it was a she, followed his truck down the driveway and proceeded to make herself at home. She looked half starved. My husband said that was just the hound in her. We weren’t sure how she would do with the cats so we put the outside kitties in the garage.

***She came right up on my deck while we were gone.*** ***Sorry for the bad pic it was from the blink camera.***

The dog, I named her Sally, and was already figuring out which day I could get her to the vet, did not have a tag on her collar. She was big and goofy and so sweet. We gave her some food and water. During the night it rained and I was so worried about her. By morning she had gone back home. Turns out some people were camping down the lake and she was just wandering around. I was a little disappointed and a little relieved. Although I would never let my babies wander like this alone.

On Friday, I again went with some friends to Iron Works Grill on the river. They do karaoke every Friday night. It is so much fun. Plus the views are spectacular. Aren’t those mountains beautiful?

A couple of weekends ago I went to an estate sale. The people having the sale had actually had it for a couple of weekends so they were ready to get rid of some things. Well everything actually. This is what I got:

***This blue Buddha for $2.00. I think it will go great in one of our bathrooms.***

***I cannot pass up a nice cake stand. And this one doubles as a bowl $2.00***

Look at this purse. It is a little worn and I am going to redo the lining. I love it. It reminds me of the purses my mama carried when I was a little girl. I may try a little diluted bleach water to whiten it back up. $2.00.

I just couldn’t pass those things up. I know my husband rolls his eyes when I drag pieces into the house but I always find use for them eventually.

The pollen here has been crazy. So many people are having sinus and allergy problems, fortunately I am not. My poor husband has allergies and this time of year for him is really hard. We have also had a lot of rain. It seems like it has rained almost every day for a couple of weeks. I guess that helps the pollen a little.

***The roads near my house were almost flooded this morning.***

I leave you with the best thing I have received in a long time. A friend from work found out I like to sew and that I had a sewing machine. He told me that his mother or grandmother had an old tackle box that was full of sewing supplies. He asked if I would like to have it. He said he had no use for it. I told him I would love to have it. He brought it in today. It was full of all kinds of goodies. Threads, bobbins, needles, buttons, sewing machine tools, pins etc etc. I was in heaven. I offered to pay him for it but he said giving it to someone that could use it was enough. I was really touched.

I have been knitting like crazy with every spare minute. I worked on a shawl and almost have it finished. I guess you could say it is more of a wrap. I made another one exactly like it last year but it was my first one and I wasn’t too happy with the way it turned out. Hopefully I will have it finished and blocked by the end of the week. I also started another pair of socks. Pink.

That’s it for me tonight.

Always remember

Love your day your way!

My Southern Pound Cake Was A Flop

Hello friends and happy Tuesday. My husband and I just returned from an overnight trip to Nashville. About every four months Mark has to go to Nashville to see his kidney doctor or an NP to check on how well the transplanted kidney is doing. The doctor visit and bloodwork lasts approximately thirty minutes or so but the drive over and back is about four hours each way. Several months ago we started going over the day before. We leave in the afternoon, take our time, have a great dinner out, spend the night and have the doctors’ visit early the next morning and then start home. This is so much better. We are not exhausted the way we used to be when we tried to do it all in one day.

So yesterday was our day to drive to Nashville. It was eclipse day. Our area was only going to see a partial eclipse this time. Some areas had better luck than others. We were driving so we really didn’t get to see totality. As I said it was a bit of a disappointment anyway because it was just too cloudy. It did get very dark and of course that is exciting in the middle of the afternoon. We had a great dinner in Nashville and went to bed early and got a good night’s sleep.

***You can see how dark it is for the middle of the afternoon.***

On our way home today we stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Lebanon for breakfast. If you don’t have Cracker Barrel’s in your area, you just don’t know what you are missing. It is mostly southern cooking and it is really yummy. There is also a wonderful gift shop and as luck would have it I had a gift card, that was given to me at Christmas. This is what I bought. It was also 50% off so it was quite a bargain. I have a thing for cake stands and I have quite a few of them. I try to refrain from buying more because I just don’t have anywhere to keep them. I will probably keep this one on my table.

My sister and I did a little shopping on Saturday. We hadn’t been out together in several weeks. We thought some retail therapy would do us both a bit of good. We went to T. J. Maxx in Cleveland. Cleveland is just south of us about forty miles. It’s not quite as crazy as Knoxville on a Saturday.

***I bought these pillows for my couch. I put them on the piano bench to get a good shot of them. I love the color.***

***I have been wanting a white sweater jacket for some time. I can’t wait to wear this.***

Now for the pound cake. Remember this book I bought when I was in Nashville a couple of weeks ago? My plan was to make each of the cakes in this book, there’s sixty cake recipes. The first cake was a classic southern pound cake. So on Sunday afternoon I got to work.

***The ingredients: I thought it was a little odd to use powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar.***

***I may have beaten the mixture too much***

***I put the batter into the pans and baked for the recommended time.***

***They looked beautiful and smelled so good.***

They were terrible!!!! I could have used them as a weapon. They were hard and so dense. I googled possible problems and it seems as though I may have beat the batter too much. Over beating can cause gluten to form and this can make the cake really dense.

I was so disappointed that my pound cake turned out so bad. I did learn that maybe I shouldn’t beat the batter too much next time. If you have any advice on how to make better pound cakes, and not turn them into weapons of destruction or door stops please let me know. The next cake is a chocolate pound cake, so we shall see.

That is what has been happening around here how about you?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Hello April, It May Be Dogwood Winter

I said my goodbyes to March. As usual March went swooshing by in maybe five minutes. Here we are in the beautiful month of April, my birth month and so it goes.

March came in like the roaring lion it can be and went out as gentle as a sweet lamb. Gone for another year. Although no March will be quite like the one we just had. It couldn’t be. You wouldn’t want it to be for one reason or another. But isn’t that true of every month, year and even every day? Ok I might be getting off track. Back to brand new April and the Dogwoods.

The temps here yesterday were mid 80’s F and then today they plummeted to the mid 50’sF. What?? First of all let me explain. We are more than likely experiencing Dogwood Winter. Yes I know it is a little early in the month for Dogwood Winter but who am I to say it is not. Dogwood Winter is the second of many teasing winters that keep popping up in our area until full spring or summer arrives. This is what a lot of the early settlers believe and some still do. I follow these winters very closely. My husband poo poos me and calls me crazy. The weather is just what it is here he says. He says the temps will drop because a cold front is coming through. Yes it is I say, it is called Dogwood Winter!!!!

What is this Dogwood Winter? Well my dear friend it is when the beautiful dogwood trees start to flower, it follows Red Bud Winter. It is often hard to know exactly when Dogwood Winter will hit because the Dogwood trees may bloom at different times from region to region. I think it is no coincidence that the Dogwoods are flowering and a cold snap is coming. Just look at the temps for this week.

Usually Dogwood Winter falls later in April and who knows, we may have cooler temps again as we get into the middle of April and more dogwoods start flowering. I will tell you I am worried about the new blossoms that are blooming and these cold temps we will have in the next few days. It could really hurt some of the newly budding trees.

If you want to know when the last frost of the year will be and when it is safe to plant your gardens, then all you have to do is look at your Farmer’s Almanac. Or research some data online for the average frost dates. Our ancestors didn’t have the Farmer’s Almanac or Google to help determine when they should plant their crops. They had to rely on the changes that the seasons brought about. Because the Dogwood trees usually bloom out around mid April or even to early May, and this just happened to be the same time that the last frost would take place, they knew it wasn’t safe to plant their crops until the Dogwoods finished blooming Most old timers will tell you this is too early to be Dogwood Winter but all I know is, they’re blooming and it is suddenly winter again.

I leave you with some of my favorite Dogwood photos that I have taken throughout the years and a poem by an unknown author. The Legend Of The Dogwood. I will take more pictures this year and I will share those as well.

The Legend Of The Dogwood:

There is a legend that at the time of the crucifixion the dogwood had been the size of the oak and other forest trees. So firm and strong was the tree that it was chosen as the timber for the cross. To be used for such a cruel purpose greatly dis- tressed the tree, and our Lord, nailed upon it, sensed this, and in his gentle pity for all sorrow and suffering said to it: “Because of your regret and pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. Henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted, and its blossoms shall be in the form of a
cross, two long and two short petals. And in the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see it
will remember.”

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!