Buh, buh, buh, Blueberry Crisp

"Shopped" my freezer and found some frozen blueberries that needed to be used. A quick look through my computer files turned up a saved recipe from Saveur Magazine, Issue #51, which I modified slightly by adding the mace. We think this is yummy...and a crisp is soo easy to make, since no homemade pie crust is needed.
   And no, I didn't really eat my dessert by candlelight. Brought this candlestick into the kitchen to clean & burned the wax off the top, so it'd look fresh again.
   Made leftover Garbanzo Pasta Salad into Curried Chicken Soup for dinner...great way to stretch one chicken breast into at least two night's meals.
   Blueberries are just loaded with anti-oxidants and curry is said to prevent Alzheimer's, so I figure we did okay nutrition-wise with this meal. Will add some cooked kale to the soup next time I serve it, so it'll seem different once again.
   Turning leftover pasta salad into soup may be my favorite Leftover-Make-Over! What's yours?

Blueberry Crisp

6 cups (3 pints) blueberries, washed and stemmed

1⁄2 cup granulated sugar

1 1⁄4 cups flour

2⁄3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. mace (optional) 

Pinch of salt

10 tbsp. cold butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Toss together washed, stemmed blueberries and granulated sugar in a bowl, then transfer to a medium baking dish.

2. Combine flour, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt in another bowl. Using two knives, work cold butter, cut into pieces, into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle mixture evenly over blueberries.

3. Bake until berries are bubbling and topping is golden, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with heavy cream spooned over top.

Time to get a little SAUCY

First learned of BBQ tofu over at Cooking.In.College & planned to make it but before I could, I saw another BBQ tofu post on Short Girl, Long Name. Thought I'd combine both Meg's & Jessica's recipes, but the morning the kitchen became tofu central, Hubby was on the computer. Since I log FAR more computer time than he does, I didn't disturb him & instead headed for a cookbook I'd gotten from the library: Get Saucy: Make Dinner a New Way Every Day with Simple Sauces, Marinades, Glazes, Dressings, Pestos, Pasta Sauces, Salsas, and More by Grace Parisi (looong title--great book!).
   I had nerve enough to make a slight departure from the Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce recipe found in this James Beard Award nominated book and the resulting Hickory Smoked Asian BBQ Sauce tasted GREAT!
   Since I forgot to take a pic of the finished products the day I served 'em up, above you see some of the leftovers heating up for my lunch: Potstickers with Sweet Thai Chili Sauce and BBQ Tofu. I liked the BBQ Tofu well enough, but Hubby doesn't care for tofu & would only take ONE bite! *chuckle*
   Potstickers are super easy, so I make them often. This batch contained sliced onions, thinly sliced cabbage and diced yellow carrots that I cooked down & added a little BBQ sauce to before spooning onto the round wrappers, wetting the circular edges and then crimping. Added diced ham to the ones intended for Hubby. I steamed the potstickers & then finished them off in a skillet to brown in a tad of butter. (In the picture of the unfinished product, I forgot what I was doing & crimped the first too much. Second one I crimped as intended for a potsticker.)
Hickory Smoked Asian BBQ Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 small onion, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 Tbs. chili powder
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbs. cider vinegar
2 Tbs. prepared yellow mustard
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. liquid hickory smoke flavoring
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
Melt butter in medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until translucent, add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes. Refrigerate, covered tightly, for up to 1 month. NOTE: Omit the hoisin sauce and sesame oil if you just want Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce.
   Homemade barbecue sauce is so easy, I never buy the commercial stuff anymore...reduces packaging waste. 
   Well, that's what I had for lunch today, what about you? Anything interesting on your plate?

Saving some green almost cost us the greens

Our first kale of the season...picked by Hubby, eagerly de-stemmed and washed by me, then sautéed by Hubby. And if I hadn't taken a pic of their green, vitamin-packed loveliness, we might have had no kale for dinner!
   Hubby was cooking the greens in a dim light but the camera flash told the tale: the kale was starting to burn! Yikes! Fortunately, all was not lost and very little needed to be picked out. The remainder was not tainted...much...but boy, was that close.
   Yes, in this instance, not turning on the light to save some green almost cost us the greens. Any close calls in your kitchen lately?

Check out that MOON!!

If ever you wanted to HOWL at the moon, tonight's the night for it. Yep, that big ole hunk o' cheese is closer to the earth than it's been in 18 years! Evidently, several factors come into play tonight to make it appear larger, look more luminous than ever. (If interested in more info, check out these articles on Yahoo News or The Guardian.
   Better yet, go outside and check out that bad boy for yourself! If you're on the computer this Saturday night, that is.
   I attempted a shot with my little Nikon Coolpix...not so great (at left). Hubby took a no-flash, long exposure (above) with his fairly new toy, a Canon Rebel T1i, and came up with something more impressive, but he'd really need a tripod for a good, clear shot. (Incidentally, its our neighbor's outbuilding in these shots.)
   Hope you had the chance to lasso the moon for yourself!

This moment: Tethered angel

Captured this at French Camp in Mississippi. A little ironic to see an angel chained down! 
   Thanks to Soulemama for this Friday photo sharing concept. Feel free to leave a link to your moment!

On my mind: Cute as a button, literally

Made a day trip to Louisville, Kentucky, t'day so the mumsy could buy a couple of sewing machines from her 97-year-old aunt who now resides in amazingly fine health in a nursing home. I unexpectedly ended up being gifted with a hodge podge of buttons that were collected through the years by my great aunt, who once made her living as a seamstress. Soo tickled to get these, as I'd been wanting to make over a boring cardigan with some nicer buttons...will let you know how that turns out!
   This funky wagon happened to be in Great Aunt H's neighbor's yard. Love it when a day throws nice little surprises my way! Any sweet surprises brighten your day?

Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. Anything on your mind? Share your link here or on down-to-earth.

Boil water advisory would catch me unprepared!

International news last night featured a story on how Japan is dealing with water shortages in the aftermath of the quake and tsunami...then I caught the local news about a neighboring town that is currently under a boil water order.
   The newscaster related that a Boil Water Advisory meant that all drinking water must be boiled 5 minutes before use. If washing dishes in unboiled water, 1/8th teaspoon of regular, unscented bleach should be added per gallon of water; the bleach water should then be allowed to stand 30 minutes prior to using. Found some good additional info at this San Diego.gov site.
   Of course, these news stories caused me to think about our own situation and just how unprepared we are. According to Fema, people should keep on hand enough water to last for THREE days, with one GALLON per person per day.
   We have only 2 1/2 gallons of water in the form of ice in the freezer. (Right in there with 20 lbs. sugar, a container of rice flour and several pkgs. of wild turkey breast.)
   We do wash the containers prior to freezing, so this ice could be thawed and BOILED and used for drinking, if need be. According to Fema, containers that once housed juice or milk are not suitable for storing drinking water, as they cannot be cleaned well enough to ensure against bacterial growth.
   I rarely use bleach and found that my container has only about a tablespoon left it it! So, my grocery list now has 2 new entries: 6 gallons of "commercially bottled water" and 1 gallon bleach. (And if the DD will let me, I'll be buying more of the same for her household.)
   Thing is, years ago I had this house stocked with such things...but I'd grown complacent & didn't replace the bottled water when it expired. Hope you are better prepared for a water crisis than we are??! 

Wildly Frugal Orange Cake

Yesterday, I came across the wildest orange cake recipe ever. Stumbled across it on Conscious Earth, who got the recipe from Down to Earth, who got the recipe from HERE.
   This recipe was not only incredibly easy to make but also is wildly frugal in that it uses the WHOLE orange. Gotta love that! My version is a slight adaptation of down-to-earth's.
   The organic orange I used was whopping big, so my "cake" really seems more like a slightly sweet, ultra moist perfect-for-breakfast bread. Slightly bitter orange, like imported orange marmalades. Like down-to-earth, I skipped the sugar glaze on top, but most *American sweet tooths will be happier with removing at least half of the pith (zest then remove half of the rind) and using the glaze.
Wildly Frugal Orange Cake
1 whole seedless *orange, skin and all (VERY well washed if not organic)
1½ cups melted butter
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1½ cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
In a small bowl, sift or whisk the dry ingredients together until fully combined. Process the whole orange in a food processor until well pureed. Add all other ingredients and process until well mixed. Pour into a greased and floured 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2 1/2" loaf pan. Bake 40-45 minutes in a preheated 350°F oven, until toothpick tests clean.
Optional Sugar Glaze
2½ cups confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
Orange juice and zest
Mix sugar, butter, zest and just enough orange juice together for a slightly runny consistency. Pour onto cooled cake, letting it run down the sides.
   Sorry I did not manage to get a better pic of the final product!
   A recipe that wastes little to nothing of a beautiful orange and makes the house smell great to boot! What will they think of next?!

Easy peasy Pineapple Cake

Cooking from scratch to reduce the packaging brought into the home doesn't have to mean more time spent in the kitchen. Not with such easy recipes as this Pineapple Cake!
Pineapple Cake
2 cups (10 oz.) all purpose flour
2 cups (14 oz.) sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup chopped nuts
2 eggs
1 - 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple, undrained
Thoroughly mix dry ingredients, including the nuts, in a large bowl. Add the eggs and undrained pineapple and mix until combined. Pour the (relatively wet) batter into a 13" x 9" baking pan. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 30 to 45 minutes, until toothpick tests clean.
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese
2 cups (8 oz.) powdered sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup/4 oz.) melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Blend well. Spread on cake while still fairly hot (about 5 minutes out of the oven).

   On another note, one of the greenest blogs around, Zero Waste Home, is in the running for a Green Award. The award would help ZWH take its message of making reducing household waste mainstream. Bea actually manages to make such a lifestyle seem not only worth aspiring to but also doable.
   To check out their video entry and vote for Zero Waste Home (you can even vote once per day until March 27th), visit:
http://www.THEGreenAwards.com/Default.aspx?v=221
   I'm afraid I've a long way to go before this household becomes zero waste, but cooking more foods from scratch does help me to greatly reduce our packaging waste. If you've any easy peasy scratch cake recipes of your own to share, please leave a link to your post!

Seitan: What was I thinking?!

Okay, I guess I forgot everything I learned from Michael Pollan about eating only what our great-grandmas would recognize as food. Whether from curiosity or the siren call of a bargain buy, I bought SEITAN, that vegetarian meat substitute.
   Hubby right off sent up a mutiny flag and refused to even try it. Well, Pollan and Hubby got it right, 'cause that stuff is pure MEH!
   To be fair, I also find chicken and beef to be pretty dull once the first couple of chews have worn off the seasoning. Unless I swallow my food whole, by the time meat or poultry is all chewed up, there's a whole mouthful of BLAH going on. I've been a bit of a flexitarian since I was a kid for that very reason. I only eat about a half to a quarter of a serving of animal protein 'cause I get awfully bored with chewing the stuff.
   That boredom goes triple for this seitan stuff. NEVER again!!
   I will keep trying to add more veggie entrees to our rotation though. Actually, I was so tickled as I was cooking the seitan because I thought it looked great as I sautéed it with onions and garlic before adding the mushrooms, peppers and eventually noodles too. If I had to, I could probably even get used to eating seitan, but I don't have to, do I?!
   Don't think I'll be throwing the leftovers away though. I'll be eating and regretting this stuff for a couple of more days now. Any regrets being served over at your place??

Make over: Love it when folks get creative!

Okay, if you can stand just a few more glimpses of San Diego, I just loved these examples of how people can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary!
   What to do with all those seashells everyone keeps dragging home from the beach? Embellish a mailbox!
   And how to make a concrete wall look worthy of an oceanside view? Poke some rocks in it!
   What about those pervasive terra cotta tiles? Why NOT paint them?!
   Gotta love it when folks get creative with their outdoor spaces. Hoping these memories will inspire me to do something equally quirky...if only in the backyard where only friends/family will see.
   I think of such practices as green...essentially it's about making over objects to suit one's own personality. MUCH better than buying new, cookie-cutter commercial options. 
   Any funky/quirky/artsy goings on in your outdoor spaces?

This moment: Life's surprises

Went to the grocery yesterday and on the way, I drove behind this truck. Thought I saw a calf in the truck bed, but it turned out to be a BIG dog. I'd never seen a dog as massive as this black and white behemoth! Had to take a pic, even though the car behind me laid on its horn.
   Anyway, got some great buys on won ton, egg roll and round wrappers. Came home and split each package in half, freezing most all of them. (Pictured here with butter wrappers being used as separators.)
   Also got an incredible buy on mushrooms: 10 - 8oz. pkgs. of sliced baby bellas @$1.49 each and 4 - 8oz. pkgs. white button mushrooms at .89 cents each. So ever since getting home from the store, I've had mushrooms cooking down in pans on the shelf of the woodburner. Once cooked, I'll freeze all the cooked baby bellas in various-sized portions for future pizzas, pastas and soups.
   One of these days I need to experiment with dehydrating mushrooms...the 4 button mushroom containers are waiting in the fridge for me to do just that. Hope to find the time tomorrow.
  Anxiously awaiting more news of our brothers and sisters in Japan. Hoping for the best for Hawaii and our own west coast. Tragedies of this proportion remind us all how very precious and uncertain life can be!

Thanks to Soulemama for this Friday photo sharing concept. If you're so inclined, leave a link to your moment for others to visit.

On my mind: Pastry dreams

Did I mention that the FOOD is one of my favorite reasons to travel? This photo taken at a patisserie is now one of my recurring dreams! Think it's possible to re-create such a sight in one's own home? Not very likely, eh? Well, a girl can dream can't she?

Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. Anything on your mind? Share your link here or on down-to-earth.

Fudge Cake for Two--simple to make, even easier to eat!

Need to hurry today, as it will be spent in much the same way as the last two: helping to see family and a family friend through some health issues. Best thing about these kinds of days is knowing the ones you love will soon recover and have a better quality of life when all is said and done.
   Here's my quick-n-easy chocolate cake. Actually found the recipe in Better Homes and Gardens Cooking for Two Cookbook, printed sometime in the 60s or 70s. Cake pictured here is the recipe doubled, and I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder.
   The icing is the EASIEST and yummiest chocolate icing I've ever come across...Mom's recipe that she got from a friend ages ago.
Fudge Cake for Two
3 tbs. cocoa powder
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbs. oil
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup melted butter
Combine all dry ingredients in large bowl. Combine liquid ingredients in a small bowl. Pour liquids into the dry ingredients and blend 'til smooth. Pour into greased and floured 9" square pan. Bake 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
Easy Chocolate Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tbs. melted butter
4 tbs. cocoa powder
pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbs. or so of hot coffee
Mix all of the icing ingredients until smooth. Ices one 9"x13" cake.
   One of these days I must get better at taking pictures...unfortunately, my perfectionism hasn't extended to that genre as of yet, or I'd never post anything!
   Also, I will never claim to be a perfect cook. I just like to eat good-tasting food, whether it looks perfect is incidental to me! I do like to share recipes that we enjoy, especially EASY RECIPES, and I get a huge kick when others do the same. And of course, scratch cooking means far less packaging waste in our landfills.
   So, if you'd like, feel free to leave your link here to a post of your favorite cake recipe. One day soon I'll have the time to visit and catch up on what's going on in your worlds. Can't wait!

Vinegar: How sweet it is!

Yeah, we all know you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, 'cause vinegar stinks! Pretty sweet savings though every time I use the smelly stuff to refill my "all purpose cleaner" spray bottle. At less than $2 bucks a gallon, I save $ using vinegar instead of a commercial all purpose cleaner for the kitchen.
   The straight white vinegar acts as a disinfectant, and I don't bother to add an essential oil to sweeten the scent, because the vinegar soon evaporates leaving no smell a'tall.
   Because my spray bottle formerly housed a green-tinged cleaner, I do add one drop of green food coloring to the vinegar. I do this so as not to confuse anyone who might reach under the kitchen sink looking for a cleaner. A green liquid makes sense in this container with a cucumber on it.
   Because my cleaner is straight vinegar, I have no worries about harsh chemicals on my kitchen counters and wooden cutting board contaminating foods that might soon follow.
   For more ways to use vinegar in cleaning, visit VinegarTips.com. Anyone else with more $ in their pockets because of plain ole vinegar??

Latest cooking jag: Macaroons and granola

Though cooking is my hobby, I'm always on the lookout for quick and easy recipes. Love, LOVE these little almond macaroons, Amaretti Cookies, a recipe found on the Joy of Baking site. I did not have superfine sugar on hand, so I used their tip to process regular sugar for 30 seconds in the food processor. With only three ingredients, plus the sanding sugar I sprinkled on top, these babies are just too easy for words!
   That same morn I also made a variation of Honey Almond Granola, a recipe I'd cut out of the December 2005 issue of Fine Cooking Magazine. Used to think I didn't like granola, until I started making my own variations with the three recipes from the article from Fine Cooking. Now granola is my fav breakfast cereal, and its cheaper than store bought besides!
   One of these days, I'm gonna goal to fill the kitchen table with my cooking adventures, like the blogger Peskychicken over at 100 Meter Diet Plus More did in his post entitled A Family Effort on Family Day. I just love that idea and can't wait to find a day to make it happen.

Honey Pecan Granola
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup oat bran
2 cups whole pecans
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup honey
1 Tbs. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. pure almond extract
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1/2 tsp. table salt
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates
In a large bowl, mix the oats, oat bran, and pecans. In a smaller bowl, whisk the oil, honey, vanilla, almond extract, dry milk powder, and salt. Pour the gloppy mixture over the oats and stir 'til well combined. Spread onto a lightly greased large baking sheet and bake for 20 min. at 325°F, then stir and continue to bake until the oats are golden brown and the nuts look well toasted, another 10 to 20 min. Do not overcook. Cool completely in the pan. The oats will crisp as they cool. When completely cool, break up the chunks then stir in the raisins and dates.
     I'm a major food voyeur, so talking about food and seeing what others are cooking gives me a real kick! What's cooking over at your place??

Waste not, want not...eat all those brownies!

Still dedicated to the many small economies that make it possible for us to continue to save money though living on one fixed income...while traveling and generally living as we wish.
   The brownies shown here are just the Baker's chocolate One Bowl Brownie recipe, so quick and easy to make when a brownie craving hits. I prefer a thicker brownie and use a 9"x9" square pan (bake time: 45 minutes). The smaller pan means using less foil, but I do wash and re-use any foil not used for cooking meat.
   The soaps here are what we brought home from the hotel on our recent trip. Last thing we do before leaving a hotel room is to pack up any used soap. Housekeeping will just toss them, so why not bring them home? Besides, something Practical Parsimony said made me realize that my Dove soap slivers don't easily adhere to each other. I now use other soap brands to meld my Dove slivers so no soap is wasted.
   Not wanting to generate more plastic waste, I don't generally use the shampoo/conditioner/lotion in a hotel room, leaving them for the next guest. However with the airline rules on liquids, we did use these items this time but brought home the partly used containers.
   Wasting less is just one of many frugalities that helps our budgets but also contributes less waste to the Great Garbage Patches of our world. Besides reusing foil and using up soap slivers, care to share any little "waste not, want nots" going on in your home these days?

This moment: Travel hits all the senses

My three favorite reasons to travel: Newly discovered foods...highly memorable sights...unusual people. Loved this repurposing of the old shovels!

I was told the lemon pictured here is coveted for its plentiful zest, as it contains little juice. And the tat capture was taken at the San Diego airport...some man who appeared to be late 40s sporting these chucks & the cheesy tattoo amused me greatly.

Thanks to Soulemama for this Friday photo sharing concept. If you're so inclined, leave a link to your moment for others to visit.

On my mind: Next best thing to being crafty

On My Mind: Cooking is my favorite "hobby." Besides some crocheted afghans and a few dabbles in other media, I've never been one for crafts. Yet I love the new card-making craze...they're just so darned cute! Next best thing to being crafty myself is knowing others who are. A gal I used to work with made the cards pictured here. She loves making them, but she couldn't possibly use all that she makes. So she sells them for what it costs to make them! Yup, I get lovely, hand-crafted cards for far less than it costs to buy commercial greeting cards. Gotta love that!

Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. Anything on your mind? Share your link here or on down-to-earth.

The shame of less-than-green travel

I have yet to figure out how to be greener when traveling by air, staying in a hotel and purchasing instead of cooking all meals. Sooo much easier to be green when camping, especially within our beloved state of Kentucky, but in our recent jaunt to San Diego about the only green thing we did was to put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, so the hotel linens would not be changed every single day. *SIGH* One day I hope to be as green as Beth over at My Plastic Free Life, who had only a few empty bags of Flamin' Hot Cheetos to shame her at trip's end. Wait! We did do one other green thing: took our own water container with us everywhere we went and refilled it instead of buying bottled water.

Pictured: Squirrel in foreground feeding itself in La Jolla, California...yes, the water really IS that blue!

San Diego or bust: Little ways to save when traveling

Hey, just got back from beautiful San Diego! People everywhere should be as friendly! Thought I'd share a few highlights of our trip.
BARGAINS we found in San Diego:

• Multi-day passes to the public transit system ($5.00/day/unlimited stops), good for most buses/trolleys. A rainy day ride on the trolley to the Mexican border provided us with comfortable, DRY sightseeing. Bought a couple of yummy tacos in San Ysidro for less than 5 bucks! Felt sure of the food because the little joint was frequented by Border Patrolmen. (Advised against it, we did not go into Tijuana.)
• Met a woman in the elevator one morn who fed the meter each day with $2.50 for her car to be in a nearby day park versus the $32.00 cost charged for hotel parking.
• A 20-something young man on the plane said he waited 'til he got to San Diego & used Priceline.com to book different hotel rooms for $30+, $40 and $80 a night. (I'm not brave enough for this.)

Most UNEXPECTED events:

• Sat next to gorgeous Navy Seal David Goggins on the Chicago/San Diego leg of our flight. A real sweetheart of a guy whose life story (nutshell version) is astounding. I have no doubt we'll be reading a book about this man one day!
• Got in a car with a perfect stranger! Yup, when a nice-looking gentleman in La Jolla overheard me asking directions to an area restaurant, he offered us a ride. NEVER thought I'd do such a thing, but how often do you hear of serial killers riding around in big ole beautiful black Mercedes-Benz? Such a sweetie...guess he figured us for what we are: a couple of harmless goobers from the South! Loved it when he pointed out an exclusive tennis court along the way and suggested that next time we come to San Diego, we should rent an apartment there. (WAY out of our league!)

   Yeah, that's me. Never put my pic on here before 'cause NO ONE I KNOW KNOWS that I blog. Except Hubby.


Easy ways to SAVE ON FOOD when away from home:

• Eat main meal at lunch, when prices are cheaper
• Eat during "happy hours" (usually between 4:00pm-6ish) when appetizers, etc., are half price
• Eat protein bars when in airports, on plane, breakfast at hotel or anytime fast meals are preferable (we brought some CLIF bars from home, bought more from a grocery in downtown San Diego)
• Order food to-go at night, take back to hotel room to drink with wine purchased during the day's excursions
• Shop the grocery for local foods to eat in hotel room at night

Save SPACE on casual trips by taking:
Reversible belt (black/brown, bought in a men's store, perfect for jeans with different rises)
Reversible jacket (came in VERY handy when I drop/kick/stomped mine when crossing a street)
Pashmina shawl (great for staying warm on plane but also wrapped my head with it occasionally when the day took a chilly turn...yes, I sometimes looked like a Babushka on the beaches of California! And in unknown territory, scarves hide women's necklaces as well.)
Only three shoes (One pair walking shoes--Keen are my go-tos; one pair of slip ons for airport check-ins; one pair flip flops for pool/hot tub)
Over the shoulder bag (Okay, may not save space but sure saves the day when it comes to hands-free running to catch the next tram!)

   I'm sure many of you are more widely traveled than I am, but indulge me to offer my ultimate travel tip: walk as much as possible to discover nature's unexpected treasures like we did by starting down a hill only to find these little switchbacks pictured at left that led us to a beautiful beach below. And such incredible homes were perched on these hills!
   LOVE traveling but sure is GREAT to be home!

That's what works for me, what works for you? What perfect-for-travel item will you not leave home without? How do you save $ on the road...any money-saving travel tips to share?

My Urban Garden | You Grow Girl

I'm baaack! Will soon share what I've been up to...meantime, lovin' this video. Some how-tos for urban gardening at its finest!
My Urban Garden | You Grow Girl