This moment: A surprise in the recyclables & my first organic sausage dish

Oh, yes, this little creature trapped in a can from the recycle box scared the bejeebers out of me!
   Fortunately, Hubby was around to take it outside to freedom...don't know why these little ones find such fun running in and out of our attached garage when the door is left open. Please don't let one ever come up the steps into our house! Can they climb stairs??
   Not sure I should post food in the same post as wiggly little lizards, but I could NOT post just a lizard pic and leave it at that!
   So, here's a pic of what I did with my first purchase of organic sausage (humanely raised pork). The stuff cost an arm and a leg, but I thought it much more flavorful than the factory farm stuff. Hubby just looked at the price and...well, you know!
   I fried up the sausage, divided it into thirds and froze two packages of it for a future use. Gotta love that.
   Made this a few days back. We're eating on a barbecued chicken right now that Hubby's pop surprised him with. 
   Boy, do I love barbecue surprises! Hope your weekend brings you nothing but pleasant surprises!!

Sausage Cabbage Leek Lentil Mish Mash

Thanks to Soulemama for this Friday photo sharing concept. Please feel free to share a link to your moment.

Couldn't find a second home for old trophies--waah!

Called and called but could not find a new home for DD's old trophies. As she does not want them and cannot be persuaded to take them to her own home, that means these durned things will have to be trashed.
   But WAIT, certain parts won't go to the landfill:

• Hubby will take the engraved plates off...surely DD will have space and the teeniest bit of sentimentality for those.
• He'll remove the nuts/bolts & if unusable, toss them in his metals' recycle pile.
• Also, the marble pieces will get tossed into some hole in the ground that needs filling, y'know, like rocks.

   DD actually had one other big trophy that I used one time at the end of our road to hold up a garage sale sign. It was stolen! (*chuckle* She forgave me.)
   Maybe I should've put the others out to see if they'd be stolen too?! ;)
   Hope you had a great Wednesday. I did. I'll show-n-tell when I have more time. Hasta mañana!

On my mind: 'Always been there' makes unused stuff invisible!

Unused bread box, why did you continue
to take up space even after I stopped using you?

Space, glorious space--top shelf says goodbye bread box!

Some 29 years ago, Hubby and I received this bread box as a wedding gift. Don't remember who gave it to us. Not long after getting it, we learned the prevailing wisdom that nothing would make bread mold faster than being in a bread box. So we took the top off but continued to store our bread in the box in a cabinet, figuring it would keep the bread from being smashed.
   All was well and good while DD was living at home. Bread got used up quicker than it could go stale. When DD moved out leaving just Hubby and me, we soon learned a whole loaf of bread goes to waste around here.
   We then divided each loaf in half, freezing half, but even a half loaf would go to waste in the bread box...out of sight, out of mind. Nowadays when we have bread around, half gets frozen and half sits on the counter or in the fridge so we will see it and eat it.
   This unused bread box continued taking up space in the tiny cabinet by the stove. The box was in there only because the old habit of it always being there somehow made it invisible to me! It would be there still if I weren't inspired by Zero Waste Home to take a look at everything with a minimalist's eye.
   Hauled off a load of stuff to give to charity yesterday. Bye, bye bread box!
"Slow Carb" Update 
   On another note, I'm really getting a kick out of practicing my own version* of the 4-Hour Body recommendation of eating only slow carbs (veggies/protein/legumes) with one cheat day per week. (*As my goal is to eat less sugar, I allow cheese/yogurt.)
   Here's a pic of the mish-mash I made the other day. Yesterday, I put the little bit of leftovers into a bowl & topped them with a couple of beaten eggs & gruyere for a lovely makeover crustless quiche mish-mash. Too easy! I haven't eaten this many veggies in my life, so I'm really getting a kick out of this new eating plan.
   But don't get me wrong, I LOVE cheat days. I've got a cake cooling on the counter now--just have to keep my hands OFF 'til Saturday! Hope something yummy is cooling on your counter right now??

Latest minimal meat mish-mash: broccoli slaw, yellow peppers, sausage, Greek seasoning.

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

Playing a computer game got my closet cleaned!

 Oh, yes, I am shamelessly addicted to a mind-numbing computer game. So addicted that this game constantly calls my name...seducing me to play until my neck feels like it will break and my wrist cries uncle. Rather than worry about this addiction though, I am using it as an incentive to tackle the cleaning projects I kept putting off.
   Maybe a "grown-up" should be ashamed to admit the need for some sort of dangling carrot to get motivated, but hey, where's the shame in a clean closet? Each time I leveled up in the game, I made myself go remove/clean one section of my closet.
   As I cleaned, in my head I could hear the game still cheering me on:

• Cleared out shoes no longer worn. Good!
• Put unwanted clothes, etc., in a bag for Goodwill. Excellent!
• Recycled all empty boxes saved for products no longer under warranty. Awesome! 
• Removed everything from floor, put on shelves or found more logical places for them. Spectacular! 
• Cleaned wood floor, woodwork and shelving unit. Extraordinary!

   Finally a visible floor in my closet. YEA! And my minimalist-wannabe pledge to downsize my possessions means I now have some space in this closet for some of the shoes that had been shifted to another closet. Yeah, that closet's next.
   Now, if you'll excuse me, I hear the siren call of some game calling my name...another closet awaits!

Okay, I'm not completely shameless; this is embarassing:
This bag was on the floor in my closet--
with stuff in it from the job I left forever ago!

Fullfreezer sent me a sweet surprise!

Oh, don't you just love, love, LOVE winning something? Received the above as a surprise package from My Freezer is Full, a blog I have only recently discovered. Believe me, I tore into it just like a kid on Christmas morn--ever so tickled with the sweet surprises inside. The gloves fit perfectly, and I can't wait to grow these herbs we've never grown before. Such fun getting a surprise package in the mail!

Do we dare?

   Still hit and miss when it comes to garden weather around here in western Kentucky. Overcast and rainy these days. Yet again! And it's below 60° F out there right now. Brrr!
   Why, it was just six days ago that we so enjoyed our ride around the state as the sun smiled down upon us edging the temp near 90°. What has made our sun so everlasting shy these days?

Oh, yes, we do!
(we could see road under the water)

   If it doesn't stop raining, how will all the low-lying roads ever dry up? Even if it did feel like a mini-adventure driving through some of the high water, I'd much prefer dry roads. (The road markings were visible, so we knew the water wasn't deep.)
   Ah, well, it'll be hot as blazes soon enough no doubt. It's Primary Election Day today. I elect to have a good one! Hope more of the same for you: a day full of happy surprises and mini-adventures!!

Living with more than enough and even some to share

Planting edibles in the front yard...chives add cute little purple puffs of color!

Hubby is my favorite gardener. Each year he grows more than I can cook, and we feel blessed to be able to share what we can't use.
   When family and friends have had all they can take, we take extra produce to our local Centro Latino, which distributes charitable gifts free of charge to migrant and immigrant families in need.
   And these days, we don't even confine the foodstuffs to the garden out back.
   Since I am a terribly LAZY cook, I'm trying to think less "flower garden" and more "edible landscaping" right out our front door. That way herbs/whatevers are just a step away and I don't have to tramp out to the garden. Not that it's far away as we only live on an acre of ground, but did I mention that I'm lazy? ;)
   Got the idea originally from an article in Mother Earth News: "Grow $700 of Food in Less than 100 Square Feet." Who'd have thought food could be incorporated seamlessly into attractive landscaping?
   Anyway, some folks out in Sonoma, California are spreading the word about folks sharing their garden riches with others while reducing those thirsty lawns, and 350.org is trying to help this charitable giving go viral.
   Congrats to all those planting to share with others on May 15th and 16th--they're earning stars in heaven! For more info on how to join this effort, check out the 350 Home and Garden Challenge.

Travel: It's the real thing

Gotta love it when the weather's nice enough to ride around taking in the sights on a random Wednesday afternoon. Thought I'd share a few photos of our day. Love happening upon iconic sites from the past...ads painted on walls, neon signs, cheesy tourist attractions. Gotta love it!
   Hubby mapped out a route full of country roads we'd never been on, but one place on the route, Mammoth Cave, is one of my all time favorite places. Fourteen years old and living in Tennessee at the time of my first visit, I can't even count the times I've been back  to the Cave--too many times to remember.
   I love the feel of that humongous quirk of nature. Though it was almost 90F degrees outside, down by the cave opening, I wished I had on a jacket. Didn't tour the cave this time...hope to take the grandgirls sometime this summer tho'. If you've never been, I highly recommend it. At the risk of sounding trite, something about the natural beauty and wonder makes all modern cares fall away.
   Having a good weekend? Hope so!

Historic entrance to Mammoth Cave, Cave City, Kentucky

Mammoth Cave National Park historic tour entrance

Fresh, 54°F air streams out of the historic entrance to Mammoth Cave

Wigwam Village in Cave City, Kentucky

Goat weather vane atop church steeple in Dundee, Kentucky

Barefoot Contessa's Chunky Blue Cheese and Yogurt Dip

This Gorgonzola Dip pairs perfectly with lightly steamed asparagus.

Trouble with blogger yesterday--maybe I can post today!
   I tried a new recipe Wednesday: Barefoot Contessa's Chunky Blue Cheese and Yogurt Dip. (Links to the kitchen blog of Border's Bookstore. Click for the recipe then scroll down the page a bit.) 
   Now, I'm not much of a blue cheese fan myself; one of the others in my "cook the book" group chose this recipe. And I'm glad they did!
   The point with our cooking group was to get me out of my comfort zone. My original idea was to pick a complicated cookbook to get me to use techniques I'm too lazy to use often, but this book turned out to be a much better idea! Barefoot Contessa's How Easy Is That? cookbook contains recipes I'd never choose myself; and I'm really enjoying broadening my palate's horizon, so to speak.
   More and more I'm finding that foods I didn't used to like really do it for me now. Gotta love that!
   Happy Friday the 13th!! Hope you have a terrific time this weekend!! 

Original recipe calls for Tabasco--I was out of it!

This recipe couldn't be easier--just a few pulses to combine.

Add the minced chives last and pulse just a couple more times & DONE!

Please eat some sweets for me while I watch Hubby eat Hican Pie Bars

Hican Pie Bars--substitute pecans if you want. Click on pic for clearer image.

Still working hard to reduce packaging waste by cooking/baking mostly from scratch. Since I've started trying to follow the 4-Hour Body suggestion to eat "slow carbs" (protein, legumes, veggies) except on the Saturday cheat day, it's been tougher deciding what to bake. After all, Hubby still wants his sweets. As he's most days out in the garden, yard or garage often tending to projects that I came up with in the first place, I can hardly deny him his just desserts!
   The trouble now is to find sweets that won't tempt me Sunday through Friday, while I wait for my cheat day. That's where these Hican Pie Bars come in. Hicans are a bit stronger tasting than pecans, and I'm not crazy for them...so I'm not craving these bars like I would be my fav: Lemon Pie Bars.
   My Hican Pie Bars are a riff on the Pecan Pie Bars found on MyRecipes.com, which I had made before. Added the butter flavoring because I like a more pronounced butter flavor in a pecan pie. When I'm short on time, I make these bars rather than a pecan pie, 'cause there's no mess from rolling out pie crust dough to clean up afterwards.
   Anyway, hope you're having an absolutely fabulous day. Eat something sweet for me, and I'll catch up on Cheat Day! 

Determined to wait for "cheat day," the "bite" in the pic went back into the pan!
At left: bars ready for the freezer; butter wrappers work perfectly to keep extra air out.
I remembered to buy more rechargeable batteries today. Love those little money savers!

Hican Pie Bars
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine, cut up
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 large eggs
2 1/2 cups finely chopped hicans (or substitute pecans)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 to 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring, as desired (optional)
Preparation
Combine flour, sugar, and salt in large bowl; cut in 3/4 cup butter thoroughly with a pastry blender until mixture resembles very fine crumbs.   (Or use a food processor.)  Press mixture evenly then firmly into a greased 13" x 9" pan. Bake at 350° for 17 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.
For filling, combine brown sugar, corn syrup, eggs, flavoring(s) and pecan in a large bowl. Stir to combine then slowly pour in 1/2 cup melted butter while mixing. Pour filling over crust. Bake at 350° for 34 to 35 minutes or until set. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

See what that this DVD made me do! Water shots too.

What looks like a watershed beyond the ditch is normally arable farmland.

Western Kentucky is pretty waterlogged these days. May days normally spent outside in gardens and flower beds find us all just waiting for the ground to dry. Fortunately, after 14 straight days of rainfall, we are in a reprieve, so the farmers are out in the fields that aren't under water even after dark...even on Mother's Day!

Overflow! Rods in the mudroom and garage were full.

   The other day threatened rain all morn, so I considered just putting my two loads of laundry in the dryer, but while waiting for the first load to wash, I popped in a DVD: Call of Life. An eye opener, to say the least!
   This was not shameless propaganda but instead gripping testimonies by noted scientists/academics from esteemed institutions like Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Oxford. If interested, see below for the trailer, which tells the tale of the documentary in brief. Hard words for sure, words that I don't want to forget as I endeavor to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Call to Life  leaves no doubt that we face a crisis that we must address or "entire eco-systems may face irreversible, chain-reaction system collapse."
   So, despite threatening weather outside, I hung my two loads of  laundry to dry...INSIDE! Looked goofy but I'll share a pic anyway. After all, I'm a bit proud of my moment of renewed realization that maybe the little green things I do actually COUNT.
   I know not everyone can hang laundry inside (or out) to dry. But there are soo many other ways to reduce one's impact on the environment. I have so much to learn!
   No time for guilt tho'. I can't change how un-green I've been--I can renew my resolve to make conscious efforts to be green where I can.
   Let's get our GREEN ON! Feel free to leave a link to share any of your green moments--frugal posts count. Why, if frugal had a color it'd be green!

This shot taken out sunroof while driving--not recommended in traffic! ;)

Not buying it: Tomato Sauce - paste easily converts to sauce

Paste to sauce: 6 ounces of paste, 12 ounces of water, 1/2 teaspoon sugar.

No longer buying cans of tomato sauce! Took a look at the ingredients in a can of tomato sauce...found water and tomato paste. Now I just buy paste and add my own water. Why pay for the added water?
   And if you're into preparedness, the little cans of paste save on storage space when compared with sauce.
   Though I do recycle all cans (first removing & tossing the labels in with the magazine recyclables), it takes less energy to recycle smaller cans. Yet another little way to lighten my impact on this lovely earth. For more ways to lessen our carbon footprint, visit Carbon Footprint.
   Came across a great article by Colin Beaven, No Impact Man: "42 Ways to Not Make Trash." No Impact Man's year spent trying to reduce his carbon footprint to zero sure made a BIG impact on me.
   The fact that going green almost always saves $greenbacks$ is icing on the cake! Speaking of cake, I hope to make one either today or tomorrow. Please leave a link if you've got a great cake post!!

Happy Cinco de Mayo: Ooey Gooey Tres Leches Cake

Click to enlarge pic to better see the ooey gooey-ness.

  "Cream of coconut" is not coconut milk. Yellow cake mix is better. 

I'm an eat-the-frosting-last-because-it's-best kinda gal, so to my way of thinking Tres Leches Cake is one of the few cakes that can get away with not having any icing! No doubt there are endless variations of the Tres Leches Cake out there, but "ooey-gooey" could probably describe them all.
   This Coconut Mango Tres Leches Cake over at Cooking in Mexico looks over the top indescribably delicious! Love that Kathleen didn't start with a box cake and hope to make her version SOON. Meantime, here's my quickie version of the cake, and making the cake according to the directions on the box would make it even easier but less dense.
Ooey Gooey Tres Leches Cake
Cake Ingredients
1 Yellow Cake mix (used French Vanilla but Yellow is best)
1 box instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter)
1 cup coconut milk (or regular milk or almond milk)

Ooey Gooey Topping Ingredients
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1 can Cream of Coconut (Coco Lopez brand found among the bar set-ups at grocery)

In a large bowl, beat cake ingredients for 2 minutes. Pour batter into a 13" x 9" pan and bake in a preheated 350F degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until done. (EASIEST version: make cake mix according to package directions instead of using cake ingredients shown here.) Meanwhile, stir together sweetened condensed milk and cream of coconut. Poke holes in just-out-of-the-oven baked cake and pour the topping ingredients evenly over the holey cake. Refrigerate then EAT!

Poking holes prior to pouring. Bigger holes would be fine.

   Happy, happy Cinco de Mayo! Hope you find some way to join our brothers and sisters of the Estados Unidos Mexicanos in celebration of the day!! Make and Freeze Margaritas anyone?!!

Repurposing leftovers: Étouffée-ish Lentil Chicken Veggie Mish Mash

Only risk with winging it in the kitchen is that you must be willing to eat the results! Latest experiment in cooking turned out just fine, and another minimal meat meal has come and gone: this time an Étouffée-ish Lentil Chicken Veggie Medley.

Creole Trinity: onions, peppers and celery.

   Finally found a source for antibiotic-free, humanely raised chickens, so I'll be adding chicken back to our meal offerings, while keeping to my plan of preparing more minimal meat meals (saves money and also lightens our carbon footprint). Cooking more and more vegetarian meals, but as I'm not only cooking to my tastes here, minimal meat seems a good compromise.
   I didn't really follow any recipe for my lentil chicken mish-mash, but used the seasonings for étouffée found in Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen as my jumping off point. After I took the above picture, I ended up adding a bit of leftover lentil soup (cooked out the liquids), along with some prepared mustard and a bit of Sweet Thai Chili Sauce too. And stole the onions out of a leftover cucumber and onion salad, so they tasted vinegary going in. Couldn't really taste any vinegar once the onions were cooked!

The seasonings used, as in Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen.

   Posting this is my way of showing what goes on around here most days: repurposing leftovers and using less animal protein. Any leftovers making their way to your table today? 

Eating more "slow carbs" like lentils, as suggested by The 4-Hour Body book.

Leftover Roasted Chicken, with garlic and potatoes. (Aren't chickens gross when cold?)

Only added one chicken thigh but end result enough to feed two.

Make over: Customizing plain white sheets

Before.

One of the library books resting on my lap these days is The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss. (Learned about this book over on The Spicy Perspective; She is doing a fabulous job of providing recipes that adhere to Ferriss' "slow carb" ideal.)
   LOVING this book. If I remember nothing else, I hope to remember Ferriss' concept of the importance of finding the MED or "minimum effective dose." Of course, he's talking about the minimally effective amount of exercise, but this MED philosophy can be applied to save time or money in many areas of our lives.
   For instance, I realized that painting the bathroom Chinese red meant that--unless I wanted the RED bath to stick out like a sore thumb--I had to sprinkle little touches of red throughout our home.
   Not wanting our house to be ALL about red, I've been searching for the MED or minimum effective dose of red for the other rooms.
   When I visit fancy home shops, I always moon over the custom sheets...often embellished with fine laces or satin ribbons. But I don't need new sheets and wouldn't spend THAT much money on them anyway!
   An affordable alternative was in order: for our master bedroom, I decided my white sheets could use a little shot of red, and a little red cording (and Mom's sewing skills) just turned the trick.
   Still debating whether to put another line of cord on the top sheet. Would I like that just as well or better? So, guess I am deciding whether I have found my MED of red yet for these sheets. ?? Feel free to weigh in if you want!

Towns lived in on the journey to Debt Free-land

Keeping an eye out for "wants" pays off: math manipulatives recently bought at a garage sale.

We are fairly swimming in all the rain that keeps falling. I feel as dull as these endless gray skies that keep me indoors as life goes on here in PerpetualRain-Falls, Kentucky.
   Still, time inside has given me time to ponder some of the many places we've lived on our journey to Debt Free-land:
Save-asota
DodgeDebt-City
SecondHandSales-borough
NoCable-ton
Don'tEatOutMuch-ville
PayLoansOffEarly-dale
CheapVacays-burg
DIYorDoWthout-field
   Okay, I haven't spent ALL my time coming up with corn-ball town names, I have read or skimmed a library book or two (or three or four or...).  
   Be CentsAble: How to Cut Your Household Budget in Half by Chrissy Pate and Kristin McKee recommended this Birthday Freebies site. Though no freebies were listed within 25 miles of our town, hope you get lucky!
   Of course, you may not want to follow this suggestion unless you have what it takes to get your freebie and walk out with nothing except what's within the ole budget. When I got a free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery for my birthday, I had no problem walking out with that and only that. (I do occasionally buy ice cream there--not often enough for anyone to know me.)
   Anyone else getting birthday freebies? Care to add anything to my corny list of towns lived in on the way Debt Free-land? Hope it's not raining out Spring in your neck of the woods!

Cried over the Royal Wedding--while grating onion for cucumber sandwiches

Middle Eastern flatbread

Wanting to somehow join in the celebration of the Royal Wedding yesterday, I decided to make cucumber sandwiches.
   For a cucumber spread, I just smooshed together 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1 to 2 tablespoons grated onion, 1/2 teaspoon onion salt and somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 cup of both grated and finely minced cucumber. I threw it together in a hurry...sorry no pics of the spread!

Harvested my funny little Romaine lettuce crop--scant but free salad!

   Unfortunately, I'd had no time to bake bread; neither did I find time to stop by a bakery for a quality white or sourdough bread. So, we slathered the cucumber spread on some flatbread bought from a tiny little market we stumbled upon in Nashville on Thursday. (Three ladies were slapping the dough in a little room at the back of the store, and the freshly baked bread was available on a screened pass-through between that room and the store.)
   Granted, smearing cucumber spread on flatbread was decidedly less wedding-like than dainty little cucumber sandwiches would have been, but still, it WAS tasty!
   Hope something tasty pleased your palate yesterday! And may we all live HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!

Cheater salad dressings and some links to share

Cheater dressings: cheaper than commercially prepared, less packaging waste.

Okay, okay, I know I'm trying to make more of everything from scratch, but all this rain, rain, RAIN has me feeling very lazy. So today we'll be topping our salads with a cheater dressing: semi-scratch Italian made using a package of seasonings plus my olive oil, water and red wine vinegar.
   To console myself on not making the dressing completely from scratch, I remind myself that these cheater dressings do reduce packaging waste. The little seasoning packet tossed today is better than the big plastic bottle that packages a ready-made dressing.
   Same goes for the semi-scratch cheater Ranch Dressing, made with seasoning I buy in bulk, along with my mayo and milk. And there has to be a lower carbon-cost of shipping these seasonings without the added weight of the liquid ingredients.
   Tho' we recycle all plastic containers, using less plastic is always a good idea. Besides, we can expect high oil prices to raise the prices on all petroleum based or packaged products!
   I managed to visit the library yesterday. Brought home and skimmed through The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better by Chris Farrell, the Economics Editor of Marketplace Money, an NPR broadcast. I say 'skimmed' 'cause I'm less interested in investing than I am in frugality. Aside from the usual "buy used, reduce, reuse, recycle" advice, the book shares several links to frugal sites.

   Please let me know if you visit any of these and come across any new frugal ideas!
Frugal Link Love from The New Frugality
Frugal Living on About.com
Frugal Village
Sustainablog.org
World Changing
Simple-Green-Frugal
1Green Generation
The Daily Green
Inhabitat
Green Yahoo
Greener Penny
Freecycle
TreeHugger (Love this site!)
Green Money Journal
Slow Food USA
Happy link hopping!!

Finally got-around-to-its: Kale chips and re-growing produce

Hey, I finally got around to trying a couple of suggestions I'd seen on other blogs. Aren't you proud of me?

Seasoning of choice this time--YUM!

   A riff on those by Meg over at Cooking.In.College, my kale chips were wonderful! Her suggestions to avoid crowding on the pan and to dry the kale as much as possible no doubt contributed to crispier chips.
   Too lazy to measure, I just poured some olive oil over the kale in the pan and spread it around with my hands before sprinkling the kale liberally with McCormick's Salad Supreme. Baked on a heavy sheet pan in a 350F degree oven, it took 7 minutes in my oven for these bad boys to crisp up.
   Some bites tasted like popcorn! Most tasted like...well, crispy, seasoned kale. Fine by me!

My baby Romaine lettuces--aren't they cute?

   Finally got around to trying Practical Parsimony's idea to get free produce from the normally discarded celery bottoms. Well, I had some Romaine lettuce on hand, so I plunked the cut off bottoms into some water...and wahlah, little baby lettuce leaves are growing!!
   The little outer leaves are just existing, previously cut leaves continuing to grow but the inner leaves seem brand new. I never knew it could be such fun to be a countertop gardener!
   Even if I only get one salad out of these, it'll be a FREE salad, eh?!
   Sure feels good to scratch two things off my to-do list, particularly since both were successes. Any projects waiting for you to "get-around-to-it" over at your place?