Could also be the description of my side yard, though you may never find the roses for all the grass (which doesn’t die and go away during the winter, but continues making the yard look a wee bit neglected).
I have nothing grand to say, but in all of our business, it seems it’s been over 2 weeks since a post was made! So I thought I would ramble
I’m taking a class on program planning (curriculum) for early childhood and tonight we got to play with bubbles. Our instructor had these really fun bubble blowers that are really simple to make! You need: a tube about 5 to 6 inches long; a piece of cheese cloth which can cover one end of the tube and a rubberband to hold the cheese cloth onto the tube. (Hopefully that makes sense in terms of envisioning what it may look like???) Once assembled, dip the end of the tube with the cheese cloth in a bubble solution and then blow through the open end (making sure not to breath in while your mouth is still on the tube – soap is not tasty!). It makes these really long bubble chains which can be used and sculpted in whatever way your imagination leads you! (I also got a good recipe for bubble solution if anyone is interested.) I think my class had as much fun playing with them as kids would

Ahh, Sequim (pronounced “skwim” as you probably know). The place I love to hate. Well, thus far I love to hate Sunland, the housing community where my dad lives. You talk to them individually, the people are nice, but there’s the eerie cul-de-sacs where all the houses look exactly the same and you never see any sign of life. And the owners association’s hand-wringing about people leaving their garage doors open or the latest sightings of teenagers who look like they’re up to no good.

Anyway, the old adage of retirees with way too much time on their hands can be comically true in Sunland and, apparently, elsewhere in Sequim:

Purple home has neighbors seeing red

I’m assuming it’s not Sunland only because I’m sure such unseemliness would have never been allowed in the first place and, if by chance it did, my email would be jammed with all-hands alerts from the owners association on how to best respond to this menace.

i can hardly believe that our little miss is six months old today! she sprouted two bottom teeth while we were in the alsace region of france last week. yesterday her first taste of solids. she’s been getting up on her knees more and more often, so maybe crawling isn’t too far away. and she’s getting pretty close to being able to sit up unassisted.

The other day while driving somewhere I listened to this story on npr. Here’s text to the story. At the right of the article you can click to listen, if you prefer. Some of you may have heard it. Anyway, I thought it was a signal of a pretty sad state of the real estate market and I’d been meaning to put a link up here and talk about it since I heard it. Well, I looked for it today and what do I come to find out? It was an April Fool’s joke. I guess it makes a little more sense now since it’s not actually real but I think, given the state of the economy, there’s a lot more believability to something like that than ever before. Anyway. I’m glad it was a joke!

Recipe from “Taste of Home’s Quick Cooking” Magazine Page 45

1 flank steak (about 1-1/2 lbs) cut in half
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion sliced
1/3 cup water
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
2 tablespoons vinegar
1-1/4 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

In a skillet, brown steak in oil; transfer to a slow cooker. In the same skillet, saute onion for 1 minute. Gradually add water, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Pour over the flank steak. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or until the meat is tender. slice the meat; serve with onion and pan juices. Yield: 4-6 servings.

Michelle Armistead serves this with noodles and a tossed salad.

I got this link from Amy and tried it out last night.

By Peggy Trowbridge Filippone, About.com

Lemon Chicken with Jerusalem Artichokes Recipe

This Mid-East inspired dish uses plenty of garlic, saffron, basil and pine nuts to flavor the chicken and sunchokes. The cream may be omitted to suit dietary needs.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hours,
Ingredients:

* 1 teaspoon lemon zest
* 2 fresh lemons
* 2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided use
* 4 chicken thighs
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 cup chicken broth
* 1/4 teaspoon ground saffron
* 1/2 pound Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), peeled
* 10 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
* 1/4 cup heavy cream
* 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
* 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
* Hot, cooked rice

Preparation:
Finely grate 1 teaspoon of zest from the lemon and set aside. Juice both of the lemons (discarding pulp) and set aside.

Place a large, deep, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle chicken thighs on both sides with salt and pepper. Place skin-side down in the hot pan and quickly brown them, turning only once. Remove to a plate and keep warm.

Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, remaining tablespoon of olive oil, chicken broth, and saffron to the skillet. Bring to a boil, stirring to loosen any browned bits. Add Jerusalem artichokes, and garlic cloves. Return chicken to the skillet, along with any accumulated juices.

Reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes, until chicken and sunchokes are tender. Stir in cream and thyme leaves. Taste and adjust seasoning, if need be. Return to a simmer and cook an additional 10 minutes.

Serve over cooked rice and sprinkle with pine nuts to garnish.

~~~
I’ve never had sunchokes before but picked them up at the farmers’ market and I really liked them. The broth in this dish turned out well, even though when cooking, I had to extrapolate some of the measurements and I didn’t know quite what I’d end up with: Stew? Sauce? It wasn’t totally clear. I guess it ended up being a stewish type dish where i served it with rice in the bottom of the bowl, one piece of chicken and one choke and plenty of broth. (I also simmered covered, which maybe if i hadn’t the sauce would have cooked down more.)
I had more sunchokes than called for so I sort of doubled the recipe but my portions weren’t very exact. I used bone in thighs but I think it’d also work well with boneless or even another kind of cut of chicken. For those of you who don’t eat the chickies I think the saffron/lemon/broth/thyme platform worked well here and would adapt well with more sunchokes and another vege or even a white fish (probably cook for the last 15 minutes or so).

Here’s a dish that I used to make a lot and should probably make again because it’s yummy!

From How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman (a.k.a., the yellow book)

Grilled Scallops with Basil Stuffing

Time:  30 min, plus time to preheat grill, if using

Intro:  Make on the stove top if you don’t want to grill: just heat a large deep skillet and brown the scallops on both sides, with only the oil that clings to them.

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

1 clove garlic, peeled

1 ts salt

1/4 ts freshly ground black pepper

1/3 c plus 1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 lbs or more large sea scallops

lemon wedges

1.  Mince the basil, garlic, salt and pepper together until very fine, almost a puree (or put in food processor).  Mix in a small bowl or cup with 1 tbs of the olive oil.

2. Make a deep horizontal slit in the side of each of the scallops, but don’t cut all the way through.  Fill each scallop with about 1/2 ts of the basil mixture; close.  Pour the remaining oil (1/3 c) onto a plate or pan and turn the scallops in it.  Let sit while you preheat a gas grill or start a charcoal fire; it should be very hot before grilling, with the rack about 4 inches from the heat source.

3.  Place the scallops on the grill (don’t pour the remaining oil over them, as it will catch fire), and grill 2 to 3 minutes per side, no more.  Servie immediately with lemon wedges.

I like this with some sort of simple pasta or rice and a salad.