Let's have Cake !

Now, this is a cake.  My Granddaughter made it and I swear we had  it gone in one hour.  It was so delicious !  With a good cup of coffee, good conversation and company it was a big hit.
     Inside ?  You want to  know what kind inside, Lemon cake and Lemon Frosting. 
Need I say more !     Tootles

sushi !

What a picture.  My Granddaughter's Ashlley and Vanesa and Manny took the challenge and made all of the dishes you see.  I am not kidding.  Let me tell you they did a fantastic job and dinner was delicious !  It was there first time of making it and let me tell you as far as I am concerned they are all experts.  They have decided to do this once a month.  How lucky are we to get in on this.  Never would I have thought I would love Sushi like I do.  Jim too !  You just have to have an open mind and think about what you love to eat in the fish department and go from there.  Not all Sushi is raw fish.  Some are, of course but believe me there are many different choices.  For an example....  I love crab, lobster, shrimp and most any kind of fish along with avocado, cucumber, cream cheese just to name a few things.  Well all of that is in Sushi and to watch them adding all the ingredients then roll it up, well, it's amazing.  The sauces they put on top are so delicious.  There is this one sauce which Jim and I love.  I would describe it like soy sauce but thicker and sweeter.  We love it.  Then we found out what it's called.....Eel Sauce !  I would have never guessed that.  Now I don't know if there is Eel in the sauce or what, all I know is It's delicious.  I'll be honest I don't really like the raw fish but give me shrimp, avocado, rice, ginger rolled up with seaweed and eel sauce on top and you had me at shrimp.  I love it.  You saute the shrimp and some even has deep fried shrimp at each end of the roll.  You see ? You just need an open mind and someone to guide you through the process of trying new and different cultures.  I'm so glad my Granddaughter introduced Jim and I.  Hey, you are never too old to try new things.  Tootles

Porches and Yards

 Well, Good Morning !  We have been having fun changing things around, cleaning up and fixing this and that.  I really do love my porches or decks or what ever you want to call them.  It's a place to gather your thoughts and  my, you would be surprised at the ideas that pop out then.  I do have some sweet birds that sing in my trees but we do not encourage this as we have 9, count them,  9 cats and I do not want anything to happen to those sweet birds in my yard.  I don't put bird seed out or put water in the bird bath.  My goodness, before we realized it our kitties were terrorizing them.  Here they were trying to take a bath and get a drink and along pops up a kitty.  Not a good thing.  We live next door to two peach orchards and between the   fruit and them watering, it's okay.  Now getting back to my porches.  I would love to have a porch swing.  I do however have a  couple swings on our old swing set.  It has a slide and other things to climb on.  Which are not for me.  We have talked about using chairs for the swings.  Now I need to find the chairs.      How do you like my front door.  I had my Jim put the gates up.  I've been hanging chains on it.  They open  up  and the right side lays flat and the left side opens to the fireplace.  I do love them.

I do love to go and sit on my porches.  Especially now that I have them cleaned up. 

Tootles

What is happening to our Food ?

Being someone who tries her best at eating healthy, at least 85% of the time.  I'm a little concerned, no I should say a lot concerned, about what some are doing to our food.  Let me write a few words from an article I read.......

We're facing a strategic compaign mounted by huge and powerful forces concerned with profit, not our health, and they're not going to go away quietly.

Food irradiation is not, as you might think, an outgrowth of the farming or food industries.  It comes to us directly from the Department of Energy in it's efforts to find a commercially viable destination for the nuclear waste our defense industry has created.  In short, it's the ultimate solution to nuclear waste: Make it profitable.  The idea was to sell it to private facilities that would then use it-with precious little government supervision-to treat the food destined for our dinner tables.  To quote James Michael Lennon, the director of the American Natural Hygiene Society,  food irradiation is "technology in search of a use.  It creates a mushrooming of toxic waste sites, and the unmonitored transporting of contamination of our neighborhoods and communities".  The process of food irradiation can never be environmentally safe.  Radioactive ingredients materials are hazardous where they are produced, hazardous as they travel, and hazardous in exposure to any living thing. The risk of nuclear accidents escalates as each irradiation site is opened.

The FDA, which has no program to monitor food irradiation, nonetheless declares that it is safe!  This judgement of safety was made after studying only 5 out of 441 studies on  potential toxicity.  Two of the studies were declared flawed.  In a third, animals fed irradiated food experienced weight loss and miscarriage.  One possible cause: the vitamin E deficiency induced in irradiated offd.  In the fourth and fifth studies,  lower levels of irradiation were measured than those currently approved by the FDA for our food.

The argument is that food irradiation preserves our food, quaranteeing a longer shelf life.  The admitted damage to our food created by food irradiation is declared "acceptable".  In fact, every change in the intrinsic nature of food is harmful, and the foods that would be harmed the most by food irradiation are the fresh fruits and vegetables we rely on for health.  Even cooking destroys essential nutrients in these foods, such as the life-enhancing enzymes.  The idea that food irradiation preserves food is misleading, since the process sim;y changes how food spoils,  carrying with it new risk factors such as reduced levels of certain vitamins and bacterial contamination.  All the supposed benefits that are attributed to the process are already obtained from other less expenseive, far less dangerous processes.  These foods are damaged, not preserved.

I don''t know about you, but come on ! 

Let's Go !!

I am so ready to go in the Houseboat !!!  I want to fish, fish, fish.  I don't care if I catch anything or not.  Just being on the lake will do it for me.

So get your gear ready.   Pack the food.

And let's go !!!!!!

Getting Ready for Spring !

Fixing up the back yard.  Getting ready to enjoy the all out doors.  How I love to be outside feeling the warmth from the sun.  Listening to the birds....but.....we kinda have a  problem now.  You see since last May around the 24th, 2015 our  cat Angus had a litter of 4 kitties.  Yes, we have changed her name to Angelina, thank you very much.  Then because we were not THINKING she had another litter August 29, 2015.  This time our sweet little Angelina had 5 kitties.  Now from the first set we gave two to our sons family.  Booker and Anna.  Yes, they have been fixed, so to speak.  So on top of the 5 in the litter, and the  Mother, Angelina we also had Edgar, which we sometimes called Sparky.  So, are you keeping up.  That's two left from the first litter, Rosy and Thumper.  Then 5 from the second litter, The Goddess, Faery, Angus, (after his  mother, ha) Oreo and Domino.  Then of course, the Mother and Edgar.  9, yes, we have 9 cats in all.  Now let me clarify all have been fixed, so no more kitties. We live back from the road and are surrounded by orchards and We have a kitty door.  Also a dog door, as we have 4 dogs but that's another story.  Pictures soon to follow.   Tootles

My Dolls

This is Sadie Blake and her baby doll, Opal Adeline.  Cool names, uh?  My Mom made Sadie Blake for me.  I was an adult and I love her too pieces.   The white in front is a muff that her hands go in to keep them warm.  I made her baby doll from crochet and had a ball doing it.  Must tell you about the names.  Sadie Blake came about because when ever I got something new (shoes, dress, etc.) I would want to go show my Uncle Leroy because he would always say, " Sadie Blake", and would draw each name out and whistle.  Oh, I loved it when he did that.  So of course that is the first name I thought of for my new doll.  Her baby doll, well this is my Mom's sisters name who passed away when she was 14 from appendicitis.  Very sad.  I have always loved her name so there it is.  Opal Adeline.  Very Cool !