Well, as they say - It's 3:00 in the morning..........Can't sleep, too many things to think about and a dog is barking off in the distance. I wish dogs would just bark in a 1-2-3-4- repetitive way so that I could count the barks and fall asleep, but no, 1-2-3-3-3-4- and anyway who lets their dog bark in the middle of the night.

So my garden is getting off to a good start. I barely have 12 feet of garden space, but I've got potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, squash-zucchini and yellow crookneck, and some radish seeds just popped up. Don't you just love spring. It does something to your inside clock. Get stuff planted because summer is coming and there seems to be some kind of a deadline or something. But nothing is better than getting up early in the morning and checking out the garden with the morning sunshine on your face. My herbs are going crazy, but when I need them in summer to go with the veggies - they'll be gone. But right now I guess is the time to dry them.

You know, you're not supposed to do this, but I do. Pick your herbs early in the morning. Wash them and put them in a towel to dry. Then line the bottom of your microwave with a few layers of paper towels. Line the herbs on the paper and zap them for about 30 seconds or so. You may have to do that a couple of times. Take them out and let them dry for a minute. Then get a new dry towel and put the herbs in and scrunch around - voila --free oregano, dill, lavender, parsley, rosemary....whatever you've got in your garden. I'll take pictures in the morning. Get some little bottles from the dollar store and you'll have dried herbs until next year.

Our Golf Course Chickens

Well I thought I would introduce you to "the girls" who give me eggs every day. You know, there really is something about chickens. I really like them. I guess it could be my childhood. I lived on a little mini ranch during the summers when I was a kid. I don't think I ever wanted to really LIVE on a ranch, but kinda like "gentlemen" farming where someone else cleans up for you.

Anyway I have had chickens several times during my life. When my son was small we had a rooster and a hen and lots of little babies. They followed me everywhere. I didn't even have a coop, they just lived in the trees. Maybe I was a little irresponsible there. I don't remember what happened to all of them when I moved. Then We lived in La Canada - don't think you're supposed to have chickens there, but we had them. We used an old playhouse for the coop. We had a bunny there who thought she was a chicken. I loved them. Then we moved to Fallbrook. It was a big property and had lots of room for chickens. We had lots, and goats too, and horses, and geese and guinea hens, but no one to clean up after them.

So this is a funny story. One night Skip was out of town and it was in the middle of the night. I heard the chickens clucking and flapping so I ran down the driveway to the Coop to save my girls from some weasel or something that might be attacking, but no....it was a man with a gunny sack stealing my girls. So there I stood in my nightie with my flashlight looking at a man with a gunny sack full of chickens. He ran up the hill to a waiting car. Guess he needed dinner. We never replaced them.

So then we moved to Bonsall. We literally have 10 feet between our property and a 12 foot patio. We look out on the golf course. But I really wanted chickens. So Skip and I and our next door neighbors went together to get chickens. We built the coop and got 4 hens, and got eggs the very first day. One of the little hens is physically impaired, but she lays eggs just fine so we keep her. They eat our kitchen scraps and organic feed, so they are semi organic.

It's been a good partnership. We get a couple of eggs a day, and so do our neighbors. It's amazing how fast they accumulate.

Passover at our house

So it's been a few days since Passover. In retrospect, maybe I won't do that again! It seems that I have a lot on my plate (pun) so to get that all organized was hard.....and the food, even tho it isn't hard, there's a lot of stuff. But everything is back were it's supposed to be, tablecloths and napkins laundered, plates put away, the silver got polished and I suppose that's a good thing. So here are the rest of the pictures.

Doesn't Skip look like a Rabbi. Actually anyone who puts on the little hat looks very authentic.

Passover is over

Well Passover is over. Boy that is a lot of WORK. Lots of dishes and lots of clean up after it is over. But It's worth it. It would have been better if I was about 25. This morning I feel like I've been hit by a truck. So here are some pics of the event.

My husband's father always took a picture of every family meal. Since he's gone now. I took it. The blue napkins are for Skip - my husband - because blue is a traditional color and his favorite - not mine however.

The hagaddah is the agenda for the evening and the Yakima was for the gentlemen.

I'll try to send more pictures, but this morning I am tired and I have to get my thoughts together.

Well it's Thursday and I cooked all day. Had three projects for work, cleaned up the kitchen, took my mom to the hairdresser ( which is it's own story ) went to the post office to send Rachel's birthday present - a little late -, went to the Market, came home and started cooking again.

But the point is, we're having a Passover Seder on Saturday evening so stuff has to get ready. All those little Jewish women all over the world are preparing the same stuff. Like, gefilte fish fresh horseradish,( that's a picture of the horseradish with beets in my mother-in-law's frog dish-see the leg sticking out-gross-) brisket, chicken soup with matzoh balls. I really don't totally enjoy the food - but I love the tradition. The gefilte fish was surprisingly easy. I just decided that I wasn't going to open a bottle of it this year. It's an old world thing to do, but I used trout and some sort of white fish and salmon. So kind of west coast. My husband said it was great and he should know. So the only thing that won't be homemade this year will be the eggs - had to buy them because the girls don't make enough - the matzoh and the grape juice.

I'll let you know how it went.

the last 18 months

Well nobody's been following my blog that I started in 2009, so maybe it's time to post something new. I have noticed that lots of other people get all fired up and start a blog. Maybe its too time consuming or something, but then no new posts for a long time. I think I'll try to post every day - for whom I have no idea but here goes.

I'll have some recipes, some tips just every day stuff. I have a little backyard farm like many of us do. Well, you can't really call it a farm. We live on a golf course, so we have lots of grass to look at but don't have to mow. But we have 4 chickens that we share with the couple next door, so we both get a couple of eggs a day. We have two cats ( one is mine, the other is my daughter's because we're cat sitting) and one little dog with attitude. We have lots of birds because there is a little stream right off our patio. I love it when there is lots of water in it after a big rain. I just transport myself to a green space with lots of water and maybe a little boat - kinda like "On Golden Pond"

I do a little gardening. Wish I could do more. Last summer we went for weeks without buying produce. I'm sure that the garden cost three times more than produce would have, but nothing beats your own veggies. So I'll be sending pictures of food and chickens and veggies.

Actually I do food. It's taken me a long time to realize that it's my calling. I always end up in the kitchen. My mother always told me..."when you don''t know what to do with yourself - go to the kitchen". For me she was right. I'm comfortable there and it's easy. I understand the concept and I have left that for my children as well. Cooking is chemistry at it's most simple.

I always hated chemistry in school, but now I get it. I've had a couple of restaurants, catering companies, bakery, and lots of church dinners. But now I'm retired. I am developing recipes for a cookbook company in New York so I'm still cooking a lot and washing dishes a lot. It's interesting, and I really do like the photography part of it.

Sorry to make this so long, I'll become a better writer as I go. Looking forward to learning something new.

ok so I'm having a new obsession - Thai Green Curry Chicken. I just can't seem to get enough!. Every restaurant is different. I did try it on my own last Saturday night. I made the green curry paste - and it was sooo tasty. Then it gets mixed with coconut milk and chicken and eggplant and other stuff