Instant Mashed Potato Pancakes :: good!

Have a box of instant potatoes and not sure what to do with them?

This morning I had a hankering for potato pancakes so I did a search for any recipes that might be brave enough to incorporate instant mashed potatoes.  I found an Instant Mashed Potato Pancakes recipe at Food Wishes.  Food Wishes is a foodie blog including recipes with video instructions by Chef John.

I made these Instant Mashed Potato Pancakes for breakfast and followed John's recipe, except I had to add a little more instant potatoes to mine to get the correct consistency.  Next time I'll add less water.  Another slight adjustment I made to the recipe is omitting the vegetable oil because I cooked these on my Grandmother's non-stick electric skillet.

They are pretty darn good all by themselves but perfect with a dollop of sour cream as suggested.  I put my pancake in a bowl my dad made back in 1967.  He used to throw a lot of clay around back then and our whole family has cherished pieces of his handmade pottery.

Updo :: Troll Doll Hair-bun

The other day I was working in the garden and it was HOT so I put my hair up in a bun with two pencils, one of which has an old Troll Doll Pencil Topper I found at Goodwill. 

He's so cute!  Now, that's a high-fashion updo ~

Summer Distractions: Meet Hunter!

My husband and I adopted a new puppy this summer.  She's a hound dog mix and she's just ridiculously adorable.  Her superpower is Broken Heart Mending.  If you are feeling down, pick up and snuggle a sleepy puppy and you will know exactly what I mean!

Among other things, she's one of the reasons I've been so distracted from Blogging this summer but things are becoming a little more routine again so I'll be back to regular blog posts soon!

Have a great weekend!

The Big Tree :: Ever Wonder What A 1000+ Year Old Tree Looks Like?

photo: Big'un © Biologie.

"The Big Tree" at Goose Island State Park in Texas is said to be the oldest living coastal live oak tree in the Nation. To give you an idea of it's "gorgeous oakiness of grandeur" (as I like to call it), you may use my family and other visitors on the far side of the tree as a size reference in the above photo! Wow!

The tree is a hop, skip and a jump from the coast of Aransas Bay and "he" is part of a family called Coastal Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana). These trees don't have the typical large, lobed oak leaves of the big oaks found further North. Rather, the leaves are small and ovoid.

In addition to allowing visitors to gaze happily at the wonderful mighty oak, Goose Island State Park also offers camping, birding, and fishing. You can sign up to borrow fishing gear through their "Loan A Tackle Program" if you forget your own equipment.

It's also a nice park for picnicking, nature study, wildlife observation, and photography. If you are a boater you'll be happy to note that the park even allows boats with motors! Also, there are guided nature hikes year round and guided birding tours are held from January through April. Unfortunately our visit was too short to take full advantage of all the activities offered, but we did enjoy the drive to see the handsome oak with it's gnarly branches and wonderful shade!

The Big Tree's girth is around 35 feet and it's branches make up a 90 foot canopy! Even though it's surrounded by a protective fence, you can check out the behemoth of a tree from all angles by following a circular paved pathway all the way around. When you walk up to the tree along the path you will pass it's offspring in the grove.

While my family was in Rockport for vacation my niece, Ahlyssa, picked up a list of "51 Things To Do" while we were there and that big ole beautiful tree was on the list, I'm so happy to have seen it and what a great time we all had that afternoon!

We visited The Big Tree in early April and found it surrounded by pretty Texas wildflowers of Orange Globe Mallow and Pointed Phlox. This photo (below) reflects my mood today, bright and shiny!

photo: © Biologie-me. FLICKR

Spring Wildflowers Bringing Hope

My mom has Mantle Cell Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. We learned about the diagnosis this past weekend. All the days are running together and it has been (and still is) extremely hard news to swallow for me and my family. While the world kept turning and the wildflowers kept blooming and the sun kept shining, I found myself looking out in a haze of gray, as if seeing everything through a dark veil across my eyes.

My mom is a very strong, optimistic lady with incredible faith. She's doing okay, as a matter of fact she's doing amazing under the circumstances. She's not as much afraid for herself as she is for what this is doing to her family. Because of her, I'm starting to see the light again. I think we are all slowly coming out of our initial shock. Her doctors are starting her on an aggressive therapy to suppress her immune system so she can receive an allogeneic stem cell transplant. Our hope is that everything will go smoothly without complication so we can get her back to "normal" within the next 6 to 8 months.

Therefore, in the name of Hope and Love, I share with you these photos of the recent wildflowers I've found growing in my backyard:

The blue flower is Prairie Spiderwort and I was very surprised to see it growing along my back fence! The pretty orange-red with yellow borders is Indian Blanket, one of my favorite Texas wildflowers. Lastly is a little red flower with feathery leaves that I have yet to identify. If you know what is it, please let me know because I love to identify wildflowers, especially the ones growing spontaneously in my backyard!

Here's a list by date of the Spring 2010 wildflowers I've documented in my backyard:

Spring 2010 Backyard Wildflowers

• March 2nd: Yellow Primrose with a photo on my Twitpic Page.
• March 9th: Pretty Fairy Lilies and Dandelions.
• March 14th: Bluebonnets! The State Flower of Texas.

Rockport Sunrise On A Cloudy Day

Rockport is a great little town on the Texas Gulf Coast. We took a little vacation there with family this past week. It was nice to get away for awhile and I think we needed a change of scenery! Nothing better than waking up and throwing open the curtains to a waterfront view of the sunrise over Aransas Bay!

Our trip included BBQ's and a crab boil at the picnic spot right off the water, fishing on the 1000 foot long pier, crabbing and eating the freshest seafood, including the best oysters on the half shell I've ever had plus lots of walks down the bay front road with our two dogs and family.

We also visited The Big Tree at Goose Island State Park, the Lamar Cemetery, Rockport Beach Park, and a beautiful place named Schoenstatt!

Here's a photo I took while we road the Ferry Boat to Port Aransas:

I have a lot more pictures to share plus suggestions on what to do if you ever find yourself in the charming Rockport-Fulton area. More to come!

Bluebonnets Tell Bees Which Flower To Pollinate :: Nature In Harmony!

Last month I mentioned bluebonnets are the state flower of Texas:

The very first bluebonnet I photographed in my backyard this year was very young and none of the flowers on the spike had been pollinated yet. You can see my blog post about the "baby" bluebonnet, here.

How do I know if the blossom has been pollinated?

When the bees pollinate the bloom, the white section in the center of the little "bonnet shaped" flower turns a pinkish-red. My blogger friend, Hali, mentioned she'd like to see the color change and I promised a photograph so today it's time to deliver!

Here we go:

Why the color change?

Bees don't interpret colors the same way humans see colors. They see the world in colors of blues, greens, and ultra-violet light. They can also see oranges and yellows. They can't see the color red.

Since bees can't detect the color red the flowers of the Bluebonnet have adapted to save energy and time for both the bees and the flower. The flowers want to be pollinated so they can produce a seed and continue the cycle of life. They bloom and present a pleasing flower of blue with a white (or yellow) center to attract pollinators. The bees can see the bloom no matter what the color, however, that center of white or yellow is the key attractant. As far as the bluebonnets are concerned, they want the bees to ignore a flower that has already been fertilized and move up to a flower on the spike with a white or yellow center (colors bees are attracted to and can "see").

In a nutshell, the reason the center of the bloom changes color is to encourage the pollinators to move to a flower on the bluebonnet spike that still needs pollination.

Nature in harmony!

The way bees and flowers work together is called symbiosis. Symbiosis is a relationship between two organisms of different kinds which benefits both organisms. Yay!

Go forth and bloom! :)

Little Fairy-land Lilies :: The Wildflowers Are Waking Up!

Spring Lilies

If you've been following my Twitter page you may have noticed I'm documenting all the Spring wildflowers that come up in my backyard. The second ones to come up are these adorable Lilies which turn the yard into a little fairyland! They are tiny and look like wild onion or garlic, however, I think they are "false garlic" (Nothoscordum bivalve) based off of information from my Twitter friend, USWildflowers. These cute flowers remind me of my little niece, Lily.

In other news, yesterday I spent a huge chunk of the day making a new banner for my Etsy shop. The old one looked just like the banner I have here at the top of my blog. The new one is more streamlined (I think) but I'm not sure if I'm finished tweaking it. Please let me know what you think: Pop over and have a look at my new Etsy banner

Is it too bright? Just right? Does it match my shop? Should I go back to more muted colors? I'd like to hear your thoughts!

Oh, by the way, in case you were curious - the first wildflowers to come up in my backyard were yellow primroses. You can see a picture on my Twitpic page if you'd like! In addition, I also found a perfect dandelion puff!

Buggin' Out On Thursdays :: Crabby Spider Promises She's Not Shelob's Sister

Peaches The Ground Crab Spider

Xysticus species

"Don't squish me! I look wicked like Tolkien's Shelob but I'm not interested in biting you or Frodo!"

I was sweeping the kitchen floor the other day when I looked down at my little pile of dirt and spied a very creepy looking spider. A little yelp of surprise escaped from my lips and I went into fight or flight mode for a second but the spider just sat there quietly. From my vantage point I thought it might be a Mutant Giant Tick like one you'd see in an old Sci-Fi Flick! Yikes. Then I thought maybe she was Shelob's baby sister. Again, yikes.

Once I figured out the "thing" wasn't going to come skittering after me like a ravenous monster it didn't take long before I had slipped a sheet of paper under her and placed a glass jar carefully over her so I could get a closer look. The spider remained very still. Not long after that and I had removed the jar and started taking macros so I could run to BugGuide.net and see what everyone thought about my new "bug".

Mandy at BugGuide was very helpful - she's Spiderwoman! She mentioned the star of today's blog post is a spider whose species has not yet been identified in the guide. My spider and the rest of her species are a uniform peachy red (in low light she may even look brownish until you get her out in the sun). I learned the only way to truly identify a spider at the species level is to have an entomologist study the adult spiders "private parts". The appropriate term for this on a female spider is the epigynum (to learn more check out this short article at Museum Victoria). I sure wish I had taken some underbelly shots of my buddy, Peaches, so I could help identify her species for the guide. Maybe next time!

Here are four fast facts about ground crab spiders:

• They are not poisonous to humans
• They aren't normally found in the home and hunt outdoors
• Rather than spin a web, they lay in ambush for prey to pass by
• Crab spiders can walk forwards, backwards, or sideways - just like a crab!

It's Buggin' Out On Thursdays!

What kind of bugs have you seen lately?

I Can Haz Cheezburger presents: Darcy as the Slipper Ninja

Darcy peeking inside to see if she can snag one of my slippers. Perfect shot of my sweet doggie for a Lolz Caption.

To make your own go to cheezburger.com: Make Cheezburgers!

Gloomy Cold Day

Blooms To Brighten The Day!

This winter seems especially gloomy and cold. To brighten the day I'm sharing this cheerful, sunny photograph I took at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens last Spring. I love to go to the gardens in April and May when all the spring flowers are in bloom.

I've been a fan of botanical gardens ever since my professor in Botany gave us an assignment to visit and write a report on our experience.

"Awake, thou wintry earth-
Fling off thy sadness.
Fair vernal flowers,
laugh forth Your ancient gladness!"
-Thomas Blackburn, Source: An Easter Hymn

My Home-made Kim Chi

Kim to the Chi!

If you've been following my blog you know how much I've been craving homemade Korean kimchee.

I developed a taste for kim chi in high school while living in Japan. All of my close friends from that time in my life are of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese descent so I experienced a lot of delicious, authentic oriental dishes and I miss them (and my friends).

Now that I'm in Texas I can't find kim chi anywhere so I learned how to make it from scratch at Koreancuisine (Anna Kim) on YouTube! I've been eating it plain on top of steamed Kokuho Rose rice, spooning it into my Roo Hoo Rook Korean noodles, and making kim chi potato salad. I still have quite a bit left to use up so I'm constantly searching for more recipes to incorporate the kim chi!

Okay, back to my homemade recipe, the first thing you have to do after you've chopped all your veggies is soak the cabbage in salt water (brine) to pickle it, the process not only leaves a tasty amount of salt within the leaves but causes them to remain crunchy. I bought a big beverage party-bucket to soak my Napa cabbage in and it worked great! The chopped cabbage soaks for two hours then you rinse it in fresh water. It is imperative that you remember to rinse your cabbage three or four times in fresh water after it has soaked in the salt solution or it will be entirely too salty to eat. While it's soaking you get to make the "good stuff" which is a mixture of chopped green onion, daikon (Korean radish), and a sauce of apple, apple pear, garlic, ginger, and salty fish sauce (or anchovy sauce). Sounds pretty crazy, huh? It's so good!

I used my food processor to puree the sauce. It looks like applesauce when it's done but it sure doesn't smell like applesauce! I didn't have any daikon so I substituted red radishes (not the same but they will do in a pinch). Next time I make kim chi I'll be sure to have the correct type of radish, although Anna Kim did mention in her video that you can use any type of radish in the recipe. The puree, the chopped green onions, and the radish are mixed together by hand (wear rubber gloves) to complete the sauce for the kim chi.

If you suffer from heartburn while eating spicy foods you better take your antacid medicine before eating kim chi! Anna's recipe calls for 1 1/4 C of red pepper flakes! Oooo, yeah, you better believe that's hot stuff. I love it but I'm one of the lucky people who can eat spicy without detriment. Keep in mind it's a side dish and served in small portions with rice or a meal so a little goes a long way. After I rinsed my Napa cabbage and mixed the sauce into it, I spread it out in a 9x13 inch dish, covered it over with cling wrap and then put the lid on my casserole dish to sit overnight at room temperature. This allows the fermentation process to occur. Think of it as "ripening". Store the kim chi in the refrigerator for three days before eating. You can eat it right away but it will not achieve full flavor until it's allowed to chill.

Here's the recipe by Anna Kim:

Buggin' Out on Thursdays :: A Virtual Bug Collection

Butterfly Cocoon - Lost Pines Resort Butterfly Garden

Apparently, based off all the photographs of insects and bugs and other creepy crawlies I've collected over the last few months, I like bugs! I hadn't really noticed how often I find and snap pictures of little bugs and spiders until I started sorting through all the photos stored in my camera.

I love the picture of this butterfly cocoon (above). It was taken at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa outside of Austin, Texas when my husband and I were there to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The resort is wonderful and we spent a lot of time hiking and swimming but also squeezed in time for kayaking down the river!

I'm blogging my collection of bugs starting every Thursday with photos and a few interesting tidbits about each specimen in my "virtual" bug collection. I guess I prefer collecting bugs via photos rather than to euthanize them, stick a pin through them, and mount them in a glass case!

Here is a preview of what is to come:

Teddy

Meet Teddy!

He's a teeny Lhasa Apso who belongs to my Gran. He is so small, like a cat, and only eats about a 1/2 Cup of dog food a day. Quite a difference from my two dogs who seem to have bottomless pits for stomachs.

While my Gran was out of town I got to be Teddy's "dogsitter" and he ran with the big dogs for five glorious days. Such a cutie. He took a few tumbles but held his own while they were playing in the backyard. Whenever he tried to boss Darcy around, Banzai would come join the fray and break up the tussle.

1. Running with the big dogs, 2. Teddy, 3. Ted, 4. Everyone after the tug toy

Jasmine Green Tea

"Let each man exercise the art he knows." -Aristophanes

Today I'm hanging outdoor garland intertwined with little colorful lights to frame my front door. I love Christmas. It's a gray, cloudy day but something about sipping hot Jasmine Green Tea and hanging Christmas lights makes life beautiful even on a rainy day.

Veggie Garden

In August I planted a vegetable garden. It was my first attempt at something like this and I've been meaning to blog about how things are going!

My husband built me a raised bed which I sectioned off like a square foot garden. I planted seeds of bunching onions, long thin cayenne peppers, bok choy, golden hubbard squash, bush beans, spaghetti squash, zucchini, and yellow squash. I used organic soil mixed with organic compost. The only things I transplanted were the pepper plants which I grew by seed indoors some months beforehand.

The bok choy were the first to show their cute faces to the world! They are very slow growers so I didn't expect to see them sprout first. The seed packet was a good one, practically every seed I sewed sprouted. A few days later the squash started sprouting as well as the bush beans (but I never did see a single bunching onion, the seed packet was old).

It didn't take long before the white-flies found my little garden plot. Here is an excerpt from my garden journal:

August 27, 2009
Whiteflies EVERYWHERE! It's awful. I spent pretty much an entire afternoon researching ways to kill them. I sprayed them with my soap solution recipe (it's for aphids but I read it will kill the whiteflies too). They are all over the leaves of my squashes and bush beans, plus the larvae on the underside. I hate them! I just read that the solution might be harmful to my squash plants so I may have killed them along with the flies. :(

I researched a few organic garden pest recipes. My dad used a pepper spray to protect his Tabasco and habenero peppers from being eaten alive by garden chompers. This is the recipe he used as he remembers it:

Ingredients:

• dishsoap
• several cloves of garlic
• 6-10 hot peppers (hotter the better!)
• 1 gallon water

Directions:
Place garlic, peppers and a small amount of your water in a blender/food processor and puree. NOTE: Avert your face when you take the lid off because the fumes are very strong. Strain the mixture and add the liquid to your gallon of water.

When you are ready to use the solution on your garden, fill up a spray bottle, add 2 tsp dishsoap, shake and spray every few days until the pests are under control.

Shake well before each use.

We had to leave for a few days in September. I left a soaker-hose attached to a timer so the seedlings would stay moist while we were gone. When we came home the garden was not only growing and alive, it was wild and the squash plants were huge! They pretty much took over the garden.

Next season I'm going to make a new bed where I can plant just squash separate from everything else! The bush beans and the peppers were still getting enough sun so I just let everything grow so I can see how things turn out. This is definitely an experiment in progress and I will have more pictures and info as the garden saga continues.

Additional photos of my Veggie Garden are found on my Flickr page.

If you are interested in building a square foot garden box like mine, check out Emily's instructions for making the garden box on her My Square Foot Garden blog: Build It!

The Case of the Disappearing Anthill

Strolling in the backyard after the recent rains I found a neatly shaped anthill. I happened to have my camera with me because I'm always searching for things to take on my Macro setting (I love my Canon Powershot). Here it is for your viewing pleasure!

I wandered around and took a few shots of some rain lilies too. It was then that I heard a familiar, excited snuffling behind me. I turned around to find an anthill "Destructor" in my midst!

It is undetermined if there were any casualties, however, reports indicate they all escaped to the safety of underground tunnels. A few stalwart soldiers were seen in the area looking to take a fiery bite out of the fur-clad perpetrator. The following is the mugshot of the guilty party involved in the unscheduled demolition of what was once a beautifully shaped anthill.

If you have seen this hairy male please contact the Anthill Police immediately. It is not known if there was an accomplice although a surveillance camera did capture this image of the suspect with an unknown white female not long after the crime was committed:

Sources later confirmed the young miss to be completely innocent in The Case of the Disappearing Anthill. She was recently seen enjoying a romp in the backyard with a huge grin of utter happiness.

Rockport, Texas: Flying South for the Winter

A little town on the coast of Texas, Rockport is the place to visit if you ever plan a trip to nearby Corpus Christi.

The beach I visited this summer with my mom and my nephew was clean, beautiful and the water at that time of year is calm and warm. We left at sunset and I took this picture of their little painted amphitheater.

This September 17th through 2oth, Rockport is holding it's annual Hummer/Bird Celebration. The birds begin flying South for the winter and bird-lovers from all over the country come to see them off. There are tours, seminars, artists, bird experts, and beach-goers intermingling for a wonderful September celebration at Rockport.

If you saw my recipe for Hummingbird Cake you know that the teeny "Hummers" have been on my mind lately. It's raining outside due to the tropical disturbances and they flit around in the rain like it doesn't bother them at all. I saw them this morning. I think I have about 6-8 hummers visiting my feeders each day (or it seems like that many).

Click here if you'd like to visit the Rockport-Fulton area website.

Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbirds are so tiny. They are amazing little creatures. At our local zoo there is a display of various bird eggs in an indoor bird sanctuary. I always look for the tiny hummingbird egg and imagine the little nest it calls home.

I have two hummingbird feeders in my backyard. The tiny birds visit daily and I've become used to hearing them buzz near me when I'm out watering my newly planted fall garden (more on that later)! To me, the hummingbirds with their infinitely moving wings sound like miniature U.F.O.'s hovering in my airspace!

In honor of the little cuties I now present this yummy recipe:

This cake is called Hummingbird Cake because when you take your first bite you say, "Mmmmm." And then when you take your second bite you say, "Mmmm!" And eventually after doing so for several more bites you sound like a hummingbird! Or, maybe it got it's name because it's sweet and delicious. If a hummingbird could eat cake, this is the one she would choose.

The recipe is from my mom and is in our Family Favorites cookbook. My mom omits the shredded coconut garnish so I listed that particular ingredient optional. Hope you enjoy!

Hummingbird Cake

Cake Batter Ingredients & Recipe:

• 3 Cups flour
• 2 Cups sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs, beaten
• ¾ Cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapples with juice
• 1 Cup chopped pecans
• 3 medium bananas, mashed

Mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Fold in eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, pineapples with juice, pecans, and bananas. Blend well and divide into 3 nine-inch cake pans. Bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes. Cool cakes completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients & Recipe:

• ½ Cup butter, softened
• 8 ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 16 ounces powdered sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 3 teaspoons chopped pecans
• 1 Cup shredded coconut (optional)

Fold together butter and cream cheese. Gradually add the powdered sugar. Add vanilla and lemon juice and stir well. Apply to the top of all 3 cake layers. Stack layers. Apply remaining frosting to the sides of the cake. Garnish with pecans and coconut.

Mmmm. Mmmm. Hum..mmm. Num..mmm.

Note: For a lower fat version, you might prefer the following recipe from MyRecipes.com: Lightened Hummingbird Cake

Mushroom, Ricotta, and Olive Pizza

Pizza!

Got your attention, yes?

This recipe is from The Complete Low Fat Cookbook but despite that fact (which some people might take as bad news) this pizza is really quite yummy.

It makes me hungry just looking at the picture. I tried my best to make it look like the one in the recipe book!

Mushroom Riccota and Olive Pizza

• 4 Roma Tomatoes, quartered
• 3/4 teaspoon caster (aka, superfine) sugar
• 7 g (1/4 ounce) dry yeast or 15 g (1/2 ounce) fresh yeast
• 1/2 cup (125 ml/4 fl oz) skim milk
• 1 3/4 cups (220 g/7 oz) plain flour
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 750 g (1 1/2 pounds) mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup (250 g/8 oz) low-fat ricotta
• 2 tablespoons sliced black olives
• small fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 210° C (415° F/Gas 6-7). Put tomato on a baking tray covered with baking paper, sprinkle with salt, cracked black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon sugar and bake for 20 minutes, or until the edges are starting to darken.

Stir yeast and remaining sugar with 3 tablespoons warm water until the yeast dissolves. Cover and leave in a warm place until foamy. Warm the milk. Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the yeast and milk. Mix to a soft dough, then turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Leave, covered, in a lightly oiled bowl in a warm place for 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the garlic and onion until soft. Add the mushrooms and stir until they are soft and the liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly. Roll out to a 36 cm (15 inch) circle and transfer to a lightly greased oven or pizza tray. Spread with the ricotta, leaving a border to turn over the filling. Top with the mushrooms, leaving a circle in the center, and arrange the tomato and olives in the circle. Fold the dough edge over onto the mushrooms and dust the edge with flour. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden. Garnish with basil.

Serves 6

Nutrition Info: Protein 15g; Fat 7.5g; Carbs 30g; Dietary Fiber 6g; Cholesterol 20mg; 1100 kJ (265 calories)