Practicing & Dinner

  Friday was clear and comfortable outside, but the ground was to wet to work in the garden. So with the house clean and the garden out of bounds I decided Friday was a good day to walk and practice with my camera. 
  I took pictures of any thing and everything, from food to birds, even weeds and clouds got my attention. I spent my entire time working on lighting and what effects you get with each different setting. The rose is one of my favorite pictures of the day. I experimented big time with that. I opened my ISO all the way up and took the f speed? as high as it would go. ( high numbers low light low numbers highlight I always have to repeat that to myself) I just love the effect I got.

 Picturing the clouds was easier with my 55mm lens then the zoom lens.

 For some reason lighting with the zoom lens is so much harder to master then the 55mm. I finally figured out how to get the picture with my zoom, but oh my it wasn't easy.

 While I was unsuccessfully trying to photograph a group of white flowers with my zoom this Red winged Black bird settled it self in a tree right next to me begging to be photoed so I did.

 As I was about to change back to my 55mm lens this little fellow came and played with me.

 I think he is a Cat bird but I am not sure. Later as I was walking along the trail I came across this guy in the tree making a sound that was very much cat like.

 I had my 55 lens on by then and didn't really think I would get the picture. Pretty pleased that I did.
  The weeds and flowers were fun to picture and I did finally get a real pretty white flower group with my 55mm lens. walking around a bend in the path and coming across the wild Iris was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. Bringing a smile to my face, and my feet to a halt.

 I am not sure you can call it walking because I spend so much time stopped taking pictures, whatever you call it it was fun and I came home happy and satisfied.  
  







 I have been reading this thing on face book about using cinnamon and honey to heal, sooth, and even weight loss. There was one suggestion to use a honey cinnamon mix on toast rather then jam or jelly. It is suppose to be better for diabetics then sugar products. Mom likes cinnamon and sugar as well as honey and butter on toast so I thought why not. For the last two days she has been enjoying rye toast topped with butter and a mix of honey and cinnamon. She stops short of licking her plate, but just barely.

 Like cinnamon and sugar the cinnamon goes a long way so you only need a little bit.
    " What Was Dinner" Dinner was my first faceless recipe this month. It was a dang good faceless recipe too. Cinnamon is getting a lot of play time in my house and this dinner was no exception.

 I had Never heard of putting cinnamon in tomato sauce before and just had to give it a try when I read the recipe. Like I said dang good. The Dzia wasn't sold on it but says I can do it again just not to soon. I will put it in my winter round up of comfort food recipes. I added spinach to the mix because I had some that needed using up, the combination not only sounded good, it was good. Having pasta was a real treat for us. We don't have it often anymore and we do at times miss it. I used Johnsonvile ( as if I would use anything else!)ground sweet Italian sausage as my ground meat and the smell of the meat, wine, and cinnamon simmering together had my whole household standing over the pot inhaling. The aroma was intoxicating to say the least. 

You won't see the spinach in the pictures because I removed some sauce for taste testing and the picture for the recipe. That way I was able to review the recipe as written and give it a face that matched the recipe.Field Grade Spaghetti Sauce!
   I hope you enjoyed walking with me, have a wonderful weekend. As always thank you for stopping by.

Weekend Part 2 & My Recipe Revealed

 The weekend was a long one and like last weekend I just couldn't fit it all in one blog post. Also like last week it is just as well because I am so busy playing in the garden I don't get much time for picture taking. That is perfectly okay because I got a bundle or two over the weekend. 
  I am noticing that more of my pictures are good rather then bad or just okay and I want to use them all. I take more pictures now as well,not sure why but I snap the shutter a lot faster and with more steady assurance then even a month ago. The results is I have loads of pictures I want to share. Sometimes I feel like that proud parent with the flip out wallet and a photo strip longer than they are tall. I do my best to keep it in control.
  Saturday was a day to ourselves with Madeline not coming until Sunday, so I got up early and took a ride with Dziadzi. He needed bee boxes. The place we had to go to was about an hour away. The hours at the bee farm were very short this particular Saturday so we took the quick and boring route to get there. I was planning to take pictures at the farm but I wasn't able to get out of the car because of the amount of bees flying around. I am allergic to bees. I give them a wide berth and let them be. For the most part they don't bother me but the sheer number of bees outside my car door had me intimidated. After we got the boxes we found a diner had a good hearty breakfast, and then set out on the back roads to get lost. Dziadzi is not the type of guy to stop for picture ops so I didn't get an over abundance of pictures but I got enough and I liked what I got. A flower or two and a pit stop at a state park gave me a shot I didn't even know was there.

Thanks to the canoes coming in sending the lone duck flying I got lucky.
  Saturday afternoon I had to run to the grocery store for last minute what have yous. I go no where with out my camera now even the grocery store, and this is why.

 I never knew the  lake was there even though I drive by it almost daily. Until someone rear ended me a year ago and almost sent me into that lake, then I knew it was there. As I was driving by Saturday I noticed something flying in and out of the water. He was hard to capture but after a lot of fussing I got the Great Blue Heron.

 The White crane is the bird that taught me to take my camera every where. I got the shot with my phone, can't help but wonder what I would have gotten if I had my camera with me. As I traveled on I went behind the collage taking a pretty little short cut and there in the reeds playing and eating were a group of Red Wing Black Birds. I just had to stop.

 I was at first using my 55mm lens but quickly realized I needed more zoom then that. To bad I didn't change my lens at the lake. I am sure it would have made a difference. 
  Back from the grocery store I decide it is time to turn the Strawberries I picked Friday into jam.

 This time it worked the jam set and is delicious. I like the syrup too but I really wanted jam. Now I have jam.

  Monday we literally sat on the back porch and watched the Peonies open up.

  " What Was Dinner"  Do you remember a month or so back when I was working with Avocados from Mexico? Well at long last we can reveal our recipe creations. The Allstars like me that submitted a recipe won't know until the first of June what recipes were selected to be featured by Avocados from Mexico, but we can now share our recipes.

I stuffed my Avocados with taco seasoned ground beef and topped it with all kinds of goodness.

Taco stuffed avocados

ground meat

chopped onion 

minced garlic

chili powder

ground cumin

cayenne pepper or Ancho chili pepper( less heat)

TBS brown sugar ( 2 pinches )

salt

pepper

1/4 cup water

a dash or 2 of red wine.

brown meat and crumble, add seasonings water and wine cook uncovered until liquid is completely cooked down.

2 med to large avocado's halved and seeded,scoop out meat leaving an inch layer in the shell 

chopped onion

garlic peeled and chopped

In a blender or food processor blend avocado meat,onion, garlic and a splash of lemon juice.  

1 small tomato seeded and chopped

Dash of hot sauce to taste

Shredded cheddar cheese

sour cream or Greek yogurt

Top any way you like and enjoy!

 I have since tried it with other meats like ground turkey, shredded beef all taco seasoned. It is all good.

   Happy Wednesday! Thank you for stopping by.

    

Madeline, Flowers, More Madeline, My Garden & Dinner

 Tardy tardy I know and I still have plants to water and a hair cut to give. Well the evening is still young and the light will last a little while longer, or I will get it done tomorrow. Hanging with Madeline was more important today for me.
 Here is what we did this morning instead of Grandmama writing her blog. I will let the pictures tell the story of what a fun morning we had.

   I didn't get Madeline until Sunday afternoon so I was trying to pack a lot into a little bit of time. Our first stop was a field of wild flowers and a photo op. I have some pretty pictures I am not sharing just yet, saving them for future projects. I do have a few to share. 

All the flowers you see here are in a field behind the local collage. The field grows every year and every year I say I want pictures of that, this year I have a few. Just to reassure everyone we didn't walk into the field we stayed on the edge keeping the flowers safe. After the wild flowers we headed to Specca's farm so Madeline could pick strawberries for her Mom. Madeline enjoyed and was a smash hit with her styling ways.

 The boots were the smartest idea I had because the field was still a muddy mess in places from the rain earlier in the week. To bad Grandmama wasn't as brilliant about bringing her own rain boots. After all that hard work picking berries we had a good lunch and some ICE CREAM with M&M'S. Happy girl.

  Sunday Rich & Connie joined us for grillin and chillin while Madeline showed us her fancy soccer moves. 

 She is going to try out soccer this year and she is very excited about it. 
  During all this excitement and fun I did manage to stake my tomato plants and give them their weekly feeding. The cherry bombs already have flowers. I am so proud of myself, the garden looks good and is truly growing row by row. In fact Dziadzi is enlarging the garden for me. :)

 This was one lonely cloud in the sky Sunday and I just had to take his picture. Weather wise we couldn't have asked for a better day.

  " What Was Dinner " When we grill and chill we really do and dinner was simple easy and delicious. 

There is nothing like prime rib on the grill with fresh pick asparagus also cooked on the grill in foil. The chicken wings were cooked to a crunchy perfection making an excellent go along to our simple dinner.

  Happy Memorial day to you! Thank you to those who served our country, and thank you to the families that made the ultimate sacrifice of a loved one. Thank you for stopping by.