Food

This is what I did yesterday morning instead of doing the things I was supposed to do....meal planning!

Sometimes I get the urge to play chef. So I get out all my books and magazines to see what delicious new things I can make.


Last night I made a meatball soup kind of thing - from Rachel Ray's magazine.
It was tasty and healthy - great for a cold night as well.

AND the ingredients were pretty simple:
Kale, oregano, meat and garlic were the main items.


So you combine the oregano and meat and salt and pepper. (I added some onion powder and bread crumbs ;)
Form them into 1/2 inch meatballs.

Chop up a whole head of garlic. Cook it on low heat for about 7 min. with 2 T of EVOO and 1 T of water.


Add 3 C of water and bring to a boil. Then simmer for about 5 min.


Add the meatballs, cover and simmer for 10 min.


I stirred them around about halfway through.

Then add the Kale. Cover and simmer for 10 more min.

Season with S and P and serve. I added some Parmesan cheese on top that I had left over.
I would have served it with some crunchy bread if I had any, but I didn't. It was good anyway - and pretty healthy I think.

Simple and tasty.

Fort DeSoto

Husband and I had an adventure this weekend.

It was the first weekend in quite a while that we did not need to be out of town or that we did not have guests - so we were able to do....whatever.
So, on Saturday we decided to explore where we live with our kayak.

It was still chilly for us Floridians but we managed to stay warm enough.
We saw lots of beautiful things....



This is where we launched from but the park is so big, we have decided we need to go back to explore some more.



The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is visible from plenty of spots.
Pretty to look at, scary to drive over.

There is a pretty big area of the park - just for dogs!




This guy swam right under our kayak!

And he had a giant remora fish on his back.

We saw lots of critters, although these ones were not alive.



And of course I had to pick some things up for myself ;)


Then we headed to Whiskey Joes which is just across the street from us (I still can't believe we live here).

And we watched a beautiful sunset.

On Sunday after church, we hit up a farmer's market, visited my grandmother and went running on the causeway. Well, Husband ran, I rode my bike. But can you believe we get to run here whenever we want?
We are very happy and appreciative for this and many other things.

I hope everyone's weekend was as wonderful and relaxing as ours.

Dinner on the Docks

Clearly Husband and I haven't been able to stick to our monthly commitment for Dinner on the Docks.
We have promised each other we will be better but I must say the weather has certainly played a role in our absence from the seaside.
For us native Floridians, it has been freezing! And then on any slightly warm days, the stench of the dead fish from the freeze a few weeks ago has been overwhelming to say the least.

Anyway, last night we made it out.
Of course I forgot to take photos of our meal but believe me it was quite basic - Soup. Bread. Fruit.




We did see the dolphins last night but they would not come up for my camera.

Princess found a nice spot in our picnic basket this morning.

Baker

This is my mom and her mother, my Grandma Baker. Grandma Baker is in the hospital right now...any prayers that can be said for her would be wonderful and much appreciated.

Love you Grandma.



I hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day weekend - and don't forget to remember ALL the ones you love!

Thrifty

My littlest sister and her boyfriend came to visit us over the weekend for Superbowl and we were able to spend lots of time together :)

We did a lot of cooking....a lot of watching the boys play x box...and quite a bit of thrifting!

We hit up 3 thrift stores and found lots of must haves - children's books, a pair of brand new J-Crew pants ($4.50) and a "vintage" apron (I think someone made it but I still love it).



Always need more serving dishes


These milk glass canisters are probably my favorite find of all...

I couldn't help but buy this - only $1, it goes to charity AND it has little fishes on it.