my daily apple ~

Every day I eat an apple.

Why?  Because I can :)

I've also started feeding my feathered and furry friends an apple a day too ~ just to keep them happy.  I NEVER toss an apple core into the garbage ... it just attracts those nasty fruit flies.  Instead it's become my ritual to do this:

I cut the apple from the core ~ then dice up the core and put it out on the bird feeder.  The birds LOVE it!  The reason for dicing it and not just putting the whole core out there is so it can go around to more than just one bird ... like the bluejay.  They will fly in and snag the apple from the feeder and none of the other birds get a taste.

We call this little nuthatcher the affectionate name  ~  "AsUp" ... because you always see it like this ~

Please don't toss your apple core or any other fruit scraps in the garbage.  Put them outside somewhere ~ your furry and feathered friends will appreciate your kindness.  Even if you live in the city and think that you don't have a place to put it  ... look around ... you do.  Even if it's tossing it beside a wall somewhere ... setting it on a window sill ... throw it in a ditch ... the mice will love you, the birds will love you ... the rabbits and squirrels ... they all will love you ... they need their vitamin C too :)  I don't consider this littering at all ... it's Up Scale Recyling ... re-purposing a reusable product. You used what you could off of it ... now it's time to share the remainder.  Even if the critters don't eat it and it rots down ... it's replenishing the soil with nutrients.  Who knows ... you might even be planting a future apple tree???!!!???!!!

~ 'lil Bucky' snacking on an apple:

... the yearling ... coming to get his:

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

the cook needs to pay attention ~

Recipes ~ gotta love 'em!  I just love flipping through cookbooks and cooking websites and watching food shows on tv checking out new recipes.  I get tons of info and ideas; but rarely do I actually follow a recipe to the T.  I'm always discombobulating it and rearranging this and adjusting that until I've come up with something totally unique and on it's own, a completely new recipe. 

Sometimes this works ... and sometimes not :(

Take my cornish game hens that I deep fried last night ~
The recipe said EXACTLY 15 minutes in the fryer ... not a minute less, not a minute more.

B E A U T I F U L

It was crispy skinned, 

the meat was so tender and juicy. 

Delicious with a capital D.

In goes the second hen ...

I'm setting the table ... 

mashing potatoes and making a gravy.  

I'm watching the clock.

I think I'll grab my camera and maybe post about this tomorrow.  Okay, keep an eye on the clock I have 10 more minutes of frying time.  I'm outside on my deck using my turkey fryer to make these birds.  I go into the house to finish up setting the table.  I tell Dear Hubby, let's dig in and start eating.  We'll share the first bird; because I don't intend on eating a whole cornish hen myself and he doesn't need it either.  Dear Hubby asks why I'm cooking the second bird in the first place.  I proceed to tell him that I plan on it for lunch tomorrow.  We'll be out in the woods making firewood, and it'll be a quick meal for lunch time. 

Dang... I look outside and the fryer seems to be smoking.  I look at the clock ... Double Dang ... it's now been 17 minutes.  Two whole minutes over the EXACTLY 15 minute time period.  Oh what can 2 minutes extra really do?

It was not only burnt ... it was absolutely disgusting.  

The burn flavor was all the way through the meat. 

It really was inedible.  

Yuck with a capital Y.

So what's for lunch today???

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel

touching ~

Sometimes I see a movie or hear a song and it really touches me  Last night I watched My Own Love Song.  Talk about a double whammy ~ the movie AND the music really got me.  If you haven't seen it yet ... you might want to consider it and see for yourself.








I remember my Dad and Uncle Merlin singing this song one night around the campfire. They were both veterans of WWII.  Those two brothers liked to joke around with the best of them; but sometimes they would really throw you for a loop ... such as the night they sang this song with as much love and compassion for this country as imaginable as Renee sang it in the movie ~ and hearing it again REALLY overwhelmed my emotions.

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel