Long Time, No Post.

As most of you know, I haven’t been feeling the best for a while. I am happy to report that I am feeling a bit better the past few weeks. I am still having some issues but I have been able to eat a lot more regularly and that has helped tremendously! Fingers crossed that this ‘trend’ continues!

Now… on to awesome things!

It has been a dream of mine, since I was very young, to have my own garden. My grandmother used to bring me one or two tomato starts and maybe a bell pepper plant. I was so proud when they produced anything! I’ve never had the time, space, or opportunity for a “real” garden with a variety of things. To me, a garden is more than just a space to grow your own food. It represents stability, patience, nurture, and commitment. I had always imagined that having a garden at my own home would embody all of these feelings. I was right! 

Wes built me a garden! He worked so hard on everything and it is absolutely perfect! There was an old shed in the backyard that was mostly empty, and we didn’t use it for anything. He tore it down and then built garden boxes. He also used the wood from the shed to make trellises! We had soil delivered and he moved all of that by himself, too. We planted so many things and I had such a blast doing it! (That’s something I can actually keep up with!)  We got six different types of Heirloom tomatoes and two, sweet pepper plants, already started. Everything else we planted from seeds. We have yellow wax bush beans, green pole beans, cucumbers, sugar snap peas, carrots, pumpkins, sunflowers, basil, thyme, oregano, dill, chives, sage, parsley, and rosemary! The sage, parsley, and rosemary haven’t put in an appearance yet, but everything else is growing like crazy! Sunday will be a month since we planted everything, so I think that is just amazing!

These pictures are from start to finish! The last pictures of the garden, I took just about an hour ago.

Buckets o’ herbs!

Basil, Thyme, and Dill. I planted Oregano at the same time but it’s not doing anything at all.   I’m going to buy some, already started, I think.

Tomatoes and pepper plants on the left, and yellow wax bean bushes and carrots on the right!

Sugar Snap Peas and Green Beans are going crazy!

Wes’ pumpkins!

We have a tomato!!

Saved the best for last! This is “Josie”!! Josie came from the Napa Animal Shelter and she’s between two and four years old. She was brought in as a stray, so nothing is known about her past. She was in really rough shape when they found her. She had fleas so bad that most of her hair was gone. Her ears are missing little pieces out of them where the fleas were eating her. The people at the shelter told us that she was so traumatized when they brought her in, that all you had to do was look at her and she would “scream.” One of the ladies at the shelter picked her up on the day I met her and she screamed then, too. It broke my heart. I had actually gone to the shelter to look at two different little dogs. After spending time with both of them, I knew they weren’t what I was looking for. I took Josie outside and just hung out with her for a while and knew that she was “the one.” I met Wes at the shelter after he got off work that day, and he met her. She came home with us!

I’ve never had a “little dog.” I grew up with Rottweilers, and my last dog before Josie was a Great Dane. Had I been able to custom order a dog, it would have been Josie.   She has fit in so perfectly. Even though she was very shy (understandably!) she trusted us and has been coming out of her shell for the past month that she has been with us. She’s turning into a real goofball! She is so loving and cuddly and just wants to be where you are, and be loved. I’m so happy and thankful that she is a part of our lives.

Wrapped up in her little Christmas blankie. (She’s not spoiled. Honest!)

This was taken about three days after we got her. I wanted a companion/lap dog and, by golly, that’s what I got! haha!

Equal opportunity snuggler, this one. Less than a week after we got her, she went to Wes for some affection. Broke. My. Heart. She was so nervous and almost apologetic about it.

“Cleanliness is next to…” Yeah, who cares. She’s rolling in the yard after a bath!

Catchin’ some rays in the mulch. After a bath. Because, well, just because.

Updates and stuff

I went to the new doctor and I think she’s going to be a good fit for me. The same day I saw her for the first time, she referred me to a GI specialist and I will see that doctor on the 16th of this month! So, that is definitely progress already!

Yesterday was fun! Wes’ mom came over for the Super Bowl and we ordered out for Chinese. I made homemade crab rangoons and I also made Irish brown bread. I’d been looking for a brown bread recipe that was close to the bread I had when I was in Ireland and I could never find one I really liked. So, I made my own recipe! Brown bread recipes differ from family to family so there are a million different versions. I just took bits and pieces of what I thought I wanted and then put them all together. FRANKEN-BREAD! What I came up with is exactly what I wanted and Wes loves it! He takes some to work with him in the morning for breakfast. Because there’s oatmeal in it, it fills him up and it’s not ‘pastry sweet.’ Ms. Martha went nuts over it, too, so we always send some home with her! (I make sure I bake some the day she comes over.)

FINALLY did the manicure I wanted to do. Between not feeling well and not feeling well, I just didn’t do it when I wanted to. I thought it turned out really cute and it’s really simple!

 

Another project this week was fried chicken! I rarely fry anything inside the house because I don’t like the smell. I always use ‘new’ oil and open windows, turn on fans, etc. Doesn’t matter. I get nauseated really easily and smells do it, too. However, I looooove some fried chicken! I’d actually been craving some for a few months. I’d get a few pieces at different delis in the area and it didn’t do it for me. I wanted MY chicken!

One day last week I was wandering around in the back yard and our bbq grill caught my eye… more specifically the side burner on that bbq grill!! OH HAPPY DAY! Next time we went grocery shopping, I got everything I needed for fried chicken! I marinated/brined it in buttermilk and different spices, double-dipped that lovely stuff in flour/panko and spices, and fried it all OUTSIDE in our cast iron dutch oven. My favorite piece is the thigh. Wes likes boneless, skinless breast. Sooooo I made Wes “chicken fingers” out of boneless, skinless breasts and made myself a ton and a half of thighs! I was outside frying chicken for almost FOUR HOURS! Hey, I wasn’t fooling around. It freezes beautifully and all you have to do to reheat it is thaw it out, and put it in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. It crisps right back up! Needless to say, I no longer have a fried chicken craving!

Hello, hello!

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated or even checked in. I really don’t have an excuse other than I just haven’t had much to ‘talk’ about. My health isn’t the greatest again and that has been what is first on my mind. Heck, I’m getting tired of thinking about it all the time, so I can’t imagine how tedious a bunch of posts on the subject would be!

This is the ‘deal’ with my health issues. A few months ago, I started losing muscle again and getting fatigued way faster than usual. It got so that if I worked one day, I’d have to spend a few days recuperating. I would be in pain all over and just so incredibly wiped out-tired that I could barely move. I have REAL LIVE insurance now, though! Wes put me on his insurance through his work so I am starting the long process of getting all the tests that I should have had about four years ago. However. I went to a doctor within the Kaiser network and I explained things to her. I know my ‘issues’ are a lot to absorb at one time, but I have the feeling that she kind of labeled me as being less than serious. Maybe she thought I’m a hypochondriac or something, I don’t know. Anyway, she ordered a huge battery of blood tests. The results were disturbing. I’m ‘extremely malnourished’, anemic, blah, blah, etc, blah. Bottom line, I don’t feel well and my body doesn’t work the way it should. Even with those results, and knowing what I had told her, she sent me to a nutritionist. A nutritionist. Really? She completely ignored the fact that my pancreas doesn’t work ‘right’ and that I get sick or feel like I’m going to get sick almost every time I put something in my mouth to eat. The nutritionist put me on a billion and a half different types of vitamins, which is good… I mean, I am actually having more energy and I’ve only been on them a little over a week now. So, yay! and thank you to the nutritionist. The doctor? Not so much. She should be doing a LOT more than she is, and sending me to a GI specialist at the very least. I really, really, REALLY wish I could have kept seeing the nurse practitioner at the clinic in Napa that I had been going to. She listened to me, and I trust her. She was limited by my lack of insurance so she couldn’t order the tests that I really need.

SO! To wrap up this rant, I will tell you that I went back to see the nurse practitioner at the clinic and asked if she knew any doctors in the Kaiser network. She gave me a name and I called to make an appointment. She is no longer taking new patients, but I chose another doctor that is in the same practice/building. I have an appointment with her on Tuesday. To say that all this “health crap” has me scared, is the understatement of the century. The malnourishment and anemia is causing me to have heart palpitations and that scares me to death. I’m sure that me being terrified isn’t helping that much. I’ve lived in fear and pain for the past four years. To have a doctor take such a blasé attitude toward everything I told her, and to assume that I just don’t know how to eat, is offensive and so incredibly frustrating. I had myself ‘steeled’ for a battery of tests which will scare me more than anyone can imagine. And now… nothing?  I don’t think so. The first doctor has been fired. I’ll update as things happen.

AND NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF! Not only haven’t I been blogging, I haven’t been “playing nails”, as Wes calls it. Well I did a few days ago! Been wanting to try water marbling and even though it’s pretty time consuming, the results are neat!

For these, I used a gray base coat with a multi-colored sparkle polish over that. The marbling was done with black and clear polishes all swirled together.

These are fake nails. I use a layer of gel on my natural nail before I glue the fake nails on. This protects my natural nails from being ‘eaten’ by the glue. I only leave them on for five to seven days, at the most. Your natural nails need to breath, too. I’m actually going to take them off today and do a really cute manicure on my natural (reeeeaaalllly short) nails. I told Wes I was going to change them and he said, “But those are cool!” Heh. Now he’s the nail police. haha!

Baby apple pie/cookie… things.

I love apple pie but I have trouble eating it. The crust is just too much… but I love the crust. I made Wes some Amish “apple dumplings” once and he loved them. He has made them several times in the past year but, again, it’s just too much for me to eat. (and I get grouchy about that. I LIKE to eat, dammit!)

Sooooo as I was looking up mac and cheese recipes today, I saw a recipe for an apple ‘tartlet’. Those are just very small apple pies and I thought, “Hmmmm. Wonder if I can make a teeny apple pie?” So I did! I can only tell you what I put in it and how I assembled them. I didn’t measure anything at all.

I started with pre-made, Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, and rolled them out very thin. I used a cookie cutter to cut the ‘pie’ rounds.

For the filling I used four apples. We had a Red Delicious and a Yellow Delicious here, and I went to the store and bought two ‘Braeburn’ apples, which are better for baking. I peeled, cored, and diced those up and sprinkled them with lemon juice. The rest of it was about a half stick of butter, melted, and I stirred in brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and some vanilla extract. I mixed that in with the apples, along with some corn starch for a thickener.

I used, maybe, a teaspoon of filling per ‘pie’, put another piece of dough on the top, crimped the edges with a fork, and poked a hole in the top with a chopstick. I egg washed the top and sprinkled coarse, raw sugar on that. I baked them at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Baby apple pies the size of a cookie! And the crust is so thin that I can eat it without wasting any. Plus, they’re just plain cute!

Post-Thanksgiving… stuff!

Hi Everybody!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We sure did!   Wes’ mother came and, oh boy, did we eat. I made enough food for at least eight people, easily. Hey, but that’s what the eating part of Turkey Day is all about, right? The leftovers? The glorious, mouth-watering, everything-in-one-bowl-smothered-in-gravy, deliciousness… yes indeedy. (I’ve been eating it for breakfast. Don’t judge me.)

The menu!

Turkey (duh!), mashed potatoes prepared the ‘normal’ way then I put them in a cast iron skillet and put them out on the grill to heat through and get this lovely, brown, crispy top. The grill also imparts a very slightly smoky flavor. Green bean casserole (or as my daughter used to call it, “Bean-beans!”), corn pudding, sausage and apple stuffing, sweet potato raviolis with a browned butter, fresh sage, and toasted pecans sauce, and gravy. Appetizers were fresh veggies with dips, crackers, olives, and Wes’ amazing pumpkin monkey bread. I was going to make popovers but honestly I don’t think anybody would have been able to eat those. We’ll save those for another ‘Martha Visit’!  Wes also made a pumpkin pie that’ll knock yer socks off! I SO appreciate the fact that he can, and likes to, bake! (I’m totally keeping him!) Ms. Martha brought a brie appetizer and an apple/cranberry pie. All this for three people. Hey, works for me!

Even as Wes was still feeling the effects from the first go-round of T-day dinner, he yelled “turkey noodle soup!!” So yesterday he got his wish… and I made a lot of it! We’re both soup junkies like that, though, so we’ll take care of it!

The day after Thanksgiving, I worked. I had two tours and I’m really thankful for them. I was told when I first started, and all through the summer that I would not be working much past the middle of September. Actually, I worked most of that week! Christmas money!!

One of my guests sent me some pictures the day after he and his family visited. They wanted one of my zebra pictures so we exchanged.

This one is a neat perspective. All the guests were in my truck and I was standing in front giving the whole “Do-NOT-get-out-of-this-truck-unless-I-tell-you-it’s-okay-and-I-MEAN-IT!!!” speech.

Me opening one of the gates we have to go through to get from enclosure to enclosure. I do a lot of hopping in and out of that truck!

Of course, work pictures would not be complete without my little Dozer man trying to snuffle me!

He wasn’t exactly “snuffling” here… he was trying to eat my rain coat.

Newest zebra baby and another gorgeous zebra picture.

This critter is called a “Barbary Sheep” or an “Oudad.” This was only the fifth time I’ve ever seen these sheep, the whole time I’ve worked there!

Aaaaaaand new nails!

Birthday, Baby Giraffe, and I am *not* a food snob!

I had the best birthday! The weather was so perfect yesterday and I got to go to work! I had two groups of kids for tours and they were awesome. They got involved and asked excellent questions. We all had a really good time!   I also got some pictures of one of the new baby giraffes. When I was taking pictures, the other new giraffe wasn’t anywhere I could see him. We have had two giraffes within the past two weeks! (I wasn’t able to get very good pictures of the baby I could see, either!) Both babies belong to “my” giraffe, Dozer! He did a darn fine job because they are picture perfect and very healthy!

Wes sung ‘Happy Birthday’ to me before I got out of bed. When I did manage to rouse myself, I came to my computer desk and there was a beautiful card on it. (One of those ones that makes ya cry!) Then! When I came home, there was a beautiful dozen roses on the table! He had not gone to work when he left a half hour before I did… he went to get flowers, brought them home, and then went to work. Wes was almost mortified at my restaurant choice for dinner… I wanted a salad bar, period. The only place near here that offers one is at “Sizzler” in Napa. Well, I’ve never been there so I told him that’s where I wanted to go. Oh boy… HUGE mistake, that.

Honestly, I don’t know if Sizzler made me sick because I ate something ‘bad’ or if it’s because they use a lot of pre-packaged, processed foods. I used to really like processed foods, and I still like the taste of some of it, but my body just can’t handle it anymore. I barely made it home and through the door before I got sick. Changed into my PJs and fell asleep until about 12:30am. When I got up, I was starving so I made a peanut butter and veggie sandwich. (I know some of you are thinking, “EW… P.B. & veggie?!”  Ayup! I thought the same way until I tried it… I love those things! Just throw whatever kind of veggies you want, on a peanut butter sandwich. Even though I’m not a vegetarian, sometimes I just crave those sandwiches. I also crave ‘veggie burger’ as well, and I’ll make a huge bowl of that sometimes. I just cook them up as I want them, and usually the veggie burger mix doesn’t last long! Anyhoo… not a food snob, I just can’t eat the super-tasty ‘garbage’ I used to.

So! All in all, I had the bestest birthday ever!  The big ‘FOUR-OH’ wasn’t as painful or scary as I thought it would be. Heck, I’m just thankful (and surprised) that I’m still alive… go me!

The proud papa!

I went to visit with “LuLu” the warthog. She gets so excited when someone is giving her attention that she wouldn’t stand still for a picture. Next time, I will take a video of her because she’s hilarious! She’ll squeal, oink, and snort the whole time you talk to her. Of course, the more you talk, the more excited she gets! Here are the goofy pictures I did get…

New (blurry) nails picture. Wes wants me to ‘catalog’ the designs. I think he just likes to see what I come up with next. He actually took a picture of me ‘playing nails.’ (ha!) Here I am being incredibly attractive in sweat pants, one of Wes’ sweat shirts, and sitting on a pile of couch cushions on the floor. I just can’t sit in front of the TV and watch it.. my ADD needs other things to do at the same time! My next design attempt is going to be giraffe nails!

My beautiful, beautiful roses!

 

Hobby?

I don’t know if you would consider this a hobby or not, but I sure am having a lot of fun with my new UV gel lamp! I’m not very artistic but I am following tutorials that I find on YouTube. My next project is going to include very small rhinestones!

These are “Galaxy” nails. This is the tutorial. Mine turned out okay, considering it was my first try. (I forgot the dark blue at the end!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EMgt4_jW5U

 

I think this one will be next!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFwO-sG_lMA&feature=player_embedded

Melissa’s Southwestern Savory Bread Pudding

Yep. Savory bread pudding. We went to San Francisco this past weekend with Wes’ mom and ended up at Boudin’s bakery for lunch. Boudin’s is famous for their sourdough bread and we got two loaves to bring home with us. I put one in the freezer right away but had to use the other one before it got yucky! I had been wanting a corn pudding but I also wanted bread pudding. I decided to use what I had here and just combined the two! (very successfully, I might add!) This recipe makes quite a bit. I scaled everything to fit one, torn up, loaf of sourdough!

• 5 cups cubed sourdough bread
• 2 cups fresh or frozen corn
• 1/2 chopped onion (I used a red onion because that’s what I had. I would recommend using a white or yellow for this. Red onion ‘bleaches out’ when it’s cooked and looks less than pretty!)
• 1/2 chopped green bell pepper (If I were buying ingredients for this recipe instead of using what I had on hand, I would definitely use a red bell pepper. Would look great in this dish!)
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley (a little less if using dried)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheese of your choice – I recommend something a bit sharp. I used a Parmesan blend mix that I had left over from something else.
• 1  1/4 cup half and half
• 1  1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (regular paprika would work fine if that is what you have) plus extra for sprinkling
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil
• *I like a very moist, custardy, bread pudding. If that is not your taste, only use 4 eggs and 1 cup of half and half and 1 cup of milk.*

Preheat oven to 375.

Over medium heat, very lightly saute the onion, pepper, and corn until the corn is heated through. Add the parsley and oregano, some salt and pepper, and once heated through, take off the heat and put aside. We don’t want the veggies to be soft.

In a large mixing bowl mix the eggs, milk, half and half, shredded cheese, paprika, 1/2 tsp of salt, and pepper to taste.

Add the cubed bread to the egg mixture and mix very well. Make sure all of the egg/milk has been soaked up by the bread and that there aren’t any ‘puddles’ on the bottom of your bowl.

Add the corn mixture to the bread and mix well.

Transfer to a greased/buttered 9×13 baking dish and sprinkle the top of the pudding with paprika to taste. Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 40 – 45 minutes until set up all the way through. (I would check your bread pudding at 30 minutes so that you don’t overcook it and dry it out!) It will be nice and brown on the top and wonderfully moist on the inside.

*As usual, my food pictures leave a lot to be desired. Before I took the first picture, I had already taken a huge spoonful out of the middle so that I could check if it was done and to see if it was even edible. After I took the first bite, and gave Wes some for his opinion on it, I realized that I should probably record this one for posterity! (Also, Wes has absolutely NO faith that I will be able to remember how I made it, so he “strongly encouraged” me to write it down. HA!)

Cat Naps and Fingernails

Wes took his jeans off after work and tossed them on the bed. The cat just happened to be there and discovered that the pants were WARM. He made himself comfy. We have a really goofy cat…

 

In protest/denial of my upcoming 40th birthday I decided to do something different with my nails. Leopard print! I like it and I have lots of different ideas for other nail designs now, too. If you like this kind of thing, you can find a lot of tutorials on Youtube! It was really fun to do and I can’t wait until Shelby gets here and I can do nails for her and her friends!

Bye-bye Summer :(

Even though Fall is my favorite time of year, I am very sorry to see the summer come to an end. My job is seasonal and the season is almost over. I haven’t worked in about a week and I don’t know if I’ll be getting any more work this year. Definitely got spoiled having two tours per day, five days per week, plus all the school treks and senior citizens’ groups. *sigh*  Having been sick for so long and then getting a job like mine… wow. I felt alive for the first time in a very long time. Yes, I got tired really fast but it didn’t matter. I really, really love what I do there.

I know I haven’t posted for a while. Sorry ’bout that! I was not feeling well for quite a while and when we found out why, I ended up in the hospital for a few days. Seems as though I have a stomach ulcer that I ignored to the point that it was able to eat through my stomach. The doctor wanted to know why I waited so long to see someone about it. I told her it was because I didn’t want to go to the hospital! I was a very bad patient and they kept me super-sedated the whole time I was there. I’m still not over the traumatic experience of being in the hospital in Germany, even four years later. I am sure I would be thoroughly embarrassed about the way I acted, had I not been sedated out of my skull. I think I cried almost every time someone came in my room for something. I never minded needles before, but that is definitely not the case now. I’m glad they kept me so zonked out, though. Wes told me they gave me a blood transfusion. After he told me, I think I remember someone telling me about having to have a transfusion and I think I said something like, “Just don’t let me see the bags when you hook me up.” …. or something like that. In any case, I was blissfully unaware when they actually did it!

I’m okay now. I don’t have any more stomach pain and that’s a huge relief. I lost more weight while all this was going on and I’ve lost a few more pounds since I got out of the hospital. I don’t know why, though. Oh the irony of wishing, my whole life, that I could eat anything I wanted and not gain weight…. I TAKE IT BACK!!   Even though I am within ‘normal range’ for someone my height, I am just not used to it. I feel a little bit better because I went out and bought new jeans that fit me. Walking around wearing too-big clothes was making me feel a lot more conspicuous and aware of the weight I’d lost.

One of my guests from work sent me some pictures in email. She took pictures of “my” giraffe loving on me. Of course, I look terrible because I was in the middle of talking about giraffes! I love these pictures so much, though.

 

I love giraffe snuggles!

 

This is an awesome picture of “Dozer.” He’s so handsome and I tell him that all the time!

 

Here are two pictures of our newest zebra baby! He’s a cutie and very curious about people. His momma does not like that! haha