Today I Saw...

...this clever squirrel, sitting on the fence in the alley, chomping on a chiken bone. Actually, I heard him first. Took a minute to find him. He was well camouflaged.

Today I Saw...

...the first borage flower of the season. The borage plant is out of control. It gets huge. I'm constantly pulling out volunteer borage babies. This year I will not let it go to seed. It's coming out as soon as it's glory fades OR I will get some row cover tied around it to catch any dead heads.

Droopy-Eyed Cat Visits Again

The first time I shot a pic of this neighborhood cat, I thought I had caught him in a blink. But after a few visits to the alley, I realize that he just has a droppy eyelid. Earlier this evening I noticed a set of ears on one of Chandan's steps. I made kissy noises and got half a turn. Typical cat. I made a loud noise and got a full head turn but only for a moment.

Today I Saw...

...the inside of an exam room. Nothing untoward. Got to keep my clothes on the whole time. But I did remove my shoes and socks. Exciting stuff.

Today I Saw...

...these views from my dentist's office on the 12th floor.

Looking northwest down 6th Avenue.

Looking a little less northwest down 5th Avenue. You can see the Monorail rail and just a bit of Puget Sound.

Looking pretty much eastward up Stewart to Capitol Hill. My building stands one block beyond the tall red one on the left.

Chipotle Black Bean Burgers

Found this recipe on 28 Cooks. Of course, their photos looks much nicer. We were enjoying the food too much to photograph it when it actually looked nice on the plate. This is today's leftover lunch to take to work. But you get the idea.

Of course, I doctored the recipe to suit my taste but not by much. First, I didn't measure any of this stuff. I usually find recipe measurements restrictive. Most recipes need more flavor. I used dried black beans that I soaked overnight. In the saute I also added corn and a small dice of carrot, more garlic and a few dashes of garlic podwer and cumin. I went easy on the chipotle and adobo to play it safe. We have plenty of condiments to spice up food if it falls short of anyone's hot and spicy expectations. As it turned out, the burgers had a nice bite and a wonderful smokey flavor, enhanced by the mesquite woodchips used to grill them. We used a smaller grill grate and the burgers held up pretty well. I'm thinking of a couple of ideas to make them moister. I'm not giving up any secrets just yet.

The yogurt sauce is delicious too. I used more of everything called for, except sugar. But I also made a bigger batch than 4 oz. Who the hell uses only 4 oz. of anything? I'm a condiment whore. I used fat-free plain yogurt - Nancy's is my favorite brand. It's thick and has a nice tang. We served these along with grilled zucchini and roasted sweet potatoes with cumin, sambar, cayenne, and chili powder. It's a Cafe Flora inspired recipe that we make again and again. Of course, I put my own twist on it. I add chopped onion, garlic, a carrot and because I had one, half of a yellow bell pepper. Why would you roast just sweet potato? Come on.

Weekend Cat Blogging #47

Cats love to sit on paper. They dig the crinkle and rustle noises. Usually, Idgie just sits on the very corner of a newspaper or magazine or grocery store flyer, whatever is available. She's a good paperweight. But she was particularly fond of this store receipt and used it as her personal pillow. Ahhhhh, comfort.

All the Weekend Cat Blogging can been seen at Eat Stuff.

Today I Saw...

...these beautiful scenes from the Republican P-Patch on Capitol Hill. Sounds down right political, huh? Thankfully, Republican is the street and Capitol Hill is nothing like the one in D.C. Whew!

During my two hours of wandering around, running errands, I made a point of stopping into this garden. It really is a nice one. Here are a few shots of what I saw. I never know the names of flowers. If you know what these are, let me know. All i know is that they are wonderful.

Today I Saw...

...the first sign of strawberries. The plants in this large wash tub always do well. They are healthy and just starting to show littel buds.

In garden today I harvested all the lettuce and planted a whole mess of other greens in the long bed along the house. I made good notes too. I even wrote numbers on the 2 by 4's of the bed to mark the "rows" and noted in my book exactly what I planted in each row. I then covered the whole area with row cover and gave it a good soaking. It was a time-consuming job. Some days you just need to pick your garden battles and really work only one area, even if it's just a 12 or 15 square foot space.

I then completely re-organized the seed /plant start flats and re-organized ny notebook on the matter. Lots and lots of new seeds planted for basils, flowers, winter squash, etc. And some worm castings added to the soiless mix. Couldn't hurt. Another flat is waiting and I have plans for it too.

Use What You Have...

To make delicious, nutritious food. I took these items from the refrigerator where they were visibly tired of their stay and created a spur of the moment, Indian influenced dinner in advance. It wasn't what we planned to eat tonight but I had the extra time and extra produce so why sit around?

Once these ingredients were sauteed and heavily seasoned with sambar, cumin, corriander, garam masala and curry, I added about a 1/2 cup of lite coconut milk (an item found in our house only once in a great while), about a cup and a half of store-bought crab bisue (again, this was the first time we tried it because we had a coupon. It was OK but not great, especially for the calories), and then a heavy splash of fat-free milk made from powder. Next, I threw in a can of drained garbonzo beans. I also took about a teaspoon of ready-made red curry paste and disolved it in some of the juice and added it too. A little goes a long way. I let this simmer for just a bit then removed from the heat where it thickened up. It was a nice spicy, creamy treat over brown, basmati rice. We garnished it with cilantro and green onions and ate it with yogurt.