FOURTH OF JULY FLASHBACK

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend ever-buddy!

Outdoor Woman drives her little blue bug in the annual parade.

Our friend Mr. Kirkham drives his baby "Scarlet".

It isn't a parade unless someone breaks down.

Salt Lick -- You can smell their pits from miles away!

My friend High School Debbie always throws one heck of a shindig.

Seriously -- BE SAFE!

The Infamous Sparkler Incident

MY LATEST COLOR-MADNESS

You know that big flood benefit the Wimberley Valley Art League hosted last weekend? The one my hubby donated his photograph to? Well, we didn't actually buy any of the stuff that you could pick right up and take with you. It was pretty well picked over by the time we got there, just an hour and a half after the doors opened. They did, however, have a silent auction going on, so we walked around the room looking at those items. There was one thing that called to me, but I told Hubby there was no point writing down a bid since we were on our way out the door, and the auction still had a couple of hours left to go. He wrote one down anyway. Soooo,  guess who got a call the next day saying "Come and get it!"?

The artist, Trudi Spring Allison, says it was actually constructed here in Wimberley on the evening of the flood, and the scene is typical of a sage and cedar bluff outside of Taos, New Mexico.

It will be right next to the bottle tree...

which echoes all of the same colors.

The only problem is that it's a good bit smaller than its predecessor, so there's a lot of blank wall around it. I added some pots on one side, but it really needs something awesome  hanging above it. I was thinking about one of those El Corazon metal wall plaques I saw in town -- you know the colorful hearts with wings? Or maybe a big bawdy pottery sunshine. But then I remembered something I already had down in the Cantina Garden.

So, what d'ya think?  Too much?

The thing weighs a ton, so the tricky part would be figuring out how to anchor it to that stucco wall without risking it and half the wall crashing down on the bench at some point. Suggestions, anyone?

Yeah, Hubby's gonna have to find somewhere else to keep his logs.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF SLAW

Another thing that came in my Bountiful Sprout basket last week was cabbage, and lots of it! Thought I was ordering one head, and ended up with three. I decided, therefore, that it was an excellent time to experiment with a new, slightly unusual, recipe. If we didn't like it, no biggie. There was plenty more cabbage where that came from! I've had the recipe for a long time, but kept dithering about whether to make it because of that peanut butter in the dressing. Don't get me wrong, I love peanut butter (my "if you were stranded on a dessert island with only one food" food), but I was never a huge fan of that thick peanut sauce that you find on many Thai and Indonesian dishes. Trust me, it's not like that at all. It's just enough to help all the dressing ingredients come together and blend.

Now, usually, when I ask my hubby how he likes something, the most I can hope for is "Not bad", or "OK", or "Didn't suck." This time, I hadn't even asked him what he thought yet, when he burst out with "Good slaw!" He even ate the leftovers the next day, and my boy is not a fan of leftovers! Guess it's a keeper.

THAI SLAW

4 cups shredded cabbage - red, green, or both
1 cup diced red and yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped scallions

Combine all veggie ingredients in a large bowl.

Dressing:

1 teaspoon chili paste or a few sprinkles of chili oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 T. maple syrup, or sweeten to taste with the sweetener of your choice
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. toasted sesame oil
1 T. peanut butter
juice of one lime
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Combine all dressing ingredients in a jar with screw top lid and shake until well blended. Pour dressing over slaw and toss to combine. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until serving time.

Enjoy!

I PUT A SPELL ON YOU

I was reading in the living room a couple of nights ago, and when I glanced up I saw this through the front door.

The weird thing is that he stayed right there, in that same position, for an hour or more -- as if he were in a trance. I have a feeling he had his eye on one of our barn swallow nests, hoping for Ma and Pa to leave it unattended. Needless to say, I'm makin' a whole lotta noise whenever I approach my car these days!

Today I was out doing my morning walk when I heard some snarling and growling just a few feet away from our pump house. Almost wet my pants! When I glanced up I spotted the back end of a fox disappearing into the trees. I figured it must have been wrestling its breakfast. I circled around in the other direction, but when I made it back to that spot, there she was again, heading off into the trees. Hmmm. Maybe it was me she was growling at, after all. Perhaps she had a few babies hidden in that area and, thanks to this intrusive human, was now having to carry them each to a safer place.

Life in the country. Gotta love it!
 

ONWARD AND UPWARD

If you recall, I've been immersed in book and paper reduction this week. First up was the recipe stash.

The cookbooks used to be just around the corner on the bookshelves in the bedroom. When I decided to move my Wee Little Studio from this hutch into the bedroom, I had to reduce the number of cookbooks by half, in order for them to fit here. So that is not my real problem now. The real problem is these guys...
 

...eight or nine notebooks full of handwritten recipes collected over the years, and the time it takes me to find just the one I am looking for.

Well, I'm happy to report that those eight or nine have now been pared down and consolidated into a single notebook!

Granted, it's one big honkin' notebook, but at least they're all in the same place, sorted by category. The best of the best -- simply scrumptious, one and all!

What is more, I even managed to pare the cookbooks down a bit further, once I admitted that many only had one or two recipes that I used on a regular basis. You may gasp in horror, but I gave myself permission to tear out those few recipes, added them to this notebook, then donated the books themselves.

Much better, don't you agree?

Up next, the dreaded file cabinet. Then it's on to the Bedroodio bookshelves and art supplies. Oh My!
 

SUNDAY'S GRATITUDE: PASSION

Today I am ever so grateful that, after several years of easing into retirement, my hubby is finally finding something other than work and family to feel passionate about.

My heartfelt hope is that, through a couple of local photography groups he is looking into, the website where he is posting some of his work, and the local events he is beginning to participate in, he might soon experience that joy of all joys -- the one I experienced not long after I started blogging, which led to my finding Story Circle Network, which led to meeting The Muses -- finding one's tribe!