Song of the Week

Renewed love

The other day I was really craving sushi.  But where does one find sushi in a small town in the mountains of western NC??  Not anywhere that you would trust.  However!  My husband found out a local eatery (one that is trusted) has sushi Wednesdays.  The restaurant is kind of, as they say, "crunchy" and was closing/for sale at one point but has since reopened. 

So guess what we had for dinner tonight.  As we were leaving we stopped by a table where some friends were eating and were promptly told not to forget to get our bookstore stamp.  Huh?  Apparently with every visit (meal?--still not sure) one gets $5 off used books at the bookstore connected (physically) to the restaurant.  Yes please.  Of course we head over there (uh, who could pass up a visit to a bookstore?!) and I find a used copy of Watership Down (I've been craving that too) and my husband gets a new book titled something written by somebody.  What can top it all off??  A FREE tea or coffee at the restaurant by buying a new book.  It just keeps getting better and better.  You can also receive credit at the bookstore by trading in books you no longer want--but let's take this one step at a time.

And I know it's all a ploy to get you to visit more and spend more, but I'll take my little hole in the wall restaurant and my little hole in the wall bookstore to your Barnes & Noble & Starbucks any day.  "Your" as in "The Man"...not you personally. 

It's days like these that I love my little town.

Ping-Pong

I don't know if this is real, but it's hilarious nonetheless.

Weapons of mass destruction

I've been checking my sunflowers everyday.  This is what I came home to today:

Sunflower leaves eaten

If you're thinking, "Wait.  I don't see anything."  Mmhmm.  Precisely.  SOME VARMINT ATE THE LEAVES OFF MY SUNFLOWERS!!  I'm proposing the following critter:

Keep your eyes peeled people!  These guys kick ya when you're down!  And to think, my husband and I were just ooing and awing at a mama & two babies happily strolling up our driveway.  So what do I do?  I put my husband to work!

Putting a fence around the sunflower bed

Not to worry, he owed me for this:

Black spots on beebalm from weed killer

 And this:

Last surviving leaves on mountain mint from bout with weed killer

I shall leave you with a happy ending to this story.  Check these babies out!  They're taller than me!

Michigan Lilies

 And someday soon they will look like this:

Happy day everyone!

Bummer

I've decided not to go to my highschool reunion.  Not really worth two $340 plane tickets + hotel + rental car + kennel fees for the animals.  I think I'd rather go to Jamaica, Costa Rica, Belize, etc.  Wyoming doesn't exactly say kick-ass vacation.

On a positive note, my husband & I made this wonderful side dish for my husband's office's Memorial Day cookout tomorrow (WCU folks have to work...we get an extra day off at Christmas in exchange).

Black Bean, Rice, and Sweet Corn Salad

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1/3 cup)

Ingredients

• 1  cup  water
• 1  teaspoon  salt, divided
• 1/2  cup  long-grain rice
• 6  tablespoons  fresh lime juice (about 2 large limes)
• 2  tablespoons  extravirgin olive oil
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1  garlic clove, minced
• 1  cup  rinsed and drained canned black beans
• 1  cup  fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation

Combine 1 cup water and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large, heavy saucepan; bring to a boil. Add rice to pan. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork.
Combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, juice, oil, pepper, and garlic in a large bowl. Add rice and beans; toss to coat. Let stand 15 minutes or until completely cool. Stir in corn and cilantro.

Nutritional Information

Calories:  111 (30% from fat)

Fat:  3.7g (sat 0.5g,mono 2.6g,poly 0.5g)

Protein:  2.8g

Carbohydrate:  18.5g

Fiber:  2.2g

Cholesterol:  0.0mg

Iron:  1.1mg

Sodium:  387mg

Calcium:  16mg

Joanne Weir, Cooking Light, SEPTEMBER 2007

Salsa anyone?

Check out my homemade topsy turveys!  The shepherd's hook with the sun on it (furthest from the camera) is one I already had.  I was hoping to use the one with two hooks for both pots, but they were just too heavy--I kinda saw that coming.  Not sure if I'm going to return it & get two of the smaller hooks or keep it & still get two smaller hooks...the only problem with that is that the plants might grow so large they touch the ground.  The best option would be to have my husband build me something sturdy to hang them on. 

All in all I like how they turned out.  I have a tomato plant, pickling cucumber, & serrano pepper.  My coworker made pickles a while back, so I want to try that out.  The idea behind doing this (topsy turveys) is that 1. they're off the ground so less likely to become diseased or infested & 2. they're closer to the house, so I'm more likely to attend to them.  :o)

And speaking of my coworker...it's the same lady who gave me the plants in this post.  I have some bad news about the plants.  I had my husband spray the front slope & apparently it was windy because my newly planted beebalm & mountain mint got hit.  :o(  The beebalm has pulled through and I think the mountain mint might pull through too.  It looks like there's still some green leaves at the top of the plant.  I know, boring, but I was pretty upset. 

Happy gardening!