Pictures of the Day 7-11-12

I love when things grow voluntarily 

on their own!

a group of sunflowers decided to pop 

up in our garden

Which have given  the bees

a happy haven to do 

their work!

Amoung other things that decided to grow on their own 

are these pumpkins...hopefully they make it until fall!

Picture of the Day 03-20-12

Picture of the Day ADD YOUR CAPTION!It's been a rough few weeks but taking this picture this morning just made my day and brought a smile to my face. 
Typically we hear Mr Rooster cockadoodle dooing in the wee hours of the morning and its a comforting feeling that takes me back to when I lived on a farm with my mother.  Only thing is we don't live on a farm nor in the country, we live smack dab in the city.  Occasionally, we hear it's owner calling his name telling him to get home when he gets out.  When I heard him this morning I could tell he was right outside our house when I went out I found him atop our fence but I scared him and there he was walkin' the line in the street like I'd asked him to do a sobriety test or something.

Picture of the Day 8-02-11

Now that's a big shopping cart! I wouldn't 

want to be the one filling it up LOL

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Picture of the Day 7-12-11

Meet Steampunk Scuba Sam

My flowers are in full bloom and were falling over so hubby created this unique flower holder from old copper pipes. 

It gave me a good laugh!

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Pomegranate Liqueur

Picture of the Day
Don't these look tasty....what are they you ask? Arils aka Pomegranate seeds (thanks to my friend Kris I never knew they had another name).  As a kid I loved eating pomegranates, I think part of the thrill was getting the treasured seeds out.  We have a pomegranate tree so for my kids they were treasured gems to be traded at school for sugary treats they didn't get at home.  Here's a little bit about the medicinal qualities of pomergranates: More recent research has found that eight ounces of pomegranate juice daily for three months improved the amount of oxygen getting to the heart muscle of patients with coronary heart disease (American Journal of the College of Cardiology, Sept. 2005). Other researchers report that long-term consumption of pomegranate juice may help combat erectile dysfunction.

My mother in law use to make pomegranate jelly 

which my husband loved....that seemed like way too much work 

to me for jelly, but pomegranate liqueur now that's a different story LOL

Pomegranate Liqueur Recipe

Ingredients:

Pomegranates should be as ripe and red as you can get them. Too young, and the flavor may be weak. Too old, and they will, of course, already be rotten. Larger pomegranates are preferred, if only for yield. I generally get 12 ounces of juice (separate from the pulp) for each pair of pomegranates.  If your fruit yields much less than that, toss in another one or so, so you get about 12 ounces of juice total.  If unsure, err on the side of plenty.  I've run with as much as 16 ounces.

• 2 large pomegranates, pods only
• 1 1/2 cups vodka
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3/8 cups water
• 1/2 peel, lemon, scraped

Preparation:

Remove pods from pomegranates. Throw away rind and pith. Press out all the juice with a good, sturdy press. Put the resulting juice and pulp in a 1-liter mason jar (any glass jar you can effectively seal works; I use Arc jars from France, and Fidenza jars from Italy). Prepare lemon peel, toss in jar. Add vodka. Seal jar.

Steep two weeks (though I have left it as much as four with no ill effects), turning it over once a day. Strain and filter. Squeeze the pulp moderately hard, but realize that the harder you squeeze, the harder will be the job of filtering later on. It's a tough balance to make.

Now, boil the sugar and water together. Let stand a moment to cool. Add syrup to mixture, and seal quickly. Age another month. Remove, filter again, bottle. You should note that there's a thick haze or sludge on the bottom of your jar, and you will find it incredibly difficult to filter out with anything but a serious wine filter. Instead, you might consider racking the liqueur (siphoning the good liqueur off the top, and discarding the sludge on the bottom). You lose a little bit of liquid along with the sludge, but you sure save yourself a lot of work filtering.

Yield: Total liquid (1.5 cups vodka, .75 cups syrup, 1.5 cups pomegranate juice) 3.75 cups. Proof: about 35.  Recipe compliments of: http://www.guntheranderson.com/liqueurs/pomegran.htm

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Picture of the Day 11-03-2010

It's so nice to be told your appreciated and thanked once in awhile!  After a particularly rough day with all the males in my household, my sons and hubby gave me these 2 beautiful cards and a flower from my son's garden. The nice gesture went a long way to redeem them after their escapades! The vase hubby made from found objects tossed at work, I think it's a pretty cool looking vase :-)


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