Happy 70th Birthday to my HUBBY!

My neighbors daughter Sasha made this cake for Gabe. It was AMAZING! The girl has talent! She's only 16 years old 😉

Maribel and Henry hosted the party and the theme was Diving into 70's. She decorated the carport with sharks and turtles. I didn't get a photo of how great it looked but maybe someone else did and will add a photo if I can.

 

Tomato Pride!!!

 Introduction:

Maribel, my neighbor. She has lived in the neighborhood as long as we have.

I have always loved to garden and can't remember not growing something. Maribel - not.

She grew up in NYC then moved to Miami. The house across from us is the first house she has lived in. As an apartment person she never had the ability to grow flowers or veggies. Then a pushy old lady told her all about gardening.

She started out a few years ago redesigning the front of her house. She drew the design and from there it was no stopping her.

All the plants she personally picked out and did a wonderful job.

It looked great but it needed some color. Maribel picked up LOTS of hanging baskets and placed them around the newly designed yard.  It looked nice but the baskets were on the ground. Old lady mentions maybe she should look into Shepard hooks. Her hubby went on Amazon and bought her a bunch of hooks and her house looks like something out of house beautiful. 

She decided we wanted to try growing veggies. I knew she could but she wasn't so sure especially after her banana tree was demolished by some animal.

The tomato plants are babied. She takes them out only between the house of 12 to 4. After their few hours in the sun it's back in the porch where they are secure from critters who would love to taste test them.

I was honored to be given the very first RED tomato she grew❤

This was SO GOOD! Memories of summer back home on Long Island.

Garden

I love my garden. I'm work outside everyday. In these troubling times my garden has now become a "victory" garden.

If everything comes up I'll have plenty of Seminole Pumpkins, Roselle, Cucumbers and eggplant.

Loquat Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

25 loquats halved and pitted
3/4 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick butter
3/4 granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cups milk
maraschino cherries - optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375

For the topping: melt the butter and mix with brown sugar.

Arrange loquats on a greased 9 inch cake pan with cut sides down. Then pour the melted butter with the brown sugar over the loquats.
In a bowl sift together flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In another bowl cream butter with granulated sugar until smoothy and creamy. Then beat in vanilla and eggs. Combine dry ingredients with the batter mix, then add the milk and beat.
Pour batter over loquats.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cake cool for 10 minutes then flip it over a plate (before the caramel becomes sticky!).


I know this isn't something everyone can make. I never heard of a Loquat when I lived in NY. Loquats are not sold in the grocery store and I'm lucky to have a neighbor who allowed me to pick from her tree.

Since everything is pretty much shut down due to the virus I have lots of time to bake. I love making new things and this was very good!

Dorian

Hurricanes really bring out the worst in people.  We’re not even sure if we’re getting hit yet, and literally ALL STORES are out of water. At that point, are you buying water for yourself, or just buying water so no one else can have it? 

"Oooohhh, I wish it would magically disappear", or "I wish it would suddenly do a 180" aren't as realistic though.

It slightly changing course and hitting another state though, that is something that could happen, so people cling to that more realistic hope instead.


And of course, they don't have qualms with someone else getting hit instead of them. If they didn't have that mentality, you'd have universal healthcare in the states. But its everybody for themselves, and maybe for the family or next-door neighbor.

Afternoon with Jamie

                                            Jamie with Dori, one of her six horses.

Dori intimidated me due to her size. The pony and I got along great.

Jamie and Jeff also have 2 goats, 1 bull and 40 heads of cattle. We rode around the farm ( 70 acres) on a ATV and the cows were running after the ATV.

They also have 5 dogs and a new Great Pyrenees puppy.

Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Copycat Recipe

Mey's husband Richard loves cookies.  Since to love to bake I went to Mey's house and made a batch of these.

Mey's grandson visits every weekend and I told him to grab a few of the cookies. He loved them and said he now has 2 Grandmas! LOL

1 cup unsalted butter, softened 2 sticks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar packed
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp. real vanilla extract no imitation vanilla flavoring
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
3/4 tsp.  kosher salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 12-oz. bags semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 18-oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips)


Preheat oven to 350°.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder and baking soda with an electric mixer until smooth.
Stir in flour and chocolate chips till well combined.
Shape dough * with hands into golf ball-sized dough balls and place a couple inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for  13 minutes or until edges are light brown. 

I like to chill the dough for about an hour.

Springs & State Parks

I was chatting with Myra about Gabe diving. The only reason we live in this area is the caves.

He's been to 50% of the caves mentioned above. 

Support

This is such a perfect post for the end of 2018. Gabe and I spent Christmas at the beach. Every morning we would be up before the sun. We checked the wind before we began to make sure it was against us. Coming back it was at our backs and the first sun of the day shined upon us.

One morning was very windy. We were on our way back and I noticed an older couple walking towards us. He was having a hard time walking against the wind. His wife grabbed onto him,  into the wind they walked.

Next day we saw them again and both walking barefoot on the beach still holding hands.

Each day I would smile and say good morning. On our last day I hoped to see them again and there they were walking towards us, still hand in hand.

I stopped to wish them a good new year and told them how I looked forward to seeing them each morning.

I asked how long they have been married- he said 50 years plus. I told them I loved how they held hands. He told me he can't see well anymore and she is hard of hearing!  Each to supporting the other.

Walking into the sunrise

Gabe and I walk every morning. We meet a few of our neighbors and usually walk about two miles.

 Great exercise and fun conversations.

Miracle Whip AKA MAYO

Mayo is a tiny town with a population of 1200 citizens. The   median income for a family is $28,438.

 Miracle Whip Brand.

 For the “name change,” the town received a $25,000 donation from the company for beautification projects.  August 26th, 2018 Mayo temporarily changed it's name to Miracle Whip as an advertising stunt.

ACR HUNNIES

Did anyone watch roller derby when they were a kid? It was on Saturday mornings and I remember watching on our black and white tv.

The skaters in those days you did not want to mess with. Times have changed and it's about skill now and not brawn.

We saw the season opener last night. Something different to do and entertaining.

Sometime trash can be a treasure

This quilt was recently featured at the Trenton, Florida Quilt Show.

The story of the quilt is amazing. It was at a yard sale in a black trash bag. Someone looked in the bag and saw the quilt and asked how much and they told her ten dollars!!!

It's a huge quilt! It could easily fit on a king size bed. The squares are also hand sewed. If you look closely a heart is in the right hand corner of each square.

Flower Girls

Stop! I'm sensitive.

It  is not known exactly why Mimosa Pudica evolved this trait, but many scientists think that the plant uses its ability to shrink as a defense from herbivores. Animals may be afraid of a fast moving plant and would rather eat a less active one. Another possible explanation is that the sudden movement dislodges harmful insects. Once the leaves shrink , only the thorns are exposed.

They close up when it rains, too. In a way, this GIF kind of ended too soon, because, often, when one set closes, it causes a chain reaction and all the adjacent leaves fold up too. And then the other branches will do the same. A moment later, the whole plant has closed up.
Kids love these.

Plus, their mini pom-pom flowers are pretty.

The photo below is one of the flowers in our yard. Not planted, grew wild.

Limes & Jalapenos

My little Jalapeno has made quite a few roads trip back and forth to Florida. It's about 3 years old and still thriving.

 My Lime Tree which is over 38 years old ( my father gave it to me when he lived in Florida). Sharon and Don take care of it when we are in NY.

It wasn't doing well after I transplanted it but as you can see there are plenty of limes on it!

Thanks to Chi- Ling for the photos.

Kindness Surely Rocks....

                                            THE KINDNESS ROCK PROJECT.  

When I found the heart shaped rock below I was walking the beach and was thrilled to to find it. I didn't do anything with the rock, it was just a nice reminder that I am loved.

This was the first rock I painted. It was given away to my wonderful neighbors John and Elsie

A facebook group had a photo of faces painted on rocks. I was amazed of the time and talent it took to paint each rock! When she finishes she seals and hides them for others to find. How wonderful is that! I had to find out more about painting rocks.

I mentioned the painted rock project to the Sag Harbor Library. They never heard of it and I hope they add it to the fall programs this year.

If you never heard if painting rocks and hiding to spread random "rock's" of kindness I hope you find this post helpful. It's easy, anyone can do it. Florida has many Facebook groups. Type in your state and add rocks and you never know you might have a group in your community. Pinterest also has tons of ideas. You never will know if someone will find the rock you hid but if they found one, it may bring some joy into someone's life.

Trenton Florida Quilt Show- 3/18/17

                                       A few of my favorite quilts from the show

Serendipitous Flowers

Walmart was giving out roses after Valentine's Day. They called it customer appreciation day and I happen to be in the store and was handed the above red rose. Talk about surprise! First time I ever got anything free from that store.😁

I love orchids. At one time I had 6 beautiful plants. This is my only survivor. I was shocked that it produced a flower for me and might bloom three more times!

This poor little plant did not make the trip back to NY with us. I left it in the backyard by a sprinkler head. When we returned it didn't look great but with lots of TLC it grew stronger. 

Steven Foster Quilt Show -2016