Lenten Rose

With such warm weather - everything is blooming earlier then usual.  I had to remove all the burlap from the trees and shrubs this weekend a month earlier then I normally would.  Everything is blooming and budding out.  The Lenten rose was blooming throughout the garden and we have several varieties.  Daffodils and tulips coming up and the forsythia are all blooming.  

Enchilada Casserole

We continued our experimenting with recipes this weekend for the Casserole Contest during Bovina Days this summer.  We made this incredible enchilada casserole this weekend.  It was delicious with some minor tweeks and as soon as we decide on the final ingredients, we will post the recipe.  We have several weekends and several more recipes to experiment with.  However, this was great.

You Know It's Spring...

You know it's Spring when the tadpole eggs show up.  Nervous about all the warm weather because we still have another month officially before we can plant.  However, that doesn't seem to have stopped the frogs from laying eggs.  There were the usual amount of eggs in the pond this season and I caught a couple of frogs in the act.  We shall see if the heron shows up.  Another Summer and another batch of babies.

New Leer Camper Shell

Spent all day Friday having work done on the pick-up.  3 hours at the Nissan dealership to have a sensor replaced on the brake system and then 3 hours at Trailor King in Poughkeepsie having the new Leer shell put on the back of the truck.  The shell will just be a huge help hauling furniture and building supplies.  The whole experience at Trailor King was great - really nice group of people -  just a little discomfort when I asked the woman behind the desk for access to the Wifi. She kept telling me that she was giving me the code to her "hotspot" and joking with her co-workers that she was giving me access to her "hotspot" - I just smiled and said to myself - "if she only knew what a waste all that flirting was on me. " Super nice people and great service!

We Sort of Love Global Warming

This weekend was incredible.  71 degrees, sunny, warm,  and breezy.  We don't usually see this kind of weather until May.  I was out in the yard in tee, shorts and flip flops.  Loved it.  Mrs. M emailed us from their vacation in Puerto Rico to tell us how jealous she was of the weather in Bovina.  It was a gift weekend.  We spent every moment outside.  Projects this weekend:

Stained new coffee table
Painted guest bath mirror
Painted outdoor chairs
Weeded for 2 hours
Baked sugar cookies to freeze for Easter
Made paper mache Easter eggs with colored tissue paper for Easter
Started testing casserole recipes for Bovina Days Casserole Contest this summer
Had the most incredible dinner - Steak Grillade with Cheese Grits - Yum

I am truly concerned about Global Warming but if it cuts a few days off our long winter weather - maybe it might not be so bad?  Just grateful for such a perfect weekend.

 

Yarn Art

Tim and I were in Chelsea at Lion Brand Yarn Studio Store after work and they have this great yarn artist featured in their window who designed yarn art replicating Van Gogh and Picasso paintings. They were incredible, I would rather have these then the paintings.  Amazingly talented.

How bout This?

So what if we make some planter birdhouses and some light birdhouses?  I don't think the birds would like the bulbs but it would look great at night!

More Birdhouse Ideas

Just more house ideas:

Bird House Slash Vertical Garden

In my search for Birdhouses, I came across a great idea to combine a birdhouse with a garden and I think this is such a cute idea.  The birdhouse shapes would be very simple to build and then the kids could plant these mini herb and moss gardens on top of the birdhouses and we would hang all of them on a large trellis.  Very cute.

Bird House Project

We have this big week this summer with 16 people coming upstate.  We are trying to plan some ideas for the kids and one of the ideas that Tim and I had was to Build A Bird House day.  ( I know you can't force kids to build bird houses all day but one can hope).  So, I have been looking at bird house ideas that would be fun and simple for the kids to build and paint.  I am obsessing over all the great ideas out there.   Here are just a few of them:

Guest Bathroom Remodel

The guest bath is coming along nicely but slowly.  The floor is down, the wainscoting is up, painting slowly getting finished, lighting replaced, hardware replaced, and so we have just just tile tweeking and plumbing details and it will be done by the time we have the family up for July 4th week.  No one tells you how complicated a bath remodel can be - and ours was all cosmetic changes?  We have to do the master bath as well and it will probably wait till next winter but at least the smaller job has given us a clue about how much work it involves.

Tim's Birthday Finale

We have been celebrating Tim's birthday for the last three weeks and the finale was a wonderful dinner given by our neighbors and best friends, M & M.  They cooked a delicious dinner and the highlight was Tim's favorite birthday cake - yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  It was delicious.  








Best Yellow Layer Cake
Yield: Two 9-inch round, 2-inch tall cake layers, and, in theory, 22 to 24 cupcakes, two 8-inch squares or a 9×13 single-layer cake
4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (480 grams) cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
2 sticks (1 cup, 1/2 pound or 225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (400 grams) sugar
2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk (475 ml), well-shaken
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.
Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Only cooking note: Be sure that your sour cream is at room temperature before you make the frosting.
Makes 5 cups of frosting, or enough to frost and fill a two layer 9-inch cake
15 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 teaspoons instant espresso (optional, but can be used to pick up the flavor of average chocolate)
2 1/4 cups sour cream, at room temperature
1/4 to 1/2 cup light corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine the chocolate and espresso powder, if using, in the top of a double-boiler or in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted. (Alternately, you can melt the chocolate in a microwave for 30 seconds, stirring well, and then heating in 15 second increments, stirring between each, until the chocolate is melted.) Remove from heat and let chocolate cool until tepid.
Whisk together the sour cream, 1/4 cup of the corn syrup and vanilla extract until combined. Add the tepid chocolate slowly and stir quickly until the mixture is uniform. Taste for sweetness, and if needed, add additional corn syrup in one tablespoon increments until desired level of sweetness is achieved.
Let cool in the refrigerator until the frosting is a spreadable consistency. This should not take more than 30 minutes. Should the frosting become too thick or stiff, just leave it out until it softens again.