You may have seen a few weeks ago, I was growing pumpkins. I noticed that the vines were dying and the pumpkins were not turning that beautiful pumpkin color. So, I searched the ever ready internet for more knowledge. I found out that pumpkins can continue to turn orange even off the vine as long as they are receiving enough sun-light. I hauled them to the front of the house, only to realize that the sun only shines there a couple of hours in the morning. I loaded them back up onto my handy garden cart (my friends K&E gave it to us as a housewarming gift) and hauled them to the backyard. The days are getting shorter and you guessed it…the shadows are getting longer. The pumpkins got about 5 hours of sun in the backyard. Now I could have put them right in the middle of the yard and they would have gotten a lot more sun, but with the sprinklers going on and off, I would have had to do a lot of lifting and huffing and puffing.They do look nice around the front door, don’t they! I added a couple of extra’s that I purchased at the local farmers market – the small white one and the reddish one. Anyway, my sassy friend came over the other day and said she loved the spotted green pumpkin and the half orange one! Of course, I had to tell her that I had raised them from but a mere seed. I was impressed with myself, even if anyone else wasn’t!
Last week was my birthday! After plenty of mental seed planting, I was pretty sure that Handsome
Husband was going to come through with the much wished for gift, from the best cooking shop around. I had inside information that Darling Daughter did a bit of shopping and she does know where to go and she has been taught to shop like a pro. Armed with this information, I had a plan. During lunch, I dashed to the grocery store to pickup a few key ingredients. Weeknight birthdays do not lend themselves to going out for a wild night on the town, so dinner at home was on my mind. And besides the Biggest Loser was on and we wouldn’t want to miss it now, would we? Especially while eating dinner.Handsome Husband showed up with fresh flowers and there were presents! Yeah. Surprisingly enough there was the very paella pan that I had been ogling at the store, all wrapped up and waiting to be ripped into. How could I tell, you ask? Well, the store wrapped it in cellophane, so it wasn’t that hard to figure out. See it there just sitting in my lap waiting to be opened?
Armed with a cold drink in my hand, I headed to the kitchen. Now, Handsome Husband asks if he can help, because it is my birthday after all. That was all I needed – it was on. I chopped, diced, grinded, grated and measured all while sitting at the counter spouting off directions to
Handsome Husband…it is my birthday remember. Earlier I searched the internet for a small paella recipe (there is no such thing). I found a recipe on Food Network indicating that it served 6. It failed to mention that it served 6 contestants of the Biggest Loser, who are currently not dieting! It had 40 shrimp, ½ of spicy sausage, 2 chicken breasts, a pound of clams and 3 cups of rice. I should have known, but it was my birthday and I wasn’t thinking clearly through the fog of over 40.
We began to cook. The pan looked big and the ingredients looked like a drop in the pan. Then it happened, it started to grow. It took on a life of its’ own. I envisioned it filling the entire kitchen the way the rice was puffing up. Before we knew it the pan was about to overflow. No, not on the stove – I just cleaned it! Alas, I got up off of my comfy bar stool and away from my cool drink and started to bale rice and broth out of the pan. Just in time too, because it never really overflowed and therefore I did not have to clean the stove again.
Handsome Husband and I had a great time cavorting around the kitchen and dinner was finally served at the fashionably late hour of nine o’clock. There were about 3 ½ pounds of leftovers, so we sent them home with Boy who surely shared with his parents and brothers. In fact, Boys parents did tell me that they ate them right up.
We had a Timpano Party last weekend. Keep checking and I’ll fill you in.
