The Artist

The link here will take you to a beautiful piece

that was a wonderful read to start the day.

I hope you enjoy it too.

The Artist

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Kiwi-Ginger Sauce

This is the recipe I found yesterday for using Kiwi fruit. We had never had Kiwi before and let me tell you this recipe is absolutely exotically wonderful.

We had Mahi Mahi in the freezer so that is what I defrosted for supper to serve this sauce over. While we were enjoying our exotic dinner, I told DH it would be great on chicken, and he said and pork. We both loved this. DH said it would be a great recipe to open a restaurant with.

Enjoy.


The recipe came from CAL Harvest Marketing.

***********

Kiwifruit Ginger Sauce

1/2 cup each vertically sliced onion, julienne carrot and green pepper

1 tablespoon each julienne fresh ginger root and vegetable oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup each packed brown sugar and vinegar

3 kiwifruit, pared and sliced


Saute onion, carrot, green pepper and ginger in oil.
Mix cornstarch and water;
add brown sugar and vinegar.
Pour over vegetable mixture and cook until thickened.
Quickly stir in kiwifruit.
Pour over prepared fish, chicken, or pork just before serving.

Makes 2 1/2 cups sauce.

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Strawberry Bread

Today we did our errands. One of our stops was at the veggie market where we bought several items, one of which was strawberries. I did a search for strawberry recipes, wanting to make a bread of some sort, and found this wonderful recipe.

DH thought this was really good and said so more than once. I love it too.

The recipe is from Indobase Recipes.


Ingredients:
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Cinnamon, ground
1 1/4 cups Pecans, chopped
1 1/4 cups Vegetable Oil
2 cups White Sugar
2 cups Strawberries, fresh
3-1/8 cups All-Purpose Flour
4 Eggs, beaten

How to make Strawberry Bread:

Prepare oven by preheating to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Centigrade).

Take two 9 inch loaf pans, butter and flour them.

In a medium sized bowl, slice strawberries and sprinkle with sugar.

Set aside and begin preparing bread dough.

In a large bowl, mix baking soda, cinnamon, sugar, flour and salt.

In the strawberry mixture add oil and eggs.

Combine the flour and strawberry mixture and
stir until all ingredients are moist.

Stir in the pecans to this mixture.

Divide the batter into the two loaf pans.

Bake in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes
and remove once a tester (like a toothpick)
inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Once done, let it cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.

Turn loaves out of pan and let to cool completely.







Now I'm off to the kitchen to fix another recipe found today,
using kiwi fruit, which we've never had before.
The recipe is for a Kiwi-Ginger Sauce that I will serve on Mahi-Mahi.
I'll post that recipe and pictures later.

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Longer views :-)

Good morning, I hope you are all having a lovely day.
It is partly cloudy here, and we've had a few sprinkles.
Thunderstorms are predicted for today and tomorrow.

Click on pictures for larger views.

I thought some of you might like to see longer views,
where I take close-up shots,
here at



Here is a picture of the street out front. Since it is Sunday morning,
traffic is a lot less.



Here is our tropical/cottage/hedgerow. We like our privacy, especially since our street went from two lanes to 4, plus the middle turning lane. This used to be a quiet street, but not any more. The speed limit is 45, but a lot of people go much faster than that, trying to make the light at the intersection. The front gate little path is where the indent is in the hedgerow. The sandy area in our little lawn is where I pile brush to be picked up once a week.



This is the front gate off the sidewalk, which we keep locked.
We had too many visits at night from people who had no business being in here.



This is our driveway gate, made by my DH. We did this after someone went down the driveway, all the way back to where we park our cars. We knew someone had been in our property because the cable with a no trespassing sign hanging on it was down and they had left a car door standing open.



At the same time DH put up fencing to finish off enclosing our front, and made the arbor for this gate for entering our front patio. Someone had stolen plants and a nice piece of petrified wood from this area a few years back. We keep it locked at night. You can see my little Plum Cottage sign hanging on the fence to the left of gate. This garden area is still a work in progress as it's only a year old.



This is just inside the gate, looking west.



This is looking north.
The screened porch is off the kitchen,
and our main entry.



This is looking south, towards the street,
the path goes off to the mailbox to the left of the clay pipe
and also heads west.


This is our front patio which is off my little craft/office space,
looking west.



This is the path on the south side of the little patio,
street on the left, and we are heading towards the main garden.


Here is the main garden.



This path is the one the meter reader takes,
after he walks across the front little patio.


Another view of the main garden.



This is the gate into the main garden.



This is a little island bed on the west side of main garden.



This path runs along side the main garden.



This heads on around to the back side of main garden.
There is a bench there to rest on.



This is a view of the fork.
These paths are roofing shingles and roll roofing.



This is on the west side of the little island bed.
In this island bed there are roses, lilies, crotons and hibiscus.


This is my little sitting area that we made last year. It has a lattice roof, which has Phyllis Bide growing up over the top from the back fencing of main garden. On the other end of the lattice roof I hope to get blue sky vine growing (Thunbergia grandiflora). It's just a baby right now.


This view is from the little space pictured above.



This is the view from the bench at the back of the garden.



This is from the middle of garden looking at the back where bench is.



Here I'm standing on the path on the east side of main garden.



Now, I'm on the other side of the driveway gate looking north. We found that huge fiberglass fish curbside on the next street. Since I'm a pisces, we brought it home, then had a hard time figuring out where to hang it. I know, we're weird.


This is looking toward the kitchen/scullery.



Shed garden.



Secret garden, which you get to through the door
that has the wreath hanging on it in the above picture.



Back screened room with jacuzzi, outdoor shower,
old cast iron claw foot tub, and my swing.
This area is still a work in progress.



This view is from inside the screened room.
The wood sculpture is actually a piece of our Melaleuca tree
that came down in the hurricanes.
We liked the artistic look so kept it.
DH bolted it to a base.
It is actually standing upside down,
from the way it was as part of the tree.



That's it folks.

I want to say thank you to all of you
who have left comments here on my blog.
Through you, I have come to see our small place
as a little jewel in the making.
We live frugally,
we 'curbside shop',
we are thankful for our many blessings.

Tomorrow is a new day.
One in which to live, love, laugh and learn.

Happy Living and Gardening,

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL