A Few of My Favorites

I recently found this little tea cup and saucer at a tag sale. I was so excited to find another treasure for my collection. I have loved violets since childhood and somewhere along the way I started a collection of tea cups with violets on them. Mark gave this bud vase to me as a gift. I use it every summer, and love it.

The floral arrangement also is full of some of my favorites. We have recently had very heavy rain in our area and many of our plants were beaten down. The Madonna lilies are in full bloom right now so they are especially heavy and susceptible to the weight of the rain. The lavender was laying very close to the ground too, so I added a few to this vase. The lilies are very fragrant and that perfume mixed with the lavender scent is DELICIOUS!

The Madonna lilies are special to me because they are from bulbs that my paternal grandpa had. He was a very masculine man and very "old school". As a young child he would allow me to help him water his flowers. Most adults were not allowed into that part of his world. These Madonna lilies are from those days of my childhood. I treasure those memories.

Each time I pass by this bouquet today I will have a lovely fragrance treat.

Trying out my green thumb

It is that time of the year when we all are just itchin' to get outdoors and get our hands into the soil. It is a little early for that in our neck of the woods. So I decided to get crafty and trim back some of the leggy plants in the living room and get them potted up to share with one of our daughters.

Years ago a wise older woman told me that she always put her soil in the oven to kill any bacteria if she was reusing her potting soil. I have found that it works just as well in the microwave. I just put the soil in a microwave save bowl and pop it in for a while. Why buy new soil if you have some left over?

Somewhere along the line I have learned that a marble in the center hole will prevent the soil from oozing out when you water. It is always best to use a clean pot to plant in. This one still needs to be scrubbed.

 This is the plant slip in a  little rooting container. When the original plant got a too leggy, I trimmed back some of the over growth and let it root in a vase of water on the window sill. I was able to keep an eye on it there to make sure that it always had plenty of water.

Planting will always work better if you have good root growth before you pot up the plants. This is really nice growth. The stems of the plants are still strong. If the stem was "mooshey" it wouldn't be a good candidate to pot up.

This Klanchoe is all potted and ready to go to it's new home. They are succulents and this has been a nice houseplant. Now I will try to figure out how to make it bloom.

Lovely Lasagna

We have some food allergies in our family and when I am having a family meal I don't want anyone to think about food safety issues. I want everyone to enjoy the food and fellowship of eating as a family. One of the hearty family meals that I have gotten comfortable with is Eggplant Lasagna. I posted this photo to my Facebook page so that I could say thank you to the family from our church that brings produce to share with others from our congregation. I got so many requests for the recipe I thought maybe I should post it here as well.

Growing up we didn't have very many mixed dishes because my dad was more of a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I learned to make lasagna from one of my co-workers at my first "real" job. We worked long hours and she was a goddess about using the crock pot or making big meals on Sat. and Sun. and warming them up for the rest of the week evening meals.

I use one pound of ground meat browned. I have used turkey, venison, beef, and sausage. I use what ever I have. We really do like the sausage mixed with venison about 1/2 a pound of each.

I use enough eggplant sliced top to bottom to make two layers of "noodles". We use these thin slices of eggplant to completely replace all of the noodles.

The next layer is ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese. I use what I have. I like the creamy ricotta, but I use low fat cottage cheese if it is more cost effective.

The next layer is a few shakes of Italian spices, more or less to your taste, and about 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Pour about 1/2 jar of your favorite pasta sauce over that and start the layer process again. If you have mushrooms they are a super duper addition to the heartiness of this dish.

I bake this uncovered for about 1/2 an hour then cover it and bake till done, usually another 1/2 hour. If your eggplant slices are thick it may take a little longer. I bake this in a 9 x 13 dish at 350 degrees.

I hope you will try this with some of your garden splendor.

Ingredient List:
1 lb of ground meat browned. Throw some slices onions in there too.
1-2 Eggplants sliced thinly as the "noodles"
1 -16 ounce container of cottage cheese or ricotta
2 cups of Mozzarella cheese divided
Parmesan cheese use with your discretion
1-32 oz jar of your favorite pasta sauce
Italian spices
Nice additions if you have them, would be mushroom slices.

Bake about one hour in a 9 x 13 pan at 350 degrees.

The Fruit of My Labor

Psalm 128:2 You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be! NLT

As you all knew, this summer has been especially hard for gardeners, including me! However after much dedication to watering I was able to taste my first ripe cherry tomato today!

Since watering was such a task, I got crafty and buried half of a two liter soda can with small holes drilled in the lid for slower watering.

I am also enjoying my snapdragons and day lilies.

Pinterest Busters- Natural Weed Killer

We often pin, but how often do we really get the gumption to try out these things?

Oh trust me, I got the gumption. There is nothing I hate more than weeds in a drive way. I swear it makes a house look dumpy in an instant, and our house has no shortage of driveway weeds. SO, I took the plunge and tried this natural weed killer I found on Pinterest.

As per usual I didn't have the right ingredient so I went with what we had. I ended up using..

• All the salt I could find in the house, which wasn't quite 1/2 a cup
• Apple Vinegar instead of Pickling Vinegar
• "A squeeze of dish soap." I had no idea what that meant so I was very generous. 

Here were my results.

Pinterest Busters Final Say: GOOD STUFF!!

Marissa's Green Thumb

Now that the weather in Michigan has been consistently above freezing at night for about two weeks I've enjoyed doing some gardening the last few days.

Today I planted a few hostas that my mother gave me from her garden and, with the help of my husband, lined the front of the flower bed with small native stones.


Front of our apartment.

I planted the tulip bulbs below last fall and was very pleased to see such beautiful flowers with so little maintenance!

Tulips on the back side of our apartment.

And no flower bed would be complete without your favorite! Paul's favorite flowers are lily of the valley and today was the first time we saw our new lily of the valley blooms.

On the back side of our apartment.