Purple Daylily and Fried Fish

 

Today, I finally took the cardinal wing pattern and one of the wings and delivered them to the guy who will cut them for me. The last place cut them wrong.

When I went to Lowe's for something I could not find, I went to the half-dead plant area and found a pot with daylilies--Purple D' Oro. There are several blossoms ready. Tommy watered it. Tomorrow, I will clean it up, riding it of dead matter.  The strawberry daylily I bought at the plant sale is read to bloom. 

Earlier in the afternoon, we went to see the church that burned here a few days ago. It was sad, appearing to be completely gutted. And Tommy showed me where he lived just before he bought this house. We were actually looking for a certain food truck. We knew where her commissary was, so went there. A cook was gathering the tables and chairs, taking them indoors. He told us where to find the food truck on FB, so we could find her. She lists her locations each day of the week. I asked the guy what kind of food they cook. He pointed to his food truck and said it was all soul food. In his restaurant I suppose it was different food. I asked him what he cooked today--fish and chicken. 

He obviously took a liking to me. I was talking to the older man, a cook, who said he was through cooking for the day. The owner came out with a styrofoam to go box and handed it to me. I was so surprised. He said it was fish. Well, I opened it and started eating with my hands, pinching off bites and devouring the fish. After I thanked him profusely, we drove off. Only then did I realize he had handed me a pack of utensils! I was sort of embarrassed. 

We will go back there to eat one day. I have not had hush puppies in years! Soul Food is notoriously unhealthy, but maybe this place is different.

I told Tommy we were eating purple cauliflower for dinner. He always turns up his nose. I handed him a small piece, about the size of the last joint in my little finger. He ate it without turning up his nose, making a face or spitting it out. We had plenty of protein today, so I am baking vegetables--purple cauliflower, carrots, and potatoes. I put them is a glass casserole with olive oil, garlic powder, and onion powder. They were delicious. He served his own plate. I noticed he had a generous helping of purple cauliflower. So, I suppose he has been converted. 

I have a whole chicken thawing. Tomorrow, I will bake it in the oven or put it in the crockpot. We have potatoes, purple cauliflower, and slaw. So, dinner will be easy. We did not have many carrots to have those leftover. NO! There is no more cauliflower for leftovers. Tommy ate it all! So, he really does like purple cauliflower...lol. 

For the last two or three days, he has been telling me about new flowers that grew from an empty container, asking me what they were. Finally, I stopped on the way to the car. I had bought a six-pack of pink Wave Petunias last summer. When I became ill, they burned up in the heat. Now, two of the tiny pots have a petunia each. I will put those in a hanging pot. 

I had a seed ball and a postcard with paper embedded with seed. Both went into identical pots. Both concepts were wildflowers. One of the pots has a plant with purple flowers. It is about 18 inches tall. I am quite sure these wildflowers would be labeled "weeds," We certainly are enjoying all the flowers even if they are weeds. 

I decided I will no longer buy Nature's Own Keto. It is too thick, hard to gnaw off a sandwich. From now on, I will buy Arnold's. It has three grams per slice, just one more gram than NO, but that is okay. 

The day went well, considering I only slept four hours! It was a good day with no frustrations or arguments with Tommy. No pushbacks, just cooperation. We enjoyed our impromptu ride, the flowers at home, and the birds flying around here. Of course, the fried fish was wonderful. 

Do you like fried fish? Not the Captain D kind. 

Are you surprised when flowers reseed so late? These pots of petunias have been out of the utility room for over two months. 

Has the smoke from Canada affected your skies? 

Yucky Keto Brownies (edit--death at Publix)

 Today was a good day. I replaced the Wilton brownie pan and found a blouse on sale. It did not rain here once again, but it seemed Birmingham was spared. On the interstate there was about a ten-second spit of rain. We didn't even need the windshield wiper. 

All the flowers faltered a bit a few days ago, but seem to have rallied. The Stella D'Oro are full of flowers now. Maybe the flowers rallied because they got their second dose of fertilizer on Monday. Most of the flower envelopes stated to fertilize once a week, so we will. 

When I was in the research group for people who had had cancer, I was given two boxes of Miracle Gro, for flowers and vegetables. Then, at the final dinner, we could take all the supplies left over from the research project that was ending. Tommy and I both took two boxes of fertilizer. So, we have plenty. 

We both had an appointment with the podiatrist. We were about two months overdue for our next appointment. Her office called and said she had to cancel our last appointment because she was ill. Well today, she said she was in the hospital for a week. She had a pulmonary embolism. She had risk factors and had just traveled by plane. 

After the appointment we did go shopping. Of course, when we came home, I had a nap. 

Dinner: Chicken Cordon Bleu, new potatoes, slaw. I had the last of the strawberries--2, and almost a half cup of blueberries. 

We tried the Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge Brownies, and it stinks. There is nothing thick or fudgy about them. The texture of the batter and the brownie was like corn meal, the chocolate tasted bitter. I love dark chocolate, so this was a different taste, not good. Tommy is not a fan, either. AND, there was this warning--Excessive consumption may cause a laxative effect in sensitive individuals. Just great!

I forgot to include this:

91-year-old woman dies after being struck by vehicle in Cullman (msn.com)

I was told a month ago at this Publix that a woman was hit and knocked into the bushes. I am afraid to cross to the store on the electric cart. I have known this woman for at least 35 years. 

If you do keto, do you find the same texture I did? I think the weird chocolate taste was due to artifical sweeteners. Do you like keto baking items? 

Returns and Recycling

 Monday night, I was so tired  that I went to bed at midnight. I slept well, waking at least five times to go to the bathroom, but went sound asleep after coming back to bed each time. I awoke about 8:30 am feeling like I had been beat up. However, we were out the door for chores by 10 or so.  That means I did get my required 7.5 hours of sleep. 

A call from my gastroenterologist was comforting. My liver enzymes are right. I got no report about spleen, pancreas, or gall bladder even though they were studied. I suppose that is good news. The liver is not in the best shape but no worse than five years ago. I have all the symptoms of gall bladder disease. Over my objections, I have had all sorts of tests, and nothing shows up. I do not encourage these tests. 

We had one thing to do in the morning and one thing in the afternoon. I took back a jacket of sweatsuit fabric and got the right size.  When I bought it, a woman was standing in front of the rack. Instead of asking her to move as she had offered, I asked her to hand me a certain size. She did and I left. Well, I put it on at home and it was tight. She had handed me a jacket two sizes too small.  Today, I could not find my size and just one a size larger. It may or may not work. I bought smaller stemless wine glasses.

We took the recycling to Publix--paper, plastic bags, plastic bottles. We will give soup/tuna cans to someone else to recycle and recycle coke type cans ourselves. I returned the larger wine glasses. 

I mailed a few cards yesterday and have one to mail right now. I no longer hold cards until I get them all ready for the mail, now trying to beat the rush of cards and packages as I can at least for a few of them. It is after 5 pm and dark, yet we have to get my med that I need for my heart health. So, I suppose we will go out again. 

Today has been chilly, dry and very dreary! But, it has not dampened my spirit. IT'S CHRISTMAS! I am not in a buying frenzy, cleaning frenzy, or cooking frenzy, just have heightened feelings right now. 

Today, I bought low carb bread that might help with weight loss or at least weight gain. A comment from another blogger made me think twice--she loves a sandwich for lunch. I do too. I don't need so many carbs since I have diabetes. 

Okay, I took a bite of the keto bread. It is the best I have tasted. I tasted two other keto breads in the past. Miracle Whip will jazz it up. This is from Sprouts--Live Carb Smart, only 1 net carb per slice. Is that good? 

We drove the few blocks in the neighborhood to find a pink bag of ads and coupons. See, we did little today. We did offer a ride to a woman on a bike with too many, too heavy boxes and bags. A woman who knows her stopped and with a car more suited to her load and she went with her. We did try. 

Tommy's flashlight and headlamp are on the way. Lynda's Kiss has fairy lights and Hershey's kisses in it and needs to be wrapped. My grandchildren will get Amazon e-gift cards. Things are coming along. A cash donation to one very worth person needs to be delivered. I am set! 

Tonight's dinner--chicken, green beans, slaw, leftover sweet potatoes. I will bake the whole green beans in the tasty juice from the pork loin. The sweet potatoes had cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in them, but NO sugar. Green beans were not cooked, so he ate chicken, sweet potatoes, and slaw. 

We have everything we need for any possibility, anything I might fancy to cook, bake. There may even be enough milk until after Christmas. The only thing I might hurry out to get is a loss leader that might disappear like the cheap turkey breasts did.

The Tabernacle Choir is wonderful tonight!

Tomorrow should be torrential rains, maybe flooding, and high winds. We will stay in! We do need to put a plastic over the sewing machine, but nothing else right now.

Are plans at your house better formulated? Is everything coming together for you? Do you have snow or rain?

Keto Cookie and Air Fryer

I was given a Birch Benders Cookie a la Cup. It is in a cup like Kraft Mac and Cheese. Directions are to stir in 2 T water, microwave for one minute. It worked.  This was chocolate chip, not like I have eaten but not bad at all. Have you had one of these? Tommy and I each ate half. It was okay. Not good.

As we left to go to Cullman today to meet with an attorney, the FedEx guy showed up with the air fryer. I brought in the house and took the box out of the packing box and left. 

When we got home, it was waiting. I have  a million questions. Can i put frozen food in the fryer? 

For dinner we had frozen pieces of seasoned turkey and coleslaw, a bowl with cucumber and tomatoes with dressing, and some of the baby carrots that I cooked and froze. All this meal required was the microwave! 

Tommy is very very happy we have this air fryer. He said it would be great to have food that did not all taste the same. HE is the one who does not want the chicken cooked any other way. But, today, he was almost ecstatic. 

It is almost 7:30 pm and I need to go and water garden.