Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date - Clouds and Purple Sweet Potato Mash

Welcome to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date's 'Clouds' theme. Here is my ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").

 For the Dinner Date, I made a purple sweet potato mash using Japanese sweet potatoes.

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dried thyme

2-3 tbs maple syrup

1/2 c milk

4 tbs butter

3 medium Japanese sweet potatoes

Peel and boil the potatoes (peeled and cut up)  in a tablespoon of salt for 15 minutes until softened.  Drain and mash.  Season with butter, milk, salt, pepper, thyme, maple syrup.

Wednesday Memes

 

April Fool's

 Well it's April Fool's Day!  Hope you don't get pranked.

I went to the hairdresser's for a haircut a few weeks ago only to discover that Rose had retired this past January.  Here is an old post where I mentioned Rose, the hairdresser.  She might have turned at least 80 and wisely decided it was time to retire.  A nice lady named Vana cut my hair this time and I liked her, she did a great job.  Vana has a 5 year old son.  She cut hair in Iran for 12 years before she came to Canada.  She told me that a darker hair dye does not necessarily hide the grey better as when it comes in, the contrast is very noticeable.  Hmm.  Maybe I can move to a lighter shade.  

In any case daughter L has been cutting my hair and her baby will be due in months so I will be seeing Vana again for sure.

Baby Shower and toilet replacement

 Daughter L's baby shower in early March was a wonderful party.  There were games, raffle prizes, she had a cereal bar, a bagel bar.  We got fresh sandwiches from a local supermarket.  Daughter L baked all the desserts (cookies, brownies, the cake pictured above) for 85 people.  It was wonderful to get together with family and friends to celebrate the occasion.  (Yes, my daughter likes to do things in a big way).

And here we are at the end of March!  

For the records, a plumber is planned to come over this morning to replace a 16 year old toilet in our main bathroom.  The reason I know the toilet is 16 years old is that I searched this blog and found a reference to it.  Does your blog come in handy that way? 

Sunday Smiles

 Linking to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

In sad news my husband's well respected brother-in-law passed away peacefully March 27th, he had Alzheimer's. He was 80 years old.  

Shoe Cleaning

 My sister and her husband were travelling in Hanoi, Vietnam.  She shared this photo of getting their shoes cleaned for .85c Canadian per pair.  It took him an hour to do 4 pairs and he wanted to give them back their change but they insisted he keep it.  I found it poignant but it is an honest living.

Friday Art - Gentoo Penguins

 Welcome to Friday Art!  These are Gentoo Penguins who showed up on my laptop screensaver (ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").

Linking to Nicole's Friday Face Off and to Gillena's Art For Fun Friday.