Great Pyrenees

cat grass

In the photo above, my sister is growing cat grass for her cat. I thought that was cute.

For another animal story, daughter L has a friend whose family owns a Pyrenean Mountain Dog, a very large breed of dog. It is 9 years old now, quite old. The friend's mother decided to get a baby Pyrenee last year, thinking ahead to the time when the older dog will pass. The younger dog bounces around all over the place and stresses the older dog. In fact the older dog had an ACL tear trying to keep up with the younger dog. Aren't they just like people trying to get along with each other?

Gift of Green

Daughter L was gifted this packet of 'grow your own arugula'. The instructions seem quite simple, you just cut the bag open, plant the seeds in the soil and water it regularly. Then we will have fresh arugula. I think I will try it.

Paint Party Friday - Some Fiction Art

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! Scribble Picnic did a 'favourite fiction character' theme this week and I decided to carry it over to Paint Party Friday, thinking of some fiction art.  To be honest, I am more of a non-fiction reader but Laura Ingalls Wilder came to mind and I did a 'Little House on the Prairie' piece. It's done with permanent blendable markers.

Christine's Beef Stew with Coffee Salt

beef stew

coffee salt

There was interest in how I would use the coffee salt that I was gifted over Christmas. So I wanted to share my new Beef Stew recipe with you. I noticed that the coffee salt contained shallots, garlic and rosemary in addition to the coffee. So I added extra dried rosemary, fresh garlic and onions. It smelled so good while it was cooking and the result was delicious.  I should say I didn't really taste the coffee perhaps the flavour is just an enhancement, adding complexity to the taste of the dish.

half of 900 ml box of low sodium beef broth (noname is fine)
1 c port wine
2 c water
large pkg beef stew
3 chayote squash quartered peeled
1 large carrot in 1 inch chunks
1 1/2 tbs coffee salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbs butter
1 can lima beans (to thicken)
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tomato chopped

1/2c ketchup or half can tomato paste

Pressure cook all the ingredients on medium heat for 15 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can cover and simmer for an hour.

Scribble Picnic - Favourite Fictional Character

Welcome to Scribble Picnic! This week's theme revolves around our favourite fictional character. I chose to do 'The Flying Nun' based on an old TV series in the 60's. According to wikipedia 'Sister Bertrille could be relied upon to solve any problem that came her way by her ability to catch a passing breeze and fly. This was generally attributed to her weighing under 90 pounds (41 kilograms), high winds at the Convent high on the ocean bluffs, and the large, heavily starched cornette that was the headpiece for her habit.'

Being under 10 years old at the time, I was convinced I would be able to fly just like her, after all, I did weigh under 90 pounds. In fact, I remember testing this by jumping off my swing set only to land straight on the ground, fortunately unhurt! Childhood was fun.

Uh Oh

Well, the New Year didn't get off to a good start.  We ordered two gaming controllers for son K via Ebay only to receive notification a couple of days later from Ebay that our seller was fraudulent.  Unfortunately, we were unable to cancel our payment on Paypal but our credit card bank may almost certainly be able to reimburse us the US$29.98.  It seems they are very familiar with these cases.  Fortunately, it was not a very large amount.  We will have to wait for the transaction to be processed on our credit card then contact the credit card's fraud department with our case.  The lesson might be that if the price seems too good to be true, it is.

It occurred to me that as we get older we have to be even more vigilant of fraud as senior people become vulnerable targets.  Is it that we get more trusting, similar to when we were children?

An update:

After all that I am pleased to say that Paypal was able to cancel our transaction after we did some more calling around, it was still pending.  They say we should have the refund in about 3 days.

Lost Car

apple pie

My friend S gave me this frozen homemade apple pie and we baked it for dessert on Christmas Eve. It had the most delicious crust.

I was in my grocery store parking lot the other day and saw this older lady pass by.  When I got to the other end of the parking lot, I met her again.  Then I noticed she was pressing the alert button on her car key fob.  Eventually she located her car when it beeped.  I can see this happening to me one of these days.