A little Monday sunshine

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Donalyn

When I got up this morning and realized that I didn’t have a blog post, I got out my paints and threw this together for you:tulip_paintingEach year at Easter, members of our congregation are encourged to buy potted tulips, lilies, hyacinths and the like. They beautify the church for our Easter morning service and then you get to take yours home. This year I chose a couple different yellow and orange ones. In a few weeks, I will plant these in the new section of the garden I am working on, so that we get to enjoy them for a couple more springs.tulip_photoHave yellow sun-shiney kinda day!

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Chocolate Banana Bread

Posted on April 11, 2009 by Donalyn

This post has been updated and moved to my new blog.
You can find it here: Double Chocolate Banana Bread on The Creekside Cook

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Misty Crocus – and a Mystery Solved

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Donalyn

It is such a pretty morning that I had to grab the camera and go wandering in the yard in my jammies and slippers.  The neighbors are used to this by now.  These are the last of the crocus for this year – looking all soft and beautiful in the foggy light.  crocus

And the mystery solved? Meet Lois: lois1 If you look in the comments on Wednesday’s post, you see that a reader de-lurked to help me out. Thanks anonymous – I really appreciate your help. I had no idea where to look, or what to look for in determining who might be the culprit in this little soap opera. But now that I know, it is quite obvious that Louie is a girl fish. I hope Mark will understand the necessity for changing her name.

So the lady at the fish store obviously made a mistake. I can’t be mad at her though, because in the course of helping me find the fishy equipment that I needed, she told me that my hair looks “fantastic”. She wanted to know if I color it myself [yes], if I’m a hairdresser [no], and what color it is [L’Oreal Preference 6G]. Her own hair looked really nice, so I felt quite complimented. Our mutual admiration apparently caused her to not look closely enough in dipping out my fishies.

And – there are not just two surviving babies, but at least four. They are too small and too elusive for me to get a photo of them, but as are all baby creatures, they are very cute. I’m amazed they are still alive, but they manage to find hiding places among the bigger river rocks in the tank, and now the bigger fish seem to pretty much ignore them.

So while, as Larry so elegantly put it, she was “knocked up” when we brought her home, Rico [now that I know where to look] is definitely a boy fish, so there is nothing to stop them from continuing to reproduce. She looks like quite the hussy to me.lois2

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Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Donalyn

This recipe was born out of laziness.  We love enchiladas, but I don’t love rolling them so much.  I do make them occasionaly, but I am more likely to wimp out and do it this way.  And that is not a bad thing, because this is delicious.  This will serve 5 or 6 people and the dish pictured is a Classic Corning Ware 10 inch square casserole.  It was a wedding gift, which makes it over 30 years old.  I don’t know if they even sell these anymore., but you can use any flat casserole dish, though if you use a bigger one, you may want to increase the ingredients a bit. 

I measured the ingredients for you when I made this for today, but this is a quintessential “little of this, little of that” recipe. Feel free to adjust the ingredients however you like. 

Start by lightly toasting a 12 count package of soft corn tortillas over a gas flame.  You can skip this step, and if you have an electric stove, I guess you would have to, because I think they would burn.  You could use a gas grill if you have one and you want to go to the trouble.  In any case, this just helps keep the tortillas from getting soggy.13Coat the bottom of the casserole dish with about a tablespoon of olive oil, and layer in half of the tortillas, cutting some so they fit into the edges and ovelapping if needed to fit them all in. 42This is two medium chicken breasts. You can dust them liberally with salt, pepper, garlic powder and chili powder, or use a rub like this one. Saute them in a bit of olive oil, until the outsides are nicely caramelized – about 4 minutes per side probably. They should still be somewhat raw in the middle. Slice against the grain into approximately 1/2 inch wide strips. Spread these in an even layer over the tortillas.22Drain and rinse a 15 ounce can of black beans, and spread evenly over the chicken.52Slice a medium onion into thin strips, and do likewise with a medium green or red sweet pepper, or a combination of colors. Layer those evenly over the chicken. Sprinkle that layer lightly with salt and pepper.61For this next step, you are going to need enchilada sauce. If you like, you can simply use the canned stuff from the store. I keep a few cans of that around most of the time, but I am more likely to make my own approximation of enchilada sauce. This is 4 cups of my own tomato sauce , along with 3 or 4 big garlic cloves, smashed, a couple seeded and roughly chopped jalapenos, a tablespoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of chipotle chili powder [regular chili powder is fine, but I would use more of it] and 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika. The juice of half a lime would be nice in there, if you have it. Run it through the blender or food processor, or use an immersion blender until it is pretty smooth.32Grate about 5 or 6 ounces of cheese – I like a combo of extra sharp cheddar and colby – and spread in an even layer. Spoon about 1 cup of the enchilada sauce over the cheese.71Cover that with the remaining six tortillas and press down lightly to compact everything a bit. Slowly spread the remaining 3 cups of sauce over the top, giving it a bit of time to seep down through the tortillas a little. 81 Bake in a 350º for about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, cover and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes – don’t skip this step, because it makes all the difference in getting this out of the pan neatly. If you like, you can scatter another ounce or so of grated cheese over the top, so that it melts while sitting. Cut in squares and serve with the toppings of your choice – here I just used sour cream and cheese, but chopped green onion, black olive, avocado, shredded romaine and salsa all make nice additions.91 Go ahead and make some – you know you want to!

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Aquarium Shenanigans

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Donalyn

You met these two guys, Louie and Rico. They are Mickey Mouse Platies – boy Platies.12They’ve been joined by a few more tank-mates. This is (Good Golly)Miss Molly. Miss Molly is the only female fish in this tank – a fact that is important to remember.mollyThis is Sherman- he is a Turquoise Guppy. A boy guppy.turqThis is Nelson – he is a Lyretail Guppy. Again – a boy guppy.lyreThere is another guppy in there – a Red Gold Tuxedo Guppy, but I missed getting his photo. Even without the photo however, it is important to note that he too, is a boy guppy.

When I got these fish, I made sure to get all male fish, with the exception of Miss Molly, who is a female, but the only Molly I will be putting in there, so she won’t ever be getting married and starting a family. You see, this is not an especially large tank and 6 fish is about the limit of what you want to be putting in there. And, my Dad used to raise fancy guppies, so I know what a pain it is to deal with the babies. We are empty nesters here, and don’t want to be raising any more children. So, at the fish store, I was very specific – I only wanted male fishies.2fish

The other day, Larry was watching the fish and asked me “When did you put these tiny little fish in here?” So I replied that I had not put any tiny little fish in there at all and that he must be seeing things. But he was right. There were tiny little fish – about 6 or 7 as near as we could tell.

I didn’t want to deal with fish procreation because you have to provide the babies with a safe place to hide. The reason is that to adult fish, baby fish don’t look like babies – they look like sushi. I remember the childhood trauma of witnessing a breakdown of some kind in one of my Dad’s tanks  – the little floating tank sprang a leak, or maybe there was a premature birth or something but the result was carnage, as all the babies were consumed before Dad could do anything about it. I don’t need to relive that, ya know? It looked like I had no choice though, since it was 8:00PM on a Saturday night and we live 40 miles from the nearest pet store.

I twittered that somehow my all-male fish revue was having babies and received a twit back from Fish Geek with some stunning information: Livebearing fish have been known to change sex.  Yikes!  

I think this activity must have happened at the fish store, since I’ve only had the platies two weeks and the others less than a week.  That doesn’t seem like enough time for them to draw straws to decide who will turn female, turn female [I think they go behind a rock for this], mate, gestate and have babies.   Worst of all though, we can’t determine who has turned female. I doubt it is the Molly, since the babies aren’t speckled, but other than that, I can’t begin to guess.  No one is talking.3fishOn a positive note, despite our lack of facilities for dealing with babies, at least two of them have survived for 5 days, hiding down in among the plants and rocks. And even though I didn’t want any fish babies, I have to admire the fact that they are still around. I never expected this much drama from one little fish tank!

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