New babies are everywhere...

Box turtle eating strawberries

When DH went out to mow the lawn this morning, he came in with this little fellow... one of our yard turtles... but this one wasn't marked.  I try to put a small red mark (nail polish) to identify the ones that turn up often. This one had no mark.  It's a fairly good size, so I'm suspecting that it's a female. Usually the males are a bit smaller. Anyway, we took her to a safe place in the back and gave her some strawberries.  They love strawberries and figs.

I also have a video to show you that my son took in the yard either last night or early this morning. Our mama raccoon apparently has decided to bring her 5 or 6 baby coons to eat with her at the local diner... aka:  our feral cats' dishes.

And the two little black kittens we took inside are all doing well.  They are eating on their own and are friendly enough to go to the Adoption Center soon.  They now hear my voice and come running, climb up on my lap and purr.   I keep telling them that I love them and their mommy loves them, but they have an adventure to go on...  and they must be brave.

On a different subject... I made a buttermilk peach pie this week with fresh peaches from Hamm's Peach Orchard.  It was so-oo good.  I've made buttermilk pies before... as well as peach pies, peach torte, peach cobbler, etc.  But this was a recipe in the newspaper for a 'buttermilk peach pie'.

We go to Ham's Orchard in Terrill, Texas twice every summer.  They open from May 15th to August 15th. Usually we hit them in May and then again in August.  DH's brother and his wife always come up to Dallas for the August hit.  They fill their portable cooler with fresh peach ice-cream.  We love the home-made peach ice-cream also, but we pick up other stuff too like: fresh peaches, frozen home-made peach cobbler, peach salsa, and an assortment of other things made from peaches.  They also carry fresh blackberries, blackberry cobbler, blueberries, strawberries, and even local pecans and veggies (onions, tomatoes, okra, etc.).   Oh... and they have a special "dark chocolate fudge pie" that is delicious. When you heat it just a little the chocolate inside melts... yum!

Ketchikan, Alaska... last stop on Alaskan Cruise

View coming into Ketchikan

There's an eagle flying up there. Can you see it?

View of Ketchikan from the ship

This next picture is what we had for lunch in Ketchikan.  We ate some fabulous seafood in Alaska, but until we arrived at Ketchikan, we hadn't yet had any Dungeness crab. Now let me tell you that when I was growing up in New Orleans, Dad would take us out every Friday night to have boiled crabs at Fitzgerald's on the lakefront (this was back in the day when Catholics weren't allowed to eat meat on Fridays). Anyway, since DH and I married and moved away I haven't eaten much crab.  Mama taught us that seafood should always be eaten fresh... and that meant 'out of the water' and 'into the pot' - now flown in or frozen, etc.

But I digress...  what I wanted to mention was that I soon realized 2 things; one - I still loved crab, and two - I hadn't lost the ability to remove the entire section of meat from the crab claw in one piece! Ta da!!

Beautiful!!

Rose's haircut... and chicken gumbo

Rose before mats

Poor Rose. She is the only 'long-haired' adult cat in the house and while she used to keep herself un-matted, age (19) and attitude (she gets pissy), has caused us to take her to the Vet this week.  Actually I knew they would have to sedate her (she can be nasty when she wants to be and the knots don't help), but I was hoping that they would just cut off her mats and not completely shave her. However...

Can you tell she's embarrassed?

But her attitude is better. She wants to play now ... unfortunately playing with Rose is sometimes risky.  She can get carried away and draw blood.  It's funny, with all of our other cats, we know we can play any way with them and they will never bite you... but Rose... well, Rose is Rose.

OK, I've gone another day without the final photos of our Alaskan trip.  But they aren't going anywhere. 

So... I'm going to give you a great recipe for Chicken and Sausage Okra Gumbo.  I made it last night and it was really good.  My mom and mother-in-law used to make Seafood Gumbo and Chicken Gumbo a lot in New Orleans... and we all loved it.  But I don't make a lot of seafood dishes here in Texas. We were brought up believing that seafood needed to be used "fresh". So the chicken gumbo is our alternative. Have used different recipes in the past, but this one is my favorite so far.  (I did only make half the recipe as it makes a lot.)

Chicken and Sausage Okra Gumbo

Ingredients:
1 T salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
3 lbs chicken (boneless)
1/2 cup olive or veg oil
1 lb sausage (sliced)
1 cup flour
2 med onions, chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 bell peppers, finely chopped
2 T garlic, chopped
8 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 tsp ground thyme
2 cups sliced fresh Okra, divided use
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 tsp file' powder plus (optional)
Steamed rice to serve over 

Combine salt and next 3 ingreds in small bowl.  Sprinkle over chicken. 
Heat oil in large heavy pot over med heat. Sear chicken until golden (5 mins/each side), Transfer to plate. Sear Sausage until browned (4 mins/side). Transfer to plate with chicken.

Strain drippings from pot and reserve 1 cup drippings. (If you don't have enough, add oil to make one cup). Wipe out pot and return drippings to pot.

Heat drippings over med heat and then add flour. Whisk constantly until roux is the color of milk chocolate (mine is usually lighter) (takes 15-20 plus mins). Reduce heat and add onions, stirring constantly until soft (about 10 mins). Stir in celery, bell peppers, and garlic. Cook another 10 mins. 

Slowly whisk in chicken broth. Add bay leaves, thyme, and the chicken and sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 45 mins. stirring occasionally. 

Stir in 1 cup okra, Worcestershire, and Tabasco.  Simmer another 45 mins. Stir in remaining okra. Simmer about 10 more minutes. 

Add 1 tsp file' powder before serving or have people add their own.  Serve over steamed rice. (I like a combination of wild and brown rice).


When you look at the recipe, it seems long... but it's really easy if you take it step by step. And it's so-oo good!  (and Angie, it's not hot - but you can leave out the Tabasco sauce)

2 days of headaches...

DH took me to the Eye Specialist this past Tuesday.  Our regular eye doctor scheduled me to see this Specialist to check on the laser eye surgery I had done about 5 years ago.  They used a laser to open up my 'narrow angles' and he wanted them to double check that all was well.  He had followed up routinely these last few years, but thought it necessary to have the Specialist do his thing at this time... telling me that if the holes had closed, the Specialist was able to laser them open again whereas my eye doctor wasn't in a position to do this himself.

Anyway, to make a long story short... all is well.  I DON'T have Glaucoma, but I do have 'narrow angles'. The laser surgery was a preventative to avoid Glaucoma... and the holes are still open. However, I guess due to all the drops they put in your eyes as they run tests, dilate them, etc. I ended up with a dull headache that wouldn't go away... not even with my Tylenol x-strength.   By this morning, it was beginning to worry me but...

It is now Thursday afternoon and I can say (for the moment anyway) that it seems to have finally dissipated.  Hopefully it will stay gone.

And I've been talking about our 'kittens' on my Cats, Coffee, and Chocolate site.... and I'm going to add some photos here that probably should be added the kitten pics there... but I get lazy going back and forth between sites.  This morning we went to Petco to get some Royal Canan Kitten chow for the babies to wean on.  We've been giving them KMR and they are lapping this already... so we thought we'd hasten the transition by adding a little kitten chow to the KMR.

Well, Barney and Clyde (the 2 cats we pictured in an earlier post) are still there. Barney (the big orange tabby) is just as friendly as ever and Clyde is still lounging under his bed.

 





Barney sniffing DH's finger

Clyde... still laying under the cat bed

New female long haired  - very pretty












This last one is a new female. She is what I'd suspect the little black long-haired kitty we're fostering will look like when grown... same small face, but very black long hair...

and piercing eyes!

How I wish we could take them all home!

Memorial Day... a thought

Something I came across and taped near my computer a few years ago...  (today seems an appropriate day to post it)

Dear Lord, Lest I continue 

My complacent way,

help me to remember,

Someone died for me today.

As long as there be war,

I then must 

ask and answer

Am I worth dying for?

(Poet  W. H. Auden)

Weekend surprises...

daughter's horses

Our doorbell just rang and our next door neighbors had come to tell us that they planned to put their house for sale and they wanted us to know before the sign went up. This was a decision that they had just made although they have been 'considering' it for over a year. They hope to move to a nearby Retirement Village. We were surprised, but not.  I knew they were considering this, but didn't really think they would do it this soon. They are wonderful neighbors and we have been friends for a very long time (they were here when we built our house in 1985).  So if they sell, and if they move... we will definitely miss them.

Personally I can't imagine moving... at least not in the near future.  Our house is convenient, and comfortable (could use some touch ups, but whose house couldn't?).  And the cats are used to it... and who would feed the outside ferals?  It has an upstairs where guests can stay as well as 'returning kids and their kids'... so why move?  Maybe one day it will become financially efficient to move to something smaller, but right now, we're getting by fine... not great, but fine.

We just had what my son called "Memaw's  IHOP breakfast" Eat all you want! chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese, biscuits, sausage, and fresh blueberries and cherries! Later this afternoon we are all going to watch the movie, "The Guardians" and eat Smores! Sounds like a good Sunday to me.

On a sadder note - apparently San Antonio area had a good flooding yesterday. We got a text from our daughter early Saturday morning that their house on the acre lot that they rent was "totally under water" and that their place on the 7 acres was "fine, but leaking... and the barn was under water". So they are in the mist of clean up.  What a difference a day makes.  When I was talking to her just Wednesday after all the storms and tornado scares around here, she was just saying how strange that they (who are south of us) had no storms  - that it was just plain HOT.

front yard of daughter's house

And I will mention that I've updated my Facebook status lately... due to some correspondence from family members and from high school friends who attended our 50th HS Reunion (the one I missed while on the Alaskan Cruise). In the past I've only checked into Facebook maybe once or twice a year... but I've promised to do better in order to keep in touch.

I'll continue with the last part of our Alaskan Cruise (Ketchikan, Alaska) soon.  Had to take this 'personal day' here.

Ghost saying, "Do you want something?"

Back to Alaska Photos... Glacial Bay

 

Glaciers in Glacial Bay 

Please click on these photos to make them larger as these glaciers are breath-takingly beautiful. I took these pictures from the balcony of our room as the ship passed through Glacial Bay.

I loved the blue square in the center here. Don't know why, but it fascinated me...

and this cave in the ice...









As we drifted by, huge pieces of iceberg floated by and we saw one 'calving'  where the ice slid away from the glacier and floated off into the water.

and my camera caught this lone seagull flying by...

Isn't she beautiful?