Kate is Engaged!

Kate is getting married! Her fiance is a great fellow. They are both so happy.

Kate

Kate is now officially an Air Commission Commander. This means that she is charge of a squadron of helicopters! So Proud.

Oh Happy Day!

Picture Snoopy jumping up high in the air with his head back and ears wagging!

Captain Compost of Alabama and fish heads for the tomato plant

Last Friday I had an unusual experience for the average person however one that mom would have totally enjoyed having with me. I drove out to Vulcan Materials to meet Captain Compost of Alabama. This man is a true legend. His real name is William Cureton and he and his wife live in Moody and as another job, they both make compost and teach classes on how to garden using some of their tried and true techniques.

So on this particularly beautiful morning, I met him in his parking lot by his pick with the traitor attached and obviously loaded with something very interesting underneath the very large gray tarp...and he let me look! What I saw right off was a very large fish head with its bony body below it. I quickly threw the tarp down. He laughed and explained that Sexton's Seafood gives him all their fish by products(tomatoes love a fish head way below them), also that Whole Foods gives him their out of date or less than perfect fruits and veggies and finally a coconut company gives him coconut that falls to the ground when cleaned.  And so as you may well imagine, he has the best compost, with sturdy little Kubota to turn roughly 2 tons of compost  a week. He also grows the most delicious fruits and veggies  that grow purely in the mounds of composted rows that they put out. He sells his compost for 15$ bag and it is worth every penny.

I did decide to ask if he might share one fish and carcass. He said I was the first woman to ever ask, but sure, I could have a head and carcass. I went home and dug up my tomato plant, carefully placed the head, piled dirt on top and then the plant on top.:)

RAK #1

Barnes and Noble tall coffee.
Feels good.

Gluten Free Biscotti- adapted from Giada's Holiday Biscotti Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. Almond flavoring
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Flavoring 
• 3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
• 2/3 cup chopped candied cherries

Directions

 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
 
Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, orange zest, and salt in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the flour mixture and beat just until blended. Stir in the pistachios and cherries.
 
Form the dough into approximately 10 inch, 3-inch wide logs on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden, about 25-28 minutes. Cool for 8 minutes on a cookie rack.
 
Place the logs on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the logs on a diagonal into 1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti until they are pale golden, about 05 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.

Thanksgiving Abundance

My blessings are so many this year. My Dad has moved in with us and he is doing great. We just celebrated Thanksgiving, all of our children were home and we had some other friends in. The food was so good. Our daughter Kate made the turkey. It was the best I have ever had. She is the designated Turkey person now.
Today  I went to a local knitting and fabric shop-In The Making, it is owned by a delightful gal named Donna. The shop was very busy as there was a very nice fabric sale- all prints except Marcia Derse and Kaffe Fasset were $7 per yard.  Her yarns are exquisite, but I am not when it comes to knitting.
Alabama and Auburn are playing, not really interested in watching that.
Life is good, family is good, friends are the icing.