FAILURE AND SUCCESS

I tried a new recipe this morning for a Lemon and Yellow Squash Quick Bread.

It didn't turn out as well as it should have because I made several mistakes.

For one, I didn't squeeze all the moisture out of the grated yellow squash after it had sat in a colander in the sink to drain.

And I may have overmixed the batter.

And I may not have greased the pans enough.

And I mistakenly poured the glaze on the finished bread instead of brushing it on.

So . . . it fell in the centers of both loaves and stuck to the pan where the glaze had leaked through, dried and hardened.

I did realize my mistake with the glaze and got a brush and brushed it around the top of the loaves.

But the damage had been done.

The loaf on the right tore it's bottom side off getting shaken out of the pan.

And there's a darkish center where you can see the glaze ran through.

The other loaf is still resisting its exit from it's pan.

After all of that you might expect that we just chucked both loaves in the bin.

(Have I been reading too many British blogs?)

But no, Gentle Readers.

After trying the damaged loaf on the right and finding it absolutely delicious I suggested we call it spoon bread and just eat it out of the pan.

And we did and it was great.

As Julia Child is alleged to have said, "You're alone in the kitchen and who needs to know!"

KEEPING HER HEAD IN THE GAME

 

Does this cat know her head is upside-down?

Probably, since it's her favorite sleeping pose.

We call her Sweetie-Pie.

When I'm not calling her something else for waking me with her yowls while it's still as dark as her fur.

4 a.m. seems to be when she's ready for her breakfast.

Then while I stagger around trying to get accustomed to being awake at that hour, she goes back to a contented sleep.

Sweetie-Pie indeed!

Bah!

TIGER TIME

 I was intrigued to learn that today is the Day of The Tiger.

It's especially interesting to me because I had an older brother who was given the nickname "Tiger" when he was in high school.

Apparently it was bestowed on him by a coach for his ferocity on the basketball court, the baseball diamond or the football field.

As I recall, he wasn't particularly talented but he didn't let that stand in his way.

He played with passion, shall we say.

He was 7 years older than I was and my only sibling and in our younger days we were constant companions.

When he was involved with sports in high school I used to follow him around to practices and that same coach nicknamed me "Little Tiger".

That became "Little Tige" and later I changed it to "Cougar".

At any rate, here we are.

Shoveling snow off the sidewalk in front of our home in North Dakota.

Posing for a family picture with our Dad.

Wayne "Tiger" Taylor's high school graduation picture.

Two brothers surveying his garden in Minot, North Dakota in the late 1980's.

Wayne lived to see his 90th birthday but died only a few months later.

Good to see you again, Tiger.

I bet you never thought there would be a day named after you.

LUCKY MAN

My wife, as regular readers know, is a master of cuisine.

French, Italian, Chinese . . whatever the flavors . . she can do it.

Without looking at a recipe, as I do slavishly.

It's all in her head.

So, without further ado, let me show you what she created in our kitchen today.

Shrimp in a garlic lemon sauce.

I asked her what gave it the orange appearance.

Smoked paprika, she said.

Just to give you a better look, before I devoured it . .

You must trust me.

The "bubble pasta" (Israeli couscous); the salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado in Italian dressing; the Sea Salt breadsticks, the Pinot Noir wine . . . are your mouths watering yet?

It was devastatingly delicious.

As I said above, I'm a lucky man.

FIRST HARVEST

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

So you think YOU'VE got problems?

Yesterday was National Tequila Day and I forgot 'ta margarita!

Ooooohhh, I'm sorry.

It was only a shot in the dark.

Okay, I'm double sorry.

Did someone say "doubles"?

That's it.

My stand-up comedy hopes have fallen flat.

So let's see what the Humor Elves have produced this week.

Hey, wait a minute!  You guys aren't the Trekkies!

Oh boy, maybe I should just have left well enough alone.

At any rate, that's all I've got this Friday.

So you poor suffering souls who read this stuff each week try to enjoy yourselves and have a remarkably fantastic weekend!

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . suspicions confirmed! . . . )

ARRIBA!

Just in case you've forgotten, (and you'll have forgotten tomorrow for sure), today is National Tequila Day!

Ole!

T'MATERS!

This year's iteration of our tomato barrel is producing fruit like crazy.

We have two plants in it; a yellow pear tomato and a larger red tomato whose name I can't remember.

These are some of the yellow pear tomatoes.

Yes, I know they're not yellow and that's because they're not ripe yet.

But we have pulled a couple of golden ones so far.

The other vine also has a lot of fruit including one nearly-ripe-enough-to-pick one, trying to hide in the foliage.

Don't tell me about the drooping leaves.

SWMBO already has instructed me on that and after these pictures were taken I got right on it and watered them.

I'll say it again (and again, probably):

"Ain't nothing quite as good as home-grown tomatoes!"

SKY PUFFS

Yesterday was a day for lying on one's back in a grassy field, staring at the sky.

Since I'm too far from a grassy field and couldn't get up if I did lie down in one, I had to content myself with these random photos I snapped.

Dream on, cloud watchers.

Oh and for the curious among you, yes the blue bag is still stuck up there.

Or at least shards of it.

Because of the limitations of my phone's camera, probably only the eagle-eyed among you can pick them out.

SPEAKING OF ART

The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree, as SWMBO demonstrated with a recent salad.

No apples, but sliced watermelon, cucumber and mango, all sprinkled with tajín seasoning.

HERE, KITTY-KITTY . . .

In the continuing saga of the BAD, here's another chapter.

As you may recall, the Beautiful Artistic Daughter (BAD) gets her acronym name because she fulfills at least two of those characteristics.

She's my wife's daughter from a previous marriage.

But she's spent more years of her life with me trying to boss her around (a futile exercise) than her biological father.

Also to clear up a misunderstanding, she used to be known as the BRD, or Beautiful Rich Daughter, when she spent more than a decade as the arm candy of a well-off man who showered her with gifts and trips and such.

But they parted and she now lives a much more down-scaled life where she has art and more art and lots of art to satisfy her creative whims.

Speaking of which, she has just completed yet another piece, which she has called the Cool Cat.

Behold!

And to answer another question from a commenter, her home is indeed a museum of her work.

BOXED IN

My longtime friend Tom, he of Light Breezes, sent me some pictures of his family yesterday.

Now I want you to understand; these are not photos of his wife, or of his children, or of his grandchildren.

But they are members of his family.

Dear members of his family.

Like all good cats, when confronted with the spectre of a NEW BOX, they know what to do.

Get into it and sleep, protected from the wiles of a devious world.

As one meme says: If it fits, I sits!

Even if it sometimes doesn't quite fit.

A WEEKEND SPECTACULAR

 

Judy's Dutch Apple Pie

(too die for)

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Well, hi.

Simply hi.

How has your week been?

        👿

Oh.

I'll not ask any more.

Let me try to help as we ease into the Humor Bank.

Music, maestro, please.

You know when you see the Trekkies that we're nearing the end of this episode of the pre-Saturday Snickers.

So let me give you the standard command: let's all try to have a terrific weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . ah, yes  . . . )