Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 36

Wednesday Growth Report

So I don’t have a green thumb. Wizard has a part time green thumb that only shows up if it matters to him, LOL! And together we are trying not to murder too many plants

We finally planted some pots and here’s two of my favorites:

Don’t ask me their names — I can’t remember. We’ve planted soooo many flowers! I call the second picture, the orange one my Hawaiian plant. That’s probably not the real name (I think it’s in the hibiscus family maybe?) And the bloom you see in the picture is one that bloomed AFTER we got it home and replanted it and that’s a win for me!

And for the far end of our little patio there’s a strip of dirt — youngest is going to build me two big planter boxes so I can grow my tomatoes and bell peppers next year (let’s say hopefully grow!).

My herbs are thriving, but I only have five and they are easy to grow so far so I can’t really brag.

That’s my growth report update. Since I’m not writing, I have to create something! Although I really want to make a pretty cake very soon. I miss decorating!

What’s your report this week?

The post Wednesday Growth Report first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day! We went to breakfast with youngest and his wife. After that we came back to the house, and youngest and Wizard attempted to hang the outdoor ceiling fan. That was a fail, LOL! So the problem is the stucco ceiling that had too tight a space for the fan we bought (the patio is built on as part of the house). Anyhow, the have the bracket up, we just had to get another fan designed to fit without cutting stucco. That should be a simple fix (I know, famous last words!!). But in the scheme of life, this barely qualifies as a micro hiccup and will be solved one way or another.

Otherwise, it was a good weekend, but somehow I’m just exhausted. I think it was a just a really long week with lots of worries about people we love. That’s how life goes, and it will pass.

This week I’m on call for jury duty. I’m on standby for today (Monday) so I’ll check again tonight to see if I go in tomorrow. It’s not hard. It just means we can’t make concrete plans this week and have to remain a bit flexible, but it’s only for a week. See my jury duty attitude has improved

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! And Happy Early Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! Okay, time to jump into sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

 

I’m actually reading a book! It’s been a while since I’ve even opened one. This book BREAKING BADGER (The Honey Badger Chronicles #4) by Shelly Laurenston. I really needed something light and funny, and Shelly is perfect.We went out to Wizard’s mom’s yesterday and are mentally wiped out as I write this Thursday evening. This time we didn’t take Maggie because we needed to take care of some things. But on a sweet note, when his mom found out about all our planting flowers for our backyard, she went out and collected a bunch of cuttings from her flowers for us to plant more. Wizard and I will plant those today. I hope the flowers take and we can have “his mom’s flowers” in our backyard for a very long time. (By the way, this really is normal life stuff we’re dealing with — people get older, and other people get sick, we are just dealing with a lot of it at once lately).Maggie was sad we didn’t take her to Wizard’s moms, so when we got home, we took her to Home Depot to buy some pots to plants the flowers. She forgave us then Biker Witch and I planned to have coffee, do some shop browsing and then to Trader Joes yesterday, but both our lives decided took a plot twist and we couldn’t do it   I guess the good news is it worked out best for both of us, and we’ll reschedule as soon as we can.  Also, I know Trader Joes is a weird place to want to go, but it’s in the outlet mall we were meeting at and we both like the store It’s Mother’s Day Weekend. Hilariously, I didn’t realized it until a little over a week ago We’ll go to breakfast, and see youngest for sure as he asked us about it last weekend. The other two live farther and it’s harder to arrange that, so a phone call is probably best. Hopefully we’ll see Turbo soon too!

That’s my kind of lame five, I bet your five can top mine!

Happy Mother’s Day and have a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Fun Fact About Me

Fun fact about me — I’m a danger to myself while cooking, baking and sometimes, just breathing, LOL.

I am getting pretty decent at making plain old “white bread” sourdough, except for one minor detail.  Every time I use the special razor called a “lame” to score the top of dough, I somehow cut myself.

This last time I cut myself AFTER I’d carefully put the lame back in the box. I mean…that takes talent right? Well it slid out the other end of the cheap cardboard box and cut my index finger. The cut is healing, but it required creative bandaging and I wore a glove while prepping the enchiladas and chopping herbs for the rice to not add any unwanted ingredients.

Then I cut myself cutting the sourdough bread on another finger   It’s a gift people. It’s not the sourdoughs fault, it has a nice crust while the inside is soft and slightly chewy as we like it. But my breadknife can slip and bounce if it doesn’t catch on the first pass, and that slip always finds my finger. (Also I need new knives, but that’s another issue having to do with me not wanting cheap knives but being too cheap to invest in a good set.)

Then, I swear this is true, I cut another knuckle when I reached for my saran wrap. My knuckle barely grazed the edge of the cutting side of the aluminum foil and slit open. I swore in frustration at that point.

Now here’s an interesting part. Wizard had to deal with a difficult phone call during all my prep and put it on speaker so I could hear it. I was peeling and slicing apples for apple pie at the time (with a glove on). I listened to this call intently, not paying enough attention to what I was doing with the knife and yet, I didn’t cut myself then. Weird.

Anyway, by the time company came over, I was covered in Band Aids. To their credit, no one asked, and everyone pretended I am perfectly normal. They also seem to really enjoy all the food so it was all worth it!

What’s a fun fact about you?

The post Fun Fact About Me first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

We enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend.

First we got our new patio table got go with our chairs. Wizard and I went to pick it up and I couldn’t quite lift my end of the box. I’d get it part way, the table would tilt and I’d lose control. A guy walking by saw me struggling, jogged over, took my end, and he and Wizard slid the table in our SUV. I was so grateful! Sometimes, people you’ve never met will be there when you need them! We love this space.

Here’s a pic of the table and chairs.

And here’s a pic of our view this weekend:

 

Then Saturday we had Wizard’s brother and sister and their spouses over. I spent two days making sourdough bread (for bruschetta appetizers), two kinds of enchiladas and an apple pie. So Maggie knew something was up. Then an hour before they came over, I put Maggie’s little scarf back on her. That confirmed her belief people were coming over. Here she is staring at the front door and waiting for company to get there! Wizard and I were cracking up. She loves company!

We had a good time with his family. These days, we just don’t get together as much as we should. And I should mention, I enjoy doing all that cooking when I have the time and energy. They were all very appreciate, but no one expects me to work that hard unless I want to do it

Sunday was our quiet day and I loved it!

So how was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! I hope everyone had a great week! Let’s get right to sharing five random things in our week:

Clearly I can read a calendar, because until last night, I thought I was on jury duty starting this Monday. Wizard informed me that the 15th isn’t until the following Monday. It works out well for me as I had a few things I’d like to do next week but thought I couldn’t make plans. So that’s happy news.My Monday doctor appointment with my GI doctor was great! I have a diagnosis of elimination of IBS (Irritable Bowl Syndrome) which is a vague  condition they don’t fully understand yet so they call it a “syndrome”. This doctor has been tremendously helpful in giving me tools to regain control, and once he pointed me in the right direction, I have done (and continue to do) a huge amount of research. When the doctor found that out how much effort and real change I’ve put into this, down to making my own bread, he was so pretty excited. I’m technically “released” with the caveat that I call him if I experience symptoms that I can’t get control of pretty quickly. I can’t let myself get to a point of losing weight uncontrollably for weeks again, and I’m understand that. I don’t really want to go through it again either :-). But yay for no more doctors, tests and labs for a while!I got my hair done yesterday and really like it! She redid the color to a cooler tone which I love. Wizard liked the warmer reddish tones but it’s my hair and he’s smart enough to be happy that I’m happy I really love the cut too. I’d take a picture but I don’t want to, LOL!Maggie wanted to say something here: Guys guess what? I got a bath and a mani-pedi! And my friends at the groomers put this jazzy scarf on me too! My mom said I’m beautiful!This weekend we are having some of Wizard’s family out. I’m making chicken and beef enchiladas, rice and apple pie. I hopefully will get some sourdough bread made too and plan a bruschetta to go with it but that depends on how all I get done. We are looking forward to seeing them!

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Air Show Update

I told you guys how Wizard and I couldn’t get into the air show when we tried to go? We sat in line for 2 and 1/2 hours? Okay now that your memories are refreshed, I want to update that story.

We found out yesterday they are refunding our money. I went through the ticket company (by the way, NO REFUND was clearly marked while purchasing the tickets, and on the tickets themselves), and they indicated they had a lot of complaints and worked with the event planners to refund the tickets. We feel that is good customer service after something went wrong, and that they will work to correct whatever went wrong at future events.

Since I complained here, I felt I also needed to give equal space to people and organizations that try to make things right!

So how is your Wednesday going?

The post Air Show Update first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

It’s May already! The weekend was pretty good. Friday I made the cupcakes for Saturday.

Saturday, I got my mammogram done, which made me happy since it took three months to get that appointment. Plus they were on time and the technician was quick. Then we went out to Oldest Son’s for the late April Birthdays Celebration. That was so fun. It was just our three sons kids, their wives and Turbo and us. We BBQed hamburgers, had pasta salad then cupcakes. Easy and fun!

Sunday, Wizard and I went to breakfast. Later I planned to go see youngest, but Wizard invited himself then hogged youngest by taking his drone over there :-(.  I was irritated. If that sounds petty, that’s because it totally is, LOL! But in my defense, Wizard had already been over there earlier in the day helping youngest with his garage door. But I did get to hang out with my daughter-in-law and grand puppy.

Later in the day, the sinus headache I’ve been fighting all week got mean. But I fought back with a combination of sinus meds and yoga. It sounds weird but it helped. I was able to cook and eat a dinner of shrimp and gluten-free fettuccini with some sourdough bread and all was well. Then I scratched my eye washing my face I don’t even know how I do these things. I think after I took out my contacts, an eyelash must have gotten under my eyelid. I imagine it’ll be much better by tomorrow — which is actually today since I wrote this last night.

Today I see my GI doctor in the afternoon. I certainly feel a lot better than I did, so that’s good. It’s a bit of a work in progress but I’m hopeful that he agrees we’re headed in the right direction.

That was my weekend, how was yours?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! It’s once again time to write the Friday Five post. So we’ll start with mine

So far, I only have five herb plants, but they are doing great. This morning I was watering them while Wizard was cleaning the BBQ. I wasn’t bothering Wizard, I was happily chattering to my plants. I was complimenting Cilantro because he is growing better than I expected. Now Rosemary and Thyme are independent and don’t care. But Basil got a little upset because Basil wants to be the best like he always has been in the past. So I was reassuring him that he’s still an Herbal Rock Star in my eyes and I’m going to use him for some bruschetta soon. Wizard suggested I consider therapy. Rude.We finally got out to see my mother-in-law this week. She liked her belated birthday gift (that I’ve had for weeks, and I’m still mad we had to give it to her late!). It was nice that when we got there, my 91 year old mother-in-law was working in her garden. Pretty cool, huh?In my mother-in-law’s back yard, the back planter has huge trees and guess what (or who?) lives in those trees? Squirrels! Maggie saw her first squirrel and she was captivated! She once again jumped a wall that is counter high, showing off her athleticism. The squirrel ran up the tree of course. I went over there to make sure Maggie didn’t attempt anything insane — and that’s when I got yelled at. By a squirrel! It was hilarious. He was high up and scolding me something fierce. I told him to come down and say it to my face, but he declined Maggie was utterly fascinated. She did finally leave her squirrel post to get treats from Wizard’s mom. We let his mom spoil her with the treats I bring because Maggie helps her with some normal aging issues in a way makes Wizard and I appreciate Maggie so much.We made the tri tip and loved it! Here’s the base recipe https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/236...   And my adjustments to the dry rub: I reduced the cayenne to a strong sprinkle and added 2 tablespoons brown sugar. To the mop sauce: I used red wine (I had cabernet on hand) in place of red wine vinegar and reduced the garlic because of my stomach issues. Wizard and I enjoy trying these things so we were willing to put in the extra work. Part of why I’m doing it is to get as much pre-processed food out of my diet as I reasonably can.This weekend the plan is to go to CPA Boy’s to have a little post tax season/late birthday celebration for the immediate family. But Turbo had a fever this week so we’ll see how he’s doing. If we go, I’m going to use those cupcakes in the freezer and make all the normal people chocolate cupcakes with Baileys-chocolate frosting. Turbo will get a special one with plain chocolate frosting and sprinkles (I don’t care of it’s only a small amount of Bailey’s in the frosting, I see no reason for a five-year-old to eat that. And Turbo will be happy because he’s will look better to him with sprinkles). Then yesterday I made some gluten and diary free ones for the two of us in the family who like to be difficult Okay neither of us is really difficult, both of us easily eat around whatever is being served. I just wanted to make something for that son too because he just made it through another tax season. It’s fun. And I can eat them too

So that’s my five, now I’d really love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Brain Hopscotch

I don’t play this game on purpose, this is just how my brain works sometimes.

So today while grocery shopping, bought a tri tip roast. Which made me think of dry rubs for seasoning. That made me think of herbs. And because my brain loves a good game of hop scotch this is where I landed:

I mean there’s beef and herbs in this shot right

Do you ever play Brain Hopscotch? Happy Wednesday!

P.S. If you have a good dry rub or tri tip recipe, please share!

The post Brain Hopscotch first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.