My Struggle with All Natural Peanut Butter

 I love peanut butter. Yes, it's fattening if you eat too much of it, but it's one of my favorite flavors. It goes with jelly (of course), you can eat it straight from the jar if you're so inclined, it takes great on crackers, and...I could go on. The thing is, however, I have to work hard to keep my cholesterol levels down, and peanut butter that has additives makes that tougher.

But over the years I've tried several times to go the all natural peanut butter route. Just peanuts and salt. It seems like a no-brainer, except...there's that oil on the top. And the fact that you have to somehow get the oil to mix in. I've done the stirring vigorously routine and the turning it upside down for a day (or more days). None of those worked the way I wanted them to. There was always hard peanut butter at the bottom that fought me. And the rest was too runny for my taste. 

I read forums where people discussed their favorite methods of mixing the peanut butter (knives, peanut butter stirrers made for just that one function, and the aforesaid spoon mixing and upside-down method). None met my one requirement which was that the whole jar of peanut butter would be well-mixed and an optimum, easily spreadable but non-runny consistency.

Finally, I just capitulated and decided to spend the extra ten minutes to really mix that peanut butter up well. Now I always keep an extra jar on the shelf. When one jar gets low, I take out a medium sized mixing bowl, a hand mixer, scoop out all the peanut butter in the new jar and just mix that stuff up until all the lumps are gone. Then I spoon it back in the jar and put it in the fridge. Once it's in the refrigerator, it won't separate.

Problem solved. This might be a bit much for most people, but for me it's worth the extra effort. I throw the dirty mixing bowl and beaters in the dishwasher and consider the ten minutes of mixing, time well spent.

Best Wishes,

Myrna

October is Here. Time to Make My End of Summer Garden Notes

We've been living in the same house for decades, and I've always had a garden. In the beginning, I would plant some seeds in one small area behind the house, hope for the best, pull a few weeds, and that would be my contribution to the garden. I don't remember all the flowers in my original garden other than California poppies, salvia and (possibly) some alyssum? Not sure. I do know that I planted them from seed.

As the years went on, I made more space for flowers. And more. And more. For a house that has large lilac hedges running down both sides of the back yard, shorter spirea hedges running down both sides of the front, a magnolia tree, a silver maple tree, and a lot of grass on a modest lot, it's amazing how many places I found to put plants. At the moment I have six areas, plus flower pots in other places. 

I've discovered that I need to keep track of what works and what doesn't, and also, I'm just a little fussy that way. So every year, I keep records of what I bought, I take a lot of photos (not great photos), and at the end of the season, I create a Word file where I talk about what worked and what didn't. Sometimes there are photos, so that I'll be able to match the names to the flower. I might include when I started the seeds inside if I planted from seed and when I set them outside. I'll note when I bought bedding plants and how many of each. For the dahlias, I'll include dates or approximate dates of when they bloomed and how prolific the blooms were (maybe the size of the blooms). That's important because some of them bloom very late, so you might spend most of the season with just a plant and no flowers until fall. That might play into whether I replant that particular variety the next year. 

If there are self-seeding plants (larkspur, sometimes wild sunflowers), I'll make note of how well they self-seeded. All of that goes into a file (or several files) and gets put into a folder on my computer. Then when I'm planning my garden next year, I'll have of what worked, what didn't, and how I want to proceed the next year. It's not particularly concise. I know when things flowered, because I took photos, but I may only know that I planted seeds indoors in March, not the correct date (because I'm so excited about planting that I forget to note the dates). 

In the long run, this kind of note-taking pays off. After this year, I know that if I plant in the bed immediately behind the house, I should avoid cosmos because insects ate them this year (while the plants survived in other beds). I might also have to put down some sort of slug preventative in that bed, because they chewed up some dahlias pretty badly. On the other hand, New Guinea impatiens (from bedding plants), Sunpatiens (also from bedding plants) and two types of clematis did quite well in that same bed. 

It's all part of the fun of gardening, trying new things every year and seeing what works.

Have a great day!

Myrna

When You Just Can't Get That Jar or Bottle to Open

 I've never been big on promoting products, but last week I realized that something I bought about 18 months ago was a very satisfying purchase. It's nothing exciting or fancy. In fact, it's rather a dull item. I was reading a story on a review site, and the topic was jar openers. They declared that the Swiss-made Kuhn Rikon Gripper Jar Opener was hands-down the winner, but many of their reviewers thought that it might be too bulky. 

I wasn't worried about that. I have a drawer in the kitchen for odds and end items like that, and I really needed a product like that. There are certain containers where I struggle every time I open them. Admittedly, it's a bit expensive. I bought it from Amazon, but it can be purchased direct from the Kuhn Rikon site for a better price (not sure what shipping costs are there). 

For such a boring item, it's proven to be invaluable. I use it all the time, and it's never failed me yet. Here's a video (not mine) to show it in action.

I hope that someone finds this to be helpful.

Best Wishes,

Myrna

Why I Love to Plant Cosmos Flowers

I used to plant cosmos, the tall brilliant orange kind (below) along my driveway. They're very pretty, and they also come in a stunning pink and white variety. Unfortunately, they're also very tall and they kind of got in the way when driving in and out. So I eventually stopped planting those.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago. I had a bare patch of ground that I had never tried to grow anything on. It's at the end of some low shrubs and, because it's on the border of my property and the neighbor's, it's a convenient place for the mail carrier to cross over. Still, there was room at the end for something pretty. But...the ground had never been worked. It was hard and not very great soil. I could have spent time digging and adding compost, but the space wasn't large and I was lazy. So I bought some dwarf cosmos seeds (I didn't want them falling over into the neighbor's space), very lightly scraped the ground with a hand cultivator (probably one I bought at the dollar store or a garage sale since I don't use them much) and just scattered the seeds on the ground.

Then I sprinkled a bit of dirt on the top, watered lightly and left them alone. They germinated quickly and soon I had a nice little plot of flowers. Super simple and they require no care other than watering when it doesn't rain for awhile. They also bloom all summer long. Perfect!

Another nice thing about these flowers? They produce lots of seeds and they're super easy to gather. When a flower dies, wait a few days and you'll see brittle brown seeds at the end of the stem. Just pluck them, stash them in an envelope (or whatever) and you'll be ready to replant the next year and then some. I ended up with so many seeds that I was able to plant a row along a hedge in the back of my property in a strip of ground that was too full of roots to dig properly. Since no digging was necessary with the cosmos, I soon had a pretty row of bright flowers there, too.

I hope you have lots of wonderful flowers in your life.

Best Wishes,

Myrna

Replanting Late in the Season

Sigh. Every April I plant pansies in a whiskey barrel in front of my house. After the spring bulbs (I have mostly daffodils because the rabbits eat the tulips), pansies are my first pop of color and always make me smile. After I plant them, I feel as if summer is truly on the way. It's a good feeling.

But as summer moves along, the pansies become leggy and begin to die back with the warmer weather. They're definitely a cool weather flower. At that point I should pull them out and plant something else, but it's so difficult to pull out the few remaining flowers. It feels wrong. The solution, of course, would be to transfer those to a pot and move on with new flowers in the barrel. Ideally, that's what should happen.

Instead, this year I took care of my other plants and ignored the dying pansies until it was so late that they were mostly dead, the whiskey barrel was mostly bare dirt, and I couldn't find good substitutes at the garden center (I usually sub in vincas). Rather, I could find some zinnias, but they were too pricey, considering that summer is already waning a bit. So, I found a pot of marigolds on sale, brought them home and removed the whole bunch from the pot.

They looked something like this, only not quite as healthy (I forgot to take a photo).

Once out of the pot, I found that the bottom was a mass of intertwined delicate roots. Ugh! Carefully, I split the mass of flowers open, pulled them apart in chunks and replanted them in the barrel. I was nervous because of all the roots that ripped or even fell away. 

In the end, it worked...sort of. They don't completely fill the barrel, but the original pot was only ten dollars and I didn't want to go back for another one. This will do for the rest of the summer, and despite the torn roots, they're surviving. I'll chalk this up as a partial win, and next year I'll make the switch earlier.

Have a great day!

Myrna

It's August and the Dahlia Show is Beginning

Most years I plant dahlias. It started on a whim years ago, a chance encounter with tubers on sale at the local big box hardware store, but it's grown into much more. I order them months before planting time. I cage them in to protect them. I diligently monitor them and at the end of the summer, I dig them up and attempt to save them over the winter, so that I can repeat the whole thing the next summer. 

But at some point of every summer (usually in late July) I begin to question why I do this, because most dahlias take a long time to reach the bloom stage. After planting I fret until they emerge from the soil. Then for weeks I fret some more. Should I pinch them back so that they'll produce more buds? What's chewing on the leaves? Am I watering enough? Am I watering too much? Is that a slug on one of the leaves? Should I fertilize? Am I overfertilizing? Why is the plant so very tall and yet there are no blooms?

Because that's the thing about dahlias. They're really not difficult to grow, but they require patience. Lots of patience, because some of them bloom quite late.

And then...

Patches

They begin to bloom. One at a time, the flowers demonstrate the magic and beauty that is a dahlia.

Ova Joy

And I realize...oh yes, that's why I grow dahlias. Despite the long wait, they're like butterflies slowly emerging. Just beautiful.

I hope you have many flowers in your lives to brighten your days.  (If I remember, I'll update this post with photos as more flowers appear).

Best Wishes,

Myrna

 

Movies I've Watched Recently

 Besides reading (and reading and reading), we tend to watch a lot of movies. I confess that I only occasionally stream movies. For the most part, we watch Blu-rays or DVDs which we either get from the library or buy at library book sales or estate sales. 

When you watch that many movies, there are bound to be ones that don't appeal (at least to me. I'm sure the ones I don't care for may be someone else's favorites). But there are always some surprises, movies you thought might be just okay, but strike a chord. Two of the ones we watched recently fall into that category: The Holdovers, starring Paul Giamatti and American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright.

 

What makes a movie (or a book) work for me always comes down to character. If a movie is all action with little character development, I'm not interested. But both of these movies had wonderful actors and great character development. The fact that Paul Giamatti plays a teacher and Jeffrey Wright plays a writer might have played into my own personal preferences a bit, but even if I hadn't been a teacher and a writer, I could have related to these characters. These will both go into my "to watch again someday" stack.

Have a great day!

Myrna

What I'm Reading Now (and some cute puffins)

I've been reading Jenny Colgan's Little Beach Street Bakery series (I've read most of her series and loved them all--such great characters). I highly recommend them. They take place predominantly on an island, a seaside resort in Cornwall, connected to the mainland by a causeway that is only above water twice a day. Of course, there's romance and interesting neighbors, drama and--because Polly, the main character, is a baker--recipes.

There's also an adorable puffin, Neil, who plays a part. So here's a video of some other cute puffins (I recommend--as always--that you click on the full screen button).

I hope you find something you love to read as much as I enjoyed these books. Have a great day!

Myrna

Larkspur Adventures

For years I've had larkspur in my yard. I'm not sure where the flowers came from. They weren't here (at least not that I remember) when we moved in years ago, but along the way the wind or a bird must have carried some seeds our way, and there's always been a small patch with a few odd ones elsewhere here and there. 

They're supposed to be somewhat toxic to rabbits, and though we have a lot of rabbits, they never touched the larkspur, or so I thought. Then, two years ago, I saw a baby(ish) rabbit nibbling away, and he (she?) pretty much ate the entire main patch of flowers. 

I've tried growing them from seed, but without much luck even though I've chilled the seeds (they require stratification). So...I figured that was it for my larkspur summers. But then something happened. I grow (as mentioned here many times) dahlias, and I've usually just planted and staked them. My husband, however, suggested that with all the rabbits and squirrels, maybe we should enclose them (a good idea, since a squirrel lopped off the entire top of one I had in a pot). So, last year we did that. When the dahlias began to grow, I noticed that there were also a few straggling larkspur plants. 

Larkspur flowers reseed themselves, so those that were protected in the dahlia enclosure, safe from rabbit nibbling, had plenty of opportunities to spread their seeds unmolested. The result is that this year I actually had difficulty finding places to fit in the dahlias amidst the larkspur (they show their first hints of green earlier than a lot of other flowers). Now, the two types of flowers are sharing space, and it looks pretty nice. I'll have to take care not to let them take over the entire space, so I can still plant dahlias, but for this year, I'm very happy. (Oh, one more note: they've gotten very tall, much taller than they ever did in the past, so I'm wondering if the rabbits weren't munching on the tops of them all along and I just didn't see it happening). 

Now if I could just figure out what's gotten into my Cosmos patch. I'm guessing earwigs or snails, but I could be wrong. Another mystery to solve.

Have a wonderful day! 

Myrna

What I've Been Reading Lately (Sort of)

This is really more of a post about contemporary romance, something I rarely read (I know. That sounds a bit odd since it's what I write/have written). Back when I first started publishing, I tended to stay away from reading contemporaries because I didn't want to risk accidentally (subconsciously) absorbing something from a book I'd read and then somehow incorporate it into my own work. Plus, I like historical romance a lot and that, along with some odds and ends fantasy, science fiction, literary and nonfiction tends to be what I focus on the most.

But there are some awesome new (or newer) contemporary romance writers, and their work is part of what I've been reading lately. I just finished The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. This isn't the first book I've read by her and it won't be the last. She does a great job of world building (her books are set in the scientific community because the author works in that world) and the dialogue is sharp and snappy and funny. I highly recommend her.

Then there's Helen Hoang's The Kiss Quotient, the first in a 3-book series. The heroine of the book is on the autism spectrum, as is the author. She has said that she originally wanted to write a gender-swapped Pretty Woman, and that is a good description of where the book begins. I've read the two other books in the series and also loved both of those. 

Then there's Abby Jimenez. Her books tend to deal with serious subjects. The one I'm recommending today, Yours Truly, is actually book 2 in her Part of Your World, 3-book series. I've read all three, but for some reason, I read them out of order and this is the last one I got around to. The heroine is an ER doctor and her brother needs a kidney, badly. The hero, a new ER doctor at her hospital, suffers from severe anxiety, something which creates problems for him and doesn't always endear him to others. He's also the man who is going to get the promotion she wants, and he becomes her brother's donor (I'm not giving anything away. It's in the book description). Oh, and she's on the verge of finalizing her divorce after her husband cheated on her with her best friend. There's a lot going on here, but it all worked for me.

Lastly (for today) is Emily Henry's Funny Story. There's been a lot of buzz about her books, and two of them (I think) are being made into movies. The Goodreads description of this one is "A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common."

I've read most of her books (maybe all. I might have missed one), and enjoyed every one of them. The heroine initially get together in a unique and intriguing way. 

So those are the contemporary romances I've been reading lately. If you want to give them a try, there are a number of books available from each author.

Happy Reading!

Myrna