5 posts tagged “garden”
I think it turned out so pretty. Each of the circles that I'm showing here have been manipulated using my own photos of flowers from our gardens. Some of them had been changed into a different design prior to making the circles and some of them were unchanged before making the circles. Oh yes, the center circle in the row above, is of a wine glass, a portion of a wine bottle (label) and a sparkly candle holder. No flowers involved in that one. There's a few more posted at my Flickr account, if you care to check it out.
I'm still teaching myself different things in Paintshop Pro. I find it more user friendly than Adobe. Although Adobe is probably better, for me, it's like learning how to play piano after you've learned how to play organ first. The differences are in the way you make the tones last. Ok, so maybe that's not a good analogy but Paintshop Pro has me spoiled and Adobe .... I think if I was shown a few shortcuts, I might catch on faster. I spend a lot of time in Adobe trying to figure out where everything is and what the comparable techniques are called. Some of the things in Adobe are quite a bit different.
Here's today's project. Original photo on the left, unchanged except maybe resized to 640x480.
Here's a few pics of roses that I was playing with under low lighting. The flash fired in all of them. It wasn't until after these, that I tried some with minimal lighting and higher ISO (200 and 400) that I started to see the hot pixels appear.
Oh boy! I'm cooking mild Italian sausage and my husband decided to add some peppers from his garden. He told me that he wouldn't add the seeds because he wasn't sure how hot the peppers are. Well, we have learned that chopping raw hot peppers in the blender (for recipes) causes an aroma to leak into the air that is almost as nasty as eating the dern'd thangs. As I'm cooking, I'm breaking out in a sweat and it's not from hard labor or a hot stove. I can tell the difference and I think I need to take a Zantac before dinner. Otherwise, the aroma is wonderful. Nothing like olive oil, garlic, onions, green pepper and sausage filling the house with it's sweetness. But them hot peppers! That's another thing. I'm almost regretting eating them before I do!
Took a drive into "farm" country today. About 30 mins northeast of me is the small town of Almont. I had actually traveled farther north into Imlay City on business but couldn't resist the stop in Almont. After arriving in Imlay City for my meeting, I had been told that one of my favorite television shows, "Extreme Home Makeover" is in Almont this week. Although my stop in Almont did not consist of visiting the Home Makeover site, I did stop at a roadside farmer's fruit and vegetable stand.
Twenty some odd years ago, I use to drive from Utica into Romeo to buy fresh corn, tomatoes and zucchini. You could get a baker's dozen of sweet corn for $1.00. Today, it was $3.50 and considered a good price. The corn was still on the tractor bed, and freshly picked this morning. Everything looked so big and delicious that I couldn't resist bundling a little bit of my favorites to take home. The vegetable garden in our backyard is still in it's growing stages due to a bit of a late start. So when I saw the large, firm and just-ripe red tomatoes, I couldn't resist adding them to my purchase; and resolved in my mind that my husband would appreciate them as a precursor to what we'll soon be yielding from our own (much) smaller crop.
They had large zucchini, just how I like them. The small ones that you buy in the grocery store don't compare. Mom says the smaller ones are a bit sweeter and less seedy. However, I like the larger ones because they are wonderful when sliced, dipped in egg and seasoned breadcrumbs, and fried in a bit of olive oil.
We cooked up some of the sweet corn tonight and I can tell you that it was to die for. When it was uncooked, I broke off some kernels for my lovebird, who is a corn fanatic. The corn was so sweet, it tasted like it had been grown in sugar rather than soil. After it was cooked, we rubbed (real) butter over the corn; sprinkled a tad of salt and bit in. Ok, so it didn't need salt. It was sweet and the kernels popped ever so gently in my mouth. I obviously have not had "fresh" corn in ages because I thought I had died and gone to heaven. All I know is that I stopped buying corn on the cob from the grocery stores when it started tasting like rubber and sticking to my teeth. I hate when that happens.
So what do I intend to do with the zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers and garlic that I also purchased?
- Zucchini, tomatoes, onions, garlic: cooked el dente` in olive oil with sweet Italian herbs and fresh basil; and or....
- Cucumbers, tomatoes, a little bit of onion, crushed garlic: tossed together with olive oil, wine vinegar, Italian herbs and fresh basil - for a cold salad. And or.....
- SALSA! (w/o the zucchini of course)
And what about the corn? Best way... soak those ears (shucks and all) in water for a couple of hours. Then put them on the outdoor grill. Oh yeah baby!
ciao! and chow
