Month: May 2010

Wok this way

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IMG_0187

I am so in love with my new MIDSOMMAR grill wok from IKEA. Okay, they cal it a BBQ wok, but I live in Texas and have been schooled on the difference between barbecue and grilling. It's a noun, not a verb folks. My friends gifted me with this handy little number when they went to IKEA a few weeks ago. I'm not normally keen on one trick ponies in the kitchen…. but this is $9.99 well spent. I find this so much easier to handle than one of those hinky racks that everything falls through. You just shake the wok pan until you achieve the perfect char on your veggies or shrimp. Seriously, this is a great, inexpensive, and very sturdy product.

Fill it & They Will Come

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Baltimore_oriole

Last week I went to Tractor Supply to buy a couple new hummingbird feeders, when I spied a feeder that looked just like one, but bright orange. It was an oriole feeder, hmmm, I want an oriole to come to my yard too. So I brought it home and filled the little pockets with jelly, the reservoir with sugar water ( apparently orioles are sugar freaks),  and skewered a couple orange halves through the hanger. I waited.

Sunday morning I was sitting out back drinking coffee and looked at the gaudy orange plastic thing just hanging there… I shook my head and thought… "what a rip off". Then my eyes moved up a branch or two and there was a FREAKING Baltimore Oriole in my damn tree. Woohoo. I hollered for DH to come look, and we just marveled at how the damn feeder had really worked, and how beautiful the bird was.

I've heard that the same is true for birdhouses… build it and they will come.
DH and I have a cool new birdhouse book and we are planning to have a
birdhouse making party in the next few weeks. We desperately want an
owl house, and a bluebird house.

Yes, I am aware of what an old lady I sound like…. just deal with it. Birds are cool, or there wouldn't be a birding app for my iphone, right?

Trees & Neighbors

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Plus
We were so sad to know that our neighbor was planning to remove two big trees from his backyard. Sure, these trees were well into the winter of their lives, but they offered a much appreciated deep cool shade in the late afternoon that is quite a treat in the Texas heat.

Minus
Now they are gone, and while the shade is not as deep, it's not as sunny as I imagined it was going to be. We most definitely need to plant something in front of my kitchen widow cuz it gets hit hard when the sun is setting. All in all, it's not so bad, but it's always sad to lose a tree.

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Thankfully, the fence is covered in roses and honeysuckle so we don't have to see the tree size holes they must have left… we think our pines will be happier too.

Keylime That said, it did drive me straight to the kitchen to make a key lime pie.