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| Osteospermum Flowers |
The first osteospermum flowers of the season are starting to bloom!
It was a mostly sunny day, on Friday. I took a walk in the garden and took some pictures of the flowers. I was happy to see the purple osteospermum flowers starting to bloom.
I tried on my new clothes and I was happy to see that they all fitted me. I wore one of the tank tops under my sweater and wore the leggings, too.
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| Friday Brunch |
For brunch, I cooked a package of breakfast sausages, fried potatoes, and scrambled eggs. I cooked the potatoes and the eggs in some of the oil left in the pan after I fried the sausages, but, otherwise, I didn't salt them. I gave daughter her usual serving of sausages, but, I limited myself to half of a sausage, cut up into small pieces. It provided just enough salt for me to enjoy my brunch.
In the afternoon, during daughter's 30 minutes lunch break, we made a quick visit to the library to return our books that were due and I borrowed three magazines. Daughter picked up a book about raising backyard chickens and we will both read it as we are wanting to try our hand at raising chickens.
Later in the evening, M tended to the garden, watering, spraying the rest of the fruit trees, etc.
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| Chicken and Vegetable Soup |
For dinner, I removed all the meat I could from the chicken carcass I had boiled to make stock on Thursday, cut up some onions, carrots, and some scallions I hd in the freezer, and made a chicken and vegetable soup. Since I made it without salt, the soup didn't taste very good to me. I had about a third of a jar of pasta sauce in the fridge, and, in an effort to improve the taste of the soup, I added that to the soup, along with a can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed to remove any salt, and a can of drained and rinsed green beans, too, which needed to be used up. Daughter said it just tasted like pasta sauce (she is not a fan of tomato based pasta sauce unless it is homemade), but, I found it acceptable, if not exactly tasty. I had a bowl of it for my dinner and kept the leftovers in the fridge.
On Friday, I was grateful for:
- A sunny day
- Flowers in the garden
- Libraries
- M's help with the garden
- A safe drive to the library and back
Friday's joyful activity was a visit to the library.
Plans for Saturday include a visit from friend R to pick up her latest package and maybe ordering groceries.
How was your Friday? What are your plans for the weekend?
I envy you your weather! We are minus 16˚F right now and not supposed to get above ZERO today. I am not a fan of canned pasta sauce either but love the one I make. Might be time to make a pot of it now that you got me thinking about it. I have to add salt to everything for my hubby to help level out his blood pressure. xo Diana
ReplyDeleteWe are in the low 60s, today, which must feel like summer to you, right now. Would you share your pasta sauce recipe, please? I had a change of blood pressure medication dosages and that caused my blood pressure to shoot up. Trying to bring it down to acceptable levels.
DeleteYou already have some experience with chickens in the backyard. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed! Thanks to Chicken Little. I think she went to that Great Chicken Coop in the Sky.
DeleteChe bello che da voi sono già spuntato i fiori. Qui oggi ha nevicato un po'
ReplyDeleteStefania said (per Google Translate): How lovely that the flowers have already bloomed where you are. It snowed a little here today.
DeleteThank you, Stefania. The spring flowers are blooming here. It doesn't snow in the area where I live. But, other parts of the country are experiencing major winter storms.
I often cut up sausages like you did. You get all the flavor, just not quite the mouthfeel, but it's fine.
ReplyDeleteI have found if I increase the herbs and spices I don't miss salt, though I have always tended to under salt everything because I have never been a salty food fan. Chocolate on the other hand . . .
I read your yesterday's post and love the items you bought. I hang on to clothes for an incredibly long time and don't need to buy much, but this year I bought several dresses and a couple of pairs of pants. It was probably the most self indulgent I have ever been.
Yes, cutting up the sausages enables one to get the flavor and extend the sausages, too. :) I've always added a lot of salt to my food, so, going without salt takes a little getting used to.
DeleteThank you, Anne. I'm pleased with the items of clothing I bought. I'm glad you treated yourself to some new clothes. :)
Your soup looks delicious. And I'm rather excited about your plans for raising chickens. Xx
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jules. We are looking forward to raising chickens (and fresh eggs!) :)
DeleteMany years ago I kept chickens, freshly laid eggs are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI might be asking you some questions once we get started with the chickens. My neighbor's chicken used to fly over the wall and spend the day in my garden and it laid some eggs once, which I enjoyed, but, that's the extent of my experience with chickens! LOL.
DeleteThose osteospermums are such a gorgeous pink colour!
ReplyDeleteThey are lovely, aren't they?
DeleteThe soup looks so good. I need to make some more soup, it is just what we need when it is 5°F in the day, and the commercial canned soup has too much salt in it, so I leave it in the store.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bushlady. The soup turned out well enough, considering I tried to avoid adding salt to it. Soup does warm one up from the inside out, doesn't it?
DeleteOh yes, it will be interesting to see whether you decide to keep chickens, and how it goes, if so. G has hers in a large coup - she doesn't let them loose like Chicken Little was! Too many foxes and other hungry prowlers! I guess you won't need that new composter though, since they eat pretty much all the scraps and garden waste she generates. Ha!
ReplyDeleteIt won't be long before your front garden is full of osteospermum colour again :o)
We are looking forward to having chickens. We will build a coop and a covered run for them so they will not be flying to the neighbor's yard! We are going to get just a couple of chickens to see how it all works out. I'm looking forward to the garden being full of osteospermum flowers! :)
DeleteIt’s amazing what salt does in cooking. Sometimes I use Worcestershire sauce in soups for flavor.
ReplyDeleteSalt enhances the flavor of food, I think, but, I need to reduce my salt intake. I did consider adding Worcestershire sauce to my soup, but, it, too, has salt added to it, so, I didn't use any. I might look into buying some reduced sodium Worcestershire sauce to use in the future. :)
DeleteI love your flowers. We are a long way off from flowers blooming. You soup looks delicious. Jean
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jean. I've few more pictures of flowers to post. The soup was good (it would have been better with salt, though!) LOL.
DeleteBeautiful flowers 💐 and your meals look scrumptious 😋
ReplyDeleteThank you, Linda. :)
DeleteLove the colour of the osteospermums, here they flower off and on all year. I have always hankered after having chickens, but have a secret fear of them since our rooster attacked me when I was 5! I will see how you go and maybe. It would be a good way to keep the weeds down in wild area, lol.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sharon. My osteospermum tend to stop flowering in the winter.
DeleteLast year, we had an egg shortage and eggs went up to $9.99 for a dozen at the grocery store. Ever since then, we've been thinking of raising our own chickens for eggs. I'm sorry your rooster attacked you when you were 5! We are not planning to get any roosters, just a couple of hens. We'll see if it works out or not. :)