Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Day Job Smile...

In my day job I take chest x-rays. And I bill people. So. Let's just say most folks don't really look forward to seeing me. 

However, I do have some great fun on occasion and have managed to entice a few fans. 

One of my favorite patients begins laughing the second she sees me and doesn't stop til she leaves my room. Can you guess why she's one of my favorites? Seriously, I feel like a I should give her an autograph, she thinks I'm THAT funny. She even said as much. Well, paraphrased this is what she said, "My co-worked called me and I told him I was going to the doctor's office. He said, UGH!, but I said, No, it's not that bad, this is the easy day. And the x-ray girl is hilarious."  Then she cracked up. Her x-rays are sometimes challenging, too, since she has to hold her breathe and stay very still for a few seconds during my annual stand-up routine. I have to get all professional and down to business, and yet, she laughs even then. 

Another guy came in a few days later. We chatted. Then he said, "You know, I had that note you wrote me for a really long time." Uhhhh. I wrote him a note??? Odd. And I said as much. He reminded me that a few years ago I commented on how neat and tidy he was because he folded up his shirt when he removed it for his chest x-ray. He then apparently made a comment that his wife would be amused by my observation regarding his tidiness. So I offered to write him a note that said, indeed, that he was witnessed being neat and tidy.  So I did, and he posted it prominently and referred to it for self-esteem or gloating purposes til he lost is or spilled something on it in his normally sloven routine.

The scary thing is this. I just am sometimes crazy and do weird things for my own amusement. And then I forget about them and move on and forget that someone else was there, and maybe took notes (even ones written by me.) If I am hilarious some mornings, I wonder if it's connected to the amount of coffee I've consumed or the lack of sleep I've gotten the night before.

And upon thinking through the implications of this, I'd rather be known as the crazy, curly-haired, x-ray freak than a crabby, no-nonsense health worker who doesn't like her job. 

Yeah. 

I'll take crazy. People laugh with happy crazy people. With or at, it's still laughing.  

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Fresh, Farm Art...

Nothing crazy happened at the farm. No creepie-crawlie, shuddery encounters. 

The vegetables were picked and ready to pack. The day was beautiful, almost autumn-like. And after weeks of heat, heat, heat, so welcome. The hundred degree dry wave has taken a toll on the veggies. The tomatoes are beginning to rebound from the heat and will probably continue as there are lots of sets and plenty of time for ripening. With the cooler temperatures there should be some decent picks left. The lettuces will be appearing again, soon. The potatoes are a different story. After some research, the farmer has decided that the uppermost potatoes were nearly cooked in the ground so they were quick to rot. They pulled out a decent yield. Just decent, though, and barely equivalent to what they planted. Then, over the following days potatoes began to turn. The yield shrunk to nominal. But. There hasn't been hail like last year.

The pack was quick and full of delicious items like eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, kale and basil.

Picmonkey helped me turn the pictures of the fabulous piles of eggplant into art. Something about the well-used plastic table and the harsh daylight shining on the eggplant, though beautiful, was a little bit stark. 

And, yes, I'm enjoying Picmonkey experimentation. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Photo Tweak-a-Bit

picmonkey tweaking

picmonkey playtime

picpicpicmonkey

tweak via picmonkey

Original

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Slippery Bunnies

Not bunny biting, bunny panic.

We've discovered something new about bunnies this past week. Apparently, they have more magic going for them than merely being pulled out of magicians' hats. 

You see. Our bunnies are gifted magicians on their own. They don't need no stinking guy in a cape with a stupid wand. 

They do their own stunts. 

These tricks happen during yard time. 

& has built quite the system or moveable animal containment pieces that allow her to graze the bunnies daily. They love this time. And are able to be broken up into safe units (i.e. ones who don't make more babies). The have access to grass and weeds and can run and relax as they so desire. But, like I said, we've discovered a few snafus.

Cases in point: Darcy playing the old slipperoo. The base of his wire playpen has bigger holes than the sides and top. I picked it up to move him one day. And he did not come with the cage. No biggie because I was able to pop it back over him before he discovered he was free. But unsettling none-the-less. & turned that cage upside down thinking that would solve the problem. 

Then just a few days later & was doing the usual bunny chores while the kids were enjoying play time. She glanced toward them and noticed little Emma (older baby) hoping around the yard, not the play pen, the yard. This picture was a self portrait after she caught her and before the adrenaline subsided. She's not sure where or how Emma waved the magic wand and let herself out. 

Just Friday the three of us got to do some bunnie herding when Charlotte (fabulous Craig's list cage debacle bunny) got out of the cage that Darcy had vacated. The door was latched tight, the sides and corners all buttoned up and the bars are all in place. Now, Charlotte is much bigger than Darcy, no way she'd get out of the bottom. And & had flipped the cage so the slipping out the bottom situation wasn't an option. Hmmm. 

The only option is for Charlotte to have stretched out, grabbed the top and pulled herself up Mission Impossible style, and out through the bigger opening. Or climbing the sides. Oy. Slippery bunnies we've got. 

This is what we've learned in the two months and one week since bunnies entered our lives. 

The stereotypes about bunny's fertility, speed of mating, and as magician's sidekicks do indeed contain slivers of truth. Are there any others I need to look into? I suppose I should do a study on the Easter Bunny before I start finding eggs all around the yard and house. .

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Deep Thoughts for a Monday

So, Saturday I played a bit at PicMonkey while I should've been putting my clothes away, folding laundry, weeding, sweeping the floors etc. 

Oh, the things you can do at PicMonkey, the things you can do. 

And the things you can avoid.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Maple Pecan Monkey Bread

Vegan Maple Pecan Monkey Bread

Dough

• 3 teaspoons yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110-115 f)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 TBSP coconut oil
• 1 TBSP ground flax
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour + additional (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup) to knead into dough as needed. (I used mix of unbleached white and whole wheat pastry flour)

Place yeast in a bowl. Add 1/2 cup of the warm water, stir, add sugar. Let sit for several minutes until it looks foamy. Add oil, salt, flax and remaining water. Stir. Add the flour. Begin kneading the dough, adding flour until it becomes elastic and smooth.  BTW, I usually do this right in the bowl. Cover the dough and set aside for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. The dough will double. 

The Gooey Stuff

2-3 TBSP Earth Balance or coconut oil
1/3 Cup Maple syrup
1/3 Cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 Cup pecans

Preheat oven to 375

While waiting for dough to rise melt 2 -3 TBSP of Earth Balance or coconut oil in a small bowl. 

In an additional small bowl mix together two teaspoons cinnamon and 1/3 cup of sugar until blended. 

Chop or crush pecans if not already in pieces. 

When dough is doubled break it into approximate 1 inch balls. Dip each ball into Earth Balance/coconut oil then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Fill the bottom of a greased bundt pan. Pour half the pecans and half the maple syrup over the monkey nuggets. Then continue with the dough balls until you run out. Pour the remaining pecans and maple syrup over the last row and if you have cinnamon/sugar and oil left drizzle/sprinkle that over the top. 

Bake at 375 for 23-25 Minutes

When done let sit for a few minutes then place a serving plate over the bundt pan and invert. Let sit again for a few minutes then lift the pan off the bread, protecting yourself from steam. Serve. 

The maiden voyage of this recipe was nearly perfect. It wasn't all that much more involved to make the bread than to cut  those super processed biscuits into quarters. And with the flax and whole grain flour it feels better, too. I did try this with just the maple syrup and no sugar. It just wasn't gooey enough. Close. But the addition of the brown sugar coating each piece will take it to the next level.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Farming, Farming, Look at That Nasty Thing...

The weather cooperated enough that we were able to harvest sweet corn on Farm day. Yay. The tomatoes have gone slightly dormant with the heat. And for literally two minutes we got a rain storm. A two minute downpour that soaked the parking lots and teased everything else desperate for rain.

But those are just the little details. Here's the big adventure we had at the farm. While checking the organically grown, you know it's organically grown if there is evidence of pests having nibbled, but I digress, corn, & found something.

When I say she found something, I don't mean something innocent, or cute, or ordinary. I mean she found SOMETHING. As you have already correctly judged from the pictures she found something nasty ugly. I've seen this stuff call corn smut. And I've shunned it like the plague that it appears to be. I believe my childhood dreams were haunted by this corn monstrosity many, many nights.

But, get this, the farmer begins educating us on what corn smut is, and actually tells us she's eaten it before and it's tasty. Okay. I'm a major mushroom fan and this kind of piqued my interest. It's edible? Oh, yes, it's a delicacy in many parts of the world. She pulled one off the corn and showed us that it indeed looked like a mushroom under the black, oozy looking covering. So. I tasted it. I took a bite right out of it. And it's good. Tasty, mushroomy. And I am able to, 36 hours later, type this without hallucinating or stumbling around any more than usual in my words. I looked it up on wikepedia...why do I always go there? Anyhoo, I did. And here's the link to Mexican Truffles i.e. corn smut.

I wouldn't try this with non-organically grown corn. But, hey, how often do you get a chance to break off a hunk of ugliness and take a big bite? You only go around once.