Wishful Wednesday - languages

'I wish' .... I was fluent in another language in addition to English, and it would be Spanish or Hungarian!

Spanish would certainly be the most reasonable language to choose. I do live in Tejas after all! At one point in high school I was actually quite good at Spanish, just too timid to use it outside of school. Thus, my fluency dropped to the minimum and I've tried briefly a few times since then to get it back. During our honeymoon in Mexico Brian and I often spoke Spanish to each other and to the waiters and staff at the resort. I think they compliment you out of service much more than any real speaking talent we showed. It was fun to be known as Sra. Jork the first week of my life as Mrs. York. Often for memory's sake Brian and I will immitate the hosts at our favorite restaurant. Their welcome went just like this each time we visited "Hola Meester and Meesus Jork. Welcome to Yo-Yos (Jo-Jos). Enyoy!"

If there were any other language I would like to be able to speak it would be Hungarian, or Magyar. My godparents are Hungarian and were a wonderful part of my upbringing. They came here as adults so they spoke the language and had many Hungarian friends who I had the pleasure of meeting. My Godmama was also a really good cook and would make lots of Hungarian dishes which I loved! They taught me a few words in Hungarian that I remember. Unfortunately they aren't the most useful ones as I learned primarily on dog walks we would take together. Good luck communicating with someone of another culture when all you can do is command them to sit and heel! I also know the word for delicious (finom) which actually does come in handy. They have since moved back to Hungary and I miss them often. Maybe we'll be able to visit some day.

Square Foot Gardening Update 3

Hi everyone, as Erin mentioned to you all, I was going to write a guest post about our garden last week; well, it’s late, but here it is. Quite a bit has been going on over the past 2 or months since you all first got an update on the garden. We’ve weathered a freeze, replanted those that didn’t, eaten our share of fresh sugar snap peas, radishes and strawberries, and are waiting in eager anticipation of the tomatoes that set fruit over the past 2 weeks.

We’ll start with the successes. The sugar snap peas have just taken off up the trellis, with the assistance of the twine supports that my industrious wife added; the original trellis supports were just too large for them to wrap their tendrils around, and now they’re a good 4 feet tall. The peas were planted in mid-January, and we’ve had many, many snacks of sugar snap peas while standing by the garden as the neighbors drove by, as well as a large side dish with a homemade peanut dipping sauce. They are more peas ripening as we speak, but with the recent 90 degree temp., the leaves are fading to yellow, and the plants are on the brink of burning up in the heat. The radishes, beets, carrots and swiss chard have all done wonderfully; we had swiss chard for dinner last night, and should be able to have it every week for the next 3 months at the rate it’s going; I’m convinced it’s the most under-appreciated leafy green. There has not yet been a beet or carrot harvest, but they are beginning to crown at the surface, so it won’t be long. The radishes have taken off like a weed, and have a very mild flavor and good crisp.
The herbs have thrived in the recent rains and sunshine we’ve had this month, with the cilantro being about 3 feet tall (nothing makes a salsa like fresh homegrown cilantro), and the parsley spreading out and up everywhere. The basil did not fare as well in the late season freeze we had in February, and has had its growth stunted (it’s getting there though). The okra has sprouted from seed, and will be 5 feet tall by the time the next garden post comes around, the cucumbers are starting to shoot tendrils, and the Kentucky Wonder Beans are covered in flower buds. The strawberry plant is in a pot next to the garden, and produces little strawberries, that are sweet and juicy; if we can get to them before the birds (I can’t blame them though). The cabbage is taking its sweet time, and I may have more news about it in November; if we ever needed cabbage this summer or fall, we’ll be on our way to HEB.

We had a relatively late season freeze at the end of February that snuck up on us, which left the gardens uncovered for the 29 degree night. That’s all it took though, the bell peppers, jalapeños, banana peppers, cucumbers, squash and green beans all had to be re-planted. The tomatoes were cut down pretty good by the freeze, but the core weathered the storm, and we will be harvesting beginning this month. We have 5 varieties of tomatoes growing which should satisfy all of our tomato needs, from snacking, to fried green tomatoes, to burgers on the grill. We have Roma, Roma Grape, Beefsteak (1 lb tomatoes!), Early Girl & Solar Fire (TX heat and drought resistant). All of the tomatoes are thriving, with little tomatoes everywhere.

I’ve learned quite a bit from growing the garden this season, mostly, to listen to experience. My 90 year old Grandpa has been gardening and growing in the Central Texas area for the past 75-80 years, and the one bit of advice he gave me was that you can expect a freeze in the area up until Easter; I didn’t listen and planted the warm season plants in February anyway, and had to replant after the freeze got them. Secondly, Square Foot Gardening is the only way to go. Its low maintenance, low watering and the plants thrive.

Top 2 Tuesday - Splurges

1. Pedicures- I used to think this was normal and everyone splurged on pedicures, but now all my friends seem to do their own nails- weird! I go every other week and get mine done and I love it! Here they are as of yesterday.

2. Eating out - we don't eat out that often any more, but when we do we go pretty big. I know you can totally keep the price down by not getting drinks or splitting a meal, but I don't like that. We get drinks, appetizers sometimes, pretty much whatever I want on the menu, and every now and then dessert too! Yummo!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Date Night - maybe a movie, maybe dinner at Huisache Grill?

Tuesday: French Dip au jus, Cilantro-jalapeno slaw, chips. This meal came from Cowboy Boots and Baby Booties

Wednesday: Jalapeño-Lime Halibut on the grill with veggie skewers and rice, and margaritas. the recipe is for Grouper and it's in the current Southern Living magazine. The whole grilling section they put in there this month looks amazing! We'll probably try another one next week. The chicken and BBQ sauce was inspired from there too, but I'm using Christy Jordan's recipes.

Thursday: Grilled Chicken with white BBQ sauce, sweet potato fries, squash casserole

Friday: BLT sandwiches, chilled peach jalapeno soup (Brook Peterson's recipe!).

I didn't realized till I typed it all out that the theme of the week is jalapeños. It must be that I'm getting ready for Cinco de Mayo!

I also just had to show you the cake I made this weekend! I would totally recommend it. Delicious, and not that difficult, especially if you have a hubby that's happy to do the measuring.

Trisha Yearwood's Key Lime Cake

CAKE 1 3-oz package lime-flavore

d gelatin

1⅓ cups granulated sugar

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

5 large eggs, slightly beaten

1½ cups vegetable oil

¾ cup orange juice

1 Tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ cup Key lime juice (from about 25 small Key limes or 4 large regular limes) ½ cup confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 9-inch-round cake pans.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the gelatin, sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir to mix well. Add the eggs, oil, orange juice, lemon juice, and vanilla. Divide the batter evenly among the 3 pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Test for doneness by lightly touching the tops of the layers or inserting a toothpick. Cool the layers in the pans for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto racks.

3. While the layers are still hot, mix the lime juice and confectioners' sugar and pour it over the layers on the racks. You can pierce the layers with a fork to allow the glaze to soak in better. Allow the layers to cool completely as you prepare the icing.

CREAM CHEESE ICING

½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature 1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, room temperature 1 (1-lb) box confectioners' sugar

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese. Beat in the confectioners' sugar until the mixture is smooth and easy to spread. Spread the icing between the layers and on the top and sides of the cake.

She says the frosting is optional and you can just leave it with the glaze, but I'm telling you it's not. The frosting is scrumptions, go ahead and put it on there.

ok so Trisha Yearwood probably has better counter tops than me and I'm sure she's neater with the icing, but otherwise they're pretty much the same, right?

Sing-Along Sunday

Happy Day!! I hope your weekends are going great! It's Sing-Along Sunday again and I hope you'll join me in posting a song that you love or are listening to now so that we can all sing along together.

This fist one I got from my kids at school. They did an oral interpretation project with song lyrics and this song came up at least twice every class period. I hadn't heard it before but now I think I know all the words. It really is a good one. The video has a full minute intro, fyi.

Brian's request this week is the intro to the Wonder Years. Joe Cocker's With a Little Help from my Friends. I never watched the show, but it sure is a good song, huh!

This version might help if you don't know the words already, haha

I hope a lot of you will play along this week! If you want to use YouTube there's a little embed button so you can get the link to copy and paste on your page. You could also just give the link to the song wherever you find it! Then come back here and add your post to the Linky below! I look forward to singing along with you!

My Hubby is gonna be a Coastie!

Well, it's high time I got to talk about what's been going on around here. When Brian first started talking about joining the Coast Guard we kept it between us and God because nothing was sure yet. When it got more and more of a reality we talked with our parents and a few friends, but we've come to the jumping off point. He has recently been qualified to join and join he's going to do. 99.9% sure. I admit, when this conversation began I was pretty dang stressed out because joining as an officer in the Coast Guard full time would mean relocation every year, a huge pay cut, and 2 years of him on a ship, away from me. But as we talked about things together and he talked about things with a recruiter a much better decision was reached that he would enter as an enlisted Coast Guard Reservist. This way he'll get to do a lot more of what he's wanting to do like speed around on boats with guns and a lot less of what he's bored about in his current job, sit behind a desk.

This last week he passed 2 of the final hurdles for enlisting which were the ASVAB test and the military physical. I'm going to take a minute here to brag about how smart my husband is! He scored in the 97th percentile on that test which is taken by members of every branch of the military and I couldn't be prouder of him. His scores there and his education mean that he will be eligible for pretty much any training or position that he should choose. His heart is set on Boatswain's Mate (say "Bosun's Mate") which are the people who drive the boats under 65 ft.

Here's a little inspirational (to people like my husband) video. Please turn your sound down or off, I can't endorse this music.

This will bring about some changes around here. He'll be gone for 8 weeks hopefully starting in September for basic training, then another 12 for Boatswain's mate training. Then he would serve one weekend every month for the next six years out of a Texas base.

Here are what I perceive Brian's reasons for joining to be, in order:

5. Have something exciting to do on weekends

4. Catch bad guys

3. Serve our country

2. Get experience for a future career in marine industry

1. Ride around on big boats with guns

Although I'm just a fraction as excited as my husband is about this new endeavor, I do think it will be a great one for him and for our family. I'm very proud of him for taking this step and I look forward to seeing him thrive in this setting as I think he's perfectly suited to it. It's going to suck to have him gone though, huh? I hate it when he's out for a week for work, totally not sure how 3 months is going to look, but we're tough. Have any advice for us? I'll pass any comments along to him as well.

Six Senses Saturday

I'm linking up this week with Julia from The World is My Oyster

***

Right Now I'm...

Tasting:

The whole wheat pancakes topped with plain yogurt and honey breakfast that Brian made us.

Smelling:

My dog, Sandy's head.

I love that smell!

Seeing:

the sun peeking through the trees across the street. It's going to be a beautiful day!

Hearing:

Homegrown Gardening show on the radio. They're talking about natural ways to eliminate weeds.

Touching:

My Southern Living magazine. I'll be including a few recipes from the new issue this week.

Feeling:

pumped about Wein and Saengerfest in town today! I'm going to get to see, touch, taste, smell and hear wonderful things all day!!