March Trip to Bok Gardens, Lake Wales, Florida

One of the fun things my mother, sister and I do in March is drive over to Lake Wales and tour Bok Tower Gardens - an awesome place for anyone who wants to feast their senses on acres and acres of beautifully landscaped gardens that sit on top of one of the few ridges in Florida.
In 1921, Edward W. Bok was spending the winter months in the residential mountain lake community located adjacent to one of the highest hills of Florida’s Lake Wales Ridge, 298 feet above sea level. He enjoyed taking evening walks to the top of “Iron Mountain,” among the virgin pines and sandhill scrub, to enjoy Florida’s dramatic sunsets and bird life. The idea came to him to preserve this hilltop and create a bird sanctuary – a place of beauty, serenity and peace.
Integral to Bok’s idea was the availability of a famous landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. Having made arrangements to buy land on the hilltop, Bok commissioned Olmsted to change this arid sandhill into “a spot of beauty second to none in the country.” The first year was spent digging trenches and laying water pipes for irrigation, after which rich black soil was brought by the thousands of loads.
With the requisite conditions for a subtropical garden in place, planting of bushes and trees was begun that would provide food for visiting birds. Today, these plantings provide shade to visitors as well as refuge for squirrels and more than 100 bird species.

Created to entice wildlife to take residence, the Reflection Pool gives visitors one of the most memorable experiences in the Gardens. Its location captures the reflection of the Singing Tower and offers the first image visitors have when entering the gardens.

It's the end of strawberry season in Florida and today I am going to make a fresh dtrawberry pie for my ESL (English as a Second Language) picnic.  I found this great recipe on the internet:

Fresh Strawberry Pie

When I was a kid, I liked to dip fresh strawberries into a little bit of sugar before I ate them. When they were still damp from being washed, the sugar clung perfectly to the berries and having a little bit of sugar made not-quite-perfect berries taste amazing. I didn’t use a lot, just enough to kiss the berries. I would eat the strawberries that looked the sweetest and darkest without sugar. This fresh strawberry pie reminds me of eating those sugar-sprinkled berries, made with fresh strawberries that are lightly glazed with a sugar-kissed strawberry sauce that holds everything together.
This is a recipe that I first made several years ago after finding it on the back of a box of cornstarch. I like it because it doesn’t use gelatin, which I tend to think takes away from the flavor and texture of the strawberries, but is frequently used in no-bake strawberry pies. The strawberries are layered into a pie crust – I like graham and shortbread, but any 9-inch crust will work – and topped with a sauce made from strawberry puree and sugar. The glossy red of the pie looks great and it tastes very fresh. The topping tastes great and doesn’t have a gelatiny feel to it, although it does a wonderful job of holding the berries in place and making the pie easy to slice.
You can’t use frozen berries for this pie, since they just don’t have the same texture as fresh. That said, you can actually use frozen berries to make the topping portion of the recipe and use fresh for the bulk of the pie. It goes without saying that you should use the best tasting fresh berries you can find for this pie, since they’re mostly unadorned. Wash and dry them well before using. And, if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to pick up some extra strawberries when you’re at the market, because if they’re ripe and sweet enough to put into the pie, I guarantee you’re going to want to snack on some while you work!

Fresh Strawberry Pie
1 9-inch graham cracker crust (store bought or from scratch)
2 pints fresh strawberries (2 lbs)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Wash and dry the strawberries, then remove the hulls (green leafy tops).
Take 1 1/2 cups of the berries and puree them in a food processor to make approximately 1 cup puree.
Combine puree with sugar, cornstarch and water in a medium saucepan and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for about 1 minute, then remove from heat, add in the vanilla extract and whisk the mixture steadily (doesn’t need to be fast, just to prevent the sauce from sticking to the pan) while it cools down for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, slice the berries in half (unless they are small and you can leave them whole) and arrange them in the pie crust. When the strawberry sauce has been cooled for 5 minutes, pour it over the sliced berries, trying to cover them as evenly as possible.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until ready to serve. This pie is best eaten the day it is sliced.
Serves 6-8

Algae

Ten Fun Facts About Algae

Algae can power planes, churn out—and eat up—oxygen, grow to hundreds of feet, and more.

Published: January-February 2012

1) Percent of oxygen produced by algae: 30-50
2) Milligrams of carrageenans, a red algae extract, the average American consumes daily, often in dairy products: 250
3) Maximum length, in feet, that kelp, the largest algae, can grow: 200
4) Times more productive algae is than traditional crops as a biofuel: 50
5) Number of Continental Airlines flight that, in November, was the first U.S. commercial passenger trip powered by algae biofuel: 1403
6) Years ago, after a mass extinction, that algae and bacteria consumed all of the sea’s oxygen, slowing the earth’s recovery: 250,000,000
7) Number of glowing algae that can be found in a gallon of water from Puerto Rico’s bioluminescent bays: 720,000
8) Number of moderate to large algal cells, per milliliter of water, needed for an algal bloom: 15,000
9) Area, in square miles, of the Mississippi River’s dead zone, where decaying algae have depleted oxygen: 8,500
10) Number of cells in the most basic algae: 1

Top 20 Unexpected Antioxidant-Rich Foods

Practically every day there’s some new news on the benefits of antioxidants, the cell-protecting nutrients found in a wide range of foods that can help combat heart disease, cancer, the effects of aging, and other conditions. Here is a quick alphabetical list of 20 foods you may not have realized are excellent sources.

1. Apples (such as Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, and Delicious, with skin)
2. Artichokes (cooked)
3. Beans (such as black, red kidney, pinto)
4. Blackberries
5. Blueberries (cultivated, wild)
6. Cherries (sweet)
7. Chocolate (dark)
8. Cranberries (cooked)
9. Cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and kale)
10. Pecans
11. Plums (black and red)
12. Pomegranates
13. Prunes
14. Raspberries
15. Strawberries
16. Sweet potatoes
17. Tea (black, green, white, and oolong)
18. Tomatoes
19. Walnuts
20. Wine (red)

Day 3

It doesn't appear that anyone is reading my blog but me!  I have my own private world - a little corner of cyber-space all to myself.  (:

Today I worked on my computer - filing all the books I list on Amazon. I had help from my good friend, Caroline.  I also took Addie and Kodi for two short walks and attended a class on Child Abuse Prevention with Anne.  We are going to help out in a children's camp in Appalachia this summer.  Can't wait!

 I also made a cream of black bean soup and gave most away to an Indian family who are vegetarians.  I tutor their son who is in the third grade.  Dad manages a hotel and Mom works about an hour's drive east as a bookkeeper for an insurance company.  She has been getting up at 2 am so as to be at work by 4 am.  Then she gets home about 6:30 and makes dinner.  I hope they like the meal because if they do it will give Mom a break!
Here is the recipe:

Creamy Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 1 cup onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup half and half 
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup corn: frozen, fresh or canned
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• Toppings: avocado, sour cream, shredded Cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, chopped fresh cilantro, lime wedges, tortilla chips, chopped onion 

Preparation

1. Sauté onion and garlic in hot oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat 4 to 6 minutes or until tender.
2. Blend 3/4 of the beans with the half and half.
3. Stir in blended beans, remaining beans, corn, salsa, chili powder and cumin - stirring to loosen particles from bottom of Dutch oven; cover and heat but do not boil. Uncover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes.
4. Remove from heat; stir in cilantro and lime juice. Let cool 5 minutes.
5.  Serve with desired toppings.
6. Enjoy!

Day 2

 

Today I am going to have additional lighting installed in my kitchen.  My husband and I remodeled our kitchen in November using IKEA cabinets,  dishwasher, lighting and granite countertops.  We kept our tile floor (even though it needs to have the grout touched up), the existing wallpaper and our old refrigerator.  The stove and microwave we bought new at Lowes.  Today I am having a red hanging bulb installed over the little island I have in the middle of the kitchen.  I'm hoping this gives us illumination as the rope lighting my husband and I put up only has 5 spotlights which gives us limited lighting and lots of shadows.  However, we do have under-the-counter lighting as well and that works great for lighting up my counter prep areas.  I am looking forward to the extra light over the island!

Introduction

Day 1

I am a blogger.



Kodiak

 I have no idea what I am going to blog but I am a blogger. 

Adelaide Marie

Wow, I've always wanted to have my own blog!

It was a spur of the moment thing and now I have to come up with ideas to blog. 

I have lots of ideas that are directly related to the many things that interest me.

Such as:

gardening

cooking

photography

painting

crafts

books

travel

kayaking

nature

birds

biking

Bible study

decorating

teaching

dogs
country living (as you can see!)

Well, that's it for now...I need to go think!! (: