Six Degrees of Separation

We all know how it works in blogland. One blog leads to another then another and then you find the one. The one that you immediately identify with through the pictures and the prose.

Then you peruse their comments or their blog favorites and you find another. And from there, another.

So maybe once a week I'll show my new favorites. Ones that caused me to catch my breath. Ones that made me read deeper and deeper into old and then older posts.

Today it's A Rockridge Life. Its clean pages, full of BIG beautiful pictures of goats and flowers and flower arrangements and delicious food knocked my socks off. Why was I not slavishly following this blog?

After reading a comment posted by Helen, I followed her to lilacandlily a lovely British floral blog full of fanciful and charming creations.

I don't know where lilacandlily will lead me. But I can't wait. When the journey begins with forget me nots, goats and floral cupcakes you know it's going to be one delicious trip..

Photo courtesy of LilacAndLily

Eat, Mix And Smile

We are huge fans of Thai, Vietnamese and Korean cooking around here. Though we cook these cuisines constantly, I don't often post about them because all my pictures look the same: Blue and white rice bowls, chopsticks and rice topped with___ or rice noodles topped with_____ then maybe an egg on top of _____.

But tonight we're having Bee Bim Bop, a Korean rice bowl that translates as mix-mix bowl and I feel it deserves a shout out. You can serve it with chicken or beef or just the egg if you are not a meat eater. It's simple, delicious and healthy.

I've used a pound of sirloin, thinly sliced against the grain. I marinate it in 5 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, 3 thinly sliced scallions. 2 tablespoons of finely chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon of sugar and freshly ground black pepper.

While this sits, I cook some sticky rice in the rice cooker. Then I finely julienne 2 carrots, dice 2 zucchini, slice up a few mushrooms and clean a handful of spinach.

When rice is cooked, I quickly cook the vegetables separately in canola oil, removing each one when ready, After wilting the spinach I add the beef and stir fry. When beef is browned I pour the rest of the marinade in pan and reduce. A quick fry of one egg per person and it's ready to assemble.

Into the bowl goes the rice, A neat pile of zucchini, another of carrots, you get the idea. Meat in the middle and egg on top. Pour extra sauce in pan over top, a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds if available. I add a dollop of Vietnamese chile-garlic sauce, and then mix-mix and eat- eat.

You'll blow me kisses for this one.

I Gotta Wear Shades

I'm off. I've done my Monday morning chores. I almost has to blindfold myself to stay inside. Mopping floors and folding laundry seem particularly hard when the temperature is climbing and the sun shining.

Today is lunch with friends and then it's hair day. I'll be perfectly blonde, my friend Anne red as red can be. Then coffees and lots of Oscar gossip.

Hope the sun is shining wherever you are today. Here's a bowl of spring from the shop on Saturday. Loving that gerbera daisy.

In Spring

Heaven is working in the garden. We raked and weeded and trimmed back and unearthed and pondered ."What is that plant, did we put it there?" We've concluded the squirrels did it. While we were snowed in cooking and reading and baking, the squirrels were hard at work rearranging the garden.

In spite of their best efforts the hellobores and snowdrops are blooming away. Peonies are thrusting up from the ground, the forsythia is covered in buds. And in spring , even a dandelion is beautiful.

Sunshine Nearly Always Makes Me High

7am this morning.

I knew today was going to be a good day.

Producto De Los Estados Unidos

The other 2 full time designers at our flower shop were born in Bolivia. One is a citizen, the other, Betty is a permanent legal resident. Today after work we came to my house and I helped her fill out her application for citizenship. I was honored.

I love them as sisters. I have learned so much from them both. How not to be a princess, how to view every job that comes along as worthwhile, not beneath me. They are both so talented and hardworking, I have come to understand there is nothing I can't ask them to do that I wouldn't do myself.

When I met Betty, she was working at the shop after school, cleaning buckets and the cooler and just making sense of the mess we made every day. After high school she began to work full time and we trained her to design. She is now a brilliant designer. She got married, had 2 beautiful boys. The 12 year old is a 4th year honor student ,the 8 year old has just been accepted into the young scholars program. She is a home owner, soccer mom, fighter for injustice . She taught me by example to stand up for my rights, make the tough phone calls, and set my boundaries. And we laugh daily , trade clothes, share lunches and plants from our gardens.

America is lucky to be getting such a strong woman as a citizen. I am very lucky to have her as a friend.

Gratitude

We were slammed at work today. I don't know what this says about the economy is general, but when people are sending that many flowers on a Tuesday, things seem to be looking up. I'm setting up a new hotel account. A few years ago we might have turned our noses up at their budget. Now we're just grateful for their business. Maybe that's what this post is about: gratitude.

I have a little fat organic chicken roasting in the oven. My house was cleaned today. It isn't snowing (yet). I have a few vases of one of my favorite spring flowers sitting around the clean house. Fritillaria, sweetest little blossoms especially the checkered-lily. And a few more of red parrot tulips. I looked up the spelling of fritillaria in a beautiful old book called The Garden Encyclopedia. It was published in 1936. It's information is as pertinent today as it was then. My mother bought it at auction and I inherited it from her. I always inherited her love of cooking, gardening, auctions and yard sales and a rather sarcastic sense of humor. Thanks mom.

Yep, I'm pretty damn grateful.