With the arrival of this spring-like weather in February, I am chomping at the bit to get in my garden, but patience must prevail. I will wait until March to begin planting, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start buying seeds - which I did. I stopped by Blue Ridge Farmers Co-op (formerly Southern States) and filled a small paper bag with onion bulbs and bought two packages each of Black … [Read more...]
Back To Nature with Home Lighting
Occasionally our vendors surprise us with some fun pieces with lots of character and interesting materials. And the January Market did just that. This year expect to see fixtures with natural fibers and materials. Some of the chandeliers, sconces, and pendants are made of hand-wrapped rattan, smooth bamboo, woven string, handcrafted of mango wood, cork, handcrafted of Eucalyptus, and many in … [Read more...]
Cooking the Perfect Steak
It’s hard to screw up a good steak. Unless you cook it until every drop of juice is gone and it’s as dry as shoe leather or if you serve it so rare that it crawls off your plate before you can kill it with a steak knife, most any steak will be good. And well it should, because steaks come from the choice parts of a steer, generally the loin or rib area. Steaks are one of the first things … [Read more...]
Signs of our Times
Grackles Beware
I am in full-grackle mode. They showed up last week and I am prepared for the confrontation. For the past several years, grackles have attacked my yard and birdfeeders like the Russians going after Ukraine real estate. It wouldn’t be so bad if there were 6 or 8, but they come in swarms, as many as 50 or more in a gang. I cannot afford to feed 50 grackles. In order to continue to feed my … [Read more...]
Al Carbon: Worth a Visit
The Woodbrook Shopping Center is where restaurants go to die. It’s tucked away and hidden for the most part, and there aren’t enough Woodbrook families to keep a restaurant going – with one exception. Al Carbon, an authentic Mexican/Peru restaurant specializing in charcoal rotisserie chicken. Early this week, the grout people were working on our kitchen, and it was off limits, so I … [Read more...]
Pond Update
We had two resident frogs going into last winter and last week we had had two resident frogs that apparently awoke from the dead. Well, almost dead. Frogs go into suspended animation as the water turns cold. They simply turn off their body systems. They don’t breathe, they don’t move, they just slink down to the bottom of the pond and wait till the longer days and sunshine warms the pond, then … [Read more...]
Sharks Aplenty
Sharks don’t mind the cold saltwater, now in the lower to mid-fifties, so if you have ever wanted to catch a few, now’s a good time. There have been numerous shark catches at Hatteras and lots of dogfish reported on the Nags Head beaches. The warm weather this week has improved surf fishing with some nice red drum reported. Puppy Drum, Black Drum and a few Blow Toads are also biting … [Read more...]
That and a Dime…
There was an old saying, “That and a dime will buy you a cup of coffee.” Whatever “That” was had no value, but a cup of coffee cost a dime, always a dime. Well, not anymore. A small cup of coffee at Starbucks runs about $2.95. When you add sales tax and meals tax. It’s pushing $3.50 a cup – for a cup of coffee! The fancy brews such as Macchiatos, Mochas, Lattes, Espresso, Cappuccino, and … [Read more...]
Spatchcock Barbeque Game Hens
Spatchcock Barbeque Game Hens. Boy, that’s a mouthful, but it’s a good tasting mouthful. Want a nice change of pace? Try spatch-cocking a Cornish game hen and cooking it on the grill with a little Charlie Mills BBQ Sauce. I just did and it was mighty good. A few weeks back, I had bought 4 frozen Cornish game hens in anticipation of a company dinner. But inclement weather meant no … [Read more...]
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