The Royal Wedding

Of course I'm going to watch it.

I watched Charles and Diana.

And many years before that I watched Queen Elizabeth's coronation. In fact, I think that was the first time I ever saw a TV. It was black and white, of course, and not "live."

So - I've had Royal Wedding on my mind, which might explain these:

Ribbons and Lace

My Wedding Hat

So, Who's the Fairest?

Th_th_th_that's all, folks!

In a Treeful Mood

Happy Easter. Happy Earth Day. Happy Spring. Happy Life!

It seems I had trees on my mind today:

Mushroom Forest

And:

I Sea a Tree

For Mother:

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

     - by Joyce Kilmer

This is one of my favorites too.

One Can Never Have Too Many Chairs.

We found that out when we had ten people at Caroline's birthday party.

Well, now we have two more. Aren't they nice?

Navy Chairs

Caroline got them from Overstock.com and they were on sale (of course). We had no choice on the color, but the color is perfect - lucky us!

They go perfectly in our little grey/white/blue kitchen:

You've seen this picture before, but I keep putting it on the blog to convince you that my kitchen is always clean. Hah!

Now, back to the chairs: And Faith: They (the chairs) arrived packed together in one big box. I took the first one out and removed the padding around the legs, etc. As I was doing that, I heard noises from inside the box.

For a brief moment I wondered if the Overstock people had sent me something extra - something alive.

Then I heard Faith's bell. She had squeezed herself into that box even before I got the second chair out!

So, I decided to make her a playhouse. Tomorrow.

Because, today I was busy cooking. I made black bean soup and cornbread:

I had some left over ham in the fridge, so that's what got me started on this. And of course I didn't use a recipe, so this is just an approximation of what I did. Let's see:

• One small bag of black beans
• About half a pound of sliced spiral ham
• Two small potatoes
• Half an onion
• About half a cup of leftover spaghetti sauce (a great addition to many recipes)
• Salt, pepper, chili powder

I cooked the beans according to the directions on the bag, which took about an hour to soak and about 3 hours to cook until the beans were very soft. I simmered the ham in a different pan to make broth, and that's what I cooked the beans in. I cut the ham into small pieces and kept it in the fridge until the beans were cooked.

When the beans were pretty soft I peeled the potatoes and cut them up and cooked them with the beans for the last 20 minutes or so.

Then I got out my trusty blender. After the beans cooled a bit I whipped them up (potatoes too) in batches, all but about a cupful of beans, to give the soup a little texture.

Then I put it all back in the pan and added the ham, chopped onion, spaghetti sauce, salt, pepper and chili powder. I simmered it for about 15 minutes, to cook the onion and blend the flavorings.

Caroline doesn't eat bean soup, so I had only myself to please on this one. I ate it with a dollop of sour cream and a square of corn bread (made from a Jiffy mix).

Nutritionally speaking, I guess bean soup is kind of old school - high in carbs - but you can't say it lacks fiber, at least. And it's soooo good!

Meanwhile, Faith is waiting for me to get going on her playhouse!