Another scrap of honesty

Thanks Rosey for passing the Honest Scrap award along to me!

If I have to be honest, the creative juices were flowing the other day after Rosey posted her SCARY truths and passed along the award to me, but the well of creativity has not only gone dry, but the memory is going too and I can't remember what I was going to say before. Since my last MeMe award was a waaaaay too long dissertation on my hair (of all topics!), I'll keep this one short and sweet, writing whatever random facts come to me in the next 5 minutes.

1. My older daughter is named Winter, after my favorite season. She is the opposite of her namesake though, and not the calm, serene, still, stark image I have of winter, the season. Rather, she is lively, warm, outgoing, and a bundle of fun and energy.
2. My younger daughter is named Lyric, which is what gives meaning to music. Though she's the most adorable singer, she's shy and won't perform on demand, or in front of an audience. She has to be caught by surprise. And you can't clap or laugh b/c she'll get mad!
3. I am not a fan of unnecessary medical intervention when it comes to my own health and had both girls via natural childbirth, having Lyric in a birthing center and having used self-hypnosis.
4. I am obsessed with shoes. I developed this obsession only about 3 years ago. I am extremely particular, but when I see a shoe I like, I will usually wait overnight. If I dream about the shoes, and if I literally lay awake thinking about them, I will buy them the next day. I just used this method to confirm that I really needed the blue suede boots I bought yesterday.
5. I love food. I love anything that is fatty, creamy, and buttery. I love anything that involves puff pastry. I love a European chocolate. I love cream based soups. I love my desserts warmed and a la mode. I love appetizers with melted cheese. I love risotto. I love rice, pasta, potatoes, bread (carbs!). I love spicy, creamy, curried Indian food. I love hollandaise sauce. I love scones with a double Devon cream.
6. I like to work out (notice I didn't say love). I like to watch CNN American Morning while I'm on the elliptical machine at the gym. I like this awesome motivational spinning instructor at my 5:30am class when I can get up on time for it. I really like to run on the weekends when I don't stay up too late the night before - and I really like to stay up late.
7. I have a grande skim latte from Starbucks every Monday through Thursday. On Fridays, I go crazy and get whatever special drink I'm feeling. I think this Friday, I'll be feeling the gingerbread latte.
8. I really don't like pets. It took me a while to realize this b/c my parents only allowed my sister and I to have as my husband calls them "throwaway pets" (hamsters, parakeets, fish), but after having some "real" pets as an adult, I've realized I'm just not a pet person. Yeah, they're cute and all, but ultimately, I don't like to pet a dog and I don't like to scoop hardened urine balls out of a litter box every day.
9. I pride myself on being idealistic. I try to balance this with a tiny dose of realism and aim not to be naive. I'd rather wither away and die than allow myself to be stuck in a situation - at least for too long! - I feel jaded about.
10. I was a very wild and crazy young teen and took waaaay too many risks. As an adult, I'm still a very liberal thinker, but very safety-minded and probably overprotective of my kids.

I'd love to learn more about the following new cyber friends... Hopefully I'm picking people I haven't tagged already, and haven't participated recently, and might consider playing along.

Hortist - Only 5 posts thus far from new blogger Saif, but 5 posts that I read with great interest. I'm looking forward to hearing more of what Saif has to say.

Sylvana - The Obsessive Gardener - an awesome and inspiring vegetable grower!

Subliminal Intervention - A blog I've just recently discovered. Dreamybee is a voracious reader and seems to share the same approach to life as I do.

Janie - An Obsessive/Compulsive Plant Collector - a really sweet person whose comments I adore. She's from Texas and could whack a snake gone in 2 seconds flat (as long as it's small and Janie doesn't run away screaming first).

Catmint - Diary of a Suburban Gardener - all kinds of nature and reflections going on on her blog. A great read and super person!

Grace Peterson - In a word: Pink. Who knew it could be so utterly beautiful? Grace has must-see photos of her absolutely gorgeous garden with fun writing alongside. Check it out.

Green Theatre - A busy Canadian blogger who is constantly inspiring us with great ideas!

Sprig to Twig - I love reading about Ricki's escapades in the garden. Her energy is contagious!

Liz and the Professor - great stories and photos of beautiful tropicals from the southernmost point in the US - Key West!

Fall landscape at Brookside Gardens (lots of photos!)

I'm taking a two-day landscape photography class at Brookside Gardens with Joshua Taylor, Jr., who is not only a great photographer, but has a really fun personality and is very inspiring as well. In our first session last weekend, we learned some basics in the classroom, then went outside to shoot our own photos with the instructor moving us along here and there, answering questions, and showing us how he was setting up his own photos. Among the many tips I learned, the most instantly helpful to me was setting the white balance on my camera to "cloudy". Here are some of my shots from the weekend. There are LOTS of photos below so if you have a slow connection, you may want to abort now!

The most destructive force against new perennials: Halloween!

I've been anxious about Halloween for many weeks now. When I put in new perennials about 3 years ago, the rotten trick-or-treaters (really I love kids, but I can't help but refer to kids as rotten as it gets closer to Halloween) nearly TRAMPLED my new plants! As you might know, I just put in hundreds of dollars worth of new plants that I'm not about to lose to those rotten kids (see, I swear I didn't even mean to say that!).

My idea worked really well (except for one kid, but it's a fact he's truly rotten).

Though it is the biggest EYESORE I've ever seen in my life, it kept the kids out of the new garden very successfully. The funniest thing is that I got a lot of compliments on the webbing and even had a group of kids come over before it got dark just to "see the decorations".

Well, the spider webbing - which very rarely is done well, and this case is no exception - is coming down immediately tomorrow morning. I hope I find all the big plastic spiders or I will certainly have a heart attack come spring.

Hope you had a fun Halloween!

Hot chili paste (lot jiu jeung)

This flavorful hot chili paste goes hand in hand with fried Chinese dumplings, with any shrimp or pork dim sum dish, or on top of a bowl of noodles. Here's how I made this simple and delicious condiment:

1. Over a medium flame, heat about 1/2 cup oil (I used corn).
2. Add about 2 tablespoons of minced garlic and fry until a light golden brown.
3. Reduce heat and add about 4 tablespoons of crushed, dried, hot pepper. Stir continuously and turn off flame when fragrant. This process is fairly quick. Watch carefully to be sure the pepper/garlic does not burn.
4. Add salt to taste.

The type of pepper you use will determine the flavor and heat of your chili paste. My dried cayenne peppers yielded a chili paste that was so manageable that my kids could try just a touch of it. It was also so delicious that we were microwaving hot dogs just to have something to eat with it. Another batch made with my Thai peppers yielded a chili paste that was all heat - to the point of being just painful.

Click here to see how I dried my peppers. If you don't want to delve into this recipe and have some good dim sum restaurants around, try asking for "lot jiu jeung" - the phonetic spelling for "hot chili paste" in Cantonese. Enjoy!

My father's chrysanthemums

These are my father's chrysanthemums taken today. One quick word on these mums - it requires a lot of care to produce these large blooms! Lots of pruning, staking, watering, feeding, protecting from heavy rains, winds, etc. Quite a primadonna of a plant.

You might want to make sure you're seated because 1) there are a LOT of photos and 2) the blooms that follow are spectacular!

If you missed my earlier post on my father's house, you can see his garden, ducks, geese, trees, etc. here. Here's a cool post on hatching ducklings at his house this spring (must see photos in this post!).