Picadillo and Basil cell carcinoma

Green peppers, onion and garlic. Check out the wicked Global knife.

Alice White Chardonnay is affordable and nice cooking wine. Meats are browning...

For the pleasant stuff we had picadillo last night. As usual, I meant to take a shot of the final product in all its glory of browned meat, surrounded by rice, Cuban bread and plantains. But I only have the prep shots.

Softening the garlic, onion and green pepper in olive oil gives you time to assemble all the other goodies. Then toss the meat over the softened veggies, browning the meat and chopping finely - a good mix of beef and pork is best. After that, drain off the fat. Add tomato sauce with oregano and basil, salt and pepper and white wine to suit your taste. Also chopped green olives. Love those.

While this simmers cook the rice, black beans and touch of fresh lime and the plantains. A Cuban loaf goes very well with this for sopping up juices.

Went to the doctor today becasue of a suspicious spot on my nose. Wow - I was glad I went because I had precancer spots on my arms and back; they were frozen off by a shot of liquid nitrogen. It's freezing and burns all at once. Odd sensation. Then I got a needle in the nose for a numbing effect. This was just discomfort but not pain. A biopsy was done and now I'm sporting a very unflattering bandage on my nose. My son says HAha...as I expected...so now I know I'm not dying :)

Otherwise an uneventful day.

Another head - Hextall has not retired yet

Why we call it Squirrel Head Manor........

Right...here is the squirrel in a before shot. He was also in the tree but this may not have been the same one because we are lousy with squirrels here.

Pleased with himself. He may be old and not as good as he once was.....but he still hunts. Actually Doug and I wondered if this one didn't just fall in his mouth or they ran into each other running across the field. Knocking each other senseless.

Definitely an after shot.....note the surgical precision of the cuts. He butchered it like he had a Global knife in his furry gray mitt. And he always, always leaves the head.

This has been going on for years but Hextall is in pre-retirement zone now. We don't find things like this as often anymore. And the heads aren't always squirrels...we've also had rabbit faces adorning the steps. The worst one was the rat. Oh my god, this rat was so big we thought Hexie had actually gotten a baby possum. That was before we had 4 acres cleared. Gives me shivers to think of rats that big.

I used a shovel to scoop up the rat head and put it on a large stump away from the house. Sort of like a warning to other rats that might come this way. This isn't Redwall guys...turn around now. Seemed to work. Now we only see living squirrels, rabbits, deer, fox, and the rare siting of the bobcats and coyotes.

Saturday night, roasting chicken

We tried a chicken recipe from Williams Sonoma called Chicken and Basil Roulades with mustard. The breast meat gets dried out quickly, it was good...but I won't make it again. You pound the breast meat until it's thin, put basil on it, roll it up. Mix up yogurt, chives and Dijon, dip the rolled breasts in. Take the chicken rolls and smush up homemade bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Bake. It was good, but I think I like the dark chicken meat best.

My cousin Char sent me a good recipe for tomato bisque soup. Yum! The only thing I'll do next time is add sugar to reduce the acidity.

Just started reading a Fiona Mountain book, Bloodline. It's a genealogical thriller. I liked her previous book, Pale As The Dead, and the same detective character is in this book.

Hurricane Ike didn't take a deadly turn toward Apalachicola and I am so thankful. Fay was bad enough and it wasn't a direct hit. If Ike came this way we'd just leave. Nothing here that can't be replaced. We need a cargo trailer or something that will hold the two motorcycles in case we need to haul them.

Last night we sauteed scallops in garlic and olive oil. Serve over fresh pasta and that's just pure happiness. My BFF Mary Margaret hates scallops and that may be her only flaw. Oh, and lamb...we love lamb too. Afterwards we watched Invasion. Not a bad movie but I'm glad we recorded it and didn't buy it.

Hextall got another squirrel and I managed to get photos so you can see why our place is called Squirrel Head Manor. He does a nice job...surgeon precision work all the way.

Friday - pizza night

I have been enjoying some great conversations with my cousin these past few days. Genealogy, traveling, food and drink, kids...it's been fun. I wish we lived closer and could get together for meals and shopping for yarn.

Last night I made Coq au Riesling from Nigella's cookbook. She has some great recipes. It's a lighter version than the one you make with red wine. Tasty bits of bacon, leeks, riesling, bay leaves and cream. And chicken of course. Paired with a baguette and salad it was a good meal. As usual, we didn't eat until 8 and were still sitting at the table by 9:15 p.m.

Tonight is pizza night. The shibas get Kongs which buys me about 20 minutes of eating without harassment. We may watch The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or A Knight's Tale. I finished The Time Traveler's Wife and when it was done, after I'd thought about it, it was sad.
I started the much look forward to sequel to Chocolat titled The Girl with no Shadow by Joann Harris. Since it's a library book and I can't renew it, I may just grab it later because it's more to read than I know I can manage in the next two weeks. Already had it a week and haven't made much progress due to other things occupying my time.