Flowers, flowers and flowers.

Visit our hostess, Mary T, at Work of the Poet, to see many more photos featuring a little or a lot of red......

"RED ROSES"

For "Ruby Tuesday" today I 'm showing some long stwm dozen red roses that my husband sent to me on our "22nd" Wedding Anniversary. Where has the time flown, seems like yesterday we just celebrated our first. They were so fragrant and had a very red vibrant colour.

These flowers I received from my good friend and neighbour after my surgery last week. I'm not sure of the name of them but they did come with some Bird-of-Paradise flowers though.

Birds-of-Paradise...........

I hope that you enjoyed my Ruby Red Tuesday and be sure and visit the other participants and see all the gorgeous reds.............

Happy Red Ruby Tuesday!!!!!!

Surgery

I haven't been Blogging because I had a Hernia Surgery. This was my second time. The first time was about 20 years ago and unfortunately it came back so this time they were doing it Lapriscopically but came into some complications so I ended up with a big surgical cut on top of the Laproscopic holes that they poked into me.........and on top of all this band I have to wear this big band around me like a huge elastic, very uncomfortable and sometimes itchy. I know I should stop whining things could be worse.

Making this a very painful healing time for me...............it's been about 10 days and I'm getting very bored hanging around the house as I can't do anything physically due to pain and I don't want to re/arrange something in that operation area. I can't even go shopping yet..........well I mean to the supermarkt as I yet can't handle any Malls.

..............but I've managed to do some cooking and baking these last couple of days. I love cooking and baking it relaxes me. My husband and daughter help with the prep work and cleaning. Did I mention that I love that my husband cleans the kitchen, and it's funny he tells me to rinse the glass and put it away or don't use too much cutlery as he will be cleaning the kitchen all day..........I hope that now he will understand me. So I feel like a Princess now with him doing most of the work. Don't get me wrong he did help before but it was kind of when he felt like it, and I know after this all will be forgotten for him. Men.....Ugh!

Well thanks for listening to my story and some whining.........hopefully with spring in the air I can go out and take some pictures for future Blogs............

Niagara Falls (Revisited)

Thanks to Suasan of A Southern Daydreamer for hosting "Outdoor Wednesday"

This is one of my fave spots in the world...........tomorow I'm going for surgery so to cheer myself up I'm doing Niagara Falls for "Outdoor Wednesday", I've done it in the past but here are some new pictures that I found.

Canadian side......

I was sittng in the car on the Rainbow Bridge going across when this picture was taken.

This is the Canadian side.

.......... this is the American side.

The Maid of the Mist boat...........for tours. It's a spectacular boat ride, a must see when visiting.

View of the Hotels and Casino on the Canadian side.

........."Maid of the Mist" on the Niagra Falls, New York side.

Niagara Falls, NY side........can you see all the people looking over the Falls.

This was from my Hotel room at The Seneca Casino on the NY side. can you see the mist coming from the Falls, on the right side of the picture.

Thank you for stopping by and be sure and visit the other participants.

Niagara Falls 'blues'

Thank you Hostess Sally for hosting "Blue Monday" for some fabulous inspirational ideas and fun!...

Be sure and visit the other participants at http://smilingsally.blogspot.





NIAGARA FALLS

This winter has been so cold and gloomy that I can hardly wait till summer.........so I put this pretty blue photo up of Niagara Falls trying to cheer myself up. We took this picture in the summer time when we visit there. It is only a bit over 1 hour from Toronto so we go quite often for a day.

This was taken from the Canadian side and the US is just on the left.

If you can see there is a lil' boat down there called The Maiden Mist.........they have those tours on both sides of the border. It looks like they have about a dozen of those boats together so you don't have to wait long to get on, b/c during the summer this whole Niagara Falls area is extremley crowded with tourists from all around.......remember it use to be 'The Honeymoon Capital'

Thank you for stopping by.....be sure to visit the other participants.

Have a great "BLUE MONDAY"!

Turkish Meatballs

Thank you to our wonderful Hostess Susan for hosting this "Foodie Friday".

Stop by for some fun and exciting recipes and fabulous pictures at http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

This is my husband's favourite dish........I decided to do an exotic recipe for today. It is a very popular Turkish dish and when I'm there to visit in Izmir Turkey my husband's family makes this dish. It is served very often in homes and restaurants.
This recipe I got off this cookbook that I purchased called The Sultan's Kitchen, I use it quite often I love the recipes. I find that these recipes are very close to how my husband's family cooks so I have been using it more often...... otherwise being married so long I just now wing my recipes, but before they were all new to me as I had no idea about Turksih cooking whatsoever. But I do find that their food is very healthy compared to North American cooking, they use a lot of veggies in all their dishes and make them look like a work of art on the plate.

Turkish Meatballs [Izmir Köftesi]

Adapted from The Sultan's Kitchen (page 77)
serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 lbs. lean ground beef or lamb
1 small onion, grated
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 eggs
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 large tomatoes, diced
2 cups water or lamb/beef stock
2 medium green peppers, seeded and cut diagonally into slices

Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make the sauce first. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the tomato paste, then add the tomatoes and water or stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Let simmer, stirring occasionally, while you make the meatballs [köfte] so that the tomatoes boil down.

Combine the ground lamb or beef, onion, garlic, eggs, paprika, cumin and parsley in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. With moistened hands, mix the ingredients for about 2 minutes. Keep a bowl of warm water nearby to wet your hands while working. Shape the meat mixture into 20-25 oval balls.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat, add the meatballs [köfte] and lightly brown the meat all over (about 5 minutes). Place the meatballs [köfte] in an ovenproof dish and set them aside.

Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs [köfte]. Arrange the green peppers on top. Cover the dish and bake for 40 minutes.

Notes; In my photo as you can see I added some potatoes in chunks to it and mixed it with the meatballs and they all roasted together. When I do add the chunks of potatoes I add a bit more stock. This is how my Mother-in-Law roasts it sometimes with potatoes or without.

Here in my photo I didin't add any green peppers as at that time I didn't have any on hand..... but when I do use peppers I use the Cubanelles, they are the best for flavour.

This dish is good to round of with a salad and your meal is complete.

Oval Meatballs........sometimes I make round ones but the Turks I learned prefer the oval shape.

Ready to be sauteed.

.............ready to eat.

Be sure and stop by the other participants and see "What's cooking"

Thank you for stopping by!

Nacho's

Thank you to our wonderful Hostess Susan for hosting this "Foodie Friday".

Stop by for some fun and exciting recipes and fabulous pictures at http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/



Just want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year filled with lots of good things.

NACHO'S

This is my favourite dish.........I sometimes just make a meal out of it. It's very easy to put together.

I use 3 different colours of corn chips, to make it more appealing with those colours to the eye and I think that they do taste a bit different the corn chips from each other.

Then I spread on some meat sauce with a taco seasoning, chilies out of a can that I drain, chopped olives assorted green and some Kalamata pitted olives.......if I have on hand some chopped green onions and then three kinds of 'Tex Mex' mix cheese..........after it is assembled I bake it in the oven in a stainless steel platter till the cheese melts nicely or if I'm making a smaller version just for myself I microwave it.

I like to serve this with some salsa, sour cream and guacamole in separate bowls.

To All a very "HAPPY NEW YEAR".........and a Thank You to my Friends who left me nice comments which I enjoyed reading and hearing from everyone.