Monarchs, gardening, cooking, medical info and grands

Monarch butterfly season- they are loving our backyard zinnias.  At one time, I counted 8 of them feeding there.  

But I am a lousy photographer so I never got very many of them in one shot.

The front yard rose bed - before ......

My son in law told me about a new rose disease called Rosette and he thinks these bushes have it.  I did some internet research and I think he's right,  

Anyway, I usually trim these bushes way back in the fall so I just did it early this year.  

They may have to be removed but I'll wait till spring and we will see what happens.  

Cooking

I cooked a special meal one day as my husband returned home from his second trip to help his parents.  His dad needed surgery for a broken hip.  I'm happy my husband could go be with them and I'm happy my father in law is healing and my husband could come back home.  

We had some store bell peppers and some homegrown bell peppers.  So I made 2 pans of stuffed peppers.  We had one pan for supper, and also shared them with my parents.  The second pan went in the freezer for a future meal.  And yes, one pan looks different as the homegrown peppers are much smaller than the store bought and I added a little leftover mozzarella cheese to it as well. 

For dessert, I baked a blackberry pie.  These were wild blackberries my dad picked and we froze.  I used some of my freezer pie crusts.  There were some dough scraps so I made 2 tiny cherry pies.  I tried out pie in the silicone muffin cups and it worked great!  They baked nice and brown and released from the cups so easy.  

I used part of a can of Dollar Tree cherry pie filling for the mini cherry pies- down further you'll see what I did the rest of it.......

Our little backyard garden is yielding a bit of Okra.  

To cook okra, slice it thin and then shake it in a bag with just enough cornmeal to coat it.  

Put it in a hot skillet with a thin layer of oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Add diced onions, salt and pepper.  

Keep cooking and stirring occasionally until it all cooked and browned.  

This is a very Southern dish.  And so good!  

With the rest of that can of cherry pie filling, I baked a half recipe of a family favorite for breakfast the next morning,  

Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake.  

This is a recipe I have used so many times.  Years ago, I wrote on this recipe "Nina's favorite". And then she wrote "yum yum". 😄

I baked that coffee cake in the early morning while we were in a thunderstorm.  Shortly after it was done,  our electricity went off and stayed off for about an hour.  

It was still dark so I got out 2 battery operated lanterns.  

Its nice to be prepared.  

And a medical tip .............

While my husband was away helping his parents, my dad had MOHS surgery on his nose for melanoma.  My brother was with Dad at the hospital.  Dad's nose requires some special care at home while he heals.  When the nurse was giving those instructions, my brother took a video with his phone and shared it with me and our Mom.  

This was so helpful to us to watch and to see exactly what to do.  

This is not the actual video- just a screen shot.  

So, many people have a phone that videos now.  If your getting special medical instructions like this, see if it's ok to video.  

I took my mom to a couple of her doctor appointments during the last few weeks while Dad is recuperating. And I 

was so impressed with her general doctor who made some changes in a prescription for her.  As he visited with her and told he what he wanted her to do, he was also writing it down.  Then he gave her that sheet of his instructions so she could know exactly what he recommended.  

That young doctor has the nicest penmanship too! 

Family Time

Right now, 4 of our grandchildren are having a cousin sleepover on our living room floor.  Before they went to sleep, they watched "Beauty and the Beast" and tomorrow morning, they are excited about riding their bikes. 

It's 3:30 a.m now and they are sound asleep, Grandpa is asleep but I am wide awake.  

I guess I'll be taking a nap tomorrow afternoon.