Pearl Harbor Day, Tuesday Garden Party, 12/7/10

I am on topic!  Here are my favorite tools:

This works great to loosen weeds.  I “borrowed” it from my 81-year-old mother, who appears to prefer bending from the waist and pulling…..she skips lunch too when out working in her garden!

This is a great hand tool for digging out dandelions…. which grow great around here! 

I think this tool will be very important to me with my new diagnosis of fibromyalgia.  I actually did not use it a lot this last summer, but I also did not feel like I do right now either!  I know I will have to pick and choose my projects next season.

This is a gift my neighbor brought me after we took care of their 2 dogs for 10 days.  She made the little owl at the bottom of the picture.  It is really cute.

Then a few days ago she brought over this paper white.  It is my first:

It is sitting in the windowsill above my sink along with the …oh crap what is that called?  Anyway neighbor gave it to me earlier in the year after watching their dogs.  She knows me well!

On the cooking front, I tried a new biscuit recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Buttermilk-Biscuits-I/Detail.aspx

They turned out great.  Just as I was getting ready to put them in the oven, friends called inviting us to breakfast.  They said they would pick us up in 30 minutes.  I baked them anyway and took them next door.   Later that day, neighbors farther down the street called and offered us some “extra” crab that they had.  DH made crab cakes!  I went ahead and had a biscuit before going out.  I could not stand it.  I had been waiting to try these, trying to recreate the biscuits I grew up on.  I followed a few of the tips from reviewers and they were delicious!  I think my problem has been putting too much flour on the cutting board and handling the dough too much.  This time my hands were very sticky with dough and I handled the dough as little as possible. 

Another great tip is to freeze the butter/shortening and grate into the flour mix.  It works great!

Finally my featured picture was taken today.  Yes we have a rose still blooming.  Through the low temps and wind and rain.  However, pruning time is fast approaching!