Strawberries, Chili Powder, and Trudy's Romance

This blog entry is brought to you by the color RED.

The local grocery has been selling strawberries at a dollar a pound. When this happens, I get overcome by the urge to load up the cart with berries. I love berries. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries. I will even pay exorbitant amounts to have them in my cereal, with my cottage cheese, in my muffins. Many years ago, while living in Germany, I nearly cried when I saw cartons of Michigan blueberries prominently displayed in the German grocery. I bake some heavenly berry muffins and quick breads, but strawberries are for pies. Except that I can't make pie crust to save my life. Now, my mother is the champion pie crust (and pie) maker of all time, and she can't understand why I haven't inherited the pie crust gene. It just doesn't work. I have a bitter and totally unsuccessful relationship with flour and shortening. I can't even get a pre-made frozen crust to work. The ones I used this time were a very well known name brand, and they still fell apart when baked. However, my strawberry filling is to die for.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Buddy has been digging up the flower beds I planted in the back yard. Seems he wanted to help Mom out, or else the soft, well manured soil was simply irresistable. Today Joe was talking to a friend of ours who has had dogs, and she suggested sprinkling the soil with chili powder. So I bought a big jar and sprinkled a tiny bit on my hand, just to see how Buddy would react. He licked every bit off my hand and sat wagging his tail as he eyed the jar. He's a good dog, but obviously a little deficient in the intellectual department. I sprinkled it in the flower beds, anyways. The patio smelled like an explosion in a chili fireworks factory. Will it stop him from digging in the beds? Apparently he tried to dig a bit in the afternoon and gave up pretty quickly. Time will tell, I suppose.




Seems like everyone in spindom has a name for their wheel. Mine has become Trudy, the Ashford Traditional. Trudy was very happy last night, and so was I. We are enjoying the start of a wonderful romance with Laura's "Romance" roving. This is what I spun last night. More spinning will occur this evening. The roving is very easy to spin, and the colors? See for yourself.