I was sitting out on my balcony quietly watching my flowers grow ...
... which they all seem to be doing quite nicely ... but the wind drove me indoors. We've got SEVERE THUNDERSTORM warnings here for this afternoon.
What's a girl to do when it's a blah rainy Saturday afternoon and you're stuck indoors and realize you can't possibly look at your unadorned beige wall ONE MOMENT LONGER? Create wall art of course! Hard to get a good shot of all three pieces, but here they are on the wall:
I had three 8 inch x 10 inch prepared canvases ... the cheap variety from the local dollar store ... which I painted RED and then added a dark and brooding SPLAT in the middle that reminded me of the approaching thunderstorm. That was the easy part. While that was drying, I dug into one of my craft bins for STUFF to incorporate. Here's what I came up with ...
... turquoise buttons with a bit of turquoise hemp cord to anchor down scraps of red jute, and ...
... red glass beads strung on pieces of knotted red hemp cord, and ...
... alphabet stickers in different fonts to spell out QUIET and HOME and REST. I rather like the discord between the soothing words and the unsettled colours. Oh, and I decided the turquoise buttons needed more turquoise, so blobbed on dots of turquoise paint.
What do you think?
Doesn't really matter 'cuz at $1.oo each plus a few buttons and beads I can throw them out when I get tired of them!
How's YOUR Saturday going? Any thunderstorms where you are???
... Asian Home Gourmet Indian Butter Chicken. Trust me! EVERY pantry should have a stash of this stuff! Here's what I created. First, I put some rice on to cook.
I happened to have Arborio rice, but no one will mind if you prefer some other kind. Then fry up some onion in a bit of butter.
I like to do this in my wok. It's a cultural fusion thing that amuses me. I also like my onion in great big chunks. You might prefer your onion minced all fine and dainty. That would work just fine too. Once my onion was cooked a bit, I chopped up two fresh tomatoes.
Then I squeezed in the little Butter Chicken spice packet that this amazing dish is all about ...
Yes, I use whole milk, high fat yogurt. It tastes better. If God wanted me to eat yogurt made with skim milk, the danged cows would only produce skim milk, and they don't ... humans have to intervene and "do things" to the milk to take the milk fat out. So leave the milk fat in for me, thank you very much. End of rant.
Mm mmm! This always smells SO YUMMY when it's simmering! The above photo doesn't do its golden colour true justice. I turn the heat down and let this simmer together for ten minutes or so, and then add bite-sized pieces of uncooked chicken ...
What? NO CHICKEN IN THE FREEZER??? I ALWAYS have chicken in the freezer ... well ... apparently not today. But I had a package of raw prawns, so I substituted. Living dangerously, remember? Queen of unexpected cultural fusions and all!
I let it all simmer until the chicken ... er, PRAWNS were cooked. (If you do this with chicken, make SURE the chicken is fully cooked.) And then I served it over rice ...
... and made sure we both got an extra ladle of that fabulous golden sauce. This is COMPANY-COME-TO-DINNER food, people, so serve it on the GOOD dinner plates and sprinkle on some fresh parsley. Make it an occasion! Believe me, it TASTES like an occasion!
L. wouldn't let me take a picture of this meal being enjoyed ... bad hair day or some such pathetic excuse ... but I am allowed to report lots of satisfied smiling followed by 
I have to confess this is the first time I've tried this with prawns, and this amazing little package did not fail to produce very tasty results. I have made it with chicken many times, and I have even made it with TOFU (I recommend the firm tofu stuff) for a vegetarian pal. It's got enough 
Hmm. L. got off with pleading bad hair day to avoid the camera after sneaking this unflattering shot of me enjoying my after-work beer and crossword puzzle on the balcony. I'm suspecting something unfair there ...
Although I kept it covered up with blankets, it was wearing a floral cotton cover. I'm not your floral kinda gal, and I would have bought it a new cover ages ago if it had BELONGED to me. Now that it DOES belong to me, I figured a new cover would be easy to accomplish. It was, but I also discovered this sturdy little love seat had a couple of secrets under its floral cotton skirts! First, it was hiding its true identity ...
Lime green velveteen ... it's a 70s sofa! (Matches the counter top in my new bathroom perfectly. Hmm, I wonder if I should move it into the bathroom?) But that's not the only secret! Underneath that lime green velveteen is ... a hide-a-bed! With a just-like-new mattress! I'd been thinking about buying a hide-a-bed, but wanted to hold off and see what other moving expenses were going to pop up first. No wonder this little love seat was so "sturdy"! It is now covered with ...
