The second quote gets my vote!

"Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough."
-- Groucho Marx

"Sanity is a madness put to good use."
-- George Santayana

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater."
-- Gail Godwin

"He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it - namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain."
-- Mark Twain

You can't beat fresh beets!

 We enjoy beets but canned ones always seem to miss the mark in taste and texture. When I found fresh ones on sale, last week,  I knew they were destined to appear on our dinner table!

Beets have to be the easiest vegetable to prepare. You crop the green leaves off the top, wash the beets, and put them in a pot of water and simmer them for about 30-45 minutes depending on how big they are. You want them just fork tender not mushy.

You drain the pot and, one at a time, place a beet under running, cold water and just rub the skin off. As you can see from the lower picture on the right, it just shred off easily and you are left with a pretty, red globe of beet!

Last night, we had hot beets served with a bit of melted butter, salt, and pepper. We had some leftover, so they got sliced thinner, today, and marinated in ground caraway, salt, pepper, a bit of dry mustard, brown sugar, and cider vinegar.

A friend also shared another way to enjoy beets - raw! If you have a good blender that can practically puree rocks, this is an easy one. Just peel the raw beet with a potato peeler and cut into chunks. Add a cored, sliced, but unpeeled red apple, a raw, peeled carrot, and a few frozen or fresh strawberries. Put into the blender and blend the vegetables/fruit until it is thick and smooth. You can add a bit of water or orange juice to help it along. Add some ice, smooth out, again, and serve.

There are a lot of health benefits to this interesting smoothie but don't over due it as there is a nutrient in it that can make calcium unable to be absorbed. This is a once a week treat. Better yet, do what I do when presented with a great idea . . . Google beet juice and read the pros and cons!

No other way to say it . . .

"I am concerned about a culture that has become increasingly callous about the radical abortion license, and a legal system that affords more protection to endangered species of plants and animals than to unborn babies." --Timothy Cardinal Dolan

Cat Summer!

 As I've shared with you here on my blog, it has certainly been a summer of cats. One of the first to show up was this ancient tom cat my daughter called Humperdink and the name seemed to fit. He was a friendly cat who adored a good ear scratch and purr. The only trouble was that old age had not been kind to him and he had allergies and intestinal gas that could clear the neighborhood. He didn't want much more than a bowl of water, a snack, and a warm place in the sun to sleep the day away. He would often show up with a runny nose and leaves stuck to it. He would disappear for a week or so and show up - sometimes looking/feeling better and other times being an aging cat.

A month or so ago, he showed up in really bad condition. His age had caught up with him, big time, and we made arrangements to have him taken to a shelter. We didn't want to do it but he was suffering. He still managed to purr when we gave him attention but didn't bother with eating or drinking. The appointed Saturday came and we waited for the old fellow to show up and take him on a last ride. No Humperdink! After lunch, still no orange cat. By evening, we were pretty sure  the friendly, orange cat had gone to his reward. We never saw him again but I was glad I had taken so many pictures of him and that we had given him some food, attention, and happiness.

Quick . . . Make a wish!

 One of the last dandelions of the summer! When we were children, we used to love blowing the fuzzy seeds all over the yard and letting the wind pick them up and help them travel to far away places . . . the neighbor's lawn and garden! We never knew that we were promoting a new weed population for the coming year. We just knew it was fun and, perhaps, we'd really get a wish!

Watching the big screen . . .

 Although our cat is still too small to take on the loving advances of our big dog, Chick, they seem to be forging a friendship from opposite sides of the screen door. Marcella, the cat, is enthralled with this giant, fuzzy, weird 'cat' and Chick is longing to give this inside rodent a good snuffle. The other day, I had the door opened enough for Marcella to put a paw out and pat Chick on the nose. They were both thrilled.

Oops! The second quote hits home!

"Everybody hates me because I'm so universally liked."
-- Peter de Vries

"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary."
-- Robert Louis Stevenson

"Ahhh. A man with a sharp wit. Someone ought to take it away from him before he cuts himself."
-- Peter da Silva

"So little time and so little to do."
-- Oscar Levant