I've Moved!!!

I've moved!!!

I finally got tired of all the problems at Blogger and have moved to WordPress!

I hope you will visit my new blog and add that address to your feed/favorites since that's where I'll be posting from now on. All my posts and comments have been moved over, however it's still a "work in progress" so please be patient.

Thanks!! http://ksrgmck.wordpress.com/

Saucy Peach-Balsamic Chicken

My younger daughter recently brought us a jar of peach preserves she got at her local farmer's market.  North Louisiana is famous for its peaches so I knew they'd be good.  That same week I ran across this recipe from my June/July 2011 issue of Simple & Delicious.  We tried it when she came to visit the other day and it was quite yummy!


Saucy Peach-Balsamic Chicken
contributed by Trisha Kruse of Eagle, ID


4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 oz. each)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup sherry or additional reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup peach preserves
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tsp. minced fresh tarragon
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.  In a large skillet, brown chicken on both sides in butter.  Remove from the skillet and keep warm.

Add broth and sherry to the skillet, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan.  Stir in the preserves, garlic and tarragon.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in vinegar.  Return chicken to the skillet; cover and cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 170F.

 

Favorite Five - Sounds

Just like songs can bring to mind specific emotions and memories, I believe other sounds (besides music) can do the same.  With this entry, I'm focusing on "good" sounds.  Comfort sounds.  Happy memories.  I'll save the irritating sounds for another post.


1.  Train whistle - I think this has to be my number one comfort sound.  The small town I grew up in didn't have passenger train service (maybe in the "old" days, but not that I can remember), but we did have freight trains.  The tracks were close enough that I could hear the whistle each night, yet not so close that it was jarring. 

2.  Barred Owl - There are many types of owl, but I like to hear the Barred Owl, or what I usually call a "Hoot Owl".  I often hear them in our woods and have learned that if I call out to them, they will many times hoot back in reply!

3.  Woodpecker - While I do enjoy hearing a woodpecker drilling a hole in a tree, what I really like to hear is the call of the Pileated Woodpecker.  With a voice to match their size, I think they are the variety Woody Woodpecker must have been modeled on!

4.  Northern Cardinal - I like to wake up in the morning to the sound of birds chirping outside my window.  Something about that just portends a good day.  As with the Pileated Woodpecker, the song of a Cardinal transports me back to my childhood.

5.  Summer Sounds - That's vague, I know, but it's really a variety of sounds.  As a child I wasn't always sure what creature made what sound.  As an adult I think I've sorted them out.  Spring Peepers calling for rain (frogs), Bullfrogs with their deep voices (obviously frogs), and Cicadas (what I called locusts - the annual ones as opposed to the 13 or 17- year variety that make such a racket). 

Even though I've already picked five, I must give an honorable mention to livestock sounds.  Every time we are out in the middle of our pond fishing and I hear a cow moo, it makes me smile!  Same for when we had donkeys and they'd bray.  Such entertaining sounds!!


With the exception of my first pick all my favorite sounds are from nature.  Maybe yours are inside sounds.  (popcorn popping, bacon sizzling in a pan, bubble wrap?)  Think about it - what are some of your favorite sounds?

Wrapping Up What's In a Name 4

This reading challenge was a lot of fun and it's one I wish I had found before this year.  I'm still speculating about my reading (and book buying) habits for next year, but I hope it will work out where I can do this challenge again.  It will all depend on what the specifications are for the next one.  Below is a list of the titles I read and which category they went into.  You can click on the title to link to my review. 


What's in a Name 4 hosted by Beth Fish

A book with a number in the title:  Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

A book with jewelry or a gem in the title:  Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

A book with a size in the title:  The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith

A book with travel or movement in the title:  The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

A book with evil in the title:  Deliver Me From Evil by Alloma Gilbert

A book with a life stage in the title:  Being Dead Is No Excuse by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays. 

Shadow Shot Sunday #35

Tomatoes on the vine

Shadow Shot Sunday
Hosted by Hey Harriet

iPod Roulette - June 2011

As usual, not the best cross-section of what's in my iPod.  I guess I can't really expect it to be with the wide variety there.  Take a look at what popped up and tell me if anything speaks to you.

*note to self - always check volume before inserting earbuds and turning on iPod!*

1.     This Window - GlassByrd

2.     Elegy for Dunkirk - Jeff Beck (feat. Olivia Safe)

3.     Arto - System of a Down

4.     You Make Me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer

5.     I Can't Dance - Genesis

6.     Heat of the Moment - Asia

7.     Band on the Run - Paul McCartney

8.     Good Times Roll - The Cars

9.     The Most Beautiful Girl - Charlie Rich

10.   Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees

11.   Theme from Miami Vice - Jan Hammer

12.   Let Me Be the One - The Carpenters

13.   Holding On - Yes

14.   The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - Genesis

15.   Rubber Biscuit - Blues Brothers

Pickling again

Some of you will remember I had an instructional post last summer about pickled squash.  It was the first I'd made in many years and I managed two batches (12 jars) before the squash gave out.  I anticipated having more space this summer with our "pool garden" therefore planted extra hills of squash and purchased 24 canning jars.  What I didn't anticipate were August temperatures and lack of rain in mid June!  We've watered, but the hot, dry wind has taken its toll on our garden.  The squash is not producing like I hoped.  At least we haven't been plagued with squash bugs like many folks in our area. 

So far we've had steamed squash and onions twice and given away a mess to someone who shared their potatoes and sugar snap peas with us.  Even though I haven't gotten to make my squash casserole yet (a favorite!), I was determined to pickle the next harvest.  Vidalia onions were all I had on hand and there was only enough squash for four jars, but ... can you spot the other difference in this batch?  The peppers also came from my garden!!  It's the first time I've grown them! 

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich

The "Stephanie Plum" series by Janet Evanovich is formulaic, prone to ridiculously unbelievable situations, and probably needs to be brought to an end.  That said, I still found myself laughing out loud in parts as I read the latest paperback installment, Sizzling Sixteen.  It's filled with the usual (and that's part of the problem...it's so much of the "same ole") antics from Stephanie, Lula, Connie, Vinnie, and Grandma Mazur along with the usual tension and indecision concerning Morrelli and Ranger.  The premise for this one?  Vinnie is kidnapped for ransom over some major gambling debts.  Add in stink bombs, a guard alligator, cows, Hobbits, Moon Man's special brownies... wait.  I don't want to give away the entire book!

I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'm sure I'll read her latest (Smokin' Seventeen) when it comes out in paperback.  Oh, and according to IMDb the Stephanie Plum movie that was due out this month is now set for release in January 2012.


This book completed the What's In A Name 4 Challenge (book with a number in the title) and the Cozy Mystery Challenge for me. 

Shadow Shot Sunday #34

Shadows deep in a beaver lodge

(Not the same lodge featured here.  This one appears empty)

Shadow Shot Sunday
Hosted by Hey Harriet

What Am I ? (#9)

1.  My surface includes several interesting landmarks such as Rachmaninoff, a 170-mile-wide, double-ringed impact basin and the Debussy crater, site of a billion-year-old major collision (one of my most recent!)

2.  My iron-rich core extends three-quarters of the way to the surface and makes up 60% of my mass. 

3.  Although my daytime temperatures exceed 800 degrees Farenheit, radar studies indicate that I have vast deposits of ice within the perpetually dark, frigid craters at my poles.

4.  On March 17, NASA's Messenger spacecraft completed a seven-year journey and settled into orbit around me.  Over the next year Messenger will capture 75,000 images of me, helping scientists understand my many intriguing quirks.

Have you figured out what I am from my clues?  *  Scroll down for the answer.




























I'm the planet Mercury!

* Facts provided by the June 2011 issue of Discover Magazine.