Bug off!

I never should have discouraged my mom from buying a hand-held bug zapper while we were in Taiwan. Now, it's coming back to bite me. Quite literally. The mosquitoes are out of control this year! Those little suckers even bite me through my clothes! While I was waiting for the bus the other morning, I garnered three new bites around my arm pit (weird, I know) and killed one mosquito as it prepared to feast on my forehead.

You can get your own hand-held bug zapper from Amazon for just $8.93.

Zap! This is what all the racket is about.

V is for Victory Garden

Hey, look! My backyard now includes a little victory garden! I should just call it a vegetable garden, but that doesn't quite capture the romanticism I'm going for.

Over the weekend, Chad cleared a space for me to plant some veggies. I'm now the proud mama of six tomato plants, one zucchini plant and two zucchini seedlings. Grow, babies, grow.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!

New Roommate

I have a new roommate. His name is Brian. He just moved here to start his career in network administration. So far, he seems friendly and easy to get along with. He's agreed to mow my lawn and help me cook meals. He's also taken to filling my coffee thermos for me in the mornings since I'm chronically behind schedule.

This is Brian. He also happens to be my brother.

How I spent my summer vacation...

Eating! Every single day in Taiwan, we were presented with all kinds of new and yummy foods to try. This was right up my alley since I love to sample! There's very few foods that I dislike. I feel like they all kind of have their place in this world...and in my stomach.

Dumplings and all the fixin's for dinner

Taiwan '08

Here I come! See y'all on the flip side.

Nip 'em in the bud

Gardening is not really my thing, but I do what I gotta do to make my yard somewhat presentable. The lovely little landscaped flowerbed in my front yard has been an eyesore for quite awhile. Last year, weeds took it over, and I just turned a blind eye. This year, I vowed to reclaim what's rightfully mine. So, on Sunday, I set about clearing away the Creeping Charlie, dandelions, ivy and grass that had invaded my flowerbed. Surprisingly, I found the work to be relaxing, and dare I say, enjoyable? I'm not finished yet, but I think I made some good progress.

Before

AfterAs much as I would like to say that those plants grew three-fold just by me clearing away the weeds, alas, that's not the case. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks apart.

Rhubarb

One of the best things about my yard is my little rhubarb plant out back. It cooks up into some really tasty desserts, which is great for me since I love all things sweet. Tonight, I baked a rhubarb crisp.

Since desserts are clearly my weakness, I always look for ways to tweak the recipes to make them just a smidgen more nutritious without compromising the deliciousness. So, without further adieu, here's my tweaked recipe:

Rhubarb Crisp*
Part one
2 cups diced rhubarb
2 T. flour
1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar (I like my rhubarb tart; you can adjust the sugar to your tastes)

Part two
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour (I used equal parts white flour and wheat flour)
1/4 cup oatmeal
2-3 T. margarine

Dump the rhubarb into a greased baking dish (I used an 8x8 casserole dish). Sprinkle with flour and sugar from part one. In a separate bowl, combine the ingredients from part two. Use two table knives to cut the ingredients together until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of the rhubarb. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

My rhubarb plant. I don't have a picture of the rhubarb crisp because I started eating it almost as soon as it got out of the oven.

*Hey, family! This was originally Inez's recipe from everyone's favorite yellow cookbook.