Last night's special

Appetizer: fresh asparagus steamed tender-crisp, lightly salted.
Main course: Ragout of portabello mushrooms, eggplant, fire roasted tomatoes with freshly ground Italian seasoning served on a bed of quinoa.
Dessert: Leftover applesauce-raisin-oatmeal muffin from breakfast.

As Scott said, appreciatively, "It's real food!" And McDougall to the core.

Beautiful pictures

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/writing/2009/03/national-geogra.html

Seed starting

Today, I planted kale, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, basil, peppermint, and coriander. I'm starting them from seeds, so some of them are in the greenhouse and some of them are in the kitchen. Won't be long before I can scatter some poppy seeds on the front flowerbed and start preparing the soil for beans and other good stuff. I have to figure out how to deerproof my garden patch, since there are about a million of them that wander from yard to yard.
Buddy and Bella were very good with their lessons today. They're both quick learners, but Buddy is a little more stubborn. I'll have to get some molasses to coat his bit and see if he will accept it. He's pretty oral (likes to chew on his lead rope and untie my shoelaces), so that should be okay once he understands it.

I'm back

I tell you, when I get sick, I get sick for a couple of weeks. Not bad enough, usually, to take time off work, but bad enough to demoralize me and turn me into a slug. Two weeks ago, I caught the virus de jour, which caused enough malaise and respiratory sludge, as well as intractable coughing and laryngitis, to put me out of commission for five days. Luckily, only two of those were work days and my wonderful partners (who had just had the bug and had needed some help) returned the favor. Now, I no longer have to wear a mask to talk to my patients and I am actually thinking about doing something besides watching Cold Case reruns on TNT. My eating was terrible...no will power at all. But, now, I'm back! Thank goodness! Ready Weber is needing a little adventure and so do I...the trail becons tomorrow.
And, the brown rice is now ready in the steamer.
Let's go!