Sadness in Many Places . . .

Events of recent days have made posting seem very irrelevant.

Like many of you, our thoughts and prayers have been for those affected by the storms and tornadoes that struck Oklahoma and other parts of the country with the loss of lives and widespread devastation.

More recently, we have remembered those affected by the bombings in Boston as well.

Tragedy is increasingly becoming top news whether man-made or caused by forces of nature. We hope that you and your loved ones and friends are (and remain) out of harm’s way as we do for our own family and friends.

We are thankful for so much.

Sweeter Than You Think - Vidalia Onions

There was a sale on these sweet onions at our local market, and taking advantage of this great deal meant buying a bag.

Sure, we’ve tried them before but usually only buying 1 or 2 at a time.

Now, we had a 5 lb. bag which meant discovering new ways to enjoy them. (See recipe below).

But, first I wanted to learn more about WHAT makes these onions so special — and usually pricier than “regular” onions. And (as usual) wanted to share this knowledge.

NOW, I know that the Vidalia® Onion is Georgia's Official State Vegetable as ruled by the state legislature in 1990 AND is grown exclusively in a 20-county region in Georgia in a production area defined by state law and by the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

Moses Coleman is credited with “discovering” the sweet Vidalia Onion variety, which were first grown near Vidalia, Georgia in 1931. Coleman found that his onion crop was sweet, not hot and managed to get $3.50/50-pound bag (a big price then). Other GA farmers,unable to get a fair price for produce through the depression years, thought Coleman had found a gold mine. Soon, their farms were also producing the sweet, mild onion.

In the 1940's, the State of Georgia built a Farmer's Market in Vidalia. A small town at the juncture of some of South Georgia's most widely traveled highways. The market had a thriving tourist business; word spread as tourists gave the onions their now-famous name. 

Soon Vidalia Onions were on shelves in local Piggly Wiggly and A & P grocery stores. Through the 1950s and 60s, production grew slow, but steady and was at 600 acres by the mid-1970s. A push was made for Vidalia Onions to be distributed nationwide. Onion festivals became an annual event in Vidalia and nearby Glennville, GA and production grew 10X over the next decade.

Georgia's state legislature passed the “Vidalia Onion Act of 1986” which authorized a trademark for “Vidalia Onions” and defined a 20-county production area. The crop is planted annually September through February with 70,000 plants produced on each acre. Onions are available from late April through mid-November.

In 1990, controlled atmosphere (CA) technology used in the apple industry was adapted for Vidalia Onions. Now, 20,000,000 pounds can be put in CA storage for up to six months, extending the sale of Vidalia onions through the fall and holiday season.

AND, we enjoyed them in this recipe. It was easy and delicious served with chicken (first night) and  then with fish (second night).

Vidalia Onion Casserole

• 3 or 4 Vidalia onions, peeled, sliced thin and ringed
• 1/4 to 1/2 C butter
• 1/4 C sour cream
• 1 package Ritz crackers, crushed
• 1 C Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese, grated

In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté onions in butter until tender. Remove from the heat and stir in sour cream.

Spoon half into a greased 1-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with remaining onion mixture and crackers.

Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

ENJOY !

You're still here??????

Most of you know we live in a semi rural area. Population of our town is only 500.... Accomack County just 30,000.... The sort of place where if you sneeze and the windows are open about 26 folks yell "God Bless Ya'll"... AND they really mean it. I like that.


On Saturday mornings during the nice weather we have a special routine. Breakfast either at home or the Sage Diner, a trip to the Onancock Farmers Market for some fresh veggies, crabs, clams, chicken, beef and pork.  Then off the the Historic Onley Train Station for me, and maybe the Y for Beatrice.



Well this morning in Onancock besides the Farmers Market, they were also holding their annual Sidewalk Sale. Folks setup all over Downtown selling all sorts of stuff. Now keep in mind that just about everyone knows everyone else around here. Six of our conversations this morning starting with "Oh Hi. You're still here?????"  WOW, what a question. AND it was accompanied by quizzical and astonished looks. Most folks around here know our house is on the market, and i figured they also knew we had not sold yet. Which in my mind would be a really good reason why we were still here. I guess that was my mistake. After being asked the same question for the third time, we started counting. How many more times would we be asked "You're still here???"

I guess if you are an overly self conscience person, or if you're into conspiracy theories, this could be a little worrisome. Luckily I'm neither. BUT I did start wondering if that meant they would be sorry to see us go? Would they really miss us? Would they make the 10 hour drive to stop by and see us after we move??? OR were they disappointed we were still here??? Were they trying to get rid of us? Maybe it was something we said??? Did we forget to use our deodorant, brush our teeth?

Now I don't know about you, but great come backs usually hit me well after the time they are needed. How about these comebacks to "You're still here??"

• "No we're gone".  
• "No, we are just fragments of your imagination".  
• "No, we left yesterday, this is just our vapor trail your seeing." 

How about,

• "Yes we're still here, and we're coming to stay at your house." 
• "Yes, oh by the way, what time is dinner???" 

Or better yet

• "Yep we're still here, and we have some friends coming to spend the summer. Would you mind if they parked their RV's in your yard???"

There is some good news though...... Two other houses that are for sale on our street are "under contract". Our realtor says that if they sell at or near the asking price (which is higher than ours) then ours will appraise higher when the new buyers apply for a mortgage. My only question is "We're still here?????"

Oh yea, the final "You're still here????" count was 6. 

Friday Funnies

Toothpicks for giants ?

SADLY, these trees at Duke Farms, Hillsborough, NJ showed damages from “Sandy” slamming the east coast last Oct. Most likely these will be cut down as others have already been.

Y’All Are the Best

Fellow bloggers are that and more.

THANKS to all who read a recent post and then checked out our new blog created exclusively to market our home 25520 Maple St informally called The Frog & PenguINN.

We value your feedback so I updated the blog to address your comments. Several suggested adding interior shots, which were already there, but perhaps overlooked as interior views were accessed at the top of the page. The Welcome Home intro was reworked to note the top tabs.

While there won’t be new posts added to the 25520 Maple St blog, existing information will be reworked and photos will be changed, especially when front and rear gardens are in full bloom.

GREAT news on the real estate front this week . . .

No, our home didn’t sell, but 2 other houses listed for sale in the neighborhood are “under contract.” Both include an in-ground pool and outbuildings. One is a Victorian, similar in age to ours; the other is a 1960s? ranch. Our advantage is having more land than either of these properties without a pool. Both homes were listed at the same price and significantly higher than our asking price, which excited our realtor, who said “if both sell close to full asking price then we will have 2 good comps for the appraiser when we get an offer on yours.”

So, we’re going to take the advice of fellow blogger Christer . . “I cross my fingers and hold my thumbs for good luck !”

Spring is making another comeback and St Joseph may be awakening from a long winter nap — soon (we hope).

Mom's Day and Orchids in NJ

We took a road trip to our native NJ to celebrate Mother's Day with my mother who lives in Plainfield, NJ, my hometown. My mom is quite incredible at 91 years of age and we were thankful and happy to spend this special day with her.

We took an extra day hoping to visit friends, (Sara and David) who live in Somerville, NJ, after a short trip to nearby Duke Farms in Hillsborough, NJ. What we didn't know is that they were also planning to visit as it's one of their favorite walking places. We received a call while we were on our way there, and amazingly, found out they had just arrived in the parking lot. We had a great time chatting while we walked around. It's great to re-connect with dear friends, we don't see often as we live 6 hours apart. (Sara and I attended high school together, so this long-lasting friendship is extra special.)

Duke Farms is an estate that was established by James Buchanan "Buck" Duke, an American entrepreneur and founder of Duke Power and the American Tobacco Company. Starting in 1893, he began piecing together 40 farm properties for his 2,800 acre estate, planning to reshape Duke Farms in the image of his native North Carolina. All of the estate's hills and nine lakes are man-made. At 3 times the size of Central Park, the estate has 22 miles of trails winding past fountains, lagoons and sculptures; 810 acres of woodlands; and 464 acres of a grassland bird habitat. Duke dug into the flat land to create a terrain of lakes and hills; the buildings were as ornate as the property was big. He also experimented with a hydropower system that later was the basis for what became an electricity empire. When Duke died in 1925, the property and his fortune (estimated in excess of $300 million) went to his only child, 12-year old Doris Duke. She moved it at age 15 and began restoring the estate which became her main residence. Ms.Duke died in 1993. 

The property is now managed by the Doris Duke Foundation (DFF). After a 7-year, $50 million dollar makeover, "Duke Farms" was opened to the public in May 2012 as a wildlife and nature preserve offering daily free access to visitors (except Wednesdays). It's considered one of New Jersey's richest natural habitats with 1,000 acres of forest, meadows and prized orchids. The property includes over 300 species of plants, including 30 endangered species and 230 varieties of birds, such as the bald eagle and the great blue heron and features an "eagle-cam." Invasive plants have been removed from 830 acres, allowing native species to thrive. 

The Farm Barn, built in 1906, and used to house horses was remodeled to become the orientation center, using the latest green building standards. It houses a display room with a continuously running video about the Duke family, the farm's early start and wall displays.

The property is maintained exclusively for walkers, bikers, artists and photographers —no wedding photos, film crews or music or dogs are allowed. Cars are restricted to a 400-vehicle parking area; a shuttle runs along a paved trail to drop off and pick up visitors along its route. Anything that's taken in must be taken out. A solar panel farm provides all of the electricity used on the grounds, collected rain and runoff provides non-potable water, marshy trenches act as natural water filters and a 400-plot community garden encourages area residents to grow their own vegetables in what's considered to be one of the largest community gardens in the country.

The old hay barn burned down in 1918. Doris Duke left the high stone walls and set marble sculptures of human figures inside. These are still visible and accessible to the public.

Orchid displays remain a popular feature of Duke Farms.The Tropical Orchid Garden is filled with a wide variety of orchid species from tropical regions along with some orchids that have been cultivated at Duke Farms throughout its history. All the flowers in the collage below were taken in the Orchid Garden. (NOTE: This blog post was done in Mars Edit an off-line editing program for Mac computers; unlike posts done in Microsoft's Live Writer for PCs, the images are not clickable to view larger.)

And closeups of yellow orchids . . .

Many white orchid varieties . . .

More orchids in pink and lavender colors . . .

Various shades or orange and dark reds . . .

Mother's Day 2013

Happy Mother's Day . . . 

To Everyone — mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, and MORE — you are appreciated and loved by so many — everyday.

25520 Maple St

That’s the name of a new blog devoted to selling The Frog & PenguINN although it doesn’t use that name, as that’s just what Grenville and I have named and refer to our classic Victorian home.

As most of you already know, we are selling our home to relocate closer to family and grandchildren. But, despite burying a statue of St Joseph in the front yard and being listed on many realty sites, showings have been far and few between. We’ve seen some folks stop and pick up a listing sheet this week,  so maybe something will happen soon (we hope).

The new blog  is titled after our street address and can be found at www.25520maplest.blogspot.com. Below is the blog header that was created in Picasa after reading some many online tutorials. Lots of folks also use PicMonkey for collage creation; I tried it too and it’s fun and free (if don’t get the Royale package).

This was my first time creating a blog from scratch and entirely in Blogger as Grenville previously set up The Frog and PenguINN template. I was always apprehensive about playing with templates and not sure why after “experimenting” in Blogger the past week. There were LOTS of issues and some LOTS of frustration, but searching on-line for solutions was a great help. Knowing others had similar issues and reading about their solutions was a learning experience. I even managed to manipulate the HTML coding when Blogger would not “play nice” with inserted photos. (More on that in another post.)

Microsoft’s Live Writer is is the software I use to prepare my Frog & PenguINN blog posts, including this one because it’s an off-line editor. BUT, it’s not available on the Mac platform and I wanted to be able to edit or add to the blog from my Windows and MacBook computers; also Grenville uses a MacBook exclusively. And while working on the 25520 Maple St blog, the settings were to keep it “private” and not available to search engines; apparently doing so prevented Live Writer from “finding” it. These settings were chosen so I could freely before going going “live.”

Unlike this blog, the 25520 Maple St blog does not allow comments. This is because we wanted it to describe the house and its “selling” points vs. getting feedback on pages. Aside from updating or making revisions, we are not planning to add new posts.  There is a link on the sidebar directing anyone interested in the home to contact our realtor. We thought about including an email address, but then would have to refer anyone interested, so why bother.

BUT, we could use YOUR collective help be letting us know what you think of the 25520 Maple St blog layout, information presented, etc. You can either include them on THIS post OR send us a separate email at our address posted on our profiles page.

Please be as honest as possible since this new blog is my first solo one everything is a learning experience, including feedback — THANKS everyone.

Friday Funnies

One size fits all . . .

Even with people ?

Cod Cakes with Scallions and Herbs

THANKS to all for comments left on Grenville’s recent post  recounting our first date. It was a very memorable date and one which bears annual celebration, which we do as Grenville & Beatrice and also as Pat & Dorothy.

Chicken is a dinner meal favorite at The Frog & PenguINN because of its versatility. Fish is a close second for meals so when I came across this recipe in a Food & Wine Cookbook, Quick from Scratch, last week we added cod fillets to our weekend shopping list and tonight these were the main dinner course.

Cod Cakes with Scallions and Herbs

This recipe was easy once all the chopping prep work was done. Prepare the Lemon Mayonnaise (see below) ahead of time. I used 1 lb. of cod fillet, but this recipe calls for 2 lbs., so if using less, adjust as necessary. Serves 4 as presented here.

• 2 lbs. cod fillet
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1-1/2 C bread crumbs
• ¼ C mayonnaise
• ¼ C lemon juice (best with fresh lemons)
• 1 egg, beaten to mix
• ½ red bell pepper, chopped fine
• 4 scallions, including green tops, chopped
• 2 TBSP chopped fresh basil (substituted dry)
• 2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
• 1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• Pinch cayenne

1. Put 1 inch of water in large frying pan. Add ¼ tsp of the salt and bring to simmer. Place cop in pan, cover and cook 6 minutes, until just done. Remove cod from water and cool. Pour out water and wipe pan.
2. Flake cod into a large bowl, removing any bones. Add ¾ C of bread crumbs, mayonnaise, lemon juice, egg, red pepper, scallions, basil, parsley, bail, cayenne and black pepper. Mix well until combined.
3. Divide cod mixture into 12 portions (fewer if you want larger cod cakes) and shape into patties. Coat them with remaining ¾ C of bread crumbs and pat off excess.
4. In frying pan, heat about ¼ inch of oil over moderate heat. Working in batches, if needed, fry cakes until golden brown and crisp, about 2 minutes. Turn over and fry on other side, about 2 minutes longer. Drain on paper towels. Serve with lemon mayonnaise.

Lemon Mayonnaise

Stir ingredients together in small bowl and put on cod cakes.

• ½ C mayonnaise
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper

ENJOY ! (we did)