Just say “NO!”

For word verification in Blogger. That’s what I have done on The Frog & PenguINN blog after reading about the new process in a recent post by TexWisGirl on The Run*Around*Ranch blog.

Also, this change was made after recent comments left on our blog. I had no idea how confusing the verification process had become. As as a blog author, I never see the word verification when leaving comments.

So, I checked the F&P blog settings and found that we indeed had word verification turned on, but no longer.

The change can be made by going to the Settings tab and then selecting the Comments tab.

Show word verification for comments?

Yes   No

This will require people leaving comments on your blog to complete a word verification step, which will help reduce comment spam.

Blog authors will not see word verification for comments.

Thanks fellow bloggers for the heads-up!

Back Yard Visitors

Our bird feeders have been attracting the usual visitors this time of year: cardinals, finches, sparrows, chickadees, mourning doves, and blue jays .
All these shots were taken from the kitchen window inside as I enjoyed my morning coffee and the activity at the feeders. The white lights seen here are permanent ones that overhang the back patio.
The crepe myrtle trees provide handy perches.
Also, the unwelcome visitors have returned . . .
Some backyard visitors just sit and watch . . .

Happy Hearts Day Everyone

Today, is the day to tell that Special Someone in your life how much you care for and love him/her. No, it doesn’t have to be done by spending a lot of $$ on flowers or candy, although those are nice, We’re celebrating with a card . . . OK, a few cards cause the card fairies got into the Frog & PenguINN). 

What’s most important every day are 3 little words – I Love You.

And I most certainly do, dearest Grenville, my always Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day to all our blogger friends.
We wish you happy hearts – every day.

Beatrice & Grenville

Snow Day Pot Roast

As Grenville posted earlier today, we had a “snow event” here on the VA Eastern Shore last night. So what better meal on a cold Sunday than something from the crockpot / the slow cooker.

This recipe is from The Farmer’s Wife Slow Cooker Cookbook, a gift that Grenville lovingly gave me a couple of holidays ago after telling me that I was “the farmer’s wife.” The book has “101 blue-ribbon recipes adapted from farm favorites.”  It was bought at a Tractor Supply store, which has been known to be one of Grenville’s favorite shopping places.

Recipes include soups, sauces, main and side dishes, and desserts adapted from The Farmer’s Wife, a monthly magazine published in Minnesota between 1839 and 1939. There were no slow cookers then, so these recipes have been adapted for slow cooker use. The cookbook contains many appliance and cooking advertisements, which are fun to read. Interestingly, most of these period advertisements were from the 1940-50s. They will be featured in a separate post.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

• 3-4 lbs. boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 C flour
• dash of garlic powder
• 4 carrots, peeled and cut
• 4 celery ribs, peeled and cut
• 4-6 potatoes, peeled and cut
• 1 large onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 can beef broth
• 1/4 C cider vinegar or red wine
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, low-sodium
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano

1. Remove packaging from meat and dry off with a paper towel. Combine flour, salt, pepper and garlic power and roll beef in mixture. Save any leftover flour.
2. Heat olive oil in large skillet and brown the meat, turning to brown all sides.
3. When browned, transfer the beef to the slow cooker. Add some red wine (cooking wine OK) to the pan to deglaze it. Add in the beef broth as well.
4. Pour the broth into a heat-resistant cup then take all the cut up veggies and mix them together in the pot, seasoning with the parsley and oregano. Add the veggies around the beef roast. Pour the broth all around. Cook on LOW 7-9 hours or until meat is tender.

To thicken the juices, take some of the reserved flour and some of the juices and whisk in a bowl or Pyrex cup. Add back to the crock pot and turn on HIGH for 10 minutes. Alternately, you can remove the juices, whisk in the flour, transfer to a saucepan and cook until thickened, making sure to stir.

This dish is a meal in itself, but can also be served over buttered noodles. There’s sure to be leftovers, which are even better the second night.

Significant Snowfall Paralyzes Eastern Shore

A severe winter storm began inundating the Eastern Shore with snow around 9PM last night and raged throughout the night. Winds howled and whipped the snow into blinding squalls. We spent the long night huddled under the comforter listening to the rattle of the windows and the shriek of gusts around the eaves.

This morning we awoke to find almost an inch of snow blocking our door. Unfortunately we left our only snow shovel out on the porch and couldn’t reach it.

So we consulted out ‘Winter Emergency Plan” which recommended hot coffee and reading in bed till 9AM, which we did.

Then the Princess bravely entered the kitchen and boldly put together a Crock Pot Roast Beef dinner for later. Pictures of the 'Crock Creation' to follow.

Not to be out done, her trusty Frog hopped into the fray and whipped up a delicious Bacon & French Toast Breakfast. 

AND to compliment the Princess's magnificent ‘Crock Creation’, he popped a home grown Peach Pie in the oven for dessert.

And that’s how we handle ‘Significant Snowfalls' on the Eastern Shore. Hopefully we will be able to get out soon so we can get some Vanilla Ice Cream for the pie. [I think i hear the plows coming NOW!!!!!]

Grenville

Fellow Bloggers Are the BEST

The song goes that “there’s no people like show people . . .” Thatt’s NOT true, because there’s definitely NO people like bloggers, especially when it comes to creativity and thoughtfulness.

Here’s WHY . . .

These wonderful surprises came in the mail this week .

A beautiful embroidered 1st Birthday onesie and a just-as-cute handmade bib too.

Thanks, Tammy, these will look adorable on our sweet granddaughter. Bloggers are the nicest folks so very gracious in sharing talents. We are very thankful!

Who Dunnit ???

It’s a mystery to Grenville and myself. And, exactly what we’ve been trying to figure out these past few weeks.

How?

By reading these  . . .

For the first time in its 125-year history, the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate has authorized a new Sherlock Holmes novel – The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

The setting is London, 1890 where Edmund Carstairs, a fine art dealer visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson seeking their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap, a wanted criminal who has followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened, and then the first murder takes place. Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the criminal underworld of Boston, the gas lit streets of London, opium dens and more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase, the House of Silk, a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society.

The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith features amateur Edinburgh sleuth, Isabel Dalhousie, a philosopher who uses her training to solve unusual mysteries. She edits the Review of Applied Ethics and also hosts The Sunday Philosophy Club at her house in Edinburgh. This is the first of several books in this series. McCall has also authored the acclaimed Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency which features Mma. Precious Ramotswe, agency proprietor. The setting for this series is Botswana.

A Duty to the Dead is the first in a series about Bess Crawford, a nurse serving in France during World War I. The setting is 1916 England. Bess is returning home on the doomed hospital ship Britannic. During an earlier voyage, she had tended to the gravely wounded Lt. Arthur Graham. To give him comfort before he dies, she promises to deliver a message to his brother. It is some months before she can carry out this duty, as she is injured when the Britannic is sunk.

Charles Todd is the pen name of  American authors Caroline and Charles Todd. This mother-and-son writing team are best known for a series of novels, set in post World War I England that features Inspector Ian Rutledge, a veteran of the European campaigns who is attempting to pick up the pieces of his Scotland Yard career. Suffering from shell shock, he lives with the constant,  taunting voice of Hamish MacLeod, a Scots soldier he was forced to execute on the battlefield for refusing an order.

Louise Penny is a Canadian author of mystery novels set in the Canadian province of Quebec in the town of Three Pines and centered on the work of Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec.

In The Brutal Telling, a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to investigate. No one admits to knowing the murdered man, but as secrets are revealed, questions start to surface about the beloved bistro owner, Olivier – How did he make such a  success of his business? What past did he leave behind to bury himself in a tiny village? And why does every lead in the investigation find its way back to him?

Birthday Doings

Many thanks for the Birthday wishes, fellow bloggers!

As Grenville (aka Froggie) posted, yesterday was my birthday and  the love of my life, friend and special someone made it special.

HOW?

Simply by spending it together sans gifts, cake, or candles, BUT with a LOT of birthday cards.  Seems that Grenville forgot to lock windows and doors; the card fairies distributed them everywhere !

My birthday began with a trip to the local “Y” as most of our mornings start.

Of course, after all that exercise and no breakfast beforehand, we were hungry. Luckily the local diner is only a few minutes drive from the YMCA. We had the breakfast special shown on the sign – the “2-2-2.” 

It was delicious with a cup of coffee. Who says you can’t have dessert for breakfast? 

Or AFTER – this complimentary cherry cheesecake came with a chorus of Happy Birthday singing from the staff of waitresses and busboys.
Thanks Sage Diner!

Later in the afternoon, Grenville showed me a special project he has been researching, gravesites dating to the 1700s. He will most likely post about this project in a future blog; it’s quite interesting.

The day was capped by an early dinner at our favorite restaurant, Annie’s, which we last visited for Christmas Day dinner.

The holiday trees and lights were gone, but it was brightly decorated although the light strings don’t display well here.

We made a reservation to return for Valentine’s Day dinner.

Dinner was capped off by another complimentary dessert – apple pie a la mode. Thanks Matt & Annie!

Birthdays should come around more often than once a year!

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

Abraham Lincoln (16th U.S.President)

It's Your Birthday!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

PRINCESS BEATRICE

Your Adoring Froggie

Groundhog Day 2012

It’s HERE and according to that famed PA forecaster, groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, there’s six more weeks of winter. Earlier today, crowds gathered at  Gobbler's Knob, the tiny hill in Punxsutawney, about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh to see Phil cast his shadow.

Here, just like last year, it’s raining. However, according to the Eastern shore forecasters at Rat Trap Creek, spring is just around the corner. As in 2011, Grenville saw Marshall and Mandy Muskrat getting ready for beach weather.

Tonight, we settle in for our annual Feb. 2 event  - watching Groundhog Day (but not over and over). This 1993 American comedy starred Bill Murray and Andie McDowall and was directed by Harold Ramis of Ghostbusters fame.

Plot: Murray plays Phil Connors, an egocentric Pittsburgh TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, finds himself repeating the same day over and over again. As the film progresses, Connors re-examines his priorities with predictable humorous results.

Some facts about the film . . .

• Murray was bitten by the groundhog twice during shooting.
• A family of groundhogs was raised for the production.
• There are 38 days depicted in the film, partially or in full.
• Director Ramis  wanted Tom Hanks for the lead, but decided against it, saying that Hanks was “too nice.”
• One of the groundhog officials is Brian Doyle-Murray, one of Bill Murray's five brothers.
• The movie was filmed in Woodstock, Illinois, where a small plaque declares: “Bill Murray stepped here” on the curb where Murray continually steps off into a puddle.

And one more . . .

• In 2006, the film was added to the U.S. States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

We’re not sure about that last item, but we DO know is that it’s a funny film – over and over.