How Lynn Does It

Another Year of Beautiful Flowers

2008-04-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

Wonderful Year For Iris

2008-04-18T22:16:00.000-06:00

Our 2007 Spring Vegetable Garden turns into a Fall Garden

2007-11-24T22:13:00.002-07:00

The beginnings of a garden. Carrots are planted (on the left), along with the lettuce and spinach (second row from the left). Peas are in the ground (third row from the left). On the far right side, although it is hard to see in this picture is the corn.

A little later, everything is growing and you will notice the peas (third row from the left) now has chicken wire fencing up for the sweet little peas to climb.

Time to plant the tomatoes in the far left side of the garden. Just to the right you can see all the little stakes in the ground with little plants peeking up through the straw. These are our peppers.....over 50 plants of peppers. Yummy!

A landscape view of the new garden. Everything is in and the tomato plants have been marked with tall wooden stakes which will come in handy later to tie up the long arms of the plants.

Another view of the tomato plants that are so hard to see right now. But that will change soon and will become a large mass of vining green arms of plants, loaded with tomatoes.

Pepper plants are getting a little taller, along with the tomato plants on the right. This year we planted 4th of July tomatoes, Big Boy's and Big Girl's and a few cherry tomatoes at the request of a friend.

Centered are the carrots, growing quite well and in the foreground the corn is making it's way into the world.

Almost forgot about the green beans. This year we planted only stringless pole beans, our favorite. They climb up the wire fence and make it very easy for us to harvest the delicious beans. The fencing is about 8 feet tall and we will be using a ladder to reach the top later in the season.

Another look at the new garden.

Remember those stringless pole green beans. Well, they grew. And they grew. And as I climbed my ladder and picked the beans all I could think of was Jack and the Beanstalk. Beans really do grow up and up and up.

On the far right, you can see the yellowing of the romaine lettuce and spinach. They are done for the year and seeding out. Time to pluck them out of the ground and toss them in the compost pile. Onions are growing and the pepper plants are getting bigger.

Here you can see the pepper plants have set fruit. The banana peppers set early and we had to pick some to add to our fried potatoes and onions.

Another view of the green beans!

A little blurry, but here hangs a bean. But not for long.

Peppers

2007-07-31T09:48:00.001-06:00

Tomatoes

2007-07-31T09:48:00.000-06:00

Mother's Day Gifts

2007-05-25T11:03:00.000-06:00

Mother's Day brought me some more of my favorite things....flowers.

Spring Gardening

2007-03-26T10:45:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again. Time to get the weeds out, the soil prepped and let the rototiller roll. We spent the last weekend, taking down all the stakes and old tomato and pepper stalks. Chores that should have done throughout the winter. The worst part for me was having to pick off all the dried up pole bean runners. Here's a few pictures of what our vegetable garden has looked like all winter. Too much snow throughout the winter and possibly, winter blues kept us from taking care of this when we should have. Two sore backs a week later, atleast it's ready to go as you will see in the final pictures.

The Lost and Forgotten Carrot

2007-03-25T11:26:00.000-06:00

While tilling up our garden, we remembered that we did not finish digging up all our carrots. Life got busy, but that little carrot just kept growing and growing, determined to remind us that we left it all alone. This year we will have some help from some very good friends and they love carrots.

My Front Garden 2006

2007-02-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my pictures in Picasa and came across more of my images of our front garden from last year. Picasa has been wonderful to work with. I love the organization capabilities of Picasa! Spring is just around the corner and I can't wait to get started in the garden again. Last year we installed an automatic drip system and it has been a lifesaver, giving more time to weed and feed and enjoy the flowers.

Peter Pan Recall

2007-02-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

Guess what? My huge, 3 lbs. 8 oz. jar of Creamy Peter Pan Peanut Butter has been recalled. Most importantly, I just realized this. I don't listen to the news on television or radio very much. Most new I get is directly from the internet on my MSN home page.

While having pretty severe computer problems the last two days, I haven't seen any news. Today, my computer was kind enough to let me read my news. I saw the picture of the jar and thought, wow, that's the brand I buy. Then I noticed that they said the product number started with "2111". Okay, best check my jar later just to be sure.

While I was preparing dinner, I was looking for a seasoning and saw my jar of peanut butter. I looked at the top of the yellow lid and started to read the number imprinted. 211163..... Oh wow!, I thought, isn't that the number they said the recalled peanut butter was.

I went straight to the living room where my husband was sitting in his favorite chair and told him about the recall and showed him our lid. His immediate response was, maybe that's why we were so sick. I thought about it and realized that we had a bout with stomach pains and diarrhea and we just couldn't figure out at the time what was wrong with us. We'd canceled plans with friends and pretty much had a terrible week. I even remember going over what we ate one day and telling my husband, all that I had eaten that day was the peanut butter and jelly toast I had made for each of us before we went to work. Go figure.....

So, this morning, I decided to find out a bit more of what was going on with this recall. It seems that the jars will be replaced by the retailer now along with the original plan of consumers mailing in their lid of peanut butter. I was happy to see that I could return my jar to Walmart and get it replaced, (it's a large jar, 3lbs....I purchase large items at Walmart because of the savings).

One interesting thought though. When I googled in Peter Pan Recall, one of the first things I see is an ad from a lawyers firm regarding the recall of Peter Pan Peanut Butter. What? Sue? Sounds crazy to me. I'm definitely not going to do that. I seem to be okay. And they are going to replace my jar of peanut butter. Also, they aren't even sure if it is true, they are being cautious, which satisfies me....along with that replacement jar.

So, take your peanut butter back to the store and have it replaced or you can mail the lid to:
ConAgra Foods
P.O. Box 3768
Omaha, NE 68103

2006 Tax Time Is Here

2007-01-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Taxes. Last year I used Turbo Tax and was pleasantly surprised with the ease of the software. With two regular jobs and two separate business between my husband and myself, I was a bit worried if I could handle going it alone last year. I felt I had to do something, because I was not happy with the well known tax preparer from previous years.

But my experience was painless and we received our refund through direct deposit within the week of filing. It was also nice that they provided us with confirmation that our returns had been received by the IRS and our state.

Beautiful and Artistic Trees

2007-01-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

My father sent me an email with some incredibly beautiful tree pictures. In his email he writes:

These trees where grown in Santa Cruz CA, the year I don't know, but the man that grew them never told any one how he did it. Then, around the year of 1999, the owner of Nob Hill Foods in Gilroy CA moved them to his park in Gilroy and they are doing well.

I cannot make out what the signs in the pictures say about the trees, but if you know anything else about them, I would be curious to know. I'm hoping it's not a Photoshop trick. If not, I must say I am quite impressed with the skill and dedication in this art. But a question comes to mind, about how long it takes trees to grow and it really makes me wonder if it would be possible.

For now, I'll just enjoy admiring them.

Hiding Spot

2006-12-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

During a scouting trip for elk, I was walking along the edge of the forest looking for signs of elk. I came across this makeshift 'hunters hiding spot'.

Here is another view of the same spot.

I walked farther back in the trees and came across this......at the hands of nature? or man?

Walking a little farther in brought me to a place where the sky was showing more through a clearing. I heard a noise, which was unfamiliar and I instantly thought 'bear', so I retreated and headed back to the edge of the forest.

Mountain Streams

2006-12-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

We love four-wheeling and hiking and we are always coming across beautiful little streams like this one. If you look close enough you can see something 'white' on the other side of the stream....

Little Mountain Caves

2006-12-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

Oh what fun for two little boys! We were just riding around on the four-wheelers, puttin' around the mountain, spiralling our way up to the top. Every now and then we would see a little trail that took off into some dark trees and timber.

Should we take it? You betcha. That's what we were here for. To see things we've never seen before.

So, off we go into a new adventure, wondering what we would find. It was a pretty steep climb a third of the way up, then all of a sudden the trail levelled off.

We stopped to take a rest and to explore. Looking up, we realize we had been on this trail before, because we spotted the little mountain cave. Fantastic! The boys weren't with us the last time and we wanted to show this to them. You can imagine the first words out of their mouths when they saw the cave.

"Can we go in?"

Off they climbed so I could take a picture of them. Little Ian, always has the same pose, I believe he is being "The Hulk". I know I have several more pictures around from that trip, that has the same exact pose. He is such a darling little child. And his brother Josh, has the same beautiful smile everytime, is doing what a good brother should do....arms at the ready to be sure little brother doesn't fall.

Four wheelers

2006-12-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of our four wheelers. The first is my husbands, mine is in the middle and the one at the back (three wheeler) belongs to our neighbor. Our neighbor bought this three wheeler so he wouldn't have to ride on the back of ours everytime we went camping, scouting and hunting.

One of our trips with our neighbor. His son is sitting, waiting patiently for us to get rolling again. Oh yes, I remember now that I told him I would have this picture made into a poster for him. I always have my camera with me. I'll have to find the ones of the deer hiding in the trees or should I say usually running away through the trees.

Pirates

2006-12-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

The new POC movie came out today. I was a good girl and waited for the DVD to come out. Didn't get a chance to go to the movie theater to see it, but now it's mine to watch over and over. Hope it's good. :)

Yes, I'm a Johnny Depp fan. I became his fan when I saw the first POC movie. What I didn't know at the time was that my daughter was his biggest fan long before me. Edward Scissorhands. What? That was J Depp? I had no idea. She watched that movie over and over. And at the time, I thought Edward was weird and strange and I didn't like the movie. When I bought the first POC movie, my daughter said, I thought you didn't like him? She told me who played Edward Scissorhands and I did not believe her. Guess you can figure what I did next. I watched Edward Scissorhands again, as if for the first time. Unbelievable. Then came the Chocolate Factory. I am so amazed at his ability to play different characters. Come to find out, I had other movies of him I had watched, the movie about Sleepy Hollow and there was another one where he was a writer, I believe. I just can't recall the name of that movie right now.

Private Profiles

2006-12-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

Myspace users have the choice to make their profile private from prying eyes. You no longer have to be a certain age to have that private profile.

A lot of the profiles I see that are private, should be private. What's happening though, is that these profiles are violating the TOS agreement with trackers, material not suited for non-adults and invariably, they will end up deleted.

Private profile or public profile, you know you've spent a lot of time getting your page just right. It looks wonderful and you get all kinds of comments from your friends praising you for the new look.

Then, suddenly, your myspace profile has been deleted. Or, someone gained access to it and changed your complete profile.

All of your code is gone. Now what?

If you had backed up all the code from each of your sections, it would be no problem. Simply start fresh and copy all the code into each section area and in no time, you are up and running again.

But what about your friends? Taking time one day to copy over the friendid's of your friends will make this task a much easier one. Unless of course you are one of the many profiles that have over a thousand friends......well then, you have your work cut out for you.

Passwords

2006-12-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

It seems that here lately, Myspace is back to having more and more security problems. Countless times I have gone to log in and I end up at a fake log in page. Or, at least it looks fake to me. There is a music background instead of the normal one I am used to seeing.

What I do, instead of logging in through this page, is type the first letter of my login username and hit 'Enter'. It then takes me to a login page that I feel comfortable logging into. I also look at the url to be sure it says ' login.myspace'.

Next, when I go to type in my username and password, I make sure that the background is white and not a funny beige color. Looks safe to me, so I log in and I'm good.

Here is the important part. I go to my Account Settings and I change my password, just to be safe. I've probably changed my password 10 times in the last month.

Outhouse on the Mountain

2006-12-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Four-wheeling around the old gold and silver camps brought us to this little outhouse. The guys just had to try it out.

Everyone having a 'sit'.

My son taking his turn.

Campfires

2006-12-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

Another one of our campfires. I used the flash on my camera this time. I tried to get a picture of all the stars that were out that night, but it didn't come out. Just dark as could be. The farther away we would walk from our campfire, the more stars we could see. We always look for the big dipper (it's the easiest to find). And always, we see a shooting star or two. It is so beautiful when you are camped up about 12,000 feet in the mountains.

How Did My Flower Garden Grow?

2006-11-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

This past year was a very good year for flowers. The Easter Lilies below are a gift from my husband last year. He bought 20 of them for me at one cent each. I came home one day and my dining room table was full of individually potted easter lilies. It was beautiful. We planted them last year and most of them came back up in a corner of our front yard. Behind them are morning glories growing along our picket fence. The lilies were hidden from everyone but me. Below are a few more.

Japanese Tiger Lilies I planted this year beside a rock up in the front yard.

This sunflower actually came up from seed that had to have been dropped by a bird, as we had planted these in our backyard last year. I love the different colors in the flower. Behind is my second year crop of echinacea.

A white dahlia. Another new one we planted this year.

I planted these last year. I got the bulbs from a nursery catalog. This year the onion blooms came up and bloomed a beautiful starbust of purple looking stars just in time for Fourth of July.

One of the new dahlias we planted in the back yard.

I know that this is not a very clear good picture of my roses, but it was supposed to freeze that night and it was late when I found out. I rushed outside to take this picture. The sun was fading fast so my flash kicked in and then my battery died. So this is it.

Christmas Cookies~An Oldie But Goodie

2006-11-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Christmas Cookies
1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
Lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila

I remember being given this recipe many years ago. Where's the flour?

Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, try another cup ... just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit, Pick the frigging fruit off floor... Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Check the Jose Cuervo. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

CHERRY MISTMAS

Corn Harvest

2006-11-28T15:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of our early corn crop and then you can see some of the corn we picked when harvest time came around.

Little Miss Daisy

2006-11-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

Here is our Little Miss Daisy, trying on her new dress. She could have cared less about the dress. All she wanted was to fetch her 'ball'. That's what her eyes are on right now in the picture above. She never tires of running after her ball. Once we throw it, she takes off and catches it, then she runs back a bit, puts the ball down, then starts retracing all the paths of all the times she's caught the ball before. Finally, after about 10 minutes, she'll go back to her ball, pick it up and come back to you.

She will not put it in your hands or at your feet. She runs up, then backs up about 5 feet, then puts the ball down, looks at you, then pushes the ball with her nose so that it rolls right to you.

Once you catch the ball, (it was your turn to catch it), she will stand there and wait. If you don't throw it right away, she will whine. My husband taught her to bark with a high shrill before he would throw it again. It has since become very annoying and he is sorry he ever started it.

Another little game he plays with her is to 'pretend' to throw the ball. He started doing this because she would get very annoyed if she didn't catch the ball before it dropped. So, she started running 'before' the ball was thrown so she could get there first. Instead of just throwing the ball, my husband would 'start' to throw it one direction, then actually throw it in a 'different' direction. Of course, Little Miss Daisy had already taken off the towards the direction she saw 'first'.

Little Miss Daisy, halfway to the end of her run to catch the ball, suddenly realizes the ball is not coming and she screeches to a halt, with dirt flying, turns around and gallops as fast as her little legs will go in the other direction and all the while, you can hear her 'grunting' and 'grunting' in complaint that she was fooled and now she'll never get to the ball before it hits the ground.

Meanwhile, hubby is laughing and Daisy is 'complaining'. To teach her owner a lesson or two, she gets the ball, takes off, sets it down and doubles the backtracking routine time, making him wait longer before he can throw it again. Course, hubby is happy with this, because Daisy wears him out.

Camping

2006-11-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite times is sitting by the campfire at night. We love to go camping and hiking and hunting. Regretfully, this summer we were only able to go a few times, but I did get some pictures to remind me. Below are some pictures I took while we were four-wheeling. LynnH

My Garden

2006-11-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

It's now the end of November and winter is approaching. I was looking through some pictures on my computer and found this early Spring picture of our vegetable garden. After many months of harvesting and canning, my cupboards are full of green beans, corn, tomatoes for sauces, and our very own special version of a 'cooking salsa' that we just can't seem to keep in stock.

With an overabundance of different kinds of peppers, my husband and I decided to make a 'concoction' to use up all the vegetables. After many long hours and weekends that turned into weekdays, we had canned over 200 pints and quarts. We have another 90 quarts still waiting in the freezer to be processed.

We gave our friends and co-workers pints of our salsa to try. Before we knew it, they were coming back and asking for more and evened offered to pay for it. No, we couldn't take any money for it and we just handed over more jars. And more jars.

One day my husband came home and told me that one of the subcontractors had taken our concoction to a local restaurant. He knew the chef and asked him to try it. Needless to say, the chef loved it and insisted on purchasing. Imagine the surprise.

One of my clients offered their kitchen for us to mass produce. As wonderful as that sounded, we passed. We are small time gardeners these days and like it that way. Maybe next year. LynnH

Myspace

2006-11-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

With all the enthusiasm over Myspace, new and old users alike find themselves needing help with how to use Myspace. Their profiles get old after awhile and they'd like to change their myspace, but they aren't sure how to do it. There is a myspace forum at GrownUpGeek.com that can help. If you need help from some experienced myspacers, take a look, someone will be sure to answer any question you may have. LynnH

Taxes

2006-11-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Are you new to taxes? Need some help with getting started. Many high school graduates find themselves with first jobs, college, striking out on their own. GrownUpGeek.com has some useful information in one of their forums for helping beginners with taxes. Truly, one of my favorite places to visit.

This year, I received a notice from the IRS. And you can bet my heart started beating really, really fast. And guess what, I did not open that envelope for two days! I couldn't, every time I started to open it, my heart would start beating faster and faster and I would have to put it down. Then I could settle down. On the third day, I finally decided, hey, I haven't done anything wrong, so open the stupid letter I told myself.

Well, I did. The IRS said that I failed to report income for a previous tax year 2004 and 2005. Since I hold a part time job and have my own business, I had to read on through to decipher what income it was they said I had under reported. Well, I knew it wasn't my business, if anything was under reported in my business it was my actual expenses. So, it had to be my part time job. Further reading and there it was, it was the part time job.

I looked over the rest of the paperwork and noticed that the 2005 tax year W-2 had been typed up on a 2004 tax year W-2 form. Nice work part time job! So, I took my paperwork in and found out that everyone had received the same notice. The mistake was not ours, it was the full charge bookkeepers mistake. We all handed her our paperwork, she realized her mistake and promptly took care of it. Several months later I received another notice from the IRS stating that the matter had been resolved.

Below are some high audit potential flags that might trigger an IRS audit:

* High Wages
* Large Amounts of Itemized Tax Deductions
* Unreported Taxable Income
* Self-Employment
* Home Office Tax Deductions
* Unreported alimony
* Automobile Logs for people who use their car in business

Want to avoid a tax audit? Then be sure to use the correct forms, double check your math, report everything accurately and most important, be sure you can back it up.

There's a Coconut Cream Pie recipe here somewhere...

2006-11-24T11:41:00.001-07:00

Well, it's the day after Thanksgiving. Whew! The last two days have been so busy, with all the preparations.

I decided this year to invite over friends that had been down on their luck. The next door neighbor is a good friend of ours and he just went through a not-so-nice divorce. My daughter, who is expecting her first child in January would be bringing her fiance. And then there is the family that we became friends with last year. They have a little girl about 2 years old and just had a little boy about 6 months ago and times have been tough for them. Then there was my 19 year old son who just got back from a skiing trip with his buddies and myself and my husband.

We smoked 3 turkey's, baked a ham, made mashed potatoes, homemade gravy...(what am I saying? everything was homemade), the yummiest butter beans ( a secret family recipe), baked beans, sausage dressing (another family recipe), corn grown from our garden, deviled eggs (that makes everyone go back for just 3 more), a huge vegetable plate with carrots, celery with pimento cheese, cauliflower, bacon-ranch dressing for dipping, my special pecan pie, and finally, rolls and pumpkin pies brought by my best friend Jill.

I was going to make my husband's favorite coconut cream pie, but I ran out of time. I had promised my daughter that I would make a sweet potato pie, but my friend offered to bring pumpkin pies, so I nixed that and offered her my pecan pie instead.

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I had my turkeys thawed, I put the biggest one in my blue roaster pan with water, salt, pepper and onions, threw it in the oven for one and a half hours. I prepared the smoker, washed the grills, added the water and the smoke and finally, the turkey. Back in the house to put the second turkey in the oven with its batch of water and seasonings. And later, the third turkey went in the smoker and the first one came out. That was about 11:30 pm.

Why was I baking the turkey before smoking it? Because I wanted to make gravy. Gravy that tastes like smoke isn't tasty at all. I tried that one year and was very disappointed. So I was getting 3 large batches of turkey flavored water base to make my gravy.

During the time of adding water and hickory to the smoker, I made the devilled eggs, baked rolls (for sandwiches of leftover turkey), made the pecan pie and drank some beer. Time for bed.

Thursday morning, I get up at 7 a.m., ( I overslept) made coffee, dressed, went into work to close out registers and complete the previous day's accounting books, prepared the register (wine shops do not close on Thanksgiving), and drove home to finish preparing the food for the feast later on that day.

I forgot all about the ham, so I threw it in the oven, baked my dressing, mashed the potatoes (my husband peeled them the night before so I could boil them and refrigerate them for the next day), started warming up the corn, prepared the two types of beans and started stirring and stirring and stirring the gravy. Had time to throw in the smoked turkey to reheat. I washed the vegetables for my husband to cut up and arrange on a dish for snacking.

The neighbor came over with his beer. Two hours early. I was glad I cleaned out the fridge in the dining room. An hour later, or maybe two, hubby appears in the kitchen with a beer in hand for me. It was wonderful. Two beers later and our other guests show and they take the turkey and ham out of the oven to carve. Everything is warmed up and ready to go, so I holler at everyone to make their plates and I went out into the backyard with my 3rd beer and sat down, had a smoke (we don't smoke in the house when little children come over) and played fetch with my two puppies. Tazzi, is a miniature chihuahua and Daisy is a miniature dachshund who are both overfed.

I realize, I've been sitting there quite a while, so I sneak back in through the laundry room and into the kitchen. I had everything set up buffet style so plates could be filled and everyone could sit in the living room, eat and watch football.

The food was wonderful and many went back for seconds and thirds. One plate did me. I was saving room for another beer.

After dinner, my daughter heads to the kitchen after announcing that she brought tupperware so she could take food home. They had to leave soon as we were not there only stop for the day.

I had smoked a second turkey, that I halved, for my daughter and my friend to take home as leftovers. Each got plentiful helpings of dinner that they could enjoy later.

Feeling as if I had rested enough, I asked my friend if she wanted to help me make the coconut cream pies. I had promised I'd make it for her family. She had my recipe, but lost it before she could try it. She was up to it, so we headed off to the kitchen. One hour later, we had 2 pies, one for us and one for them.

I started to write this so I could put my coconut cream pie recipe on here, and instead of just posting the recipe, my mind wandered and a zillion words later, here I am. So, here's the recipe. It's a bit of work, but well worth it. I strongly suggest reading the recipe and getting all of your ingredients measured and ready to add before you start. Have fun! LynnH

Coconut Cream Pie

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups milk

4 eggs

3 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/3 cups Baker's flaked coconut

Meringue for Pie

Pastry for Single-Crust Pie or Premade Graham Cracker Crust

Prepare and roll out pastry. Line a 9-inch pie plate. Trim pastry to 1/2 inch beyond edge. Flute edge, prick pastry. Bake in 450 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or till golden. Cool thoroughly. I have used premade crusts and graham cracker crusts in a pinch.

For filling, in saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir until the mixture is thickened and bubbly. Reduce the heat now and cook and stir for 2 more minutes. Be careful not to burn this. You cannot leave it unattended on the stove. Remove from heat.

Separate egg yolks from whites, set whites aside for the meringue. Beat egg yolks. Gradually stir in 1 cup of the hot pudding mixture into the yolks. Return this egg mixture to the hot pudding mixture in the pan. Put back on stove and bring to a gentle boil. Cook, stirring constantly for 2 more minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Next, stir in 1 cup of coconut. You can now pour this mixture into your baked pie shell. Add your meringue and top the meringue with the remaining coconut and bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes to brown the coconut and meringue to your liking. Cool, refrigerate and enjoy. It'll be gone in no time.

Meringue

4 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter

6 tablespoons sugar

Beat egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar at medium speed for about 1 minute. Gradually add the tablespoons of sugar, mixing at the highest speed of your electric mixer, until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Immediately spread on your pie and bake as directed.

Front Garden Path

2006-11-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

I'm reminiscencing right now of the walks I would take through my front yard. After downloading Picasa2 I've been very busy sorting out pictures and seeing them in a 'different' light. It's very cold outside right now and as I look out my window, I see my plants that have died back....waiting underground....for spring to arrive again.