My wife recently noticed that I never look at recipes when I cook dinner and she asked me why. I had to stop and think about it because I never even thought about looking for a recipe when it involved what I call a regular meal. That’s one where you have meat, potatoes and a couple of vegetables or a breakfast type meal with eggs, meat and potatoes. I just look in the frig and see what we have and start cooking.

I would never think about cooking without a recipe if there was baking involved but other than that, I tend to stick with experimental cooking. The funny thing is it works out far more times than not. I like to work with a lot of fresh foods that lend themselves to quick salsas and relishes that can easily be served over pork and fish. These are not hard to make and can be made of just about anything as long as you have a fruit of some kind, onions and an herb. You can make them fresh or to be cooked with the meat. Either way, they are really good and fresh tasting. Fresh vegetables and be steamed, sautéed or eaten raw and are just good for you. I also prefer sweet potatoes and they can be roasted with a little garlic and chives or mashed just like regular potatoes. I cook what I feel like cooking and have a blast experimenting. The only real problem I have had is not remembering what I did when it’s really good and people ask for the recipe but that’s a good problem to have if you ask me.

I just got finished eating an entire bowl of fresh raspberries from my yard. I walked out back, picked them, came in and washed them and ate them. Simple, clean and good! They are better than anything I get buy at a store and much better than frozen. So my question is this; since fresh is always better then store bought, frozen and canned can’t even compare, why are so many people against growing their own food?

I believe that many have never tasted food right out of the garden. The fact is that there are many people in this country that have no idea what fresh fruit or vegetables even taste like. They get fed fast foods and processed foods for so long that they don’t know anything else. I recently built a small garden at a local center for kids and I was amazed that only one out of fifty had ever had food out of a garden. By the end of the season they will be able to try tomatoes, squash, bell peppers, lettuce and an assortment of other herbs and vegetables, fresh – picked and then eaten! They not only will not hurt you but you get the most vitamins, minerals and fiber from fresh vegetables and fruits. Try it, you just might like it!

I recently ran across a new type of house; a house in a kit. These types of homes can be bought and constructed right on your property as a standard size or with add-ons. While you may think they are cheaper than a site built home, that is not necessarily the case. The ones I have seen range from a 320 square foot cabin, which has the ability to accommodate kitchen and bathrooms but that will cost you more than the 32K base price, to the 3100 square foot with five bedrooms, three full baths. Of course it’s also $800K.

While these homes won’t replace the on site structure in every way they do have some real nice features that would work very well in secluded areas since they come in pieces that are fit together on-site. The draw back to them is the cost since the cost is for the structure only and doesn’t include transporting it to the location or the cost of getting the foundation, plumbing and other utilities laid and ready. I have an idea that as time goes by and more and more people look at these houses as an option the prices will come down. It’s like anything else, the first experimenters tend to pay more and the rest of us will benefit down the line.

Don’t you love it when you haven’t seen someone in a couple of months and you get together and it’s everything you remember it to be! I love friends like this. They are low maintenance and high fun even when you talk about important things. In my opinion, these are the greatest relationships you can have but you have to reciprocate the same kind of energy and friendship or you are taking advantage of the person.

Friendships should be a two way street. It’s not that everything has to be equal since very few relationships are equal all the time. Most have give and take elements that you know is there but never need to talk about since it is an intuitive thing. If you are not sure you are doing your part in your friendships ask your friends and find out. There is nothing as frustrating as loosing a friend and not knowing why. It’s better to know why now so you can plug that hole and be a great friend. This alone will attract more and more friends into your life.

As the end of summer becomes a reality, it’s also the time of year we realize that we didn’t get all those “summer” jobs and repairs completed like we thought we would. You know, building the compost pile, putting in the flowerbeds and building that Koi pond your wife has wanted now for two years. Maybe the reality is that you just don’t have the time you thought you would and it’s time to look for an alternative way to get these things accomplished and out of the way so they are not hanging over your head next year.

Why not hire a landscaping company to either do or at least help you with the construction of these types of projects. It will do two things for you that you don’t seem to be able to do for yourself; get it done and take it off your list! In almost all local markets around the US there are very competent landscape and construction companies that can handle these types of jobs. Get several bids and let their experience help you with ideas as well. Their experience can translate to saving you money and time if you seek their advice, especially for projects like water features and ponds.

I need to start putting some thought into what I say and up the general vocabulary. To start, two words that need to come back with a vengeance: gumption and akimbo. Don’t they just seem fun to say and they have great meanings too! Courage, guts, nerve, oomph, all those words sum up gumption, but gumption just has more substance and more syllables. I was out the other night, and a friend of mine was telling a story about the amazing lengths he went for a girl he was madly in love with and he slid the word into his story. I swear the story got 3 times as good with that zinger of a vocabulary word or maybe I’m so fixated on this word, because it is generally lacking in many of us young folk nowadays. I think we all need it to come back in life. If we start using the word, maybe we will start to embody it?

Akimbo – arms akimbo, bent or arched. Maybe there is a connection with this word and the previous. Superheroes and wonder-women seem to be associated with this word and image of arms at the hips and elbows bent upwards. And it could be easily argued that these figures of strength easily have gumption.

Every once in a while there is a series that everyone is talking about. For a long time it was The Sopranos but lately it has been True Blood. Luckily, I have a friend who has the first year taped so I borrowed them to start watching last weekend. Since my wife is a fan of the Twighlight Books and movie, she also was interested in watching. We started the series about 7PM on Saturday evening thinking we would watch a couple of them before bed. We made it through seven shows a little before 2AM before we had to quit. In other words, we were sucked in by a great story, decent acting and some frolicking fun. We finished the rest on Sunday and ordered HBO on Monday so we could watch this years episodes.

My wife just likes the different ways vampires are portrayed and gets a kick out of the suspense of it all. What I like is the parody of politics and relationships between the different factions that are represented. It’s not far from the reality of our time; the use of media and fear as well as the spinning of truth and news. They have also done a great job of representing conservative and liberal views and shown that each has strengths and weaknesses that should be exposed. The writing is better than average and the opening is not to be missed. My wife laughs but I watch and listen to the opening theme every week as it sets me in the mood to watch. Great fun!