Great Game For A Three Year Old

Cutting Back Mother-In-Laws Tongue

 Don’t worry my wonderful mother-in-law, Jan, is safe. Sansevieria trifasciata, a plant better known as mother-in-laws tongue is one of my favorite house plants.  It tolerates neglect and low sunlight and is the ultimate plant for someone who just can’t seem to get anything to stay alive.

 

Mine, as you can see got a little out of control. I couldn’t find a good visual out there on pruning this plant, but I did read that you could simply cut back the fronds in the same shape as they grow. I tried it for myself cutting a few fronds into points. A couple of months later the plant is still as hardy as ever.

Now that I know this plant truly is indestructible I plan on being a little more aggressive with my pruning. I did read that this may stunt the original mother plant, but force new shoots to grow.  With any luck I should be able to split it later this summer and share with family and friends.

What are your favorite house plants?

Didn't I Just See This Picture?

No, This is yet another snowman.

 

 

Green Olive Couscous

I love this couscous recipe.  Eating it from the serving spoon as I dish the leftovers into tubs love it.  It is the perfect mix of flavors, my favorite salty olives with a burst of lemon and the comfort of sautéed onions. It is delicious hot, works great at room temperature, and I even love it cold. The problem is everyone else seems to think it is just “nice” or “works well as a side dish”.  The only other person who ever got excited about it was my dad. The good news is if this dish doesn’t light up your world you won’t have felt like you wasted your time. The most time consuming part is chopping the veggies. I make this for a quick week night meal with shrimp or sausage.  Do you have a recipe you love, but everyone else is lukewarm on?

Green Olive Couscous 

1 cup couscous

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 red pepper, finely chopped

¾ cup green olives, chopped (My favorite are the applewood smoked by Mezzetta)

1 lemon, juiced

1 tsp cumin

salt, pepper

1) Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Remove from heat and add couscous. Give the couscous a quick stir and cover.

2) Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Sauté the onion until it's softened, and then add the red pepper. Sauté for an additional few minutes.

3) Add the veggies, olives, lemon juice, and cumin to the couscous. Salt and Pepper to taste. Mix well, and serve warm or at room temperature

Recipe Adapted from Isabel’s Cantina

 

What I've Been Reading

As usual George Martin makes you fall in love with his characters and then he kills them off! A Storm of Swords is the third book in the Game of Thrones series. His quick plot twists keep me on my toes. I do enjoy the books, but don’t really care for some of the newer characters. I’m still emotionally invested enough in a few of the characters left that I will pick up the next one. I need to know what happens!

Linking up with 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Snow Days

One Down Two To Go

All of the toilet seats in our house have some sort of design. This was not one of the big selling points in our house, but we figured it was an easy fix.

A year and a half later we finally got around to replacing one with a plain seat. As you can see my husband was getting a little more help then he bargained for. He has been doing most of the home improvement projects lately, including painting the office. Time for me to step it up and cross some things off the to do list!

Tortellini, Spinach & Tomato Soup

I love a good soup that bubbles away for hours, but sometimes you just don’t have time for that. This soup can easily be thrown together for a quick week night meal. It is also one of the few vegetarian meals I make that has my husband’s approval.