A Daisy Will Do You

 

As I was taking photos one day not so long ago for my macro flower submissions, I spotted a nice grouping of daisies.

As I got closer, I saw a few ants enjoying the daisies as well.

Ponder the ant a bit. Such a tiny creature and sometimes a real nuisance in your garden or house. They can damage crops and invade buildings. How many of you have ever had your garden or your home over run with ants?

Yet ants are very social creatures and very industrious too. Apparently ant societies have division of labour, communicate with one another and have an ability to solve complex problems. This makes ants quite fascinating. 

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:  Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
Proverbs 6:6-8 (KJV)

I bet some of you remember your fascination with ants as a child. Or perhaps you have a child or grandchild who watches the ants and sees how they work so feverishly; marvelling at the heavy loads ants can carry on their backs as they prepare for the winter.  I think we can all learn something from this hard working little creature.

The daisy is such a simple flower but yet so intricate and beautiful at the same time.  Look at the fascinating centre of the flower. Such perfection!


I learned that the daisy has some medicinal properties. I believe this daisy is called an English daisy. 

It has the following properties:

• anodyne - pain relief
• antispasmodic - suppresses muscle spasms
• antitussive - cough suppressants
• demulcent - agent that wraps around mucus membrane to relieve minor pain and inflammation to the area
• emollient - softens or soothes skin
• expectorant - to helps remove mucus from lungs, bronchi, and trachea
• laxative - induce bowel movements or loosen stool
• purgative - helps induce vomiting
• tonic - improve health

It can be well tolerated in homeopathic remedies but since the daisy is a diuretic, there can be dangers of toxicity when taken with anti-inflammatory painkillers. Don't try to self-medicate. Get some professional help if you want to consider an herbal remedy.

I will be travelling for a family funeral so I apologize in advance if you visit  my blog and I cannot comment right away. I may have one or two pre-scheduled blog posts if I have enough time.

Please join in to the memes, Macro Flowers Saturday and Weekend Flowers of Friday. You will see some beautiful flowers.  Thank you to Maia and Tina for hosting these beautiful memes.  Happy weekend!

Easy Rice Pudding

When I was a child my mother made the most awesome and wonderful rice pudding and bread pudding. The older I get the more I grow nostalgic for these foods and for the memories of the smells of mom's cooking as I'd walk into the house after a long day of school. Over time, I am learning some of her repetoire but I never really asked her how to make the two puddings. She couldn't recollect the recipes now so I will try to find some that will work.

I precooked a lot of brown rice for yesterday's dinner (featured in yesterday's post) and  thought now would be a good time to try making some rice pudding.  I made this recipe found on Allrecipes.com, with modifications as noted.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup uncooked white rice  (I used left over brown cooked rice)
• 2 cups milk, divided  (I used evaporated milk)
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup golden raisins  ( I used dark raisins)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. I cooked my rice about 10 minutes longer because the brown rice is not as fluffy as the white (though it looks fluffy when cooked). I kept stirring so that the milk didn't burn the bottom of the pot. 
3.  Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm. 

Tip: If you use evaporated milk like I did, don't forget to reduce the sugar otherwise it may be too sweet!  You could also use Splenda.  I cooked the mixture a little longer to soften the rice as much as possible. Brown rice will be crunchier than white rice. Nonetheless it was a creamy pudding with a bit of crunch and not bad at all. I sprinkled cinnamon spice on the finished product but you could also stir it in the pudding while cooking.

While this is not my like my mom's rice pudding, it is pretty good!

I will be travelling for a family funeral so I apologize in advance if you visit  my blog and I cannot comment right away. I may have one or two pre-scheduled blog posts if I have enough time.

Simple Eats

While I am a simple cook, sometimes simple can be so nice. Today I made dinner consisting of brown rice cooked the old fashioned way on the stove top, roasted chicken drumsticks and a colourful black bean and corn salad.

The salad consists of:

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn kernels

• 1 medium red pepper, washed and diced

• 2 stalks of green onions, washed, peeled and diced

• 1/2 papaya, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces

• 1 lime

After you assemble and prepare all the ingredients, simply toss them together with the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon.

If you like spices, you can add cayenne pepper and garlic. Or, you can add some avocado if you wish. As for me, I left out the spices and used bigger chunks of papaya.

Tip:  There is no need to defrost the corn kernels first. I made this salad while the rice and chicken were cooking.  By the time the main meal is ready to be plated, the corn kernels in the salad are thawed enough to eat.

I am grateful that we in the west can still eat. 

Even if we have no money there are things like food banks and soup kitchens

as long as you are able bodied enough to walk to these places. 

My heart and head are still concerned about the hungry and the 

dying in the Horn of Africa. Please consider your gift today. 

You can find donate buttons on the side of my blog.

UN makes historic Somali aid drop - Africa

Friends have a look at this story
UN makes historic Somali aid drop - Africa - Al Jazeera English to learn some of the recent events in the Horn of Africa.

If you missed my introductory post, please check out "Crisis in the Horn of Africa",  posted July 31st, 2011.

There are donate buttons on the side of my page also for World Vision and World Food Programme.  If you prefer to give to those at the grassroots level, you can donate to Missions of Hope here.

Join Me on a Walk

I thought I would do something different for my Blue Monday this week.
I have posted a video I made some time ago. 

It features lots of beautiful blue sky, blue restaurant banners and other blue here and there.
Grab a tea or coffee and rest awhile. I hope you enjoy the show and the music.

Enjoy!

      

Lily Macro Series

The lily was beginning to fade when I photographed it.  But I found it quite beautiful as I got closer to it. It was amongst a group of flowers planted around a post on the street.

The young shopkeeper came out to water the flowers as I was photographing them. I thought it was very charming of him to tend to flowers that are growing on the side of the street.  Perhaps he planted them.  Anyway, they make a nice touch in an otherwise not so pretty area.

Enjoy your weekend and enjoy more flowers and beautiful scenery at the following links (click badges).

Scenic Sunday

The Simple Joys of Living

Often I get very behind on housework and domestic tasks despite my best efforts. Does anyone else have that problem *wink.  Then when I energetic  I whirl around like a dervish trying to catch up with things.   I am always pleased when I see how much I've accomplished.

This week I got a lot of domestic tasks done:

• finished loads and loads of laundry. They were all small loads so I was able to conserve water.  As part of my laundry exercise, I was trying to shrink some linen clothing and a rayon dress I purchased recently for comfort in the summer heat we are finally getting.  While the dress shrunk a bit in length, the linen clothing didn't shrink at all!  Now I think I have to alter them or have them altered. It is okay because they were purchased on a very good sale. I can alter the clothing myself if I have time but I want to wear them before I'm likely to get the job done myself. I'm torn about whether to spend the funds because I like to save pennies too.  So we will see what happens in the next week or so.
• loaded up on food shopping. It seems I was out of all the basic items and then some. I didn't even have eggs, milk or margarine on hand.
• baked muffins and bread. Baked goods are so expensive and there was no bread on sale today. The banana muffins saved my bananas from going to waste and the blueberry muffins were made from last year's blueberries which needed to be used.  I also made a loaf of bread and half a dozen rolls from a new recipe.

These buns have a crispier crust than the ones I usually make. I like a crispy crust so will likely use this recipe again.

• baked some navy bean and beef soup with a tomato base in my Kitchen Aid casserole. It may seem like a hearty dish for summer but this week I seem to have a craving for beans.  In a few days I'll try my hand at some black bean salsa or black bean relish and pair it with some fish or chicken.

• washed lots and lots of dishes and pots and pans. My room mate generally makes the dinners.  I clean and run the household.  The cleaning part never seems to end and it can seem tedious.  Given that the work will always be there, I'm making a concerted effort to look at my daily tasks in a new light. I am fortunate enough to have a home, hot running water and hands to to clean so I am trying to take joy in these simple tasks and be grateful that I can live the life I live.

I've been busy with other things too.

Like shopping for my mom. I learned a few days ago that she needed some grooming and toiletry items. It's taken a few days to pull it together but it's all done now.  My brother will kindly deliver these things to her on Tuesday as he is travelling to her city for a quick trip.

I also bought her a few dresses as she is celebrating her 75  birthday later this month.  I bought one each of the dresses you see on the left and right and a 3rd dress for which I don't have a photo.  The dresses in the photos are being modelled by store clerk.

The dresses were shipped a few days ago.  I wish I was there to see her surprise when she gets the package.  The dresses are  nice and roomy so that they won't pull when she sits in her wheelchair. Moreover, the width shouldn't shrink when the care home washes her clothes as they tend to wash clothes in scalding hot water.

I've had a chance to update my blog.  It took awhile but I finally have a new header and a new layout. I hope you like it. The header has a "lomo-ish" effect which brings out the colour of the lily and blurs the images a bit.  Let me know what you think. I plan to change out the header every now and then. It seems to be a popular thing to do amongst bloggers.

Well that it's for now. 

I've got a gazillion things to do this 

weekend around the house and more errands.  

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!