Two accomplishmenst this week or so

Last week, I used a recipe from I think it’s from this site) the lovely website, Dove’s Eye View Link, that I copied down several years ago. Put link here: http://bedouina.typepad.com/doves_eye/ If I have the wrong website for this recipe, look around at the place anyway. She has lots of interesting stuff here.

This lady has passed on since about 2-3 years ago but her site is a great place for info and recipes from the Middle East and Mediterranean. At least, that ‘s where my WASPy--Midwestern and farm cooking-- heritage mind puts her cooking. I believe she was of Lebanese descent.

I like this red lentil soup recipe a lot. I tried the Indian spices variation this time around as I like Indian food quite a bit. I think red lentil soup looks more appealing than green/brown lentil soup with it’s color. I also added some turmeric to the soup and that made the color more “golden” colored.

This week I tried a lemon and rosemary chicken recipe with chicken breasts. It smelled so good while cooking!

My basil plant has gone to seed, my thyme and oregano are still producing. I didn’t plant any other herbs this winter, I’ll see what I want to do about that next fall when it’s cool enough to plant again. My herbs never make it through the summer although there might be a first time.

My planning a tight budget the past two years and sticking to it has really paid off. I do have more money than I thought I did. As for taxes, I get two refunds--which was a surprise to me, I almost always owe and usually plan it that way.

And,it has dawned on me in the past month or so, that I can take Social Security this fall, if I want to. My tax guy called attention to that and ran some numbers for me. It's a chunk more money coming in so I have to consider to take it or wait some more. It doesn't increase my taxes that much, i'll have to see how I feel about it in a few months.

  peace, shamba