Dry Stack Walls With a Twist

Ever since I first saw Martha Stewart demonstrating how to make dry stack walls in her magazine and on her shows I have been fascinated by them. I really love the look of these walls that I found on Sunset magazine's blog, Fresh Dirt.

These fabulous walls can be found at Cambria Nursery in Cambria, CA, one of my favorite coastal getaway towns. I love how they incorporated broken planters in the walls to hold beautiful succulents. You can be sure that I will be checking them out the next time we visit Cambria.

Postcards from Morro Bay

I discovered that I had never published these postcards from our visit to Morro Bay in early August. I hope you enjoy them. Makes me wish I was there again.

The famous Morro Rock. The rock was named by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo when he first charted this coast during his 16th Century voyage of discovery.

The weather is mild here year round which makes it a perfect coastal getaway.

Views of the bay

These pink flamingoes were in an outside garden area behind a thrift store

So many cute and interesting stores to shop in

Sailboats everywhere, but it is also a working fishing town.

There were so many pelicans at this bay

A view of the town of Morro Bay

A sweet family

When Life Gives You Zucchini...

..LOTS of it - you make zucchini bread - am I right? I couldn't let the summer end without making the requisite zucchini bread. This is a recipe my Mom gave me and I make it just about every year, except sometimes I vary it just a bit. This always tastes good with a good cup of tea.

Zucchini-Lemon Bread

Prep. 25 min. Bake: approx. 1 hour

6 Tbs. unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (juice from one lemon)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbs. grated lemon peel

2 cups grated zucchini with peel (2 medium-size)

1-1/2 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9x5-inch loaf pan with 1 tsp. butter (I used Pam with flour).

2. Melt remaining butter, transfer to mixer bowl, and cool slightly. Add sugar, eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat until blended. Stir in lemon zest and zucchini.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add to batter and mix until blended. Fold in nuts. Pour into prepared pan.

4. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe Cards

I think these letterpress recipe cards are just beautiful. They are available at moontreepress on Etsy. You can even get them with my favorite Martha Stewart recipe box. The label on the box is replaced with a beautiful letterpress label.

While I have many cookbooks, and most often print out a recipe found online, I think there is something so wonderful and precious about reading recipes on recipe cards. I have some in my mother's handwriting and in my husband's grandmother's handwriting that mean the world to me.

Do you write down your favorite recipes on recipe cards? Or do you just use cookbooks or print out the recipe on the computer?

We Remember

image from The Huffington Post

I'm a Peanut Farmer!

Okay, well that's a bit of an exaggeration and I am sure President Jimmy Carter would beg to differ with me, but look what I discovered when I was weeding one of my large pots where I grow my Bird of Paradise!

A Peanut Plant! With quite a few peanuts growing on it! Isn't it a wonder?! I never would have thought you could actually grow peanuts from a peanut in the shell - don't know why - guess I never thought about it before or tried it...

'Course, I can't take the credit for this phenomenon in my garden - it had to have been planted from a peanut buried by one of my backyard squirrel friends or the very industrious Blue Jay I have watched burying peanuts to feed his family at a later time.

Oh, and yes, I carefully replanted the peanut plant and watered it so hopefully it will continue to grow and will mature long enough for my little friends to harvest during the Fall or Winter.