The Week That Was

I'm not sure what the biggest event of the week was.....the eclipse or getting the cast off my ankle. But the eclipse was amazing from the terrace. We watched the moon come up over the hillside and then slowly a little black fuzz appeared on the edge. At the full eclipse the moon was a glowing red-ish/orange-ish ball in the sky. I know that you have seen a dozen of my images with the moon over San Miguel de Allende but I just can't resist making them or putting them on the blog.

Now that the cast is off my leg and I'm not shuffling around on crutches, I'm back in the kitchen and it feels good. One night I made meatballs and spaghetti with a salad. Another night was grilled chicken breast and a pasta vegetable salad. I love a pasta vegetable salad with lots of veggies. I had green peas, broccoli, zucchini, orange bell pepper, carrots and tomatoes. Dress the salad with a nice vinaigrette and I could consider being a vegetarian (at least for that meal). Last night was comfort food from our childhood. Thin pork chops lightly breaded and sauteed (actually fried but sauteed sounds more contemporary) rice, cream gravy and a big crispy salad.

Some of my reader's mouth will be watering....fried porkchops and cream gravy while the younger ones will be in horror of knowing anyone who will eat fried porkchops and cream gravy. I think cream gravy might disappear only to be resurrected in 10 or 15 years by some hotshot chef. Oh well, all I know is....cream gravy is damn good. I'm not talking about the glutenous mess that you sometimes get on chicken fried steak in Texas. I'm talking about a skillet full of homemade cream gravy made with the little bits from the pan where you "sauteed" the porkchops or steak. Add a bit of flour for a roux and then the milk and seasonings. Mmm....delicious!
Yesterday we worked in the "garden." Actually on one of the terraces and in the patio. The terrace over the living area is looking good. The geraniums in the pots on top of the railing around the back side of the terrace are trailing over the pots and looking gorgeous. But there were things to cut back and move around. I have several empty pots up there and need a few more herbs and some other plants. But the patio garden......oh my. It took the brunt of the hailstorm we had back before Christmas. The hail shredded so many leaves of the plants in the bed around the little pond. That bed looked terrible but I didn't want to cut the plants back until I was sure that we were past another cold spell. Since December I had been hiding the shredded plants by filling in with some pots of white poinsettias. So yesterday we took out the pots of poinsettias and cut back the plants. I hope that the warm weather will quickly bring the plants back around because the bed looks so bare. I still need to fill in with some ferns and something blooming...maybe some geraniums or begonias.

And that was the week that was. Now on to the week ahead.