You only wish your life was this fascinating

[wayfaringwordhack]

________                               
 It's Alive!                                 

A couple of weeks ago, for the first time since being in Mayotte, I bought a cabbage at the supermarket. They are normally ridiculously expensive, but this time the price was reasonable.  On a whim, I planted the heart, which I had cut it into four pieces, because I noticed little root-like growths no more than an eighth of an inch long at the bottom of the stem. Today I noticed that they are budding. Woot! I don't know if I'll get cabbages, but I feel pretty chuffed that it worked. We did the same with pineapples, but they won't give fruit for the first five years. 

I'm starting to see sprouts where I sowed my veggies and herbs. They have to grow quickly! The rains will be upon us in a few months.

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 I Ain't No Chicken 

However, if that black hen and her chicks keep digging around in my vegetable plot, nothing is going to grow. I chased her out of the yard four times today, and each time, I thought I was going to have a mad momma hen pecking my eyes out. Let me tell you, I saw another side of that expression about a Mother Hen. I spent the majority of my childhood on a farm and ranch, and I'd never been threatened like that by a chicken. I guess I never tried chasing them before. :P

Im not the only one who felt her ire. She didn't like Tiboy staring at her either.

___________________
   The Beckoning Moon  

I want to go take more freaky photos of the moon

 

and nightscapes,

but Julien is working tonight, and he'll have the car. I don't much relish the thought of walking alone after midnight toting expensive equipment across town and risking my skin to an attack of a wild dog pack.

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  A Confession  

I cannot make a good chocolate chip cookie to save my life. This is very strange because I could make them just fine when I was younger. This is a problem that has plagued me ever since I tried to make a good oatmeal raisin cookie and failed miserably. They turned out puffy and bready. Oh the horror. This was several years ago, and I've been afraid to waste good ingredients and give it another go. Apparently, the Cookie Curse has extended to plain chocolate chip, and I now fear for my Death By Chocolate cookies.

Can anyone out there help??? What am I doing wrong?

____________
   An Addiction  

The final rugby match of day three is tonight, and my favorite team is playing. The television is calling me with the promise of a second division match...but I still need to write my words for the day. And I promised myself I would belly dance. But ruuuuuugby!

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

That's so cool about the cabbage! I hope you end up with more, especially since they're expensive there. My grandfather used to plant potatoes and onions that way.

Your photos are exquisite. I'm particularly fond of the one with the moon.

Do you think, perhaps, it's too much baking powder/soda in the cookies? Or perhaps using one instead of the other? I can't think of anything else that might make them rise like that.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I bought some sprouted onions today to try the same. Hopefully it'll work. :D

Thank you for the lovely complimens on the photos.

I'll try adjusting the amount next time. My cc cookie recipe only has soda, no bp, but I'll try cutting it down a little.

[mindseas.livejournal.com]

We don't have chicken owners nearby, but the wild turkeys have been taking their dirt baths in Louise's flower garden and digging up the anenomes.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Argh. A dirt bath--that's exactly what that hen is doing...right where my lettuce is. :-|

[clarentine]

Too puffy and bready cookies. Oh, my. I've worked for a long while to get my oatmeal cookies to that condition. *g* Try adding less flour, and use butter rather than shortening. (Both of which are things I've modified, in reverse.) If what you're after are broad, flat, thin choc chip cookies, that might do it. Different fats definitely make a difference.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Oh no! Oatmeal cookies must be chewy!

I'll try cutting back on the flour; usually I need *more* flour when I make a US recipe with French flour, but that could be it.

I only use real butter when I cook, no shortening and no margarine. Hmmm, I may have to think about that. But I'll try the flour adjustment first.

[clarentine]

Recipes can be so maddening. No sooner do you figure out the exact measurements you need for a given oven, with given ingredients, than the seasons change and the flour absorbs a different amount of liquid, and poof! goes your perfect recipe. *g*

Good luck!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

That's so true. I didn't even think about the humidity here affecting the ingredients before frigg mentioned it.

This is why it helps to ask people who are smarter than I am. :D

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Are you in any way changing the recipes? I know you like to cut sugar. :)

Otherwise it could sound like too much flour (the humidity or lack of it where you're staying can alter the weight and volume), too much raising agent, too little grease. I've never had cookie problems (except on the computer), but I've found that my cookies turn out tastier if I freeze the dough first.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have cut the sugar, but I tried making them with the full amount and the result was the same.

I'll be extremely precise next time I give it a go.

I like to freeze cookie dough, too. So handy and YUM fresh cookies every time--that's essential here in Mayotte with the humidity. I can't stand soggy cookies. :-|

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Lovely pics again! :)

Friends of ours tried keeping chickens once - they ran stables and had plenty of land, so they wanted free-range goodies for the kids. They had to go - the cockerel and the chickens used to terrorise all the kids who were coming for riding lessons!

Did you succumb to the rugby? I saw the end of an English premier match yesterday, the first one I've seen this season.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Mean chickens! I seriously don't remember ours being like that when I was a kid.

I didn't watch the D2 match; I worked on my story instead. I also belly danced and then I watched Toulouse v Biarritz.

I'm a good girl, I am.

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

I, on the other hand, am a lazy bum *g*

Revel in your virtupitude - you deserve to.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

A lazy bum, are ye? Whatever happened to being good and disciplined with me???

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

*whistles a jaunty tune*

Sorry - did you say something?

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Harrumph. Well...um. What can one say when one knows one is being ignored?

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would never ignore you!

It's just that sometimes I can't seem to get the words people say to line up properly and make their way into my brain. You know, the words that mention... werk. Duing uv. Stuff lyk that *g*

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

*lol* So in fact, the whistling is just a reflex mechanism, something you have no control over. I get it now. :D