A little Garden miracle

This beautiful Moth was born in our garden this evening...

He worked his way free from this odd-looking pod hanging from a tree

I admire his Effort and hope he likes

his new garden-home as Much as I do!

This is for Spa-boy... You see, I put my Realtor hat back on last week and

found a tenant to rent his beautiful, 5-bedroom home in High Point. Right

after I signed the lease, I sent my personal Landscaper over to spruce up the

grounds - Where he discovered an old garden swing hiding under English ivy!

The swing seat was covered in thick lichen and sadly, Broken beyond

repair. But that didn't mean the frame couldn't be Repurposed, so he

hauled it home... Incredibly, on the way home he passed a broken up

garden swing frame sticking out of a ditch. When he slowed down, he

could see there was also a Decent-looking swing lying next to it! Spa-

Boy's frame met ditched swing... And, just look at them together now!

Look at the pond Iris - She's blooming!

Blood pressure medicine, that's what this is!

His hostas and ferns Amaze me!

How do they do it?

It's magical!

We get bigger and better magic with Every new spring!

I love that little Purple primrose. It's

such a sweet Surprise in all this green!

Like this little Ducky surprise by the creek...

His honey-Duck must be sitting on their eggs because he

has been coming to dine with us Solo for about a week now

This is why he doesn't have to send me flowers on Mother's Day!

I have all the Bloomers I can handle or want!

And in one of my Favorite colors no less!

FTD has nothing on him!

I think it's time for Caesar salad!

Crème Brûlée

After the week we had...

Getting back to my blog, doing a bit of shopping at Sur La Table, and creating

my very first Crème brûlée with their help, was just the antidote I needed!

Thanks to Monica, who told me about Sur La Table's discount

card available to Food Bloggers, I now have one of my own!

Which I promptly exercised to purchase my Crème Brûlée supplies!

You know how much I love it when Cooking leads to

shopping! Any way... Patrick, the super-helpful sales pro at SLT

recommended this Chef's Torch to me. He's the same man who turned

me on to those Fabulous mini-cupcakes I can't stop making... So when

he said it's the same torch he uses in his own Kitchen, I was sold!

And, it's German. Did I mention I was sold? Patrick also

helped me find the Demerara sugar and butane I needed too

I picked up several (maybe 15) boxes of Crème Brûlée at

the Fort Benning commissary the last time we saw the Ranger

Crème Brûlée is our favorite restaurant desert, and I've always wanted

to make it as well as they do at Ruth's Chris. They do CB the Best there!

I was raised on Dr. Oetker baking products

used in my Mom's and my Oma's kitchens

So I trust them. You may remember this Black Forest

cake (Here) I made. It was a Dr. Oetker too!

This was pretty easy! 1 cup cold whole milk, 1 cup Whipping

Cream added to one box of Dr. Oetker Crème Brûlée custard mix

If you don't already have little dishes like these, Sur La Table also

offers a pretty nifty Torch Set, which includes the perfect dishes!

And the price of that set, with dishes and butane

torch is the same as my Chef's Torch. Hum...

So you have a Choice, which is always nice! Okay... our Crème Brûlée

is ready to go. Now this is where I wandered off the reservation a

bit in terms of the Recipe directions. It just didn't sound right

to leave my Crème Brûlée sit out on the counter for an hour

until a skin formed so I decided to chill it for two hours

instead. Also, the directions indicate No torch is needed

since caramelization can be achieved under the broiler...

But that sounds like No fun at all!

I would much rather Do this!

By the way... Buy the butane refill with this torch. Patrick thought

it might come ready to go, but I quickly Determined there was

no butane already in the torch. Quickly, as in I fiddled with

it until I realized filling my torch with Fuel might actually help!

The Dr. Oetker mix includes Demerara sugar but since I plan to

test lots of Crème Brûlée recipes, I picked up a sack at SLT too

Since I've never used a Torch before I made up

this little dish of Crème Brûlée to test it first

I'm glad I did because I ended up being a little heavy-handed

with the Flame. This tasted really good, but it tasted more

like over-toasted marshmallow than Crème Brûlée

But if you're after over-toasted Marshmallow, this is it!

It's Soooo good!

But this is more what we're after here...

Perfect Crème Brûlée achieved through help from

Dr. Oetker and our friends at Sur La Table!

An outing

I am on the hunt for a Bird house! I have been for months... You

see, for a few years I saw a couple selling these Beautiful bird

houses and feeders from the bed of their truck. Sometimes

they could be found set up in a parking lot very Near to the

house. Other times, I noticed them closer to town, but I could

always count on Seeing them at least a couple of times during

the month. But now... Now that I have a spot in the garden all

picked out and I am in the market for one of their Treasures, the

couple is no longer to be found. Which is just my luck, of course!

I was reminded of my Frustrated search again this afternoon on

our way to the Greensboro arboretum where we went to walk off

our yummy late lunch at PF Chang's. Reminded when I saw this...

If anyone out there knows the couple I speak of, Please do tell!

Even in 90-degrees, the Greensboro arboretum is a lovely walk!

The main reason for our Stop this afternoon, besides the necessary

walk, was to take an Up-close look at this relatively new addition

Isn't it amazing?

Fortunately for us, there was a strong Wind blowing today!

The rich tone of these Chimes vibrates right through you

I cannot wait for our Yews in front of the pool fence to look like this!

Time for a stroll through our own Arboretum at home!

Where my Mother's Day azaleas are popping a bit early!

The intense pink against the new Wisteria blooms on the arbor thrills me!

Every time it looks like this I remind him that he was

against my idea of adding Wisteria to the garden

He sometimes admits to being Wrong about not wanting it

So we're both happy!

Speaking of Happy... One of my amazing bosses gave me

a very Generous AmEx gift card on administrative assistant's

day, which I put to good use at Wild Birds Unlimited today. I

added another section of pole to extend the Height of

the bird feeders in front of the Kitchen window

I also added this cute Hummingbird finial!

And this mealworm feeder too! The bluebirds are going to Love it!

To me, this is So much better than flowers on secretary's day!