Crape or Crepe?

"In Seattle you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running"
                                                                           ~Jeff Bezos

Another absolutely beautiful, cool day here in the central valley was enjoyed by all yesterday!  What a tease Mother Nature can be!  Too bad we are supposed to shoot back up to the 90's again.  But, then, that is what we expect here through September.  My Monday was not very productive.  My house cleaner, Lorraine, showed up as usual, but then had to leave 5 minutes later for an appointment with the dentist to have a tooth checked.  She came back to clean but it messed up my schedule as I normally plan for every other Monday.  But I did get to catch up on blogs I like to read and email that I didn't get to over the weekend - so all was not lost.  And, most importantly, my house is clean!

My picture today is of one of the best plants/trees for producing color in hot weather.  It's a crape myrtle that we have in our front yard.  When I bought it I really was looking for the hot pink variety but have been pleased with this lighter pink version. 

Crape Myrtles are woody in nature and range in height from over 100 feet to as little as 1 foot.  Colors vary from deep purple to red to white, with almost every shade in between.  Flowering periods last from 60 to 120 days.  Many types have interesting bark that exfoliates in thin flakes exposing lovely cinnamon or gray inner bark.  The common name is crape myrtle not crepe myrtle.  It is called the because the flowers have crinkly petals that resemble the material called crepe but many references tell us that you're supposed to spell it crape when it's in front of the word myrtle.  Confused? I think somebody is full of crape when they came up with this name!

Yesterday I forgot to share my latest Project Linus afghan that I was able to finish on our way down south.  When it was completed, I looked at it and realized that it is West High's colors (the high school I graduated from). 

 

Today I thought I would share a new recipe I tried last week and really enjoyed.  It's actually low in calorie and tastes good too.

EASY CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic salt

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning

1 teaspoon season salt

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

2 medium sweet bell peppers, chopped

1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained

1/2 red onion, chopped

                       Here's what I used

DIRECTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)

2.  In a medium bowl, mix the olive oil, garlic salt, parsley, pepper, Old Bay Seasoning, and season salt. Place the chicken breasts in a lightly greased medium baking dish and rub with 1/2 of the seasoning mixture.

3.  Toss the sweet bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onion with the remaining olive oil seasoning mixture.  Arrange over the chicken.

Bell peppers, tomatoes and red onion mixed with olive oil seasoning mixture

                                     Ready for the oven

4.  Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, until the vegetables are tender, the chicken is no longer pink, and its juices run clear.

Easy Chicken served with broccoli

PERSONAL NOTES

1.  I chopped the bell peppers rather chunky

2.  I found that I could spread the seasoning mixture rather easily on the chicken using the back of a spoon.

3.  This reheats extremely well

I hope you enjoy this as much as my husband and I did.  I have been able to test the reheatability (is that a word?) of a lot of my recipes lately because I fix the meal in the evening for my husband and I usually have mine for lunch the next day.  I have been trying to drop a few unwanted pounds (thanks to the good old HRT's) so I have gone back to eating my main meal at lunch and having only veggies and fruits for dinner.  Works pretty well for me and my stomach really appreciates having a lighter meal at the end of the day.

GIVEAWAYS

Craftopotmas is giving away a beautiful quilt that she created for her blogs 100th follower goal being reached.  There are three ways to enter and remains open until September 12.

I had so much fun with the first giveaway, that I will be hosting another giveaway as soon as I reach 100 followers.  So gather your friends and send them my way to become a follower.

I managed to find another blog having an Accuquilt GO! Cutter giveaway.  Go visit Karen's blog at Sew Many Ways to enter but hurry, it ends September 1st.

Ryan Walsh over at I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts is also giving away a GO! Cutter.  Visit his blog for a chance to win - this one ends September 5th.

Stash Manicure is having a Halloween Themed Giveaway.  Check out the cute things she is giving away.  This ends September 5th

FINAL THOUGHTS

Another day has come and gone.  I hope your week is progressing nicely.  Tomorrow I will share my first hand sewn hexagon flower for my Flower Garden quilt.  Ta-ta for Tuesday!