Cafe Bosna in Nashville, TN

On the 7th we had a meeting in Nashville so we decided that it would be a good time to celebrate Valentine's Day early.  For our meal, we decided to try Cafe Bosna, a Bosnian restaurant on the east side of town.

When we walked through the door we were greeted by Sevala, the owner and chef.  We visited a bit, with Himself telling her how he had worked in Bosnia for a year.

The restaurant serves a variety of European dishes and each country of origin is noted.  We opted for straight Bosnian.

Well... almost straight Bosnian.  When Sevala told me she had homemade asparagus soup I had to have some.  The best I've ever had!  Perfectly seasoned.

The meals came with a side salad.

Chicken Paprikash

Chicken breast, fresh red and green peppers, onions, garlic, celery, carrots and thick potatoes in light red sauce. Served with a small garden salad. (Bosnian)

Sarma (Stuffed Cabbage)

Cabbage leaves stuffed with fresh ground beef, vegetables, and rice. Topped with brown sauce and served with a small garden salad. (Bosnian)

For dessert we shared a slice of baklava.

It was a wonderful meal and we will definitely be returning.

Cafe Bosna

5751 Old Hickory Blvd.

Nashville, TN

https://cafebosna.com/

Sloth Running Team...

... "We get there when we get there".

At the end of the year, one of the 'slower' runners in Team Red, White, and Blue (the veteran's group we are part of) put this up on the Facebook page.

Team RBW  has many different athletic opportunities.  There are runners - everything from 5K to ultra marathoners.  There are back packers and ruckers.  There are those who canoe.  There are gym rats and yoga folk.  There are swimmers.

But there wasn't a group for people who wanted to walk for fitness.  I would love to have a group to walk with.  I am so tired of watching people's backsides disappear over the hill.

Why NOT have a walking group?

I said as much on the FB page and my notification tab starting popping.  Seems I voiced what others were thinking too.

So after a bit of discussion and coordinating the Sloth Running Team was born!

On Thursday nights there are a group of runners who do two to six miles downtown.  We all meet at the same place... 

...then the runners go bounding off and the walkers head out on their own route.

When we are done, we meet back at the coffee shop we started at for visiting with a hot cuppa something.  (OK, I confess...that big hot delicious cinnamon roll chased me all the way back to our table.  I'll fight it off next week!  Promise!)

Once it gets warmer, I'll be wearing my team shirt.  But not on the mid-30s nights it has been lately!

On the road again...

Just can't wait to get on the road again.

The life I love is SLOTH RUNNING with my friends

And I can't wait to get on the road again!

Food In Jars Challenge: Marmalade

As I briefly stated last month, I'm (actually WE as Himself is part of this too) doing a year long preserving challenge  hosted by Marisa McClellan on her Facebook page.  She has written many canning cookbooks including "Food In Jars" and "Preserving By The Pint".  Excellent recipes and she specializes in small batch recipes.

I have never made marmalade but I've sure eaten enough of it.

So I jumped right in.

The cool thing about this Facebook challenge is all the help you get... from Marisa and from more experienced members of the list.

We made four batches of marmalade.  Marisa's small batch recipe takes only 2 1/2 to 3 oranges and yields 4 half pint jars.  I'm telling you... it does not get easier than that!

At the start of this, Himself told me he did NOT like marmalade.  At the end, he is a marmalade fan!

Cara Cara Orange and Vanilla Marmalade and Cara Cara Orange Marmalade.

Cara Cara oranges made a bright flavor with just enough sweetness.  Adding the vanilla gave it a rich almost smoky flavor.

Blood Orange Marmalade.

More bitter but not 'puckery'.  Closer to a traditional British marmalade.

Meyer Lemon - Lavender Marmalade.

This method minced the rinds.  I changed it up a bit by adding lavender directly into the marmalade.

You can find the recipes at:

http://foodinjars.com/2017/01/small-batch-marmalade/

http://foodinjars.com/2016/03/meyer-lemon-lavender-jam/

Just wait until you see what we're doing in February!

Homemade Chips & Dip for the Super Bowl

What's a Super Bowl without chips and dip? 

Since in February we are cooking Mexican it was the perfect opportunity to make a couple of salsas and some chips.

Himself made a traditional salsa.  It's supposed to be the smoky salsa from Chevy's restaurant.  It was good and the plus was we could divide it at the end to add the heat level we each wanted.

http://www.fortheloveofcooking.net/2017/01/smoky-salsa-chevys-salsa.html 

I selected a non-traditional salsa.  It was very light and fresh.

Here's the recipe.

Both recipes were a hit.

However, we can't say that about the chips.  The recipe was basically buy corn tortillas, cut into triangles, fry in hot oil.

Huh.  They came out like sopapillas.

They puffed up during the fry.

They stayed puffed up too.  And they were soft to the point you could not scoop with them.

FAIL!

Thankfully I also bought a bag of chips!

First Place Surprise!

The end of January I saw the announcement for this photography contest... with the deadline being the very next day!

So I pulled "Waiting On The Tin Man" off the wall since I didn't have time to mess with printing and framing anything else.

Since it was a juried show, entering didn't mean it would be accepted.  The judges decide if it meets the criteria for acceptance and if it does, THEN it is hung in the show.

Himself and I went to the opening reception.  It was a packed house!  After I finally found the Still Life group I was happy to see it was indeed hanging!  I made the show!  Happy with that we headed on home.

Next morning I was looking over the Facebook page to see who entered and who won.

OH. My. Goodness!!!!!  First Place?  I won 1st place?

I let out a squeal that brought Himself running in.

Why didn't anyone say anything??  Why wasn't there a ribbon hanging??

The next day we were back to see.  There's still no ribbon hanging (but a lot of winners had no ribbons and one photo had its ribbon and someone else's...).

As you can imagine... I'm floating!

Shelter From The Storm

There's a project I've had on my to-do list that has been too long in the making.  That is to have a storm shelter under the stairway.

Since living here in Tennessee, we've had about 10 tornadoes hit in our county.  On 22 January 1999, an F3 hit the downtown area and did a lot of damage.  In 2003, I spent the night in my storm shelter as straight line winds and a small tornado caused damages.

Both of those above mentioned storms happened in the night.  I've spent many nights watching tornado 'signatures' on the weather radar pop on and off.  Nerve wracking.

So I finally decided to get my shelter fixed up.  I gave myself the deadline of today to have it done.  Why today?  It's National Disaster Day.

Here's what I started with after removing a lot of junk that was stuffed in there.  Kind of depressing...

After a lot of cleaning and painting it looks pretty good.

A carpet and bench make it much more comfortable to wait it out.

Under the bench is the fire safe (no jewels...just papers), one crate with 4 gallons of water, and the second with containers holding munchies, flashlights & batteries, candles & lighters, and cat food.

Yep, cat food.  Miss Persia has her crate with a water bowl and soft bed.  Her crate will soon be sitting in a clean cat pan with high quality scoopable litter.

The tub to the left is for iced/snowed-in storage.  Some blankets and extras you don't want to run out of.  On top of the tub is a weather alert radio that has a battery back-up.

We'll probably use the shelter 3 or 4 times a year.

But I wanted to use this closet for another sort of storm... a storm that is daily.

Ever since seeing the movie "War Room" I have really, really wanted to have my own prayer closet.

So the right side of the closet is now my prayer room.

I'm not done setting it up, but it is ready to go and today will be my first day to use it.

For The First Time...

Can you imagine never seeing the green of a forest, the red of a rose, the purple of a lilac?  If you are color blind that would be normal for you.  But there is now glasses that corrects (somehow) the issue and people can now see what the beautiful colors of the world look like.

So awesome.