5 thing Friday - dinner, cacti, Teddy, winery, sweet potatoes

Its been a heckova week, so in no particular order...

Tonight's dinner was to have involved gnocci, but I found half a package of tortellini in the freezer and chose that, instead.  I cooked some lean beef in olive oil, added one of my freezer jars of pasta sauce, the rest of a jar of pesto (maybe a tablespoon?), a little extra water, the rest of the peppers and onions from a previous meal, and the tortellini and cooked another four minutes.  Smells divine.

 A couple of weekends ago I dug up some cacti from Highlands and brought it home to see if I could get them big enough to plant in the yard.  You can see where there was minor deer damage on this one, but its already bigger!  I don't think the squirrels are interested and it seems to love this sunny edge of the deck.

 Teddy was here last weekend!  Once he got over being worried that The Girl would leave, he thoroughly enjoyed the backyard.  Running laps, playing with the tug rope, splashing in his pool, and laying in the sun, exhausted.  Living his best life.

 Hubby and I visited a winery on Sunday that has a great view from their fenced yard of ... nothing.  We sat there and drank rose and ate leftover cucumber salad with chunks of salami.  'Twas nice.  This winery has had a rough go of it, like most other wineries.  We were pretty much the only people who sat outside and enjoyed a bottle - most people came, bought a bottle, and left.  It was like having our own private winery.

 I bought some sweet potatoes, intending to cook them in the crock pot, and mash them with butter and brown sugar.  When I peeled them I got a surprise - they were purple inside.  I cooked them anyway.  What did I have to lose?

They look exactly like refried beans, but I'm not tossing them.  I looked them up and they supposedly have 2.5 times the antioxidants of regular sweet potatoes and take twice as long to cook.  That wasn't an issue in the crockpot, which I had going overnight.  I'm going to add brown sugar and cinnamon and serve them up.  Mostly because I don't want to waste them, but also because its fun to discover new things!*

Gina

*they weren't good - whomp, whomp