The gardenias in the front garden with my roses have just started to bloom...three weeks later than usual. I think the heavy freezes this winter and spring set them back a few. But, late though they may be, they smell heavenly. Speaking of heavenly smells, I know I mentioned my jasmine the last time, but I just can't get over its fragrance each time I enter or exit the garage. Divine.
My front porch garden is doing very well. I have a few ripe, and a lot of green, cherry tomatoes on my tomato plant. Can't wait for them to ripen. I am going to take off the first two this weekend and see how they taste. My sweet mint, chives, basil, rosemary and lavendar are all flourishing, and I am going to have to start using the herbs in all of those new recipes I'll be trying (please see my last Literary Corner post for this reference). I am so excited the plants are doing so well. I have been watering them like crazy as it is already reaching the 90s during the day, and I hope they survive (I do not have a green thumb, and it is even darker black due to full-time employment syndrome). As I am making an effort to get back into the blogging, I hope that I can come up with some new recipes to share.
As we walk through the snack isles of the grocery store on Saturdays (Danny says "We are totally snack people"), the lure of the trail mix bags always draws them in. Both Danny and Megan are drawn to the nut/M&M/raisin mix like ants to a mound of sugar, even though Megan could leave the raisins. Every time, I tell them that we already have all of the makings for the trail mix that they would like, and Danny argues with me that he wants the bag of trail mix from the store. So, after the last trip, we came home, and I made him trail mix with Planters peanuts, plain M&Ms, and Craisins - I personally like Craisins better than raisins and they provide important cranberry antioxidants. It sounds like a simple thing to do, but I am now Danny's hero(ine). While I was making it, George told him that this mix would give him big muscles like Daddy, and the name was born. I wrote "Danny's Muscle Mix" on the bag, Danny's smile was all I need to make my day. The fact that I can control what goes in it and I save a lot of $ helped a little, too. 
