How does your garden grow......

First off.....I got the job!!!! I will be working as a pet nurse/vet tech at Banfield Pet Hospital. I will be free of Aldi after May 14th. I feel bad since I liked the people I worked with so much, but the job was just not worth it. So now instead of a green polo shirt, I will now be wearing light blue scrubs and a stethoscope. Of course we will still shop at Aldi since the prices are so good, but where I will be working is right next door to a Whole Foods Market which will help Mike and I in our quest to avoid high fructose corn syrup (or anything with fructose or corn syrup in it), avoid preservatives and additives, and overall eat more unprocessed and healthy foods.

On to the new stuff.....

From my new Better Homes cookbook, on Tuesday I made Sour Cream Chocolate Drop cookies:

 They were really, really moist, but I could faintly taste sour cream. I don't know how I feel about them or if I will make them again.

Over the weekend, while I was working, Mike decided to be earth friendly for Earth Day and buy lots and lots of plants. Here is a look at our backyard now:

If you enlarge the picture, you can see I labeled the trees. On the left is the key lime tree, the middle is some sort of lemon, and the right is valencia orange. What are those boxes on the fence? Well let me show you:

The first box on the right hold three bush goliath tomato plants. Now the middle box planted with bibb lettuce and spinach seeds:

And the final box is planted with romaine lettuce and swiss chard:

Another view of the trees:

But thats not all Mike got:

He also bought two blueberries bushes! And of course our lavender and avocado plants are still going strong. And the long box in the middle? Well it's holding my basil, parsley, and cilantro that I seeded a few weeks ago:

When everything starts growing and blooming and fruiting we will have quite the garden!!

Mike wanted me to show off the fish he pan fried for dinner on Wednesday night (as well as my homemade mashed potatoes made with my homemade chicken stock):

I think this was the mackerel, but you would have to ask him.

And then yesterday I went on a cookie spree. Again, from my new cookbook, I made snickerdoodles:

And I modified the chocolate chip cookie recipe with a mixture of milk chocolate and white chocolate chips. The mixer in action:

Yummy:

Tonight is rib night! I am going to try a recipe from one of my Food Network magazines. I will let you know how it goes!

Until then, please enjoy this photo of some baby alligators at a put-put golf place in Orlando that I visited when my Aunt, Uncle, and their girls were here: