DelMarVaLous

September already!


Hard to believe!  It hit me all at once when I saw that the dockmaster put down his purple martin houses the whole way.  The point was driven home when Jim actually donned a sweatshirt!  The air conditioning is off (blessedly).  I enjoyed summer, don't get me wrong!  But, I do enjoy the seasons for sure. 



August 27, 2016 

What a great weekend hanging out with my two beautiful daughters and some lovely ladies at Hope's Bridal Shower











August 25, 2016

Can you say summer! Check out this Avocado, Mint, Tahini Dip Recipe I just came across - making it today!











August 23, 2016

If you haven't tried grilled Okra - it is a must do!  Just toss them in a little olive oil and sprinkle with some Magic Dust, Old Bay, or other house seasoning and grill them up!  I cooked them with little potatoes that I parboiled then salted, peppered, and added a tablespoon of Smart Balance buttery spread.  Sometimes I add garlic or a little lemon juice.


August 22, 2016  Already looking forward to visiting Georgetown Farmer's Market and getting the fluffy 9 grain bread from Tout de Suite Patisserie - a new favorite!  We are die-hard Old World Bread fans, getting our carb fix from the shop at the end of New Road in Lewes or at the Historic Lewes Farmers Market.  From them the Whole Wheat Sour Dough is made without yeast and almost the exact opposite of the Nine Grain from Tout de Suite, both are delicious!



August 22, 2016
Wow!  We got a really nice rain last night which is great for the garden, but I had to go down to the boat and pump the boat out.  Well, not by hand, thankfully!  I just had to flip the switch on the bilge pump, but there was so much water I knew it would take a while.  So, I brought my new Penn Rod and Reel with me!

I caught two more nice croakers and some small sea bass (had to through these back).  It was so fun to be able to do this and watch the Pirates of Lewes in their big battle on the "high seas."  Not used to so much "down time."

The only thing I can't decide is whether or not to have little potatoes or sunshine rice with the fish and okra! Decisions, decisions...

August, 20, 2016
What a nice Saturday - got up early and went to the Historic Lewes Farmers Market and got some good deals!  Went onto Highway 1 to run errands after that and made it down to the Fresh Market and a few thrift stores.  We broke our cardinal rule and stayed out after 10 am during the summer and paid the price: Traffic!

Put some bait in the crab pot - can't wait to see (and eat) the results!  I can't believe I forgot my phone - more pictures to come.

We can't really complain, I guess.  Made Mexican Rice for dinner and enjoyed sitting on our deck for a change - it seems like it has been forever.  The rain really cooled things off a bit.

August 18, 2016

Rain and Croakers all in the same week!  I am so happy we got a couple of nights of really good rain for our garden.  Our tomatoes overextended themselves right onto the eggplant, unfortunately!  No real damage, just had to readjust the cages to give more support up top.

I was looking "forward" all day to the prospect of yard work this evening, but Jim came home and announced we were going fishing instead!  Not only that, but fishing off the back of our boat at the end of our street.  That could only mean one thing - CROAKERS!

Nothing is easier or more relaxing than walking to the end of your street, with a well appointed cooler, to fish! I haven't lost my touch and reeled in a nice sized one using my most versatile bait, squid fishbites.  I catch more kinds of fish on these than anything else.  I use a big piece if I want to catch a big fish and a smaller piece for smaller fish.  Works everytime!



August 15, 2016
LifeVantage - So excited to be working with this exciting company! Just started taking Protandim NRF2 Synergizer and True Science Skincare. Drop me a line if I can share more information or samples.  A great opportunity to earn some $$ too, if you are interested in that! www.pros.lifevantage.com  or MarySevinsky@icloud.com


August 12, 2016
I am so tickled - such a little thing, but I have been looking everywhere for Scott tubeless toilet paper and finally had it delivered to my door from Amazon.com.  So easy!


August, 11, 2016
Back from vacation with the family in the Smokey Mountains. Wow - it is no secret why they are called that!

Looking forward to getting back into the swing of my routine and posting more updates! 

July 23, 2016

Today, I feel like I got some great bargains at the Historic Lewes Farmers Market.  It is hard to beat to fresh melons for $4 and gold zucchini for $.50 a piece, not to mention $4 large free range chicken eggs from the duck lady! 


The "duck lady" is actually the owner of Twin Post Farm and just the nicest lady you could ever meet.  I bring my egg cartons to her to reuse, well I forgot today.  But it's ok, because when you tell her, she just says, "That's ok, we still love you." 

In the off season, you can find her in all kinds of weather at the railroad track on Savannah Road in Lewes on Saturday Mornings. You will feel especially bad if you forget your egg cartons on those bad weather days, but that is ok, because they'll still love you!

July 21, 2016


Ok, I am not sure if I didn't put out enough fox urine or I should have sprinkled some more, sooner, after it rained. 

But, I can tell you this is war!  You may remember the groundhog at all of our bush beans down to the ground! Our groundhog is obviously more hoggie than others. 

We went out to check on the garden and found that he had eaten two of the sweet peppers.  We put cone shaped tomato cages over the remaining ones and I devised a simple scarecrow with disposable aluminum pans hanging from fishing line off an old trellis.  

I sprayed more deer blood and sprinkled more fox urine, unsure if it really helps or not!  I'll keep you posted. 

July 19, 2016 


I am never buying mayonnaise again! 

We ran out in the middle of making lemon aioli for our mushroom burgers. 

Rather than run out to buy some I found a recipe for blender Mayonnaise  on Epicurious and whipped up a batch! Better than store bought and cheaper too!

July 17, 2016

Out for another beautiful day of fishing on the Delaware bay! As always, I was hopeful there would be fish for dinner, but had a back up plan just in case!

We headed out to drift by the outer wall and caught a couple of nice Kingfish!  I put them on a stringer and we continued to drift for a while.  The bites slowed to non existent, so we headed for the inner wall. 

I put the stringer of fish back out and tied them kind of loosely to the cleat since there was such a length of it (it is really for the pier so it is 20 feet long!). 

There was a tense moment when ferry's were both coming and going on either side of us.  Other than few if any more bites, it was a great day - perfect weather really. 

Then I heard Jim shout and I lurched for the stringer that was rapidly pulling away from the boat  I missed it and broke one of the guides on my rod (not the new Penn, thankfully!).  I felt sick. 

"I'm going to cry." I said, "I'm going to throw up!"  I was so upset I couldn't breath for a moment. Finally we just started fishing again - in silence.  I got a bite!  I started reeling it in. 


I actually saw the second Kingfish we caught earlier slip off the stringer I had just caught with my line and realized the first fish was really just a head now.

Probably not a good idea to have a stringer of fish hanging in the water outside the boat in shark -infested waters. 

Well, the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches were pretty good, actually! 



July 16, 2016

Great Historic Lewes Farmers Market today!  So many good produce is available this time of year. Our first stop is almost always Tommy's stand - he owns Kalmar Farms in Harrington, DE. two large cantaloupes for $5!  We ate one on cottage cheese when we got home.  We don't know everyone by name, but we have our favorites, for sure. 

Another must do is Old World Bakery, where we have a hard time deciding between garlic and olive, usually.  Today we just got the organic sourdough whole wheat. It is "different" and I don't mean that in a bad way.  it is literally like nothing you ever had.

While one of the stand hands, Maggie, and I were discussing the merits of this sour, hearty bread made without yeast, a man tried in vein to interrupt.  I found out later from Jim that he had obtained a croissant from another stand hand and wanted to pay, just wanted to pay, and kept waving his money around.  "He must be from the city," Jim noted.  Yes, must be.

It's nice to talk to the farmers and learn about how they raise their crops and about some of the unusual items they sell or how to prepare them.  Davidson's Exotic Mushrooms actually makes recipes from there mushrooms and have samples and recipe cards to share with the patrons.  This is such a nice touch and the recipes are always delicious!

While buying cherry tomatoes from one stand, I asked about romaine or other lettuce for our BLT sandwiches we had planned for lunch (not with the cherry tomatoes!) and were kindly referred to the hydroponics farmer.  We were, indeed able to obtain some beautiful butter crunch lettuce for our BLTs.  In this heat!

Right now, our plan is for roasted vegetables, with a little chicken for dinner.  All done on the grill for easy cleanup and yummy  taste!

July 14, 2016

On a recent trip to visit my dad, we were lamenting about out groundhog issue. What groundhog issue?  Well. 

We planted several rows of beautiful bush beans that were doing beautifully when we went on a long weekend crabbing in Crisfield, Md. 

Upon returning home we unpacked and went to the garden to see if we needed to water - we didn't think so because there had been at least one thunderstorm in the time we were gone. 

Everything looked fine - except the beans, they were mostly eaten down to the ground!  I say mostly, because it looked like there were enough leaves on several to revive it. 

I ran into the house and retrieved a nasty (all natural) spray of deer blood and sprayed it all over every  plant.  Then I sprayed all the plants with cayenne pepper spray!  

This lethal sounding combination deterred the groundhog for a few days, but not long.  He eventually ate all our bean plants.  We pulled the roots out and replaced them with peppers and eggplants.

Fox Urine.  This is what my father advised would once and for all keep the groundhog out of the garden.  I ordered it on Amazon.com while we drove home and it arrived today!  It's out there, doing it's job (I hope).  

July 13, 2016

For the second year in a row Jim has had to spend a 1/2 hour or so extricating snakes from the blueberry netting we keep in the shed!  I felt terrible - he worked all day, mowed the lawn and then had to free this poor little guy (5 feet and a bit skinny) from the netting.  

No sooner did he cut away a good part of the net than the snake slither its way back in.  I was a patient witness and felt like there was nothing I could do, when finally we decided Jim would have to hold the snake's head and tail and I would cut away the netting along it's length. 

It worked!  I am sure he was even happier to be free than we were to see him go! 

July 10, 2016


Syracuse Blues Fest! 

Toronzo Cannon was such a fun performer!  He walked out into the crowd to play for them and you could just tell he really enjoyed the interaction.  At one point my uncle leaned over and said, "He is a real showman!"  I think he is right - I love it when performers do this!  Later I got the CD autographed by all the band members.






There were a few really good acts and we avoided getting rained on, mostly!  We lunched at Kitty Hoynes during the worst of it.  My Uncle Jim and I got the fried clams and fries, man were they tender and delicious.  Jim and Aunt Di when rogue - Jim had a Turkey Monaghan Sandwich and Di was kind enough to share a taste of her Reuben Fritters with everyone.

While we were there a group was having lunch and playing raucous Irish Music right at their table.  What fun. When (not if) you go to Kitty Hoyne's this is a must:  Reuben Fritters!

They have raised the most money for St. Baldrick's Foundation than anyone in the world. The World!  People line up to shave their heads to help raise money for Kids with Cancer.  Awesome folks.

Another must do, buy, eat: Al's Wine and Whisky Lounge. It is a great joint with lots of character.  The bartenders are top notch and the liquor lines the big wall behind the bar.  A library ladder is needed to access the very best liquors!


July 8, 2016

Colors for Cancer


I went into Coastal Salon yesterday to get the works before driving to upstate New York to see my family.                                                                                     Michelle, my stylists had a pile of these sections she had knitted and will piece together to make a blanket for one of her customers who has cancer.                                                                                                                          When I asked about the color (since it isn't pink), she informed me that pink is for Breast cancer.  There are different colors for different cancers.  Huh!  Who knew?                                                                                        I'm not surprised that Michelle took the time to find this out (you can look the colors up here  http://www.choosehope.com/category/by-cancer-color-cancer-type )or that she spends her few available minutes knitting a gift for a customer.  That is just the way she is.                                                                                       Her shop isn't large and she doesn't have a bevy of beauticians working for her, but it is full of caring.  You couldn't even call it customer service, that would be demeaning. Caring.  Yup that's the right word.                                                                                                             If you are looking for a new stylist, stop by!  Even if you aren't, stop by and say "Hello!"  You may not end up with her (I and a few other customers are in her books for the next three years...literally). But,  you will be treated like family by daughter, Joyce, or Jaison.
They are colloquial, friendly, occasionally loud, but they always care.

July 7, 2016

Crabs!


We got some crabs in the pot, but several females and we were on our way out of town. So, instead of going around the corner to icehouse bait and tackle. I released them...

I'll add more bait and put it back in next week .  We'll see what happens then!


July 4, 2016




Thanks to fellow blogger Rich King (http://www.delaware-surf-fishing.com/), who posted a positive fishing report on July 3 - it was just enough to nudge us out the door and onto our boat!  We did lose our flag, unfortunately.

We had our first sighting of the Pirates of Lewes Ship this year..



I finally had the opportunity to use my new pink Penn Rod and Reel Combo Jim bought me.  I used a green head with a yellow curly-tail jig with a minnow on the way out.  The tide was too slack to find any flounder, though.  I am not sure which is worse, putting your hand blindly into a bucket of slimy minnows or looking into a baggy of squirming bloodworms and pulling one out.









We headed up to the Broadkill Slough and passed this mama dolphin and her baby on the way.













I just love it when you can't tell where the sky ends and the water begins - it is truly breathtaking!















In the end we caught two nice Kingfish bouncing good old-fashioned squid off the bottom with top and bottom rigs.  We stayed out a bit too long trying to catch just a couple more and had a hairy drive home!

Jim did a great job of trying to steer us between the waves that were more like 4 to 5 feet than the called for 1 to 2 feet.  Not fun on our 17 foot Whaler Outrage. No pictures of that unfortunately, but it was exciting!

We got back in time for the boat parade and found two boats had run aground in the canal during low tide (pictures not posted out of sympathy). Thankfully we had started turkey BBQ in the crock pot as well as a separate crock of Jim's Red, White and Blue beans.

They didn't look as Red, White, and Blue once we added the barbecue sauce, but they sure did taste good. And, we were hungry!  We'll have our fish for dinner tomorrow with some greens and alabaster potatoes.














July 3, 2016


Stopped at Best Ace Hardware and managed to find some nice sized Okra to round out our raised bed garden.  We couldn't resist popping into Surf Bagels for sandwiches and really enjoyed their new outdoor seating area.  A great value and quick meal at the beach. 

July 1, 2016 
Having a garden and shopping at multiple Farmers Markets sometimes means an overabundance of delicious produce you don't want to waste.  This almost always leads me to search out different ways to use a lot of the same foods. One easy way to preserve produce is pickling.  I pickled cucumbers and beets with the same pickling liquid in just minutes.  They are a great addition to sandwiches and salads (which we also have plenty of)! 
Our Favorite Farmers Market is our hometown Historic Lewes Farmers Market which has relocated to the George H.P. Smith Park.
We also like to visit the Milton DE Farmers Market at the href="http://www.dogfish.com/community/events/other-happenings/899996/farmers-market-friday.htm" target="_blank">Dogfish Brewery in Milton.  We usually have a couple of beers after shopping - a nice bonus!

Coincidentally (or maybe not) the Georgetown Farmers Market is also held at a brewery - 16 Mile, which is fast becoming my favorite of the local Microbrews. In fact, we enjoyed some Seed Free & Joy after bike riding yesterday  at the Cape May Lewes Ferry Bar - On the Rocks.  We rode to Cape Henlopen State Park, where we walked over the great dune to spend a couple of hours relaxing on an uncrowded beach.




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