San Francisco Hotel Room For Just $1

This is no April Fool's gag. It's the real deal. Beginning tomorrow, a San Francisco hotel (two of them actually) will offer one guest room for $1 per night for each night in the month of April. The offer is from the Orchard Hotel Group, owners of two "green" boutique hotels on Bush Street - one near Chinatown and the other closer to Union Square.

It's first come, first served at their Web site starting at 10 a.m. PDT and using promotional code FOOL! . With tax, the total price of the one-night package is $1.16. Of course, you only get one room per reservation for one night at that rate with additional nights beginning at $159. Still not bad for San Fran. The LEED-certified hotel uses recycled fabrics, organic bath and cleaning products, recycled toilet paper, in-room recycling etc. So if you're headed to the San Francisco soon, don't be foolish - go for it.

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San Francisco Hotel Room For Just $1

This is no April Fool's gag. It's the real deal. Beginning tomorrow, a San Francisco hotel (two of them actually) will offer one guest room for $1 per night for each night in the month of April. The offer is from the Orchard Hotel Group, owners of two "green" boutique hotels on Bush Street - one near Chinatown and the other closer to Union Square.

It's first come, first served at their Web site starting at 10 a.m. PDT and using promotional code FOOL! . With tax, the total price of the one-night package is $1.16. Of course, you only get one room per reservation for one night at that rate with additional nights beginning at $159. Still not bad for San Fran. The LEED-certified hotel uses recycled fabrics, organic bath and cleaning products, recycled toilet paper, in-room recycling etc. So if you're headed to the San Francisco soon, don't be foolish - go for it.

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Getting kids to eat their veggies may require devious behavior

Today in the news, I read a story about how kids who eat too many hamburgers on a daily basis are at a greater risk for asthma than children who have better diets. The link is here. I don't think this is much of a shock to many of us, but it just goes to show that the old adage, "Eat your veggies," may not be stylish or popular, but it is still valid.

Why am I showing you a photo of zucchini, rather than a hamburger? I want to suggest that you really can get your kids to eat their veggies, especially zucchini, but you may have to be a little devious about it.

Before you get all shocked, think about the time you actually went over the speed limit to get somewhere on time. Is it any worse to fool your kids about some of the ingredients in their food? Honestly, the food companies do it all the same and you pay good money for the fillers they put in your food -- just start reading the labels, and you will see!

How can you do magic and get kids to eat veggies? Start with something they usually like, such as spaghetti. Buy a jar of spaghetti sauce (choose one with ingredients you can pronounce) or make your own. Start small -- take a small zucchini or yellow squash or a half cup or so of fresh spinach and secretly put it into a blender with a cup of spaghetti sauce. Blend it until the squash is totally pureed.

Pour that into your pan, heat it up as usual, and you will have a healthier version of spaghetti sauce that your kids won't complain about. You can add a little more of the good ingredients each time you cook it and you will be amazed at how much your kids will like eating their vegetables.

I believe your kids won't even be able to tell. If they ask if there are veggies in their spaghetti, coyly reply, "Honey, you know tomatoes are vegetables!" Then get busy doing something else. Never lie to your children.

Use this method for serving up veggies in spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, lasagna and then move to soups and stews. What makes this work is the blender. Start slowly with small amounts and make sure the mixture is smooth and none of the "secret" ingredients can be seen. If they get a detectable piece of a vegetable in their their little mouths, you may be done for. If your blender doesn't get the squash or spinach smooth enough, cook the vegetable in a little sauce and then blend it after it is soft.

The next step is to add a little of the blended vegetables to a soup base. It will make a vegetable or meat-based soup even richer. Your family would never suspect you of doing something so devious!

Now if you have a VitaMix or Blentec blender, I can't believe you haven't already thought of this method! I have an Oster all metal drive, heavy duty blender that works really well and is affordable.

OK, this is important. One day your child will ask you for your wonderful recipe. When you give it to them, they may be a little surprised at first, but as soon as they get over the shock they will give you a hug and say, "Thanks for taking such good care of me!"

My favorite summer dish

It begins with the perfect onion. This onion is the first one we have been able to grow since we began our garden so it looks more than perfect to us. It was about three inches in diameter and smelled just like summer. If we had let it grow, it might have been twice the size it was, but we also wouldn't have had the green tops to cook -- and they are quite tasty.

We chopped the onion, and the tops, coarsely.

I then put the onions in a pan, preheated, with two tablespoons of oil on medium-high heat.

While the onions caramelized, I cut my squash -- also from my garden. I like to mix zucchini and crookneck squash.

I then put in my squash on medium-high and stir often so it doesn't stick.

I don't usually add water to my vegetables and I like most of them to get a little brown around the edges. The onions are already browned a bit and the squash will get brown, too, but I have to stir it often.

I turn it down to medium, add salt and pepper and cover with a lid for five minutes or so. I like the squash to be a little tender but still firm. The cooking time is about 20 minutes.

We eat this dish often in the summer and we really love it. I think we will be eating it pretty often this summer because we have so many blooms on our squash plants.

Philly and flowers

Last week we were in Philadelphia for a medical trip. We stayed in a nice old neighborhood close to the clinic with rock walls and plenty of flowers. Flowers everywhere, actually. It wasn't as warm there as here, and it was kind of like going back in time -- back to the pollen, but we went on a few nice walks and the flowers were beautiful. One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to try and identify flowers and shrubs I haven't seen before. It's always an adventure to me.


I loved the peonies in the photo, above next to an antique rock wall. I didn't get a photo of the roses next to them but I thought I did. I think the peonies are Gay Parees. I love the two colors. They were really striking.

Then I saw the flowers above and I was a bit confused because even though the shrub and the leaves looked like a Mountain Laurel, the flowers looked different to me. But, it is indeed a Mountain Laurel.

Maybe I am just confused, but I thought the angular flowers weren't like the ones I am used to seeing on hikes in North Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. It is the  Mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia, and I think one of the prettiest I have ever seen.

I think I was really stumped by the tree that was sort of like a Magnolia, but not a Magnolia grandiflora, the Southern Magnolia we know and love. It looks like a smaller magnolia tree with leaves that are almost translucent, with no brown underneath. This looked odd to me. If you look at the bottom right hand corner of the plant, you will notice a couple of blooms -- not as regal as our magnolias. I really don't know what variety this is, but it looks very much like a Sweetbay Magnolia or Magnolia virginiana.

The last plant that I was a little confused with was this hydrangea. I am pretty sure it is a hydrangea but it had hundreds of small, ball-shaped plumes of flowers all over it. Some had been blown down by the wind and rain and covered the sidewalk. When I picked up a flower, it was completely round and firm with small flowers covering it. Very pretty but I haven't been able to identify the variety. It was a bit tall for a hydrangea and very showy.

Garden update

We went out of town for a few days and our garden just exploded! We couldn't wait to get back to it to see what it looked like. We all approve. It looks wonderful and I am so happy with the progress.

Our first surprise was how large the onions are growing. We are so happy about the size we are estimating they will be. They may not reach that size, but we are hopeful.

The winter squash is really going crazy. I thought it was good last year but these plants look really great. We have so many blooms and small acorn, spaghetti, delicata and butternut squash. 

The cabbage is heading, the potatoes are really tall and the okra looks really great!

I really love that the garlic is heading and has nice pink flowers at the top. Behind them, you can see the cucumber blooms with more small cucumbers than we could count.

The green beans are climbing up the poles and they are blooming.

And all the tomatoes are really growing and looking wonderful. The most recent rain will really help them to grow larger.

Then we picked a few things here and there. Leeks (at the top), zucchini and crookneck squash, small peppers, green tomatoes (in the basket), and radishes at the right of the basket.

And we tried digging up some red potatoes. We could have given them a little more time but they were just fine -- and tasty. We cooked it as soon as we got it home and we are now waiting for more. It was all delicious!

Extended Stay Hotels

Wingate Inn - Tampa North is the perfect destination for Tampa tour groups. We're conveniently located just off of Interstate 75 in the heart of new North Tampa, surrounded by restaurants and lots of things to do. Affordably priced, yet offering the ultimate in amenities, comfort and value, Wingate Inn will make your tour even more memorable.

Wingate Inn offers rooms and suites for all needs. Our Deluxe Queen Double is ideal for tour groups. The oversized room is 17% larger than others standard hotel rooms: 2 Queen-sized beds, refrigerator, microwave, recliner chair, and above-mentioned amenities. Sleeps 4.

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