Not pretty, but good.

That's kind of a theme in my life - not pretty, but good.
Case in point, my cooking. I'm a pretty good cook, but my presentation will never win any awards. I wouldn't place first in a fall fair competition, but what I make is usually pretty tasty.

Today, for instance, I decided to make a pie with the ridiculous amount of strawberries and rhubarb I still have (tired of hearing about that yet?). I made my usual strawberry / rhubarb custard pie. If I had made my own pastry, it likely would have been a little bit pieced together, repairs made with a smear of a wet fingertip. It wouldn't have mattered because the pie filling would have hidden any ripped or repaired sections. Not pretty, but good. Today it was frozen pie crust time. I always have a little extra filling which I put in these little baking dishes. The kids call them "mini pies". Thank goodness I set everything on a cookie sheet (which, by the way is not shiny and silver, but permanently darkened and stained). The filling oozed out over one side (because my oven is not level because our floor in our very old home is not level - not pretty, but good).

The pie tin I used (well, actually just put the aluminum foil pie plate inside of it) is very old - came from my mom, I think. Not pretty, but good. (the pie plate, I mean)

The little 'mini pie' is in something that is pretty. This little baking dish is from a set, all very matchy, various sizes of baking dishes. The set was a gift (I never would have bought that for myself) from my mother-in-law when she was somewhat addicted to the Home Shopping Channel. Thoughtful, though, and I have used them.

Tonight for supper, I made use of some of the bulk purchased peppers and zucchini. At my store, they offer a product called, "Naturally Imperfect" from No Name. It's great - you save money by buying produce that has slight blemishes or are not picture perfect in shape or size. Not pretty, but good. I bought the zucchini that way. I turned a couple of them into zucchini boats and I made stuffed peppers as well. No recipe - just a throw-together ground beef mixture much like meatloaf inside of the peppers and zucchini.

See my crumpled up tin foil to keep the pepper upright? Not pretty, but good.

One of my chickens' names is Lacy. She was named that because she was so pretty with a lot of white feathers mixed in with her brown feathers making her appear "lacy" around her neck. Well, she ended up being quite the favourite of our twice-as-big rooster and many of her feathers were (permanently??) broken off and worn away. She is truly the rattiest looking chicken I've ever seen, but she faithfully lays an egg every day. Not pretty, but good.

And to wrap up the theme (tired of it yet?), here is a picture of Scooter-the-cat-with-no-tail who once had truly the most magnificent, glorious tail ever seen on a cat, lounging on son's used car which also has a few little less than perfect features but is a hell of a fun first car for a young adult male.

 I quite like my less than perfect life - it's good.