I Miss You Long Time

A long winter (which isn't over yet apparently) and I look forward to ideas for spring.  I should be turning the ground now and adding my worm poop to get the beds ready for March.  What to plant, what to plant?  Any ideas out there?  Herbs and tomatoes in some form are forgone conclusion.  I'm looking for things you have grown that tasted amazing and didn't die in the southern heat.  Talk to me people.  My seed catalog sits patiently for me to start marking it up!

Fall takes Hold

Usually, I am not a fall season girl.  Summer is my time of the year.  Spring is a close second.  Winter is for cocoa, cider, fireplaces and hibernation.  Fall is ragweed, goldenrods, and razor dry air.  This fall has been no exception.  However, what is different this year is that I am newly inspired to get my kids to take advantage of a fleeting few weeks of nice outdoor weather that bridge the unbearable heat to southerners freezing our a**es off.  Perhaps my son joining the Cub Scouts has also fueled this.  He has his first overnight camping trip in a couple weeks, so we broke out the tent and sleeping bags last night, and he and Jon spent the night under the tent under the stars in our front yard.  They came in around 7:30 this morning after the birds woke them and went back to bed upstairs, but that's nature for ya.
This afternoon we went to a fly fishing clinic in a beautiful nature preserve.  Only Jon got the hang of slinging the fly rod, but we all got a few casts in and enjoyed some beautiful weather.

The garden is also slowly growing; it's definitely not the summer time trailblazing growth.  It's a more subtle development.  The roots have taken hold, there is a new set of leaves; the grape tomatoes and eggplant still grow slowly.  The basil hangs on.  My reluctance to cut down the bloomed stems eggs on the remaining bumblebees to continue to pollinate.  The days may be waning but nature pushes forward.

Yummy Fall Food

I'm just here to brag about my best yet clean-out-the-produce-drawer pasta dinner to date!  Let me just say that typically when I use the odds and ends out of the fridge to make dinner, it is met with the groans normally associated with cafeteria mystery meat or left over casserole at home.  So tonight, while one child colored on the family room floor and the other headed out to play in the neighborhood, I was smoothly evasive about what would be for dinner.  So, just crowing here, but the kids cleaned their plate.  Triumph #1.  It was only after they had mostly finished their meal that I revealed all the ingredients in the pasta.  And surprisingly, no shudders!  Triumph #2.  So because this turned out so well, I thought I would share.  Hopefully you have the exact same leftovers in your drawers!

Fall Odds and End Pasta serves 4
8oz fettucine (or half a box)
1/2 fennel bulb sliced thin
1/2 bag spinach
1/2 bag salad mix
1 green apple thinly sliced
2 slices of bacon and 2 chicken tenders minced together
2 scallions white portion sliced into rings
1/2 c chicken or veggie broth
1/4 t dried or 1t fresh thyme

Cook pasta according to directions and drain.
Mix apples, scallions and fennel bulb together in a bowl and set aside.
Saute mixed meat until just cooked through in a med high heated pot.  Remove meat but reserve oil in pan left from cooking bacon.  If necessary, and an additional tablespoon canola oil.  Toss fennel, apple, scallion mixture in and saute until fennel is tender.  Add spinach, salad mix and then broth and cook just until leaf veggies are wilted.  Season to taste with salt, if necessary
Toss pasta into veggies and broth and mix thoroughly.  Serve with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Fall Preview

Since I have been grounded from travel this week due to inadequate after hours child care status, I have had a lot of time to enjoy the waning days of Indian summer and the burgeoning of fall all the while getting a lot of badly needed office work done.  Being grounded rocks.
Today I spent almost 3 hours rooting out big chunks of weeds and spent summer vegetable plants from the main garden.  I saw a black widow spider and discussed how to tell the difference between a venomous and non-venomous snake while on the phone with a New England friend.  Gratified in my work done, I ventured to the fav garden store to supplement the fall garden.  Lettuces already in the works, I'm going to try some rainbow swiss chard, broccoli and cauliflower, and some beets - only 2 each of the last 3 items.  Last years cauliflower grew to the size of a peach and then just quit on us.  Beets - well I am just skeptical.
Anyhoo, just get yer-selves ready for next week's preview pics.  And I am still waiting on recipes, folks.  Let's go for something with the swiss chard or beets.  I think I can figure out the rest.

Woohoo - Fall! And Regret.

Today was not the first day of fall, but it sure felt like it here - only a few days late.  We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the cooler weather.  25 days of September had highs in the 90s.  Yes, today is the 27th - so we had the 4th hottest September in 70 something years.  But the cool weather instantly inspired all things fall for me.  I cooked a big pot of chili heating my kitchen back up the 90 degrees that I escaped just yesterday. I started thinking about squash and apples and Chinese hot pot.   I wore long sleeves and steadfastly refused to push them up when the kitchen got said hot.  We opened the windows.
So, while I was stirring my big pot of black bean chili (with some eggplant sneaked in for veggie bulk), I looked at my can of roasted tomatoes.  And I felt regret for the end of tomato season.  Oh sure, I can get tomatoes at the supermarket year round, but, seriously, it just ain't the same.  And then I realized that there will be no more peaches, no more zucchini, no more blueberries, no more super succulent, sweet and tender corn on the cob.  I am so sad.  Like then end of a summer time fling, I leave summer satisfied, but secretly long for one more kiss from a sun drenched Caprese salad.  Rats.  I guess that is the beauty of eating seasonally.  We enjoy the best of the best, and then they leave us wanting more, waiting in anticipation for the next first fresh taste.
Oh well, on to fall.  Autumn is fledgling here.  Send me your favorite fall recipes, please.

Fall is Coming, I Swear!

I've been feeling the first inkling of fall coming.  When I let the dogs out in the morning, the air is actually not muggy.  The highs are below 90 degrees.  I actually feel like looking at something long sleeved.  Yep, fall is on the way.  The over grown garden is in emergency need of a weed-ectomy.  And once a harvest has happened, I'm not very good at removing the dying plants.  But here is my first inkling of fall:  sweet potatoes!!  This was pulled from 2 plants.  We are baking them tonight as company to shrimp pasta with home grown basil and anchovy a plenty.  I don't think I've ever had a sweet potato fresh from the ground a la Scarlett O'Hara.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Insect Oddities and Coming to the Same Place

An acquaintance-friend called me today, and we were talking about the "healthy happy hour" that she had hosted this week.  It was all about putting clean foods into your body and working toward a whole foods lifestyle - basically taking care of yourself and your family.  It wasn't preachy or judgmental.  It was really nice.  I learned a few things and tasted a couple things that I normally wouldn't have.  For those of you that are not aware, I am not a big sweets person.  Every once in a while, I like a little chocolate or a cookie. But mostly, for me, it will be fruit or yogurt - or even better - a giant salt lick.

We talked some about my garden, how I completely overextended myself, and the strange things I have observed.

1.)  I was sure that the squirrel and birds would eat all the strawberries - that was pretty much true.  Thankfully Jon constructed the mega cage of chicken wire and the last part of the season's berries were spared for us humans.
2.)  Nothing ate our tomatoes.  In previous seasons, we had to guard tomatoes with shiny curling ribbon, more large chicken wire nets, swinging pie pans, cayenne pepper sprays, all to no avail.  Birds and squirrel buffet the tomatoes were.  But not this season.  Perhaps they don't like heirloom yellow tomatoes or grape tomatoes.  By the way - the grape tomatoes are still going strong!  Also absent were the giant green horned worms that are scary to have to pick away and can devastate your tomato plants in a single day.  I am truly thankful that I did not have to deal with them.
3.)  Ants love beans.  They don't love corn, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, carrot fronds, chive tops or sweet potato leaves.  They do, however, love green bean leaves and Chinese long beans.  Most recently I observed 2 giant army ants perched at the top of each long bean.  They grow in sets of 2, and it was as if each ant was guarding a bean.  No seriously, 2 on every set of beans.  I had noticed a few sets that had turned brown and dried up, and they appeared to have some sort of eggs on them.  Perhaps ant eggs?  So why, beans and not tomatoes that are grown in the same bed?  And why long beans and not the green beans which had only the leaves cannibalized and the beans left intact?  CALLING ALL ENTOMOLOGISTS - Please explain!
4.)  Not discussed but disconcerting to me - the cantaloupes and watermelons grow to about 6", then split and rot.  What is wrong?

But circling back to the healthy happy hour, it was interesting to see how people end in the same place coming from completely different directions.  My friend Teena had her happy hour to promote the idea of needing to de-toxify or cleanse our bodies.  She talked about how processed food is full of toxins, food allergies are up, and it is all because of the way our food is prepped and processed for us.  So she was promoting eating whole foods, low glycemic carbs, and gluten free foods.  Her end goal was to be healthier and have more energy.  Well, I cannot give up my carbs - sorry Teena!  But I started our garden for several reasons - to teach the kids about how food gets on our table, to reduce the environmental (pollution) impact of the food we eat by growing it ourselves, to support the local economy by buying seedlings and seeds locally and use local resources to help them grow, and to be able to control what I put in my and my family's bodies.  In the end, the food that we produced encouraged me to cook and eat fresher, and I truly believe that eating more whole veggies made us healthier overall and gave us more energy.  It was just the pasta that dragged us back down.

Wow, this is a long entry for me.  The point is that I think (and hope) that everyone that is reading this has a goal that somewhat includes feeling better and being healthier.  It's pretty cool to me to learn why other people are growing gardens, eating differently.  There is always an interesting personal story that starts the whole thing.  On the other hand, perhaps you enjoy my cheesy puns and gardening whack-a-doodles.

Ciao baby!