Not so Random pictures

of something I have finished lately. Number 9 of 12, hanging out on the rosemary bush in DTY's back yard.

 

These are for me, made from the Hacho yarn gifted by Gaylen. The extra cool thing is that as of noonish tomorrow, she will no longer be a "pretend friend living in my computer" as I am taking Amtrak up to see her, JB, and her pack for an overnight! I am very excited to get to meet her in person! We are planning on hitting a yarn store or two for some funny reason, and I believe I get to see an apron in action (as well as kiss all the dogs on the nose for Chan).

Hubband reported in that Friday's CSA was wonderful (salad mix, fennel, escarole, beets, rainbow chard and a bunch of sweet cherries); though perhaps more than he could eat all by himself in a week, so he shared with some friends, but has promised to put cherries in the freezer for me.
On the gardening front, he harvested the two cucumbers we had that were getting big, but says there are plenty more coming on for when I get home. I think he should have a couple of peas ready soon and he had started harvesting chilies before I left (I know those will continue until frost sets in). Apparently hen he was watering the flower bags yesterday (which involves taking them down off the post and putting them in a bucket of water) he discovered a frog that had decided that was a good place to hang out. The big question is "How did it get up there?" He did inform me that by the time he got back with the camera, the frog had left. Sad that, but maybe it will be back for a second chance.

(More) Random pictures

(this time) of our deck and gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alright! Alright already!

Thanks to Ms. DTE I have gotten a certain amount of harassment from several people about not posting the best picture from the weekend; like any of you would have know the difference if she hadn't said anything! Anyways, you get to have it today, but you might have to put up with some rambling from me as well. Well, I guess you can always skip over the words and just look at the pictures if you want. I probably wouldn't know the difference, unless you were silly enough to ask me a question that wouldn't really be needed if you read the material. You probably don't want to know what smart aleck response you would get if you did ask something like that.
So, on either Monday or Tuesday before Memorial Day, DTE called to see if we would be willing to have her home for the weekend. "Silly question!" is what you are probably thinking, "Of course! Her parents love having her home!" That would be true, we do, but the real question involved the part of needing to drive her back to school on Monday. I was more than willing to do that if it meant having her home for the weekend. Her professor had something on Friday and needed to cancel class, so she actually got to come home Thursday. She did have homework to do part of the weekend, but not so much that it kept us from having fun. (Actually, watching her do her homework was a lot of fun in and of itself.)

Anyway, our weekend involved working on filling the garden box the rest of the way with some extra dirt we had hanging around the edges of the yard

 

(which obviously involved help and supervision),

 

along with some other "good stuff" in bags from the nursery,

 

and making sure it was well mixed and mostly even.

 

(There was some supervision happening at this end of the yard/garden as well.)

 

Of course having DTE home meant that there was cooking involved; this time it just happened to be "Extreme cooking" so there was a quick review of safety procedures,

 

as well as all the proper gear and setting.

 

Sliced onions were involved

 

as well as the whole "Extreme" part.

 

The end result was worth it all!




(So, how many of you figured out which one "the best one"?)

In the spring

a young woman's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of rhubarb (with apologies to Tennyson)and graduation. Last weekend was the big weekend for U of MN graduations around the state (which would mean at least three, maybe four, different cities holding them). Since I had a bunch of rhubarb I needed to harvest and DTE's best friend/roommate was graduating, I was able to send DTE cake via the BFRM's mom. (BFRM will be starting vet school in August; first application and she got in!!! Do you realize how rare that is??!! Not to mention how hard she worked and how proud her family and best friend is of her.) DTE finished her last finial last Friday, moved down the hall, around a corner, and up some stairs (into an adjoining building) over the weekend, and then started May term class bright an early Monday morning. (Yes, she has also been in college for four years; yes she started college with AP and other college credits. No she did not graduate. She is taking five years to get a BA in Anthropology and a BS in Mathematics. It was either five years of 20 hours for several semesters. We said, "Take five years.") She was very happy to have cake to sustain her during the move.
These had started out as two large rhubarb plants, but since they were in the garden spot, we moved and divided them. They are now three smaller plants in the rhubarb line next to the big one that didn't need moving.

This is the raised bed box that Hubband and I built last weekend. (I know, it doesn't look level, but that is because the yard slopes.) I still need to finish filling it with dirt and get some plants into it, but that will happen this weekend.
Spring not only rings thoughts of tasty food and gardening, it brings spring flowers,

 

birds,

 

Red-wing Blackbirds

 

Baltimore Oriole (They love oranges and grape jelly.)

 

Indigo Bunting

 

and maybe a few thoughts of love.
Mr. and Mrs. Ring-Necked Pheasant (aka common pheasant).

I know, I am behind again

Yeah, almost a week ago I promised at least two updates and haven't followed through. I guess you have either given up on me completely (which would mean you're gone and not even reading this to know I am updating), or you are holding out hope that I will return to a semi-regular writing habit (in which case, you're still around and I am feeding your hopes once again).
Well, I am going to go for the garden update for now, as well as the cool cooking tip I read recently. (Surprise! That wasn't one of the things I had promised last week!)
The other day my new Cuisine At Home showed up in the mailbox. In it was a tip for using a small foam paint roller instead of a pastry brush when dealing with filo dough. The tip said that it goes faster, doesn't leave bristles behind, and doesn't tear the dough.

So, since I had already been planning on making Baklava this week, I decided to give it a try. This is a seriously awesome way to deal with getting butter onto the filo with little mess and tearing. Easy clan-up too; just put it into a zip-lock baggie and toss it into the freezer until the next time you need to use it!

If you were hanging around here at Casa Coffee Yarn last year, you may remember our tomato debacle. Well, the garden report for this year is entirely different. There were some tomatoes harvested before the great out-migration, but more were harvested after they all left.

I brought in this bucketful-plus on August 30Th,
and made sure nothing was getting smashed.

 

Of course, all those tomatoes meant Hubband and I got to have fresh tomato and onion casserole, BLTs, broiled cheese and tomato sandwiches,
and tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella salad a time or several for dinner before he left for China!

 

About a week after that, I got another bucketful, and then around the 11Th of September I brought in these! Some of the cages were being pulled over by tomatoes, so I needed to rescue them. This basketful weighed in at fifty pounds and I have more to harvest tomorrow or the next day. We have had more of all the previously mentioned dishes, plus fresh salsa and tomato-cheese pie, and of course the eating of tomatoes like apples! I am going to make more salsa and try to get some canned for the daughter-units, and may wind up making some Green Tomato Mince (non-meat).
My favorite thing about having a garden? Home-grown tomatoes

Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What'd life be without home grown tomatoes
There's only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes

(Just in case you were wanting to see the finished Baklava.)