Time to Share In the Harvest

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As loyal blog readers may remember, Blair and I (read:Blair) put in quite the effort this spring to establish a square foot garden. Now that I'm fully on the healthy eating bandwagon and have a nodding acquaintance with the big shiny stainless steel thingee in my kitchen that gets hot if you turn the dials, we were all about growing our own food. Money smart, healthy, and very liberal-chic. Sign us up. 

And we've done it! I shared earlier this year our first perfect, beautiful squash. Now I share with you what three months of sporadic watering have gained us:

Yes, that's it. The squash, the carrot, and the rutabaga are what we have to show. 

You might think we'd be depressed, but you'd be wrong. We're thrilled. This is three times the amount of food we've ever managed to grow in the past. Smokin' success. 

Now that we've got the hang of this farming thing, I can't wait to see what Farmer Blair brings in next year. 

p.s. If you need carrots, let us know. I want to share in the bounty of our harvest. 

Tomato Canning 101

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Tomatoes waiting to be cannedSo. I've never canned anything in my life, which makes me a bit of misfit in these parts. Men and women of all ages here tell stories of helping mothers and grandmothers put up mounds of canned peaches, pickled cucumbers, spaghetti sauce, okra, squash, zucchini, green beans, apples, etc. 

As I learn more about food (and the horrible, horrendous things that go into the canned goods on the supermarket shelves), the more interested I become in learning how to grow and can my own food. (The growing part didn't go so well this year. We harvested one perfect, beautiful squash. Everything else died.) So I was super excited when...

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Adventures in Cooking: Stir Fry on the Fly

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I am not an adventurous cook. Although I've come a long way in terms of culinary skill, I am still very much a recipe-following woman. In my mind, if a recipe calls for 1/8 a teaspoon of a spice I don't have, just forget it. I can't make the dish or the whole thing will be ruined. Putting in 3/4 cup onion when the recipe clearly calls for a 1/2 cup? That's just crazy talk! You get the idea. 

But when I looked in my fridge and saw 4 oz of mushrooms, half a green bell pepper, half a red onion, cauliflower, and two celery stalks that were all going to go bad if I didn't use them, even I could come up with "stir-fry." 

So I fired up some EVOO in a large skillet and got busy. I was pretty sure the cauliflower would take theNot too shabby... longest to cook, so I dumped that in there. Then the onions and bell pepper and some garlic. (I was momentarily panicked when I realized I had leftover red and yellow onion. Do I use one? Both? I went with red only.) Then I dumped in some tamari sauce. Then the mushrooms. 

 

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It's Good To Be Home

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Drove the 6 hours back home yesterday from Kiawah Island and was unpacked with the washing machine churning within 10 minutes of walking through the front door. How do people let suitcases sit around for days? It's beyond me. 

Had a fantastic time with best friend. Very reminiscent of our college days when we would go 5 or 6 days in a row and never be out of one another's sight for more than three minutes at a stretch. On the down (but completely expected) side, I wore maybe one-third of the clothes I packed. Big floppy hat never even made it out of the backseat of my car. While unpacking, I briefly considered giving the hat away as I haven't worn it once in over 10 years, but I'm betting the next beach vacation I'll break that baby out, so it's back on its hook in my closet. 

Came home and was welcomed by the cats and by welcomed I mean completely ignored. Blair's response was warmer - he had the house cleaned and a bag of M&M's sitting on top of my desk along with a note saying he couldn't wait to see me. Lovely man.

There was some minor frustration this morning in that our internet connection has gone down and I was having trouble getting on-line even through my AT&T 3G network.

"We'll survive," said Blair. "We'll be like the pioneers."

"Oh boy!" I said, with fake enthusiasm. "Fun!"

"Yeah, I know," said Blair. "It is getting a little 'Donner party' around here." 

I asked him if, during "Meat Week," he managed to eat a vegetable. "Yes," he said. "I had potatoes." 

Yes, everything is back to normal.

Cheers,

Dena