salsa post on gardenaut

I was just skimming Gardenaut, and I found a post I wrote on salsa.  I hate that I've gotten so behind on blogging, but I'm struggling to stay on top of things these days.  I'll leave a note when I feel I can write with some predictability, but in the meantime, enjoy a salsa recipe!

potato harvesting

new look

There's a new look around here, and I'm still pondering whether it works for me.

I'll leave it up, and see if it grows on me. Or maybe I'll get crazy with that lasso tool and put something else up. If it makes you dizzy, do share. I don't want to be responsible for the odd headache or seizure just cause you're trying to figure out whether that's a giant purple Christmas ornament or an eggplant flying across the sky. (BTW, it's the latter.)

I hope everyone else has better weather than we're having. It's fifty degrees and my visiting parents are threatening to turn the gas fireplace on. Good thing it's September. It'd be truly ridiculous to do something like that in August...

it's an itchy jungle out there

I've nicknamed the Handyman's giant pumpkin plant Gertrude.

It's not a common name. I like it. And the giant pumpkin is not a common pumpkin.



Or maybe it is. But what I look at in the middle of the handyman's yard seems anything but common. It's giant. It's graceful. And it looks like it will eat me if I fall asleep in the yard on an especially sunny afternoon. On a cloudy one she might just nibble at my elbow, but if it's sunny, this tasty morsel is heading inside for naptime.



When I am brave enough to venture among her vines and look for new pumpkins, I can't help but think that there is a delicate fairy world waiting underneath those serving platter leaves that are poised perfectly parallel above the ground.



It makes me wish I were three years old and small enough to spend the afternoons crawling around under there. And then I remember that pumpkins really are itchy. And that Gertrude might eat me.

a delicious bonus

After I wrote that post on the Front Yard Idea Book, I had one of those rare moments when I remembered something I'd forgotten long ago...

While reading through gardening blogs, I found a review someone had written on a garden plan book.  The blogger gave the book rave reviews, and I made a mental note to go back and check out the book.  I put the blog on my iGoogle waited until I was heading to the public library to find the book.

By then, my iGoogle was full of garden blogs, and there were new posts on each of the blogs.  I clicked on several and tried to search archives and "book" or "review" tags, but I never found the book.  

I won't be making that mistake again.  If you've never checked out Delicious, you should go there right now.  I've got tags for recipes that I stumble across, book reviews for books I want to read, and, yes, even a few ideas for my yard-to-garden conversion.  Now my bookmark tool bar isn't cluttered with things I need to read when I have time to read them.  And, the organizational system is so easy - I type in notes on the bookmark when I make the bookmark. 

So, I just now remembered that book that I may never find.  I should have known better than to make a mental note - my brain space is cluttered with thousands of those mental notes, and it's rare that the post-it ends up on top of the pile when I need it.  Since I just remembered it, I thought I would pass this along.  I heard of Delicious months ago, but until I started pouring through blogs, I never had a need for it.

front yard idea book

I've been hanging at the public library these days.  And at the Barnes and Noble.  And at the Book Exchange.  (The last two have great coffee shops so I spend more time there.  The public library's coffee shop never seems to be open when I'm there, but once I get their schedule figured out... well, they'll move up in the world.)

So, at all of these fine establishments, I've sat and drank coffee and poured over garden plan books, and I just hadn't found anything worth taking home.

I was learning a few things here and there, but I was also discovering that my caffeine tolerance was heightened while reading garden plan books.  Yes, caffeine had almost no effect on me whehn reading the very academic discourse on the concepts of design and geometric theories that influence garden layout/arrangements.   I know there is an art to all of this and that professionals spend a lifetime immersed in those theories to produce award winning garden designs.

But I don't want an award winning garden design.  And I don't want to be caught sleeping in the Barnes and Noble.

I do want a garden that looks good.  Something that is planned and intentional.  Something that makes my neighbors feel good when they glance out their window while they drink their coffee and read the morning paper.  Something that makes the mailwoman smile when she walks up my sidewalk to drop letters by my front door.  Something that relaxes me when I look out my office window.

So, I needed a plan.  I'm figuring out Sketchup for building my plan, but I needed some help on figuring out what to put in my plan.  And then I found Jeni Webber's Front Yard Idea Book at the Book Exchange for a whopping $10.  Okay, the Handyman found it.  

The Front Yard Idea Book is published by Taunton, who also publishes the Handyman's favorite periodicals: Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding.

The best thing that Webber' book has going for it is it's organization.   Well, and photos.  I'm a sucker for a pretty pictures.   But, the organization is delightfully geared for someone with a limited attention span.  Each section addresses a different element commonly used in front yards: paths and steps, ground covers, lighting, driveways and parking, etc.   It's easy to pick and choose the elements most pertinent to my project.

I think the most useful chapter for me so far has been the one on foundation plantings.  After checking out the photographs in that section, I realized that my house is a lady without a skirt.  The foundation is exposed, and while it's not unsightly on it's own, there's potential for great improvement.  Weber gives advice based on several architectural and cultural cues, and there are short checklists to help influence the selection of plants based on their size, shape and texture.  

While I know that paying a professional would produce results leagues beyond what I can do on my own, I'm excited to jump into this.  There's something adventurous about attempting to take out all or most of one's lawn, and I think I'll be referencing Weber every step of the way. 

But, I'm, by no means, a one-book-woman.  If there are more to check out, let me know.  The more ideas the better!

And, since I mentioned I'm a sucker for pretty pictures, I thought I'd share this website I found on making great garden photographs.  A quick skim gave some good tips, but I need to head back there and check it out a little more.  (Okay, okay, the Handyman found it.  One day he's going to take over this blog...)

zucchini muffin streusel

I looked EVERYWHERE for a zucchini bread recipe that included streusel.  

I'm sure I'll get several comments after I post this, and those comments will point me in all the directions I failed to look - but I say BRING IT ON!!!  Because, as it turns out, zucchini bread goes great with streusel. 

We could always use more recipes with zucchini and streusel.

After coming up empty-handed on the zucchini-with-streusal combo from my impatient internet search, I decided to find a streusel recipe and just dump it on top of a muffin recipe.

I had considered an old standby Moosewood (Mollie Katzen) recipe, but I wanted to try something a little different.  I searched and searched and finally ended up at Elise's.  

I have no idea who Elise is.  I have no idea what her credentials are.  I can't even say that I know we'd be fast friends.  But I can say I'd attend any party she hosted.  And I can say that I really need to start my searches there instead of foodnetwork.com.  Her coffee ice cream recipe and her pumpkin ice cream recipe were both absolutely fantastic.  I've tried something other than that, but it's not coming to mind.  It's late.  And it's finally Friday.  The brain gave up on me hours ago.

So, I made the muffins with this recipe.  And by the way, if you run out of batter, like I did, pour water in the last muffin cup.  It'll keep your short-changed muffin pans baking at the same speed as your full muffin tins.  That's a tip from Mama P.  I've made up the reason why, but I always used to see her do it.  She's on vacation in Alaska right now or I'd ask.  We're on our own.

I made the streusel with a random streusel recipe that called for brown sugar, flour, and butter.  Note to self: add nuts next time.  The sugar concoction is delicious, but I like nuts.  And I think I'd like nuts in any streusel recipe.  Some called for it, yet I picked a recipe that had brown sugar instead of white sugar.... and no nuts. 

Lastly, if you're mistaken like me and think streusel needs to be added halfway through baking... think again.  Throw it on before you put the muffins in to bake.  I've got a trail of crispity-crunchity sweetness left around me everytime I pick one up to eat.  While I'm no neatnik, I like to leave my over-indulgence evidence to a minimum.  Streusel just won't stick to the muffin well if it doesn't go on early.

what has she been doing?

I feel like it's been ages since I've tackled any projects in the garden or recipes in the kitchen.

I've been occupied trying to navigate SketchUp and trying to emulate Scott Kelby.  Neither are going exceptionally well, but I won't be easily deterred.   I might, however, lose a bit of hair and sanity.  I hear both are overrated.

Oh yeah, and then there's that pesky job thing that also takes up time.  Also overrated, though the paycheck is not.

More projects and progress to report later...

For now, have a pepper.

amy butler birdie sling bag

Or, "the bag that my totally cool mom made for me."

Or, "the bag that I found on African Kelli's blog that I absolutely adored." (and another...)

Or, "Emma's pillow."

I set the bag on the couch after ogling it for the longest time.  I went back to work, and Emma-Lou must have thought, "Hey, that looks comfy!"   Judging by all the places I've found her sleeping, I might just have to take that back.  EVERYthing looks comfy to her.  

So, the story behind the bag is that I saw it on African Kelli's blog.  I emailed my mom and said that she had to go take a look at the bag.  My mom immediately called me up to say that she'd had the pattern on hand for a little while, but she hadn't had a reason to get started on it yet.  But she wanted one.... a reason to make the bag.  Not the bag itself.

I have the most generous mama in the whole wide world.  I picked out the fabric, sent it to her, and she made me this AWESOME BAG which holds EVERYTHING and even has my name in it.  (Or, her nickname for me.  My mama sure does love the embroidering machine, but that's a story for another post.)

The only kicker is that now she says when she visits, I have to make one myself.... Reason says to start with some simple totes instead of this fancy sling, but I have a feeling reason will kick in when we sit down and remember why sewing machine lessons never went far - I'm a terrible sew student!

But I do like this bag, and would be tickled if I really could learn enough to make another myself (so I could pass on the sew love, too).  It's got these great pockets inside, and I can even manage to squeeze my computer in there.

And, of course, Emma's given her approval....

Even if she's the one thing that won't fit in the bag.

an anatomy lesson in progress

In less than a week, I've gone from clinging to the hope that I still have some kind of dietary ideals to a pack of tasty snausages to 70 pounds of meat on my kitchen counter.  That was some slippery slope. 

(It's totally childish and inappropriate, but I love to say, "snausages" instead of "sausages."  It gives you the opportunity to put some serious emphasis on the first syllable.  Because sausage needs emphasis.  It's that good.  And it's been that long for me.)

Even though I would tell strangers I was a vegetarian, I had absolutely no intention of leading them or myself astray.  I ate meat.  I eat meat.  But saying I was a vegetarian was so much easier than the more accurate: "I'm a picky eater."  The list had just gotten too long... fish, deer, elk, any game really.  

And now bison.

Seventy pounds of bison.  Soon to be ninety when the snausage shows up on Saturday at the market.  That's a quarter of a bison if you're wondering.

So now that bison has made the list, I wonder, what can I call myself now?  


Is there a name for someone who won't-eat-commercially-farmed-meat-except-bison-and-some-fish-that's-commercially-farmed-but-wild-is-preferred?  That one's hefty write-in on the wedding RSVP card which says, "chicken or fish?"  And that's one heck of a mouthful to say to your parents when you come home to visit.  And that's one serious way to waste time on a Tuesday morning - why do I care what I'm called?

Because even though they are dangerous, labels are nice.  They're convenient.  They release us from the pressure of constantly having to explain ourselves or constantly having to look at how complex issues really are. 

I suppose it's obvious: meat, for me, is really complex.

Not only is the struggle to find myself a new category to nestle my eating habits into quite complicated, but all these packages are a bit of a mystery to me.  I recognize words like "t-bone" and "steak" (sometimes used on the same package which is delightfully familiar), but there are other words that don't register at all in my mind.  

Roast is a very common word.  Quintessential American fare.  "Honey, we're having roast for dinner!" could come out of any sitcom I watched as a child.  But I'm as unfamiliar with that territory as I am with my new name.  And coming up with a new word to accompany vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, etc, seems so much easier to me right now.

This should be an exciting winter.  I suspect Emma-Lou will appreciate all the mistakes that are on the way with this growing mound meat in my life.  (Let's hope the Handyman is a good teacher in something besides plant ecology...)  "Fire up the grill, honey!"