HFM

On Saturday, I turned 36 + 1 (I'm thinking that if I always start by saying "36", it's like I'm actually more or less still 36...I'm pretty sure this will work), and Adrienne threw me the best birthday weekend ever! It started with Saturday morning birthday pastries, coffee, and presents: Wine from Rachel, pickles and Portuguese pepper paste (made & canned by Adrienne!), a poster, and a terrarium in a...um..chemistry thing! Then, later, Amanda, Matt, Susie, & Robin came over for whiskey tasting fun: And pickles: Two types of cantaloupe by Adrienne, okra by Adrienne, eggs by me, and some amazingly fantastic kimchi that Susie brought for the festivities! And delicious cheesy, saucy noodles: A good time was had by all, and I, for one, learned something about the whiskeys we tried. The birthday fun continued on Sunday morning, when Adrienne made me an ultra-special breakfast: Poached eggs on grilled polenta, with parmesan sauce, bacon, & heirloom to...

Took a break from studying to get some small projects done this weekend. Project #1: Add a shelf to the Disaster Cabinet We have one cabinet in the kitchen that has proven just impossible to keep organized: The mess -- and the hassle and racket whenever we try to get anything out -- drives us both crazy. On Saturday, I made a shelf out of a leftover 2x4, along with a pair of stops to keep the baking sheets from sliding away from the wall: Result: Much better! Project #2: Clear out the dying pumpkin vine in the front yard The pumpkin vine in the front yard has grown very large, but the plant is succumbing to the dreaded powdery mildew , and the pumpkins are rotting on the vine. Its days are numbered. We have six or eight different succulent cuttings -- generous donations from Jennifer, Jon, & Susie -- just about ready to be planted in the yard, so I decided today to pull out the vine to make room for the replanting to begin. Much to my surprise, after I had already hacked the vines ...

Well, that was quite a hiatus! I traveled a little in June, and then work began to get stupidly busy, and the weather was crappy so I neglected the garden, and then I up and decided to apply to grad school for some reason, and then here we are, all of a sudden, on August 8. There are a couple sets of photos that I have to share, but today I'll just start with an update on what I did last weekend: I painted my office! In June, I found out that my company will pay for a masters degree, as long as it's related to my job in some way. In that case, I figured, since it's mostly just a question of my putting in the sweat for a few years, it would be worth it in order to set myself up with more options later. So I started looking into online Master of Business Administration programs (dragging my butt downtown to a campus in the evenings for 3 years is a non-starter), found a good one with the concentration I want, & applied in July. I found out the first week of August that I ...

The garden continues to be out of control with abundance. Amanda was over last night, & agreed that the pictures on this blog just don't do it justice. Here's another attempt to show how enormous the collards are, by putting my foot in the photo: Does that help? Meanwhile, as usual, Zoey helped me with garden work on Saturday. Here she is, kindly holding a butterfly on her tail: In other news, the sauerkraut is finished! Since it was such a warm, sunny day today, we decided to have some on hot dogs, with macaroni salad: This what Adrienne thought of the sauerkraut: Thanks again, Susie, for teaching me how to make this delicious sauerkraut!

Last June, I wrote about my struggles with cabbage moths/worms & powdery mildew . I picked cabbage worms & eggs off the collards & brussels sprouts as diligently as I could all summer, but I just wasn't able to get out there often enough to stop the little guys from destroying the plants. We didn't eat a single collard last year. Knowing that I won't have a lot of time during the week this year, either, I have turned to industry! There is a kind of bacteria that only attacks cabbage worms that you can spray on the leaves, & let me tell you, it's really working some magic -- we are barely keeping up with the harvest. And best of all, this is considered appropriate for organic gardening because it is only toxic to the cabbage worms -- it won't destroy everything other bug that happens to be around, & it's non-toxic to humans or other animals. As for the peas, this week I saw the first signs of powdery mildew! Again, I am turning to industry. Th...

Today, three important things happened: we ate the first pea pod, Zoey got a new outfit, & I put the rose wine into jugs to start fermenting. First, here is Zoey's fancy new leather collar: On to the wine! When we last left our hero, it had been boiled, stirred, & left to sit for 4 days to gather wild yeast:   Today's first job was to strain out all the rose petals & fruit: Then squeeze as much liquid out as possible: I tasted the liquid -- fragrant sugar water! I also tasted the fruit & it was delicious, but obviously beyond sweet, having steeped in sugar water for four days. After that step, it went straight into the fermenting jugs: The corks & airlocks went on: And off it went to ferment for three months: I put it on top of the fridge, with its sauerkraut brother. It's going to be a long three months.