-- Look what I made! Okay, maybe I just planted the seeds and gave them some water. There are a lot of still-green pods on the plants, but I took these black-eyed peas from pods that had dried up. I assume that's the way to do it, as they look exactly like dried beans you'd buy at the co-op. I'm really excited about these; they seem like a staple food that I shouldn't be able to grow myself. What's next, a field of wheat? Unlike my soybeans, which still haven't flowered, the black-eyed peas have been growing really nicely, so I think I'll plant even more next year.

-- You know how I've been bad-mouthing my squash vines, saying that they're all show and no fruit? (No? Well, I have been.) I was really surprised to see a pumpkin on the vine, and right behind it -- another (bigger!) pumpkin. And another further along the fence. Suddenly pumpkins! I kept saying that in my head and laughing, because it makes me think of 'Suddenly Salad', which I see at the supermarket (I'm not actually sure what it is -- something you put on lettuce, I guess*). I always imagine somebody freaking out at the sudden appearance of a salad. 'Oh, shit! Wait, it's just a salad. Whew.'

* Oh, it's for pasta salad. That makes more sense. Those things can really sneak up on a person.

-- I'm starting anew with the chest freezer in my basement. There was a bunch of stuff in there that I shouldn't have frozen (asparagus) that was way past its use-by deadline, so I got rid of it. (I hate wasting food, but when it's stuff I don't want to eat, whatever -- but I discovered two baggies of pumpkin puree that I would have used, had I known they were in there! Sad.) Now I'm on a mission to create meals that I can freeze. Today I made chili, using the Classic Black Bean and Veggie Chili recipe from Appetite for Reduction. Isa is, once again, a genius. Love it. My only change was to use only one Tbsp of lime juice, and I omitted the agave (I don't usually add sweetener to chili; it makes it taste like BBQ or sloppy joes to me). I had one serving for dinner tonight, and I put five jars of it in the freezer.

I also made BBQ veg with notdogs. I usually do veg+tofu, but I didn't like the tofu on offer today. Once upon a time, I used a recipe for this sort of dish, but really it's just vegetables and tofu (or veggie dogs, in this case) with BBQ sauce. Actually, I sauteed the veg and seasoned it (cumin, garlic powder, salt), then put it in a baking dish. I added the chopped-up veggie dogs and half a cup of BBQ sauce and baked it all (covered) for 30 minutes at 425F. I made little dividers with tin foil, so I've got four servings in the freezer (and one in the fridge for tomorrow), and I imagine I'll eat them with brown rice or similar.

My problem with freezing meals is that I always get excited about stocking up, so I cook and freeze whatever it is, but then that's all I want to eat for the next week. But I plan to make (in the next few days) vegan mac 'n' cheese, enchiladas, lasagna, and pilaf with beanballs, so if I've got a bunch of different delicious things, maybe they'll last longer. I'm hoping that the real magic of this plan will be that I won't have to buy fresh veg quite as often. I go to the supermarket a LOT, because so much of what I eat is produce, and when it's fresh, there's only so much you can buy at once. This way, I still get the vegetables, but I don't have to worry about them going bad, AND I know how they were prepared.

I was taking stuff out of the fridge this afternoon, and I glanced back at the counter to see if I had already grabbed something and thought the angle was nice. Fortuitously, you can also see the ripe tomatoes on my window sill; I meant to take a picture of them today and forgot. I picked them (the two bigger ones) on Saturday, and it's definitely the earliest I've ever had ripe slicing tomatoes from the garden. I guess that heat wave was good for something! (They're heirloom Oxhearts, by the way.)

Do you realize that a week from now, it'll be the first of August? Who authorized this? Ugh.

I finally gave in. I haven't used an air-conditioner in my house for years, but we've had so many days in a row of crazy heat and humidity; I caved. The heat index has been at or over 110F for... forever, it feels like. I don't usually mind the heat so much, but I couldn't take the constant clamminess that the humidity caused. Only the bedrooms have doors (well, so does the bathroom), so I dragged up the window AC unit and put it in my bedroom, which has become lovely oasis of cool air.

So I've been doing pretty much everything from the bedroom, only running out when absolutely necessary. The pets were in here for most of the day, too, and Beany was definitely the most excited about it. She sat in front of the air-conditioner a lot during the day. And at one point, Henny and Birdy weren't in the room (sometimes they'd want out when I went on a mission for the card reader or a cup of tea), and I'm pretty sure it was Beany's dream realized -- being an only pet AND allowed in the bedroom.

I did venture outside once today, to pick some vegetables. I've been reliably getting three (or more!) cups of raspberries every couple of days, but the heat seems to have put that on pause, even though there are plenty of almost-ripe berries on there. Even the ones I picked today (about a cup) weren't as nice as they usually are.

But I did get two cucumbers, which will soon be refrigerator pickles. I've only ever grown bush pickle cukes before, which are pretty small, but I've got some Fanfare cucumbers this year. My first banana pepper looked about ready to pick -- I can't believe a squirrel didn't steal it, as it came from a plant that I didn't put a cage over. I'm having bad luck with my zucchinis, though. They don't seem to be getting pollinated, even though that wasn't a problem with the fruit earlier in the season. Hmm. I suppose I can always take matters into my own hands...

When I got back from the cabin on Monday, my raspberries were starting to ripen on the bushes. Since then, I've been picking two to three cups almost every day. When I first started picking them, I was admonishing myself for having made raspberry jam last year, which used up most of the crop. But now that I find myself filling the fridge with more and more berries, I can understand my thinking. It's pretty much the best problem to have, though -- too many ripe raspberries from the garden. I have them in cereal, in yogurt, and I've resorted to eating things like raspberry pancakes for lunch. The smaller bowl in the photo contains little cherries from my Nanking cherry bushes.

Considering the rest of the garden is behind where it should be at this point in the season (thanks to a cool, rainy spring), it's kind of amazing that I had my first ripe tomatoes on July 5th -- almost a full month earlier than usual. To be fair, they were only cherry tomatoes, and they're so early because the plant was flowering when I brought it home from the nursery. My slicing tomatoes only have a few tiny (green) fruits on them at the moment, so I won't be eating those any time soon. Peas and green beans have been plentiful, though; it's so nice to have vegetables coming out of the garden.

I feel like this is the year of getting stuff done... the right way. Little stuff, like sewing up the hems of my living room curtains (done!) and bigger stuff, like replacing the rotting basement window and repainting the house (...hopefully). Putting down the plastic and new mulch in the garden is a part of that. I was looking at photos from last spring, and the grass that was coming up through the landscaping fabric was awful. I should have used plastic in the first place.

One of the lessons I've learned about gardening is that it just takes time. I felt really discouraged those first couple of years, because I'd walk around my neighborhood and see established gardens, and I knew I didn't have the money to make that happen. I think the biggest improvement to the look of the yard, though, has come by dividing perennials and moving them, and they've really grown and settled in now. It's also a collecting game; all the little pieces assembled over four summers (this will be my fifth here) are coming together now.

I added eleven new photos to my Garden 2011 set on flickr. I planted a bunch of seeds last week, and they're starting to come up now: lettuces, peas, kale, root vegetables. I've got morning glories coming up with the planting area by my fence (you can see it in this photo -- it's edged with the scallop-topped bricks). That's also where I've got squash planted, so the fence will be covered in vines before too long. And the grape vines down at the other end of the yard are looking really healthy, despite being eaten alive by June bugs last summer. (Are they a once-every-X-years type of bug? I hope so!) For the first time, they've got tons and tons of teensy grape clusters forming, so it might be a bumper crop this year.

Oh, another garden tip, besides the whole 'time' thing: if you have a spot for a hammock, get one! Sooo relaxing.

We've had two days in a row of nice weather, and I've spent as much time as I can out in the garden! My biggest task has been tearing up the landscape fabric I'd laid down two years ago and replacing it with plastic, to keep the grass from growing through once and for all. I finally finished the bulk of that project, so the mulched area is looking much tidier now.

I also moved the compost bin (to the side garden) and made its old space bigger. I transplanted a ton of hostas to that corner (it's the background of this photo). The hostas used to be on the strip of garden that runs along the alley, but it's so exposed to the sun that they only ever look nice for about a week. This is what they look like full-grown, though, and I can't wait to see them fill out that corner garden. I also moved my two little wild blueberry bushes (taken from my parents' cabin land a couple of years ago), since I reckon they'd prefer less direct sunlight. They were used to growing in the woods, after all. It was a pain, but I sat and picked out every little forest weed that they were tangled up with.

Last year, I was slightly indifferent to the garden. I planted stuff and took care of it, but I didn't enjoy it as much as in past years. I've got that dedication back, now -- it's hard to imagine some day selling this house and having to leave the garden behind! It's the second growing season for a lot of the perennials I divided and transplanted in 2009, and I can tell that they're really settling in and spreading out. The cold spring means that a lot of plants are behind where they'd usually be (I just looked at a photo of my apple tree from April 26th last year, and it was leafed out and in full bloom -- the leaf buds are just BARELY starting to open right now!), but on the plus side, the grass is nice and green, and everything looks happy and healthy.

-- CAKE! I made the bad decision (delicious, but bad) to get my mom the Junior's Cheesecake recipe book/magazine last year, so now we must live with the consequences. Such as cheesecake between two layers of (gluten free!) carrot cake. Okay, so it's a pretty tolerable consequence.

-- The Henny that I know and the Henny that goes out into the world are very different dogs. One of the biggest joys over the months of patience has been watching her learn how to be happy and silly, but she's still so nervous around other people that I'm the only person who knows about it. She sleeps in her 'little house' every night, and she'll voluntarily go in at bedtime, but she's so excited to get out in the morning. Here's a video of our morning routine. It's a nice way to start each day.

-- I've been more diligent lately about setting the custom white balance before I shoot. Mainly because I realized that the paper towel roll is a convenient white sample (you take a photo of a blank, white something to tell the camera what 'white' is in a given lighting condition). It makes a big difference for photos like this one of the pineapple. The evening light comes across as really red with a generic WB setting. I still wind up tweaking the balance in Photoshop, but I'm starting from a much nicer place.

-- The past two days have been really lovely, weather-wise. I ran in my Vibrams both days, and I got out this afternoon to lay down some plastic sheeting in the garden. Two years ago, I put down landscape fabric and mulch by my vegetable beds (see here), and the grass worked its way through pretty quickly. It was annoying, since I mulched the area in the first place because the lawn was so patchy there. It's what I would consider a 'permanent' bit of landscaping (in that I don't want to plant anything in the mulched space), so I pulled up the old fabric and put down plastic instead. And since it's supposed to rain tomorrow (bah!), I ran out in the evening and got new wood chip to finish it off. As much as I don't like the idea of covering up earth with plastic, I'll be so happy not to have grass and weeds popping up all over the place.

-- Wallets! The one on the bottom (well, the top of the photo) is what I've been using. I made the Minneapolis iron-on transfer, and it has a sort of plastic-y finish that I would normally hate, but it made the fabric nice and durable. Then, a week or two ago, I experimented with some silkscreening, except when I say 'silkscreen', you should imagine old nylons stretched over an embroidery hoop and a piece of iron-on paper. It was a little messy, but I got a few decent prints on fabric. And you know how I love anything Minnesota-shaped. The zipper pull is from a KidRobot collection; I'm a sucker for those things.

-- Henny was very entertaining today. She kicked off the morning off with this, and around 2:30pm, she started it up again and carried on that way for about an hour. She was pawing under the hutch in the kitchen, so I looked and found a cat toy beneath it. I held it out for her, and she took it and ran into the living room. This was a dog who didn't seem to understand the concept of a 'toy' just a week ago. In that video link, she paws at her pillow, and this afternoon, she managed to get inside the case and went crazy. I thought she would freak herself out, but she loved it. We went for a walk to help her burn off some of that energy, and she did great. It's incredible what a little time can do for an animal.

-- The insurance man came by today, and it looks like I'll definitely get a new garage roof, and the odds are good that they'll replace the roof on the house, too. He has to see if there's a match for the house shingles (in which case they'd just replace the missing ones), but he said the chances of that happening are low. I'll still have to pay my deductible, of course, but it's worth it for new roofs! (Question: Why is it not 'rooves'? Oh, English!)

-- On the way back up the alley with Henny this afternoon, I saw that there was another butternut squash that I hadn't been able to see before the vine died (the leaves covered it). Obviously, it's no good now that it's sat through several frosts, but that still means that the vine produced seven full-sized (big!) squashes this year. Wow!

I finally made green tomato pie! I first heard of such a thing last year, and I was excited to see what it was like, but then all my green tomatoes froze on the vine while I was in Frankfurt. So I've had to wait over a year to try it, but it finally happened.

It wound up being more work than I anticipated, because all the (mainstream) pre-made pie crusts contain lard, which means they're not vegetarian. So I used the crust recipe that accompanies the peach pie in Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess, and it turned out rather well, even though it looks slightly lumpy (it uses cold butter instead of shortening). For the filling, I adapted an apple pie recipe (the one from the classic Betty Crocker cookbook), and my main complaint is that it uses too much nutmeg. I had parboiled the green tomatoes to get the skin off, but I should have sauteed them after chopping, because they're still crunchy. Over all, it turned out better than I expected (you wouldn't guess the chunks are green tomato), but the nutmeg sort of ruins it for me. I'm glad I got to try it, though.

I've now picked three big butternut squashes; there are two more large-ish-but-green ones on the vine, and it looks like we have at least a little while until first frost, so I'm hoping they'll start to ripen on the vine, and then I can finish the job inside. There are TONS of little ones, and I'm still curious about cooking them while they're immature. The ripe butternuts will become soup, but I've still got a few cups of pumpkin puree in the freezer, from last year's crop. I'm thinking I'll make my favorite pumpkin bread recipe as muffins.

Lastly, I'm going to have a heck of a lot of red cabbage if the heads turn out to be okay (ie, not full of worms). Chris has been making noises about Rotkohl Salat all summer long, and I think it might be time to learn to can properly. I'm going to see if the supermarket still has the Ball Canning Discovery Kits, because they're cheap (I've never seen one in store for more than $9), and they look unscary.

Last-lastly, I just remembered how awesome the autumn apples in Germany are. Ugh. I like Honeycrisps, but it seems like every day I think of another reason I'm bummed that I can't make it to the Frankfurt Bookfair this year.

-- Oh man, I love the Veganomicon's macaroni and 'cheese' recipe. I hadn't made it in a couple of years, but I baked half a batch on Monday. I prefer it over real mac'n'cheese, even. (But I've mentioned before how I'm a bit 'meh' about cheese these days.)

-- I was included in Be @ Home's latest Best of the Web round-up. It's always nice to be recognized, no? In the years that I've been blogging (ten in December!), I've never gone crazy trying to get publicity and attract new audiences. In a way, that's what makes the regular readers so much fun, but I like the idea of new folks finding their way here, too.

-- I've been working on a couple of web/design freelance projects recently, which included installing Movable Type (what I use for my own blog) and getting it set up this evening. I love my publishing work, but there's something about the way the hours just disappear when I'm playing with code-y stuff that makes me wonder if I could do it full-time. Probably not. But I was drawn to computer science as my original major for a reason. I just like the magic of entering letters and numbers and having a website pop out the other side.

-- So, I have all these unripe butternuts out on the vine, and we'll probably get hit with frost in the next couple of weeks. I understand that larger unripe winter squash can be ripened on a sunny window sill (apparently; I've never had that happen myself). But can you eat smaller, green winter squash? I might try cooking it like zucchini and see what it's like. Speaking of zucchinis, I only had one small plant that had a miserable summer (it was in a bad part of the yard). It would flower, but it's only just now got a (tiny) fruit growing. First zucchini of the season!

I'd say there's something of a tomato situation at the moment. I drove up to Sandstone today, so I brought all the ripe tomatoes up with me to boil down into a plain sauce (then I can freeze it in muffin pans to make pucks I can thaw individually and season as I want them). I might roast the pear tomatoes or make oven-'sun'-dried tomatoes.

The cats survived the trip up here with very little fuss. I've learned to put them in separate carriers and then face the doors towards each other in the back seat of the car, so they can see one another (reassuring) but won't freak out and start fighting. Usually there's a lot of yowling on the way, but I just sang along to my iPod the entire trip, and they were quiet. Or I had the music up too loud to hear them! (Just kidding -- I didn't.)

Speaking of the iPod, I set it to shuffle through all the songs, and I realized that A) I have a lot of music on there that I don't really want to hear most of the time (and that's of the hand-picked artists/albums I put on there in the first place) and B) there are a LOT of lyrics stored in my head. Like, I couldn't recite most of these songs word for word out of the blue, but start the song playing, and it all comes back. Surely that brain space could be used for remembering foreign languages, no?

-- Cats outside! Birdy, who has had a (literally) sheltered kittenhood, took some time to get used to being outside. The grass is just so grassy, and there are things that move and wind that blows. She's got the hang of it now, though, and it seems like she's already learned to stand still while I put her harness on. Annoyingly, Beany went up the tree this afternoon, and she made it down on her own, but she managed to leave her harness up the branches somewhere. Very clever, Beany, except that you don't get to go outside without it.

-- I've been saying for the last three months that I really need to mop my floors (whoops, did I just admit how long I go between mopping the floor?). I finally got around to doing the kitchen floor on Friday, and while I was scrubbing away, I was thinking about how great it would be to have two mops and two pairs of mop shoes. It always seems that by the time I get to the second half of my house, the cleaning implements are no longer so clean themselves and do a poorer job. (Maybe if I mopped a bit more often that wouldn't be a prob-- nah, that'd never work.) Two mops, two pairs of mop shoes, and a really nice mop bucket. I have big dreams.

-- I'd also really like a push broom. Oh man, imagine all the stuff I could sweep outside! My half birthday is coming up this month...

-- I added new photos to my Garden 2010 flickr set. It's starting to hit its stride. The veggies are still small, but they're past that 'brand new' stage, and the perennials are crazy big. I think the previous owners of this house must have put in the lilies and irises the spring before I moved in, because they used to fill just a tiny corner of the back yard. In the past few years, I've split them multiple times and transplanted them in other parts of the garden, and they've filled in the space like it's their job. Which is it, I suppose.

-- Flowers, flowers, everywhere. I got this Easter lily after multiple people decided it was too smelly (and/or that they were allergic to it). I like it. And last year's amaryllis that I forced is blooming again. It feels very springy in my house, with all the flowers.

-- And since it's been so mild lately, I thought I might as well plant some seeds this afternoon. I put in the usual cold(er) weather stuff. Kale, chard, peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and beets. There are so many garden areas now that it's a bit overwhelming trying to get a start on any one section, yet I still found myself thinking, 'Hm, if only I had more room for all this lettuce seed.' I should just spread it out in the empty lot across the alley, where they tore down a house this winter. 'No, officer*, I don't know anything about all this lettuce that's growing wild here. But since I've got this salad bowl...'

-- Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so I went up to my parents' cabin to spend the day with her. I had made macarons as part of her gift, and we went to the Mystic Lake buffet for brunch/lunch. The food selection was so-so (better if one were a meat eater and was looking to eat a great volume of food), but they had a softserve machine, so that pretty much took care of my happiness. As I said on flickr, it's been thirteen years since I worked at Dairy Queen for the summer, but I can still do the DQ Loop. Minnesota needs more self-serve fro-yo/softserve places.

* I like the idea that a cop would have to investigate the case of the guerrilla lettuce.

-- When I was growing up, I had a real aversion to tomato-y things. I went through a phase where I would squish out as much of the tomato sauce from a piece of pizza as I could. I liked ketchup with my fries, but only then just a tiny bit. And forget about actual tomatoes. That's all changed now, of course, especially my application of ketchup. I don't think eating it with eggs is all that odd (because ketchup + fries --> ketchup + hasbrowns --> ketchup + eggs), but sometimes I stop as I'm drizzling it over a pile of sauteed green veg and laugh at myself. Broccoli and ketchup, eh? It's good.

-- We've been having miserable weather lately, sun-wise, but the temperatures have been very mild (in the 40s!), and the snow is melting pretty quickly now. I'd forgotten what the surface of roads looked like, or how wide my driveway is (since my piles of shoveled snow narrow it considerably in the winter). I brought the garbage out this morning and then had a look around my back yard. There are things! Growing things! I even had to start my Garden 2010 set on flickr today. Quite a few of the hardier herbs seem ready to pick up where they left off, and I was pleasantly surprised to see my (wild) blueberries already growing.

-- Did I mention that I bought myself a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker? And that it arrived a few days ago? I think this will be the weekend to finally make the pudding ice cream dream come true. The only trick is deciding what flavor of pudding to use. I'm thinking stick to the basics: chocolate, but with double chocolate Newman-O's mixed in. Oh boy, oh boy.

-- I'm running a 5k tomorrow! I've just checked the forecast, and it's no longer calling for rain, which is a relief. The race shouldn't really be a big deal because A) I'm not very fast, so it's not really a 'race' in the usual sense of the word and B) I run 3+ miles fairly routinely. But I'm still excited and a bit nervous. Mainly because it starts at 9:15am. That's still sleepin' time! I might have to fall asleep before 2:00am tonight.

Guess what, guys. This was Minnesota's second warmest November since they started keeping records. And the first snow-free November since, like, 1962. (One or both of those statements might be incorrect, since I'm only now remembering having heard them on the radio, but I'm not purposefully making them up. I'm pretty sure they're mostly true.) Every time 'they' say what the high should be for the day (aka, the average high), everybody gasps. No! Surely not! Minnesota never dips below 40F! How quickly we forget.

But the garden has been hanging in there, thanks to the mild weather. Not really in a useful way, although the kale has been plentiful. Mainly I've just got loads of happy-looking herbs and overgrown lettuces that would be tough and bitter to eat. I planted my potted strawberries in the ground (pictured), since they can come back in the spring, and I really like how the leaves turn bright red before dying off. For some reason, it's much more amusing to me when plants do this, since it's such a 'tree' thing.

We usually have a sudden drop off in temperatures, which is like plunging into an unheated pool. I suppose this tends to happen in January, but I'm hoping that maybe we'll get a gradual easing in this year. Like slowly inching into the pool, letting your body get progressively more numb, so you just don't notice the pain as much. It's good to have at least a few weeks in each temperature range -- the 50s become the 40s become the 30s, and so on. It's psychological to a large extent; seeing a high in the 20s when you've been enjoying the upper 40s comes as quite a shock.

At any rate, I really feel like the shortening of the days hasn't affected me as much, probably due to our mild weather. It's been getting colder, for sure, but it just hasn't felt like winter is barreling down on us. I DID put up my Christmas tree last night, though, and the twee sounds of my 'Christmas in Sweden' album never fails to make me feel all wintery inside!

Hey, friendpals. It really is November -- and I don't mean that in my usual 'seriously-can't-get-over-the-rapid-passage-of-time' way. It just feels really November-y around here. Cold, but not unbearable, pretty windy, and a bit cruel (Daylight Savings Time, I'm shaking my fist at you).

The weather has been tolerable, as far as I'm concerned. I got out yesterday afternoon to finish raking and bagging leaves, and I also did a bit of clean-up in the garden, tearing out dead annuals and replanting some potted stuff that I hope will come back next year. It seems unusual to me that the grass is still so green and alive this late in the year, but I suspect that was because of our late-summer and autumn rains and has less to do with temperatures. I took the picture above after my efforts yesterday, right around 4:30 in the afternoon. Too early for the sun to be that low, if you ask me.

I restarted my gym membership (I'm sure I've mentioned before that I suspend it over the summer, since I'm too busy gardening/being outside to bother with the gym), and it's actually been sort of nice to go yesterday and today. My routine last year was a morning workout, followed by time at the coffee shop across the street, time spent proof reading or going through submissions. It's a chain coffee shop, but I think the fact that both baristas recognized me and asked how I'd been makes it worth going to.

November is National Novel Writing Month; I've participated four times, and it was tempting to dive in again this year, but I'm going to give it a pass. Instead, I'm hoping to draw a comic every day this month. I'm on track, so far. I'd promise to upload them each day, but... there's a plant on top of the scanner. It'd be so much work to move it. And I'm already drawing a comic every day, so my effort reserves are pretty much tapped out. I'll see what I can do, though.

Happy November!

I feel like this has been the strangest transition into autumn ever. I was ready for it to start getting cooler about a month ago, but it didn't. Instead, we had an abnormally warm few weeks in September, including a streak of 80F+ days, which is quite out of the ordinary for this part of the world. And now we've just jumped right to highs in the 50s. They were warning of possible frost last night, which seems way too early. But maybe it's just because of all that warm weather before.

It's funny: I think I was wishing for autumnal weather so much because it was still very hot and summery. As soon as we got a blast of chillier air, I suddenly started panicking about winter. Well, not panicking -- just feeling sad to see summer go (and not looking forward to the cold months ahead).

I picked my squashes yesterday evening, just in case frost hit (it didn't). They were mostly ripe, anyway, but I hope the two big pumpkins will orange up just a little bit more indoors. I've also got three butternut squashes. Not bad! I'll puree and freeze most of it (both the pumpkin and the butternuts) to use in pie and bread in the coming months. I'm going to wait until Halloween, though, so I can do some carving first!

Yes! Tonight I had the first ear of corn from my garden. It was itsy bitsy, but it was good, and I grew it myself, and the squirrels didn't get it! I think it helps that it's right by the back steps; even the squirrels aren't quite bold enough to come that close to the house, particularly when Beany is on guard from the kitchen window. She did spot a baby bunny nibbling the phlox (or a weed growing nearby) this morning, though. Poor bunny, eating common weeds, when there was a garden's worth of lettuce about ten inches away. In a raised bed, but still -- bunnies are dumb (I predict that I'll wake up tomorrow morning to find all the lettuce gone).

The rain last week, although welcome, made me feel a bit trapped inside, so I've been taking advantage of the nicer weather and the proof reading I need to do this week and have paid a couple of visits to 2nd Moon, which is probably my favourite coffee shop in Minneapolis. A) Great location B) Nice people C) Amazing pain au chocolat (which I actually haven't had in a while. Hmmmmm...). It's nice to feel a bit more out-in-the-world, even if I still stuck on my laptop for most of the day. I've been taking strolls around the Seward neighbourhood before I head home, and there are some amazing gardens in the area.

Speaking of last week's rain, I find myself getting excited over the prospect of rainy days. A big part of that is just the garden and the lawn -- I've never had to worry about too MUCH rain, so it's always a good thing. But I think it's also due to the fact that I'm actually looking forward to autumn this year. I'm not done enjoying the summer yet, but I'm excited for the change of seasons, too. Last year, I was absolutely panicky over the thought of summer ending, but I feel a bit more balanced about it now. I had to wear a fleece on one of those rainy days last week, and it felt cozy and nice. Not quite as fantastic as the first spring day that you don't need a jacket to go outside, but almost as good.

Happy weekend, one and all! Actually, I've parked myself at a coffee shop to do some proof reading, so there's nothing particularly weekend-y going on for me, yet. I'm wearing my new shirt out for the first time today (I took a better picture, which is here), and it's remarkably comfortable. I just hope nobody thinks it's a pyjama top. And that I don't slide out of this arm chair, due to its silkiness.

This cone was my afternoon snack yesterday -- I need to restock on Clif bars, so a briefly considered having yogurt, before I remembered that I was out. So I went for the 'next best' thing, which was frozen yogurt -- yogurt is yogurt, right? Heh. The sun came out for the first time in a few days yesterday afternoon, so it felt appropriate to eat it in a cone.

I'm starting to think that perhaps nine tomato plants is too many for one person. I used quite a few to make salsa on Wednesday and felt relieved to have depleted the stock. Then I got distracted for a second, and when I glanced back at the window sill, it was full again. I've been tempted to put a sign on my front door that says, 'Heirloom Tomatoes, 50 cents each' -- but then I worry about getting fined for selling produce without a license (or whatever one might be required to have). And I wouldn't even be able to sell tomatoes to raise the money for the fine, then!

So I might have to start putting them on the doorsteps of people I know and running away. Strangely, my zucchinis (which are the usual ding-dong-ditch vegetable) have all but stopped producing.

Well, time to get back to my proof reading. Long live the weekend!

Hello, tasty dinner! This was one of those occasions when I really wished there were somebody else to share my dinner with, just as evidence of how delicious it was. The garden really came through for me tonight! I had a steamed/sauteed (sausteamed -- I mostly steamed it, but in a skillet) green beans, kale, and the very first little Brussels sprouts, with a bit of (non-garden) onion. I also made breaded eggplant medallions, pretty much exactly the same way I made eggplant the last time. Definitely a favourite method now!

And then I sliced into my big Striped German tomato. It weighed nearly 1.5 pounds (not record-setting or anything, but pretty big!), and the slices were about as big as my hand (fingers included). I crisped up a high-protein wrap in the oven, then topped it with the tomato slices, which had been salted, peppered, and sprinkled with feta. Oh boy. This was pretty amazing! The tomato was unbelievably mild (which meant the feta went perfectly with it), and it was so meaty that it was almost the texture of cantaloupe. I don't want to make any hasty declarations, but the Striped German may take the place of Brandywines in my heart.

I needed a cheering dinner today, because my laptop pretty much lost it last night. I can't bear to bore myself by going through the details again, but suffice to say, I tried everything available to me to fix it, and it's going to the Apple store tomorrow for a visit to the Genius Bar. I'm fairly confident the data will be recoverable, but it's still a great big pain in the butt. Bah.

Tada! My first slicing tomato for the year. Almost two weeks late(r than last year), but still perfect. This was a Black Prince -- I made a sandwich with hummus, tomato, and feta on Woman's Bread. The tomato was pretty sweet, as were the cranberries in the bread, while the feta was (of course) salty -- it was a flavour combination I would have despised just a few years ago, but it's something I enjoy these days.

I heard about green tomato pie the other day (p'raps on Splendid Table?), and I'm definitely going to try that in the fall, when I always wind up with a bushel of tomatoes that have no chance of ripening. Apparently you make it just like an apple pie; a quick search produces a zillion recipes, so I'll have fun finding the one that sounds best.

And maybe this year, since I have nine tomato plants (and only one of me), I might try making tomato jam. Mayyyybe. I'm not entirely sure I'm on board with that one. Ketchup first, maybe, jam later. For the moment, I'm pretty happy with simple tomato sandwiches!

I don't think of myself as a 'serious' tomato grower (you know the type), but then I think about how much care I give my plants, how I'm a total heirloom snob, the fact that I have seven different varieties (three of my plants are homestarted Brandywines -- there's actually a tenth tomato plant that's a Brandywine volunteer from last year, but I don't think it'll grow fast enough to produce any fruit), the way I keep a mental tally of the varieties I've tried and their best uses... and I think I could at least be on the road to being serious about tomatoes. Plus, some of my plants are almost taller than I am now, so that's got to count for something!

Look at this guy! I've been watching it get bigger and bigger on the vine, and it finally started ripening while I was away, so I brought it in today. I generally prefer to let tomatoes ripen on the vine (not for any actual REASON; just because it seems nicer), but I picked several not-quite-ripe tomatoes because A) I've had problems with rot already and B) the squirrels have been stealing. They usually stay away from tomatoes, but I've found a few strewn about this year. That's what I get for caging in my pepper plants, I guess.

I had a pretty good garden haul today -- you can see it here. I'm really upset that I didn't stop at Tobies for my favourite bread today (I was on my way home, with the cats in the car, and I decided that it wasn't worth the risk of roasting them alive just for a loaf of bread), as I'd really like to have a tomato sandwich tomorrow. Dang. For those who care, I've picked Striped Germans (which is what's in the photo in this post), Black Princes, and Oxhearts. I'm still waiting on the Cherokee Purples and Brandywines. And the Big Boy -- hybrid fail.

My pumpkins are getting pretty big now, as is my one butternut squash (there may be more hidden away), and I discovered a tiny (but set) watermelon along the side of the house. The melon vines haven't been growing well at all, because I've been lazy about watering them, but I'll give them some more TLC now there's a melon to take care of. What else? My sunflowers are tall, the glads are blooming, the grapes are starting to ripen (only a few of those, as the vines just went in this year), etc, etc.

It's nice to be back home after my 'week' at the cabin -- and it's nice just to feel that way about being at home, if you understand what I mean. I feel like I get so much more done when I split my time. I think it's because I work well with self-imposed structure. If I know I only have a week to finish submissions or proofread before I head home, I make sure to get it done. Likewise, if I know I've got a week to work on cover designs and to see friends before I go to the cabin, then I get to it. My parents sure were clever to buy that cabin! I bought and 'installed' a faucet aerator to fix the splashy kitchen tap, so I figure we're about even now (ha).

The only downside to a week of concentrated reading and proofing on the laptop is that it takes a toll on my hands. My right one is worse (since it does the touch pad and the comma and semi-colon keys, which make up 85% of my edits); it's the pressure from the edge of the laptop on the base of my palm. I'd managed to really lessen the effect by wearing a wrist brace, but now I've tweaked my thumb because of it. My wrists are pretty wimpy, so to get the brace tight enough, the thumbhole gets pulled out of place. It's extremely boring, I know, but it's hard not to think about it, since I'm typing and everything.

Anyway! I'm gearing up for a fun, friend-filled weekend. I hope you are too!

My friend Julie is coming over tonight, and it's become something of a tradition that when we get together, we have a special dessert. Well, it's one of those we've-done-it-twice-so-let's-call-it-tradition things. The first two times, we tried different cupcakes from some nice bakeries, but I've been looking for an excuse to make a cheesecake, and this seemed like a good one.

Instead of going the usual New York style route, I wanted to find a recipe for a German Käsekuchen, and this is the one I settled on. It calls for quark, which I didn't have readily available, so I substituted cottage cheese that I pureed in the blender (FYI, in order to get in thin enough to blend properly, I had to add a few Tbsp of the heavy cream that's also in the recipe). Blended cottage cheese is pretty awesome; I think it might be the whitest substance known to man.

I'm being extremely patient and waiting until Julie arrives this evening to cut into the cheesecake, so I don't know how it tastes yet (I'll update you on that once I've tried it, of course!). It's not the most attractive thing, but it seems to have set up pretty well, at least. And I guess I could have trimmed a bit more of the crust off the top, but oh well. What kind of jerk doesn't like a bit of extra crust, anyway?

Yesterday I woke up and opened the kitchen blinds to see that the above had bloomed. I'd assumed the vine that had been climbing up the shepherd's hook in my garden was a weed, at least until the buds started forming. I had a hunch as to what it might be, then, and the flower confirmed it -- a morning glory. My neighbours plant them on their side of the fence, and I guess a seed made its way to my side and about ten feet away. It couldn't have picked a better place to grow, either!

Speaking of garden surprises, I discovered a second large pumpkin hidden under the plant's leaves the other day. My gardening method looks something like this: 1) Spend all spring breaking my back tending, tidying, and planting, 2) Coast along for the rest of the summer, doing as little as possible besides watering and harvesting. That's how things like ripe peppers or giant zucchinis can just 'suddenly' appear in my garden.

But I was looking under the leaves of the squash plants (which are enormous, both the plants and the leaves) for butternut squashes, which have been slower to form, and what did I discover but a nice, big pumpkin. There are several smaller ones, but I thought I had only one that was already fairly big -- so now I have two. I am going to adopt a seasonal style of eating from now on: salads and tomato sandwiches from June - September, and nothing but pumpkin pie from October onwards.

Hello! What a gorgeous weekend we're having! I spent several hours gardening yesterday, and I managed to get the last strip of sod out of my new garden area (well, one of them, anyway) and actually PLANTED some things. I put in a section of raspberry canes that my mom dug out of her yard -- super excited about that! -- and divided some of my own perennials.

One of the only bits of gardening that the previous owners of my house had done was a tiny corner of perennials in the back yard, and it's really started to get crowded over the past couple of years. So I dug up day lillies, stellas, and irises (just the standard, big purple ones) and put them in the new space. It instantly looked like a real garden instead of a strip of dirt, and I didn't have to spend a cent!

I'm pretty excited about my apple tree this year (it's a Haralson, I think, and one of its branches is in the photo above). It's its third season in my yard, but it didn't put out any blossoms the first two. Right now, it looks as though it could have a dozen or two blossoms, at least -- I'd be very happy to get even a single edible apple off the tree!

I think Booty had the happiest day of his life yesterday. He spent quite a long time outside with me, both in the morning and the afternoon. He's very good about staying inside the fence (he CAN slip out through the gaps by the gates), and he just strolled around, alternating between nibbling grass and lounging in the sun. Every now and then he'd come over to see what I was doing, and when the wind picked up in the afternoon, it seemed to blow some mischief into him, because he suddenly wanted to play chasing and hiding-behind-the-tree. It's a bit sad for Beany, who I don't let out except on a leash (she's too fast and agile and wouldn't think twice about chasing after a rabbit or dashing up the big tree), but Booty definitely appreciated his outside time as an only-cat. I think he's probably earned it after sixteen years.

Anyway, I've got plans this afternoon, involving a tempeh gyro (probably) from the Seward Cafe and then May Day parade fun (definitely) involving giant papier mache puppets. Sounds like a good time to me!

Hmm, cocoa isn't a very May-y, spring-like thing to photograph, is it? Oops. But, see, I spent four hours in the garden yesterday, and two more today. I'm not talking about leisurely hours pottering around -- I've been tearing up sod, which is pretty back-breaking work. So I've needed some extra fuel to keep me going, hence the cocoa (and the Reeses eggs, in such a clashing shade of green).

I don't particularly like ripping up sod, but my garden ideas get more elaborate each year, so it's always the first (and biggest) step in getting things going in the spring. If I try really hard, I can imagine a year in the future when I won't have to tear up big patches of lawn first thing -- it'll be the year right after the one when I finally rid my yard of grass altogether!

I do like the manual labour aspect of it, though, once I get going. There's no looking at clocks to know when it's time to stop; there are only the tasks at hand and the point at which my body starts complaining. Both yesterday and today, that was in the form of a sore wrist. The bending and heaving and twisting don't seem to have hand any effect (although it's often the second day that's the worst, so we'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow!) -- but the gripping and pulling have taken their toll on the tendons in my arms.

Never mind. I only have one skinny strip of grass to pull up tomorrow and then I'll be done... with half the yard. I'll have to tweak the PDF I made last year to reflect the changes, so you'll be able to see what I've been up to. Basically, the entire perimeter of my back yard will be garden. Three good reasons for this:

1) More garden! How could that be bad?
2) I can never make my weed whacker/strimmer work, so it's always been impossible to keep the grass by the fences looking nice.
3) There are patches of lawn that are always dry and deadish, so I've incorporated them into my garden design. Last year, I turned the entire strip of land on the side of my house into garden, and it went from a dry wasteland to the best spot in my entire yard for growing veggies!

Happy May Day, everybody! Hope yours has had at least a little sunshine and green.

So, that first round of seedlings, the who-cares, come-what-may round. . . they all died. No big surprise there. I knew there wouldn't be enough hours of sun so early in the year, which I think was exactly what wound up being their downfall. They just never grew big. Unlike some beans sprouts which are threatening to take over the kitchen:

I would be SO pleased with my baby beans plants. . . if only they weren't almost a foot tall. Bum. We had almost a week of cloudy skies right after my latest batch of seedlings sprouted, so everything grew taller and taller, apparently trying to go right up past the clouds. I've had to start new seeds for the kale and broccoli, although the tomatoes (Brandywine) seem to still be holding their own. We'll see how these beans do, but I can't really imagine their long stems holding much more weight than they've already got.

The last couple of days have been brilliantly sunny, and I'm almost beginning to remember what it's like to spend time in my backyard. More after the cut...

[Garden Journal 2. Apologies for the recycled photo, but everything outside happens to be dead at the moment.]

It seems strange to start talking about flowers so early on in my garden journal, since flowers are so low on my list of priorities. But the spring (did I say spring? I meant the deepest deep of winter) is the time for planning, for choosing what will go where in your plot of land. So, flowers.

It's hard for me to want to give over any space for a plant that doesn't earn its keep – and by that, I mean 'feed me.' Gardens are a lot of work, after all. Last summer was filled with unbelievably hot spells and marked by a distinct lack of rain. Getting out with the hose every day, usually more than once, was necessary to keep everything alive, and I'm not sure I would have been as dedicated if it weren't for all the vegetables clinging to life. They were like my tiny children that I had to cherish and tend to (and then pick and devour).

[This is my first garden journal entry. You might notice a slightly different style in the writing (and the length), which is because it was written in Word instead of MT.]

So, it's only the middle of early February (or is it the beginning of the middle?), and I've already got my garden started. Of course, it happened by accident. Yes, I'm guilty of fondling seed packets, was doing so as early as a month ago, but I've always had the good sense to put down the packet of potential bush beans (or whatever) and face the fact that it's still winter. And it will be for a long, long time.

Even though I've been thinking about this year's garden since before last year's was done growing, I don't want to rush things. The Minnesota climate doesn't support year-round growing, unless you count listless indoor herbs. The fact that Swiss chard supposedly gets sweeter the colder it gets outside is interesting, but useless. Nothing gets sweeter at twenty below (that's Fahrenheit, of course); it only gets crispier. Frozen, I mean.