Category Archives: 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons

I love to garden. I love to eat. I love to enjoy the seasons. And home is where my heart is!

Transition

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

I doubt it could be any more beautiful a day if I’d put in my very own order.  A warm, bright sun with the gentlest of breezes sweeping periodically through adorns my world.  The grass is brilliantly green, something you have to work for during the summer months, but comes easily these early fall days.  The tomato plants are loaded (I have a pan in the oven roasting as we speak – remember last year??)  and the annuals are enjoying a resurgance of color before their final farewell over the next few weeks. 

The sedum (from one near-dead clearance plant about 4 years ago) have gone from their hot-weather chartreuse to the light pink of a couple of weeks ago to a blazing cranberry, dotting the yard here and there in at least 12 places, growing ever larger and more glorious, the current social centers of the honey bees’ universe.

In between.

The disarray of the pool midway down, being dried and packed up for the year is rather unsightly and the shadows and sunlight dance differently now across the fences and gardens.  As the year has gone on, I have learned to let some weeds co-exist with desired produce and have let the grass enroach where I had earlier ordered it not to.

The shorter days are bringing into focus the beauty of each one, the fleeting nature of the minutes and hours that create the lives we are leading.

At 1:10 am yesterday morning, having just dozed off not long before, I was awakened abruptly and fully by an acute sense of my mortality.  At exactly 1:10 am, I realized I am closer to my death than to my birth.  I am past the middle, maybe way past.  Who knows?

I hope my colors are becoming more brilliant and more defined, less rigid and controlled.  I hope the shortened days bring more focus and appreciation for the beauty of each one.

Today she waxes melancholoy – as always, when autumn arrives…Jeanie

It has happened before… (melancholoy re: fall, I mean)…

pictured: google image, but not far from where I live

What do you get when…

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

OK, a riddle:

What do you get when you puree a couple dozen huge, juicy, red seeded tomatoes with several cloves of garlic, a big handful of cilantro, a giant super-sweet onion, the juice of 3 limes, some jalepenos (as much as you can take and still be functional) and Kosher salt (accept every blessing you can get!)?

The answer:

Fresh, home-made garden salsa – the kind that makes your tongue tingle and dimples pop!  Soooooo good.  I swear, I woke up thinking about it this morning!  YES!  It is that good!

Identity Confusion

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

 

I think the potted grape tomato plant is having trouble conceptualizing what it was bred to do.   So, while eating some actual grapes, the idea donned to place a small bunch into the tomato plant so it could visiualize the goal, where we want to be.

See, little grape tomatoes?   See these cute little grapes?   This is all I want.   I am not asking for more.   You just need to stay little and turn red and sweet.   There is really no sense in puffing up and trying to be a full-grown Roma, for that isn’t how God made you – that is not the goal of your life.

Packed all around its’ base are very happy and large purple-red celosia, apparently cheering this gargantuan-growth nonsense on.   Hopefully, however,  I have now relieved this particular plant of its’ incessant need to show off and elevate itself, to exhaust itself trying to be more and do more than anyone really wants.   It is true it had some help: the heavily-fruited grape tomato plant in the pot  on my patio  is loving the Miracle-Gro soil, as I have found, nearly all plants do.

Viva la Grape Tomato…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:   Remind Stormie relentlessly  to care for tomatoes while I am away…

Guin-Guin Day in the Garden

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, , ,

Here is what we learned today, just Guini and I having a little time to ourselves: gardening trumps Play-Doh time.   We  harvested 3 different types of peppers,  4  varieties of tomatoes, some cukes, some zucchini and handfuls of green beans.   Oh – and some wayward okra that seeded itself this year.   We are choosing to ignore the field of garlic chives that is threatening to take over the entire backyard.  

     

Here is what else we learned:

  • Watering is fun no matter how wet you get.
  • That the corn has been left to “mature” a bit too long.   It is still tasty, but tough, so we’ll let the stalks turn brown now for front porch decor in a few weeks.
  • The chiles are slowing way down in production, but they are beauts!
  • Perhaps we should have staked the jalapenos?
  • We did NOT get the watermelon in soon enough and the baby fruit are dropping in the cool night air, so sadly, we shall not reap a harvest here.
  • Nonna doesn’t check the cukes as often as she should and she has let the green beans run wild.
  • Though we may have plucked the zucchini a bit too zealously, we can still enjoy every part.
  • And it is possible to garden in sparkly, pink shoes.

A day with Guini   (aka The Flower Girl) is a sweet, soft day…Jeanie (aka Nonna)

NOTE TO SELF: Check the bounty more often – this is what all the work and watering was for!

pictured: Guini with the second batch of garden goodies; Guini inspecting a zuch; Guini with her zucchini flower; and Guini discussing gardening and telling me she still likes flowers better than veggies.   Imagine that?   (Click on photos to enlarge)

Sugar Shock: Fruit Pizza Recipe

3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

 

The sweets and baking arts are not my calling, though I enjoy  baking a wedding cake  for a crowd  because of  the challenge.   But through the years, I have latched on to a few, and I mean a few, recipes which have become known as “Family Favorites.”

One is Fruit Pizza.

Please do not mistake this goodie  for the pretty pictures of fresh fruit on a light crust that you might see in a Pampered Chef booklet or a Pillsbury Dough magazine ad.   This little pile of indulgence is heavy and sweet, chewy  and laden with fat and sugar  and could probably kill you, if you ate the whole thing.

The recipe came to Dave and I within a few weeks of our marriage from one Mrs.  Howard Helm  of Minot, North Dakota.   She was a faithful  KHRT radio listener, where Dave was the afternoon/evening dj at the time  and she stopped by the station to bring this dessert – in a time and place where it was received readily, without reservation and enjoyed by the whole staff.

This is old-fashioned-if-you’ve-gotta-die-of-something-it-may-as-well-be-dessert Fruit Pizza.   Nothing light and fresh about it – well, the fruit is until you bathe it in the “sauce.”   But it is pretty darn-tootin’ fun on occasion.   Tristan asked for it for his family birthday celebration and though we all get very excited about it initially, we can barely finish our servings and are bemoaning how rich it is before we finish.   But give it a couple of hours and we’re back.

Do you have the courage?

 

Old-Fashioned (Killer) Fruit Pizza

Crust: one roll of prepared sugar cookie dough, pressed onto a pizza round or into a cake pan or cookie sheet, baked 12-15 minutes (until browning).   Remove from oven, set aside to cool.

Sauce (make this while the crust is in the oven): 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1 cup of frozen orange juice concentrate (don’t mix it with water-just the actual concentrate!), 1 cup of sugar, a dash of salt and 3 tablespoons of corn starch.   Whisk these and bring to bubbling in a saucepan.   Cook until thickened and then set aside to cool (must be totally cool before spooning over the fruit).

Filling:   Beat 8 oz. softened cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Fruit: any combination of your favorites in season or frozen.   We love bananas, strawberries, kiwi and even mandarin oranges or fresh peaches.   Then we pop raspberries and/or blueberries on top because they look so pretty.   I used to place all the fruit in very careful patterns and designs, but when I started just using a cake pan, the sauce covered it all up anyway, so now I just throw it in.

Finish:

  • Spread the cream cheese filling over the cooled crust.
  • Place fruit over the cream cheese.   Load it up and pack it on.
  • Spoon the sauce over the fruit.   Chill for a few hours or overnight.

Over the years, we have strayed from the traditional o.j. concentrate glaze and tried fruity combinations like mango-orange, or strawberry-grape.   I also put way less sugar in now, but you can’t tell!

My teeth hurt just recounting this.

The Convivial Table

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

“The convivial table is where it all begins,” I once read  with immediate agreement  and wish I could remember where and to whom it should be attributed.   Naturally I liked the word “convivial” because it denotes lively feasting and banqueting with loved ones, being in good company with lots of good food for all.

I was perusing an old issue of Architectural Digest   recently, a lovely magazine I try to pick up from the annual library clean-up sale,  when I  saw an ad for Electrolux appliances which said,

“In my kitchen: I preheat a memory.   I fold in old friends with new.   I bake a good laugh.”  

I enjoyed the clever marrying of cooking and baking terms to the meaning of life.   There’s an ad person with a poet’s heart, methinks.  

And isn’t the kitchen truly the lifeline of home and family?   Is this not where we experience unforgettable laughter and memory, the aromas of love and home-cooking?       Isn’t it in the kitchen we hear the music of the percolating coffee, the sizzle of the bacon, the the beep of the timer signifying the wait is over, the promise has arrived?     Is this not where we see the garden’s burst of  color  and taste of life itself?  

The convivial table is life-giving.   The convivial table is a place of gratefulness and feasting.   “The convivial table is where it all begins,” and the place we keep hoping to get back to and should visit often.

I my kitchen I…what?

Eat, drink and be merry with some people you love…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Tomorrow the table will be laden with fish tacos and fruit pizza for Tristan’s birthday (hey it is his menu!), and with love for him and loud talk and laughter amongst all.

pictured: a table spread for Christmas cheer moments before the lively and much-loved guests arrived

 

 

Tomato Haters, Beware

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

There’s a new kid in town!   HA!

I kept noticing these nice, large and juicy-looking tomatoes that seemed to have started ripening, but then never quite kept going.   But never-you-mind, I was getting plenty from the other plants, anyway.   Finally, though  I had to find out “what gives??”

Guess what?   I forgot I had plopped a lemon-tomato into the ground!   I got this armload of juicy, tangy, pure-yellow tomatoes.   They pack a powerful punch of a taste, I tell you!   They are yellow through and through with no “green gooey seedy” centers, which Bryan accuses the red tomato of holding.   Oh-they are gooooood!

 

Sadly, today, I discovered the work of probably at least 2 hornworms chewing up my tomato plants.   I have never had a hornworm since living here (6 years) and this is not good.   Their natural enemy is the wasp and we seem to have plenty of them zooming around, but they did not do their job.   So, when I was cutting back some stringy petunias (which you really must force yourself to do about this time each  year for a spectacular late summer display) and a wasp charged me, I got out the spray and killed about 50 of them.   Dave threw away their little village.   Really-the one reason I let them live in the first place: hornworms!   I am going in deep to find those fat tomato killers, who  pretty much  look like  Heimlich from “A Bug’s Life,” (very rotund when having recently gorged on my tomato leaves) but are nothing more than satanic destroyers from hell.   They shall die I tell you!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…  

 

I ran into Baby Averi at Target and she told me to go ahead and roast up a batch of her green chiles (Averi’s Anaheim greens).   I picked a pile, along with some Macho Nacho Jalepenos and a couple of cucumbers.   The chiles  are slow roasting in the oven next to a pork butt and, baby, it is gonna be delish!   Green Chile is quintessential Colorado!

I have this strange domestic, cooking thing happening.   Somebody stop me…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:   Kill the hornworms.   Kill the hornworms.   Kill the hornworms…Seek and destroy!

pictured: lemon tomatoes from my garden, a nasty hornworm; Gav and Averi investigating her garden area, the chiles she grew…

Five Little Monkeys

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think,

   

Gavin (5)  is in Kindergarten now.   He seems rather appalled at the lack of snacks and refreshments offered by his new teacher, as when he pre-schooled with me, each completed assignment signified it was time for a break and snack!   He also knows here, even if I put “special toys” away in the garage, he is free to find them and use them at will.   He has often reported of Kindergarten: “There’s a lot of toys there, but I can’t play with them.   It’s hard work.”

   

Guinivere (3)  came over with her siblings the other night at 8:30 pm while her parents went to see Death Cab for Cutie.   The others fell asleep at a reasonable little-kid time, while Guini danced and pranced about happily until 12:30 am.   Not only is she a nightowl – she is an exhuberant night owl, full of joyful and loud talk!

   

Gemma (1)  is such a petite and tiny thing, a person is sometimes surprised by how independent and  wry she is.   Even her orneriness is sweetened by the moments she runs up to me saying, “Hold me, hold me, hold me,” over and over as she reaches her skinny little arms around  my neck and comes in close.    And then she is off again like a flash.   She can almost finish a popsicle drip free!   At one!

   

Hunter (almost 4)  is King of the Corn.   He helped me till the ground in the little 4′ x 4′ square a few months back.   He  spread a little manure and he pushed the corn seeds in to the ground with his little finger.   Whenever he came over, he’d water his corn field and became very delighted to see the corn pop up and grow to his knees and then his shoulders and then over his head.   We have been getting corn for a couple of weeks.   I think he likes the idea of touching and watering and playing with corn more than the eating it, but he’ll learn.

     

Averi (6 1/2 months) came over one night a couple of weeks ago with her hair in little ponytail “sprouts.”   When Jovan took them out to get her in her jammies and all comfy for the night, at first her hair just stayed there – sprouted out.   Then it began to come down into these side poofs which made her look like Princess Leia.   Then for awhile she looked like Jim Carrey  as Ace Ventura, but it was finally decided she looked most like the Mayor from  Whoville.   Whatever – we love her hair!   AND she just got her first tooth a couple of days ago!

These are the 5 little monkeys who jump on my beds, my couches, off my counters, through my garden and into my heart.

Have I ever mentioned how happy I am to be a grandma?…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Get a really good camera, for crying out loud.

A Sign

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

I am receiving this as a sign: this one floppy sunflower is fixed my direction.   The others continue heliotroping  vigorously  or fixing themselves toward my neighbor’s deck (the east), but this one, scraggly and wind-tossed, looks me straight in the eye, and makes itself shine upon me.

The world has  gone mad, but the sun shines on.   The sunflower, too.