Mary Mary Quite Contrary...

...how does your garden grow?

It is a BEAUTIFUL morning. I am saddened to think school starts, but summer is not over in my book. It's a cool 70*ish - and I'm outside watering plants and such. I am noticing that the spinach is not coming in yet - maybe it takes longer? The watermelon, conversely, is sprouting right up! How fun :) It is Mike's favorite fruit - and would be fun to have an October watermelon dish!

This morning I finally got some lavender plants into little seedling plots! They are to begin indoors, but since it's starting to "cool" off down here, I'm going to chance it. At least for today. Would be fun to use in the house for fresh scents. And in home cleaning products.

Oh yes. I found a book at the library on green housekeeping. I'm blossoming into an environmentalist before your eyes. I suppose being in my first home and seeing how much cleaning products cost and the do-it-yourself'er in me wants to try some new things. We fill up our recycling bin a week ahead of time, so this week unfortunately we are pitching some cardboard. I'm going to try and rescue it, but we'll see...

I also planted some zinnia seeds. They are in our little bin that we once used for herbs. Interestingly, there are some little basil sprouts that are popping up. In making room for the zinnia flowers, I thought about uprooting the basil. I was reminded of the verse in Matthew -"Let both grow together until the harvest" (Matt 13:30). So this will be fun to watch. The windows are open and Gambler and I are enjoying a quiet Cary morning. More to come!

Growing Basil: Hurricane Edition

As we anticipated the storm, I chose not to water the garden the day before. Predictions were for 2-5", and I didn't want the fresh seedlings to float away! Unfortunately, rain was less than extraordinary - in fact, the wind was the most intense aspect of Irene's visit to Cary. It did eventually rain, and was a nice, gentle shower.

I didn't pull the basil plant in, as it was a free-standing pot. I should have! I guess I wanted to chance it and see - ha. Anyways, it hung in there as well. Following the "storm", I checked on everything and it seemed great.

In fact, I made a wonderful dish last night, the recipe for which my mom passed along to me. Summer Garden Pasta! It was a marinade of cherry tomatoes and basil, among other spices and olive oil. It was perfect. I last hoorah for summer before school starts tomorrow!

It was an incredible summer to say the least - I will miss you Summer of '11, but know this new year will bring lots of new adventures and blessings. :)

Cute site!

Here's a great blog I found of cooking nearly everything in a crockpot! This woman is going through recipes for a year - much like Julie and Julia (Child).

Click here to access an alphabetical listing of recipes!!

This is so exciting - a great way to start a meal and have it ready when I get home!! :)

Sprouts!

Exciting things are happening in Cary!!

Last Friday I began our fall garden. It was a lot of fun - turning over the soil, dirt in my fingers, the whole bit! We are attempting to grow cauliflower and broccoli (were pre-grown sprouts) and from seeds: lettuce, carrots, okra, spinach, and the wild-card - watermelon! So far, the lettuce is peeking through. If even one of these things comes to full fruition, I'll be ecstatic. The whole thing is still a grand adventure.

Feeling a little nervous about school starting. Hoping that the prep work I've done this summer towards meal-planning will pay off. Really hate the "busy-ness" of school life. Having something at home to water and nurture is fun and a good way to stay grounded. And a fun way to spend time with nature.

Mike was totally my inspiration. He planted tomato plants at the beginning of the summer, and seeing his passion and excitement when they started to grow made me feel so happy :) Hoping we both enjoy our second jobs as farmers.

Tonight

We tried a new recipe - Polenta a la Amie.

Basically I found a package from Trader Joe's of Organic Polenta and thought I could whip it up into something creative! Also, I was coming back from Duke and generally we do better if it's something quick and easy for dinner.

Knowing nothing about polenta, I read a couple websites and the instructions on the packaging. I popped the pre-cooked polenta out of the plastic, cut it into rounds (thin) and set them in a lightly oiled pan. Covered it with pizza sauce, some sauteed veggies and cheese and voila - Polenta pizza-ish.

The nice thing about our dinners is a. Mike will eat anything, and b. anything home-cooked generally tastes really good as we're both starving when we get home.

Seeing as polenta is pretty low in calories, I was hungry again at 8:30pm. But it was a nice, light and healthy summer dinner :)

Eggplant Parmesan!

So the "Casey" name worked until I had to pluck some basil leaves, and so we'll go back to an unnamed plant. :)

Tonight I made what seemed to be an excellent Eggplant Parm! Last time it did not turn out that well, but it tasted awesome tonight. Or I was really hungry...

I visited Trader Joes today and got the above tomatoes. I didn't end up using the tomato sauce, and the canned diced tomatoes/juice was really flavorful!

It took about one hour to make. By the time you slice/bread and roast the eggplant, and get everything else together, assembling it is easy!

The recipe is here!

Enjoy <3

Disappointed

Unfortunately, the herbs I bought from Target did not last when potted and placed outside. They came in a plastic container, and they still had the brown tangle of roots and soil at the boom - so I assumed they would be fine to place into some potted soil with some water.

I was wrong :-/

Thyme is a beautiful herb. Unless it's dead. Then it is a flattened, jumbled mess of...gross-ness. The dill similarly did not survive the summer in a pot, and is no more.

However, Casey is doing quite well and her leaves continue to be bright green! We will be going out of town this weekend, but fortunately the Stewarts will be caring for both our dog and our basil plant. And we'll be gone just overnight. Not to worry!

Last night we had an excellent dinner. It was not basil-based, but flavorful nonetheless. Here is the recipe for Chicken Almondine - it was quite easy to make and will be a quick go-to dinner when the fall comes in full force. Yum!

Tonight, Mike and I will be going to our favorite pizza joint - Namoli's. A taste of NYC right in...Apex! Should be a fabulous Wednesday night date.

Meet Casey!

Here's the star of the blog! I named her Casey, as it's a hybrid of Cary and Basil. No one ever said I was creative!

Anyways, she was outside for much of the early summer. I bought her at Fresh Market (much like Whole Foods) and it was in anticipation of a bruschetta dinner. Inspired by a family I babysit for, I decided to plant it in a pot and set her in the kitchen. Not too long afterwards, we created an entire grouping of herbs - rosemary, mint, basil and citronella (for the mosquitos). Interestingly, this particular basil plant was imported from Harrisonburg, VA - so yes, Casey is a Dukes fan!

As the summer went on, she grew taller and taller. She survived our siesta in Key West, but once the hot hot temps arrived, she began to dwindle. Turning brown and seemingly dead, I went to Home Depot to buy a replacement. Seeing that NO herbs were available, the man said that even if there's a hint of green it can still survive. Following his instructions, I trimmed down much of the branches and began watering her. Would you know the next day there were new green shoots.

The temps have persisted, and although Casey came back to life, she began to get too hot. What you see is a return to her pot and a safe haven in the double sink. She went outside this weekend to enjoy the insane amounts of rain we got.

We'll monitor things closely, but yes, Casey's doing quite well. Hoping to make another basil-inspired recipe soon!! Been busy doing home redecoration, but cooked a nice fettucini bolognese yesterday and sweet and sour chicken tonight! Mmmm.