Thursday, April 29, 2010

Wicked Easy

Normally, I don't use the word "wicked" in the traditional New England sense, even though I am a New Englander. But today it truly applies.

Frozen pie shell, a pint of lemon curd, and a pint of raspberries. Plus some whipped cream for serving. Mmm.

I guess I'll be making more lemon curd soon!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Gardening Update

April and May are always really busy months for me, since not only do I have a full time job and a family, but I am also an elected Town Meeting Member and Town Meeting starts in April. 3 hours a night twice a week until all the business of the Town is done. Takes about 11 sessions. So I am not sure I am going to have a whole lot of time to can things at least for another week or so. First on my agenda, though, is mint jelly. The mint is starting to come up and pretty soon I'll have enough to make a batch.

In the meantime, my peas have started to sprout.
I can't tell what the leeks are supposed to look like, but I don't think they are doing as well as the peas. I also planted 4 pumpkin seeds and 4 kabocha squash seeds with the hope that maybe they'll do something. The rhubarb is growing, but the stalks are very small and not getting much larger. This is the same problem I had last year, and I was hoping that if I left it alone near the compost heap and didn't move it much then this year would be better. It doesn't seem to be shaping up that way.

Lastly, in a week or so I'm going to try to start the roof top garden. I have decided I will not buy the plants at Wal-Mart this year, and will stick to a local garden shop instead. Hopefully they will do OK up there!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Pressure Canning, Again

What else do I do when I roast a chicken? 6 pints of stock, 4 quarts of soup.

While that is going on, the 8 year old had a cooking lesson, the first in a long time and hopefully this will be a weekly thing. Corn flake & panko chicken, brown rice, and (soon) a salad plate. Managed the oven and everything. I'm very proud!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

I'm Trying Again

The reason I moved my vegetable garden up to the roof balcony is that the chipmunks, those cheeky little critters, would eat all my tomatoes and leave the skins where I could find them.

After 2 years of rooftop gardening, which goes pretty well if one doesn't mind hauling potting soil and compost through their bedroom, I've decided to give ground level gardening another try. Since yesterday was such a gorgeous day, I worked up about 5 square feet of the garden with a little compost, staked it off to keep out human feet, and planted leeks and peas. I'm optimistic that the chipmunks don't like leeks.

I will still plant the tomatoes on the roof.