- The snow outside put me in the gardening mood-- inside. I found
two ripe tomatoes for our pizza and salad this weekend. When I cleaned
up the outdoor garden I brought all the green tomatoes to the basement
and wrapped them in newspaper so I should have a steady supply of
tomatoes as they ripen over the next few weeks. I then tended to the
"Lower 40" as we are calling our acreage in the basement this year. We
set up two grow lights by the washing machine to keep herbs and salad
growing all winter. I actually propagated 4 new basil plants by placing
the cuttings in water until they grew roots and planted them into the
soil in my containers under the grow lights. My green onions, parsley,
and geraniums that I brought in before the freeze made the transition to subterranean living and artificial light quite well so far. My other big
planting project was putting in the salad garden. Eventually our goal
is to grow all our spinach, lettuce, and other greens in the basement. I
planted the first few rows of spinach, lettuce, kale, and Swiss chard
as well as some microgreen sprouts and wheat grass just for kicks.
We'll keep you updated on this project.
-Besides gardening another good snow day activity is cooking. We
hosted Bible study on Sunday so I thought I would whip up a few treats
for that. Being fall, I am addicted to pumpkin recipes-- we have had
pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin baked oatmeal, and pumpkin bars (and haven't turned
orange yet). I tried a pumpkin bread recipe. This was also my first
foray into quick breads and the debut of our loaf pan-- exciting times.
While I am not a food critic or 4-H food judge I thought it turned out
well-- of course my one qualification is that it is edible. The other item I made for Bible study treats were "outrageous cookies". These have become my signature cookie. It has been decided that I shouldn't waste my time on any other recipe. These cookies have oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chips so that covers all major cookie types. These cookies also consistently turn out well-- not a flop yet which also makes this recipe worth its weight in gold. Another winner about these cookies is that our middle school kids we mentor gave them a thumbs up and Arthur inhales them. The other benefit of these cookies is that the batch makes about 60 cookies. I usually bake about 20 at a time and the freeze cookie dough balls with the rest to pop in the oven as needed.
-Speaking of the freezer, another task on this snowy day was defrosting the freezer-- the excitement never stops around here. I discovered 3 half used bags of frozen broccoli. I thought it was strange that I kept having to open a new bag each time and thought the freezer gnomes were running off with them. The upside of defrosting the freezer was discovering hidden treasures in the bottom of the freezer. For lunch we feasted on our favorite soup, cheesy chicken chowder, which was perfect for a cold ,stay-inside day. Even more exciting was the package of steaks hiding behind the half used bags of broccoli. We celebrated "freezer defrostation" with a steak dinner and movie night.
-In other news, after attending a local Methodist church for the past year, we were officially inducted as members this past Sunday. This is exciting for me (Arthur) on a number of levels. First off, how cool is it to be a Methodist process engineer? Membership also qualifies me to serve on committees and in three years they may even let me be a lay representative to the regional conference. I don't quite understand the qualification system employed by the Methodists; I would think the requirements for being an elder or on the finance committee would be stricter than lay representative, a post whose obligations are fulfilled by showing up to a specified place at a specified time once a year. Of course, they also signed us up for working with the youth after about three weeks of attendance, so it might just be better to not give much thought to merit for church office. Omnia Vincit Amor.
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