Lady of the Feast

On the wall of a local restaurant I frequent, right above the table I normally sit at, watching as I eat.

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Update: A Catholic friend of mine pointed out that I posted this on the same day as the Feast day of Our Lady of Guadcalupe. That wasn't intentional, but it's a pretty cool coincidence.

Garden Update: Cabbage

Happy to report that the garden is doing well. Most of the food we've been eating for dinner comes from the garden and we haven't had to buy fresh vegetables from the store in several weeks. This year I've also been able to grow some food that I have tried before. For example, yesterday we picked and ate the first cabbage I've ever grown. It tasted great. From the looks of things there are another five cabbages on the way. Considering this is my first attempt growing cabbage, I'm thrilled with the results thus far.

Grilled Peaches

We had a neighborhood party on Independence Day. I always enjoy these activities because there’s plenty for the kids to do and I get a chance to chat with neighbors and get to know them better. And there’s the food. A big, yummy potluck dinner where I get to try new things to eat. The highlight was trying grilled peaches—something I had never considered grilling before. Here’s a pic as they cooked on the neighbors grill.

Before you cook then, you brush on a light coat of oil on the bottom so they don't stick to the grill. Cook them on the top shelf for 5-10 minutes. (Cooking time varies depending on how hot the grill is on the inside. Cook until their slightly squishy when you squeeze them. To server you top them with a spoonful of a delicious mixture of Greek yogurt, honey, and cinnamon.

The result is this warm mouthful of yumminess. It's like manna from heaven. Only better.

Life in the Garden: Week 1

A view of our garden, after planting.

One of the things me and Marathon Girl both like to do is garden. At our old home, we had a small garden in the back yard. It was smaller than what we wanted but it was a small home with a small yard so we made do with what space we had. At our new place, the yard is roughly three times as big but since it was a new home, the yard wasn't done and there was no space or good ground for a garden. We've been saving up money in the (almost) two years since we've moved in order to get a yard that the kids can play in and a garden space for us. Over the last couple of weeks we've removed rocks, put in some good soil, and planted grass.

Saturday I (finally!) planted the first half of the garden. There are now rows of lettuce, beets, radishes, onions, cabbage, carrots, and Swiss chard. Basically I planted all the hardy and semi-hardy plants that need to start growing before the weather gets to warm. Next week we'll add tomato plants, peppers, squash, melons, beans, peas, and corn. Most of the veggies I planted we don't have a lot of experience growing. Most of them are an experiment to see what we can or can't grow well in this area. In our last home we learned what worked and what didn't and after our first year could generally plant year after year successfully. I'm just glad we have the space to try new things. If three-quarters of what we planted turns out, I'll consider this part of the garden a smashing success.