Parsley

My garden has not turned out as well as I had planned. But, I don't beat myself up. I'm new to this. It just kinda feels like a waste of money. I'm happy to hear advice if anyone wants to assist in my cluelessness.

First the positives: The basil is growing like crazy. The parsley is happy. I'm going to replace my depleted tea supply with mint very soon. I'm also imagining a mint chocolate chip shake or smoothie. And tonight we harvested our first tomato. (Not really. I noticed it was missing and made Paul dig in the midst of the basil for it cause I'm afraid to touch anything I can't see in my garden right now. It had ripened and fallen off, but it could stand another day or two on the counter.)

The bad things: Two weeks ago, I walked out to check on my budding green thumb and discovered my large carrot planter picked clean. I mean clean! Even the weed that I left hoping I'd get lucky, and it would magically turn into something edible was gone. The container was dry as the desert. I was heartbroken and even dreamed a couple nights later that I had giant, 5-inch in diameter carrots coming out of my planter at harvest time.

It was the end of the week. We were leaving the next day to see Paul's family. I hadn't bothered to grocery shop for the week knowing we would live on what we had since we would be away for a long weekend.

Then, Paul called to tell me he was bringing the boss home for lunch. Now, honestly this isn't so unusual. Paul's boss is female. And I've actually known her a little longer than Paul has, and not in a work environment. (And just for the record, our connections did not get him the job!) Some people might find such a relationship uncomfortable. But since Fely and I are such dominating and outgoing personalities, we get along famously and have no issues spending time together outside the office.

That being said, Fely and Paul spent the first part of their lunch break "test-driving" pianos at a "dealership" where Paul says they employ "used car salesmen." Paul thinks we need a piano for Nora. She needs the opportunity to play if she desires. I agree. Since Fely is an accomplished pianist, we asked her to help us chose a beautiful sounding instrument. Her insights were very valuable. The funny thing was that she went around the shop playing chopsticks so no one would know how well she did play. Otherwise, they would have been a good deal more pushy.

At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to convince myself, I repeat: I did not want to post my child all over my blog. However, it was evident today when it took me much longer to deal with the container garden than it should have that Nora will continue to be involved in every chore I do. And therefore will sneak into pictures here and there. I will just try to make sure they actually have a correlation to the story.

I won't bore you with the details about diaper changing and moving the carrier with me to every container so I could rock it with my foot. Instead, I will tell you how much fun I had planning my container garden, shopping, and even actually working in my garden. (By the way, thanks to Graycen Nudd for helping me plant the flower seeds this morning before she returned home with her parents.) If you have known me at all, you will likely believe I am an exceptionally girly-girl. This is true mostly. Just subtract my love for baseball, basketball, and especially hockey. Now, you can add "playing in the dirt" to the list of things I enjoy doing, especially in our fabulous spring weather. Don't get me wrong, I scrubbed my hands well and immediately applied lotion to them when I was done, but there is something so gratifying about working in the soil and seeing changes for the better and then excitedly awaiting the produce.

While Nora and I were outside enjoying the spring weather a couple days ago, I looked around sadly at our herb garden. I took a picture and decided I would share my desires and plans to improve our little urban garden. Mind you, this is not all of our garden, and I'm sorry to say, isn't the worst either. (The rocket is more depressing.) Fortunately, the rosemary on the front porch is considerably happier, which makes me not feel as bad.

We have some small pots and a bucket that someone gave me as a gift-basket. I'm going to fill each of them with dirt and plant some wild flower seeds that were sent to us as gifts. We're big on fresh flowers, and I think the extra color will make us very happy.

Next, I read somewhere that toddler swimming pools make great urban garden planters. I would love to fill one up with spinach and other greens. Seems like a good investment--this year a garden, next year fun for Nora. However, what would really make this work would be if I found a really cheap (a.k.a. free) pool. I would be extra happy to only have to invest in soil and seeds.

For a belated Christmas present, my darling aunt and uncle sent us 3 pounds of cheese curds. I spent all this morning searching online for recipes in which to use the young white and yellow cheddar pieces. Finally, it was lunch time and I hadn't been very successful. Cheese curds are most popular as Fried Cheese Curds, which there are tons of recipes for. However, after a eating too late last night, my stomach wasn't up for fried foods at lunch. Instead, I remembered a cheddar cheese soup recipe in my Moosewood Cooks at Home cookbook. However, since It's been weeks since my visit to the grocery store aside from the purchase of bananas, milk, and tortilla chips (which do me little good as I'm out of salsa), I had to adapt the recipe to what I had on hand. And you know what? I really surprised my self. I was quite proud how the soup turned out. I will say, the cheese flavor is rich in the vegetable soup. Although it was quite good, it was a bit heavy on the stomach--although that's a good idea when it's cold out. I don't expect it to be a regular soup in my collection, but that's OK because we live in Florida and rarely get the opportunity for it to be cold enough to warrant eating so much soup.

Cheddar Vegetable Soup

Inspired by Moosewood Cooks at Home

• 1/2 large onion, sliced
• 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1-2 small celery stalks, diced
• 1 small-medium sweet potato, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 2 Tablespoons McKay's Chicken-style Seasoning (vegetarian boullion)
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup cheese curds, diced small

Saute onions in soup pot or sauce pan about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add sweet potatoes, carrots and celery. Stir. Mix seasoning in water and pour into pot. Cover pot and cook about 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are soft. (The original recipe called for white potatoes. I think they sometimes take longer to cook. Sweet potatoes seem to cook faster to me.) When vegetables are soft, add milk then cheese. The key is to have small cubes of cheese and to add them gradually so they don't clump.

Ladle the soup into a blender. (Be really careful because the blender may splatter when you turn it on. I have a silicone trivet that I cover the blender with so the soup won't splatter and burn my fingers. A towel could work, too.) Reheat soup and serve garnished with fresh herbs as desired. I bet green onions or chives would have been yummy if we had had any. Also, ground red pepper seemed to be a nice addition, too.

We only ate one spaghetti squash this year. Somehow, it didn't seem like a top priority with all the butternut squash around. Not to mention, cooking squash can be more time-consuming and my feet don't enjoy long stretches of use.

I got the idea for this recipe from a friend of my parents last year. What I appreciated was how simple it was to cook, plus with the simple seasoning, the leftovers had a variety of uses. In our case, we made spaghetti squash primavera. Basically, that's seasoned vegetables and sauce served over the squash instead of pasta. It makes a great gluten-free vegetable dish with lots of nutrients.

Cooking a Spaghetti Squash

Stab a few holes in the squash and microwave for 60 seconds to soften skin. Cut squash in half from stem to base. Seed the squash. Place face-down in a microwave-safe dish, add 1 inch of water, and cover with a dish towel. Microwave for about 8 minutes, depending on the size of the squash and the power of the microwave.

Let the squash cool upon removal from the microwave because it will burn your hands. Turn the squash over and scrape the inside out with a fork and scoop into an oven-safe bowl. The "strings" resemble spaghetti--hence the name.

In the bowl with the squash, sprinkle 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tsp. sea salt (or more to taste), 2 Tab. unsalted butter (or margarine of choice), and 1 Tab. dried parsley. I only needed to "bake" my squash in the oven just after I turned it off from the 400 degrees it was heated at to cook muffins. You can cook the squash at about 350 until the garlic is cooked and the edges of the squash brown, which is great for color.

For the primavera, I cooked fresh and frozen veggies (like julienned carrots, sliced onions, broccoli florets, and bell pepper sticks) in oil and added the leftover spaghetti squash to cook through.

Fiber has five key health purposes if I recall correctly from my nutrition course: 1) Prevents constipation, 2) Prevents colon cancer, 3) Lowers bad cholesterol, 4) Helps control weight, 5) Wards off diabetes. And the day I wrote the post about counting my daily grams of protein, it occurred to me when people learn I'm a vegetarian and ask if I get enough protein, I should be asking them "Do you get enough fiber?" Being from south Louisiana, my experience has generally been that people will down meat before they pick up a fork and down salad. In fact, many people I know would vote meat and potatoes over quality fruits and vegetables. Anyway, as long as I was counting and am not so interested in counting calories because I am not trying to lose weight, I thought I'd better check our fiber intake along with our protein intake. Sadly, this takes a good bit of time; so I'm a week later typing this than the words been mulling around in my brain.

We are always happy to open our home to friends. Mike performed our wedding ceremony, and Paul has known Ashley most of their lives.

I really had a hard time finding a simple and appealing recipe for tabouleh. I finally found an excellent one. I served this as a series of "dips" for a buffet meal to a group of 20. People asked for the recipe when it was over and I overheard one educated individual say "That green stuff is good, too." Tabouleh and a hommus side went well with warm un-pocketed pita bread. I noticed a good number of people making sandwiches out of it.