Eating Local in the Summer Is Easy
Despite the sweltering, miserable, suffocating heat of Mississippi in the summer, I still adore this time of year because I am able to grow a lot of my own food, watch hummingbirds (from a distance though because they're a little too much like big bees for my taste), and have daylight until after 8pm. I also enjoy buying vegetables from an old man on the side of the road and going to the farmers' market. Side note: This year, my husband and I are even running a booth at the market. We bake and sell fresh bread. It's...
On Weddings and Marriage
Today is my wedding anniversary and a holiday and yet I still woke up at 5:40 this morning. Go figure. Now that it's 7:10 and a little closer to the time I normally wake up, I am enjoying the day and the quiet in the house. Dogs and husband still asleep, and I've already been out for a stroll around the yard to check on my garden. I must admit that our wedding was pretty awesome--really, it was. We had all our favorite friends and family there, tons of tasty food, and a...
It’s Probably Offensive That I Was Offended
I went to buy some drinking stuff Saturday--a bottle of champagne and some sweet tea vodka. If you haven't tried it, you should stop reading and go get some ASAP. It really is more important than my being offended. Do please come back and read with drink in hand though. So I went to the closest liquor store where there is this especially chipper cashier. Especially chipper. Exceptionally chipper. She's really just too chipper. Anyway, I've encountered her before, and I must admit, she drove me a little crazy, but on Saturday she flat out offended me. After asking me about...
Earlier Lessons
Although this blog focuses on what I am currently learning, I have, of course, been learning for a while, and this weekend I was reminded of some especially valuable lessons. 1. Funny friends are the best friends. I got to see one of the funniest this weekend, and she, true to form, kept me laughing the entire time I was with her. 2. Allowing things out of your control, such as a wedding day filled with tornadoes and rain, to roll off your back means you have arrived and are officially an adult. (I'm not there quite yet, but my friend...
Soup for a Sore Throat
I was sick a few weeks ago. Really sick. Ed's band had a show out of town, so I was home alone for the weekend and wanted to cook something that would last until I was well. My option: thaw out some chicken stock, throw some vegetables in a pot, and sit on the couch while it cooked. It was pretty good, so I'm now (several weeks later) going to share the recipe. You will need: 3-4 carrots 1 onion 3-4 garlic cloves 1 turnip...
Springtime Blooms Both Outside and In
It’s been spring around here for a while, but I’m just now getting around to posting about it. Frankly, I’ve been either working through it or sitting out on my back deck enjoying it. Now that nearly everything is in bloom (azaleas still to come), I’ll show you what I’ve been enjoying for the last few weeks. The quince was the first to bloom, and what a show it puts forth. These bushes are quite humdrum throughout most of the year—little foliage and thorny branches—but they sure make up for it in the early spring when they fill with beautiful pink...
I Killed a Frog
Spring doesn’t normally conjure up images of dead frogs, but, for me this year, it does. We bought a house last summer, and the yard (I’m tempted to call it a garden after having finished Michael Pollan’s Second Nature) is beautiful but quite overgrown. We’ve recently been working on the four raised beds/islands that will soon be our herb and cut-flower gardens. They had a variety of bulbs, roses, and other plants in them, but, in order to use them as we wanted, we had to break them up and get out the weeds. This meant a lot of work...
Boardtown Organics: My Solution for Local, Free-range Chicken and Eggs
As you all know, I have sworn off non-local meat, and, although Sanderson Farms is a Mississippi company, that’s not quite what I was going for with “local.” So far this year, my meals have been mostly meatless until recently when I got a deer, just about as local as you can get. But I was looking around on Local Harvest and discovered a family farm just outside my door. Boardtown Organics (Boardtown, by the way, is what Starkville was before it was Starkville) is a small operation just outside the city limits, but I don’t...
Deer Meal #1: The Deerburger Steak
I know you’re all anxiously awaiting a venison update, and I’ve now got one to share. About two weeks ago, we got our deer. I bet she was pretty, but, when she arrived to us (and by arrived, I mean that I picked her up under an overpass in nowhere Mississippi around 7PM—I think this makes the experience so much better), she had already been processed and came in vacuum-packed packages of ground meat, steak, roast, and cured sausage. I quickly thawed out one package of the ground meat (probably about 1.5 lbs. or so) and proceeded to make “hamburger”...
Five Facts about Almonds
Since succombing to my cashew allergy, I have tried to eat more almonds. They're healthier anyway, right? Well, I've learned quite a bit about them:
1. About 23 almonds equals one ounce.
2. There is even a tin you can buy that holds exactly one ounce.
3. Almonds come from California. 4. Almonds are first on the Mayo Clinic's list of super foods. (To be fair, they are first because of alphabetical reasons, but, hey, it sounds good to say they're first, right?) 5. One serving (one ounce/23 almonds) has half of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin...Now Reading
Planned books:
None
Current books:
-
The Western Intellectual Tradition, from Leonardo to Hegel by Jacob Bronowski
-
The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
Recent books:
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
- Wandering Star (Lannan Translation Selection Series) by J.M.G. Le Clézio
-