Garden Glimpses

Today's Harvest

Victory, Sweet Victory!

It was the black licorice bits from the bulk foods section at Giant that did the trick!!  (If you only knew how desperate I was to catch this guy!)  Be assured, there are still some more of his/her buddies to catch!

Off we go for a little drive....

:)

Garlic Scape Season Has Arrived!

Hooray, my garlic scapes are finally ready for harvesting!!  They're a little small this year - not sure if it's because I didn't get my garlic planted until very late in the season last year, or what the case is.  But, either way, they will be yummy!

Tonight's dinner menu:

Roast Chicken

Pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto

Strawberry Salad with Candied Almonds

Strawberry-Rhubarb Slab Pie

:)

PS -  The pie I baked yesterday totally bombed in every way, but I'm going to eat it anyway - it was way too much work and way too expensive to toss.  First of all, I broke my "eat-only-what-you-grow" rule because I had to buy strawberries since my strawberry crop was really skimpy this year.  (I put new plants in this spring, so should be in good shape next year, but this year was a bummer - only a handful here and there.)   Thankfully, my farm down the road had organic strawberries at a good price - cheaper than the non-organic strawberries at Root's! Then, when I was ready to bake the pie, I went out to the garden to harvest some rhubarb, only to discover I didn't have enough.  :(  :(  Since the crust was already made, and the strawberries already purchased, I headed off in search of rhubarb.  After driving all over the place and stopping at a number of roadside produce stands, I finally found some at  the sweet little Amish stand where I've bought some in the past. As I was finishing up the pie, I kept thinking, "I don't remember the recipe calling for orange zest, I don't remember it calling for this much rhubarb, I don't remember crust recipe calling for so much butter, etc., etc."  It wasn't until I sampled it (after I had WAY over baked it - note that I didn't say burned!), and it had bubbled out all over the oven that it dawned on me that I had used the WRONG recipe.   (I have no idea how that happened - I am pretty meticulous about my recipe file....)  I was so BUMMED!!!  This is one of my all-time favorite recipes, and I had been looking forward to making it all spring.  The final product is just not that good....  I made a huge pan to hand out and  freeze for future desserts, so I will be eating not-so-great Strawberry-Rhubarb pie for a long time to come....  

:(  :(  :(

Note:  Be assured that the link above is to the recipe I should have used!

Today's Harvest

Sugar Snap Peas

Today's Harvest

Mercury Free!

I am officially mercury free!!  After five visits to the dentist (not something for the faint of heart!), my mercury fillings have been safely removed and replaced, thanks to Dr. Allison.  

I am wearing this button proudly!

:)

Beauty Sighting

Bank Pillows

Aren't these cool?!  A friend asked me to stitch pillows out of some old bank bags she found when she was cleaning out her parents' home.  Her father worked for the bank in his previous life, so these have sentimental value for her.

:)