Archive for ‘July, 2012’

Another foray into gardening

There was a time when I planned to turn Beardog Hill into an herb garden. ( Herb Garden, Part 1 )

But, that was before it was Beardog Hill and since Bear has taken as much of a liking to it as Karl did… well, I think it will stay Beardog Hill! (Bear on Beardog Hill)

At my Swan River Road house, there was a gorgeous herb garden right in front of the front porch.

Sage, chives, mint…. I was spoiled by being able to skinkle down the front porch steps and nip off a few fresh herbs when I wanted.

The fresh basil and cilantro from Swallow Crest Farm have renewed my want of my own fresh herbs. Although I’ve been buying the live basil and fresh parsley and rosemary…the grocery store “fresh” herbs do NOT have the intense flavor that the basil and cilantro fresh out of the ground have.

So, this morning, needing nothing from the regular grocery, I whistled Bear to the Jeep and off we went to Hooper’s Nursery to see about some herbs.

Hoopers is loverly!! The day was beautiful. At 10:30 a.m. this Saturday morning, there were more employees than customers and I had a chance to speak to several and ask all of my questions.

The Hooper’s folks are as wonderful as their grounds are beautiful and I came home with…

Chives, rosemary, sweet basil and regular basil, parsley and lavender. Cilantro, peppermint and spearment will be ready next weekend.

My plan/hope is for container herbs…transportable container herbs that can go in the motorhome as well as into the house for winter.

We shall see.

My thumb’s greenness has not been tested for some time.

But all of the children have new homes in new pots with good soil. A red flyer wagon is on its way to allow moving the little ‘uns to and fro in and out of the sun as needed.

Whoo!!… After all of that…

I put my feet up and poured a glass of my favorite summer wine: Paradise dry pear wine from Ten Spoon Winery in Missoula, Montana. I am not normally a fan of non-grape wine and definitely not of sweet wines, but I love pears and it said “dry” so I tried it a bit ago. While a wee bit sweeter than my normal Chardonnay, it is still a dry, crisp wine with just a hint of pear. Well chilled, it is a refreshing sip on a hot day and it is from Montana :)!

‘gator dog and pizza on the grill

It is hot.

Well, for a Montanan, it is hot.

And for a Montana Beardog, it is VERY hot.

And a little more humid than is normal. And it makes us yawn…

And then it makes us roll on our back…

A beardog, rolling on his back in the grass…grunting and snorting…

I call him “Alligator Dog”…

“grumph…urg…phhtt”

It’s an alligator daaawwwgg!

And it feels so good.

‘gator dog

Yep!

And bringing up the rear of this post…a pizza on the grill that did not make the cut for the “Eating from the garden post”… lunch….some chard mushroom mix…

A hunk of my refigerator dough.

Lunch pizza. On the grill.

*** P.S. I write this post at 8:30ish p.m. I picked up my CSA share earlier…: week 11. It included a pint of RED RASPBERRIES!!! Hoo rah.

Eating from the garden: Week 10

Swallow Crest Farm, my CSA source, has fully recovered from the hailstorm damage of several weeks ago as evidenced by this week’s bounty of salad greens, kale, chard, baby carrots, peas, basil, cilantro and cauliflower! I bought only a red pepper and mushrooms from the produce section of the grocery this week!

I found a recipe for a chard and mushroom popover, made with gluten free garbanzo free flour. I downsized the recipe for my 5 inch mini deep pie dish, subbed gruyere for the provolone in the recipe and had a Sunday breakfast treat extraordinare!

Next time, I will add red pepper and kalamata olives as well but no complaints for this first round.

This week’s pasta salad used the garden peas, red pepper, olives, monterey jack and a dressing made with pesto (using the garden basil), a little mayo and some pickle juice.

The chard was beautiful and tender. Several times during the week, I gave a couple of leaves a chiffonade and sauteed them lightly with a few mushrooms.

I used some of the chard, mushroom mix with leftover ribeye, baked potato and some sweet onion to make a breakfast hash – a poached egg, bagel bun with goat cheese and my own citrus marmalade made for a darn hearty breakfast that held me until mid-afternoon one day.

My real experiment of the week was curry-cauliflower pickles. So pretty in the jars and they turned out sweet-HOT and crunchy. Seriously good alongside a hamburger sandich on English muffin bread (yes, MY english muffin bread!) and a slice of havarti.

Eating from the garden: week 10 – delicious!

A Sunday Evening

A hot week followed by a cool, but anomalously humid weekend that finally recouped into an absolutely gorgeous Sunday evening with clear, cool air! The sky turned blue, the air dried and the light was picture perfect.

I stood in the sunroom and enjoyed.

Quiet. A cool breeze. Late afternoon light through the trees.

Bear…relaxed and comfortable.

Bob was out as well…

…seeing what there was to see.

A Sunday Evening.

Beating the heat

Sherbet…I love sherbet…icy, fruity, sherbet.

I was talking to my mother about the frozen yogurt and she related that when I was born… August, 1955 – a VERY HOT!!! August…my grandmother made her pineapple sherbet. My mother remembered that the recipe included buttermilk. As we were talking, I was Google-ing and found a pineapple sherbet recipe…WITH buttermilk – and NO ice cream maker needed.

I had a fresh, uncut pineapple in my refrigerator. I had buttermilk. I had fresh basil.

Pineapple-basil sherbet – So VERY good! It was almost worth the 90-92F temperatures to enjoy this treat. I added the basil to the recipe and if you have not experimented with fruit-herb mix, I highly recommend. Basil and cherries is good as well. I will be experimenting further.

Today, Saturday, it was much cooler at 74F. At my house, the forecast rain did not happen and the overcast sky and heavy air was not as comfortable as 74F usually is in Northwest Montana…still – it was nice to have the A/C off and the windows open. We are to be at our normal low to mid-80’s this week.

Saturday evening: beating the heat.

Pillow Monster

Loch Ness has Nessie, Flathead Lake has the Flathead Lake Monster…

… and I have Bear, the Pillow Monster.

Happy Friday the 13th!