I wrote an essay in college about fond memories from our youth and I wrote about Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with my extended family many of whom are no longer alive or I have not seen for years upon years now.

Ben and I are counting our blessings this year. We are thankful that we both have jobs that we enjoy, and are in a good home with our two cats – Westley and Elwood and our dog Cleo. We are thankful for our health and good friends and family.

Hopefully this holiday season finds you and your family well.

I found  this pesto recipe:

Nona’s Pesto from DigginFood.com

What you’ll need:
4  packed cups of fresh Italian basil leaves (I use the variety ‘Genovese’)
3 cloves of garlic
½ cup pine nuts
½ cup Parmesan cheese
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Instructions:
1. In a food processor, blend the basil, garlic, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese into a smooth paste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then, with the blade running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Process until the olive oil is thoroughly incorporated and the pesto is smooth. Give the pesto a taste and add salt if necessary.

2. The pesto will keep for up to a week if refrigerated in a covered container. Bring it to room temperature and give it a good stir before using it in a recipe. To freeze, fill the individual cells of an ice cube tray with pesto and place in the freezer until solid. Then, wrap each cube of pesto in plastic and place back in the freezer. To freeze larger portions, line a small cookie sheet or pizza pan with waxed paper. Drop ¼ cup mounds onto the wax paper and freeze until solid. Wrap each mound tightly in plastic and store in the freezer. Drop the frozen cubes of pesto into soups or sauces. When using frozen pesto in a pasta dish, allow the pesto to unthaw and then stir in a few teaspoons of pasta water before tossing it with the cooked pasta—this helps distribute the pesto throughout the pasta evenly.
 
We ended up with 2 cups worth of pesto which I separated out into four ½ cup containers and froze half for future consumption.  Ben mixed some in with pasta for dinner that night, and may I just say it was quite tasty!

Oregon Snow Peas Day 1

Oregon Snow Peas, 2 weeks later

and the planter with the rest of the plants in it. Yesterday morning when I let Cleo out in the back yard I couldn’t help but to wander over to my Oregon Snow Peas and check on their progress, and my heart skipped a beat when I discovered blossoms sprouting from the plant. It feels like I have been waiting forever to see some sign of progress other than physical growth. It’s only been two months, but it can seem like forever when you’re waiting for something good to happen.

Ben has been teasing me lately because every time I go to the nursery, whether it be for plant stands or fertilizer, I always manage to come home with new plants to add to our garden. Two weeks ago, it was more oregano and a lemon verbena plant, and last week it was strawberries. Ben has jokingly placed a ban on me going to the nursery without him.

Strawberry plants in the back pot, sage and oregano in the terra cotta pot.

Last night I proudly plucked a few leaves from our sweet basil and Greek oregano plants to put in olive oil with pasta. I could have used the dried spices in the cabinet next to the stove, but why bother when I’ve got fresh herbs 10ft away? I swear, nothing made me prouder than ripping those leaves up in to the oil. Part of me almost wishes I had taken a picture of it to savor the moment in the future. I can’t imagine what I’ll feel like when we have tomatoes and zucchini coming out of our ears.

Here’s the most recent picture of our raised bed.

Raised garden bed 5-30-09

I planted the tomatoes and herbs in the raised bed we built this morning. In the bed: (back left) Viva Italia Roma Tomato, Fantastic Tomato, Shady Lady Tomato, (back right) Sweet Millions Cherry Tomato.  (Front Left) Sage, 10 Sweet Basil Sprouts, (front right) Greek Oregeno. In the middle of the planter and to the left and right in pots are marigolds. I’ve read that marigolds are great for warding off pests or “sacraficial plants”.  Looking forward to caring for these plants in the season to come.

I had ordered some tomato starts to be delivered in the beginning of April, and while I received them at their promised date, they have been relegated to living in our garden window until the weather was more appropriate for putting them in their permanent home outside. In the meantime, I have watched them inch ever higher and waiting impatiently for the day when they will start producing. Luckily I’ve had other things in the garden to be focusing my attention on to abate my “limited tomato based thinking”.

Toward the end of March I planted four Oregon snow pea seeds in the hopes that one would sprout and produce snow peas for us to enjoy through the season. Much to my happy surprise all four sprouted and have been growing ever skyward. Noticing that they were starting to climb on one another I improvised a trellis with a tomato cage that wouldn’t come to use for a little while and strung some gardener’s twine diagonally between the bars to give the peas something else for their little tendrils to wrap around.

Back in September of last year I planted some ranunculus bulbs thinking the picture on the package looked nice and that our front yard could use some extra color. I couldn’t help but be surprised when they started sprouting in November! These brave little sprouts had to bare the full brunt of Arctic Blast ’08, the worst snow storm to hit our area in 40 years. Luckily they soldiered on and when April and warmer temperatures rolled around the continued to grow and produce some beautiful blossoms that we’re still enjoying.

Unfortunately for our back yard, we haven’t been as dutiful to its upkeep as we likely should have and the back corner of our yard which last year was just a layer of bark dust is now covered in a profusion of weeds. I hope to remedy that this weekend.

2 – Large cans (16oz.) tomato sauce
2 – Large cans (16oz.) peeled tomatoes mixed with green chilies
2 – Large cans (16oz.) kidney beans (dark and light)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey
1 package turkey sausage
1 large onion (diced)
1 green pepper (diced)
2 teaspoons Chili Powder
4 teaspoons ground Cummin
salt
pepper
1/4 cup sugar

Cook: Meat, diced onion, diced pepper together add salt and pepper; until well done.(Make sure meat in chopped up well enough while cooking).
Mix in tomato sauce, peeled tomatoes and green chilies, kidney beans, chili powder, and cummin, and sugar. Stir together well, let cook on medium to low heat for 4-5 hours before eating.

Use a fairly large cooking pan or Crockpot works the best! Enjoy!

In the post holiday gloom we attended a monthly event which we have come to call the “Married Couple Collective” (MCC) and one of our friends shared this video with us:

This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

After watching the video we all agreed that growing our own produce was a good way to provide for ourselves in the down turning economy as well as support the effort toward “greener” living. With that in mind, our thoughts have turned from ornamental gardening to productive gardening.

I started some basil seeds in our garden window a few weeks ago and they are just starting to poke their heads out of the soil.

Basil

Also, I ordered four different tomato plants to be delivered in the first part of April: “Sweet Millions” cherry tomato, “Viva Italia” Roma tomato, “Shady Lady” tomato, and “Fantastic” tomato. I am looking forward to having an over abundance of tomatoes when the time comes and being able to share the wealth. In preparation for the tomato plants arrival Kam and Erin, two members of the MCC, came over to the house and helped us build a raised planter bed.

Kam, Emilie and Erin Working

It was definitely an interesting weather day – one where the phrase: “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” It was cold and we had sun to hail and everything in between. If nothing else it added to the fun of the day and we got the bed almost completely built.

Almost completed bed

We’re going to have some dirt delivered to fill it in and give it time to settle before the tomato plants get placed in the bed. We are hoping to build another bed to plant zucchini, green beans, and onion in.

In the mean time here are some lovely pictures of the snow.

Ben & Cleo in the snow 12/14

Our yard gnome in the snow 12/17

We didn’t find out that our original flight out was canceled until after we had trudged through the few inches of snow that had already accumulated taking the bus and the MAX to get to the air port hoping that they were equipped to deal with the snow. After we checked through security we went to find the gate we were supposed to fly out of and saw that all of Southwest‘s flights had been canceled for the day (and every day until today).

After rebooking our flight and finding out that they just didn’t have enough de-icing equipment to deal with the weather we sat down to have lunch in the airport before attempting to head back home. When we got down to the MAX line that runs from the airport we found that it wasn’t running because a switch was frozen at a transit center three stops up the line and they were attempting to remedy it with blow torches. After the MAX got up and running we got to the stop we need and waited in blowing snow neither of us dressed appropriately for the weather we were encountering.

Finally when we got on the bus trying to get closer to home we encountered several more problems including the bus we were on ending up in a snow drift and unable to get out forcing all of the passengers to sit and wait for another bus to come along and rescue us. Another bus came along shortly after and we all climbed on and silently prayed that it would get us that much closer to our destinations. Finally Ben and I got to the stop and began to trudge the half mile from the stop to our home in blowing snow, no where near appropriately dressed. After a three hour journey we finally arrive home, still intact, and luggage in tow. We’re thankful for being able to get home, but are sad that our trip to visit Los Angeles is so delayed.

Here are some more pictures we too on our trip to the grocery store yesterday during a lull in the storm.

Our home covered in snow 12/22

Emilie on the street in front of the house 12/22