Well, ok, our table - sorry to tease!
Now that things are starting to do their thing out at the garden plot, I couldn't resist heading out there after work.
The forecast is for some rain just about every day this week, so it's not like I felt I NEEDED to water. I watered plenty on Thursday and, even though we had PLENTY of heat over the weekend (up into the 90s), I wasn't concerned for the growies - so no, I didn't plan on watering.
It wasn't that I was looking to weed - are you kidding? I hate doing that. I envy gardens like Steven's and Billy's, who just seem to look picture perfect and I imagine there's basically no weeding involved! I figure either a) this isn't true and they're more diligent than I, or b) they DON'T have real weed problems because of garden location and the lack of weeds surrounding them. So it's not like the weeding was calling me out there.
I wasn't planning to plant anything either. Yes, I have MORE things (tomatoes and flowers and maybe some herbs) needing to be planted, but I have no idea where I'd tuck them in! Nope, that wasn't it.
It was those darn little 1 inch squash I saw on Thursday! Both green zucchini and yellow squash!!! I KNOW better than to think much will have happend with them yet. Sure, it was hot and sunny - weather conditions that the squash love. But four days? This early on? NAH! Fool!
But yup, that's me - I went on out, hoping to see that they'd grown to maybe a few inches or even more! Instead they were the same size...bummer.
The good news? Cucumber beetle corpses! Lying right there on the leaves of the squash! There was even a pair who died in the act (let's call it their little death). Gotta love the wonder of Sevin! ;-)
Since I was out there, and there were other gardeners tending to their plots who I didn't want to see me pull up, walk around for 5 minutes without doing anything, and then leave, I was guilted into doing some weeding. I felt especially good about doing this around the lettuce and herbs...I could lose those babies in a couple days with how fast the weeds grow out there! I checked the status of the tomatoes - more blooms (yay!), and a couple tomato plants (both Black from Tula) that have yellowish leaves that are sort of curled down. Will have to check to see if there's a deficiency there. Also more blooms on the squash and pumpkins - another "yay!" The peas (sugar snap and snow) are both really starting to take off...still need to buy some twine for them to climb! My replanting of the low germination Maxibels is starting to come in - definitely not all of them, but some! Hopefully with all the rain this week the rest will pop out of the soil.
Not wanting to come home empty handed, and since we needed salads with dinner (leftover homemade pizza!), I picked some of the lettuce - the Revolution is an AMAZINGLY dark lettuce! The dark lollo rosso (sp?) is very attractive with it's dark and light areas and all the curling. And I forget the other variety now - more of a romaine style. The three lettuces looked great together - here's a picture of them freshly washed and ready to be served up to have with dinner. I only wish I'd taken the camera with me to snap more photos. Sharon's right - I should plan on having it with me more often, but I hate leaving it in the car all day with how hot it gets...
Oh - and on a side note - welcome back to Peter and Conrad! Sounds like they had a blast in Sweden!
11 comments:
Jeph, the lettuces look truly lovely. I hope you honoured them well with other good salad ingredients!
Yup! Tomatoes, cucumber, a little green onion, and some last minute homemade herby whole wheat croutons...and some greek dressing I bought (but am not overly impressed with). Need to stick with making my own dressing - even picked up a tube of anchovy paste yesterday, so I can start making Caesar dressing. YUM!
I was thinking the recipe I really like was by Crescent Dragonwagon in The Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, which is a great book, but I checked the index online and that's not it. Hm, will have to track that recipe down this week!!
Jeph, take some garlic, chop it up (with a knife, don't use a garlic press). Sautee it very gently in a bunch of olive oil with some salt. Let it slowly turn golden brown. Whisk in sherry vinegar. Salad dressing, simple as can be!
But anchovies? Mmmmmmmmm! Do they pass through the Brett filter if they're in a paste?
No no, no anchovies will ever make it past Brett's lips, I assure you! He doesn't want to be ANYWHERE near them! Not even in the paste form.
The recipe sounds good - and nice and simple - thanks!!! :)
(Shouldn't you be working? Shouldn't I?)
I am - killing off my lunchbreak right now!
So, you don't tell him about the paste, I assume?
ANCHOVY paste, and trust me - that goes in a salad dressing he'd never touch. He pretty much sticks with the blue cheese out of the bottle.
Made up some caesar dressing with the anchovy paste tonite. Wooooowie! Garlicky! :)
I am shocked that Brett would eat blue cheese, of all things. Or blue cheese dressing, at least. That can be a big litmus test of fussiness right there. Well, there may be hope for him. He's back on my hot list with the news of the blue cheese!
Ew, I'm the one who can't stand blue cheese. NASTY stuff! I only like it if it's in a really creamy dressing - like for hot wings. Mmmm...hot wings!! :)
Jeph, we may not be able to remain friends if you remain so closed-minded about fine cheeses.
:-(
It's okay, though: I still have Brett....
Okay boys, I'm back. The lettuce looks fantastic! My lettuce has of course bolted and the sucession patch is full of weeds. NEVER turn your back on the garden! I don't recognise the place.
I suppose this is a good time to weigh in on anchovies and cheese: I ADORE anchovies, but not anchovy paste; salt packed fillets rock. As for cheese, I could go broke on cheese. I had a fantastic aged mimolette this week that was the most gorgeous saffron color and an epoise that was so ripe and runny it should have been served in a shot glass. It was fantastic!
I hope the Sweden trip was fun, New York kind of sucked, Cintra and I bickered a lot, painted and were so exhausted at the end of the day that we barely made it out to eat at all. However, we've been friends for over 20 years and we don't let these things get to us.
Welcome back Steven - we missed your end of the conversation. And here I am about to go out of town again!
I love anchovies - salty ones, of course - but in Spain, we delighted in fresh ones served fried or in vinegar. I even got Conrad on board the anchovy love!
Regarding mimolette, a wonderful cheese for dessert. I have a fregolata recipe from a Pasta & Co. cookbook that I like to pair with the cheese. Serve it all on a wooden board with some greenery (some herb sprigs, perhaps) or reddery (pomegranate seeds) littered about and a good sweet wine or liqueur. Wonderful!
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