2 Apr
This is what happens when you take a year’s sabbatical from blogging: a baby plus another surprise pregnancy takes a lot of time! However, I am back at it and lots of things are happening including baking, cheese making, gardening, and that second baby any day now! Be back soon!br />
12 May
Please listen very quietly………………..that is my sigh of relief. I have been totally out of the blogging game the past few weeks because work was very very busy! But I’m back, and can’t wait to get back at it! I have a wonderful garden post in the works, but in the mean time I want to post about my very favorite old timey country meals. I’ve been re-reading/ teaching Huck Finn and in the spirit of the South I present pinto beans, and as Huck calls it: cornpone!
Of course, in this house no supper is complete without a glass of local wine:
A special shout out to my very beautiful sister Jodie at her first wine tasting: 
The air is warm, the garden is coming up, vacation is booked, stress levels are down, and Milton is crowing at 4:45: I am in my element.
19 Apr
I love my pantry. It is extremely old fashioned. Every summer we stock it full of canned veggies, pickles, jams, preserves, chutneys, almost anything that comes out of the ground or on a tree from our farm ends up in the pantry… even some meats… yeah, I go that far. Here is what it looks like now- healthy looking from this angle right?
Well, that picture only shows a quarter of the pantry… we have eaten SO much from it! The empty side, and the empty bushel basket usually full of potatoes:
So sad. My herb box and dried peppers have dwindled down to nothing…no onions left either.
However, there is hope, and I am preparing for the times to come! Jars (thanks Megan!), vinegars-essential, my flours/ salts/ grains, and pressure cookers just itching to come out:
I can’t wait to get started!
18 Apr
Lots going on around here! Pantry is getting cleaned out, freezer re- organized (pics coming soon!), plants in the ground, all in preparation for the late spring/ early summer canning, preserving! This is what spring break looks like so far for me:
11 Apr
Last year I blogged about Morels… this type of weather is perfect for the ‘shroom, and my goodness I just get excited thinking about them! My wonderful husband went looking for them and this is what he and Cowbaby came back with!
Breaded with House of Autry, and fried in bacon grease. Oh. My. Heart. Topped with some creamy horseraddish. This is by far better than ANY shrooms ordered out, almost like a fried oyster minus the consistency of any oyster.
The perfect appetizer to a nice salad:
Morels are by far the best completely natural food ever. What is more natural than going in the woods and picking your food? I want more. Now. Spring is here!
9 Apr
A totally random post so feel free to disregard. Just a few of my favorite things.
7 Apr
Who suffers from stress? I do! Who wants to find a balance between work and fun? I do! Who believes such a thing does not exist? Meeeeeee! I do not think there is a way to separate “work” from “life.” I believe I feel this way because, 1- I love my job, and 2- I have a personal interest in my job. I care about it… and so it, and the relationships I hold within it carry into my personal life. There simply is not a line of separation. When it comes to stress I have as much, if not more, stress in my personal life as my professional life. I do believe that finding balance is about finding ways to NOT stress, or at least finding those personal things that you can do to distance yourself from all the problems in your world. Those two things for me are running and gardening. Running is the only form of exercise that makes me feel this way… I think it is a breathing thing. Gardening makes me feel this way because, for some reason, I focus on nothing else when I’m gardening. The mud, the occassional electric shocks from leaning into the fence, all the plants, the concentration, the risk, the thought that goes into it… the list could go on. I believe this is why I get really ansy this time of year. We are always very cautious about our first planting, because so many things can happen… like snow in late March? So, I listen to the old timers and patiently wait for this time of year. Finally, we have some things in the ground! Onions, red and yellow!:
Potatoes, all kinds!:
How to get straight lines: 
And of course, no post is complete, and no garden fully fertilized without my main man: 
I lovvvvvvveee this time of year. Many more plants just waiting to go in the mud. One last thought from one of my Grandma’s: “A real Southern woman does not need makeup starting in the Spring.” I feel less stressed already!
