Buncha stuff

I’m not going into the details here, because this is not a “dear diary” kind of blog, but oh my, has a lot of Life Been Happening lately. My main task has been to keep my head above water, and if I have any left, those of my loved ones, so blogging…not so important lately.

In lieu of writing full posts on all the things I could be writing about, I give you a List of Stuff. Details may be forthcoming on some of them; if one intrigues you, let me know and I can bump it up in the queue.

Listiness:

• Lentil pie: carrots, onions, and broccoli (pick a different 3rd veg next time) topped with seasoned lentils (not very soupy) and a layer of diced potatoes. Sprinkle top with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic and a good spray of olive oil. Bake at 400 for 35 mins. Nummy.
• Preserving Traditions continues to rock. We made yogurt and granola today, and it was intensely gratifying when we got to the sampling part of the day that the only noise was the clanking of spoons and the occasional grunted “Mmmm, tha’s good!”
• A local cooking angel will be doing a small fundraiser dinner for PT in June. Details as they become available…
• Found a 17-piece Farberware set for $99 after rebate today. Bought one and will split with the Grange.
• Food allergy testing is a pain in the neck, but going ok.
• I still have candy left from the awesome schmawesome Easter basket I got this year.
• This town is full of brilliant, visionary, hard-working local food entrepreneurs. Soon, there may be local sauerkraut, kimchee, kombucha, and other fermented wonderfulnesses!
• The peas in the greenhouse are up to my HIP. Spinach, lettuce, and a couple leaves of kale have been harvested.
• In 2 hours this morning, I got the screenhouse and the strawberry bird netting up. They both need some tweaking, but they’re mostly ready. The number of garden infrastructure projects is down to 1 necessary and 4 would-be-nice projects, so that’s a huge relief.
• I can plant the rest of the garden (almost) any time now.
• I can now tie a bow hitch knot with one hand, thanks to a workshop at the cool weekend event I went to. It was my first NRA-subsidized event, but I didn’t learn to shoot because all those workshops were full by the time I registered.
• I made my first solar-cook-while-at-work dinner: split pea soup. Just set everything up before work, and it was soup when we got home. Amended with a couple quick sides and dinner took 15 minutes and almost no cleanup.
• There are volunteer squashes growing in the new middle garden. I think they are from the jack-o-lanterns that were composted out there last fall!
• Gonna frost tonight; we’ll see if those Contender beans I’ve been saving are as frost-hardy as they seemed to be two years ago.