A slightly-less-new year and new ambitions

Now that it's finally gotten really cold, I've started thinking about next year's garden. I'm really excited for Chris and I to build a couple of raised beds and to fill those suckers full of yummy stuff. We are going to have one dedicated to strawberries and the other whatever vegetables I want. I am thinking snow peas, spinach, lettuce, garlic and cherry tomatoes. Depending on space, I will likely be planting some of it elsewhere. I will be trying another potato experiment this year in hopes that I get potatoes that are larger than last year. The squirrels seemed uninterested in both the potatoes and my Egyptian Walking Onions last year, so I'm guessing the garlic would be safe to plant on its own. Plus I can utilize the deck planters too, but I might have those filled with more herbs.

I've been drinking a lot of herbal tea so far this winter, and I'm liking it more and more. I'm thinking about starting an herbal tea garden (fancy name for herb garden filled with herbs that are great for tea). I would really like to grow chamomile, lemon verbena, bergamot, lavendar and anise hyssop. I would also love to have a rose bush for rose hips (Rosa rugosa). Has anyone out there made their own tea? Any tips? Does anyone have any of these plants and would you be willing to share?

I tend to really enjoy either really fruity teas or ones that are essentially one plant. That statement makes perfect sense to me, by the way :) I've been reading the labels of the teas I like the most and some of them have a ridiculous list of random stuff. I'm going to be much simpler.

The thought of making my own tea rose from doing a variety of cooking and experimenting with a variety of herbs. I was blown away by how bold the oregano was that I dried this past summer. It really packed some punch and makes me realize how stale a lot of our spices have gotten. It was really fun to cut parsley fresh from the windowsill to use in a wild rice casserole dish I made this past weekend. I also experimented with making my own cream of mushroom soup to go into the casserole. I never though I would actually buy fresh mushrooms because I really don't like them. I made sure I cut them into very tiny pieces to effectively hide them. I'm glad I went through the process of making my own soup because the casserole was quite good.

And all this cooking makes me all that more excited about gardening this spring/summer because of all the yummy stuff I can make with it!

I found my season...

...for running outside. Since the Turkey Trot, I've been inspired to run outside. In general, I'm trying to get into shape because I'm tired of being squishy. One part of achieving that goal is running outside. I've only done it twice now (both times on the weekend so I can run in daylight), and I really like it. I think winter is my season for running outdoors.

This morning was cold, but it was the perfect temperature. I was wearing a hat and didn't overheat. Major accomplishment for me! Another major bonus: not many people out there on the sidewalks. Makes it all the better :)

Hosting Thanksgiving

We finally hosted Thanksgiving! We had my parents down (the first time Mom didn't have to make a Thanksgiving meal), Chris's parents, Kimmi and, visiting from PA, Cheryl and Jabbour. I'm all the more glad we got the table we did - it expanded enough to fit everyone comfortably in the dining room. We rearranged some of the furniture since I have a thing for buffets :) We moved the black buffet out into the porch, which opened up a lot of space.

I had been thinking about the meal for a few weeks, planned it all out, and then Chris and I went shopping. We ended up getting an almost 22-pound turkey and I've never cooked a turkey before. I can say I started out being a bit nervous, but I am grateful for all the advice people gave and for the research I did on the Internet beforehand on how to dress it. Don't worry - I didn't dress it up in a suit and tie.

I made stuffing (my favorite part of Thanksgiving), fruit salad, pumpkin pies, cranberry sauce, and apple cider. Chris and Kim steamed green beans and mashed potatoes. Also, I was going to make dinner rolls, but I forgot to read the bread machine instructions ahead of time so I didn't realize it would take the machine almost 2 hours to make the dough...oops :) Chris saved the day by running out to Breadsmith to buy some.

I finally pulled out my grandparents' china and it was beautiful!

I am extremely happy with how everything turned out, and am forever grateful for all the help everyone gave. Chris was awesome and Kim was crucial for cleanup (thank you for jumping in!). Thank you again to everyone in the family! Glad you could be part of this Thanksgiving!

Turkey Trot

I ran my first 5k yesterday thanks to Kimmi! A while ago, she suggested that we as a family do the Minneapolis Turkey Trot, a 5k fun run the morning on Thanksgiving. I secretly have always wanted to do a 5k, but never went through with it.

It was absolutely beautiful yesterday morning! There were a host of interesting costumes (including dogs in costumes which is almost always fun). The best part was Kim ran with me the whole way, thereby distracting me. Had she not done that, I likely wouldn't have run the whole thing (my mind gets in the way).

Afterwards, I felt fantastic and didn't test my stomach's capacity even though there was lots of good food for Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the great suggestion and all the support Kimmi!

Since my last post...

The month of September was absolutely awful at work. I worked a ridiculous amount of hours for about five-six weeks. I hope we never have to repeat that process again. Anyway, things have quieted down and I am grateful.

I got a load of plants from my mom a couple of weeks ago. Come spring, I should have lots more color in the flower beds, including the one out front that was essentially all green. I keep telling myself I need to think about the planters that are still out on the deck, but still haven't taken care of them. It looks like fall is here to stay, although our maple tree didn't get the memo. The leaves are still green while the ash trees turned bright yellow about three weeks ago or so and have dropped all their leaves. Interesting.

Banjo's doing well (he's currently sleeping under a blanket, otherwise he'd say 'hi'). He's enjoying sleeping on the bed from time to time as the weather's been getting cooler. I've been enjoying pulling out my fingerless mittens again and bundling up. Call me crazy (yeah, I heard the chorus of you doing just that). Don't know that I'm ready for winter yet though. Because of work, I feel like I lost a significant chunk of summer. My body hasn't caught up to reality.

Exciting conclusion of the potato experiment

This past weekend, I finally harvested the potatoes. I know how much the anticipation was building since May :)

I let the vines dry out:

I attempted to tip over the very heavy garbage can without destroying my back, which wasn't as bad as I was expecting. As you can see, there were some potatoes peeking out right away:


I dug through the dirt and kept finding more and more. The final harvest wasn't very many of large size, but there were plenty of potatoes there. I'm looking forward to tasting these little morsels and I'm looking forward to trying it out again next year! Here's Banjo inspecting the feast to come:

Nearing the end of summer

I'm guessing I'm not the only one that's thinking how quickly the summer has flown by. Normally I'm super excited about these next few weeks (cooler temps), but this year, the budget work schedule got pushed back a month. We were supposed to be done August 15, but now it's September 12. That wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that Chris has a work trip planned immediately after we head out to Portland/Seattle for a friends' wedding and visiting other friends (which I'm really excited about, but can't believe it has come up so fast!). During the crunch time, we tend to work a lot of overtime. It's usually fine because Chris can usually take care of Banjo. It's going to be extra difficult this year. I'm hoping I can ask one of my neighbors to be on standby to take care of Banjo in the evenings. Everything will work out, but it would have been so nice to be done with the crunch time by the time we headed out to Portland.

The potatoes are nearly ready. The stalks are drying out, which means I'll be able to see if there's a harvest soon. I am thinking I'll dump the garbage can over next weekend (I'll let you know how the experiment went). The cilantro my mom gave me went to seed and dried out. I didn't realize it, but it's an annual. I've collected the seeds and hope I can get some cilantro plants growing again next year. I have more Egyptian Walking Onions started from the small bulbs it shot out. For now, they will continue to be housed in containers, but I hope to plant them in the raised beds we'll make.

My columbine went to seed a long time ago and about a week ago, I started seeing small, green plants growing all around them. I was worried it was clover, but when I looked closer, I saw that it was probably a hundred baby columbines! I'm still surprised at how well those plants do in their current location against the garage. I'll have to expand that bed out to accommodate all the growth!

Two of my other butterfly weed plants are blooming (the first one fell victim to a critter - a few days after they started blooming, something ate the flowers!). I'm excited to see if the plants continue to spread in that bed. I have to add compost this fall to see if I can get the coneflowers and bee balm (if it comes back) to bloom the appropriate colors. I realized something in the soil was missing when the coneflower, which should be purplish-pink, bloomed a faint pink. Hopefully the compost will straighten that out. The butterfly weed is a brilliant orange, so it must like really poor soil.