I'm Alright

I apologize for not posting anything for a while, but I assure you that I'm alright. I am currently slogging through roughly 3,762 interlibrary loan books for my dissertation, but I thought I'd show you what I did this week besides read.

Last Sunday, I cooked a pork shoulder in my Crock Pot for about nine hours--here's what it looked like when it went in. This one was just under seven pounds:

Nine hours later, I started shredding the meat, which was falling off the bone.

I will be eating pork shoulder for the next year, I think. This is my bowl of shredded pork, which I froze in small packages. I also had a container of scraps for McKenna, but I found out quickly that pork shoulder does not agree with her. It was like living with a skunk.

With my shredded pork, I made several barbecued pork sandwiches this week--here is one dinner with a barbecued pork sandwich, steamed fingerling potatoes (purchased at the Farmer's Market) and aioli and fresh corn on the cob:

I also made The World's Largest Loaf of Brioche this week, which I clearly should have divided into two bread pans. I was using Ina Garten's recipe for mini brioche rolls, but making a loaf. Obviously, the complete recipe makes about two loaves.





It was so good...





A huge breakfast to get me ready for a day of reading--brioche toast, bacon, cantaloupe, and homemade strawberry jam.

Also this week, Kenna did a lot of running around in the yard...

...and a lot of sleeping.



She attacked another one of her toys:

I went to the Farmer's Market yesterday morning and got a giant loaf of Bavarian country bread (what is it with me and the bread this week?), some local wildflower honey, and my first batch of local strawberries of the season from the Amish:

Saturday's lunch was slices of Bavarian country bread with herb butter (chives and parsley from my garden), Welsh cheddar cheese, carrots, and fresh strawberries.

And that, gentle readers, was my exciting week. I've got some good stuff coming up, though--great recipes for deviled egg tomato aspic and "Jell-O Surprise." You won't want to miss this.

Heat of the Moment, Part II

Before I get to today's activities, here are a few shots of the creek from locations other than my yard. This is the creek below the waterfall:

And here it is further south--this is an area that is specifically reserved for anglers:

I began my day at the Farmer's Market, where I bought a giant cinnamon roll for breakfast:

I also bought a bag of mesclun lettuce (with pansies!) and some Carola potatoes, which I am very excited to try:

I bought a bunch of plants at my regular flower place yesterday because I wanted to plant the pots on the porch and the hanging baskets. I went a little crazy and bought more stuff than I really needed, so I had to call some pots that were in the basement into service. While I was already dirty and disgusting, I cleaned the porch, so here it is clean and pretty with all of the nice flowers planted:

Behind the church pew are my herbs: lemon and lime basil, flat leaf parsley, and sweet basil. There is also a pot reserved for the chives that I haven't purchased yet.

My hanging baskets are all petunias--purple and white. I'm trying something new this year that I hope will work out. I wanted the flowers in my hanging baskets to cascade down from the planters, so I cut holes in the coconut fiber liners and stuck the petunias through and then planted more on the top. I hope that when they grow and fill out, my vision will be realized, but we'll see.

I had a store credit at Lowe's, so I bought this three tiered plant stand to put in the corner of the back porch. This really makes the porch look nice--it's just what this side of the porch needed to look more complete. On the top shelf are my violas, then I have two pots of delphinium and alyssum on the lower shelves. The pots on the floor are verbena.

I put new mulch in the front flower bed where Mother and Father of Ken helped me plant some summer bulbs when they were here in March. I have a lot of stuff popping up, but nothing blooming yet.

The front porch with pretty new flowers:




The larger pot in the back has cosmos, alyssum, verbena, and a really pretty dahlia and the front two each have a dahlia and purple and white vinca:



The hanging basket. I know they look weird now, but I really think that when they grow and fill out, it will look really cool.

Kenna "helping:"

Once everything was planted, I reloaded my greenhouse with the the soil pellets that were left over from my first batch of seeds (which I also planted today). I had some seeds from Aunt of Ken to plant, so I prepared the greenhouse for them:

These seeds are so funny--they look like little Oreo cookies and I think they are a kind of flowering vine. They are popular among the members of my family and in my Grambi and Papaw's retirement community, where everyone has been asking for seeds from my aunt. I can't wait to see what they look like.

I'm also planning to plant tomatoes this year, but I want to wait another week to make sure that we stop getting below freezing at night. We've had about four nights in a row now of above freezing temperatures, so I should be able to plant tomatoes next weekend.

Eat It

This morning, I got up bright and early to head down to the Farmer's Market. My primary purpose for going was to get some cut flowers to use as a centerpiece for the reception that I agreed to organize for the church tomorrow, but I found some other great stuff there, too. So, in the first installment of what I hope will become a regular feature of this blog, these are today's purchases.

First, I decided to buy something for breakfast because I knew that I would be spending all day baking (see the next post for details). I found a booth where a woman was selling baked goods and I chose an apricot scone and a Hungarian cake with blueberry topping. The flavors were okay, but whoever made them got too happy with the mixer because they were way over mixed and tough, so I won't be buying these again.

I also bought a head of red leaf lettuce and some green garlic from another man:

I have never had green garlic before, but I was really looking forward to trying it. Green garlic is a springtime delicacy that you can only find in Farmer's Markets and in your own yard if you grow your own garlic. This is what garlic looks like before it develops large bulbs and the season for green garlic is fairly short--May is the cut off in most places, although it might last longer here in the Northeast. Anyway, these look like tiny leeks and they have a delicate garlic flavor--not mild, but a delicately sharp garlic flavor if you can imagine that. You can eat it raw or cook it and I plan to try all different preparations--I'll let you know how it turns out.

After baking for a few hours this morning, I took a break to let the dishwasher run and to make lunch. I decided to make a dressing for my fresh red leaf lettuce out of the green garlic--I used one head/stalk/piece/whatever you call it of green garlic, roughly chopped, some mayonnaise, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. I don't have any measurements for you, I just did this until I got the consistency and taste that I wanted. Oh, and I had to add a little water. I blended it together in my mini-chopper because I killed my food processor making pie crust a few months ago (seriously--it was smoking and one part of it burned off).

When I had the consistency and taste that I wanted, I drizzled the dressing over a simple salad of lettuce and tomato and I warmed up an olive roll. This was so good! I am a big fan of simple foods with lots of flavor and this dressing is just that--a little spicy and tangy from the green garlic and lemon juice. I think that it would be even better with some herbs added--maybe parsley or chives. The main ingredient, the green garlic, was the strongest flavor and the lemon juice, salt, and pepper complimented it nicely.

What about the flowers, you ask? They'll show up in the next post, but they're beautiful. All in all, a fairly good experience at the Farmer's Market today and I can't wait to try the green garlic in lots of other dishes.