[gardeners] In the garden wannabe
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 04 Dec 2002 13:06:22 -0600
It finally quit raining hard about an hour ago and now we have a soft
rain falling, ie one you can actually drive in. By my oft emptied rain
gauge we have gotten 8.5 inches since yesterday. I'm interested in
hearing what the weather person has to say on the news at 5.
I can see the garden again but I also see that I need to move some dirt
around later on, there's a whopping pond on one side of the garden that
isn't draining too well. May have to drive the trusty drive point into
the hard pan under there a few times and rake the garden soil around and
up to fill the hole. Just in case I forget I took a couple of digital
pictures of the mess.
To keep my mind off the wet I am cooking a large mess of spaghetti
sauce, or as my eldest granddaughter called it when she was about 4 yo,
bisgetti sauce. Ground sirloin, browned in the presence of finely
chopped onion and minced garlic, sweet chiles, red, green, and yellow
chopped coarse, a bit of freshly ground black pepper, a palm full of
oregano from my herb garden, dried a month ago, and crushed by the
warmth of the hand, mushrooms, freshly sliced and lightly sauteed in
unsalted butter. Added to this was about a dozen frozen tomatoes,
thawed, peeled, cored, and whizzed in the blender for a time long enough
to leave some small chunks. A few fresh leaf celery leaves and a bit of
chopped fresh parsley. All of this will slowly simmer at the lowest
stove top heat until Miz Anne returns from her job and is ready for a
bite to eat. Boil up a batch of thin whole wheat spaghetti, drain it
well, toss it with a teaspoon of virgin olive oil and top with the meat
sauce. Go alongs will include a tossed salad with fresh tomato, lettuce,
onion, green olives, Kalamari olives, feta cheese, and a nice dressing.
In addition the loaf of Italian bread I am baking will be done at about
the right time. In the meantime the smell wafting from the kitchen is
driving Sleepy Dawg and I both crazy.
Good news to top that - all this sore throat stuff has caused me to lose
22 lbs, down to 212 lbs now and shooting to get below 200 for the first
time in 20 years. Even my waist has gotten smaller, while I don't
recommend coughing as a waist reduction exercise it does work, two waist
sizes down on my trousers now. It pays to keep at least three waist size
trousers around here. <VBG>
Life is good, even when it rains forever.
George