Tag Archives: garden

I’ve been lucky enough the last few days to spend time watching Susan and our friends Jeannie and Tanya working on a craft article for By Hand Magazine.

The spring issue is getting put together now and it has us all dreaming of spring and spring-y activities and weather.  But, the reality is that it is still winter.  And it’s been cold.

When I’ve been home off and on we’ve been doing more clearing and burning (coupled with the cold air it smells DIVINE outside) and even more dreaming of spring.  Paul ordered my seeds for my vegetable gardens for Valentine’s Day and I have been longing for some fresh – from – the -garden radishes ever since.

In the meantime we’ve been feeding ourselves with hearty fare to keep warm, and tonight I decided to make some of Susan’s French Onion Soup.

Now, the thing about this soup is that it is unbelievable.  I can’t even tell you how much I crave this soup.  I’ve made it many, many times and it never disappoints.

But.

Usually I am short on time and I tend to skimp a bit on time where I can – I caramelize the onions a bit too fast and I don’t let it all simmer together for very long.  All just to get it on the table before it gets too late (usually because we’ve been working all day and I’ve run out of time).

Today I decided to start early and let the onions caramelize nice and slowly, over the course of more than an hour.  Once I got all the ingredients added (except the brandy/cognac) I let it simmer on low heat for another hour.  Then, as usual the french bread with gruyere were added and stuck under the broiler.

Was all the extra time worth it?

YES.  This time it wasn’t just unbelievable, it was TO DIE FOR.

I’ve linked to Susan’s original recipe above and I implore you all to make it.

You will not be sorry!

Aside from a brief warm spell over the weekend (it got into the mid 70′s) it has been getting colder and darker, it seems, each day.  A sure sign of the oncoming winter.  We have been wondering what kind of winter we’ll have this year, and you can’t guess accurately based simply on what it’s like right now.  There have been years where it was frosty by the end of September but then barely got under 40 the rest of the winter.  There have been years where it was in the 80′s in October and then snowed through December and January. You just never know.

Either way the colder temps and grey days have us wanting to settle in and stay nicely bundled inside.  But we can’t yet.  There is still far too much work to be done outside.  I have a new garden gate to paint, there is still weed – whacking to be done, there is still brush to be moved and burned, stock tanks for water need to be placed and hay needs to be ordered and delivered.  We can’t settle in yet.

It’s all coming along, though and I think we’ll be happy we put all the effort in.

Speaking of……. I am happy I managed to get a big bag full of garlic cloves planted in the garden this fall:

It doesn’t look like much but this is my garlic row, which has been composted and mulched and is sleeping until spring.

I also planted my potted strawberry plant into a ore permanent home in the garden.

I always kept my strawberries in pots because I was warned they grow and spread and take over everything like mint.

Then I realized…..they’re strawberries.  Would it be a bad thing if they took over the whole front garden?

Not really, no.

While most everyone else we know is barbecuing and relaxing for the holiday weekend we’ve been working our backsides off inside and out.

Paul’s been playing in the mud rescuing the stream from the mangled tree debris that our less than wonderful landscaper piled there, and I’ve been cleaning, working on lesson plans and making pasta.  There was also a brief time out for the new season of Dr Who.  Because we’re still obsessed, y’all.

We had to install this culvert so we could extend some logs and mud over to stream as a land bridge without interfering with the water.

Did I mention that neither of us has any idea how this kind of thing is supposed to get done?  At least Paul is having fun with the backhoe attachment on our friend’s tractor.

Now all we need is more dirt and maybe some gravel to cover over it all.

The side Paul has finished up is flowing nicely again.  We even saw a fairly large crayfish (crawdad for you Southerners) hanging out on the bank.

See all the debris still on this side?  Don’t you love it when you pay someone to do a job for you and then you end up having to re-do it all?

All I know is it’s getting done.  Paul even thinks we may start fencing next weekend.

What a fabulous birthday present for me!

As for inside the house, there is pasta drying in preparation for the freezer.  September is when the basil in the garden has grown into a giant, bushy shrub and must be harvested before the first frost.  My favorite thing to do is make up a huge amount of pesto and make ravioli with it.  I can freeze enough to last all winter if I don’t get sick of making pasta before I’ve used it all.

I use Susan’s pasta recipe – in fact if you click that link you’ll see my hands creating the last big batch of pesto ravioli we made last year at this time.

Sweet heavenly pesto.  I could eat it for every meal.

Little pillows of delightfulness!  I let them dry on a cheesecloth or clean dishtowel for an hour or more (until they are not sticky anymore) and then toss them into a ziploc freezer bag.  They can be tossed in boiling water from frozen or fresh and take very little time to cook.

For my pesto I fill a blender with fresh basil leaves, toss in a handful of cherry tomatoes, a handful of parmesan cheese, a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic, about half a teaspoon of sugar, a handful of pine nuts, and 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil.  These are all approximate values, and I adjust according to taste.  Not everyone likes sugar or tomatoes in their pesto, but I find it gives it an extra something.  You can also substitute walnuts if you don’t have pine nuts, but I prefer the pine nuts.