Groovy Boots

Hello, friends.  Last week, I went through more of the pantry, and found things that were long past sell by dates, and other things I can no longer eat.  Some very old granola bars were composted, a couple of things were given to the pups, an apple/berry sauce cup was added to the chickens mash, a few sodas J said he'd use, and a few were thrown away.  Lots of wintersown plants are coming up, with the marigolds and zinnias being especially robust.  I started tomatoes and peppers, with six varieties of tomatoes and five of peppers.  Instead of using a heating mat, I tucked them under the woodstove for germination.  In all the spots that hadn't come up in the garden, peas were replanted.  I'm getting to more of the things that didn't get done during deep cleaning.  The range hood and filters were scrubbed, and the stove and oven were cleaned.  Some cabinets were wiped out.  I picked up sticks in the yard, and began cleaning flower beds.  

We had friends over for dinner again, taking advantage of our cleaner than usual home.  I decided to make a pasta sauce we'd enjoyed last summer, using our canned tomatoes, onions and roasted eggplant I'd frozen.  The sauce was together 15 minutes before they were to arrive, and when I tasted it, I realized the frozen eggplant was entirely different from the recipe when I used fresh eggplant.  It was not good... at all.  So, a quick plan B, with J grabbing a couple quarts of our tomatoes and snipping some oregano for me, pulling our last onions from storage, and frozen basil cubes, and we pulled off a simple tomato sauce.  Seconds were asked for.  I was glad there was a happy ending to our meal.  I made up a spice cake and GF cookies for dessert.

As I've been able, I worked on the cross stitch piece that will be a gift.  Never much at one time, but I'm making progress.  Laundry was dried on the line.  Though we didn't see it fall, we'd had some frozen precipitation when I went out to open up the chickens Sunday morning.  Early in the week, our temperatures were a bit of a roller coaster, which meant the woodstove did not stay consistently hot. I ended up dumping the pot of veggie scraps that I'd had on the stove to simmer, as I wasn't sure it would be safe, even after canning.  When temperatures got consistently colder, over the weekend, I put a fresh pot of scraps on the woodstove.  Two bills were paid online, saving stamps.

For Christmas, my sister bought me these very cool muck boots.  The sole to my old ones came apart over the weekend, and I got the new ones out.  They definitely brighten my day.  With Sunday being so raw and rainy, I wanted to make soup for dinner.  J suggested potato leek.  He harvested the leeks for me, and I made the recipe from one of my first and favorite cookbooks, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.  During the week, broccoli, lettuce, oregano and asparagus were harvested.  We've now got enough asparagus for a side dish, so that will be on the menu this week.  Library books were picked up, and are being read.  There will be several nights below freezing this week.  Hopefully, the fruit trees will fare well, and produce this summer.  Wishing you a groovy week, friends!