Good:
I got seeds planted out in the garden.
Bad:
I made biscuits and sausage gravy for supper. It took me the longest time to figure out why the biscuits had gotten done so fast, and why they were so salty. I was absolutely positive that I'd measured everything correctly. Mom said that the only thing she could think of was that I had put too much baking powder in. "Baking soda," I corrected, "they have baking soda in them. But I'm sure I measured it right." Well, I puzzled over this all through supper and after we were done Mom asked me to go get the recipe...well, on the way into my bedroom to get the recipe it dawns on me what I did. I check the recipe...yep. The recipe does call for baking powder and I used baking soda. I'm usually so careful to comprehend that so that I don't use the wrong one, but I failed to do that tonight. :( Oh well, they were edible (mostly), and I won't do that again! (The gravy was good!)
Anyway, back to the good part...I got lettuce and swiss chard planted today. It was very, very nice outside today (yesterday too, for that matter) so I was glad to get outside. I always have big plans for the garden this time of year. I'm going to plant all this stuff, and we'll have tons of fresh vegetables... and then about the time it starts getting really hot outside, I regret having to go out and work in the garden, and I remember that the vegetables I really like (peas, carrots, corn) don't grow very well down here, plus they're really cheaper to get at the grocery store. And the grocery store has air-conditioning! Sooo...we'll see how it goes this year. :) And I'm only planting one cherry tomato plant (if we have to have any) because we always plant cherry tomatoes, and then we have piles of cherry tomatoes rotting on the kitchen counter (because what do you really do with them?) and I personally don't much care for tomatoes. I'll plant some sort of large tomatoes for tomato sauce.
Mom and I had a big discussion while I was peeling carrots about over-cabinet decor for the kitchen, but I'll save that for another post. I'm afraid the carrots got the worst of it. ;) BTW, if someone knows of a way to slice carrots without the little slices rolling right off the cutting board onto the floor, I'd like to hear it.
11 comments:
I don't cut carrots on a cutting board for that very reason. I cut them into a bowl, slicing them against my thumb; I recommend wearing a thimble during the process ;)
Do you ever make biscuts and blueberries? (blueberries instead of gravy) We all love this but I have yet to find someone outside our family who makes it!
Abigail Bojangles makes something called a bo'berry biscuit that is a biscuit with blueberry's in it along with glazing... or did you mean like a sauce of berries...
Natalie it just wouldn't be the same without carrot shavings taking a dive off of the counter whenever you tried to peel them... It's what makes them so much fun!
Abigail, I haven't ever made biscuits and blueberries. It sounds good! I've made them into cinnamon biscuits before...add a little more sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon and some glaze on top. Those are yummy too!
Hmm...I don't have a thimble, and our paring knife isn't very sharp...but I could sharpen the knife and try not to cut myself! :D
Kor, I didn't mean the peelings, I've kind of resigned myself to picking carrot peelings off of everything! :P But if you try to slice the carrots on a cutting board the slices turn into little wheels and, well, roll. Generally off the counter!
It's more like a sauce of berries. The way we make it is about a quart of blue berries and about two "splashes" of syrup combined and cooked until warm and squishy!
We just make the biscuits plain and put the berries on them liked you'd put dip on a cracker. It's a little messy, but totally delicious!
We always have an overabundance of Tomatoes as well...It is weird, every year we plant less plants and we still seem to have Tomatoes all over the place..
With the carrot slicing, I usually resign myself to flipping the carrot slices onto their sides with the knife before I cut another. It takes about twice as long cutting-wise, but saves time picking up run-away carrot slices and washing them off, etc.
We also have a excessive of tomatoes. Mostly because cherry tomatoes volunteer in our garden. Which is extremely annoying, because we have keep them once the grow. Mom can't stand to just pull the poor things up. :) We usually give them away by the bucketfuls though. Thankfully ALL of our friends don't have gardens.
btw, I found your blog from your comment on the Lords of the Blog. :D I love your writing style!
Natalie, if you use a larger (and sharper) knife and cut your carrots on a slight diagonal, you'll wind up with ovals that don't tend to roll off the cutting board. They also cook up a little more tender, and (in my opinion) look nicer in salads, etc.
If you're making stir-fry or something like that, just cut each carrot into 2" lengths and then slice them lengthwise. You'll need good knife skills, but the resulting carrot "planks" cook up very nicely and they look good too.
Wow, too many tomatoes seems to be a common problem! :) Oh, and one thing that I'm wondering about...why did you capitalize "tomatoes", Will??
Thanks for commenting, Lizzie! I'm glad you enjoy my writing...it can be pretty random sometimes! :P
Ah, ovals, I'll have to remember that, Uncle Jim. I've done that before if I've wanted the carrots to look neat, but it hadn't occurred to me that they didn't roll when I did that. I use a chef knife to cut them up usually.
Haha yes, I was just scrolling through the comments and realized I had capitalized tomatoes! I have no idea why I did that... :p Weird things happen sometimes when I type, I will want to type one word and something completely different will be typed.
TOMATOES- According to the Schramberg's Guide to the English language states all proper nouns should be capitalized. And any good Southerner knows that tomatoes, along with butter beans, turnips and collards are pure foods that must be designated with CAPITALIZATION. We must convert all of those born north of the Mason Dixon to the ways of Southern culture. PS- Chitlins, pigs feet and okra are NOT Proper nouns.
Germans capitalize all nouns...I thought you'd be into that, Nat!! :P
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