Tag Archives: weather

On A Perfect Day

Posted on August 15, 2014 by AnnieRie

What is it with the weather around here? Every day just warm enough, with no humidity. It makes it hard to get anything accomplished. But, it does make it easier to work in the kitchen.

Usually in the summer, my food processing days are spent fighting the heat and humidity. Not today.

I even made soup. Potato leek soup in the crockpot. This picture is before the blending. I used about a dozen small leeks from my garden. A half dozen potatoes. Three small shallots. A pint of homemade chicken stock. Salt and white pepper. After about six hours in the pot, I pureed it all in the blender. It’s in a jar in the refrigerator, cooling down. I may freeze it, or I may have it for dinner next week.

I also made tomato sauce again. Since the onslaught of tomatoes never ends.

I used the roma tomatoes from the CSA. Take my advice. DON’T do it this way. I sweated the tomatoes in the same pan as I made the sauce. Splitting them open and letting them get warm enough for me to slip off the skins. This is a chunky vegetable rich sauce. I like these for short pastas. I had green pepper, shallots, leeks, garlic, carrots, zucchini and eggplant in this sauce. Yes, an eggplant, from here.

I roasted everything on this pan this morning. Then smashed up the eggplant and added it to my sauce. As a thickener. You know, you can use all sorts of things in sauces. No one will be the wiser. I ended up with two full pint jars for the freezer, and about 12 ounces in the fridge to be used for a pasta for dinner tomorrow night.

The tomatoes and peppers on that tray? Went into a pint jar and are in the freezer as well. They will make one awesome sauce sometime in the dead of winter.

Last but not least.

It’s sauerkraut time. I pulled out the crock and am making kraut. Cabbage and salt. That’s all it takes. And a cool dark corner.

Since I can’t find my cork top for the small crock, I ended up covering this with a clean dish towel. I put the saucer on top the cabbage. Weight it down with a jar. I moved it off to the far side of the kitchen where it stays out of the sunlight. I will have sauerkraut next week. But, let it ferment longer for better flavor.

I certainly did quite a bit today. How was your Friday?

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Posted in Food, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

A Decade of Summers

Posted on June 23, 2014 by AnnieRie

Our tenth summer here. Time flies. The trees are much larger. The bushes growing together. It is even more private than when we arrived. Not quite as quiet, though. More development brought more traffic.

But still, summer out here is lived outdoors. Either mowing or weeding or trimming or harvesting or eating or drinking or whatever. I spend so much time outdoors. Watching the animals. The birds. The snakes. Yes, the snakes. Life in the country is always an adventure.

We also eat more meals at home. Shop closer to home. I almost titled this post, summer salad days, because we have transitioned into the summer routine of salads for lunch, and a big component of dinner.

It’s too hot some days to cook. Or, our appetites are affected by the heat.

We stopped up at the garden after dinner at Iron Bridge tonight. Tried to decide if we wanted to stand in that long line at the Woodstock snowball stand. Decided instead to come home for leftover crumble with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream.

Blueberry season opens this weekend at Larriland. I never went to Larriland when we lived in Columbia. Now, it’s a couple of times a month. Peaches and blackberries after the blueberries.

Getting ready for field day this weekend with the radio club. Hoping we don’t get storms.

Tomorrow I need to go and vote. Thursday is Fiddlers and Fireflies, a summer staple in this part of the county, out at the Conservancy. Things don’t always slow down around here when it’s warm.

Here’s to summertime. Officially here last weekend. To lazy days with minimal fuss.

To that perfect Caprese salad.

To Life in the Slow Lane.

#hocoblogs

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Posted in Community, Farms, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Weather and tagged community, cooking, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Fish On …

Posted on June 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

… the grill.

There is something about halibut. One of my favorite fish to grill. And we can’t go to Annapolis to visit family without stopping at Annapolis Seafood for something. It was a stop for shrimp but the halibut was calling my name.

The shrimp, also bought, was used today in a shrimp curry with Thai Spices Matsaman curry, fragrant with cumin and cardamom.

The halibut, grilled last night with some Friends and Farms vegetables.

Asparagus and red potatoes.

All seasoned with one of my pesto concoctions, defrosted from the freezer. This one was a mixed greens pesto, made last summer. Since it is almost garlic scape season, I need to finish off the last of the pesto containers from the basement freezer.

To complete that local flavor.

Maryland chardonnay, from Big Cork.

Here’s to many more locally inspired and small business supplied dinners. It’s grilling season, big time.

#hocofood

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather, Wine and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, grilling, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, real food, weather, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Lunch From the Garden …

Posted on May 20, 2014 by AnnieRie

… and a few regional farms.

In the process of making lunch, the picture above shows some of the kale and chard from this morning’s thinning of the garden. Dressed with a simple yogurt dressing. Shake yogurt and lemon infused olive oil with some garlic powder, salt and pepper.

An apple from last week’s Friends and Farms basket, served with some of that provolone that we got, too.

Homemade peach yogurt.

To share, we used one cup of plain yogurt. One defrosted peach, from my stash in the freezer (courtesy of Larriland picking last August). A 1/2 tsp squirt of agave. That’s all. I control the sweetness when I start with plain yogurt.

This yogurt is available at Friends and Farms. At Breezy Willow Farm store. And at England Acres in Mt. Airy. Best yogurt we have ever found. No web site, as they are an Amish farm.

As for the rest of this bag of peaches. Destined to become peach pops. Simple to make. Blend the peaches with yogurt. To fill my popsicle molds I need about 32 ounces in the blender. If I get a little too much, the rest goes in a small plastic jar and becomes frozen yogurt. I am using whatever I have to give it the amount of sweetness I want. Currently I have agave, but I also use honey or maple syrup.

On a related note, I harvested a few more white onions today.

Including one very large one, that was too crowded in the middle of the rows.

And found the beginning of an onion scape on the largest one. Now, I need to head back up there and pinch off scapes to let the onions put more energy into the onions and not the shoots.

Back on the home front, though, my garlic out in the back yard hasn’t begun to produce scapes yet. They are getting really large finally, so I hope to get at least one dozen large heads of garlic in a few months.

So far, a good start to the harvest of spring vegetables. Now, if only the strawberry picking season would begin. Gorman Farm projects that they will open Saturday the 24th of May. Larriland is still posting “late” May. We are almost out of the last of the frozen berries, and can’t wait to get out in the fields and bring in this year’s berries. The freezer is getting empty now.

#hocofood

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Posted in Farms, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, hobbies, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Sure Signs of Spring

Posted on May 18, 2014 by AnnieRie

Around here my favorite sign of spring is the blooming of two of my plants.

The rhododendron. Every winter I try and protect them, to whatever extent I can. This year, the deer decided to chomp on one of them. The snow cover prevented them from eating on the ground, so they chewed up the bottom of one of these plants, as well as a few evergreens.

Thankfully, they did OK overall. The other two are a darker color.

And not as quick to flower.

My second indicator is the tangerine azalea.

Almost blooming. This year I have about a dozen blooms on this plant. Some years it flowers more than others.

In the spring, too, the hostas are incredibly pretty. They are a nice contrast to my north facing azaleas that bloom last.

Along with the azaleas, the lace maple in full color.

The lace maple is one of those trees. It just leaps out and captures your attention.

Springtime. When the plants renew themselves. The trees turn green and the shade returns.

The backyard is green and shady.

And the meadow is full of buttercups.

Spring in this part of the world is the reason we stay here. Lovely weather. Beautiful surroundings and lots to do.

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Posted in Gardening, Howard County, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged azaleas, gardening, Howard County, nature, spring flowers, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

The First Harvests

Posted on May 16, 2014 by AnnieRie

It’s always exciting when we switch from planting to harvesting. This year I am keeping a record of what we get, from the multiple sites where I have vegetables and herbs growing.

My favorite microsite is my foraged asparagus.

At the top of our driveway, where the asparagus is growing wild. Today, I got one new spear, added to the six already picked. Last year I think I counted 42 spears. Let’s see what this year produces. And, yes, that is crape myrtle, with the asparagus firmly entrenched under it.

Up at the community garden, it was time to thin the greens.

By the way, three inches of rain will penetrate the heavy row cover. The weeds are coming in, so I weeded and thinned today.

I have mostly kale and chard up there, but did add some recently sprouted arugula. Today’s take. Two ounces. They will grace an omelet this weekend.

Notice the chive flowers. I inherited massive amounts of chives, and a few varieties of sage in our plot. I took the best flowers to use in that omelet, and admired the bicolor sage that recovered after the winter.

This sage is tiny but my common sage bush is doing well also. I love sage when I make pork dishes, and in tomato sauce with sausage.

Today I was also fighting the pests. On the cucumbers and the eggplant. Potato beetles on the eggplant and cucumber beetles chewing off my young cucumber shoots. Garden Safe to the rescue, we hope. I am on a 7 day schedule with this OMRI approved insecticide. These pests already killed off four cucumber plants, and made a mess of the leaves of the rest.

If you look behind the plant stick, you will see one of the potato beetles. Soon to meet his maker, like his brethren I squashed that were noshing my pink eggplant leaves. I think I do need to cover the eggplants. And, those are weeds you see. I am trying to keep up with them, but this blasted rain just makes everything grow so fast.

I came home with this.

Some greens. A few blossoms. The one two foot long asparagus from the driveway.

Tomorrow, I may head out to the garden in the yard and harvest spring garlic. At least three of the eighteen plants in the back yard aren’t that big, and they won’t mature enough before the heat of summer. They will flavor a few meals this week.

Not bad for mid May. I can’t wait for tomato season, but this is a good beginning.

#hocofood

Trying to garden organically is tough, but I will prevail (I hope).

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Posted in Food, Foraging, Gardening, Hobbies, Nature, Weather and tagged Food, foodie, gardening, nature, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Weather Or Not

Posted on May 7, 2014 by AnnieRie

As in extreme weather. The conference.

It may have started out sunny, but we did have a serious little storm with some lightning and thunder, so we brought the conference in from the rain.

I volunteer for field trips. This one, for ninth graders from four local schools, was the second year the Conservancy hosted all sorts of stations and presentations about extreme weather.

Want to know about power lines, and why you should be really careful around them? Let BG&E demonstrate what happens when live wires come in contact with ladders, poles, and gloves.

Oh, and they roasted a hot dog for the students. I missed that picture. At that point, we were checking the clouds rolling in and using the resources around us, including the Office of Emergency Management’s Command Unit.

I am always impressed by the thoroughness and the complexity of events hosted by the Conservancy. From Ava Marie’s opening remarks to the presentations all over the grounds, and the learning activities, and the displays, this was another chance to engage the community and have a fun day as well.

It was a pretty full house, and most of the students seemed to be intrigued and interested in what they were learning.

If only Mother Nature had cooperated and didn’t make us cancel the last session, as thunder roared and cloud to ground lightning was seen in the western sky. Oh, and getting back to the buses while it poured rain. Just what we are used to seeing around here. Wait a few minutes and the weather will change.

I love my volunteer “job”. We are never too old to stop learning, and sharing knowledge is even more rewarding. Congrats to Ann Strozyk and all the volunteers today, for putting on this conference for over 100 students.

#hocoblogs

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Howard County, Nature, Retirement, Volunteering, Weather and tagged community, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, volunteering, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Horn of Plenty

Posted on May 6, 2014 by AnnieRie

Seems like when it rains, it really pours. We have gardens in the works. Foraged asparagus coming up. CSA has given us notice that we are a “GO” for this summer and fall.

The first spear of foraged asparagus. Showed up in my stir fry last night. About six more are showing out under the crepe myrtle.

Tomatoes planted today. Earlier than ever before, but the temperatures are saying that we need to do this. I planted 26 plants at the Conservancy and I am putting in four here at home (praying for enough sun). At least I could run out and pick a few supersweet 100s and Early Girls, if the site gets enough sun.

My new tomato this year. German Johnson. Along with my favorites. Hillbilly. Pineapple. Work horses. Sun gold. Yellow plum.

Yesterday we did maintenance at the gardens. Like string trimming and trash removal.

It is looking good up there.

Onions anyone? The white onions are going crazy. Time to dig up a few spring onions, and enjoy them.

I am one very tired but very happy camper these days. Fresh veggies make me that way.

#hocofood

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Posted in Food, Foraging, Gardening, Howard County, Nature, Weather and tagged farms, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, howard county conservancy, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Perfection

Posted on April 21, 2014 by AnnieRie

The weather. The garden. The grilling.

All came together to make one perfect day out here. We spent part of the day tilling, and came home to grill a good dinner.

68° and sun and breeze and no humidity. Why we live here. Spring is my favorite season.

Tomorrow, Sharp’s Farm opens and we will be there picking out tomatoes for the garden. If you want a huge selection of vegetables, flowers, and herbs to plant, try and get out to the greenhouses. They are open Tuesdays through Saturdays for picking out plants.

It may rain tomorrow night but the rest of the week should give us more perfection.

Crank up the grill. Plant some herbs, or lettuce.

Find some flower seeds to sprinkle in the ground. Tomorrow is Earth Day. And, come join us for a bird walk and some projects at the Conservancy this Saturday to celebrate.

#hocoblogs

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Posted in Gardening, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering, Weather and tagged community, gardening, Howard County, howard county conservancy, spring flowers, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

If It’s Thursday …

Posted on April 10, 2014 by AnnieRie

… it must be market day.

Or maybe I should say basket day. Three months ago I decided to try out Friends and Farms, until the spring CSA starts up. Turns out I really like the variety of protein and the surprises like this one.

That would be the buttermilk. Back when I started with the CSA I enjoyed the challenge of cooking with new vegetables. Now, we get grains, beans, polenta, monkfish, and other items that aren’t on my normal shopping list. It makes me think outside that rut filled box (mixing metaphors here) that we all fall into. Cooking in our comfort zone.

Looking ahead, next week is a doozy. Catfish and grits.

This week, bangers and mash.

Along with the suggested chicken and waffles. Since I don’t have a waffle maker, I am considering scones or cornbread. Or maybe blueberry pancakes using up some of my Larriland berries from the freezer.

This week we are slowly moving into springtime. With my favorite tomatoes other than those I grow.

Hummingbird Farms hydroponic tomatoes. Grown on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

This week’s basket was huge.

I had to use the wide angle setting. And this is a small basket.

We got edamame. That was a bonus. Spring greens. A mess of collard greens. Those tomatoes. Potatoes. Apples. Pea shoots. Onions. The bangers. Chicken. Breakfast sausage. I got yogurt for the eggs, and eggs for the milk. My standard switch. Grains Galore bread from the Breadery.

So far, it has been easy to use up the protein. The dairy, a little harder. The frozen items I occasionally forget to make, but I do get to them. We love the edamame as an appetizer.

So, today, I hit Wegmans for some tuna. Grilled it with the potatoes. Made a great salad using some spring mix, pea shoots, the last of the cucumbers from an earlier basket.

I mean, after all, it is springtime and the weather just invited grilling. Since it may rain tomorrow, I am thinking it will be banger and mash night.

#hocofood

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