i {heart} pickles

Happy Adoption Anniversary to my best furry friend and faithful garden companion. I wish I knew how old you are (3 ½? 4? Maybe 4 ½?). What a sweet and loving cat!

Dark Days of Winter Midpoint Review

Happy Monday! Are you happy with the last-minute Giants' win in the Super Bowl last night? To be honest, I wasn't cheering for either team, so I only sort of half-paid attention to the game. I'm one who watches for the commercials, and the social aspect of watching with friends.

 So I'm halfway through the Dark Days Challenge of eating at least one locally-sourced meal a week. By my calculations this is Week 11 of the Challenge, but other participants are on Week 12. I'm not sure how I missed a week. I admit that I've slacked bit in the last couple of weeks. I haven't been to the farmers' market, and I didn't cook any new dishes last week.

I've been eating a lot of leftovers from local meals of prior weeks. Our freezer was stocked with beef stew, lentil soup, potato celery soup, and chili, so we've been eating these and clearing the freezer out. I guess I've been feeling a bit lazy lately too. I don't have any meals planned for this week yet, although there are local meats and veggies in the freezer. 

Actually I did make something new last night--baked apples with a buttery-brown sugar-cinnamon topping. I have a bunch of VA-grown apples sitting in my fridge that are too tart to eat plain, so I've been looking for a simple way to use them while still keeping to the local rules. I found this recipe for baked apples and made a few modifications. I took one apple, halved it, and took out the core and seeds.   

Look how quickly the apple started to brown after I took out the core and seeds. Is that normal?

I put the apple on a baking sheet and spread the brown sugar mix on top. The mix is 1 tbsp of melted butter, 1 tbsp of flour, and 1 tbsp of brown sugar. I then sprinkled a little cinnamon on each half. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

The is the end result. I'm no food stylist, so this is not an attractive picture, but it tasted pretty good! I was worried about how the butter would affect the taste because the local butter I use has a peppery, grassy taste. It tastes great on potatoes or toast but I wondered if the apples would taste weird. They didn't. All I could taste was brown sugar and a little cinnamon. And the house smelled heavenly! I may do this every week just to get the house smelling like cinnamon and sugar. So this was not a typical Super Bowl dessert, but now I know what to do with the rest of the apples.

In other local food news, my neighborhood Whole Foods has started selling this mozzarella cheese made by a small local farm. I've been buying the cheese at the farmers' market, but now I don't have to wait until the Sunday market to buy it. WF is much closer too, so this is a lot more convenient. 

So mid-way through this Challenge I feel like I've hit a plateau. I need to get to the farmers' market next Sunday. I will go, and I'll spend time this week looking for interesting seasonal recipes. Maybe I'll find something inspirational for meals for the rest of the Challenge.

An Award?! I'm Verklempt!

What a great way to start February! The lovely Julia at Polka Dot Galoshes, Tammy from Casa Mariposa and Holley from Roses and Other Gardening Joys have nominated me for a Versatile Blogger Award. I'm touched and honored. I'm happily surprised that people visit and read this blog when there are so many wonderful blogs to visit. Your comments encourage me to keep trying. I thank all of you for following me along on my garden screw-ups journey. 

Here are the rules of the award:

• Post the Versatile Blogger Award to your post/blog.
• Thank the blogger who nominated you with a link back to their blog. 
• In the same post, share seven completely random pieces of information about yourself. 
• In the same post, include this set of rules. 
• Forward this award to fellow bloggers, and inform them with a comment on each of their blogs. 

Here comes the hard part. I want to give this award to many blogs but it looks like many have received it already, so I'll try to pick some that haven't mentioned yet. This has made me realize that I need to start a blog roll for the many blogs I like to read. For now I'll list just a few that I'd like to pass this to, in no particular order. It's a mix of veggie gardeners, everything gardeners, talented photographers, and some who raise chickens!
Your Apples Are My Oranges
Cohocton River Rock Micro Farm
Pam's English Cottage Garden
Girl Sprout
The Whimsical Gardener
Curbstone Valley
Deb's Garden
Enclosure
A Woman of the Soil
Urban Hennery

7 Things About Me:

1. I may have mentioned this in other posts, but I'm an animal lover. I have two cats, have fostered kittens, and get my fix of dogs, bunnies, and other house pets at the local animal shelter where I volunteer one or two nights a week. No matter how rotten my day is at work, I know these little fuzzballs will give me nothing but love and companionship without judgement. Sometimes a girl needs that, you know?
2. I like to make lists and spreadsheets for just about everything. [Except lists about myself. ;) ]
3. I'm a bit particular about some foods. I like strawberries, but not strawberry yogurt. I like citrus fruit but hate citrus-flavored candy. I prefer limeade to lemonade.
4. However, I've never met a potato dish I didn't like!
5. I've never been to Las Vegas. Everyone I know has been. I think I missed that rite of passage.
6. I LOVE the Golden Girls. I love that some channels re-run episodes back-to-back in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. Sophia is my favorite!
7. I've been thinking of running a 5K this year. Now that I put it on the internet I guess I have to do it.

This was fun. Thanks again Julia, Tammy, and Holley, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!