much needed dirt time

I just spend some much needed time in my garden. I have been out there every day, watering and checking on things, but today I got good and dirty. I finally got some of the flowering plants that I bought at the Botanical Gardens into the ground.

I am having so much fun watching my little garden bloom. My lemon tree has lemons, my strawberries will probably turn red and ripe this weekend (when I am out of town!), and my beans are just ready to come out. It is a new experience to grow some of my own food and I am hooked. I have always had a few little herbs, but nothing like this. I think that I will be able to put my tomatoes outside in a week or so. Then things will really be going! I can make an entire salad out of things that I have growing back there. My vases are also going to be full of cut flowers come summer. Brown eyes susans, columbine, Cosmos and Zinnias...so pretty!

How is your garden coming?

Thoughts on Grits

Grits are God's gift to Southerners
Oatmeal was introduced by Yankees who were jealous that God gave us grits.
Yankees worry that God gave us grits because He loves us more.
We don't worry about that because we know it's true.

Grits must be stirred with a wooden spoon. Embrace your heritage and stir -they will taste better.
Putting sugar in your grits is weird. Grits should be salty.
Cheese is optional. Who am I kidding. Cheese loves grits like fire loves air.
Black pepper loves grits too. Also butter.

Don't bother with instant or quick grits. If you don't have the 15 minutes to cook grits don't bother. Eat some toast.
Don't eat grits in a hurry. Sit down and savor the creaminess.
If you need fiber go get an apple.
When the directions say 4 generous helpings they lie. You may get 2-3 servings.

Always, always lick your wooden spoon. If you don't lick the spoon and scrape out the pan you are just kidding yourself. You don't really love grits.
When putting leftover grits away there should be regret mingled with excitement for tomorrow.
If you already ate the leftovers there will satisfaction mingled with sorrow for your scale.

Grits connect me to my past.
Grits are women stirring up pots of warm goodness for husbands and children -feeding the generations.
Grits are God's gift to Southerners.

A tiny shopping spree

After an afternoon of shopping I have two stores for you- At Home in downtown Homewood and Ann Taylor Loft. If you have never been to At Home it has some of the neatest stuff I've seen any place that doesn't have to check your credit before allowing you in. They have door knobs and glassware and some of the neatest little bowls I've ever seen. There's always something I wish I could buy by the dozen there. Today I found the most adorable jewelry organizer. It's a sort of shabby chic, cream painted iron stand with hooks on it for jewelry and a little bird perched on top. Since I did enjoy having the mirror in my old jewelry box I popped over to Hobby Lobby to buy a tiny mirror I could hang over my dresser since it's really too tall and narrow for a conventional mirror. I can't wait to organize all my jewelry onto it's new home and relegate that box elsewhere.

Ann Taylor Loft has been one of my favorite stores for a couple of years now -ever since I walked in off the street and found silk blend sweaters for something like $10-15. Today I was walking around trying to find a shirt that said, "responsible, nicely dressed, not punched out of cookie cutter young woman well suited to teaching small children." (My resume generated action from the hiring committee.) I also wanted a shirt that didn't say "I am your food budget for the week. Buy me instead of carrots." Let me tell you, by the time I got out of Macy's I was ready to swear it couldn't be done. The $70 shirts didn't attract. The $20 shirts didn't flatter or fit. Then (smacks head) I remembered Ann Taylor. In. Out. Twenty dollars the less and happy. Note to self. Always try there first. Their sale racks are wonderful.

So, what are your go-to places when you really need that one thing you can't find anywhere else?

Weekend round-up

Anyone cook (or eat) anything good this weekend? Any garden or house news?

For me it was the fresh summer squash with heavy cream, cheese and breadcrumbs (courtesy of Giada), and the Buffalo meat spaghetti. Ground buffalo ranks up there for my favorite red meat. It is by far my favorite ground anything!

I would like to put in a request for a recipe of one/some of Anna's cookies and/or muffins...they are the best

To a lovely week, Ladies

Blog freecycle

My love for gardening has spread around the office. The Garden book buyer left me a big surprise on my chair...books!

However, she has already given me a copy of most of them. So....they are up for grabs!

Here is what I have: (1 copy of each)
The Complete Compost Gardening Guide
The Gardeners A-Z guide to Growing Organic Food
the Veggie Gardeners Answer book
Incredible Vegetables in Self-watering Containers

Let me know if you want any of these!

First come, first get.

Happiness is just a stock pot away

As I sit here, I have a free range chicken roasting in the oven and a "Mineral Miracle" vegetable stock simmering on the stove. It smells like I imagine Heaven smells like...warm and comforting and nourishing.

No longer will I fret over what to do with veggies that are almost past their prime. Some water, seaweed (really!), spices and a stock pot is the answer! With herbs from my garden. Yummy. Gone are the days of buying the 'original recipe' rotisserie chicken from Western. I am a changed woman.

Hope you all are eating well this evening too.

She no longer needs you

I registered for the Kitchen Cure, on thekitchn.com, despite the fact that my kitchen is mostly organized. I wanted advice that will enable me to maximize that little space. So far, assignments have included taking photos of the entire room, de-junking the junk drawer (or in my case, the utensil drawer) and tossing expired food. (I was surprised that my cilantro had expired—and that my unopened jar of cilantro expires in six weeks. I’m also surprised that I have jars of cilantro. I’ve been buying fresh bunches of it, never using the jarred stuff.)

But the most interesting task so far was to eliminate processed foods, plus anything with MSG or high fructose corn syrup. I was startled by how much I found with those ingredients, but more surprising still: I almost never use any of those products.

The way I eat has changed radically, even though it’s been unintentional. I’ve always teased friends who filled their cabinets with health food. So much of it is bland, a pale imitation of the fatty snacks it emulates. When looking for a quick meal, I preferred staples like fish sticks.

But now my fridge is filled with green—broccoli, lettuce, spinach, zucchini and bell peppers all wait to be used. I found two jars of pasta sauce to give away. High fructose corn syrup was the culprit, but I must admit I wasn’t bothered by the waste. I can’t recall when I last used premade sauce instead of preparing my own.

I don’t know how to explain it. My taste buds have matured, sure. But this time last year, I lived with my grandparents and ate heavy Southern food at every meal. (It was good, too!) When I moved out, my diet quickly evolved into one filled with produce. I bought ingredients at the grocery store, skipping over shortcuts like pre-prepared chicken and steak. I’ve always had a high metabolism, and I do wonder if this is my body’s way of accounting for its inevitable slowing as I age. (I have no idea if my weight has been affected, positively or negatively, by my produce and heavy cream diet.) I can’t even claim to feel better or more energetic than when Friday night supper was frozen popcorn chicken and French fries. It was such an unconscious change that I don’t know the difference.

All I can tell you is I enjoy what I eat. It turns out that eating well doesn’t mean depriving yourself after all.

Going au naturale

Hand sanitizer that is. I just don't like that alchohol stuff they sell. It tries out my hands and who knows what all's in it. For a girl trying to go herbal/green with her home and body care products that's not really inviting. So, for months I have watched my mother-in-law going around with this myrrh based hand sanitizer, and today I finally made some of my own! I was trying to make me up some jasmine body spray (since perfume is another thing I don't really do) and discovered anothre spray bottle I must have bought and then promptly forgotten. I didn't really use a recipe for either one. I just sort of scouted the internet and saw that most recipes consist of water, essential oil, and grain/rubbing alchohol. I believe you can use witch hazel in place of the alchohol if desired. I just used some smirnoff that hasn't been seeing much action since...well since we bought it actually. I did add a few drops of massage oil to my blends though just to try and counteract alchohol's drying effect. For the body spray I just added a couple of drops of massage oil, one drop of pure Jasmine essential oils, probably just under an ounce of vodka, and a generous ounce of water. Then I just shook it up really well. Hope I didn't make it too strong. That jasmine oil is very strong. Well just see if anyone besides Allen will sit by me at church tonight :D For the myrrh blend I did about the same thing, but I added more oil and used less vodka. The recipes I saw indicated that for non-perfume type stuff you don't need as much alchohol. Oh yeah, I also put some colloidal silver in with it for even more germ kicking awesomeness. So yeah, 6-8 drops myrrh essential oil and about 1/4 oz silver along with a tsp oil for moisturizing. Vodka for stabilizer. Water to the top. In my purse and ready for the next all natural germ kicking opportunity. I feel like such a granola girl now. It rocks.

New Link

A friend of mine sent me this link. Eating Alabama. It is really cool, check it out. I am leaning toward what they are doing, but can't be as hard core as these folks. Yea Local Living!!


Have a good weekend

Feather my nest with Count Basie

I should have posted this weeks ago, since the Birmingham Lindy scene will be soon be switching gears for the summer. BUT! If you are interested in lindy. Come on out the the Bashinsky Fieldhouse at Samford University for some truly swinging fun. Allen and I had been doing the whole "who wants to bother going out" thing for awhile until we found out about a lindy instruction series being held not five minutes from our door. So....

If you give a lindy-hopper lessons, they will learn new moves.

If you give a lindy-hopper moves, they will want to practice.

If a lindy-hopper wants to practice, they will defy all normal urges to sleep, wash dishes, or just not bang their feet against floor.

Therefore, you will find us, tonight, at the Bashinsky fieldhouse, probably sometime after or around 8:30, completely wearing ourselves out with cool moves. If you come, we will teach you. Or someone will. Try to bring guys if humanly possible since there's often a dearth of the creatures. The guy/girl ratio is completely in the guy's favor. Stress that point with rum laced drinks if necessary.

If you don't know what lindy is, here's a fairly accessible example.

Just Can't Get Enough!

Just felt like sharing images. Here is part one of my mini gardens. The neighbors wanted to take them down so they could put a path of pavers in the back of all the condos on our row. Well to bad, they have been gardenfied!


Here is my strawberry pot. I put a birdhouse above it on the tree because it looked so cute! Not a good idea. I want to invite the birdies but not to eat my food. They can have the Japanese maple to live in...

My name is Elisa and I am an O.G

Obsessive Gardener. I was repotting things last night and putting out my new Dwarf Meyer lemon tree when I looked back at my little stoop. It was covered almost completely. I had to bob and weave my way back to my back door. it is getting bad. I did some rearranging and moving and things are looking better. However, I still have 2 tomato varieties, tomatillos, lemon balm, more lettuce, bee balm and coneflowers to find homes for. They have almost outgrown their seed homes. Where are they going to go? I am accepting my fate of being 'that lady in the apartment complex with the jungle out her back door' to the kids in the complex. I love it. I love it so much! Today as I was driving to work I realized that I had left my seedlings outside to get some sun and they may get rained on. An internal struggle ensued about whether to turn around and bring them in, or get to work on tim. I went to work, but have been fretting all day, running to the back door to check the weather (no windows in the building!). If it pours on them, their little stems are not strong enough to take it and they may perish. Very upsetting.
Everyday when I arrive home, I drop my handbag and go straight out back to see the progress. Yesterday I had beans sprouting up! And little red sprouts of red from my Rainbow Chard. 3 new blossoms on my strawberry plants and more mint than I can handle! What is a girl to do?

Get a goat and some chicken and resign herself to fate.

It's Catching On

The garden bug seems to have bitten a lot of people this year. And gratefully so! my mom came over and scolded me for not tying my green bean plants (I'll get to that...soon enough.) I, too, racked up at the Botanical Garden Sale. I got one blue berry bush and found out you need two different kinds for them to cross pollinate and produce fun berries. They had run out by the time I realized that so I went to Whole Foods to check out what they had. Twice as much (and on sale!), but not twice as big. It was a different kind so I am sticking with the new plant. Lesson learned...the Botanical Garden Sale rocks my face off!

I (heart) Plant sale

Just got back from the Botanical gardens plant sale, where Emily, CJ and I met earlier. I cannot say this strongly enough...GO! They have all kinds of great plants at great prices. I walked out with a box for $28. The plants look healthy AND they had people there to help me. People who actually know about plants. It was a madhouse, and not for the faint of heart, but well worth it. I am going to make this an annual event.

I am now sitting in my windowless cubical smelling fresh sage and rosemary (I just couldn't leave them in a hot car all day!). My co-workers think I am a hippie, but I think I lost them at Hot Yoga and my CSA membership...

To a good, green weekend!

Reading, writing and ...eating?

This is for you, CJ!

This article from The Kitchn on the best food to eat while reading. I thought it was cute and I know that we all love to read, so I thought I would share.

btw-MORE little plants sprouting up every day. Oh how the rain of late has been good to me and my little green friends.
This weekend-botanical gardens Plant sale-old Bruno's at Brookwood-CJ, Emily and I are going at 11 on Friday. Come join us! We are meeting out front. I am hoping for some fruit trees and plants. Lemons and berries. Which leads me to a question: What is it your dream to be able to grow? For me, it is probably berries and avocados. and grapes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

To one of our very own! ANNA!

I am glad that you were born today. And that we are gardening buddies!

Hope it is just lovely!

Potted bliss

Not having a garden proper (and being singularly afflicted with shade on/around my patio) I'm pretty much sticking with flowers at the moment. I have a lovely blue flowering Jacob's Ladder in a pot out back along with a brave potted rose and some bright red petunias that I just bought yesterday. Sick and tired of my boring, empty, dead flowerpot sitting out front I also bought some very pretty little portulacas. Yeah, I'd never heard of them either, but they look sort of like old-fashioned roses except that they're small little plants like impatients or similar and come in the most luscious colors. I found them cheap at Home Depot alongside the petunias and other annuals.

Maybe if I can keep my flowers alive I'll try branching out a bit. We'll see.
'

Life Bueatification

Yesterday I went to Yucatan Trading Company and bought a giant ugly strawberry pot to put the communal strawberries in. After I put it under the crepe mertle and put the plants in, it looked so good. Out back yard is becoming an oasis after long days at work. Now all I need is a hammock!

Buying green is occasionally dirt cheap

Inspired by the recent arrival of my diamond in the rough bentwood rocker I thought I would throw in a good word for green spending. I know the whole resuse, recycle, "for heaven's sake keep it out of the landfill" is pretty trendy right now, but more than being a fad, it makes really good sense. Or cents. Depending on how you look at it. Freecycle means free stuff (clever what?). That means the bentwood rocker costs me exactly gas+time. Yeah, so it needs a little work. It's still way cheaper than buying new (or even at a thrift store). Speaking of which, I adore Salvation Army Thrift stores. I currently have 4 pieces of thrift store furniture in my apartment plus another dozen or so decorative items. It's great. The furniture is all mostly higher quality than the stuff you get in the stores nowadays (yes my dad once took be aside and explained dovetail joints to me), and a lot of it (being older) isn't as bulky as the furniture they try selling you today. Plus, Salvation Army is the awesomest Christian charity ever. Forget giving money to Red Cross. If you want to give distaster relief/help somebody out money. Give it to the Salvation Army. If you do the research and listen to the stories they really do get in there and stay in there and help out the people in a way that Red Cross just doesn't. That's one reason why I tend to donate a lot of my clutter there. But you could also put it on Freecycle if that's your thing. Either way, free/cheap + helping people out (and getting stuff you really want) rocks.

Oh yeah, that's not my rocker above. It's similar except that mine it very badly upholstered in some sort of dark green stuff that decided if it couldn't be tassled it would darn well well have tonal pictures of tassles scattered all over it. Hideous. I'm pretty sure I can fix it with some fabric in my stash though.

Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday I got home from work and, like everyday, I went to my garden first to check on things (yes, I am a dork). I peered into all of my little pots to make sure they were moist enough for some good germination action. Then, in my arugula pot, I saw it...SEEDLINGS! A patch of tiny 2 leaved green goodness. I actually shouted my glee aloud, yelling "their here, it's happening!" to Carrie, who was visiting. We both got excited (obviously me moreso). I was unsure of growing anything from seed, especially anything that I may want to eat, but so far...success! A summer of fresh greens. I am keeping my fingers crossed for my little seeds germinating indoors, all warm and moist in their miniature plastic greenhouse...and for my beans and other greens trying to make it outdoors as well.

My herb garden is spreading like crazy! I may have to transplant my mint, as I think it is crowding out the oregano and thyme. The damp weather has been so good for the little guys.

I feel like a proud parent on talent show day! Soon I will be inviting everyone over to pick up some veggies.

Commitment to Loveliness

I came across this challenge today (Thanks Trina!). The basic premise is that you choose five ways you can add loveliness to your life. I'm not sure if it's a week or a month challenge broken up into weeks, but it looked worth doing. Of course I know some of us are all busy with Script Frenzy this month trying to churn out plots, and this might not be the best time to start making even more commitments. I, however, am going to give it a shot. So here's my list.

1. Shave my legs more often. I am a lazy blue-jeans girl by habit, but smooth legs means I can have spontaneous sundress moments without hunting up a razor. And sundresses are just plain prettier than blue-jeans.

2. Take the time to actually take care of my nails. (Are you seeing a trend here? I'd much rather be reading than doing my nails.)

3. Start clearing the clutter out of my bedroom so I can have a peaceful space in there.

4. Guilt-free cleaning: just one small thing at a time when I have the opportunity -the toothpaste, my apple core (yummy), my car keys etc.

5. Get up and move. I'll feel better.