|
Post by chipperhiker on May 20, 2018 19:17:55 GMT -5
It's been over two years since I really CWTGTO, but I decided that it's time to start really using Miss Agatha again.
Tonight I'm making lemon chicken with root vegetables in the thermowell, with a bit of extra water added so I will be able to make soup tomorrow. It's been CWTGTO for a few hours now, and biscuits are just about to go in the oven.
|
|
|
Post by nana on May 21, 2018 5:11:44 GMT -5
I assume you've had a good reason, but why haven't you been CWTGTO? I would have to be not able to cook at all to give it up at this point!
By the way, that sounds like a great dish to get back in the swing of things!!
|
|
|
Post by karitx on May 21, 2018 8:10:24 GMT -5
Yum - that sounds great! How did it turn out?
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on May 21, 2018 21:13:17 GMT -5
Well, I did pretty much give up on cooking, and everything else. Let's just say that spousal abandonment after 25 years together and no warning is not a pretty thing. Anyway, I'm coming back to life, and getting Miss Agatha going again is part of that process. Hoping to be here on the board more often again, too. Dinner came out really well. I love having chicken broth for soup, left-over chicken for the next meal, and I even have the bones in the freezer for a batch of bone broth. Pleased.
|
|
|
Post by vaporvac on May 21, 2018 21:37:36 GMT -5
Jenn, I'm really sorry to hear that and don't know quite what to say. I hope you won't be a stranger here and that our little community and Miss Agatha helps you heal in some small way.
|
|
|
Post by karitx on May 22, 2018 11:18:33 GMT -5
Oh, I'm so sorry, chipperhiker. As vaporvac said, I don't really know what to say, but I'm glad you are starting to feel like yourself again.
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on May 22, 2018 13:18:09 GMT -5
Thanks. Just kind of explaining why I have been MIA for so much of the last couple years.
Anyway, I put Agatha to work overnight on a nice batch of steel cut oats, and she did a beautiful job. Of course. Nothing like a nice hot breakfast when I finally get around to it, say, at 2 pm!
|
|
|
Post by nana on May 22, 2018 19:26:49 GMT -5
Gosh, I am so sorry to hear that. Heartache is a misery I would never wish on anyone. Like Vaporvac said, I hope chatting on here and sharing recipes and stories can help you recover your faith in humanity!
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on May 25, 2018 21:53:39 GMT -5
Thanks, nana! I'm doing a million times better.
The latest home cooked meal was asparagus soup made from my last batch of homegrown asparagus for a few years. I neglected my gardens for a couple years and the perennial areas were overtaken with grass.
So, I roto-tilled the whole bed under and I am gaining to start over by building a nice raised bed that should be easier to defend from grass invasion. The soup was delicious.
|
|
|
Post by nana on May 26, 2018 19:31:03 GMT -5
! Asparagus is a survivor. My mom's asparagus bed is totally overgrown with weeds and brambles, but we still get spears from it even now 5 years later, if we fight our way through the prickers, that is. Raised beds are the way to go, as far as ease of working. Mine dries out faster than the ground, though. I have to water it way more than the rest of the garden.
|
|
|
Post by karitx on May 27, 2018 17:16:02 GMT -5
I lost my asparagus to a combination of gophers and the terrier that was trying to kill the gophers. I really miss it and I had intended to replant this year, but then caught Daisy (the terrier, not the gopher) tail-deep in one of her excavations and decided to not even try this year. Maybe I can find a place outside the fence to plant it in the future.
|
|
|
Post by nana on May 27, 2018 20:21:14 GMT -5
Was it Mach12 who has it growing wild all over the place up in his neck of the woods? I think so. Give it a try! You have very little to lose, and everything to gain!
|
|
|
Post by mach12 on May 27, 2018 21:41:07 GMT -5
Was it Mach12 who has it growing wild all over the place up in his neck of the woods? I think so. Give it a try! You have very little to lose, and everything to gain! Yup, they load the trucks so high that some falls off and plants itself alongside the road. I grew it for spargle (German style white asparagus) for a long time but when they had me doing back to back tours in Iraq it didn't get taken care of and only about 1/3 of them are still alive.
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on May 28, 2018 20:15:58 GMT -5
Yum... I loved eating Spargle Soup the one time I visited Germany in the spring!
My new asparagus crowns arrived Saturday. Now I just need to build (and fill - eek) that raised bed. I do tend to do things a bit out of order...
I did plant one of my new heirloom apple trees, though, and heeled the other in to the garden until I can decide where to put it. This year's additions are a Yellow Transparent Apple, a Golden Russet Apple, and I am taking a chance on a Chicago Hardy Fig. I've never had a fresh fig in my life, and I really want to remedy that deficiency.
|
|
|
Post by nana on May 30, 2018 5:10:26 GMT -5
Yum... I loved eating Spargle Soup the one time I visited Germany in the spring! My new asparagus crowns arrived Saturday. Now I just need to build (and fill - eek) that raised bed. I do tend to do things a bit out of order... I did plant one of my new heirloom apple trees, though, and heeled the other in to the garden until I can decide where to put it. This year's additions are a Yellow Transparent Apple, a Golden Russet Apple, and I am taking a chance on a Chicago Hardy Fig. I've never had a fresh fig in my life, and I really want to remedy that deficiency. Where do you live again? I've never had a fresh fig either. My mom used to rhapsodize about eating them as a child in Italy. But if they have a fig that will grow in Chicago, it may be able to hang on here with protection...especially with climate change and all. We had Italian neighbors when I was a kid in NYC who had a potted fig they took in every winter, but I don't remember it ever having fruit... What am I thinking of--as if I don't already have enough animals and plants to tend!!!
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on May 30, 2018 11:25:01 GMT -5
I'm on the north shore of Oneida Lake. Figs have to have very serious intervention to get them through winters, like digging them half up, tipping home on their sides and burying in mulch with tarps covers for the winter. I'm willing because I want those figs. : )
|
|
|
Post by karitx on May 30, 2018 13:13:49 GMT -5
Figs actually do fairly well here in our area. My favorite so far is a giant round yellow one that my FIL's friend had in his yard (I suspect it might be White Marseilles). He gave me cuttings, but so far it hasn't produced anything. I also have a couple small ones from my FIL's tree (unknown variety) and my sister just gave me some rooted limbs from her giant 50+ year old tree (which I think might be Celeste). As far as I know, none of them would be winter hardy in your areas. I'm not sure how to describe the flavor. They are not as sweet as some other fruits and they have a little bit of a honey flavor to them, mixed with dried plum.
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on May 30, 2018 21:48:57 GMT -5
I'm so envious when about the ability to grow fruits that aren't hardy here. I'd love to be able to grow citrus, and peaches, and...
|
|
|
Post by karitx on May 31, 2018 15:50:19 GMT -5
I'm so envious when about the ability to grow fruits that aren't hardy here. I'd love to be able to grow citrus, and peaches, and... If it makes you feel better, the current temperature is 93F with a "feels like" of 100F. And I can't grow rhubarb.
|
|
|
Post by nana on May 31, 2018 19:33:44 GMT -5
I would gladly trade rhubarb for figs any day, but I don't want that heat. For that, I would have to be able to grow mangos!!
|
|
|
Post by chipperhiker on Jun 6, 2018 20:13:33 GMT -5
I don't manage heat particularly well, so I guess I'll be sticking to easy rhubarb and working to make the fig work.
|
|
|
Post by karitx on Jun 7, 2018 15:36:31 GMT -5
I don't manage it especially well, either. Air conditioning is my favorite invention!
|
|