Monthly Archives: March 2013

The last day of March….

The last day of March is a rainy one! The day began chilly and windy but now is sunny. It’s Easter but I am working. Its a quiet day. I thought I world share some random pictures that I might not have shared before. These have been sitting around on my Iphone but I haven’t posted them for some reason?

Dark Lady Hellebore is lovely in the sun.

20130331-084742.jpg

A species tulip blooming out by the mailbox.

20130331-084840.jpg

Gus really enjoys sunny days!

20130331-085014.jpg

Sometimes a fried egg sandwich is the best comfort food!

20130331-085154.jpg

The German irises are growing and a few are producing flower buds!

20130331-085414.jpg

Dawson Street, Downtown Raleigh, North Carolina

20130331-085623.jpg

And Gus…

20130331-090517.jpg

5 Comments

Filed under Gus, Plants

Late frost…

Periods of extended warm weather in early Spring which encourages the garden to begin to grow and bloom is always a concern to me. I know there is always a threat of a low enough night frost to damage the growing buds and destroy an entire season of flowers or fruit.

The Asian Magnolias were in full bloom when the temps dipped to about 25f a few nights ago. The flowers do not look so good now.

20130325-114011.jpg

This winter has been entirely unseasonably warm. The Basjoo bananas have only had their leaves killed by frost as the trunks seem to be standing tall. In fact, new leaves have grown out the tops.

20130325-120340.jpg

Hopefully if was the last hard frost as the maples and many other plants also are in the process of blooming or growing leaves.

20130325-195944.jpg

6 Comments

Filed under General Gardening

Experimenting with leftovers, again.

Usually when I have a day off during the week I want to take advantage of the lunch specials at Downtown Raleigh restaurants. The prices are usually about half of the usual dinner cost and its sunny and warm today so I could walk around downtown, visit Father and Son or other downtown stores.

Of course, I began my day at Cup A Joe coffee shop and on my way back stopped by Logan’s Garden center.

I decide I have enough leftovers at home to pull something together and I rather save my money to go out to eat with friends.

I have half a loaf of French bread left over from the weekend. I had purchased it from La Farm Bakery at The NC Farmers market but by now it was becoming stale. I had always known you could us bread to thicken soups and stews so I decided to use as a base, otherwise, it would go in the compost bin or out for the birds to peck!

1) Heat oil in a Dutch oven and add a medium onion cut in small pieces. cook until they have soften. I also added one minced clove of garlic. Stir often and cook until the onion softened.

2) Add three potatoes cut in small cubes. A tablespoon of turmeric. Stir to coat vegetables and cook about 5 minutes.

3) Add about two cups of stock. I used two cups of water and a vegetable bullion cube because that was on hand. Turn heat up to high.

4) Once it began to boil I added a piece of fresh ginger, a tablespoon of curry powder, a teaspoon of paprika, salt and pepper.

5) After tasting, I decided it was missing some ZING! There are no chillis in the garden, yet. Hmmm. Sriracha? Tobasco? Ok. Four. Make that six shakes of Tobasco! Bring it back to a boil on medium high.

6) After boiling for about 15 minutes the potatoes were about done, I added the stale bread and enough water to cover. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and allow it boil until the bread falls apart. I added some leftover cherry tomatoes.

7) Once the bread has absorbed enough liquid and begins to fall apart you may need to add more liquid and stir vigorously so the bread comes apart and thickens the liquid.

20130321-150100.jpg

It was warm and filling!

20130321-150024.jpg

Of course, Gus enjoyed the warm Spring day.

20130321-150712.jpg

He always hams it up!

3 Comments

Filed under cooking, Food