Homemade chives and sour cream dip on a baked potato with steamed broccoli and cheese.

Sometimes a baked potato is very bla and not very tasty even with salt, pepper, and butter.

I’ve just added some new chives plants to the vegetable garden and they needed a trim. Of course, there was all ready sour cream in the fridge so it was a natural combination!

I used kitchen scissors to harvest the chives.

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Homemade chives and sour cream dip on a baked potato with steamed broccoli and cheese.

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons sour cream
4 tablespoons fresh chives – cut into small pieces with scissors.
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Mix the ingredients and serve. Chill to keep firm.

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Baked potato in aluminum foil:

Preheat the oven on 425f. Using a fork, pole holes around the potato. You may rub them with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Wrap in aluminum foil. Place on lower rack of oven. The aluminum foil produces a moist skinned, baked potato.

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Bake for about 45 minutes to one hour or until cooked through. You can test for doneness by poking it with a fork or pinching the potato. Its it is soft its ready!

Top with the chive sour cream dip and more chives, salt and pepper.

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I also steamed broccoli in the microwave for about five minutes and sprinkled with cheese while hot.

Enjoy!

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A Sunday morning walk through the garden.

Monarda “Jacob Cline”

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Easter Lily with bright pink perennial sweet pea

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Hydrangeas

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Black Eyed Susan

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A very large guest! Must be why I am not having any problems with voles eating the lilies this year?

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Not quite Summer in full swing.

The days are becoming humid with temperatures in the mid to low 80s. It’s just about Summer here in the Mid-Atlantic states.

The spiderworts (Trandescantia) are finishing their Spring bloom cycles but are developing fungal leaf spot, which they always do when the humidity is high. That’s ok. They tend to fall over after the blooming season and look best when cut back to the ground.

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After only a few days I grew tired of all the leaning Rose-of-Sharons from tropical storm Andrea so they all were trimmed back to about knee high. They will shoot back up about three to four feet by Fall. They will just bloom later than normal.

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The hydrangeas along the drive are beautiful, as always! They all were cuttings from one plant which I found behind the old shed when I purchased the house ten years ago.

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While walking around the JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University we saw a beautiful fox! He wouldn’t sit still long enough for a good picture and I only captured the below picture of him running away down a path.

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That’s ok. The perennial border looks wonderful as we have had tons of rain! The dahlias are blooming now with the lilies budding out for their next show!

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I am just waiting for the vegetable garden to begin producing some veggies for some fresh and new recipes!

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