06.29.08
Posted in Musings at 2:23 pm by trueepicure
Just made a crustless quiche with a recipe from the District Domestic. It’s a great recipe.
I changed up the recipe a bit:
Greek yogurt instead of the sour cream (slightly safer for E)
Lactose free milk
a few marinated sundried tomatoes
left out the Parmesan cheese
sprinkled a bit of fresh dill from our garden on top
Surprisingly, I didn’t miss the cheese or the salt and pepper that I thought I might need. The tomatoes and the dill were plenty. The eggs, garlic, and the yellow squash I used are all from the local farmer’s market.
Now I just need to figure out what to do with the remaining seven eggs that doesn’t involve large quantities of butter and sugar. 
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Posted in Environment, Flowers, Food, Gardening, Musings, Plants at 1:05 pm by trueepicure
It’s been raining so much here lately, that we haven’t been able to mow the lawn much. I know E isn’t particularly happy about it, but at least the bees are happy. They seem to like the clover that’s growing in the yard:
I’m trying to pay more attention to the bees… and to the smaller things in life that I tend to overlook because I’m busy or just plain not paying attention. Bees are on my mind more and more lately because of the news about Colony Collapse Disorder. I now have a number of veggie plants in the back yard, that won’t get pollinated unless the bees or other insects are drawn to the yard. Imagine what will happen if all of the bees die?!
So here’s to our slightly overgrown lawn, bees, and the other small things that might get overlooked.
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06.28.08
Posted in Food, Gardening, Local Food, Musings, Plants at 3:00 pm by trueepicure
The first basil harvest from this year’s basil plants. Kind of small, but it will be tasty with this weekend’s farmer’s market finds, including some lovely grape tomatoes.
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06.23.08
Posted in Gardening, Travel at 10:40 pm by trueepicure
E and I traveled south to Williamsburg this past weekend. We spent the day on Saturday roaming around the colonial village at Williamsburg, and part of Sunday at Jamestown. I enjoyed the weekend immensely - it really fed my inner history buff, but I kept finding myself drawn to the gardens, again and again. There were so many happy looking gardens there. Many of the gardens had the same things growing: squash, herbs, fennel, and medicinal plants, but a few were full of flowers and other veggies.
It was fortifying to see such happy plants in abundance. It also gives me ideas for my own garden, the one in my head, that keeps morphing into different shapes. I don’t yet know when I’ll be able to plant my garden in the ground, but the garden in my mind’s eye is a beautiful place to be.
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06.15.08
Posted in Flowers, Food, Gardening, Musings at 12:45 pm by trueepicure
It’s been a busy couple of weekends, but there has been garden work happening.
1. Eggplant ‘Black Beauty’, 2. Banana Pepper, 3. Tomato ‘Cherokee Purple’, 4. Tomato ‘Better Bush’, 5. African Daisy, 6. Herbs
I’m doing pots this year because we will probably be moving again. How far is anyone’s guess, but at least my tomatoes will be portable! 2 of the three tomato plants and some of the herbs (including the Genovese basil) are locally grown by smaller farms in the area. The rest of the plants were purchased at Home Despot, but they claim to be locally grown (all in the Maryland area, I belive). I don’t know how accurate it is that the HD plants are locally grown, as the pots indicate they are distributed by a local company but don’t necessarily say they were grown there.
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06.13.08
Posted in 3 Day Walk, Soapbox at 12:45 pm by trueepicure
You may remember that I walked in the Breast Cancer 3-Day a while back. I walked in memory of my cousin Monique who lost her life to breast cancer at age 49. I won’t be walking this year, but my good friend Meredith will be. Please consider donating to her fundraising effort in support of every woman and man who has died, survived, been diagnosed, or affected by breast cancer.
Thank you.
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06.06.08
Posted in Gardening, Musings at 10:00 am by trueepicure
I need more focus in my blog-life.
I love to blog, but I haven’t been doing much of it, and I definitely haven’t been doing it consistently. I think I just need some direction, and a little bit of structure. I have a plan brewing… and I think it will work.
While I’m figuring things out, go read about the USDA Extension Program. It’s a really great program, and it’s incredibly useful if you are interested in gardening. Every state and U.S. Territory has an extension program - even the District of Columbia has one and they don’t even have voting rights. That’s a post for another day.
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06.04.08
Posted in Musings at 11:07 am by trueepicure
Last night I went walking with the dog just after the rain, and had the pleasure of walking past a large patch of lavender in a neighbor’s yard. I can’t quite describe the scent, but it was so lovely - spicy lavender and the sweet green smell of rain.
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06.02.08
Posted in Food at 10:12 pm by trueepicure
Rasberries should be showing up at the farmer’s market any time now… but until they do, I’ll be eating Sharon’s Sorbet!
We’ve tried the Lemon and Rasberry flavors… I’m hoping we can find some of the others as well. Sharon’s comes in Passion Fruit and Mango (among others) as well, and there isn’t any corn product - not even citric acid. Whoo hoo!
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06.01.08
Posted in Books, Local Food, Musings at 8:54 pm by trueepicure
I’m currently reading The World Without Us
. It’s a really fascinating discussion about what would happen if humans disappeared from the planet. I never really think about how much we have engineered the world for our purposes, but this book does an excellent job of describing how much we have invested in making our world habitable, and how our making the world habitable has pushed us into making the world inhabitable.
I found out today that Gary Paul Nabhan has another book out that I need to read. Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods
sounds like an extension of his book Coming Home to Eat
, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
In between all of the books, we’ve been having some wonderful meals. My last two trips to the farmer’s market and our visit to Eastern Market last week, have morphed into several delicious meals, including an impromptu lunch of whole wheat pasta, goat cheese, and local asparagus and tomatoes. A lovely oil and vinegar dressing with a red onion (probably from Georgia) tied the whole thing together for a truly satisfying and fairly healthy meal. We finished the last of the eggs from Smith Meadows Farm this morning, so I have to make a trip to the market next week for sure.
6/2/08 ETA to add correct link to Smith Meadows Farm
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