Monday Musings: 06.10.2013 Edition

Isn’t it amazing how quickly time flies when you’re busy?  And BOY have we been busy lately!

Jar’s got the right idea, though, I think.  After a GRUELING tracking class (not really grueling, but he worked pretty hard), and a last-minute obedience class, by the time he finished dinner, he was done.  He crashed on his bed and barely moved for the rest of the evening – in fact, he never even came upstairs for bed!

Boy, you take your eyes off that herb garden for a few days and it just goes CRAZY, doesn’t t?

Tarragon trying to take over, sage blossoming all over the place, and the MINT is trying to make a break for it!

Don’t even get me started on the random dill popping up all over the place.

It may be had to tell, but I did make a bit of progress in imposing order on that mess!  I did some weeding, trimmed the sage, and tied up the tarragon.

I didn’t have the heart to rip up that runaway mint – though I’ll probably be sorry later, won’t I?

Speaking of gardens and imposing order . . . I finally had a chance to do some work in the vegetable garden this weekend, too.  The beans, in front here, are up and doing beautifully, and the potatoes, which you can’t really see WAY at the back, are also mostly doing well – I think a couple of the plants didn’t come up (yet?), but the ones that are there are very happy!  I also thinned the kale, so we’ll be enjoying a baby kale salad in the near future, probably with some sort of mustard-y vinaigrette.

I’ve got tomato blossoms!  You know what this means, right?

It means it’s only a matter of time (well, less time than it was, anyway) until  I’m out there picking my very own fresh tomatoes and making plans for that summertime favorite – BLTs from scratch!

Speaking of BLTs – I did plant some lettuce, though it’s not doing spectacularly.

And apparently, my compost has gifted me with some of last year’s seeds – and the little volunteer looked so happy there trying to blend in with the lettuce, I just didn’t have the heart to pull it.

I have no idea what it is, though if I had to guess, I’d say it’s either got to be a winter squash or a melon.  Maybe.

How about a quick Shopping With Peeps?  (Sort of, anyway.)

How do you like our Summer Snow?  The parking lot of the supermarket this morning was just absolutely loaded with piles and drifts of the stuff!

Here in the Rochester, NY area, we seem to have an alarming number of cottonwood trees – which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, really, unless you’re allergic to the stuff.

Yeah, I’ll spend the next few weeks blowing my nose and itchy-eyed.  But I’m used to it by now, I guess.

We had an absolutely gorgeous weekend, and Peeps grabbed the opportunity to smoke some pork – some bacon, some pork loin, and some pork shoulder.  (You know, since the smoker was going anyway, might as well do it all, right?)

He even had some help, too!  Jar wanted to help carry, but Peeps had it under control.

Meanwhile, I’m starting to get more than a little tired of walking around Jar’s unfinished feeder-to-be, so I hauled it out to the deck and sanded the daylights out of it and put a coat of paint on the inside.  I’ll give that a chance to dry, then finish painting it.

And if I’m smart, I’ll add a coat of polyurethane or something equally slobber-resistant.

I’m just not sure yet if I’m that smart. . .

And of course it wouldn’t be Sunday without a nice bone in the back yard for Mister Fuzzy Butt (speaking of  fuzzy butt – OH the SHEDDING!)

I stopped at the butcher shop, and when I asked the butcher to cut the bones in half because his tongue wouldn’t fit all the way inside, well, the guy thought I was a little nuts.

So  I didn’t tell him I was buying a box of Honey Nut Cheerios to use as treats. . .

When I cleaned the daylights out of the herb garden, I ended up hacking down a TON of sage.  So I salvaged half a dozen leaves, added to them the zest of half a lemon, some black pepper and some sea salt, and I chopped them all together.

I figure that’ll be a lovely rub for some pork chops that are going on the grill – after all, you didn’t think Peeps had smoked ALL of the pork, did you?

And once again, it’s time for the weekly menu plan.  Last week was a looong week, and this week looks like it’s going to be more of the same.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you – just a little tired.

So, most of the week is looking fairly decent – in fact, I’d go so far as to say we couldn’t ask for much nicer weather – except the couple of rainy days, of course.  But even that, we can live with – after all, the garden needs the water, right?

Monday –  Peeps requested Breakfast For Dinner, so we dusted off an old favorite lemon-ricotta pancake recipe, and we’ll work on finishing up the last of the oldest bacon in the freezer (if there is any).   I may even get ambitious and make some kind of blueberry sauce for the pancakes – that’ll be good, right?

Tuesday – Since it’s going to be rainy, and since we wanted something meatless (or mostly meatless, anyway), and since we loved the idea when we got the newest Cook’s Country magazine, we’re going to try their Corn Chowder makeover – which apparently the ENTIRE INTERNET has not yet heard of.

I’ll let you know how it goes. . .

Wednesday – Did I mention we smoked a pork loin this weekend?  We did.  And that got me thinking about Cuban sandwiches, and how they’re made with pork loin and supposed to be kind of squished, which made me think about that so-good-but-so-bad panini that I haven’t made in AGES – so we’re going try a Cuban-ish panini-ish sort of thing.  Smoked pork loin and kale and onion relish and cheese, with wild garlic pesto mayo on semolina, grilled panini-style.  With maybe some potato salad and green salad on the side

Thursday – I’ve got another “thing” after work, so I’ll be home for dinner, but just barely.  So after Kay‘s comment the other day, we realized that we hadn’t grill-spatchcocked a chicken in a while.  Peeps will deal with that, along with some pan-roasted little potatoes and some green beans from the freezer – a lovely dinner after a LONG day!

Friday – As always, Friday is pizza night – last week, I enjoyed wild garlic and asparagus, which was great.  This week, maybe there will be a bit of roast pork or chicken, otherwise I’m sure I can manage to rustle up a few fresh herbs. . .

Be sure to click on over to The Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan post for loads and loads of other ideas.