eat your veggies – Peaceful Reader

{Back door of my grandmother’s home : circa 1999}

I come from a long line of gardeners. My grandmother had an amazing green thumb and had a large square garden in her backyard and grew a variety of plants in and around the house. I remember clearly the Clematis that climbed a trellis right outside her backdoor so as you walked out you were greeted with an airy wall of delicate purple flowers and lovey green leaves. She had a huge hill of rhubarb growing that we would suck on after dipping the end in a cup of sugar she would provide. I remember eating garden produce like sugar snap peas and raspberries right out of our hands as we picked. She didn’t believe in spraying and loved that her garden was clean of chemicals. Oh and the ground cherries-so delicious to pop right out of their paper-like shells and eat immediately except if we were saving up for a pie. Rhubarb-ground cherry pie is still my favorite even though I haven’t had it for years.

{My new garden box with lettuce varieties}

My husband is blessed with a green thumb as well. I can grow things but he has like magical powers and we are amazed at his ability to resurrect plants that look like they are ready for the compost pile. Every year we plant a variety of flowers and vegetables around the house. We don’t have a set spot for either but intermix them together. This year we planted kale, sugar snap peas, cauliflower, broccoli, basil, cilantro, butternut squash, and cucumbers. Plus we watched a master gardener class with Ron Finley and we are rooting and will plant a sweet potato bc he made it look so easy. And then we have a whole variety of flower pots and window boxes that we filled in yesterday. My grandmother loved geraniums and this year I have two varieties planted in pots to remind me of her all summer long. I don’t have an actual photograph of her smiling while gardening but in my mind I have many snapshots.

With our extra amount of together we stumbled upon an Epic Gardening video with Kevin and we learned a lot about ginger and have a large root planted in a shallow pot. Both the sweet potato and ginger pot may need to live inside our house in order to stay warmer if we have an unusually chill fall season. Today we celebrate old memories and new ones we are making together. We will always look back on the 2020 spring/summer pandemic with interesting memories of gardening, good food, good books, extra streaming time, and planting some new adventures. Peace.

I like planning and putting together meals that everyone will love through the holidays. Planning truly is half the fun.

I should be cleaning right now and instead I’m plotting and finding recipes. Tomorrow morning it will be the first meal we all have together since-well, we were all in Chicago for Thanksgiving! Still it will be special around our big table, ready to start the festivities off.

I’m going to make a french toast recipe in my slow cooker. I can get up early, pour it all in, and then go back to bed and read for a few hours until the eggs are set and the bread is crusty. Breakfast for Christmas morning is going to be an egg enchilada dish with some grits, fruit, and bacon (husband only).

{breakfast enchiladas}

At Mississippi Market in St Paul I located a MN farm-raised turkey and my husband picked it up today before he picked up our oldest daughter at the airport. Our turkey is now riding home with the two of them-hopefully doing a little un-thawing. I spent days and many phone calls trying to find an Iowa turkey but none were available. We have not had a turkey for years. I’ve been creative over the years making meatless or fish meals. While we were in Chicago over Thanksgiving though Groovy Girl mentioned that she didn’t remember EVER having had a “traditional” T.giving meal. She’s exceptional.

{squash and wild rice}

While I’m not one for tradition I thought it would be fun to give it a go for Christmas. I plan to brine the bird just like my mom and I used to do years ago. I’m not even a fan of turkey but we’ll see how this one turns out. I hope Groovy Girl will be happy with the results. That meal will be rounded out with cranberries, butternut squash/wild rice dish (if I change the honey for maple syrup it will be vegan), some roasted sweet potatoes (I just found this recipe in the **Thug Kitchen 101, roasted brussels sprouts with shaved parmesan (on the side), regular mashed potatoes and gravy, whole carrots roasted, maybe a small salad (it makes me happy). What a whole lot of love this will be. I plan on dinner lasting at least an hour. Groovy Son’s girlfriend is coming over after work so that is why so many vegan dishes are infused into our meal. I heartily laugh about the fact that she became a vegan as he complained for years about eating mainly vegetarian as a child until we added in sustainable local meat. I seriously love the universe. Our meals over the years did teach him to be a flexible, more versatile eater which is just a good thing for anyone.

So anxious was I about our amazing meal that I jumped ahead with the Christmas dinner paragraph. Backing up to Christmas Eve; also a tangle of recipes because I grew up with homemade oyster stew and champagne. I love oyster stew and champagne! I’ve never been a vegetarian that couldn’t eat a little fish along the way. My husband happens to be allergic to shellfish. I know. Almost a deal breaker. I started making clam chowder as a replacement. It does not hold the same appeal though. Clam chowder is like oyster stews’ half cousin, twice removed. So this year I’m making a small batch of BOTH! I found a recipe on Epicurious that takes it up a notch or two-no once removed and will see how it fares. Yes. Enough for all to have some of each except the husband. We’ll have baguettes and salad to go with this meal.

Are you hungry now? I am.

**I have this in my house b/c it is the girlfriend’s Christmas gift. I read a review somewhere about this book and wanted to check it out anyway and then it appeared on her wish list so win/win. It’s definitely cheeky and the recipes are appealing.

Tag: eat your veggies

Growing memories

Menu for this holiday week…WOW!