Gardening

The weather this past weekened was great, despite the predictions for a foot of snow and possible blizzard-like conditions. Jon and I ate lunch outdoors at Panera Bread Sunday, surrounded by bikers. (As in spandex and ten-speeds, not leather and tattoos.) We were at one of those outdoor malls that apparantly backs up to a bunch of bike trails. Our food was yummy - Jon had a turkey sandwich on sundried tomato bread, and I enjoyed a Greek salad.
Afterwards we went to the library to pick up some veg cookbooks and organic gardening books for me, and then to a gas station/bait shop to purchase worms for Jon's compost pile. He drilled holes in a rubbermaid tub, filled it with shredded newspaper, dirt, and steer manure, and placed the whole thing in another tub to catch potential moisture. Then he added the worms and I added a few strawberry tops from breakfast. Unfortunately, by this morning all the worms were dead. So the new Question of the Week is this: How to keep your compost pile from killing the worms?? Any suggestions? It didn't get below freezing overnight, and the compost pile isn't in direct sunlight to overheat them.
On the up-side - one of the books I got from the library is called This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader, by Joan Dye Gussow. It's about a 60- or 70- year old woman who has slowly progressed to growing all her veggies (and a lot of her fruits too!) over the past 40+ years. I'm loving this book! It's very reminiscent of A Year in Provence, with lots of tips on organic vegetable gardening and information/motivation about eating locally and seasonally thrown in. I'm not done yet - but so far I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the environment, gardening, or just looking for a good story.

Mmm...peanut sauce

A quick meal for Saturday - whole wheat spaghetti with stir-fried veggies (carrots, broccoli, onions, and mushrooms) with a yummy peanut sauce. Reminiscent of Thai food and super-easy!
We watched "Thank you for Smoking" on DVD from the library that evening - pretty good for free!

April showers bring....Easter snow??

Easter morning we woke up to snow! And not just a sprinkling - heavy flakes that left about 4-5 inches and continued into the afternoon. We adjusted our plans and decided to spend some quality time hanging pictures in our house. (After all they look a lot better hanging on the wall then leaning up against it!)
I also continued my search for easter eggs. We have about 7 dozen that Mom bought 2 years ago, so Jon hid them for me a few days ago. He's a little too good at it, since I'm still short at least a dozen! My last appointment of the day yesterday was an Aggie who said his wife hides eggs every year for their grown kids, so at least I'm in good company in my searching! =)

Pretty colors

Jon and I dyed Easter eggs a few days before Easter this year. We never got to last year (partially because I was on an emergency/ICU rotation and super busy), so this year was extra fun. We only did 1 dozen (how many hard-boiled eggs can 2 people really eat??), but we had a great time! Unfortunately we didn't read the directions well, so accidentally added vinegar to all the colors, when apparantly pink and purple do not play well with vinegar. So those colors are a little splotchy, but still cute in my opinion!
Afterwards, Jon made deviled eggs, so we got to use our cute yellow Fiestaware egg platter (thanks Mom!!).