Monday, I placed an order at rareseeds.com (Baker Creek Seed Co.) after mulling over the catalog for the past few weeks, and especially Sunday. Here’s what I ordered (because the names are my favorite part):

“Tequila Sunrise” sweet yellow-orange peppers

“Amish Paste” tomatoes

“Rouge Vif d’Etampes” pumpkins (the “Cinderella” pumpkin as I think it is also known)

“Amazonka” pumpkins

“Winter Luxury Pie” pumpkins

“Cantare” green beans

“Painted Lady” runner beans

“Old North Sea” strawberry plants

“Waltham” broccoli

“Little Finger” carrots

“Strawberry” watermelons

“Stowell’s Evergreen” corn (same as last year)

“Boston Pickling” cucumbers

Arugula (no fancy name)

“Yellow of Parma” onions

“Little Gem” Romaine lettuce

“Butter King” lettuce

And I still have plenty of yellow squash (straight neck and crookneck), sugar pumpkin, and herb seeds that I think, based on some research I did on seed life yesterday, will still work. I have some sugar snap pea seeds as well, given to me by my friend F. last year.

 

I drew up my tentative garden plan:

That there notebook is my new garden journal, an idea I got from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I’m going to try to keep all my gardening notes in there this year, so I’ll have the info for next year. Dates things were planted, pests or disease that strikes, etc. Any detail that might be helpful.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I planted basil, cilantro, and parsley in homemade seed starters (large yogurt containers) using vermiculite. The basil can eventually be transferred to a larger spot outside but the other two don’t like to be transplanted so they will stay in those containers.

Another inspiration that came from A-V-M is to start getting meat and eggs from a local farm. I had looked into this before but never done it. I think I really might this time. I’ve got an order form for 7th Heaven Farm all filled out. I also am considering joining a CSA, like maybe this one, since I know my garden can be hit or miss. In theory, I could just go to the farmer’s market every Saturday morning, but that doesn’t seem to happen as much as I’d like. Plus it’s crowded, etc. A CSA would be a good way to kind of lock us in to veggies. And I wouldn’t mind driving myself and the kids down to a farm once a week (although a lot of these farms have delivery or local drop-off points as well).

I think I’m going to forget about redoing the foyer and just focus on getting all the planters and dirt I’m going to need to plant all these seeds I ordered…

In other news, we had a nice weekend with some culinary adventures. I fired up ye olde waffle iron Sunday morning and made Belgian waffles. For this first test I just used the Bisquick recipe. They came out great, but the kids wouldn’t eat them. Their suspicion of and aversion to anything new is really something else. Who wouldn’t prefer a hot fresh waffle to a freakin’ Eggo frozen circle??? My daughter did eat part of one, but she wasn’t too impressed. The only positive here is that maybe they prefer the Eggos because they are whole-grain — the whole-grain Eggos certainly taste better to me than regular Eggos. If that’s the case, I’ll be sure to use whole-wheat pastry flour in my next waffle foray.

Sunday, I made “salsa chicken” (chicken breast cooked in crock pot in salsa and a splash of wine). We shredded it up and ate it with sour cream and cheese on warmed tortillas. Soooo simple and good. At least that’s how hubs and I ate it. The kids ate the chicken after carefully wiping off any trace of salsa. They also had quesadillas, and we all ate or tried to eat snow peas (my first time ever serving them). I thought they were crunchy and fun. The kids, to their credit, really gave them a good try but did not much like them. Since our rule is you have to eat at least two things being served to you, they opted for the chicken and the quesadillas.

We also, over the weekend, had swimming lessons, went bowling, and cleaned up a bunch, and I got to hang out with girlfriends and eat sushi and Parisian chocolate. 🙂

The January budget, which is basically December too since so much spilled over, ended up being negative by $16. Not too bad considering Christmas, buying oil, etc. Actually that is not quite accurate because I had to use my credit card a few times for some things in January (when cash flow was tight) and I didn’t pay them off yet. So it’s a little more over than that. I was a little freewheeling in December and January, personally, what with getting my hair colored and those trips to Clutter. There may have been a Taco Bell trip. Need to rein it in. This week I have cooked every night so far, and eaten leftovers for lunch. Tonight is pork chops and sweet potatoes — I’m trying the sweet potatoes in the crock pot for the first time. Tomorrow, dinner will be out. But it’s a school fundraiser! I have to.