We are back from Disney Land and Arizona (I guess I will do a separate post on that with pictures and stuff) and getting into the swing of Pullman summer.
Of course the garden is demanding attention. 12 days of being out of town allowed the plants and weeds alike to explode! The spinach is more than harvestable, we have already pulled up a number of radishes, the salad mix (which had been looking pretty sparse when we left) has formed a rainbow, the onions look a lot like our chives right now, the broccoli is looking a little worse for wear but is struggling on, and the carrots are coming along (although slowly). The real surprise is the potatoes (although they shouldn't be a surprise)- they weren't yet above ground when we left and now look like thick, leafy bushes. Again, considering the massive energy store that is a potato, this amount of growth shouldn't be that surprising, but it was still rather startling. I spent an hour or so weeding and hoeing the first Monday back, and have been out for a little while every day since to stay on top of the weeds. Yesterday I got our beans and corn in the ground, and discovered a teeming ant's nest where I planned on planting the squash. So I churned up the soil and turned the hose on them in hopes of convincing them to move elsewhere. Today I got the first wave of cucumbers in the the ground (next planting when the first ones germinate in hopes of having a longer harvest) as well as the melons and squash (the ant nest was still active but less so...I planted extra seeds just in case one or two got carried off) and I planted some new radishes where I pulled up some for tonight's salad.
In the area of cooking, this has already been a fun week! We got a new cook book a while back at Costco- another America's Test Kitchen book. I love them! This one is "cooking for two" so we are trying out some recipes this week. Last night Andrew made chicken fajitas that were quick, easy, delicious, and almost the perfect amount for two people! Tonight we are having lasagna for two and a salad from our garden- spinach and radishes plus some feta and strawberries (not from the garden, sadly). And Monday night we made our first strawberry rhubarb pie (hence the strawberries for the salad) inspired by some rhubarb in the grocery store that was literally as thick as my wrist. I made a delicious, flaky crust using my mom's recipe and managed to pull it off without swearing, flinging pie crust at the wall, or getting drunk (clearly this is not my first pie crust and the first time was decidedly disastrous). Hooray!
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Update on the cooking: the lasagna was fabulous (although it turned out to be more than two servings- we got one dinner and a lunch for each of us out of it. Still, much better than the entire pan would have been), and our chicken pasta with red peppers and caramalized onions was easy and quick and also tasty (although next time we are going to mince the peppers instead of cutting them in strips).
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