2012 November 21 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

November 21, 2012 · by JudyL

With my new, less than one week old “minimalist” attitude, I lay awake last night thinking of our Thanksgiving dinner. There will be five adults here. We’re having a 16 pound turkey and a ham. We really don’t need both but I will fix them and we will eat leftovers til one of us declares that we will die if we have one more ham sandwich! Seriously, there’s a whole lot I can do with leftover ham and turkey so I’m not too concerned about having those.

But the veggies . . why do we think we have to have so much? Green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing. I’ve decided I’m not going to fix the sweet potato casserole unless mom, dad or Vince seriously can’t make it without it.

Cranberry sauce, cherry/cranberry salad and Watergate salad? Do we need three? No! I’m the one who loves Watergate salad. I can live without it so I’ll leave that off.

Pumpkin pie, pecan pie and Five Flavor Pound Cake. Do we need three desserts? No. I’m leaving off . . what? Surely not pumpkin pie. I’ll ask mom, dad and Vince what they’d rather have . . cake or pecan pie. One or the other . . not both. Vince said he wants pound cake. I think that’s what mom and dad would rather have too. I love pecan pie. I’ll just wait and when it’s just the two of us, I’ll make one and I can have more that way. The more I think about it . . the more I want pecan pie!

Giblet Gravy and Rolls . . that’s it. My Thanksgiving dinner has just gotten a little easier . . not a whole lot but a little.

Garden Survived The Freeze

November 21, 2012 · by JudyL

Last week we had lows in the mid 20′s and I was a bit worried about my plants. Some things I read said lettuce and beets would be damaged below 28 and some things I read said they would be fine. We covered them with plastic but the wind was blowing so hard, even with the edges secured as best we could, most of the plastic had blown off by morning.

Everything seems fine.

Miss Hattie loves the strawberries. Any time she thinks I’m headed towards the garden, she runs over to be sure that’s where I’m going and she heads straight to the strawberries. She really just pecks on them all and ruins them but . . she’s such a sweet chicken, I just let her do it.

Once she’s had her fill of pecking on all the berries, I pick the ones she’s nibbled on and give them to the rest of the chickens. When I planted strawberries, I didn’t plan that the chickens would get them all!

The chard is doing great. We’ve eaten that several times. The mustard greens are doing a bit better with the cooler weather but I definitely planted them too early. Mustard does not like heat.

Beets, carrots and lettuce are all doing great. I pick enough lettuce for a salad every night. As I was thinning carrots yesterday, some of them are starting to really look like carrots — orange color and all.

I’ve checked the weather forecast and it looks like it’s going to be about a month before it gets down in the mid-20′s again so hopefully, I’ll have beets and carrots ready to harvest by then.

The broccoli and cauliflower are growing and looking good. I don’t think I got a picture of the kale but this is the first time I’ve grown it and it’s so cute — curly little leaves and a deep, dark green.

I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch (speaking of that . . there were 9 eggs and only 4 hatched) but my fall garden is looking great and I’m very hopeful for lots of good produce coming from there.