sparrowgrass

Pumpkin, I think the tea leaves did cause the mold. Hold off on them, at least till the plants are bigger, and the weather is warmer and drier. Be careful--gardening is like crack. One day it is a few innocent herb plants in the window, the next day you have a full blown Burpee's jones, and half your income is going for hellebores and amaranth.

It is snowing in Missouri today, snowangel. But come on down--it'll be warm by the time you get here.

Jackal is right. Digging up established plants is difficult and roots are cheap. Buy the one year old ones. The two year old ones sound better, but they are the ones that were too small to be sold as one year olds and were replanted. Better to go with ones that started out big and strong. If you plant them this spring (soon as the ground can be worked) you can pick a little next year, and more each year after that. I have about 15 plants--not enough for me (and occasional forays by my son.) I am planting 25 more this spring, in a sunnier spot. Your mileage may vary--I eat sparrowgrass every day while it lasts.

Ahh, snowangel, I hear you. You know that I lived in Ely for 5 l-o-n-g years. The first March I was there, I woke up in the middle of the night with tears running down my cheeks--I had dreamed that I would not be home (back to Indiana) in time to start my garden. I am fighting pneumonia right now--if I wasn't, I would be out with the tiller right now. The soil is dry, the sun is out. Daffodils are blooming everywhere, the forsythia and quince are starting. I love March in Missouri.

What a nice friend!! Dip in egg, then in seasoned flour, and fry til brown and crispy. Our season doesn't start for a month or so. I will be trying all these recipes then. I love morels and eggs, omelettes or just scrambled.

I went to a Pampered Chef party once. The hostess passed all the tools for everyone to look at. As she was doing this, she was preparing some sort of sandwich-y thing for all of us to eat. As she got ready to spread the mayonaisse on the bread, she said, "Where is my spatula?" and proceeded to use the spatula that everyone had handled to spread the mayo. I came down with a sudden headache. The stuff is higher quality than the junk available in Walmart or KMart, where lots of us country bumpkins shop. (Yeah, I know I could drive 2 hours to St. Louis, Deveaux, but I live here so I don't have to fight traffic.)

A friend sent me 5 pounds of hand picked, hand parched wild rice. It is tasty, I like it, but I really prefer paddy grown at half the price. Paddy grown has smaller grains and cooks up softer. Got any wild rice recipes?

I bought some plastic containers at Walmart that are supposed to be used for storing wrapping paper--they look kinda like big tote bags. They fit between the fridge and the wall, and they hold all my trays and cookie sheets. Pot holders hang on magnetic hooks on the inside of the range hood.

NulloModo, you need to get out of the city more often. Goats and sheep are different critters. A young sheep is a lamb, until it is about a year old. Older than that, the meat is called mutton. A young goat is called a kid. For a picture of a sheep go here.. To see a sweet little lamb, try this spot, and don't forget the mint jelly. This page will show you a big daddy goat (called a buck, not a billy) and a mama (doe) with her kids. That particular breed of goat is a Boer, and they are raised for meat. We have several producers here in this part of Missouri, and the carcasses go for more per pound than beef.

I would be happy to sell anybody all the free range chickens they want at $40 a piece!! I have a bunch of old hens scratching up my flower beds right now that would make wonderful stock, I am sure. (Let's see, what is 17 times 40?) Cage free hens are raised in open buildings, with not much more space than they have in a cage--space is money. The only requirement for free range is access to the out of doors--out into a small manure covered yard.

I just thought of another disturbing meal. My brother was an aspiring gourmet, and decided he was going to fix beef tongue for dinner. He was closeted in the kitchen for hours, chopping and simmering, and it smelled pretty darned good. And it may have been. It may have been astonishingly delicious, but he presented it at table unpeeled and unsliced--just a big ol' cow tongue laying on the plate. Urk.

I've told this one before: My grandma told me if I ate my breadcrusts, I would learn to whistle. I faithfully ate my crusts and worked on my whistle. Next time I saw her, I proudly whistled up a little tune. She then told me that angels cry when little girls whistle. With some folks, you just can't win. Someone told my mother, when she was a girl, if she swallowed her gum, it would wrap around her heart and kill her. The Evil One (ex) swore that drinking milk and eating fish made him sick--a belief his family held. If you take the last thing on the serving platter, you will be an old maid. If you peel an apple all in one piece and toss it over your shoulder, it will form the initial of your husband to be. Not food related, but kitchen related: if you slop water on the front of your apron as you wash dishes, you will marry a drunkard. If someone is sweeping the floor and you lift your feet so they can sweep under them, you will be an old maid.

I had that broccoli, too. Or maybe it was cauliflower--after Mom got done with them, they were indistinguishable.

Cornmeal pancakes. Real maple syrup, heated. Real butter. No Aunt Jemima.

It's a slippery slope, folks. Use cryovac'ed duck confit, and the next thing ya know, you are mainlining Hot Pockets and feeding the baby Koolaid. Seems like a silly argument to me. How far into scratch do I have to go? If I take a package of corn out of the freezer, do I go to hell? Or is it ok, because I picked and packed the corn, and I know for a fact it is way better than anything I can buy in the store, frozen or "fresh"? Do I have to make every piece of bread that I eat? Can I buy dry noodles, or do I have to go out to the chicken house and get the eggs, and grow the wheat myself? You like frozen pizzas? Knock yourself out. I know if you invited me for dinner, I know you wouldn't put a Freschetta on the table, or Kraft mac and cheese, or Little Debbies. But if you like 'em, eat 'em. And, as far as I am concerned, if you spend every waking minute thinking only about food, or buying food, or talking about food, or searching for the perfect Swiss chard, or knocking other folks' food choices, you are a fanatic, and I don't care for fanatics of any sort.

I believe in the Chicago model: Vote early and often. YES, YES, YES for okra.

I'm with Nullo--if it tasted good last night, it will taste good for lunch. Or breakfast. I am very bad about using up frozen leftovers--they tend to drift to the bottom of the freezer and hang out til they start to taste bad.

All ya have to do is get yourself two hyper Australian Shepherds who think going outside at 6:30 am is their Dog-given right. Let them step on your bare toes a couple of times as you stumble to the door, and you will be wide awake. And a good glug of cold water or OJ helps, too.

I have a ham hanging in the shed even as we speak, but won't be able to vouch for it til May. I will keep you posted.

As long as they are not doctoring YOUR plate, what difference does it make? Sorry, touches a nerve. The Evil One (the ex) fussed if I salted or if I didn't add pepper when he did. He also screeched because I put ice cubes in my wine (cheap plonk, BTW). I wasn't putting ice in his wine, why should he care?

Not only do I love LOVE brussels sprouts, and eat them several times a week, my dogs adore them as well. They don't get as many as they want, however, because there are unfortunate olfactory consequences.

Was is my ex-mother-in-law? Thelma didn't think it was a "fancy" dessert unless it had cool whip on it.

My ex-in-laws had an enclosed back porch that was the traditional repository for Thanksgiving or Christmas leftovers. It probably was a good idea when they first started the practice, but double glazing the windows and putting a deepfreeze and water heater in the small space warmed it right up. I lived in fear of food poisoning every holiday season--they never could figure out why I didn't want a turkey sandwich the next day.

M. Lucia, most Missourians are like most Americans--they buy the vacuum packed, presliced water-added stuff at the grocery story. Country folks, with long memories of grandma's breakfasts, buy country hams. It is pretty available--even in Walmart, at least at Christmas. Burgers sells vac-packed slices and seasoning bits (for green beans, of course) as well as whole and half hams in the grocery stores round here.

Whaddaya mean, "even if they are in Missouri"?!?! We make outstanding hams here, and Burger's are excellent. I myself just began the process of curing a ham yesterday. One of my 4-H leaders does a couple every year, and his club decided to try it this year. We used a salt/brown sugar/black pepper/red pepper/saltpetre rub. They will hang at least til April. $20 for the fresh ham, $2 for the salt et al--if it doesn't work, no great loss.