Productive (FAST) weekend!

In between helping the neighbor roof his house, hauling rock with my parents, and all of the other fun stuff going on, I decided I needed to make 'fall' happen. It's been way too hot lately, and I needed fall weather and fall food. So, on a recent trip to Trader Joe's, I bought a BUNCH of arborio rice, a packet of pancetta, and a little wedge of Parmesan to make risotto. Roasted carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower along with onions, white wine, and homemade chicken stock.
Tastes like fall, AND the cooler weather rolled in almost immediately! :)

Yesterday afternoon was spent at my sister's house in Ankeny. She is expecting a baby girl midway through January and is crafting and decorating enough for twins! :)
She and I had talked about a mural of some kind for the nursery - she found an artsy little tree online and decided that's what she would like for me to do. So, my lady friend and I made the trip to Ankeny, mapped out a tree over most of the wall, and painted it for her while she made little flowers out of felt and pretty fabrics downstairs away from the paint smell. We hung all sorts of embellishments on the wall even after this picture, but this gives you the best view.
Didn't turn out too bad, did it? :)

Plantings

An updated shot of the vegetable garden..including my new tomatoes from Seed Savers Exchange!

The broccoli is starting to grow like crazy..every day it's bigger and prettier!
The onions and garlic are also doing well, and I've harvested some of my lettuce already. Very tender..great flavor.

Tomato alley!
The two larger plants were given to me and have been in the ground for a couple weeks now. All the smaller plants (eight, to be exact) came from Seed Savers Exchange on a recent trip to Decorah. Lots of varieties, lots of colors :)

The last few days have also been busy planting around the house.
I bought several Korean boxwood at Home Depot a while back because they were good sized and marked down like crazy. I thought I could keep them alive for a while until after I had painted the trim and finished the front stoop.
..turns out I was wrong.

So, once we started planting a few, we had to plant A LOT. We planted the boxwood and that bushy willow you see in the corner here....then we went to my grandma's and dug hostas....then we went to the grocery store and bought a few more....then mom went to Wal-Mart and bought a few more!

Including this one - I think it's called Mouse Ears..it's supposed to stay small like this while spreading out.
I've already got about a dozen varieties of hosta in the ground..and I didn't know I wanted to plant anything just yet ;)

Veg

I had big plans for my vegetable garden this year, but not enough time (and not enough rainless, sunny days to work on it, either!) So, I'm gardening with the garden I have, not the garden I want...either way, it's working out well!
Across the top of the picture, I have several broccoli plants growing nicely - after having fresh broccoli last year, I decided I needed A LOT more of it this year! At the front I have several onions, garlic, two good-sized tomato plants, a couple varieties of lettuce, and some herbs. Not as much as I'd like...but certainly as much as I can handle right now :)
Check back for updates - it's changing every day!

Food Post: NOT tomatoes and pasta!

Stir fry! ...I think?
I've never really made any Asian food, so I just kind of went with whatever sounded good. Ground beef, carrots, red peppers, red cabbage, bok choi, broccoli, leeks, onions, garlic, water chesnuts, and soy sauce. Pretty healthy AND I got to try some of the vegetables from my farm box that I hadn't had a use for!

Painting/Cooking/Boozing/Cleaning/Traveling

First coat of "Greyhound" in the office. So far, so good! Probably finish the second coat tonight and start touch ups on the kitchen paint - cabinets and walls.

Homemade bread..who needs the grocery store?
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/honey-white-bread-recipe/index.html

Garden-fresh broccoli! I had great expectations that this would last me a little while. Those expectations vanished when I ate the entire head for lunch..

I've been squeezing more and more 'fun stuff' into my days lately - this was taken while crossing Lake Red Rock (just north of Knoxville) on the way to Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls to spend the weekend with friends! I didn't do any boating, but I did take a nap while on the lazy river..nice little sunburn.

Aside from the friends, this was possibly the highlight of the Cedar Falls trip. Bloody Mary with fresh tomato juice, bacon, pickle, celery, roasted asparagus, and a sweet little pepper. Glass was rimmed with seasoned salt and pepper. I was basically full after this, but continued to eat breakfast anyway. 

Laying in a park, listening to bluegrass. Happy summer, everyone!