Early Bird Gardening

Gardening is beginning early this year at the MoneyPenny household.  The veggie garden is planned and the seeds are almost selected.  I usually don't start the veggie garden until Memorial Day weekend, but this year has been so mild.  If you follow Cliff Mass's blog on the weather, you will notice that he is just about ready to start planting and that is good enough for me.

The guy from Seattle and I went outside today to gather all the branches that had fallen all over the place in the last windstorm.  First, we had to pick up the trash that had blown into the yard from Cousin Eddie's place next door.  Grrr.  What a menace!!

While we were out there, we checked everything to make sure that they made it through the winter.  Looks good.  We also moved a blueberry bush to a better location.  The bulbs are coming up everywhere!! and the chives were peaking out from under the cardboard in the raised bed, so I folded it back so that the chives can reach for the sun.  Also, dug around in the compost, now that it is thawed out.  The wormies look happy.

Lately I've been making a loaf of my special bread for the guy from Seattle to take home with him.  I don't dare keep it around here without a chaperon.  It is that good and is my own recipe.  I make mine in the bread maker, but it would work the old fashioned way too.  Here's my recipe:

1 1/8 c warm water
package yeast
1 1/2 T oil
1 1/2 T molasses
1t salt
1 1/2 c bread flour
3/4 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c oats
1/2 c sunflower seeds
Put ingredients in breadmaker and use the whole wheat setting.  This makes a big beautiful loaf and it is perfect for toast.

Food waste update:

We've been doing pretty good about not wasting.  You think twice about throwing something away if you are going to take a picture of it for the whole world to see!!  The first one is the leftover Super Bowl dip and the avocado is from the QFC two for a dollar deal.  Guess you get what you pay for.