Winter, Food, and Garden

A while back, there were only 2 sunshines in the next 10 days of weather icons. The rest were all pictures involving some amount of raindrops.

Yay, water!

Boo, being stuck indoors and no sunshine (which turns me into a royal grump).

Thankfully, during one weekend of rain, A came to visit for a Sunday run, and she brought foodstuffs to make us an awesome fried apple pancake.




Literally, this is the first true pancake that I'm aware I've ever had. First you make it on the stove in a pan (by frying apples in butter!), and then you add some batter and bake it in the oven like a cake. It puffs up like a souflee and then deflates.

Definitely one of the better novelty winter food experiences I've had in a long time. Thanks A!

And finally, one of the greatest things about living in a super-temperate climate? And getting lots of water from the sky? The winter garden!



Including transplanted Tatsoi from my sister's seedling flat that she left me after she took me to the winter gardening class at Love Apple Farm for my birthday:



And Broccolli! We love it!



And Napa Cabbage & Bok Choy?



And baby tiger cauliflowers (which are now much more reasonably sized and almost ready to eat):



And let us not forget the sad-looking garlic shoots, that will impress us with their scapes this summer:



And then, there are the leeks. I harvested 3 in the rain tonight. In the dark. Getting muddy while digging them out. I love garden leeks.



And finally, you can see that hope springs eternal. Because I have a pot of arugula. I've made myself some delicious salads from it. But from sister's flat of sown seedlings, I had so many to transplant that I couldn't help but try to make it work despite the dead of winter (albeit a Californian one). So wish me luck:

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Tonight, for dinner, we're having a brocolli-leek soup. The brocolli florets and the leeks are home grown. The half-and-half, butter, and cheese? that comes from Safeway, except for the fancy cheese. And the marjoram comes from our herb box. But, bonus, it's Friday, and there's little else required for a delicious meal and a full evening of relaxation.

Happy Delicious Winter Veggies to all and Welcome to the Weekend!