Tomato Basil Soup

What else do you do when your basil plants have grown at exuberant rates but keep on cooking?

Tomatoes simmering on the stove.


Basil ready to go in.


Mmm soup.

Nothing to say

I haven't posted in days because I haven't had anything to say. This is odd to me. So I'm just going to throw a few things out there.

We have our first little peppers finally. They're about the size of my fingernail, but they actually are peppers and not just buds anymore.

I have to do some rearranging in the garden which includes getting rid of some pepper plants, probably going to the in laws (unless you want one!). John made me plant carrots and zucchini and now it's just crowded down there. We still have a strawberry plant in a pot! It's getting wild back there.

I'm currently editing a college text called "Marriage and Family." This sometimes makes me laugh because, well you know how I feel about marriage. But really, I really enjoy this project. Today I got to write a short fictional piece about "hooking up" since the writer didn't include it as she was told.

This particular chapter also talked about When Harry Met Sally and the whole "can men and women be friends" debate. This always spurs interesting conversation. Of course, I think it's totally possible. But it did make me think about an old friend, where sexual attraction did get in the way. So it really depends on the people, I guess.

I made red pepper pesto with the basil from the garden and it was spectacular, especially on roasted red pepper triscuits.

I have been slacking on reading lately, but finally finished "The River Wife." This took place in Missouri, along the Mississippi, so I thought it'd be interesting. But it was really hard to get into. A lot of fun plot stuff happened, but something was off with it. That's probably why it took me so long to finish.

Now I'm reading Julie and Julia. Awhile back I wanted to see the movie since I adore Meryl Streep. Now, I may wait until DVD, just to check it out. The book is actually pretty good so far, but I'm not sure I'll be ready for the movie when I'm finished. I think it'll take away the greatness of the book. They should be separate.

I guess that's why John and I haven't been to the movies much. The two I wanted to see: Harry Potter and My Sister's Keeper, are both books, and I just haven't been motivated to go to this other media yet.

Yes, see, nothing going on in my life...

Crabs!

Yesterday we went over to Kathy and Saureen's for a crab feast!

We got their early since they needed a truck for the table and chairs they retned. That turned into an ordeal, complete with people who were creepy and unhelpful. The boys will never be the same.

As you can see, we love us some crabs!

Saureen and Sameet seasoning the crabs.


Steaming away. "How do you know they're ready?" "When they turn red, you eat."


PJ was not pleased with Victor pounding the heck out of the crab.


Some crabs decided to retain their water.


Craving crabs!

Garden Construction

So you would have thought that after our strenuous hiking on Saturday we would be exhausted on Sunday. But, since we didn't get our Sun morning hike in, as we expected, we had some built-up energy. So when we got home, John suggested we continue work in the yard... aka garden construction. So, we headed to home depot and got to work.

Another trip to home depot and who knows how many hours later, we had a garden. We had 8 foot pieces of wood, so there was some cutting involved (hurray for fancy sawing devices handled by the man because sometimes I do act like a girl). We also had some hard work with the screws that hold all the wood together (boo for not having the right parts to the drill).

We were both sore (from hiking and construction together) by the end of the night, but it was worth it. Too bad it's so late in the season and I can't plant everything I want to plant.

Garden pre-planting.


Pepper plants in their new home


Mutant cilantro...seriously, it's about three times the size it was 10 days ago.


Strawberries, finally with baby fruit. Here's hoping nothing eats them before we do.


My first lily.

Camping at Cunningham Falls

This weekend John and I went camping at Cunningham Falls State Park. This place is only about an hour and a half for us, so it's super convenient (though it took us about 2 hours to get there since we hit some rush hour traffic).

We left Friday and got there around 6:30. We promptly set up our tent since we were expecting rain. We actually had time to gather some wood and have a small fire before we decided to call it an early night. And it didn't start raining until after we had gone to bed. Good timing on our part. As we lay in bed listening to the rain, we contemplated whether there was enough room in this tiny tent for a dog. It was determined on Saturday night, when we somehow scooted ourselves all the way to the edge of the tent, that there is indeed room for a dog.

It ended up being freezing that night, despite it being July. So we had to use our padding as blankets, making the night rough. But it was survivable.



Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn. We ate some yogurt and cliff bars and headed to the trail. First we walked down to the lake. It was so early that no one was there. Except the "water ninjas" who were actually military, we believe, but sounded like ninjas at first. Anyways, they were doing their exercises in the lake. So funny.



We wandered around down there for awhile, since it wasn't crowded yet. We went off the regular trail and just followed the edge of the lake for awhile. We found some fishing line, but no fish. We also found some odd berries, which we did not eat.



We then went back to our original trail, but went the other way towards the falls. This was supposedly the easy route, but there were some steep parts. The falls weren't too impressive, probably because it's been so dry, but it was still nice. we climbed around on the rocks some and just relaxed before heading back up the mountain. A lot of steep areas! We figure the campsite to the lake, to the falls, and back to the campsite was about 2 miles, but it wasn't all marked so we weren't sure.





When we got back to the campsite it was only 10:30, but we went ahead and ate lunch! It was a strenuous morning and we were starving. So we had sandwiches, potato salad, and chips and lots of Eating Right water. Then we took a lovely nap.

After our nap, we took the trail back to the lake, thinking there was another trail down there. There wasn't. We wandered around the other side of the lake and didn't find anything, so we headed back up the mountain. Since we were not going to the falls, we went the same way we came, which was steeper so by the time we were finished, we were tired. But my legs and butt are in great shape now!

We took another nap (yay naps!) and then took a stroll to explore the other campgrounds. Then we started gathering wood for the evening. We had a nice big pile, which was good because we had a fire going for a good number of hours.



We cooked our chicken over the grill and had dinner. Then there were smores, plain toasted marshmallows, and John even melted some chocolate and made chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite!).

We stayed up later that night (probably because of all the naps) but still not too late. But we had a large pile of ash by the night's end. Hey, it was really cold, I had to stay warm.

We got up this morning and packed up. We wanted to find another trail and do that before leaving, but the park was uncooperative. Apparently they only tell you were the falls/lake trails are. All the rest you have to buy a trail guide for. We could have found some ourselves but it was a pain, and some trails were across the highway at another park, so we gave up and just came home.

But, the weather was cool, the food was great, hikes were tiresome but we both loved it, we had nice campfires and some good quiet time. Just don't ask John to comment on our neighbors and their annoying kids :)

He listens!

You know, you always hear sob stories about men and their inability to listen. And, yes, John has had is moments. But, I also know that most of the time he does listen, and does what he can if a response is needed.

So I have my little "garden" going on on the back deck. And I've been saying for probably the last month that I really need to move some of these plants out of the pots and into a real garden. I started everything from seeds or bulbs, in pots since they were so very fragile for awhile, but they are getting too big for their little homes. I moved the lilies to the front garden a few weeks ago, but there was no where to put any non-flower plant. It would be kind of weird to be growing bell peppers in the front yard.

Problem is our backyard is a disaster. I think only 10% is grass right now. There's moss and weeds and a big pile of cedar chips that was once the mulch out front. There was even a tree growing in our fence. So yeah, wild. There were also two very large rubbermaid containers that the previous owner set up. And those were in the sunniest part of the yard, where any garden should be.

So bottom line, I needed John to help me out a bit with making the yard garden ready. I can do quite a lot, but it would have taken me a really long time on my own.

I started working on the moss problem on Friday-tore a bit up and began an experiment with some grass seed (it's supposed to grow in the shade, which is good since half the yard is shady since it's under the deck. perfect spot for moss, obviously). Anyway, I didn't get very far on Friday, mostly because I was wanting to experiment with whether the seed would work before going all crazy with grass.

So today my wonderful boyfriend got motivated to build me a garden. I helped, of course. And actually, we didn't build a garden, but we are on our way. We had some major work to do with the rubbermaid containers. One was full of dirt, who knows why, and had become an ant farm. It was disturbing. The other was full of cobwebs. So we cleaned those out and moved them to a different part of the yard. We also got rid of all the mulch and weeds. And we did the general planning for where the garden will be, raised bed versus ground level, what to do about rabbits, what else we want to plant, etc. So yeah, I have this very nice open area ready for construction!

John also killed a snake for me, so I was not eaten.

PS: right after complaining about my plants not being edible, I discover not one but 4 blossoms on my strawberry plants. So I will hopefully get at least something from them!

Back to fiction writing

I started working on my novel again today. It's been on the back burner while I finished the poetry book and then while I regrouped after school ended. But it's July now and if I want a draft by the end of the year, we best get working. (That was my goal, it seems doable, 6 months, leaves no more than 50 pgs a month, ish.)

So Ainsley (main character) and I are getting reacquainted. I have to say, so far, she's much more exciting than she used to be. I was having a real problem with her before. Other characters were just so much cooler. And really, one character will probably always be my favorite. But at least Ainsley isn't boring any more. She drinks only Australian wines.

This is the first sentence:

It’s a little-known fact that while serving in the Civil War Ulysses Grant fell in love with a whore.


PS: Speaking of wines, I've been thinking of starting another blog for wines. I don't drink much anymore, but have really wanted to explore wine more. Especially after listening to NPR on my birthday-they were talking about American wines. Every state now has at least one winery. How great would it be to have a wine from every state? I don't know that I would offer much besides me liking or disliking a wine, and probably tell the tale of what I did the night I drank it. I have no desire to sit and talk about the subtle flavors or whatever really cool wine people do. But it's something I think I may explore. I just now have to force myself to stop buying the wines I know I love and be adventuresome.

Plants!

The other day I was in an "I want" mood. But when I started to blog about it, I sounded really whiny and selfish. So, we'll stick with just one thing from the list...

I want to eat my plants!

This sounds scary, but most of them are edible. Or, will be. There's herbs, strawberries and peppers. But for some reason, no matter how crazy the strawberries get, there just isn't any fruit happening. It may just need more time, but I want to eat strawberries. I know the peppers need more time, but again, same thing.

I'm afraid I forgot how to be patient this week.

One of the lilies in the front yard. It has buds, so hopefully we get flowers soon!



Baby pepper plants, which are all leaves and no vegetables.


Unidentified herb. It might be basil. I had a small issue with not labeling my seeds and then mixing it all up.


The lone surviving cilantro. I don't know what happened to the rest.


Strawberries...getting huge but there's no sign of fruit.

Birthday Recap

I am 25, which according to my 13-19 year old selves, will be the greatest year of my life. I once figured 25 was a good age since you were out of school, probably in a good relationship (or old enough to realize a relationship wasn't everything) old enough to be have or be getting close to a great job, etc. Basically, 25 seemed to be when all the happy adult things really started to settle in. My younger self had so many dreams for being 25! Don't know if I still agree, but we shall see. I don't imagine it will be bad, so it should be a good year.

Anyway, for the birthday:
margaritas on Thursday
lazy Friday with John complete with a nap and Bride Wars
Saturday with the Cookseys: a walk with John, sister, baby, and two dogs to see the grandparents, a nice present to come (they're framing my diploma), watching John scoop up a baby in his arms and twirl her in the air, Trace Adkins (nice long hair, some funny songs, also a womanizer (boo)), baby dancing to music, fireworks in the arms of my love, scary drunk driver on the way home who did not swerve as we passed him!
another lazy day on Sunday, though I started to get back to my scrapbooks. (so behind!)

Ok, Death, we get the point

I don't care much about all these celebrity deaths, but it's getting a bit out of hand. Add on to that, the personal deaths this week and it's just scary. I'm pretty darn happy to be alive at this point.

A woman from my old church lost her brother this week. They had to take him off life support, so it was really rough.

There was also a plane crash in Arkansas, full of people from Missouri. 3 people died, two survived (so far). The one boy was the brother of one of Evan's (my brother) friends. One boy was a freshman at SLUH, where Evan is going to high school next year. That boy's father also died. All three of my brothers knew them.

So, no more sadness would be nice.

This has nothing to do with death, actually the very opposite, but-- I just found out about another pregnancy. Well, I found out last weekend but didn't want to talk about it. This baby has caused many conversations between John and I about people and why they have kids, and what it means to the rest of their lives. I know, when/if we have kids, our lives will still be great. Any grandparent would happily take our kids so we can still go out, and more importantly, still take a vacation just the two of us. Yeah, it's different, but I think we would be really good at not letting our friends be forgotten and not losing the romance. Some couples, it seems, have a harder time with this. And once that first kid arrives, they only have friends with kids or no friends at all. And are totally absorbed with the parenthood thing.

I guess this is all kind of annoying in that I am still so young. (with my birthday around the corner, I may forget that...25 is a crazy age!...but really, I am) I am not yet to the point where I want kids, I still want to be having a good time, solo. (or with John/friends, you get the point) But so many of our friends are in their early thirties, so it's not surprising that they are ready to start their families.

And along those same lines... I really need to figure out how to make more friends. I've always done it through school, and I don't have that any more. And all the friends we have now were first John's friends. This goes along with my need to get out and do more things. I think I may venture to the library's book club one of these days. And see what other groups there are around here. Maybe take canoeing lessons... not that it's hard, but it's a way to get into the "club". Still pondering that.

On a more positive note, I just had a very nice walk around the neighborhood. It started to sprinkle at the end, but that was actually very light, so it was pleasant.

I also made banana bread again. And it is delicious.

I had a small case of the travel bug earlier, and I decided that Washington state would be a very nice place to go. I was fascinated by pictures of one of the state parks. So I started looking into cabins and such that were nearby (since we all know, I like to plan random vacations). Anyway, one of the closest towns to this park is Forks, which is where Twilight is set. I immediately groaned. Then, on the main page of their website it says "Home of Twilight!" And one of the lodges has a Twilight package, complete with a map you can follow to trace the steps of the characters. That kind of turned me off to Washington temporarily. Though, I know I will go sometime, just won't dare stay in that town, or at that lodge.

I also decided that next time I plan a vacation, I'd like it to be more than just me and John. We go to the beach with his friends every year. I'd like to rent a large cabin with a bunch of my friends. So, if you're interested, sometime in the next few years, we need to plan a great vacation!