Roll Reversal

Not really reversal, but doing opposite things today. Greg & I pretty much share doing everything around our houses - cleaning, cooking, yard work, etc. It's just that days like today we are interested in doing something different than the other.

It has been a great weekend weather wise. Almost a fall like feel in the air, especially in the mornings. Yesterday morning I went to a couple of Estate Sales & then came home to make Hunter's Pie . It's leftover ribeye steak, onions & carrots simmered in a seasoned gravy made w/beef stock, wine & tomato paste & then baked in a pie crust. I made the pie crust myself! Not too pretty but it was tender & flaky, a delicious recipe that I will make again. Actually I did make one that I put in the freezer, more of a beef pot pie. That reminds me, I need to go wrap it in foil.

Anyway, I wanted to be outside today & Greg wanted to cook. After a hearty breakfast (grits, sausage & toast), I went outside to get to work. It was such a beautiful day, even with the sound of jet engines flying close by. There was a Blue Angels sky show at our local beach which is only about 5 miles, as the crow flies, from our City House.

Greg started on his meal which pretty much took all morning to prepare & all day to cook. It's spaghetti & meatballs. But instead of the traditional red sauce it is more of a stock sauce made w/chicken stock, canned tomatoes & other vegies. He made the meatballs with pork & beef. The beef came from my friends at Serenity Acres Farm. It's primarily a dairy goat farm but they also raise grass feed Angus Beef cattle to sell the steers as breeding stock. When they have an older heifer that is no longer 'producing' they have her slaughtered. Instead of having all the various cuts of meat, they take it all & make ground beef. So it has all parts in it, yes, even the filet mignons. It is easier for them to sell & boy is it delicious.

Here's a before & after shot of the meatballs.












After they were browned, he refrigerated them while the stock was cooking. The stock cooked ALL day, reducing by about 1/2.

While he was cooking I got started. I first planted some key lime seed & some peach seeds. We'll see if they sprout in a few weeks.

I then tackled one of the raised beds at the end of our driveway. I may have mentioned these beds before but they have some of the richest dirt I've ever seen & they're full of earthworms. I generally start many of our transplants there before moving them to the yard or pots. Anyway, I had a a couple of sweet potatoes sprout a few months back. Instead of adding them to the compost bin I decided to cut them up & put them in one of the raised beds. Here's a shot of what it looked like in late June.

Those vines kept getting bigger & bigger & spread everywhere. However, they were starting to turn a bit yellow so I pulled them all out & then dug for sweet potatoes. Here's my haul:

Not enough to put away for months, but there's enough to bake a few baked ones plus enough to make a few sweet potato pies. Those 2 rows of tiny ones at the bottom of the pic are from the runners that had spilled out onto the ground.

I then took all those vines, plus the compost from last week & put them in the compost bin.

This is an old picture, but the bin on the left is now finished. I put material (kitchen waste, leaves, grass clippings, etc.) in it all summer. I'm just waiting for it to 'compost' to use in next years spring garden. I've now started filling the 2nd bin which I will do throughout the winter, into spring. Then I'll start filling the 3rd one next spring while using the 1st one & the 2nd one will be composting. And then the cycle will continue.

I also got the rest of my seedlings put in the ground & even some in buckets.

Then I decided to cut up some red potatoes that had starting sprouting. I had planned to put them in the ground but didn't cut them up early enough to let them cure. Guess I'll be planting potatoes Monday or Tuesday afternoon.

Lastly, I got everything fertilized. Something I neglected to do regularly in my spring garden. Here are the 3 raised beds.

This one has romaine lettuce & 3 different kinds of beans, plus I planted some spinach in between the beans today.

Although it doesn't look like much, this one has onions, garlic, 2 different kind of carrot & leeks. The leeks aren't doing well & the carrots are sketchy. The garlic is under that netting to hopefully keep the squirrels at bay. They keep digging the garlic. They don't eat it, just dig it up & leave it exposed. The netting, by the way, is an old bath scrubbie thingy that had stretched out too much to bathe with anymore,  so of course I saved it for another use!



This last bed has chinese cabbage, copenhagen cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli & cauliflower.

I had also started some lettuce from seeds. I separated them & I've decided to grow them indoors on my grow rack. I have three different kinds.

Bibb

Gentilina

Buttercrunch

Near the end of the day I made a blackberry pie with the rest of the homemade pie crust which we had w/vanilla ice cream. That's a stretch for us, to have dessert with any meal. IF we have anything sweet, it's usually as an afternoon snack. But boy it was good. I'll just have to work it off tomorrow, planting those potatoes.

I've had a full & productive weekend. I love it when I get a lot done & don't feel like I've wasted time. Hope everyone else had a good weekend as well.

Here's a picture of Greg's spaghetti & meatballs (also had parmesan bread). Along with that pie. (Note: I'm no food photographer .... lol) But, both were delicious!