Memorial Day Weekend

Afternoon lunch on the porch at 2pm.

Saturday morning early trip to Agway to collect our plants and seeds.

Breakfast out, twice.

Flower browsing and buying at Appletree Nursery.

Sun & Rain Showers throughout.

Humid days.

Black flies in full force.

First watermelon purchase of the summer.

Creemies after dinner.

Driving Sanbornton back country roads watching the sunset, looking at farms and sugar bushes, listening to various artists on NHPR.

Listening to 90's on 9 while he stained the trim on the sugar house, and i planted my flower boxes.

Charlie did some sleepy sunbathing.

Garden planning & planting.

Pulling out the row markers i bought in Williamsburg back in January to mark my rows.

An afternoon on the lawn catching up on my pregnancy journal, and planning my preserving strategy this season.

An afternoon at the lake, kayaking and exploring…..and well, napping too.

Sitting on my front porch thinking that this is my very favorite place to be, with my favorite guys.

Looking at the hay fields surrounding the house, the first crop will be cut soon.

Early to bed, early to rise.

A visit to the farm to collect some eggs and catch up.  Walking the raspberries and remembering fondly our wedding day almost 3 years ago.  

Time flies.

Oh this weekend.

All of our plans were canceled, and it turned out being just perfect.  

So much quality time with my love.

Summer Veggie Quiche

I made up a batch of pie dough last week and used half to make this summer veggie quiche.  I have always used a recipe from my mom's friend, but over time i have changed it up a bit.  What is great about this recipe is that you can clean out leftover veggies/meats from the night before and use them up!

Enjoy!

Summer Veggie Quiche:

Supplies:

1 cup sour cream

1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I like to use Cabot's hunter cheddar)

3 Eggs

1/4 cup of feta or goat cheese (either option turns out marvelous)

1/4 teas. Italian seasoning

A shake or two of rosemary

sprinkling of fresh Parmesan on top

2 cups veggies

1/2 recipe pie crust (I use This book's pie crust - it's a no-fail every time).

Method:

Prepare crust & preheat oven to 375.

Pre-cook hard veggies.  I like to use leftover broccoli from the night before so it is already nice and soft.

Place crust in 8.5-9" pie pan - poke holes in bottom to prevent bubbling.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.

While it is baking, mix sour cream, eggs, cheddar and feta/goat cheese in a bowl.  

Add in spices.  

Mix veggies in and sprinkle shaved or shredded Parmesan on top.  I like to put a few dashes of s&p as well.

Remove crust from oven, pour the filling in.  

Bake 35-40 minutes until the center is set.  (I stick a butter knife in….you will see some cheese on the knife, but if you don't see any gooey egg, then it is done).

Let set for 10 minutes and serve!

Veggie/Meat Variations:

broccoli, onion, red pepper (as shown above)

asparagus (cut to 1" lengths) & cherry tomatoes (cut in half)

bacon, onion & green pepper

spinach, cherry tomatoes & onion

cubed ham, onion & broccoli

Mushroom & spinach

sausage (fully cooked), green pepper & onion

Our Gardens: May 20th

May 20th:

Everything is in bloom.  I am itching to dig deep into my garden this weekend.  Although we do have a lot growing already around the property.  Everywhere i turn the air blows aromas of fresh cut grass, lilacs and fresh flowers blooming.  

Ah Summer.  Thank you for returning and rejuvenating me.

Our macintosh trees have leaves and pretty white flowers now.

The pear trees were fully flowered last week.

The peach trees are having a hard time waking up.  Jas said they always bloom a bit later than the apple.  I hope he's right and they did ok getting through the long winter we had.  This will be the first year we can actually eat fruit off of our trees.  Although they are still quite small and won't be able to support that much weight, it's still very exciting!

I spent the weekend a few weeks back weeding the strawberry patch.  What a job that was!  After doing so, spreading some fresh straw and hoping for the best, the plants are really taking off.  I noticed a ton of the ever-bearing are now flowering, while the June-bearing are just starting to flower.  I dare say in just a few weeks I'll be seeing some fresh berries start to emerge!

The blueberry bushes are looking ok.  We had quite the episode last season with Japanese beetles.  I was worried about them.  They look fairly healthy and I'm happy to see some are flowering out.  I plan to take some time this weekend to tend to them.

Our small rhubarb plant that we put in last year is doing well in the spot next the asparagus.  I'm excited to harvest some when the berries are out and make strawberry rhubarb pie!

Speaking of the asparagus.  I don't see it.  It's not up yet, and i know it takes three years to root, but i just don't see any.  Patience, I'm sure, will cure that.

Speaking of growing - by the end of the summer i won't be able to see my feet!