Thursday, September 19, 2013

autumn in the garden and kitchen

 Perhaps the title of this post should've been wacky weather. It's supposed to get
up to 85 degrees today and boy, is it humid! I have mostly hardwood floors throughout
the house and my bare feet were sticking to the floors and I just felt "icky". So the
A/C just went back on for today. We still need to make a trip up to the garden shop
to get some grasses and hopefully bee balm to plant before the weather gets
colder. We also need to move the Russian Sage plant, and do some other outside
stuff such as caulking and some trim touch-up.

This is as far as I've gotten on fall decorating for my front porch - a little pot
of mums. I'm heading up to the grocery store this afternoon and hoping to
get a couple of fresh pumpkins for the porch.


Funny how some summer plants are still in full bloom, such as the geraniums.
I have a couple of small pots of red geraniums and they're still blooming, too.


This pot on my patio had daisies and sweet potato vines. The daisies have stopped
blooming, but there's some kind of weird vine taking over the patio! It's not the sweet
potato vine, so I'm wondering what it is. It looks like it's coming from the daisies.


The Coneflower and Black-eyed Susan are sadly drying up for the season...



The cooler weather (except for today) calls for some hearty comfort food,
don't you agree? Last night I made beans and cornbread. The beans were
dry Great Northern beans that I soaked overnight and put in the Crockpot the
next morning with chopped onion, uncured organic ham, pepper, parsley,
and a bay leaf. I then covered it with veggie broth and slow-cooked for 8 hours.


Gotta have a pan of cornbread to soak up all that delicious bean broth!


This is one of my go-to recipes for cornbread though I only use 1/8 cup of sugar
instead of the 1/4 cup that the recipe calls for. I always cut down on white sugar
in recipes and have never noticed a difference in taste. We don't need all that sugar!


Happy Thursday, everyone.


16 comments:

  1. Your garden looks so pretty, love all the flowers and the beans and cornbread sound soooooooooooo good. I have a roast in the crock pot. Can't wait to have some of it too. Hugs, Marty

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    1. Crockpots are wonderful in the fall and winter, aren't they? I'll bet your roast will be yummy!

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  2. Flowers look wonderful! Ours are all so withered up. Beans and cornbread sound yummy!

    Judy

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. I had too many typos in my previous reply because of replying from a phone keyboard (tiny)...I bet your flowers withered due to all that heat you were having in your area. The beans and cornbread were delicious!

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  3. I grew up on that kind of food. And still love it. As for that vine, I don't know, but looks like a weed to me.
    Brenda

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    1. My mom is from the South and used to make beans and cornbread - loved it even as a kid. Too funny that my vine is probably a weed!

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  4. I love to make beans and cornbread, it's a cool-weather staple at my house. It's funny that we live in such different climates but we have some of the same plants; I have lots of Russian Sage and am planning to plant a coneflower plant this fall!

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    1. I haven't made beans and cornbread in quite awhile. Had the leftovers for lunch today!

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  5. Yum, I haven't had beans and cornbread for years! I never put up fall decorations till October, because my summer flowers are still looking too good to replace.

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    1. I put up the fall decorations and integrate them with my summer flowers. :-)

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  6. Happy belated anniversary, Melanie! Lovely pics!

    Well, I can totally relate regarding the weird weather fluctuations and how it's affecting our flowers, not to mention our veggies! My geraniums are also doing extremely well, with no sign of wilting. In fact, all the flowers are acting as if it's spring and I'm going to do a post on this soon! As far as your coneflowers and black eyed susans go, well, I guess they're just more sensitive. Love your fresh, new mums and can't wait to see them bloom!

    Poppy

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    1. Thanks for the anniversary wishes! I can't wait until those mums pop open, too!

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  7. Great minds think alike. I made black bean chili and cornbread for dinner tonight. Our weather today was chilly and rainy all day long.

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  8. I like that "Welcome" planter! Very cute! My geraniums are still doing well. One I had from last year that I kept out on the porch (very mild winter last year - probably not this year). Yep, tomorrow I'm making taco soup! I love soup and stew aka crockpot weather!

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