The Week In Review

It was a very nice week, fall temperatures moved in ahead of the official start to fall. I spent part of Monday and Wednesday picking figs. Yes, I know this photo has the wrong date but I was getting tired of taking fig photos.

Since the weather has been nice and cool we have been enjoying a fire on the back deck after dinner. Mike has a cast iron chiminea and when the fire gets going it gives off a lot of heat. Using a flash on the camera takes away from how nice the fire really is. This was Thursday night.

With the flash off you get the full effect, including the "after-burner" effect with the flames coming out of the top.

While we are enjoying the cool night and the fire we have the fountain going. Look carefully near the top and you can actually see the water.

Mike also has a really neat candle holder. We light it when it gets dark. Of course with the flash on you miss the true beauty of the bamboo design.

On Friday we headed off the the Farmers' Market to get more eggs and goat cheese. A vendor had these great mums at a very reasonable price.

After lunch I donned my new garden clogs. I love these because they are blue, they have blue paw prints, they are water-proof, they are very comfortable and,,,they are made in the U.S.A.

With my new garden shoes on I went out and,,,,,,,picked more figs. I am happy to say that we are almost done for the year.

After I picked the figs I started work on the front flower garden. Every other week I go out and pick all the spent blooms off the marigolds. The flower garden has been going for 3 months now and just gets better looking all the time.

Saturday was a play day, a well earned play day. Mike had been telling me about the Greek festival a Greensboro Church puts on each year.

We had lunch when we got there and we each chose a Gyro with beef and lamb.

We split an order of Greek fries. They are seasoned with thyme and rosemary, very good.

After lunch we hit the wine stand. Greek wine is not on our list of preferred wine. Next year we'll try Greek beer.

Childress Winery

Last weekend my sweetheart, Micheal, and I decided to take an afternoon trip over to Childress Vineyards. Mike had been there before and thought I would like it. The first thing we did was a wine tasting and of course we bought a couple of bottles. Then we headed into The Bistro for a late lunch. The view from our table out across the vineyard was lovely.

For his meal Mike chose shrimp and grits with jalapeno polenta and andoule sausage. He said it was excellent.

I ordered the grilled chicken with spinach and pearl onions with spinach & potato gnocchi. It was fantastic. We were both full so we skipped on the desserts.

After lunch Mike took my photo in front of the fountain in the lobby.

I did the same for him.

We got someone to take a photo of us together.. We need more photos of us together.

We noticed all the grapes on the vines ready to be harvested.

The view as we were leaving, but we will go back again and probably pretty soon.

Once we got home I lined up all our bottles of wine on the counter. Mike joined The Fast Track Wine Club so we got 3 free bottles when he joined and then we bought the rest.

Late August Road Trip

In late August Mike and I sent our "daughters" to a new Camp for Kids and hit the road. Our first stop was in Decatur, Georgia to see my son and drop off some homemade banana-nut bread and jams. On the way through South Carolina I spotted this unusual water tower.

. Once we arrived in Decatur we checked into our hotel and then my son came up to our room for wine, cheese and crackers. We went to this great Mexican restaurant for dinner. I don't remember what CJ ordered for us as an appetizer, but the margaritas were great. For dinner Mike had a shrimp quesdilla. I had two tacos, one had fried plantains and black beans and the other had chunks of lobster mixed with tomatoes, onions and cilantro. Sorry, no photos of this evening or the great food.

The next day we headed south to Palatka to look at houses,,in the pouring rain. After two days in the Palatka area we headed north towards Jacksonville. We spent our first night in Jacksonville at my daughter's house and made them dinner. The next day we agreed to meet for lunch. On the way to the restaurant we passed Castle Otttis (not misspelled). We had wanted to arrange a tour but the owner was out of town. Maybe next time.

We met my daughter, son in-law and granddaughter at a neat place named Cap's on The Water. It is right on the Inter-Coastal Waterway and you sit outside under the shade of some huge, old live Oak trees. Mike was enjoying the day and the company.

My beautiful granddaughter and daughter.

Family photo.

For dessert Mike and I split this lovely creation. It has a chocolate cookie crust, a chocolate mousse like filling, a thin layer of raspberry and then the toppings. Absolutely sinful and wonderful.

The next day we had to head home and pick up our girls.We stopped for fuel in South Carolina and I told Mike I saw a pink elephant. He asked me if I had been drinking water or if that was straight vodka in my water bottle. I pointed the pink elephant out to Mike and he saw it also. South Carolina has some weird stuff along their roadways,,,,,

We made it home safely and the girls were ecstatic to see us. We hope to take them with us on our next road trip.

Kitchen Slave,,,,,Sort of

There are days when I feel like I am a kitchen slave. This past Thursday was no exception. But I digress,,,,, Labor Day weekend we went to the Farmers' Market because my sweetheart wanted me to make more of my 14-day crisp pickles and I wanted tomatoes so I could make a roasted garlic pasta sauce. We started out by buying me some lovely flowers.

Then we picked up a box of pickling cucumbers. Its a 3/4 bushel box which is a 1/4 bushel more than we had previously purchased. We also bought another 25 pound box of tomatoes.

Once I had washed and sliced 2 1/2 gallons of cucumbers for the 14-day pickles, I started on some bread & butter pickles with the cucumbers I had left. The bowl on the left is full of sliced onions,,a lot of sliced onions.

Got the bread & butter pickles done pretty quickly.

On to the pasta sauce. We ended up with about 12 pints and used about a dozen bulbs of roasted garlic. I can't wait to try this stuff.

After that was strawberry-fig jam.

Now fast forward to 9/12. I had been out in the yard and picked some tomatoes,,,

And then some more tomatoes. I washed them, chopped them up and froze them in 2-cup portions for chilis, stews, soups and osso bucco or braised lamb shanks. I ended up with 16 cups of tomatoes when I was done. Also, the eggplant is the 3rd from our garden. I used the first two for eggplant Parmesan with fresh basil from the garden, it rocked!

While I was chopping tomatoes Mike was canning the 14-day crisp pickles. We ended up with 15 quarts and 1 pint of the 14-day pickles.

Next it was on to the figs. I am going figgin' crazy here. There are still a ton of unripe figs on the tree, however Mike assures me that next year there will be no figs as the tree only produces every other year. I am grateful for that little piece of information.

Since we had made a few batches of strawberry-fig jam we used these figs for plain fig jam which Mike will later use to make diabetic fig newtons. I can't wait. We ended up with 16 jelly jars of plain fig jam.

So here is what is left from my garden,,jalapenos. Lots of jalapenos. I promised Mike I would make cheese jalapeno poppers with them. Thankfully I have a couple days off from kitchen duty before I tackle this job and then make some homemade bread for our new neighbors. Whew!