Time sure does fly when you're having fun...

Or, as the frog says, "Time is fun when you're having flies..."  Okay, so we did some sight-seeing on our way home from the market and it was a very relaxing trip. I'm getting better about knowing where I am but we were on some roads I had never been on so my head was out the window like a dog panting in the wind. I didn't actually pant but I was thoroughly enjoying the view of the rolling hills, the huge trees, the cows, horses and the gardens people had planted all over the place. It reaffirmed for me that my little garden will be just fine going in as late as it did. I saw some gardens that were further along and some that had only just been tilled up.

Arriving home we unloaded our treasures and took a little break. My head was in the clouds as I checked all that we had seen and done into my memory banks. It's a good thing I have the blog to refer back to because we all know the memory banks aren't quite what they used to be. LOL  I get so easily distracted but I was trying to focus on how I was going to cook the roast and the vegetables I had purchased. I decided to hang out a load of clothes and let my mind wander across all the possibilities. I have a big, electric roaster that I could have used but it seemed like too much. I have a smaller turkey roaster but the beef wouldn't lay quite flat enough in that one. My big red pot was just a little too small for this job - even though it is perfect in every way for everything else :) and if it were any bigger, I wouldn't be able to manage it. As it is, when it's full I have to have help lifting it. But I digress...

The clothes were hung on the line so I headed into the hot tub room where my kitchen cookware stash is located and quickly realized that the stoneware roaster would be perfect for the job. It was the right size and shape and it somehow seemed fitting that this big slab of beef be slowly roasted in stoneware. I can't exactly say why but that's how it was. So I seasoned that bad boy up with some adobo and black pepper and poured just a little bit of Dale's Seasoning on it. I snipped some fresh thyme from the garden and spread it out across the top. I covered it with foil and into the oven it went for 3 hours.

When it got to the two hour mark, I scrubbed and peeled the carrots and added them to the roaster - the scent coming out of that oven was, predictably, red meat at its finest. It was all I could do not to try it but I didn't want that first bite to be disappointing so back in the oven it went. I gave Rebel the carrot tops and now I know that should I plan to grow carrots, they will have to be heavily guarded so as to keep him from eating them first! He is a p.i.g. HOG!

I cut the greens off the beets but not so far as to allow the color to leach from them and dunked the golden globes into a pot of water to boil.Within about 20 minutes they were ready for peeling. The skins literally slipped right off of the beets and I couldn't resist eating the very tiniest one of the bunch. Lordy that little ball was packed with golden, juicy beet flavor. No canned or jarred beet compares and I've tried lots of them. I'll prove it to you when you get here if you aren't adventurous enough to go get some fresh ones on your own. You'll wish you had when you taste what you have been missing. They didn't even need to be seasoned. huh!

I did try lightly sauteing the beet greens with some butter and garlic but I wasn't impressed with the flavor. Wally liked them though so at least they didn't go to waste. I tried feeding the stems to the horses but, like me, they weren't impressed. I heard the timer go off which meant my meal was ready and I'll tell you what we were both very much ready for it lol!  Bet you are too about now...(tee hee hee) Having smelled it all through the house for all that time, we could barely contain ourselves getting to the table. You would have thought we hadn't eaten in days. But of course you know that's not the case.

While it was costly, that meat was absolutely, hands-down, 100% the finest roast I had ever eaten. This isn't to say that ribeyes, chuckeyes and all other cuts of beef aren't good - I love them all. It's just that as far as roasts go, this one was tops! I'm sure it was due in part to the fact that it came from a local farm and it was grass-fed if not finished, that coupled with the rest of the day's events made it seem all the better. The gravy might have had something to do with it...lol  I'm getting pretty good at this gravy stuff y'all and I even skimmed off the little bit of fat that cooked out of the meat. The dogs got that :)

We ate until we couldn't eat anymore. The carrots didn't taste watery like they do from the store and even though they weren't very big in size, every inch of them was packed full of sweet, carrotiness (I know it's not a word but it best describes what I needed to say) like you just wouldn't believe.

So that was our dinner. What do you think? I'm amazed I could write all this much about one simple meal. The picture is of everything before it was cooked. The sage in the bottom right corner wasn't for dinner but it did come from my garden so I thought I'd include it. The only things missing from the picture are the tomatoes - I had them up on the windowsill and forgot to get them down. The picture on the blog is kind of small so if you would like to see it in a bigger view, just let me know. I'll email it to you. It's very pretty.

I forgot to mention that while dinner was cooking, we got the 4 wheelers and went up to the mailbox to dig up the Hollyhocks that had previously been cut down. I noticed that they started coming back up so I wanted to get them before that guy cut them down again. Wally showed me how to get them out of the ground with a shovel instead of having to use the post hole diggers - thank goodness because my arms weren't quite ready for those things again. We transplanted them into a hole in the ground made by the removal of a hitching post that had rotted. Funny thing was, after digging up all the rocks from the garden area, I was now collecting those same rocks to put in the hole to fill up the unnecessary space and keep the Hollyhocks from falling in too deep. Thinking on it now, it seems I planted rocks... ha ha ha ha ha just watch, they'll multiply like crazy!

I checked the Hollyhocks today and they survived the transplanting without issue. The rest of the garden is doing well; squashes and cucumber spreading out and blooming, tomatoes standing just a little bit taller and the herbs are bright green and ready for clipping back. I'll use the dill in some potato salad this weekend and I'll dry the basil to go in some tomato sauce once the tomatoes come in.

I have just a little more to add today so I hope you aren't bored with my ramblings yet. While we were at the market I decided to join a CSA farm. CSA stands for Consumer Supported Agriculture. You buy a share or a half share from the farmer and you receive a basket of organic fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, etc. every week. The basket contents are determined by what is in season and growing on the farm. I did some very thorough research (naturally) and checked out a couple of the offerings while at the market. The farm I joined is called Beaverdam Creek Farm. It's located just outside Centerville but has a Monday delivery in Centerville at the soccer field. You can check them out at beaverdamcreekfarm.com if you feel like it. I joined a little late in the season so my cost was pro-rated but I will receive a basket every week through October and it's all prepaid.

So guess what I did Monday???  LOL I left work at 2:45 and drove all the way to Centerville to pick up my basket. Wally offered to get it for me and he did show up right after I got there but try to imagine my enjoyment... fresh veggies for me and Wally and a local farmer supported by local people. ahhhhhh

I should have taken a picture...Monday's basket contained a huge head of Napa cabbage, which I already used part of for chicken soup Monday night, 2 heads of lettuce that were both varieties I'd never tried before. I ate some for lunch Tuesday and have more of the other head for today's lunch. The basket had a bunch of carrots, a bunch of beets, 2 heads of broccoli, one of which went into the shrimp pasta (whole wheat) alfredo and a bunch of dinosaur kale. I've never had kale so I'll let you know how it turns out. From what I can see it is best used in soups or sauteed in olive oil and garlic. I can't wait until next week when it's rumored I'll have cilantro in the basket amongst other things :)  Happiness :)

Trish said she'll bring the stems from the broccoli cuttings and any carrot tops that they don't use for composting. I told her the horses would love it. Here it is Wednesday and I find myself wishing for Monday. Now that's weird. To know my weird self is to love my weird self :)  Kind of reminds me of Rebecca... :)

It's firefly season and they are everywhere! All I have to do is look toward the woods just after dark and there they are, lit up like you wouldn't believe... It looks like there are hundreds of them out there if you ask me. In reality they just get around fast so I'm really seeing the sames ones lit up here and there as they fly about. Very cool!

I'm loving it here as you are probably aware. Me and Wally in the cabin, my garden, the creatures of the woods and even the neighbors all suit me just fine :)

"There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves." ~Thomas Wolfe