Sunday, November 30, 2008

Eat your heart out!

Every weekend I make no-knead multigrain bread using the recipe offered by Mark Bitman of the NY Times. It's the process that yeilds the product. This lovely loaf has oatmeal, flaxseed and other heart healthy ingredients. The plate? Jugtown pottery from Seagrove Pottery in NC. Artisan bread eaten from an artisan's plate.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Turkey Time


Twice this week I've traveled the afore mentioned Chickenfoot Road. It's been a trip of woe for some of God's creatures. Prestage packing plant just outside of St Pauls has been the final destination of many turkey birds this week. Coming and going I've gotten behind the transport trucks. Feathers litter the roadside. I rolled down my window to listen for gobbling. None, friends. As late as today their heads were on the chopping block for American's Thanksgiving dinner. The things I have witnessed as a public school employee...the horror.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Pecan Pie

The wind is blowing and the pecans are falling! We have an exchange system that's evolved over the years. Our neighbors have the trees and they do not pick up pecans. We, being humble(not proud) folk, pick them up, have them cracked at Carolina Feed and Grain, pick out the nuts and share. We get to keep most of the pecans and eat them all year. All year, for freeeeee!!! Free trade at it's best.

And now for my very good, very easy (drum roll, please)...

Pecan Pie Recipe:

2 large eggs
1 cup light brown sugar (This is my favorite part. Who has Karo in their cupboard?)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons butter
a pinch of salt
1 cup pecans, chopped. (I like them chopped because the pie cuts better. It's your choice.)

Whisk eggs and brown sugar. No lumps. Add vanilla, salt and melted butter. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Do not use deep dish crust!

Enjoy with a cup of coffee for breakfast. That's high livin'.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Harvest



Today's harvest of leaf lettuces will be tomorrow's lunch. The swiss chard will be included in stir fry for dinner. Both were grown from seed. We mulched today to keep winter weeds in check.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Fall 2008


The last game of the football season in Brunswick County, NC yeilded a trophy for nephew Charlie. It was a sunny day at the coast, rainy and dreary an hour inland.
Southeastern NC is having a beautiful Fall. I travel Chickenfoot Road to work some days and it's been a pretty commute this week. No deer, though. Sometimes they appear and melt back into the forest as if by magic. Chickenfoot Road is a phenomenon. It spans Cumberland, Robeson and Bladen Counties. It begins off Highway 301 near Hope Mills ending at the Tar Heel Road with the Big Swamp presenting a terminating obstacle to travel. Once upon a time, Bladen and Robeson Counties were formed as travelers couldn't cross the swamp to get to the county seat, Lumberton, because their wagons would get bogged down. On fall mornings the mist from the swamp is an eerie, mystical sight. It doesn't take much imagination to understand why a farmer wouldn't want to get stuck with mule and wagon in Big Swamp.Here Be Monsters! in the form of alligators, bears, snakes and spirts of the moonshinin' sort.