Holiday greetings

Blooming camellias are a sure sign that winter has come to the south. They are a true gift of the Christmas season. They cannot be bought in a store and begin to bloom just in time for the holidays. These were collected from the neighborhood. It is a southern tradition to always have flowers blooming in the garden and camellia bushes make it possible. I took a walking tour of our neighborhood this morning and realized that nearly every yard has a least one camellia bush. Almost all are different yeilding a fantastic display of dozens of similarly dissimilar flowers.

It's hard to pick a favorite but this week the rose-like "Christmas" floating in the bowl are my favorite. The candy cane striped flowers of a neighbor's bush are a close second.

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.

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.

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'.

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.

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.

Pumpkin Soup

I made pumpkin soup from one of those pumpkins pictured. It made a very yummy lunch with a chicken salad sandwich and beer while sitting in the fall sun in my very own back yard. There are some things other people's money cannot buy and my backyard is one of them.I love sitting at my table, under my tree, in my backyard on a warm fall day.

To make your own pumpkin soup you will need one brutishly strong woman or a medium strong man to deal with the hard-as-a-rock pumpkin. I later considered that bashing it on the driveway would have worked.

Pumpkin Soup
One pumpkin, cubed and peeled
2 Tablespoons butter
Cook in a crock pot for 1 hour (on High)
Add:
One onion studded with 3-4 whole cloves
One can of chicken stock and enough water to cover the pumpkin
1 Tablespoon sugar
Cook until pumpkin is mush (about 4 hours on High)
Take the onion out and compost
Puree pumpkin mush and add milk to the consistency you like.