Finally food in my life again

Been a while, but now I'm up to cooking, baking, eating and generally having a food involved life.  And walking my full walk, yay.

Simple is best for my taste.  

Here, yogurt cheese (just yogurt strained, the solids make a wonderful cheese, like cream cheese but tangy, and the whey is saved for soup) mixed with fresh cut chives.  Great combo. 

And the dinner rolls can be split and yogurt cheese spread inside.  Wonderful snack.  The rolls are just from the regular bread recipe, just pull off roll size dough pieces, handle them a bit to get the shape, sticky work even with floured hands, then bake in hot oven.  I took a guess and did them at 450 F for 20 minutes, and they're fine.  Mostly whole wheat with about one third or less unbleached white. Then I baked the rest of the recipe as one big loaf, to slice and freeze.

The planting out front is now DONE.  Massive labor to get the dead pachysandra mainly out.  The trouble was that there was a big live root base under ground, and nothing on top to pull.  So I ended up using a small saw, sawing in squares , through the roots, then peeling it back.  Like cutting turf, but harder work.  I tossed some of the turfs behind shrubs where they can regrow and not be seen looking unsightly, and now have better earth to work with. I'll be able to replant daffodils around this area in fall, my old river of daffodils having been crushed to oblivion during the reno work.

It doesn't look glam at the moment, but once the plants take hold and get used to their homes, it will fill out, some pachysandra will return, try and stop it, and it will look very good.  That daylily you see, moved from the back patio where it was being crowded, will expand to use all that open space you see around her.

After my unsuccessful trip to the nursery for perennials, I decided to shop in the garden instead.  Transplanted some purple and white heirloom iris that needed to be moved, and some daylilies.  With a small chrysanthemum and K's daisies, it will look just fine in a while.  The daisies are back there, left of the Russian sage, which survived handily. And it no longer looks like some alien creature stomped about.

My neighbor keeps wanting to help, not realizing that the labor of gardening is what makes it fun. I love that I can dig and haul and toss and plant for myself.  At his garden, I just point and suggest, at his invitation, and he digs and hauls and so on.  But in mine I like to be the laborer. 

And in the course of gardening, you come across some wonderful natural designs like this one, snail shell on the old wood bench.