Harvest Time

In anticipation of the forecasted freeze this week, I harvested all my herbs Sunday. I finally got them hung up to dry today. There is a lot of rosemary and lavender and small amounts of oregano, marjoram, sage, thyme and tarragon. They are all bundled and hanging in the windows of the sun porch off Larry's office.

I walked around the yard a couple of times today looking for fallen pecans and only gathered a handful. Most of them have already fallen and been gathered. There are about thirty pounds of pecans waiting for me to crack. While the trees in the back yard produced a lot of pecans, the two trees in the side yard didn't have a lot of nuts. Or so I thought. While I was planting iris in the new garden on that side of the house Sunday, I kept digging up pecans that the squirrels have buried. I suppose they will be digging up all the tulips, daffodils and iris I've planted looking for their hidden treasures.

I've been living in the south for almost a year now. And sometimes, I still can not understand the locals. On a quick trip to the store today, I had the opportunity to listen to a conversation between two of the clerks. I know they were talking English, but I have no idea what they were saying. Not only do they talk fast and slur words together, they drop letters or complete words all together. Law, will I eer unerstan?

What's Cookin'?
The Refrigerator Oatmeal Cookies were baked and delivered to Ta for his birthday today.

I've been trying to find a "signature" sugar cookie. I want a dough that is easy to put together and is easy to handle. The cookies should be soft and puffy as well as taste good plain or frosted. I've tried several different recipes, but have not been able to find just the right one. This afternoon I put together a recipe called Butter Cutouts. They are in the fridge chilling and I will roll, cut and bake them tomorrow. I've got some Halloween cookie cutters I will use as I want to give them to the neighbor kids for trick or treat. I'll let you know if this is "The One."

Tonight's dinner was Monday's leftovers. Homemade chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes. Yum! I used the Basil Rubbed Roasted Chicken carcass from Sunday night's dinner to make stock. Then my Kitchen Challenge for Monday was to make homemade egg noodles. I threw away the first batch as I added too much water and knew that adding more flour to make them stiff would make the noodles tough. With the second batch, I was careful when adding the water. The dough worked up well. Of course, the true test is in the eating. Oh my! They were soooo gooood!

Stay tuned to see what mundane-ness occurs tomorrow...