Mini garden

I was unable to find the rennet I needed to make cheese last week (I will have to order it online.) So instead I moved on to another project I have wanted to get going: growing some cooking herbs in pots out on the porch.

oregano, basil, chives, fennel and lemon balm

Sweet basil

Also in their own pots lavender and more basil...

I also rather impulsively picked out a small Brandy Wine tomato plant with really nowhere to put it. The name may have been the culprit. Over the three day weekend I enlisted the help of Mr. H to try and find a suitable place to put it. Always looking to meet our needs within a four block radius of our house we settled on this wonderful thing from the corner Walgreens. Please forgive us for our bad taste.



Oh yes! No over watering, no support posts, no weeding...

Say CHEESE

Project # 1: Tomorrow I will go to Berkeley Bowl and buy fresh local milk in glass bottles. I will pick up a little rennet and citric acid and then I will live the Dream:

Looking forward to catching up on some reading

The Summer Reading List (so far):

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

• Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction by Lee Gutkind

• Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll Pataphysician by Alfred Jarry

• Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

• The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters

• History of Beauty by Umberto Eco

Still waiting for some QT with Mr H (it feels like ages) I wonder if we will be able to sneak away for a little road trip in the warmer weather?

Shaking it out

It has been 13 days since my last paper for school was due and I'm still a bit out of it. Still purging the stress and not at all feeling like the happy home maker I thought I would be by now. The house is still real messy and I even missed the farmers market this week (Mr. H went without me so I have been eating some veggies at least.)

Things I have done with my time off:

• Quick trip to Colorado to see a sick family member

• Researched and ordered new computer (mine crashed 24hours after I turned in my paper whew!)

• Running (I'm up to five miles a few times a week)

• Wedding Planning (committed to buying the all the plates for our wedding next year from thrift stores--I have 8 so far 70 more to go)

• Still interning and working

• Listened to Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food on my ipod (good but scary)