…and it was not good. Cooked back yard slugs, no matter how talented the chef, do not escargot make. It was about a year ago that I chomped down on that cooked slug hidden in a side dish of chard and I believe it took me three or four days to eat again after that. Oh yuck! So make sure you inspect your greens well! Usually I find that gathering everything into the salad spinner, filling it with cold water and waiting about 10 minutes will bring any hiding slugs floating to the top. A good practice to get into the habit of during these rainy, slug filled days.
Enough about yucky slugs, how have your holidays been? What a fast month this has been. It has been all I can do to keep up with it all. Leading up to Christmas our days were long and full, but luckily once the big day hit, we’ve been able to sit and enjoy all those cookies that were baked, some spicy hot chocolate and tiny little Satsumas my mother-in-law grew just over at her house in Napa. Luckily these slow post Christmas days have allowed us to get back into the garden and sort things out. Adjusting to life with another baby and a crazy work-a-holic schedule has left the poor garden in a steady state of decline, but the past couple of days Scott has spent the entire days outside trying to tame that wild patch of weeds into something more respectable. Because it is time to prune and spray the fruit trees, he harvested whatever was growing in the vicinity of those trees, like these parsnips. Which got transformed into pureed parsnips and potatoes for our dinner tonight. We’ll turn the rest into parsnip chips (thin slices tossed in olive oil and s/p and roasted on cookie sheets at 375 degrees.)
The celery was pulled and made into cream of celery soup and the tops made into tonight’s salad along with a regular radish and a watermelon radish.
Strangely enough we had an artichoke growing and lucky us, it was time to pull the purple haze carrots, our favorite!
It has been so wonderful to see these things come into our kitchen and onto our dinner plate again. All fall we’d pick little bits and sprinkle them into our daily diets, but to have the past two days dinners consist almost entirely from our garden fare has been such a blessing. The seed catalogs have arrived and it is time to start dreaming and planning for 2011’s harvest.
Happy New Year!
I ate a slug in my salad once. Same reaction. It took me 2 days to eat a salad again. I love your blog.
Judy, I’m glad I’m not the only one!
was wondering how you make your spicy hot chocolate. My mom and I have made most of your body care recipes, so wonderful to use, thank you for sharing.
Sarah, I wish I could give you a recipe! I was given a can of Dagoba’s Xocolatl a few years ago. It’s hot chocolate with chilies & cinnamon which I save for especially chilly days. So glad to hear you’ve tried the body care recipes!
Ugg…sorry to hear about the slug experience. That’s one of my fears! Except we have snails, so there would be a crunch…
Similar to Sarah’s comment, we’ve been loving your homemade lotion recipe this winter!
Oh my! I don’t know that I have had the “wonderful” experience of eating a slug. I am sure there have been extra “things” in our meals from time to time. I am glad I didn’t know it and I want to keep it that way. I found a lovely fuzzy caterpillar in the salad spinner a short while back. I am so so glad I found him first since that salad was to be on the plates of dinner guests. http://emilysincerely.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/what-was-on-my-plate-yesterday/
All the fresh things from your garden look wonderful. My seed catalogs haven’t started coming yet, but I have my list ready for things I need to add to the garden. Celery and either turnips or parsnips (maybe both) are on that list. We planted a few fruit trees last winter so we will prune those in the next month. Happy New Year. Emily
Barf!
Ewwww, I am always scared of accidently eating a slug or something gross like that. Barf o rama! My mother in law told me to always wash my garden greens in salt water. Those purple haze carrots look so amazing!!
ahhh, you always inspire me
I have been thinking how neglectful I have been to the garden. This last month has just been crazy and to be perfectly honest I just got burned out a bit. I always do that this time of year. But I’m inspired, it’s a new year and no rain for a few days – yippee – so I should be spending some time out there. Hopefully I’ll find some treasures like you did 
Yucky slug – I’ve almost done that -possibly have munched some smaller ones – who knows. But yummy spicy hot chocolate
Happy New Year Mama
lucky, lucky to be so rich in produce from your own backyard. even if you did once eat a slug. (ugh!)
I’ve been following your blog recently and love all of the recipes for homemade ingredients. I also just recently (as of December 31st) stopped shampooing my hair. It’s been just over a week now and I’ve been using Baking soda about every other day or so and have vinegar twice. You mentioned that there is a bit of a funky period, and I think I’m probably still in that zone. But I’m wondering if eventually my hair will regain its normal bounce and “moveability”. It seems kind of goopy right now. Not necessarily greasy looking, but I really wouldn’t want anyone to touch it. Just curious if you can give some advice.
Thanks!
Jillia, it should regain it’s bounce again. I remember that weird period well, but now my hair is as soft and flowing as when I shampooed it, only better!
correction: recipes for homemade body products
Yikes! I ate weevils once…they were in a cocoa mix and they were still alive.