Yesterday was a wonderful day. I have been letting the stress of my VERY slow kitchen project get to me. My kitchen looks great but there is no cooktop or sink, so there is no water. Doing dishes in a small bathroom sink is a drag, besides nothing fits. It has been almost 7 weeks since we began and I know it will end within 2 weeks, I am frustrated and tired of the whole thing. I just want it done so I can get back to cooking, testing and creating recipes. So yesterday, I went to my local gardening center by myself (yeah!) and picked out what I consider to be my necessities for summer cooking. I don't have an extensive garden and a lot of my yard is in the shade but I have an area that gets a lot of sun. I have found that containers work great plus I had a small planter put in when we had some bricks laid. I really garden just so I can run outside and pick what I need to create delicous meals. I love the idea that if a recipe calls for a teaspoon of thyme, I can snip off what I need. I find it really adds to my creativity and the smell is just devine.
At the nursery, I felt like a kid in a candy store! What to buy? I always get too much and yesterday was no exception. I started with the herbs, rosemary, 2 types of oregano, tri-color sage ( I never heard of that but they didn't have plain sage), chervil, purple basil, and a whole tray of basil (you can never have enough basil). I then moved on to the peppers. I confess to being a chilehead; I even have a chile tattoo on my back! I went with 8 jalapeno plants, 8 habaneros plus then I found chocolate habaneros. I had never heard of these but my curiosity got the best of me and I had to try them. When I got home, I found these pictures at petersonline. How cool do they look?! I also picked up tabasco and hot cherry peppers. Moving on, I found some beautiful tomato plants, some with tomatoes already (it's kind of cheating but I like the head start). One of my favorite dishes in the whole world is fried green tomatoes so I grow tomatoes just so I can have a steady supply of green tomatoes.
I then set to work for 2 blissful hours of quiet gardening. Definitely good for the soul. Today, I feel much calmer and refreshed. Check out the results.
