Feels Like Backwards

It's getting colder.  Today, it didn't break 50 degrees.  I have a cold (as does everyone I know).  How did it become November again?  

I'm so impatient right now.  I want to get back out in the garden, but the garden's a pile of soupy muck.  I need to dig up those overcrowded bulbs, and plant kale and carrots!  I felt like I just couldn't wait any longer on the potatoes, but now I hope they don't just rot out there.  Three kinds, six seed potatoes.  I'm pretty excited.

I've also got this great plan to make a sherry vanilla-bean jelly, which I just had accompanying a cheese plate at Clyde Common.  Oh, wow.  I've got the sherry, and the vanilla bean, but now I need to feel confident that I can touch food without being all Typhoid-Mary.  Maybe this weekend?  

Maybe this weekend I'll finish my taxes, get flyering done for a fundraiser (okay, this one's not optional), put compost down in the garden, dig up some bulbs, tear up some grass, get some stuff planted, move more boxes of my stuff, make jelly, make some jewelry, finish that email I'm writing, color my hair, make an appointment for a haircut...sheesh, I suck.

No wonder I feel like I never get anything done.  Perhaps I should lower my expectations.  I'm not sure how, though.  None of these things seem like they should come off the list.  

Okay, mental shift:  Things I've accomplished this past week include finding out what I needed to to get my taxes done, getting a hefty start on it, making slug traps, completing a long list of emails I needed to send out/return for the nonprofit, planning the flyering excursion, buying compost, moving some boxes, making sausage bean stew, and baking this amazing cherry pie with an almond crumb topping, so damn good, using sour pie cherries from the farmer's market that I pitted and froze last July.  I so rock!


Okay, the pie was someone else's recipe, I found it online and promptly lost it again, but the stew is really easy and my own recipe, so I'm going to share it:


Sausage Stew


1 can beans (black eyed peas, white beans, or garbanzo work well), drained
1 can hominy, drained
1 can diced tomatoes (either with chilies or fire-roasted taste great), UNdrained
About half a pound of braising greens, washed well and chopped
1 tablespoon oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 lb of smoked sausage, sliced thinly and halved or quartered (half-moon or pie shape)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat.  Toss in the garlic, and when it starts to get aromatic (30 seconds or so), add the greens.  You may need to add them in handfuls and wait for them to wilt, depending on the size of your pot.  If you just washed them, they should have some water clinging to them; if not, toss in a couple of tablespoons of water.  Add the cider vinegar, turn down to low, and put a lid on the pot.  When the greens are well wilted and tender (10-15 minutes, maybe more depending on the kind of greens), add all the other ingredients.  Simmer on medium-low until everything is heated through and all the flavors are combined.