Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
pets

vegan dog

I picked up my CSA veggies after work today. As I was putting away the vegetables, I accidentally dropped a grape tomato on the floor. Buster scarfed it up. I put the tomatoes on the counter and continued to put away the rest of the vegetables. No sooner did I get finished and Buster was counter-surfing for more tomatoes. He got a few.

I put a cantaloupe on the counter because the fridge was out of room. I was grilling lamb chops for supper and was coming up the steps after checking on them when I heard a thump. I didn’t think much of it because I often hear thumps to no ill effect. However, I got upstairs to see Buster chowing down on the cantaloupe. It was beyond salvation–he had a good chunk eaten from it and there were puncture marks all over it.

He really was on a roll this evening. He also ate some corn husks and some melon rind (which he stole as I was chopping up another cantaloupe I had in the fridge). And, he made a valiant effort to steal our corncobs as we were clearing the dinner plates.

I think next year I’ll just get Buster his own membership to the CSA.

weekend updates

the lazy weekend

I guess in theory, I did a lot this weekend–laundry, a trip to Costco, dinner at my parents, etc., but I was definitely feeling lazy. After our Costco trip, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything else around the house. I think the trip set me up for failure–after we took the Costco exit, traffic came to a halt. Apparently there was construction further down the road and it took us an hour to get to Costco from the exit (it usually takes 5-10 minutes). I hate traffic.

On Sunday, we went to my parent’s house for the annual birthday dinner for my mom, dad, and grandmother. I started watching my calories a week ago, but I don’t count them one day a week, and yesterday was it for me (I wasn’t about to miss out on any of the great food and wine). For whatever reason, I didn’t feel like doing anything last night either. So, I didn’t. It’s so rare that I sit around and do nothing that I figured it wouldn’t hurt for me to do that one weekend out of the year.

Today, though, reality hit. Since it was raining, I couldn’t do anything outside–not that I don’t have plenty to do inside. I had to tackle the most pressing tasks first. First, I picked a bunch of peppers (I had quite the harvest). Next, I froze the avocados I bought at Costco. Then, I made a batch of marinara with the 10 pounds of tomatoes I had sitting in the kitchen since last week (I was supposed to do this over the weekend). All in all, a productive evening. Let’s hope the rest of the week follows suit.

movies

true romance

This was a pretty good flick. It was written by Quentin Tarantino and is perhaps my favorite movie by him. There was a lot going on–action, romance, thriller, crime. So few movies have this much going on. My favorite character was played by Gary Oldman–he’s quite the versatile actor (I didn’t even realize it was him until I looked it up), though, Brad Pitt’s character was a riot. Come to think of it, there were quite a few other stars in this movie (Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini, and the list goes on). If you’re a fan of Tarantino, you’ll probably enjoy this movie.

me

bittersweet

This time of the year is always bittersweet for me. Summer, without a doubt, is my favorite season. Being the gardener that I am, I guess this comes as no surprise. The weather is still nice for now, but it’s getting darker earlier as the days go on. Soon, it will be too dark to work outside in the evenings and then my focus will shift to the inside. There’s no lack of work to do in the house, but I’d much rather be outside working in the dirt.

Last year, I vowed to not tackle any projects in the house when I could be outside instead. I made a concerted effort to get a lot of stuff done in the house in the winter. That enabled me to not feel guilty about working outside once the weather turned nice. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this system earlier–it only makes sense.

It’s funny because in the spring each year I wonder just how I’m going to get all of my housework done once I start working outside. I keep my self pretty busy during the cold months so it’s always a challenge to make the switch. I always seem to manage (but I’m always behind on housework in the warm months. hmm.).

Another thing that changes with the seasons is the way I cook. While there’s still plenty of grilling time left in the year, I’m already thinking about soups and stews. But, given the choice, I would definitely take the fresh vegetables and grilling of the summer over the soups and stews of the fall and winter.

I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I can’t believe that another summer is almost over. Time is moving too quickly these days.

crafts

hypertufa

I saw this article on hypertufa pots in the Martha Stewart magazine and just had to make them. They were pretty easy to do. I did mess up the first set by not using “mold release spray” aka WD-40. It was tough getting the inner container out of the main one (I used soda cans rather than a paper carton, as shown in the directions), but I managed. I wanted to do three colors, like in the article, so I made the pots over the course of a couple of weeks. The other day, I finally got around to drilling drainage holes in the bottoms of the pots and filing the tops even. After that, I planted some hens and chicks to complete the look. All of the pots are spread out on the ledge of our side porch, where they look great!