zutroy.net

We got a little excited about growing our own peppers this year.  I picked out some really nice looking Anaheim and Serrano peppers that I figured would make some good salsa.  We planned two 20 ft rows of peppers. That should be enough right? But we didn’t plant any bell peppers.  I don’t know why, that’s what we buy the most of at the grocery store.  Usually we get that pack of red, orange, and yellow peppers from Costco and it lasts us a week.  I guess we like peppers.

Cari really likes them. She has taken to just munching on fresh bell peppers as a snack.  She especially likes the sweet red ones. When she found out that we hadn’t planted any in the garden she was really sad.  But she was determined she would solve this problem by herself.  She took the one last red pepper from the fridge, cut it open, took all the seeds, and put them in a paper bag to dry out.  I think she got about 100-200 seeds from that single pepper.

Our garden peppers were already sprouting and some even had good leaves growing. It was late June when Cari told us that she wanted to plant her peppers in the garden with the others.  We didn’t want to break her heart by telling her that it was too late. The other peppers had a good 4 or 5 weeks head start and she probably wouldn’t get any peppers before the first frost, if they even sprouted at all.  So we humored her and tried to prepare her for the fact that her peppers just weren’t going to grow.

Because we figured hardly any would sprout and partly because we were tired of digging holes to plant things we planted about 20 seeds in each hole. Nothing happened.  For weeks she would run to the pepper rows and check for her sprouts.  Each time she would come away with the same heart-broken look of disappointment. Then something crazy happened.  They came up. All of them.  In a matter of days we had many many dozens of pepper sprouts crowding each other.  So we thinned them out. Another week later we thinned them again. I think we thinned them out a total of 4 times.

Now we have as many bell pepper plants as we have other peppers.  We have been harvesting our other peppers for about 3 weeks but hadn’t seen any flowers or tiny peppers yet on the bell peppers. Until last week.

Cari and I were at the farm harvesting a couple baskets of tomatoes and Cari was asking me “How come Mommy was so excited over her first tomato? We have TONS!” I tried to explain the excitement ones feels when they first start to see the fruits of their labors.  She didn’t get it.  Then we walked past the peppers and there it was.  The first pepper.  Cari was so excited she started screaming and jumping up and down.  And she finally got it.  She understood why Mommy was so excited over the first tomato.

And I am amazed.  Seeds from one pepper we bought at Costco.  Now it looks like we’ll have bell peppers to last us the whole fall and first few weeks of winter. Not to mention all the salsa and spaghetti sauce we’re canning.  I think we’ll even have plenty to dry in those cool bunches and just hang up for fun.

Moral of the story:  You can count the seeds in a pepper (if you’re patient) but you can’t count the peppers in a seed. Never underestimate the hopes and desires of your children.

So my stake has a big farm.  Actually the church owns a really big chunk of Saratoga Springs and it’s all farmland.  But they have this small strip of it that’s probably about 10 acres or so that they set aside for the wards.  Each ward is in charge of what they do with their lots.  Our ward this year just announced that anyone that needs extra garden space can sign up and get some garden space down at the stake farm.

We like fresh produce as much as the next family so naturally we signed up.  Turns out that only 4 families from our ward signed up and we ended up with a whole section to share with one other family.  Each section is 40ft by 160ft.  That’s bigger than the grass that I mow at home.

So far we have spent about 20 hours planning and digging and planting and watering and we’re almost a quarter of the way done getting it all planted.  And I’m sore.

But there’s something about farming (gardening) that just feels right.  I don’t know if it’s because I live almost 70% of my waking hours in front of a computer screen but standing in the middle of a field watching the sun go down as I dig neat little rows in the dirt is really an amazing experience.

1 year ago I started my own made up diet/weight control program.  Basically it was just this: No eating after 6:00 PM.

That worked well for about 3 months. I slowly lost about 10 pounds.  Then I plateaued. Until August I didn’t lose any more weight.  Not until I tried a handy little iPhone app called LoseIt.

LoseIt helps you set goals and track calories intake and burn.  In the next 3 months I lost an additional 12 pounds.

Then came the holidays.  November was hard but I managed to only put on 1 pound with Thanksgiving.  Then came Christmas and the New Year.  I managed to put on all 12 of those pounds in just under 2 weeks.  I didn’t even have to try.  They just magically appeared.

So. Now the resolve. I work at MonaVie during the day (fantastic place to work by the way) and MonaVie just launched (today) a new weight management product. And I have a 1 month’s supply. So I’m working really hard and avoiding all those things I’ve pigged out on during the holiday.  I’m only 2 days in and I’ve already lost back 3 of those regained pounds. So if you happen to see me wavering in my resolve please give me a little encouragement.  I’m really Jonesin for an EMV right now.

A good friend of mine insisted that I need this app.  I like to cook.  Some times I even fancy myself a gourmet of sorts.  Like last night.

I had downloaded Epicurious a few days ago and had some time to play with it.  Mostly searching for ideas on what to cook and ways to cook things on my new BBQ.  Last night I decided to go strictly Epicurious.  Seered Ahi Tuna with Grilled Asparagus and Campfire Potatoes.  All cookable on my new grill and all on my favorites list in the app.

First, I searched, found, and added several good recipes to my favorites list.  Not too hard.

Second, I browser through the shopping list to make sure I have all the required ingredients or a close substitute.

Last, get cooking, flipping back and forth through the recipes while cooking.  Have I mentioned that I really need an iPad?  Very few things Continue reading

I’m not exactly sure what makes it official but I have a strong suspicion that it is.  I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that I cooked some awesome steaks yesterday.  I didn’t really mean to, it just happened.

Oh, and my poor bar-b-que grill.  It’s on its last leg.  I sat there watching it to see if it would sputter out and die before my steak was done.  It must love cooking steak as much as I love eating it because it did a phenomenal job.

And it’s also official that all my kids prefer rare to well done.  If only I could convince my wife now…

I have always had a kind of sixth sense of social civility.  I may not follow it that often, and when I don’t I have this feeling that I’m doing something wrong.   For example, I don’t like to walk between two people that are talking, even if they are standing on opposite sides of a hallway and there is no other option.  I think it’s rude to answer my phone when I’m talking with anyone. I use a LOT of napkins but I try not to put them on the table or in a place where everyone can see then.  I feel guilty when I overhear enough of someone else’s conversation for me to know what they are talking about.

I have always admired the way people interacted in Ye olden days.  You know, when gentlemen would bow when meeting a lady, or stand when she entered the room.   And when they needed to argue, they found very civil ways to insult their foes which would always result in the simpler of the two fellows challenging the more gentlemanly to a duel. Continue reading