roasted celery soup kinda blows

My roasted celery soup was less than magnificent. It's just that I had a lot of celery sitting in the fridge (because you can't buy just one stick of celery for, say, making pot pies or some other casserole concoction that only requires a little bit of celery -- no, you have to buy the whole bunch), and being the frugal person that I am, I know that soup is usually a good way to use up extra veggies. However, while French onion soup is a fabulous way to use up onions and is no way overpowering with all the onion-y-ness, too much celery is all bad.

Jay and I both choked half a bowl down, but the rest of it went in the trash (I can't compost it because of the dairy and fat contents, and I have no livestock yet that would happily take it). However, my slaw and homemade bagels with honey butter at least provided us with some needed calories and nutrition.

That's about a 1/2 yard of compost that I put dow a few weeks ago. You can't
see it from this angle, but Taco was pretty loaded down with the other cubic
yard I had in her yet to be put down.

We got all fancy with the laser level a while back and marked out the first of my on-contour garden beds. So far, I've dumped 1.5 cubic yards of mushroom compost on this one bed at about 6" deep, and I estimate that I'll need another yard or so to finish it off. I'd like to have two more beds of the same length for springtime planting, so I'll likely need a total of 7.5 cubic yards of material.

At $30.00 per cubic yard, that's $225.00 for all three long beds, which is a little pricey, but I'm hoping that this initial investment will pay off in the long run.

I probably would have gotten away with not using the rotting logs to hold up the bottom half of the beds (you can see we're on a slope), but it satisfies my inner OCD to have it there anyway so that I don't have to continually scoop up compost that shifts down the hill. I might end up covering the beds with some sort of plastic or other material to keep the nutrients from draining away. 

This was obviously before I shoveled compost and got it all in my hair.

Sandy!

No, we're not under siege by Hurricane Sandy. But I thought she presented a good opportunity (as in, being stuck inside all day) to get my shit together and start riding this bloggy train again.

It's rainy and windy, and I'm sorely disappointed in the lack of snow thus far despite it being quite chilly out, but I'm counting my blessings because all this weather enabled me to discover homemade bagels. I am also making roasted celery soup, and while I think it will also be good, roasted celery soup feels just kinda blah compared to the culinary excitement that is homemade bagels.

Before.

After. I didn't take a picture of the finished soup because, well, it just looks like pureed celery.
Although it is a lovely shade of celery green. Ha.

That's some wasabi sesame seeds on that thar last two. Totally unnecessary but a lovely addition nonetheless. 

We also attended the Fall Festival in Sneedville ahem, over four weeks ago and were pleasantly surprised by the amount of energy there despite our county's less-than-6,000-resident population count.

That lady in the overalls right there? She was from Virginia and sang
Coal Miner's Daughter during the karaoke hour better than
Loretta Lynn herself. It was a tear-jerker, I tell ya.

They take a potato and put it in a special spiral cutting mechanism to make
the most delicious fry ever. ONE FRY from an entire potato.

More spiral fry.

I also made homemade pizza for the first time oh about three weeks ago. It was delicious, but the mantra of less is more definitely applies to pizza. Too many toppings weighs it down.

Pepperoni, jalapenos, and red onions are delicious but weigh too much for this poor crust.

Someone discovered the sun spot in our bedroom.

We went on a tour last Saturday of a nearby farm (the pictures from which you can see on the Meetup group website here). I learned a lot about what we want as well as don't want to do. And now I want Chocolate turkeys and Silver Fox rabbits (in addition to our other choices of Highland cattle, St. Croix sheep, Ossabaw Island hogs, and Ameraucana and Marans chickens).

Lately, we've also:

- found a source for my beloved mushroom compost and started building spring garden beds

- erected a crude but hopefully efficient leaf composter (think welded wire in a circle stuffed with leaves)

- started hunting deer with the start of bow season (I should clarify that I merely sit in the hunting blind with a good book and take naps while Jay does the actual hunting)

- started knitting again (I'm determined to finish the scarf that is my first knitting project that I began at least two years ago)

- started sewing again (just a pillow so far -- don't get too excited)

- enjoyed a visit from my parents, which included the gift of a fabulous barn quilt that my talented artist Mother created that we hope to hang on the barn in the spring

- had business cards printed for my photography (need to drum up some wedding and portrait income)

- organized the wood shed (the number of liquor, wine, and beer bottles in our recycling area is not shocking at all, no)

- organized the guest cabin (my bro-in-law should be on his way out here soon!)

- and about a hundred other things that I'm failing to remember at the moment

So yea, there you have it, folks: a small glimpse into what we've been doing for oh, the past 30 days or so. And to ensure that I continue riding this bloggy train, I'm going to do a post every single day. YEP. You can hold me to that -- even if it's just one picture, it will be something at least. You can come break my legs if I fail miserably.