The coreopsis is blooming. So are the irises. Here are a few things I did this weekend: Ate cherry jelly beans for breakfast Planted five Dixie wood ferns Planted 12 Clemson Spineless okra Transplanted a bunch of purple coneflowers to the bed by the barn …
On Saturday Chip had a tea party under the Chinese chestnut. He enjoyed some fine refreshments–invisible lemon coolers and Victoria sponge cake. The tea was air. His guests included hummingbirds and butterflies, and an inchworm stopped by.
For lunch last Sunday, we made our favorites, Thai Tofu Burritos, but this time we improved them by adding some homegrown sweet potatoes to the filling. I’ve included the revised recipe below, along with our recipe for purple cabbage slaw, which is what we always serve as a side with our burritos.
Sunday’s meal was particularly delicious because we ate it at the picnic table by the pond in the most perfect weather. There were ruffly white oak leaves overhead and ferns all around our feet. Babs was strolling about the yard, and she came and stretched out on the stone path that runs next to the picnic table.
“She just likes to be nearby,” Rob said.
Then she went and climbed into the compost bin.
“I think she’s hunting a lizard,” Rob commented. But thankfully it got away.
Maggie is so tough; she catches squirrels and rabbits. But Babs is a small and gentle creature; she only catches butterflies.
Thai Tofu Burritos with Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
Thai Peanut Sauce:
1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter
1 can coconut milk
3 fresh habanero peppers, minced
3 Tbls water
3 Tbls fresh lime juice
4 Tbls soy sauce
1 Tbls hot sauce
1 Tbls minced fresh ginger root
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Filling:
2 packages pre-fried tofu triangles, available at Asian markets
Olive oil
1 Tbls minced fresh ginger root
3 fresh cayenne peppers, minced
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 Tbls soy sauce
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 large sweet potatoes, chopped
Tortillas, extra chopped fresh cilantro for garnish, 2 cups cooked brown rice, reserved Thai peanut sauce for drizzling over the top
Directions:
Prepare the peanut sauce and set aside. Here’s how to do it: In a bowl, mix the peanut butter, coconut milk, hot peppers, water, lime juice, soy sauce, hot sauce, ginger, and garlic. Make sure the sauce is smooth and that there are no peanut butter lumps. Mix in the cilantro just before serving.
Cut the tofu triangles in half, or in thirds if you prefer. Set aside. Sauté the ginger, cayenne peppers, garlic, and soy sauce in a little oil. Add the sweet potatoes, cover, and sweat until the sweet potatoes are tender. Add the red bell pepper and onions and sauté until the onions are soft and translucent. Be careful not to let the garlic burn. Add the tofu and the peanut sauce and cook until heated through. Before you add the sauce to the pot, be sure to reserve enough to drizzle over the top of your burrito.
Heat your tortillas. Fill each tortilla with a little rice and plenty of tofu-bell pepper-peanut sauce mixture. Roll up the tortilla. Drizzle Thai peanut sauce over the top and then sprinkle some fresh cilantro on top of the sauce.
Purple Cabbage Slaw
Ingredients:
1 cup red wine vinegar
8 Tbls sugar
8 Tbls vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
1 large purple cabbage, shredded
Directions:
Make the dressing by whisking together vinegar, sugar, oil, and salt. Shred the cabbage and put it in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and toss well to mix. Chill before serving.
This weekend we started redecorating our breezeway, attempting to turn it into a cozy open-air living room. We took everything out and washed the walls and the floor with buckets of warm soapy water. Then we drove up to Thomasville in search of some sort …
This weekend I was so happy because it rained! It finally rained–on Friday and Saturday! Afterward, the yard was so beautiful and green, quenched. The box turtles came out, and the frogs sang.
Buttercrunch lettuce glowing in the sun
Rob and I spent Saturday doing two things: weeding all the beds and mulching a new bed on the south side of the front yard. To me it was a good day because I got to daydream and visit with various cats as I killed untold numbers of clovers.
Babs kept stopping by, to lie next to us, and at one point Rob said, “Babs is such a good and true friend. Every morning when I’m hanging the laundry, she comes running out of the garage. Then she rolls around on the driveway while I hang everything up. She just wants to be nearby.”
“I know,” I said. “She did that with me this morning. She rolled in the sun and I stood there in the sun hanging things. It was a very nice kind of fellowship.”
All day Babs was covered in pollen and dust; she loves taking dust baths.
I made some neat discoveries while I was weeding. Here’s one: My favorite rose, the Souvenir de St. Anne’s, is blooming! The flowers look like the thinnest, most delicate pink porcelain cups. I made sure to weed all around the little plant, and water it, just to be encouraging. Oh, and another thing: The American holly is full of little tiny white blossoms, and all over the tree butterflies were feeding, sipping nectar (even 25 feet in the air).
On Saturday evening around sunset we saw our first hummingbird of the year. She was visiting the coral honeysuckle that drapes the Vine House.
Souvenir de St. Anne’s
Satsuma blossom. We have ten citrus trees around the house, so the air is very sweet right now.
Carnes pear flowers–too cute
Sometimes when I get discouraged, it helps to look back at old pictures. They remind me of how far we’ve come with this house and yard. February 2008 March 2012
Saturday was such a golden day, the oaks sporting new soft golden leaves and the front porch rockers wearing coats of golden pollen. Rob and I got to be outside in all the gold, all day. We mowed our lawn of weeds for the first time this year, and edged and ran the weedeater …
I truly love where I live—Quincy, my little town with its white wedding-cake houses and billowing pink and purple azalea gardens. When I take walks, I go crazy for the old brick garden walls and the leaded glass windows, the deep porches and silvery, rusty tin roofs. Streamers of Spanish moss festoon the trees, and the sandy, patchy lawns are polka-dotted with bulbs—rain lilies, surprise lilies, daffodils. . . .
The other day I took pictures as I walked—of the white houses and nearly black magnolias, the live oaks heavily robed in ferns. Of course, the pictures didn’t turn out as pretty as I’d hoped, as pretty as the dear old town really looks to my eye. But here are a few of them anyway:
Pat Monroe House (Quincy Garden Center)
Mr. Pat Monroe built this house in 1893. He served as president of the Quincy State Bank for fifty years and in his time was one of Quincy’s most prominent and respected citizens. The house stayed in the Monroe family until the 1970s, when it was donated to the City of Quincy. Today, the Quincy Garden Club leases it.
Stockton-Curry House
Probably the most interesting thing about this house, built in 1842, is the matching mini mansion at the southern corner of the front yard. The mini mansion, with its white columns and fancy front-door sidelights, served as the law office of Phillip Stockton, the second owner of the property.
Smallwood-White House
This house was built in 1843 and extensively remodeled in 1856 by Pleasants Woodson White, a Quincy lawyer and judge who lived to be ninety-nine years old. After Judge White died in 1921, the house was sold to the Centenary Methodist Church. Ever since, it’s been used as a parsonage.
