Boy, October was some month. We started it off by planting a new garden. It's come a long way since we filled it with dirt and transplanted our tiny little seedlings. Naturally there were a few hiccups along the way. My sister's adorable corgi mix, Goose, took the liberty of rearranging the carrots one morning. It was a real shock to see everything dug up and chucked in crazy directions, but luckily most of the plants survived, and the garden lived on. Our kohlrabi was doing especially well, until Mr. Goose developed a taste for the stuff. He bided his time, waiting for the right opportunity to feast on the veggie buffet. The night of our Halloween party provided a significant distraction, so down the hatch they went. RIP kohlrabi.
I still have high hopes for the carrot crop. They seem to be flourishing. The tomato plants are getting very big, but they haven't started producing yet. This is my first fall garden in Texas, so I'm not sure how long they have to get their act together. We shall see. The bell peppers seem to have no intention on growing past their current height of four inches, so I'm not expecting to see a whole hell of a lot out of them.
We cooked a lot of great recipes in October too. Scott and I have been maintaining a pretty much 90% vegan diet, which I am really proud of. It was made a little extra easy this month due to our eleven day juice cleanse in mid-October. Juicing was great, and we had hoped to make it fifteen days, or maybe even thirty, but by the time I hit day ten I was ready to eat. I ended up breaking down while I was steaming broccoli for freezer storage. I don't know if I ever appreciated a vegetable as much as I did in that first bite. I squeezed a little lemon onto a tiny broccoli tree, sprinkled it with sea salt, then sank my teeth into what felt like pure Heaven. I'll never look at broccoli the same way again.
Recipes from October!
Phew! That sure was a lot of cooking for only eating solid food for half the month. By the way, if you've ever considered juicing, I highly reccomend it. I start every day now with a juice, and it feels great! I look forward to doing a post soon with some of my favorite recipes.
I've saved my favorite bit of October news for last. On the afternoon of Halloween we welcomed a new addition to our family. While I'm sure my parents and in-laws would have preferred something a little more, well… human, we know that everyone will love this guy as much as we do. Meet our new dog, Cookie.
Naming this little fella was a real challenge. He came with a nice name already, but since he didn't seem to know it, our friends at Helping Hands Basset Rescue suggested we take the opportunity to give him a new one. So we set to the task of choosing a new name for his new life. I wanted something food-related. Scott wanted something macho and Texan. Here's a short list of ridiculous names that were thrown out there. See if you can guess whose idea was whose:
- Rosebud
- Sweetpea
- Struedel
- Chuck Norris
- Ash
- Dubstep
- Bhaji
- Dumplin'
- Bowie
We initially settled on the name, "Brisket". It seemed perfect, being both food-related AND macho. We even had a long version, "Brisket County Jr." Hilarious, right? The only problem was that every time I looked into those goofy eyes, I just didn't see a brisket face.
I saw a cookie face.
It really says a lot about Scott's feelings for me that he allowed me to name this dog "Mr. Cookie Face". That's true love right there.
By the way, this post totally counts for #NHBPM. Things that make me healthy and happy: playing in the dirt, home cooked meals, and basset hound hugs.