While working in one of the flower beds earlier this month, we found nine monarch caterpillars happily munching on the Butterfly weed we’d planted.

We did find three chrysalises up under the bird bath, but we didn’t get to watch any of them hatch.

Everything is starting to bloom – Tomatoes and watermelon vines especially

And there’s growth everywhere.

But the best part, is finding little bits of fruit and veggie goodness all over the garden.

We found brussel sprouts, swiss chard, and cabbages once we got all the weeds out of the way!

You can see some of the stuff we pulled out of the garden leaning up against the house. Look at all the peas!

This weekend, for me, the focus has been on cleaning up my garden and getting it ready for the merge as well. More than likely, my part will become a corn patch and where we grow the viney stuff (watermelons, cantaloupe, and cucumbers for sure). But I’ve found some good stuff while cleaning my part of the garden up.

The first strawberries of the year

The sweet scent of Satsuma Orange Blossoms

Snails on the little bench that I use when weeding.

I bought pepper and tomato plants for the garden as well. Here’s the first hot and bell peppers of the year.

And here are the first tomato blossoms of the year.

I also took the time to start some seeds yesterday.

Here’s what I planted:
12 Vorlon Tomatoes
12 Green Husk Tomatillos
12 Oaxacan Pink Slicing Tomatoes
8 Spaghetti Squash.

I’m hoping that by the end of today, I’ll have many of these plants in the ground and many more seeds put into pots for starting!

Shell Plaza and Tranquility Park has veggies growing in containers. But I wonder what they are going to do with the swiss chard when it gets too big?

What do you have planned for your garden this year? I’m actually planning two gardens. One over where I have gardened for the last 3 years and another at my apartment.

I spent some time working in the garden today cleaning up the onion patch. Apparently, all that dry weather we had this past summer has activated the thistle seeds in southeast Texas. I’ve pulled some dooseys during the last few times in the garden and Mrs. B has been working on getting the thistles out of the yard and feeding them to the chickens.

One of my goals for 2012 be more hyperlocavore in my food choices. That means that I will be relying on my garden more for veggies/fruits and spending my food dollars on things I can’t grow myself (meat, cheese, and dairy) at the local farmers markets. One of my goals for this week is to start some Lettuce Seed (just a few actually). This is almost prime time for lettuce growing in southeast Texas (you can still have a freeze sneak in for the next couple of months) and the great thing about lettuce is it can be grown in a container. There are also some really fabulous red lettuces that are quite tasty. So look for a post from me about starting lettuce and a few other plants in the next few days.

In Mid-November, a writer for Change magazine contacted me about some of my lifestyle choices (the article will be out in Jan 2012). These questions got me thinking about the choices I’ve made over the past few years and how they affected me. When Reverb11 started at the beginning of December, I had further reflections about the past year and started thinking about what I wanted for 2012. One of the questions I asked myself is “If I had to pick a word of intention for this next year, what would it be?” The word that bubbled up to the surface from all this reflection was “deliberate.”

de·lib·er·ate [adj. dih-lib-er-it; v. dih-lib-uh-reyt] Show IPA adjective, verb, -at·ed, -at·ing.
1. carefully weighed or considered; studied; intentional: a deliberate lie.
2. characterized by deliberation; careful or slow in deciding: a deliberate decision.
3. leisurely and steady in movement or action; slow and even; unhurried: a deliberate step.
4. to weigh in the mind; consider: to deliberate a question.

 The past few weeks have been spent contemplating and practicing living a more deliberate life. I’m starting 2012 off with a consumer cleanse – no new books or gadgets for the three months of the year. I have so many books and movies that I’ve bought but haven’t read or watched. Its time to do that instead of buying more. It’s time to use my large stash of cookbooks for cooking at home. It’s time to start using my exercise books and the olympic weights and dumbbell set I have to get fit and healthy. These are a start for my deliberate choices for the new year.

I’ll also be doing some clean-up and streamlining of this blog. It’s overdue for a realignment and I realized in my musings that I really want to help people live a more sustainable life here in Houston.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small chopped onion
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (I used a mix of Crimini and Button Mushrooms)
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon salt, divided
pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Add mushrooms and 1/2 tsp salt. Saute until tender. Add flour to pan and saute for a few minutes until the flour has cooked. Add broth, stirring the mushroom mixture. Keep stirring until the broth and the flour are smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Reduce heat. Stir in the cream, the rest of the salt and 1/8 tsp pepper.

Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, stirring often.

Adjust seasonings as needed.

Crimini Mushrooms sourced from Animal Farm Center.

Butter sourced from Lucky Layla Farms through the The Houston Dairymaids.

This year I decided to make my own version of stuffed celery. I bought some Pimento Cheese Spread made by Janice Schindler at the City Hall Market (Janice is usually at the the City Hall, Rice University, and Eastside Markets). For the other spread, I took a can of crushed pineapple, drained off the juice and mixed the pineapple into a container of Swede Farm Dairy Simply Texan Plain Chevre.

I liked how the chevre recipe turned out. Next time I will use pineapple tidbits and chop them roughly so I get slightly larger pieces of pineapple in the cheese.

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
2 cups celery, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup of bell pepper (I used a mix of green and red bell peppers from my garden)
3/4 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped.
Pepper to taste
1.5 lbs of breakfast sausage from Revival Market, casing removed
.5 head of roasted garlic.
1 tsp Tarragon
1 tsp rubbed sage.

In a skillet, put the olive oil and butter and wait until the butter is melted. Add celery, onion and mushrooms to the skillet. Sweat the mix until semi-soft. While the celery, onion and mushroom mix is sweating, cut the casings off the breakfast sausage links (if you haven’t already) and crumble into the skillet. Cook through until veggie mix is soft and sausage is cooked through. Add spices. You’ll have a mixture similar to the one below.

Note: I didn’t add any additional salt. Between the sausage and celery, none is needed.

Note: I’ve also used Harrison Farms Pan Sausage for this recipe.