I am a very tired woman. Scratch that. I am a very tired woman with a very messy kitchen and I should be shot for using so many dishes at one go. Oh well, as annoyed as I am with myself now, I know that I'll be glad for it all in the end.


My freezer is now harboring large batches of both black bean and split pea soup, as well as several kinds of muffins (these are for the bonfire party this Saturday). It always feels so good to put stuff in the freezer, like a "get out of jail free" card for those inevitable days when I just can't face the thought of cooking but am nearly crazed with hunger when 6:30 rolls around. As much as I love to cook there are at least a few such days each month.


We actually had some of the black bean soup last night for dinner, with a nice french bread on the side. Very yummy. The Boy Wonder surprised and pleased us by asking for both plain yogurt and lime juice in his and then eating it all and wanting seconds. Dinner tonight was leftover roast chicken and succotash with rice pilaf. I also made a wilted lettuce salad, which is possibly the worst salad you can eat, health-wise, but it is so very delicious. If I have time tomorrow dinner will be shells stuffed with crab and bechamel (double batch with extras going into the freezer, natch).


Using my last jar of home canned diced tomatoes reminded me of my committment to myself to do something about the garden situation. The current garden is too far from the house to be tended to conveniently and, as it is somewhat down a hill, cannot be seen from the house. This situation (along with a poor summer in terms of weather and my disinclination to do much due to morning sickness) led to our garden being stop number one on the deer and rabbit buffet hit parade. So we're moving the garden closer to the house via a series of raised beds roughly 4' X 6' in four rows of three. I'm hoping that proximity to both the house and the dog run will discourage our neighborhood creatures from partaking of my veggies. We shall see.


Anyway, my point with this is that we also prepared some areas with mulch and manure. I've covered the areas where the beds will go with 8-10 layers of newspaper (weeds here are more like super-plants so I'm seriously concerned that this wasn't enough) and then put the manure on top of that. Throughout the winter I'll pile our compostable waste over the bed areas and the in the spring we'll be ready for a final layer of compost and mulch. If all the stars are in alignment we will have all the tomatoes, squash, peppers, beans, greens, etc. that we can eat (plus leftover for sharing and canning). Still, I'm thinking of joining a CSA just to cover my bases.


The weekend was rounded out by pumpkin buying and preparing the bonfire site. Some of our smaller pumpkins will be cut into luminaria to decorate the area around the fire but we made sure to get a nice big one for our family jack-o-lantern. The Boy has made it clear that he expects a "scaredy face". I am sure we can accommodate him.