wonderful Wednesday

My Sweetness was the brightest part of this bleak week. Bleak primarily because of challenges at work.

I got one of my favorite texts from my hubby: he's at the grocery store buying stuff to make dinner. Immediately my load lightened. He smoked and then grilled a steak, along with some sweet potatoes, orange peppers and bread. It took a while to cook but I didn't mind. I chilled on our new patio furniture and my Sweetheart built me a fire. It was awesome! I felt totally pampered.

Along with the great dinner and the roaring fire was a beautiful bouquet of a dozen long stem red roses. I am blessed with a husband who gets me flowers regularly. He really spoiled me that night.

To keep this real I will tell you that he overcooked the bread. Would be more appropriate to call it a huge crouton:-)

ever had smoked pheasant enchiladas???

I am most creative when it comes to leftovers. We still had one whole smoked pheasant from the weekend and so I made some green chile enchiladas with it.

I chopped up the breast meat and sautéed it with diced green peppers and yellow onion. For seasoning I used kosher salt, cumin, black pepper and fresh parsley. For a bit more heat I used pepper jack cheese. It turned out delicious. My Sweetness loved it and that's the ultimate compliment!

the ultimate grill

My Sweetness sold one of his last remaining toys and to my great surprise, spent some of the money on a super duper pellet grill rather than something for his brewing. This is something he's always wanted but the price tag has been too high for our house budget. I am blessed that he would be so generous with his purchase!

The very next day we smoked two racks of pork spare ribs, two pheasants and a beef brisket. Fantastic! They weren't done until 10 pm but we were able to invite three of our neighbors to enjoy them with us the next day. I made the dry rub and BBQ sauce, using one of our homebrews. I also made a loaf of beer bread. It was an incredible dinner and it was great to share with friends.

first ever couscous

I made my first ever couscous for dinner last night. I've been wanting to experiment with different carbs for side dishes and couscous was on the list.

I chopped up some asparagus, leftover grilled broccoli, red pepper and pearl onions and sautéed all that with garlic and Meyer lemon olive oil. I seasoned it with thyme, kosher salt and black pepper.

I was surprised at how quickly couscous cooks and how light and fluffy it is. I thought it tasted just awesome and I could have eaten the entire dish. We had it with some leftover smoked pheasant, brisket and pork spareribs, which will have to be another post once I have a picture. My Sweetness bought a new pellet smoker/grill and we've crazy about it!

I am sorry to say I am enjoying leftover veggie couscous today for lunch with some fried Spam:-)

my home

Interspersed in this blog about my kitchen and garden will be posts about my home in general. And that must start with my awesome husband...my home.  Almost five years ago I met the most wonderful man ever. And God willed that we should marry and I have been abundantly blessed since. This dear man is my lifelong partner, the love of my life second only to my Lord and my choice playmate. He is beyond what I ever prayed for and imagined.

I am keenly thankful for him these past weeks because he continues to make wise decisions for us and he does this unselfishly. He is generous - the stereotypical "will give the shirt of his back." His decisions and actions assure me that our marriage is his priority. And that blesses my soul beyond belief.

This incredibly good man is also very strong. Having married later in life, I have had to be strong on my own. This is my trivial example but I have had my own Princess Bride moments, when Buttercup calls Westley "Farm Boy" and asks him to reach a high-hanging pot or a light thing she pretends she can't lift. I haven't had to pretend weakness or inability but I also no longer have to conjure up strength or skill that I don't naturally have. If I don't feel like exerting all my effort to open a stubborn jar, I just pass it on my sweetheart and he opens it effortlessly. I no longer have to high jump the counter - my sweetheart can reach those things for me now.

As I write this, it occurs to me that the Lord has given me this man to give me rest. I do not rest easily...I am always on the move, never stopping. But the presence of this man in my life allows me to take a breath, to learn to slow down my striving and enter into God-given rest. I am no longer the end-all, be-all. I owe it to my Lord and this wonderful husband to relish this gift of rest.

And my mind is also allowed to rest. This amazing man brings a lot of life experience to our marriage and I can hardly express my appreciation for that. The burden of life decisions no longer sit on my shoulders alone. I love being able to trust my husband completely. And he is exceptionally competent and highly skilled. He knows so much and does so many things so well. He's a chef, a carpenter, a mechanic, a gardener, a technician. And a master brewer!

Lastly, my spirit has found joy and laughter. My hubby is goofy and playful and doesn't take anything too seriously, including himself. He has shaken my walls and broken down unnecessary ones. He brings fun and play into my life...a constant reminder to enjoy God's goodness.

This week's Psalm is the famous Ch 23 and it occurred to me that the Lord has indeed led me to green pastures and quiet waters: marriage to this wonderful man! Thank you Lord for the blessing of my good husband.

fiery forsythia

I love forsythias. We got some bare root ones a couple of years ago and they are flourishing. Yellow was my childhood favorite color so this is quite sentimental for me. I wished the blooms lasted longer. I think I might do a couple of cuttings and see if I can propagate a couple more.

quotables and misheard

This has nothing to do directly with my kitchen nor garden but they're hilarious!  While finishing up dinner one night, my hubby was regaling me with some of his life stories and this line just got me laughing:  "Yeah, he's the crank addict who took me to church!"  Now how many people can say that?!  I told him we'd make a lot of money if we wrote his bio.

Last night I exclaimed to my hubby:  "It's nine o'clock! I've got to wax the cheese!"  Now, without knowing the context, that is just plain funny!  9 pm is pretty late for me and earlier that week we made our very first cheese.  It had been drying and now it's time to wax it so it can age longer.  The very next day we were leaving for the Wine Road Barrel Tasting so I was feeling a bit stressed.

And we are now in Sebastopol enjoying day 1 of the first weekend of barrel tasting.  We found a pretty cool cottage that's reasonable and roomy enough to share with our dog.  Anyway, we went to one of our favorite wineries...Russian River Winery.  As we were coming up, there were guests on their way out with wine glasses half full of white wine.  I commented to my hubby:  "They have hefty pourings here!"

He heard  hefty porns instead!  Cracked us both up!