Happy New Year! GTTC and Gifts (part 3 of 2)

Happy New Year!!

It's cold in the 'burbs of Maryland with dustings of snow. I have my eyeballs on the little clump of dried leaves near the top of this bare fothergilla, for under it - an egg sac with a billion spider babies-to-be rests. Remember the story of my Charlotte spider? I hope I will not live to regret leaving this egg sac alone. I do want them to live, but I just REALLY hope they all blow away in the spring. Anyway, when the leaves blew onto and covered the egg sac a few weeks ago, I thought about removing them, but on second thought, it's possible that the leaves are actually protecting the egg sac, right? Then again, they're also creating more surface area for winds to blow down. I don't know. I'm just leaving the whole operation alone and keeping my eyeballs on it.

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I wanted to share a few more gifts sent and received this season. I thought I was going to stop after "gifts part one" and "gifts part two", but there is more to share. Below are some of our Secret Santa gifts. My husband, brother-in-law, sister, and I draw names and exchange homemade gifts with materials not to exceed $15 or so. For a few different reasons (timing and logistics), I don't have everything to show you.

Here's my gift to my sister. This is her adorable baby Emmy. Emmy and I went to a paint your own pottery store and made this vase (and a video) for my sister. After you paint it, they glaze it for you and you pick it up in a few days. It was great because not only did my sister get a very pretty vase, but I got to have some quality alone time with Emmy!

Here's my sister's gift to my husband. She has gotten him some sort of Star Wars or Star Trek gift every year for probably close to 20 years now. This time, she made him a Star Trek pillow (insignia knitted on the bottom, space-themed fleece on the top) and an R2-D2 beer cozy. I thought this was hilarious!!!

Here's my gift to my husband from 2009 that I just gave him. We didn't see my b-i-l and sister last Christmas so we extended the deadline. I made some nerdy dice (for Dungeons and Dragons and games like that) out of polymer clay. This stuff is difficult to work with! I messed up on the 20-sided, but was fairly happy with the finished product!

Here, you see my older daughter unwrapping her new electric guitar. The funny part is that the gift giver is more hands-on than the recipient! Isn't this truly the case though - it really is more exciting to give than to receive most of the time...

...unless...what you're receiving is the ONE thing you've wanted more than anything else in the world - a FUSHIGI (until you take it out of the box and realize it's totally lame and doesn't actually float by itself).

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In the garden last week, I was still able to remove snow and harvest some beautiful and very hardy parsley! This was my first time making polenta like Mamma used to make (well, not my mama, but maybe like someone Italian's mama) - great stuff worth the pot-stirring. The beans, garlic, onions, and parsley were braised with tomatoes for about 20 minutes or so. I will admit it was QUITE delicious.

What's going on in your (mega) bit of the world (wide web)? Are you challenged by the Garden to Table Challenge?

The fall of the tobacco hornworm (part 1 of 3)

This is the beginning of a 3 part series. In the next few blog posts, you'll see:

• The fall of the tobacco hornworm
• The life of the argiope garden spider
• The rise of the butterfly

Yes, I've been very busy and have suffered no nightmares thus far. Lots of goosebumps though. Lots and lots of goosebumps.

Day 1 (above): I found this guy on my cayenne pepper plant. Hornworm covered with braconid parasitic wasps. The beneficial parasites lay eggs inside the tobacco hornworm. Leave your hornworms alone if you see it with all these horrifying goosebump-inducing things attached.

Day 2 (above): as the eggs of the parasitic wasps hatch, the larvae basically feast on the hornworm.

Day 3 (above): Today the hornworm looks a little wrecked. It has fallen off the plant and was on the ground. You can see that most of the little cocoons have opened and the parasitic wasps have emerged and taken flight. Have I mentioned goosebumps?

Day 4 (above): I can't believe just 4 days ago, the hornworm was eating away at my pepper plant. Today, it's basically done.

Label note: you might know I hate bugs, even though as the educated master gardener intern that I am, I realize that I'm really using the word "bug" improperly (see this post). The only label I have used for all my bug posts was "I hate bugs". However, I have had to add a few more labels here. In this case, "I may not necessarily hate bugs" because the parasitic wasps will that have emerged from these nasty little cocoons will take care of any remaining hornworms in my garden. When you see the spider and butterfly posts, you'll see why "I don't always hate bugs" sometimes. Sometimes. Stay tuned!

Garden to Table Challenge - September

I decided to change the title of these posts to make it easier on myself if I want to search for recipes or ideas later on - plus, adding the month instead of the week fits my goal of eating what's fresh. Right now, I'm a little obsessed with kitchen appliances. After years of neglecting the small appliances section of Bed, Bath, and Beyond due to a lack of kitchen counter and cabinet space, I've decided (duh) I can simply store appliances on the shelves in my laundry room. My latest acquisition - the sloooooow cooking crock pot! Below, the perfect choice for my inaugural slow cooker meal...

My brother-in-law who stayed with us over the weekend (and who is a crock pot bachelor), was making fun of me because I hovered over the crock pot, basically staring at it for about 7 hours. I kept feeling like I needed to stir. I took my kid to the park and broke out in a cold sweat suddenly thinking that I was burning something. I'll need to make a better effort to tell myself that I really can "fix it and forget it".

I'm not certain where credit belongs because I just have the clipping now, but this recipe probably comes from Bon Appetit magazine.

Braised Short Ribs - 4 1/2 pounds beef short ribs, coarse salt, 2 cups dry red wine, 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice (I used fresh tomatoes), 1 6 ounce package sliced button mushrooms (I used baby portabella), 1/2 cup finely chopped onion, 6 peeled garlic cloves, 6 fresh Italian parsley sprigs, 2 bay leaves, crusty bread (I substituted mashed potatoes).

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Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper. Place in even layer in slow cooker. Add next 7 ingredients, cover, and cook on low heat until meat is tender, about 8 hours. Using slotted spoon, transfer ribs to serving bowl. Discard parsley and bay leaves. Spoon fat off top of sauce and pour sauce over ribs. Serve with bread.

What are you cooking this week? Let's see by linking below!! ***By the way, I'm posting on Saturday, but feel free to post whenever you can during the week!

***BTW - be sure to stay tuned. I'm going to have a quick "Identify This" contest with prize later this week...

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Can we change subjects for a brief moment? I know we're among gardeners here... I found this guy in my garden this afternoon (in the spot where I need to plant my new fall perennials asap). Any spider experts out there know if this is something I want or don't want in my garden? We don't typically have spiders this...colorful (scary) around here.

Top of spider...

Underside...