I love carrots any which way. Here's a couple recipes to add. CARROTS WITH FLAIR 1/3 cup chopped onion ½ cup mayo 2 Tbsp. horseradish 1/8 tsp pepper 1 slice whole wheat bread ½ Tbsp. butter Paprika Peel and julienne carrots. Place in microwave dish and add 1 cup water. Cover and cook in microwave approx. 5 minutes or until tender. Drain, reserving ¼ cup liquid. Place carrots in a shallow 1 ½ qt casserole coated with no stick spray. Combine reserved carrot liquid, onion, mayo, horseradish, and pepper. Spoon over top of carrots. Place bread in food processor until turns into crumbs. Stir in butter and sprinkle over top of carrots. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake, uncovered, 15 to 20 minutes. Yield: 6 servings Louisiana Kitchen This is from a German Baptist cookbook. HavenÂt found any recipes I wouldnÂt try again. Very short instructions, however. CARROT CASSEROLE (Very, Very Good) 12 carrots, sliced, cooked 3 cups buttered bread crumbs ½ lb. grated cheese Sauce: 1 chopped onion 2 cups milk ¼ cup margarine (butter) ¼ cup flour dasg of pepper dash of celery salt 1 tsp. salt 1 ¼ tsp. dry mustard Arrange layers of carrots, cheese and crumbs twice. Pour sauce over and sprinkle with crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

This one was on the table at a book club potluck last week. Everyone raved and wanted the recipe. I'm going to cross post in new recipes. Zucchini Pickles - Heidi Swanson, 100 Cookbooks There are quite a number of ways to play around with the personality of these pickles. Sometimes I shave the zucchini paper-thin, resulting in a whispy tangle of pickled zucchini and onions. Other times I want my pickles to have a bit more bite, structure, and definition. In those instances, I slice the zucchini thicker, perhaps 1/8-inch, and let them drain as long as possible, sometimes overnight refrigerated. Also worth noting, when I make them for our personal condiment stash, I used a brown natural cane sugar. It gives the pickle liquid a brownish cast that, quite frankly, weirds people out if they don't know what is causing it. So, if I'm making the pickles to bring to a BBQ or something, I'll make them with regular organic cane sugar - one that is lighter in color.
 3 medium zucchini (1 pound / 16 oz / 450 g), thinly sliced
 1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
 3 shallots, thinly sliced 1 1/2 tablespoons fine grain sea salt 
1/4 cup (small handful) fresh dill sprigs 1 small fresh red chile pepper, very thinly sliced 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds 3/4 cup / 180 ml cider vinegar
 3/4 cup / 180 ml white wine vinegar
 1/3 cup / 1.75 oz / 50g natural cane sugar 
Toss the zucchini, onion, shallots, and salt together in a colander and place over a bowl to catch the liquids. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least a couple hours. Toss once or twice along the way. You're aiming to get as much liquid out of the zucchini as possible.

When you're finished draining the zucchini, shake off any water. At this point you want the zucchini as dry as possible. Place in a 1 liter / 1 quart jar along with the dill, chile pepper, and mustard seeds. Alternately, you can cram them into a 3/4 liter Weck jar like I do, but it's always a bit snug in the jar. Combine the ciders and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and continue to boil for a few minutes. Pour the liquid over the zucchini and seal the jar. Let cool, then refrigerate. The pickles are good for a week or so. 

Makes one large jar. Prep time: 120 min - Cook time: 5 min Here is a link that might be useful: Quick pickled zucchini

For three days now, I have been seeing a rather large spider crawling across the top shelf of my computer desk. I haven't tried to catch it to put it outside, because grabbing among all the stuff on the shelf would result in a disaster. It must be difficult to go through life fearful of bugs, spiders, snakes, etc. I don't have that fear, in fact for the most part I find them fascinating, and in the case of spiders, when practical, adopt a live and let live attitude. My mother was the same, as is my sister and my children. But in my husbands family, they all are more fearful. So I am wondering if a persons feelings about such things are inherited or perhaps learned.

I love making soil. I love it even more when someone else is doing most of the work for me. I'm itching to start some spring planting in my tiny garden, but it's technically still a bit early (our last frost date is supposed to be around the 18th or so, but these days who even knows) and I'm impatiently waiting for the contractors to show up and replace my rotted fence before I can do any planting in the back half where the pile of rock mulch over weed cloth used to be. The fence would have rotted anyway, but the bottom of it was completely eaten away where the rock mulch was piled against it. I have already put down a tiny new tree (Amelanchier x "Autumn Brilliance") which arrived bare root and needed to go in the ground ASAP, but it's not next to the fence, so it should be fine as long as the fence guys don't step on the 18 inch high forked stick which, seen with my eye of faith, is already a handsome small patio tree. The tree went in the spot where the old, scrawny, unhealthy cherry plum used to be, where I have been piling vermicompost and leaves ever since last summer. I didn't amend the planting hole at all - just dug and filled in. Enough leaf mold and vermicompost just fell into the hole to make me feel fine about the start my new tree's roots are getting. Anyway, the "someone else" who is working for me outside is a healthy passel of earthworms, which I can see out there every time I pull back last autumn's leaf mulch, which I diligently collected from the sidewalk in front of my row house and brought out back. Even if I can't set to work yet, I like knowing that they're hard at it. I've seen some of my red wigglers who rode out from my indoor worm bin, and at least three separate species of native earthworms: slow gray short guys, some really huge red nightcrawler types, and a longer, thinner, super-active wiggly worm that's new to me. I've also scattered out some seeds and grains for the sparrows and squirrels, inspired by some videos of composting chickens I've watched on Youtube: so there's been lots of pecking and scratching and digging going on in the layer of leaves, which is both fun to watch and will serve to further shred down the leaves for incorporation in the soil. When I do get to the planting along the back fence, I'll try to remember to post a soil pic as a "before and after" to the one at the start of this topic.