Shiny new pot rack (Day 26), originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

We are hosting some folks for Thanksgiving tomorrow and then we also have a couple of friends staying with us for a few days after that. We also just hit one year in this house (!). All of these things are conspiring to urge us to finish some projects that have been languishing for a while now. My sewing machine came out so I could sew some shower curtains, for example, and today G. put up the pot rack he made a couple weeks ago in welding class (which was his Xmas present from me).

The pretty garlic braid is from Laughing Crow Farm!

We had cancelled our veggie box over the summer, due to farmer’s markets and our own garden, but then we had this awkwardly-timed move. We moved in much too late to plant any fall crops at all, and too late for much of anything that is supposed to over-winter, except garlic, which we planted the first weekend we were here. So we restarted the veggie box, even though they keep wanting to send us totally non-winter things like avocados and bananas. It’s time for KALE, people. Kale, and broccoli, and cauliflower, and more kale.

And squash! Which was tonight’s dinner:

with steak from my pals at Skagit River Ranch. I started from a recipe for the squash, but modified it thusly:

• Combine oil and butter in a saucepan to melt the butter. Add some dried ground thyme and some crushed garlic cloves to this, which will add garlic flavor as the fats heat.
• Drizzle the leftover fats (and garlic) over the rings before putting in the oven.

Very tasty. My mom would be proud. I’ve come a long way since the time I held a bite of squash in my mouth for so long that it made me gag and I had to spit it out in the toilet, and she thought I had actually thrown it up and she never made me eat squash again. Now I am planning to grow several different varieties!

PS My house is awesome!!!

(Song: “Flat-chested Girl from Maynardville,” Bobby Bare Jr.)