Random moments...

Isn't it funny how random moments can set you off on a tangent? Well, I had one of those random moments this morning while I was doing my daily crossword puzzle on MSNBC. The answer was 'quiche lorraine', and it came to me with rather amazing speed, considering how prone I am to not even try to fill in long words unless I have some letters to offer more clues. This was an utter blank page, but it touched some weird thing inside that said "yum, I want some."  I found a recipe, added the ingredients to my shopping list but found that an hour or so later it didn't seem that interesting. As luck would have it, I was hungry at the grocery store and it sounded really, really good.
 

I'm not sure I've ever made Quiche Lorraine before, although I do get some faint little memory whispers that say I probably did.  Once.  A very long time ago. I've made other quiches, but not the quintessential Lorraine, with the bacon (the real thing) and swiss cheese, and not for a very long time. It was also a good opportunity to use the nice red and white pie plate that was a holiday gift from Hartwicks when I worked there 4 or 5 years ago.

I was going to put it off until tomorrow, since I also had a potato salad to make this afternoon. But --- that urge just wouldn't go away and I had the time, so voila! This is dinner, and it was pretty darned tasty. The potato salad wasn't quite as good as I remembered it from Bhavana, but I'm thinking it was operator trouble along with tampering with the recipe at both ends.  It's still pretty good, worth spending most of the afternoon in the kitchen.

A lot of work, in small packages

Got my fall seed order from Territorial Seeds yesterday.  Now, tell me people. Does one person really need all this? As usual, I got carried away. But, small quantities of each will work wonders, and most can also be replanted for spring.

Winter veggies, including fennel and radicchio, among other things.

The state of the garden this morning, under overcast skies. Tomatoes and peppers at the rear left, and aside from the basil and flowers, there's nothing else left in any of those raised beds. I'm still trying to figure out where to plant all these seeds for best use of the space available.

It certainly doesn't feel much like fall around here, but the garden tells the tale.  I pulled the lima beans on Tuesday, after harvesting and shelling most of the dried pods.  The okra and eggplant are long gone. I've about lost interest in the tomatoes, although I'll leave the yellow bell peppers since they're going nuts all of a sudden. I probably won't move the perennial flowers until later in the fall, or pull the basil and marigolds until they die.

So -- work! I need to deal with compost, moving it from the bin into the beds, before I can plant. That's probably the hardest work that needs doing right now and hopefully I can get into that during the upcoming weekend. The weatherguessers are predicting cooler weather, and even some rain, beginning Sunday or Monday! Neither can come too soon.  As you can see in the above photo, most of the grass has turned brown and crispy, and I've been doing a lot of watering to keep what's out there alive.