December Update

Remember my post here about planning to plant sweet pea seeds? Well, I still haven't accomplished that and now it's not October or November, it's (dare I say it?) December. Between that and my lack of holiday-ready gifts, I'm not doing so hot. And if you count today, there's only 15 days till Christmas!

The weather is accomodating the feeling of fall into winter with overcast skies and temperatures in the 50's F (10C) or lower at night and 60's (15.5C) to low 70's F (21.5C) during the day. The sky leaks (drizzles) about once every week or so which adds to the winter effect. In fact, it's just cold enough to make me not want to do any fall/winter garden prep (or in my case potted plant garden prep) which I really need to do. All the pots with dead plants need to be dumped in the side garden (the dirt that is) so I can clean and bleach the pots for storage until spring. The pots of geraniums need to be cut way back because they're all long and leggy sticks...not attractive. And actually all the geranium pots which I planted over 7 years ago need to be dumped out, roots trimmed as well as tops cut back and put in new potting soil; something I should have done in October. It's too late for that kind of treatment now, the plants wouldn't make it, so they'll have to wait for late February for the full "spa" treatment. At that time too, I'll take cuttings and root them to refresh some of the super woody geraniums.

Today, I cleaned out the fridge. As a result, I now have the urge to make a quiche with the broccoli that I forgot about before it spoils. I've found several recipes I like, here and here and here and here and here. I'm pretty sure I'll go with quiche and not a frittata. For the crust I'll use my super easy pie dough recipe. There's also a few boneless chicken breasts that I need to use up. Those I'll probably bake with some of my LA/LA seasoning. They may then be used when replicating Trader Joe's Wine Country Chicken salad that I previously posted about here. You know, for someone who cooks for only one, I really do get carried away in the kitchen.