Brandywine Time

In spite of generally cold and overcast conditions that have defined much of our spring so far, I have gone ahead and prepared a small planting of tomatoes. Here in southwest Missouri we have certainly been blessed with our fair share of rainfall lately. As of the 12^th of April 2008, we have 21.77 inches of rain so far this year. That’s against an average of about twelve inches and has been enough to flood the Bull Shoals River next to my house. It so bad that the small park next to the river is under about twenty feet of water at this time.

A good time to start some seeds, or so I thought. So how about getting some good old tomato seeds planted in a couple of starter pots! The seed I planted this date are a heirloom called Brandywine which I’m sure many folks out there are familiar with. They have won numerous awards over the years and arguably are one of the best tasting tomatoes of all time. You might say what they lack in appearance (it is an ugly looking tomato so don't let the stock picture fool you) are more than made up for in taste. Could there be a moral here somewhere?

My Vegetable Salad Analysis

Later in the growing season, say about July. There is nothing quite like harvesting a bit of lettuce along with whatever else is growing. Once these veggies are combined,  they form a leafy salad that is just chock full of nutrition. Right now, that's just a dream as there is nothing in the garden to harvest at this point in time.

The idea of a fresh salad, however, stuck in my mind and so off to the kitchen I went to throw one together from stuff bought at the local grocery. And, it was at that moment that I got the idea to make an effort to discover just what exactly I was going to eat from a nutritional standpoint. So, digital scale in one hand and veggies in the other I came up with the following. Please note that the Bacon Ranch Dressing I used is from some company called AWG that makes Best Choice products among other things. Click on the picture at right for a better look!

Latin Chicken Recipe

While I'm on a recipe kick, here is a really great dish that looks complicated but is not. I got the original idea from watching a Rachael Ray program on TV. I made a few minor changes of my own and viola a masterpiece is born.

I've made this a number of times for friends and have always gotten rave reviews. The two sauces, one sweet and one spicy really come together nicely. If you do decide to serve this, just be ready with plenty of extra. If someone out there does try this, please let me know what you think. I would also be interested in any variations that might be out there.