What beauty do you see in your immediate surroundings?

weeds can be very colourful and delightful in their wildness… hmm a metaphor for life?

Asters!  Those are asters, please don't confuse them with weeds, they are some of my favorites.  We have a wild variety in Georgia that blanket the country roadsides in the Fall of the year.  These and the Joe Pye weed beginning to bloom are the first signs that cycle is still rolling onwards and that the leaves will soon be flying.  We call them frost flowers and we won't see them for another 6 weeks or so.  Exciting!

I thought they be Mums, but Sandi knows her flowers… I think Nicole and Laurie where referring to the weeds around them… 
And yes a metaphor for life in the chaos is a an island of cohesion. Beauty among the broken… 
Laurie, thank you for surrounding us with beauty this morning! 

I am Love, Jeff

MMmm….:) !  Fried green tomatoes!  We've been running about 10 degrees below normal here, which is thrilling for us, September brings no relief from the heat as a rule.  This is the season for peppers and okra, the hot, dry weather seems to push them to fulfill their biological duty to be fruitful.  Have you ever had pickled green tomatoes?  They are wicked good.  Pickled with peppers and onions, or by themselves with brine.  Wintertime Sunshine!

Yes, Nicole weeds can be very colorful and delightful in their wildness and yes it is a good metaphor for life.  One person's weed is another person's flower.  I'm sure that some people see  me as a weed but ofcourse they may not see the beauty in me.  God sees me as I am and she is delighted with me.

I think beauty surrounds you everywhere you go Laurie.

I don't mind a little weed every now and then!

Laurie, you know how things just happen?  I was doing some cleaning out of papers and things this afternoon, that were in a box that was stored under my bed so I hadn't seen them or gone through them in a while.  I found this recipe my aunt gave me 4 or 5 years ago and have been looking for ever since. 

                              GREEN TOMATO CHOW-CHOW
     12 large onions
     12 sweet bell peppers
     1 large head cabbage
     1/2 gallon chopped green tomatoes
     hot peppers to taste
Combine all ingredients and sprinkle with handful of salt.  Mix and let stand 2 hours.  Place in colander and press out liquid.  Add the following ingredients;
     1/2 gallon of vinegar
     5 cups sugar
     2 teaspoons white mustard seed
     2 teaspoons celery seed
     2 teaspoons dry mustard
 Simmer for 30 minutes or until tender.  Put in hot, sterile jars and seal. 
This used to be a long process, chopping cabbage and peppers and onions.  These days I use my food processor, they used a sausage grinder for the fresh hot peppers.
I'll see if I can find a written recipe for the pickles, I just make them from memory.  I can't believe how this just turned up.

Yum… This is good enough to advertise in the back of a magazine to sell.  There is something about a recipe put on a piece of paper tucked under the bed.  It just has to taste good.  I am going to print it - give it to my wife to prepare after I bring her the veggies from the garden. We should do a Gaia Cookbook!  Gather up those food gems…yours & Laurie's Butternut Squash Risotto – there are the first two pages. Thanks for this.

Last night I had fresh Cream Zipper peas and cornbread for supper, with a big spoonful of a similar Chow-Chow on the side.  It sure adds zip!

I love fried green tomatoes & green tomato relish and am going to try this one too.  I love recipes from others more than just a book in my kitchen. Now we need to know how to make Cream Zipper. I hadn't heard of this as food… So you can imagine my viewpoint on the word zipper :-) hmmmm… I better find out quickly.

Hi, Laurie, and I'll include ~Kes here, I need to get y'all straight on Cream Zipper peas.  I suppose if I didn't already know for a hundred years what they are, I'd make a funny face too.  'scuse me, I'm laughing.  Cream Zippers are a variety of field or Crowder peas.  You've heard of Black-eyed peas (great music! ), well, there are a lot of different kinds of field peas as opposed to green or English peas.  There are purple-hull, pink-eyed, and Lord only knows what-all kind of peas out there, but Cream Zippers take home the prize.  They have large peas that are creamy smooth in texture when eaten,  they are cream-colored when fully ripe, the hull or shells are very long, about 10” and when they turn a creamy, vanilla color they are ready to go.  What makes them such a favorite is that when shelling they go zip! and jump right out without a struggle on the sheller's part.  You get through a bucketful in no time and that's always a bonus.  They taste like, oh, I don't know, they make you glad you've got a mouth.  Serve them up with hot cornbread, chow-chow, and sliced tomatoes and you are set.  I believe the word is supreme satisfaction, yes, that would be it.