The gardening and cooking blog

"Pea gravel gives the rose garden an air of formality, doesn't it?", I asked my studio roomate as she looked out at our 6'X12' patch by the alley. The older rose bush and the new one are now ringed with pale pebbles. "Oh, yes.", she confirmed. "They look quite deliberate." At eighteen dollars a ton, I could cover all my yards with pea gravel and be done with gardening forever. I only wanted a gallon or so to try cementing onto flowerpots but the least amount the lumberyard would sell me came in a 25 pound pizza dough sack (about three feet tall) that was loaded directly into the back of my van for me. It cost three dollars. Good thing I keep a hand truck in the van. And then after raking up around the dentistry, I went to get mulch and ran into Kate at the grocery store. "I always like to read about what you're cooking on your blog!", she told me in the vegetable department. "Leeks and potatos are on sale.", I said. Then I took them home and made a couple gallons of soup, sauteeing chopped mushrooms with the leek bits in olive oil before adding chicken stock, diced white taters, a sprig of dill and a smatter of pepper. Boil good, then simmer till the chunks fall apart. My mother made potato soup with milk, very thick like liquid mashed potatos, and I ate tankers of it. But! While I've adjusted the recipe to my more adult and less lactose tolerant tastes, I make enough to freeze in pints for cold and rainy afternoons, too. It's good with a multi-grain baguette sliced open, spread with garlic butter and browned in the broiler.