OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS

May We Celebrate, For Many Years To Come,
Our Beautiful October Babes: JULIE & JOSH,

WE LOVE YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE, aka: Jumie, Panchita, M'hijita, Jian
10/16

Libra Zodiac Sign
September 23 - October 22
Element: Air
Quality: Cardinal
Ruling Planet: Venus
Symbol: Scales
Keywords: Sociable, Pleasant, Fair, Refined

Libras need balance and harmony. The Libra person is extremely sensitive to his or her environment and does not function properly when surrounded by chaos and disorder. These people are charming and pleasant, possessing a strong disliking for confrontation. Libras often refrain from speaking their mind and have a tendency to say what people want to hear in order to avoid conflict. Libra needs a partner who has good manners, good tastes and a romantic nature.







HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH, aka: Chimey, UA, Wake Up Crying
10/26

Scorpio Zodiac Sign
October 23 - November 21
Element: Water
Quality: Fixed
Ruling Planet: Pluto
Symbol: Scorpion
Keywords: Intense, Focused, Penetrating, Secretive, Possessive

The Scorpio person has a tendency to be reserved and focused. This person is an expert at getting others to reveal their secrets, although he or she rarely opens up to anyone. Scorpios devote 100% of their energy to everything they do and rarely give up. The Scorpio person expects complete loyalty and devotion from a partner. The Scorpio individual needs a partner who is as passionate and willful as he or she is and finds it difficult to respect a person who is weak-willed or passive

The end of the summer....

Hello family,

Couldn't resist sharing a few pictures of the changing seasons....

Our summer flower pots bginning to fade with
the changing season.........

Changing of the "flower guard" in Amy's front
porch pots....

The first snow of the season decorating
our flower pots...

Our backyard neighbors wondering where
summer has gone....

The cold and snow covering the garden and
signaling the end of the growing season....

and finally....we drove Fritz, Estelle, and my
mom to Estes Park last week to hear the Elk
bugling which is my favorite "fall sound" in Colorado.

Love to everyone in our wonderful families!

Greg and Amy

PS----> for those of you who don't know what "polenta" is and would like to know more about polenta..... the following web-link provides some interesting facts. http://www.lifeinitaly.com/food/polenta.asp

The polenta maker machine at work!

La Dolce Vita

Colder temperatures have descended upon Colorado and with their arrival, Fall has disguised herself under a veil of white. We don't claim to be caught unaware. She has teased us a few nights of late.

Because of an abundant supply of hungry and destructive deer, gardening has been somewhat frustrating in years' past. At the end of June, Greg solved our problem by making barriers that have proven to be deer proof! Despite a late start planting and a July hailstorm, we actually harvested some produce this year. Early Saturday, we gathered what remained. Deer do not like herbs, so they have always been a winner. In our memory, a few strawberry rhubarb crisps, in our freezer 20 quarts of sour cherries and still on our taste buds juicy and sweet grapes! I am already looking ahead to next year!

The aroma of Tuscan Stew, made with elk and parsley, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, sage, and mint from the garden filled our home today.
We served the stew with polenta made in my Uncle Amelio's automated copper polenta pot and a glass of chianti. La Dolce Vita

(PS) My nonna's task as a young girl was to make the daily polenta. Her duty was to stand and stir the mixture of cornmeal and water until done. Polenta has a tendency to bubble up in the initial phase of cooking. I think Nona's trademark spot, (my definition) just below the collar bone resulted from a burn that occurred while stirring this traditional Northern Italian staple.

Final Harvest

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." --Aristotle

Before this year, I had never grown a garden. Not even some herbs in the windowsill. After some yard construction and a busy spring Joe and I built three wooden boxes in the front yard and filled them with dirt and some compost we got for free in the Whole Foods parking lot. Besides water, there wasn't much else to do but wait.

Joe has made other posts throughout the summer about the bounty and the progress, and there was much of both. This post, however, is about today.

Three months later, and the frost is upon is. We spent tonight outside in our pajamas in the dark picking the final fruit from the vine. Most of it isn't fully ripe (the ripe ones usually turn into lunch on the same day), but the weather has forced our hand. My mom has given us some instructions on how to ripen our tomatoes inside, we've got a plan for roasted pepper paninis, and I suppose I need to do some research on pickling jalapenos.

This was our first garden. Something about it has made me understand my mother better, Aunt Susie better, people better. It isn't complicated actually. At all. Stacy Johnson told me a few years ago to just plant it and water it.

It's not about being a foodie, a hippie, an organic and local-only yuppie. It's about eating, and realizing that it doesn't take much to grow a plant beyond desire and a good pot.

Next year we will probably do more, earlier. Maybe not more tomatoes? I only bought two plants. I think they were $10 each. Check. It. Out.

Fall Harvest Green Chile

Dad here is my "flora" part...

Picked a lot of chiles from the garden last week to make veggie green chile. Really easy to skin them when they've just been picked.

Fresh Picked

The harvester

Straight to the grill (we did rinse them first)

roasted.. you could already see the skins seperating which makes it 100 times easier.

Steam them in tupperware for 15 minutes so skins seperate more.



After steaming, peel 'em and gut 'em

Meanwhile Julie was inside putting the rest of the recipe together in the dutch oven. I will post this shortly. This is just about done.