Green Shoots and Comfort Food

Green Shoots and Comfort Food

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2

Week 14: April 9, 2022

We are expecting snow tonight, but summer reigns in the greenhouse and green shoots are appearing, as if by magic, in pots and trays of soil-filled cells . This week saw new life in the form of Red Gem and Kilimanjaro White marigolds, Whirligig zinnias, Candy Pink morning glories, Watermelon Heaven California poppies, Mayo Bule gourds, bitter melon, Echinacea purpurea, Nigella, and Cameo Joy four o’clocks. (Thank you, Donna Sullivan Smith, Miss Magnolias Moxie, for the echinacea seeds!)

Mismatched is beautiful, when you’re a dedicated thrifter! When we moved to Chocolate Box Cottage four years ago, a friend gave me a gorgeous hanging basket geranium, a coveted Martha Washington, with two colors of red/pink blooms. The next year I took cuttings and created two “new” plants using secondhand hanging baskets. All spring/summer/fall our front porch will be ablaze with blooms and my only cost was potting soil.

Comfort Food

Comfort food means something unique to each of us. Certain tastes and smells will always symbolize security, contentment, and well-being. If you have been diagnosed with a health condition, you may find yourself needing to redefine comfort food. Instead of an indulgent food that extracts a physical toll on your well-being, consider what food, or better yet what meal, makes you feel *well* instead of merely *good.*

I’ll share pictures of three of our favorite comfort meals, and would like to hear what your top three comfort meals are. Please share in the comments!

I grew up eating Kase Knoephla, Cheese Button Soup, a German-from-Russia ethnic specialty. Handmade noodle dough is rolled thin and filled, ravioli-style, with cottage cheese and herbs. Mmm! Homemade chicken broth is a must for this. I make and freeze large batches of kase knoephla, enabling me to pull off a quick comfort food meal on a whim.

One of our very favorite comfort meals is whole poached chicken. I roast a tray of root veggies in the oven, cook a pot of brown rice, and add greens. Serve it all in a bowl and slurp it up. Enough food to eat for days!

Pizza made with thin sourdough spelt crust, topped with homemade basil pesto from the freezer, and uncured ham. Another favorite comfort meal.

Check my Recipe Box for more delicious ideas!

Spring Project: Refill the Wood Shed

One load of firewood down, several to go, depending on how much more wood we use before summer.

Locating a pitch stump is like finding treasure. Split into slivers, it can coax a fire along more quickly. Sam often refers to it as “trade wood,” because when he was a boy it was valued as a commodity for trading with friends and neighbors.

Life on the Pond

We have two breeds of ducks, and funnily enough, they take turns using the pond. These are the Indian Runners; one drake and two hens.

Ever since we’ve been married, Sam has occasionally brought me a small bunch of wildflowers when his work as a graderman takes him to mountains and meadows in the spring.

He puts the stems in his travel coffee cup with water and keeps them in his lunch cooler to keep them fresh. I trim the ends of the stems even and stick them right into a small vase, in this case a thrifted cut glass pitcher, without arranging. They’re beautiful as is.

This is something I am learning, albeit s l o w l y, to enjoy the beauty in things “as is.”

I hope you are enjoying things “as is,” too. And don’t forget, I’d like to hear about your top 3 favorite comfort meals.

Thanks for visiting!

Blessings,

🌸🏡🌸Michele