Oh joke! I pulled out my Fannie, looking for the page with brownie recipe--went twice through every page in the "Cookies, Cooky Bars and Small Cakes" section--where on earth is it? Well....tucked in at the back of the book, because it had worn out its relationship with the binding (this was the first cookbook I bought, when I was a college sophomore in 1969). I don't even look at the recipe any longer, and usually double the amount, using a 9 x 13. Here I have diligently copied the instructions without resorting to abbreviation lest you not get the real deal, as later or earlier editions may have changed quantities. Only in doing this, do I notice the instructions about lining the pan--which I have never done (and wouldn't want melted paraffin in my diet anyway--would instead use parchment paper, but I do not.) Butter a shallow pan 9 x 9 inches. Line the bottom with wax paper cut to fit. Butter the paper. Set the oven to 325. 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, 1/4 c butter or margarine (Stir over hot water or low heat untll melted. Remove from the heat. Stir in: 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, unbeaten, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup pastry or all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup walnut meats, cut in pieces. 1 teaspoon vanilla. Spread in the pan. Bake until dry on top and almost firm to the touch (30-35 minutes). Turn upside down on a cake cooler (have never done this--we just cut from the pan) Cool, Peel off the paper, cut in squares Makes 16. Edit--just looked at your Saveur, see it is my customary doubled amount, but the vanilla is not doubled which I think a bad idea. Also, no mention made of using pastry flour. Since I bake with King Arthur (red bag), which is a very strong flour, I make "pastry flour" for muffins and brownies and pie crust by replacing 2 Tb of flour with 2 Tb of cornstarch in every cup of flour. I also almost never use the nuts as husband does not appreciate them, and I bake these for his delight.
A further edit--took down my 1909 edition of Boston Cooking School Cookbook--1 c sugar, 1/4 c melted butter, 1 egg unbeaten, 2 squares Baker's chocolate, melted, 3/4 teaspoon vanilla [so proportionally more], 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup walnut meats cut in pieces. Mix ingredients in order given...a 7" pan, lined with paraffine [sic] paper. Spread mixture evenly in pan and bake in a slow oven. As soon as taken from oven turn from pan, remove paper, and cut cake in strips, using a sharp knife. If these directions are not followed paper will cling to cake, and it will be impossible to cut it in shapely pieces.
I’m sorry to laugh at your cooking and digestion misadventures, but….😂🤣😂
Seriously, though, your story reminds me of the time when, just a few months after we were married, I decided to make a beef roast dinner for my husband, who was a meat and taters kind of guy (still is). The roast didn’t turn out so tender (I used an inexpensive cut meant for braising, not roasting) so I put it in my new, wedding gift blender with a little beef broth. You can just imagine what that looked like. Ever hear of SOS? Military chow term. Even garnishing didn’t make it look appetizing.
It took a moment, but I know to what you are referring. Air Force brat here. Sounds delightful. My housemate did something with a chuck roast that never would have entered my mind, and we ate it anyway. It tasted much better than it looked.
Air Force brat here too. Yes, you’re right about the taste trumping the appearance. I told my husband, now just close your eyes, chew, and swallow. It’s not so bad! Haha!
I am pretty sure I read yeeears ago that both Bakers Chocolate people and King Arthur are both in Prison. You did not know that? Something about those crazy people making up recipes
The potatos and heavy cream sounds delish but would probably sour my stomach.
I make a lot of eating mistakes now that I am in my 60's
I have not made bread in ages. I have not made much from scratch either, not bc I can't I just do not have time. I baked a Mrs Smiths Apple pie last Friday and hubbs and I ate the whole thing in two days.
now I kind of bake just in small bits or hubbs and especially me will eat too much and I get a belly ache. Remind me to talk poop later, your adventure made me scream with laughter
Anyway,
#1: buy bags of Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix. Get two for example
haul out the electric mixer and pour the two bags in. add only one tablespoon of self rising flour, and mix according to directions, then add two table spoons more of water (than instructed)
mix like mad. dump the ball into a plastic container and put in the fridge
When you are peppy, get the bowl out, next day, and use a spoon to make table spoon size balls and lay them on a large plate (that will fit in your freezer) keep making the balls until you are out of dough hahahah. Put the plate or plates of dough in the freezer. get some quart size zippy bags and label them quickie cookies bake 350 degrees for 15 min or more
Now here is the important part.
First mark several bags for multiple manageable bags to freeze. hours later remove frozen balls from freezer and fill the bags with the frozen balls. put them in the freezer.
When you have an urge to eat massive amounts of cookies, just take a reasonalbe amount out, place on cookie sheet, still frozen, put in oven, then preheat the oven and put the tray in the oven while it is preheating, baking should take about 25 minutes part thawing and baking. by then the cookies are ready to eat, stuff yourselves until there are no more baked cookies. Be glad you only made 8 instead of the entire package.
or get the yeast rolls and use two rolls (because why have only one roll?) to thaw and make one roll.
I had a third recipe but my brain forgot it
regarding pooping.
Kitty Miles is pooping. I believe he was dx with lymphoma recently so hubbs and I do not know what to do about that yet. Keeping him on pepcid and low dose prednisone is okay for now. Ugh, hard decisions. So far he keeps it in his box but sometimes it spills over,. My whole house smells like poop,
I get the poops from stress and anxiety and have had loads of the latter recently.
I never used to get the poops. Never.
I messaged my NP and asked her for a Rx for CT scan of my pipes.
I have that, but funny thing as soon as the printable came in the email, the poops stopped. Still I am gonna get that done. The pooping is the worst. It is usually something I ate, but lately it has been anxiety. I am sick of tests.
seriously though, I do not know who made up those recipes. bread flour is important, I do not know why but they must do something to it to make it submit to being made into bread.
This was really fun to read. Just my kind of thinking hahahahahahaa
Sorry to hear about Kitty Miles. I figure coodle Rusty will always be what he is until his last day on Earth. Now I know why Rusty was returned to the local cat shelter (twice!). No one could deal with his floor pooping and self mutilation (he wants to be a poodle, hates the hair on his leggies). I will not return Rusty to the cat shelter. God sent him to me and my sister.
"I am pretty sure I read yeeears ago that both Bakers Chocolate people and King Arthur are both in Prison. You did not know that? Something about those crazy people making up recipes."
I laughed at this ^^^^^^
I swear they make up recipes. I noticed my new Bakers Chocolate box does not have their "One Bowl Brownie" recipe on the back like they normally do. I swear it is not me, but maybe it is. Thanks for the cookie recipe. I should make a lot of cookie dough and freeze it and cook it when I want cookies. Saves on doing dishes.
it is my greatest invention Just remember not to thaw the cookie balls before baking. stick those frozen balls right on the pan and into the oven. the pre heat helps thaw and then bake without the oily mess
walking in Target looking for the biggest pads they make (like couches for barbie) while trying to just hold it in, but feeling some evidence,. just wanting to leave.
that was two years ago, now we just get walmart delivery
What a crack up!! The older I get the more I dislike cooking and baking because of the changes in our foods. Old recipes don't seem to work for me either and then I no longer have my sense of taste and smell so that's depressing to try to cook without having any way to do a taste test. My hubs will still ask me if I like my food. We went out for our anniversary to eat and sure enough he asked me if my fish tasted good. I gave him the evil eye until he realized again that I haven't had any ability of taste or smell for four years!!
That is terrible about your loss of taste and smell. When I supposedly had the covid bioweapon in April 2022, I lost my sense of taste and smell for five days. I put my head directly over Rusty's cat box and smelled nothing. Each day I would purposely smell strong things like candles and Vicks Vaporub. Eventually my smell and taste came back, although now a lot of food and odors smell/taste like cat piss. Or maybe I am around Rusty too much obsessing about his pooping, peeing and cat box.
I woke up this morning at my mom's house and smelled cat piss after making the coffee. No cat here. And mom and I are piss-free. I swear it's the coffee.
It's good news to hear that you got your sense of taste and smell back. I have tried essential oils that were supposed to help, herbs, tobacco patches that made me feel nauseous and now I just figure this is my lot in life for now. Luckily my cat named Kitty is mostly feral so he sleeps during the day in our house and then leaves around 5pm to go out chasing buffalo somewhere all night. I like his idea of using the outdoors for his buisness.
I wish Kitty would send Rusty a memo about outdoor business. Rusty will be outside for an hour, come in and immediately use the box. He's the weirdest cat I've ever had.
Yes, cats are mysterious creatures. They think that the house is theirs and us humans are here to provide food and comfort and they are so picky about it.
I think that I must have had a very slight case of Covid. We were busy moving from one state to another and on our 2nd day of traveling I came to the realization that I couldn't taste or smell anything. It was during rag weed season so I just thought it was my allergies. I am just greatful that I have good health in spite of loosing my sense of taste and smell.
I believe the covid bioweapon has snake poison in it. I believe it is that poison which caused many people's loss of taste and smell (unlike the normal loss of taste and smell from a stuffed up nose). No one really talks about how to get back taste and smell from the covid bioweapon. Evil. Truly evil.
As long as I've been alive, approaching 74 years, losing one's sense of smell to congestion and then losing one's sense of taste to that has been a thing. I don't think anyone ever worried much about it until now. Sure, there might be something special going on -- hard to say what -- but there might also not be.
Ragweed season has arrived here. I'm OK if I stay indoors with all the air cleaners going, but we didn't stay home today and the wind has been blowing like crazy. It's sneezing fit weather (which can lead to poop control problems). Our church had a fallen tree. The wind started cold, turned hot, and kept blowing, part of the new normal for May, I guess. At least there have been no spring tornadoes here since 2014, so far.
I truly believe the jet fuel they use now is poison. When contrails/chemtrails criss cross the sky and I'm outside all day I feel like crap the next day with a stuffed up nose, and headache. I know it's not allergies because I've never had allergies.
The fuel might be worse now, although jets have never been "good for the planet". War technology poison adapted for consumer use. I'm playing around with flightradar24 to get a better understanding, and during the day the skies are just jammed with these things. That's thin air up there being pumped full of jet exhaust. Have you ever been caught behind one on the ground? I have, in my Air Force brat days. Not something you want to hear, let alone breathe. But jet airliners are so convenient.
We've had the sprayed crud plus seasonal pollen plus high winds. Perfect reason to stay inside and breath heavily filtered air. But I have choir practice tonight. The prolonged sneezing fits do seem to help, though.
The trip out yesterday was for small group and errands. I fixed my ATM card after two years not working -- a leftover from 2021 when I hardly drove at all and didn't need to buy gas but once.
Very small group. Tiny group now. The more to-the-point the sermons become, the less interest. Interesting how that works. I'm actually kind of shocked, and I don't shock easily. Not anymore.
As Jesus once said to his apostles after His to-the-point sermon drove away multitudes of followers: "are you going to leave me too?" We must always remember what Peter replied: "but where shall we go, You have the words of eternal life."
We are in the tornado season here in Missouri. The past few weeks have been stormy with tornado warnings and sirens going off several evenings even though we could tell we were not in eminent danger. We were in a drought but have received 9 inches of rain so far and the gardens are looking happy!! Hopefully we will have some vegetables later on in the summer. I am also planting various medicinal herbs.
I've been reading about Midwest weather. I've also lived out your way a couple of times, and I have relatives still in Missouri and Kentucky (the latter closer ones seem to have fled Illinois, for some reason, and migrated back to where they came from).
My family eventually settled in Northern California for a reason, and not for the tomatoes, even though when I moved back here to stay in 1968, from Illinois, just over the river from St. Louis, this place was known there as the Land of Fruits and Nuts (I know, I know). They weren't referring to tomatoes either. And a few of those folks are still my friends.
We have a vegetable garden, with tomatoes just going in (we thought it was spring). Everybody who can probably should be growing something. The medicinal herbs sound like a good idea! We haven't had any herbs growing for a while now.
My father had his vegetable garden later on while he still lived here. He grew up on a farm and had been a 4Her in high school, but then had changed directions from farmer to fighter pilot when he graduated during WWII. Gophers loved his garden, but one of them soon discovered the hard way what happens when you raid the garden of a retired military officer who is an excellent rifle shot from the balcony of his house. One gopher, one bullet. No ShotSpotters back then (early 70s).
I am going light on the veggies at the moment, while recovering from something not entirely unlike what Pug just went through.
Eesh! And poor you! And Fannie Farmer's (Boston Cooking School) brownie recipe hasn't failed me in 60+ years.
Is this it?: https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Boston-Cooking-School-Brownies/
I'll try it out because someday we have to find a brownie recipe that works. Thanks!
Oh joke! I pulled out my Fannie, looking for the page with brownie recipe--went twice through every page in the "Cookies, Cooky Bars and Small Cakes" section--where on earth is it? Well....tucked in at the back of the book, because it had worn out its relationship with the binding (this was the first cookbook I bought, when I was a college sophomore in 1969). I don't even look at the recipe any longer, and usually double the amount, using a 9 x 13. Here I have diligently copied the instructions without resorting to abbreviation lest you not get the real deal, as later or earlier editions may have changed quantities. Only in doing this, do I notice the instructions about lining the pan--which I have never done (and wouldn't want melted paraffin in my diet anyway--would instead use parchment paper, but I do not.) Butter a shallow pan 9 x 9 inches. Line the bottom with wax paper cut to fit. Butter the paper. Set the oven to 325. 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, 1/4 c butter or margarine (Stir over hot water or low heat untll melted. Remove from the heat. Stir in: 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, unbeaten, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup pastry or all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup walnut meats, cut in pieces. 1 teaspoon vanilla. Spread in the pan. Bake until dry on top and almost firm to the touch (30-35 minutes). Turn upside down on a cake cooler (have never done this--we just cut from the pan) Cool, Peel off the paper, cut in squares Makes 16. Edit--just looked at your Saveur, see it is my customary doubled amount, but the vanilla is not doubled which I think a bad idea. Also, no mention made of using pastry flour. Since I bake with King Arthur (red bag), which is a very strong flour, I make "pastry flour" for muffins and brownies and pie crust by replacing 2 Tb of flour with 2 Tb of cornstarch in every cup of flour. I also almost never use the nuts as husband does not appreciate them, and I bake these for his delight.
A further edit--took down my 1909 edition of Boston Cooking School Cookbook--1 c sugar, 1/4 c melted butter, 1 egg unbeaten, 2 squares Baker's chocolate, melted, 3/4 teaspoon vanilla [so proportionally more], 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup walnut meats cut in pieces. Mix ingredients in order given...a 7" pan, lined with paraffine [sic] paper. Spread mixture evenly in pan and bake in a slow oven. As soon as taken from oven turn from pan, remove paper, and cut cake in strips, using a sharp knife. If these directions are not followed paper will cling to cake, and it will be impossible to cut it in shapely pieces.
Thank you for that! The not-unrelated problems I have been having for some days now seem mild in comparison.
I’m sorry to laugh at your cooking and digestion misadventures, but….😂🤣😂
Seriously, though, your story reminds me of the time when, just a few months after we were married, I decided to make a beef roast dinner for my husband, who was a meat and taters kind of guy (still is). The roast didn’t turn out so tender (I used an inexpensive cut meant for braising, not roasting) so I put it in my new, wedding gift blender with a little beef broth. You can just imagine what that looked like. Ever hear of SOS? Military chow term. Even garnishing didn’t make it look appetizing.
Meat in a blender LOL! Beautiful!
I have to laugh at my misadventures, or I will cry. I prefer to laugh, it is more fun.
It took a moment, but I know to what you are referring. Air Force brat here. Sounds delightful. My housemate did something with a chuck roast that never would have entered my mind, and we ate it anyway. It tasted much better than it looked.
Air Force brat here too. Yes, you’re right about the taste trumping the appearance. I told my husband, now just close your eyes, chew, and swallow. It’s not so bad! Haha!
I am pretty sure I read yeeears ago that both Bakers Chocolate people and King Arthur are both in Prison. You did not know that? Something about those crazy people making up recipes
The potatos and heavy cream sounds delish but would probably sour my stomach.
I make a lot of eating mistakes now that I am in my 60's
I have not made bread in ages. I have not made much from scratch either, not bc I can't I just do not have time. I baked a Mrs Smiths Apple pie last Friday and hubbs and I ate the whole thing in two days.
now I kind of bake just in small bits or hubbs and especially me will eat too much and I get a belly ache. Remind me to talk poop later, your adventure made me scream with laughter
Anyway,
#1: buy bags of Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix. Get two for example
haul out the electric mixer and pour the two bags in. add only one tablespoon of self rising flour, and mix according to directions, then add two table spoons more of water (than instructed)
mix like mad. dump the ball into a plastic container and put in the fridge
When you are peppy, get the bowl out, next day, and use a spoon to make table spoon size balls and lay them on a large plate (that will fit in your freezer) keep making the balls until you are out of dough hahahah. Put the plate or plates of dough in the freezer. get some quart size zippy bags and label them quickie cookies bake 350 degrees for 15 min or more
Now here is the important part.
First mark several bags for multiple manageable bags to freeze. hours later remove frozen balls from freezer and fill the bags with the frozen balls. put them in the freezer.
When you have an urge to eat massive amounts of cookies, just take a reasonalbe amount out, place on cookie sheet, still frozen, put in oven, then preheat the oven and put the tray in the oven while it is preheating, baking should take about 25 minutes part thawing and baking. by then the cookies are ready to eat, stuff yourselves until there are no more baked cookies. Be glad you only made 8 instead of the entire package.
#2 or you can make this: https://www.nelliebellie.com/3-ingredient-quick-cinnamon-rolls/
or get the yeast rolls and use two rolls (because why have only one roll?) to thaw and make one roll.
I had a third recipe but my brain forgot it
regarding pooping.
Kitty Miles is pooping. I believe he was dx with lymphoma recently so hubbs and I do not know what to do about that yet. Keeping him on pepcid and low dose prednisone is okay for now. Ugh, hard decisions. So far he keeps it in his box but sometimes it spills over,. My whole house smells like poop,
I get the poops from stress and anxiety and have had loads of the latter recently.
I never used to get the poops. Never.
I messaged my NP and asked her for a Rx for CT scan of my pipes.
I have that, but funny thing as soon as the printable came in the email, the poops stopped. Still I am gonna get that done. The pooping is the worst. It is usually something I ate, but lately it has been anxiety. I am sick of tests.
seriously though, I do not know who made up those recipes. bread flour is important, I do not know why but they must do something to it to make it submit to being made into bread.
This was really fun to read. Just my kind of thinking hahahahahahaa
Sorry to hear about Kitty Miles. I figure coodle Rusty will always be what he is until his last day on Earth. Now I know why Rusty was returned to the local cat shelter (twice!). No one could deal with his floor pooping and self mutilation (he wants to be a poodle, hates the hair on his leggies). I will not return Rusty to the cat shelter. God sent him to me and my sister.
"I am pretty sure I read yeeears ago that both Bakers Chocolate people and King Arthur are both in Prison. You did not know that? Something about those crazy people making up recipes."
I laughed at this ^^^^^^
I swear they make up recipes. I noticed my new Bakers Chocolate box does not have their "One Bowl Brownie" recipe on the back like they normally do. I swear it is not me, but maybe it is. Thanks for the cookie recipe. I should make a lot of cookie dough and freeze it and cook it when I want cookies. Saves on doing dishes.
it is my greatest invention Just remember not to thaw the cookie balls before baking. stick those frozen balls right on the pan and into the oven. the pre heat helps thaw and then bake without the oily mess
Oh and I do have some poop stories.
walking in Target looking for the biggest pads they make (like couches for barbie) while trying to just hold it in, but feeling some evidence,. just wanting to leave.
that was two years ago, now we just get walmart delivery
What a crack up!! The older I get the more I dislike cooking and baking because of the changes in our foods. Old recipes don't seem to work for me either and then I no longer have my sense of taste and smell so that's depressing to try to cook without having any way to do a taste test. My hubs will still ask me if I like my food. We went out for our anniversary to eat and sure enough he asked me if my fish tasted good. I gave him the evil eye until he realized again that I haven't had any ability of taste or smell for four years!!
That is terrible about your loss of taste and smell. When I supposedly had the covid bioweapon in April 2022, I lost my sense of taste and smell for five days. I put my head directly over Rusty's cat box and smelled nothing. Each day I would purposely smell strong things like candles and Vicks Vaporub. Eventually my smell and taste came back, although now a lot of food and odors smell/taste like cat piss. Or maybe I am around Rusty too much obsessing about his pooping, peeing and cat box.
I woke up this morning at my mom's house and smelled cat piss after making the coffee. No cat here. And mom and I are piss-free. I swear it's the coffee.
It's good news to hear that you got your sense of taste and smell back. I have tried essential oils that were supposed to help, herbs, tobacco patches that made me feel nauseous and now I just figure this is my lot in life for now. Luckily my cat named Kitty is mostly feral so he sleeps during the day in our house and then leaves around 5pm to go out chasing buffalo somewhere all night. I like his idea of using the outdoors for his buisness.
I wish Kitty would send Rusty a memo about outdoor business. Rusty will be outside for an hour, come in and immediately use the box. He's the weirdest cat I've ever had.
Yes, cats are mysterious creatures. They think that the house is theirs and us humans are here to provide food and comfort and they are so picky about it.
pretty much the same here.
I wonder why? 🧐
I think that I must have had a very slight case of Covid. We were busy moving from one state to another and on our 2nd day of traveling I came to the realization that I couldn't taste or smell anything. It was during rag weed season so I just thought it was my allergies. I am just greatful that I have good health in spite of loosing my sense of taste and smell.
I believe the covid bioweapon has snake poison in it. I believe it is that poison which caused many people's loss of taste and smell (unlike the normal loss of taste and smell from a stuffed up nose). No one really talks about how to get back taste and smell from the covid bioweapon. Evil. Truly evil.
Dr. Brian Ardis agrees with you.
As long as I've been alive, approaching 74 years, losing one's sense of smell to congestion and then losing one's sense of taste to that has been a thing. I don't think anyone ever worried much about it until now. Sure, there might be something special going on -- hard to say what -- but there might also not be.
Ragweed season has arrived here. I'm OK if I stay indoors with all the air cleaners going, but we didn't stay home today and the wind has been blowing like crazy. It's sneezing fit weather (which can lead to poop control problems). Our church had a fallen tree. The wind started cold, turned hot, and kept blowing, part of the new normal for May, I guess. At least there have been no spring tornadoes here since 2014, so far.
I truly believe the jet fuel they use now is poison. When contrails/chemtrails criss cross the sky and I'm outside all day I feel like crap the next day with a stuffed up nose, and headache. I know it's not allergies because I've never had allergies.
The fuel might be worse now, although jets have never been "good for the planet". War technology poison adapted for consumer use. I'm playing around with flightradar24 to get a better understanding, and during the day the skies are just jammed with these things. That's thin air up there being pumped full of jet exhaust. Have you ever been caught behind one on the ground? I have, in my Air Force brat days. Not something you want to hear, let alone breathe. But jet airliners are so convenient.
We've had the sprayed crud plus seasonal pollen plus high winds. Perfect reason to stay inside and breath heavily filtered air. But I have choir practice tonight. The prolonged sneezing fits do seem to help, though.
The trip out yesterday was for small group and errands. I fixed my ATM card after two years not working -- a leftover from 2021 when I hardly drove at all and didn't need to buy gas but once.
Very small group. Tiny group now. The more to-the-point the sermons become, the less interest. Interesting how that works. I'm actually kind of shocked, and I don't shock easily. Not anymore.
As Jesus once said to his apostles after His to-the-point sermon drove away multitudes of followers: "are you going to leave me too?" We must always remember what Peter replied: "but where shall we go, You have the words of eternal life."
We are in the tornado season here in Missouri. The past few weeks have been stormy with tornado warnings and sirens going off several evenings even though we could tell we were not in eminent danger. We were in a drought but have received 9 inches of rain so far and the gardens are looking happy!! Hopefully we will have some vegetables later on in the summer. I am also planting various medicinal herbs.
I've been reading about Midwest weather. I've also lived out your way a couple of times, and I have relatives still in Missouri and Kentucky (the latter closer ones seem to have fled Illinois, for some reason, and migrated back to where they came from).
My family eventually settled in Northern California for a reason, and not for the tomatoes, even though when I moved back here to stay in 1968, from Illinois, just over the river from St. Louis, this place was known there as the Land of Fruits and Nuts (I know, I know). They weren't referring to tomatoes either. And a few of those folks are still my friends.
We have a vegetable garden, with tomatoes just going in (we thought it was spring). Everybody who can probably should be growing something. The medicinal herbs sound like a good idea! We haven't had any herbs growing for a while now.
My father had his vegetable garden later on while he still lived here. He grew up on a farm and had been a 4Her in high school, but then had changed directions from farmer to fighter pilot when he graduated during WWII. Gophers loved his garden, but one of them soon discovered the hard way what happens when you raid the garden of a retired military officer who is an excellent rifle shot from the balcony of his house. One gopher, one bullet. No ShotSpotters back then (early 70s).
I am going light on the veggies at the moment, while recovering from something not entirely unlike what Pug just went through.
You're a good storyteller!!
yeah, I never had covid but stuff does smell funny now, kind of a metalic smell