As someone who grew up in Jersey, January is cold, snow, ice and hot chocolate. It isn’t gardening and open the windows and air out the house. It just isn’t. And since my very green thumb of Jersey is a little pale yellow turning brown, I am sticking to things that are harder to kill.

But today was beautiful out and I decided I wanted to plant some pretty flowers. I picked up some pansy and another flower I forget the name of and redid the front garden. It isn’t the tulips I had u north, but I think they are pretty and cheery and a nice splash of color.

In addition, I added a few more herbs to the back garden. I decided to forgo the veggies and just get them from my veggie basket and the farmer’s market. But herbs go a long way when cooking so I picked up some purple basil (hoping to get some sweet basil from mom), rosemary, sage, and parsley (let’s hope Leia can’t get to it and eat it this time). This means we have the every growing scallions and thyme with a few leeks and now some new fresh herbs.

It’s a cute little garden and it makes me happy.

On the food front … Food still does not like me. I’m eating a little more, but nothing is sitting well in my stomach these days. I think it’s stress, but who knows. Maybe the residuals of the cold/virus/whatever this is. But … I did make some ribs this weekend that came out rather well.

I slow cooked them in the crockpot with beer and apple juice. Oddly. It worked. I finished them on the grill with the BBQ sauce. And that is not potatoes on the plate! My veggie basket had celery root in it. I’ve never had or made celery root before. So … I roasted them kind of like potatoes with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme (from the garden of course) and then added some carrots. Pretty darn good. Not something I would seek out and buy, but I did like it enough to make again the next time I have it in the basket.