Leela's Garden & Kitchen

We have been enjoying our warm weather lots. Sushma and I have been spending hours and hours outside. I even am doing a lot of my exercises outside, and I love being able to look at my garden. Doing some weeding on the porch Doing my exercises is more fun with a view! We are still getting lots of daffodils. And, our pink cherry blossom tree has fully bloomed already! So happy to see our cherry blossoms blooming! In full bloom We are starting to get all of our seedlings going. Our water spinach is looking great! We also sprouted and planted some garlic, which is growing so fast. Next, we are going to plant some green onions that my friend, Judy, brought over.   Sprouting garlic cloves Our garlic is growing so fast All our baby plants getting some sunlight Green onion that's going to be planted next! Today we got a surprise, special delivery of eggs from Lavina, Shilpa's friend in Pontotoc, MS. We love how they are all different colors, and we are so excited to make some omelets...

We had a snow day today! The last time we got snow was 2014, which was a disaster. Suresh got stuck at work overnight! This time, we all stayed home, and we enjoyed together. Even Sushma and her husband, Sal, stayed with us! It was pretty cold, but we still went outside for a little bit. Beautiful icicles on the gazebo! I really enjoyed knocking the icicles down! Sushma made me some ice antlers! But, they were too cold to keep for long. Some big ones from the gazebo roof! We also did some cooking today - we made dal curry with some greens from the backyard. And, we baked pecan bars , which turned out good. Cooking with snow in the background Our dahl curry Vegan pecan bars! I hope everyone stays safe and warm!

We have been enjoying the great weather the last few days. Sushma and I relaxed on the deck in the afternoons, where she practiced reading Telugu. The weather is so nice, some of the flowers think it is already Spring! But, it is going to freeze this weekend, so we brought in a lot of the daffodil buds.  Sometimes it's funny when Sushma struggles to read Telugu. All our daffodil buds! So excited for them to bloom. Our Chinese Fringe Flower tree is also blooming and is very beautiful. I bought it a long time ago at Lowe's on sale.  Chinese Fringe Flower Chinese Fringe Flower tree This week we also made a trip to get some free donuts from Heavenly Donut Company! Sushma had a coupon for a half dozen donuts - it was so hard to decide which ones to get. I love donuts, and I love them even more when they are free! I used to be scared to eat things like donuts, but now I realize life is short so I should enjoy. So happy about donuts!

 The other day we noticed that we are finally getting some broccoli! They are still small, but hopefully they will keep growing. We still are not getting any cabbage or cauliflower but we are using the leaves in omelets. Baby broccoli! We have started planting more. We sprouted some menthulu (fenugreek) and are excited to use it in curries and chapatis (bread). We are planning to plant more every few weeks to have a continuous supply.  Menthulu We have also planted some seeds for spinach, carrots, and round squash. Some spinach seedlings have already come up! Baby spinach! Sushma and I have also been busy cooking. Today we had fresh idli with sambar for lunch and made almond barfi sweet. Almond barfi 

 Today, Shilpa found some unexpected carrots in the garden! It was a really nice surprise, and they taste really good. We bought some biodegradable cups online to grow seedlings and are planning for the Spring. But other than that, not too much to report in the garden. Surprise carrots! They taste great! Like I mentioned last time, Sushma is at home with me more now, and we are doing lots of cooking. I always loved to cook, so I'm really happy that I can keep cooking even though I have limited mobility. We prepare all the ingredients before starting, and I can add them each to the Instant Pot right from my chair.  Today, we made mamidikaya pappu (green mango and dal curry)!  All the ingredients, prepped and ready to go! At my cooking station Final product!  

  As I mentioned in my last post, Shilpa planted several winter veggies and greens, including kale, cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli. So far, we have not seen much from the vegetables, which is disappointing. They do have lots of leaves, and we have been picking the leaves to use in curries and in omelets.  Cabbage Broccoli Kale On a side note, I hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday season. We had very nice time at home. Shilpa decided that we needed a real Christmas tree, and it smells great! My younger daughter, Sushma, has decided to take this year off from school and stay home with me during the day. I'm excited for all the cooking and baking that we'll do. This blog might start to include some kitchen posts as well! Our first real Christmas tree! Vegan pumpkin pie - tastes so good!     

  Hi everyone - I have taken a long time to post and I am sorry for that. These purple flowers are aster and we are enjoying them. There are many varieties of aster and this is the single petal variety, which means that it doesn't have as many petals as the double petal variety. But it is still pretty.  Shilpa went to Lowe's and got tempted by the fall vegetable plants. She bought and planted cabbage, kale, collard greens, and broccoli. She is like me that way. It is hard to resist buying plants!  This is the bell pepper that we had to harvest before it turned orange because it looked like it was starting to go bad.  The persimmons are finally ripening but Suresh has been complaining that we have not gotten as many this year as previous years.  This is sorakaya, or bottle gourd. This plant was growing since the springtime but did not produce fruit until the fall. Shilpa wanted to pull it out but I am glad she did not because we got three bottle gourds. We made a...