Another New Hobby

Today I began what will hopefully be my next new hobby, although it is closely connected to my new love for cooking.  I am sick of running to the store to buy basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, etc.  So Mark and I came up with the ingenious idea of starting an herb garden this summer.  With the weather today being so great, we thought it would be a good day to start it, but it's still too early in the season to plant anything in the ground, so we went to Home Depot to get supplies to plant things indoors for now. Rachael and I went to get pedicures and trusted Mark and Alex to get what we'd need.  We ended up with basically every type of seed known to mankind! (I shouls have known!).  Where I had planned on an herb garden, I still ended up with things like strawberry plants, brussel sprouts, and seeds for squash, cucumbers, etc.!  Oh well; we will have the best tasting salads around :)

Delilah was verrrry curious about the planting project!

Planting was fun; Mark got a planter kit, and we had to water the little pods and then stick the seeds inside.  Delilah thought we had some kind of delicious food that we were keeping from her, so most of our time was spent ensuring that she wasn't eating peat moss or drinking the muddy water.  We planted one tray of rosemary, basil, oregano, parsley, peppers and thyme.  The other things need to be planted directly into the garden in May.  Poor Mark is already impatient for our little plants to shoot up, but we've got at least a week to wait :)  I'll keep you posted!

Tonight I made some muffins before going out to dinner with Mark, Kenzie and Nick.  Since we were leaving Mom, I wanted to make her something good, and I had had this recipe in mind for a while: coconut banana muffins.  I know she likes coconut, and she likes banana, and she likes muffins - so I figured this was perfect!  I was trying to get it done quickly before we left, so I did a crappy job spraying my muffin tins: will I ever learn!?  Some of them stuck, but luckily Mark's gorgeous nonstick pans made it bearable.  They whipped together pretty quickly, and I only ate a hunk of one that got stuck in the tin, but so far, they are pretty good.  The recipe made 2 dozen, so if anyone is hankering for a tropical banana muffin, come on over tomorrow :)

Muffins reflected in my gorgeous mixer :)

In other news, yesterday I put the link to my blog on Facebook.  Within a couple hours, I had lots of views, likes, and some very sweet comments.   I had been so nervous about what people would say, but everyone was so nice.  Laura even pinned my braciole recipe on Pinterest!  It was quite the day for my little old blog :)  If anyone tries out any of my recipes, leave me a comment!  I'd love to hear about it.

Recipe:
banana coconut muffins