And what better way to start off than with mound of sod and a muffin stone! After an extended stay in what I can only affectionately describe as some kind of cruddy fog, I am feeling fantastic for the first time in my life. I can’t say I ever held much stock in chiropractors, but you can officially call me a convert. Life has never been so vivid. At long, long last I find myself outdoors, where I truly belong.

Which leads me to one big, old lump of genuine Pennsylvania turf!   

With all my newfound energy, I have been devoting any chunks of time I can scrape together to a much needed garden-expansion project. While I have been trying to practice as low till techniques as possible, I still found myself with several growing mounds of sod. Knowing that nothing in nature is truly a ‘waste’ product, I spent many hours puzzling over the best use for what was temporarily serving as tractor baffles. One morning while wielding a shovel and drooling over plans for an earthen oven in my mind, epiphany struck.

The oven would need a solid base and my back was begging for the oven to be at a comfortable and convenient pizza-removing height. The plans called for a cinder block base, however my stubborn environmental ethics insisted there must be a better way…Enter the sod. Yea for turf bricks! 

Just a few minutes work hauling my mounds of sod produced the most exciting lump I’ve ever seen in the backyard!

    Once again, nature has provided everything I could possibly require. My survival training always taught me that animals come with all the tools you’ll ever need to make greatful use of every part, and now I find that my garden too comes with all the pieces I need to make the best use of the bountiful food I hope it will produce. Oh I can taste the wood-fired goodies already…  I will continue to post as the oven progresses, hoping that perhaps others will feel compelled to venture out.

On a separate, indoor note, while on a shopping foray today my mom procured an exciting new toy for the kitchen: a muffin stone! I acquired a pizza stone back in high school and have wanted to bake on nothing else ever since. This new cousin of the tasty flat-treat-maker opened the door to a great new world of yum, and of course needed to be immediately initiated. Just a short hour later, I grabbed a good-looking recipe from the ‘Everybody likes Sandwiches’ blog and wrangled it into a crumbly, vegan, blueberry and apple heap of tastiness. The final verdict on the new take on the muffin tin: Major Score!  

No muffin cups required and the muffins don’t stick = super muffin happiness for all : )

A definite perfect ending to a lovely rainy day! Only one thing could make it even better, Josh Ritter tomorrow!!!!

Enjoy the day!  

http://xkcd.com/212/