Plan A didn't pan out, now working on plan B

So, when I plant my vegetable garden each spring, my thoughts are filled with high hopes and expectations.

Then weather happens, bugs happen, critters happen and off-timing happens. I know I should remember this from year to year. But maybe it's a good thing I'm so optimistic each spring. If I were too realistic, I may just give up on the garden altogether.

Anyway, my family really enjoys green bean dill pickles. I make several jars each summer to pop open in winter. Well, this year, when the green beans were ready, the dill and garlic weren't. And now that the dill and garlic are ready, the green beans are about done. Rats!

On to plan B.

I've found I need to keep my mind flexible with regards to the garden. The cucumbers did far better this year than they've done in years. So, plan B will be cucumber dill slices. I should be able to eek out a few jars of those before the season ends.

All is not lost. We'll enjoy some sort of dill pickle this winter. And we did enjoy the green beans fresh this summer, so that's a very good thing.

Let's hope I don't need a plan C.

Not so matchy-matchy with my food prep any more

So it used to be that when I made soup from scratch I used "matching" ingredients. For instance, if I made a chicken-based soup I used chicken fat, chicken stock and chicken meat. I might walk on the wild side and use turkey stock with chicken "other" ingredients. But mostly, I pretty much stuck to the formula my mom always used, and I had continued.

Well, not so much any more. Last night I made a pretty decent soup, starting with turkey fat and oil, then using vegetable stock, adding ham meat and topping the whole pot off by adding the last of the ground beef gravy from the other night's dinner (of Yorkshire pudding and beef gravy).

The soup I made was along the lines of plaid shirt with paisley skirt, polka dot hosiery and a striped sweater. But you know what? It actually tasted good! (The soup, not the outfit!)

Are there any "rules" that you follow, just because you've always followed them? As they say -- some rules are meant to be broken!

(p.s. If you're curious, in addition to the mentioned soup ingredients, there were also lentils, onions, summer squash and red pepper flakes.)