Ok, I went and pulled my friend's Garlic Mustard, yesterday while she was at work. Oh, my -- what an 'abundance'. BUCKETS of it, The Enemy. Gobs and gobs right there in her small, modest yard, right here in town. More than I or any brave soul could possibly use, but I went ahead and pulled it all for her anyway. I felt compelled to do so as a public service. Which is pointless really, because the ground is likely completely saturated with gajillions of its' tiny, miniscule seeds (one small plant can produce hundreds of seeds in a season) just waiting to sprout up in their stead. Still, at least it looked a little better when I was done. And I did 'harvest' a good quantity of leaves for my own use. I noticed they seemed considerably more bitter than the ones I sampled several weeks ago -- the difference being that these were flowering plants and the ones I tried earlier hadn't flowered yet. So, it might very well be like dandelion greens, which are best when they first come up in the season before the blooms set (something happens chemically within the plant, sort of natural pest control, once that happens). Next time around, perhaps I'll try picking it earlier. I did cook with it anyway last night, spiking the 'tamale pie' with it that I made for supper. No one even noticed. Everyone asked for seconds, and beyond. (Granted, this was a famished, post soccer-practice crowd.) The rest of the leaves I blanched, to be chopped up and packaged today in small amounts for freezing -- to use in stretching my future soups and casseroles and the like (recipes that call for frozen spinach or whatever -- I can use part spinach, and part garlic mustard. Hey, free food...).

Also made more granola yesterday, finally. A big batch. And DS baked up a batch of delectable apple muffins yesterday, completely solo, for breakfast. It was a cook-sy sort of day I guess.... On the cool side, and pleasant to get the oven going. Plus, no spending of any kind. I didn't even leave the house (except to pick that garlic mustard) -- but that's a good thing. I sort of needed a day of few disruptions....