Lake's Nursery

Lake's Nursery is in Northern California off of 80, near Auburn. It was worth the drive and absolutely beautiful! I didn't even care that it was sprinkling while we checking out the hundreds of varieties!

Bree's "secret" shopping spree:10 Japanese Maple Trees

Thumbs up for Bree's purchases: Japanese Maples!

Not quite sure how Greg was going to respond to my coming home with 10 unique Japanese Maples, but this is the reaction I got, "Wow! Where are we going to put them all? Well, next time we can get the bigger ones!" Much to my shock, Greg was down for the cause! (Not really shock though....my dad had sent Greg the Timber Press Pocket Guide to Japanese Maples, secretly in the mail without my knowing, because they both love them! Check out the link for the book above, there are some great pictures! What's the big deal you ask? I'll fill you in on the varieties we purchased, what they look like in the fall (beautiful!!) and about this gorgeous nursery way up in the hills of Auburn.

Planting pays off : )

A little sunshine in the midst of big storms = garden time!

I have been dying to get out in the gardens! My amazing husband has planted hundreds of bulbs (daffodils, tulips, and others) and they are all shooting up! The daffodil stems are about a foot tall and the tulips are around 4 inches. We did not get our paper whites in yet.. is it too late?

So since I have done nothing in the garden for a month it has been quite neglected! (maybe I feel neglected? hmm? Gardening IS quite therapeutic. Cliche I know, but true.) Nevertheless, Greg is turning into quite the amazing gardner so he has been keeping up while I was away..but still! I need to get out there! So right after I am done typing this...outside I go! But before I go, I want to share with you a little monthly calendar that I found VERY helpful as a new gardner in 2009. Before I went outside, I had to look up the January 2010 calendar. I looked at it, found it helpful, and wanted to quickly share it with you before I forgot!

Here's the link to January calendar. Hope it helps! I subscribe to their emails and love them! They are far and few between and I wish they came more often, but I have the website or the monthly web magazine bookmarked and frequently visit.

PS: I just went back to look at the website to see who the editor is so I can give credit where credit is due..no wonder why I love the Weekend Gardner Web Magazine! The editor went to Cal Poly College of Agriculture. Her name is Hilary Rinaldi.

Prosciutto alfredo

I was given 3 fabulous cookbooks for Christmas, "Williams-Sonoma Pasta," another that is simply titled, "Italian," and the coveted Julia Child's, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I have yet to dive into these considering I have only been home for a few days since Christmas Eve! (I just took down all my decorations and today the tree needs to be put away! Next year wherever I may be in the US, I will come home and take it down the day after Christmas!!) Anywho... This week has been crazy busy and I have been home one night to cook dinner (started at 9PM). I decided that I must open a new cook book for a quick but scrumptious recipe. Scruptious it was! I will never make an alfredo without prosciutto again!

Here's the very, very simple recipe....

• 1/2 c. Sliced Prosiutto crudo
• 1/4 c. Butter (mmm!)
• 2 Shallots, very finely chopped (I did not have shallots, so I used a quarter of an onion and a somewhere around 2-3tsp. of garlic)
• Salt & freshly ground pepper
• 3/4 c. heavy cream
• 12 oz. fettucine (I was bored of fettucine and at my last grocery trip I bought a ton of different, fun, colorful, and funky pastas.. so use what you want! I can't remember the name of the one I used, but it was a fun twist)
• 1/2 C. freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I didn't have a fresh 1/4 of parmesan, but I did have shaved parmesan from the deli
• sprig of fresh parsley to garnish

1. Cut the fat from the prosciutto, and chop both the lean and fat parts separately into small quarters.
2. Melt the butter in a medium frying pan, and add the shallots and the squares of prosciutto fat. Cook until golden. Add the lean prosciutto, and cook for 2 more minutes. Season with pepper. Stir in cream, and keep warm over low heat while the pasta is cooking. Don't forget to keep stirring.
3. Boil the pasta in a large pan of rapidly boiling salted water. Drain. Turn into a armed serving bowl, and toss with the sauce. Stir in the parmesan and serve right away.

We LOVED the rich flavor of this dish!! Enjoy!