My first attempt to grow a Jarrahdale pumpkin in my garden is a success!

Behold our 15-lb. Jarrahdale pumpkin!

It's no secret I like to grow things you might not find in any garden, let alone a typical garden. Purple green beans, Tiger's eye and Sorana beans for soups, heirloom Oaxacan Green or Hopi Turquoise corn that's blue or purple or differing shades of green. This summer and fall I experimented with Jarrahdale pumpkins. They are big and blue that are orange and tender and orange on the inside--think butternut squash--and great for baking or in soups. At least that's what I'm told because we haven't cut into one yet!

Seth, Olivia, and Judah model our first Jarrahdale pumpkin!

I bought the seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. and planted in July after harvesting my Oaxacan Green corn. Something to note: The vines can take over your garden! If you have the space, these Jarrahdale pumpkins will roam, climb, wander, cling, and spread all over the place! They are resilient because my other squash really suffered from disease this year, but not these Jarrahdale pumpkins! It was also a really dry fall with drought conditions and the Jarrahdale pumpkins made it just fine. I harvested the first 15-lb. pumpkin today and have several more in the garden.

I'm loving this Jarrahdale pumpkin from my garden!

Don't you think these pumpkins are gorgeous! And a nice touch for fall decorations if you like DIY decorating. Pair them with other colorful pumpkins and you have great taste in decor!

Can 14 Kids Keep a Secret? The Amazing Christmas Gift that Sent Us to Italy

Florence, Italy

Julie and I had dreamed of going to Italy for a very long time. We wanted to go for our 25th wedding anniversary but didn't have the money. It was like that every year.

Something always came up. Someone needs braces, or unexpected medical costs, or just life in a big family.

We held onto the dream. Italy enchanted us. The history and places like the Colosseum or the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or the Sistine Chapel. The culture, Tuscany, the art, the architectural wonders like the Duomo in Florence or San Marco Square in Venice. The home of da Vinci and Michelangelo. Those colorful coastal villages clinging to hills. The tasty amazing Mediterranean food. Its connection to Christianity. The place where the Apostle Paul walked and was imprisoned.

The Colosseum

The place that always just seemed out of reach.

Then on Christmas Day, 2018, with all 14 kids and two daughters-in-law and one grandson stuffed into our living room with wads of crumpled Christmas wrapping and toys and clothes and assorted other gifts decorating the floor and every other nook and cranny, Julie and I were handed a paper bag.

It was one of those little brown bags you pack a lunch in. It was well-worn, like a third- or fourth-hand paper bag. A shabby chic paper bag that was soft and rumpled from being stuffed full of something -- baloney sandwiches maybe? -- repeatedly and saved to be used over and over.

Venice, Italy

We peeked in the bag. I looked at Julie. Looked at the kids. Then reached inside and pulled out ... a huge wad of cash. I was stunned. The kids were laughing. Giggling. Julie was in shock.

We counted it out: $1,300. The kids told us we were going to Italy.

Our oldest eight kids had started a fund and put money into it each month for the whole year. Evie had been the taskmaster, sending out monthly texts and cajoling her brothers and sisters into contributing. There may have been some feigned bitterness about it.

Here's the crazy part: How did 14 kids, two daughters-in-law, and a 1-year-old grandson* keep that a secret from us? For a whole year!

It was an amazing, humbling gift. I may have cried.

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from Italy

A couple of weeks later I started checking airfares. I was expecting tickets for something in the $1,000 range, or $800 maybe if we could score a mega-deal. I started looking at flights from Dulles in Washington D.C. to Rome. The cost of a ticket was about what I was expecting.

I was searching for after summer in September, thinking the airfares might be cheaper because demand would lessen. Plus the summer heat would be dissipated. And it would be our 29th anniversary on Sept. 1.

Then I expanded the search to include JFK in New York City. It's not a bad ride up there, only seven hours, and maybe flights would be cheaper.

Riomaggiore, Italy, in Cinque Terre

A number popped up that seemed really out of whack. I refreshed the screen and tried again. Same unbelievable number.

Four hundred dollars. That's $400, roundtrip from JFK to Rome in mid-September.

"Babe," I said to Julie. "We're going to Italy."

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

*Editor's Note: Maybe at 1 years old James wasn't in on the secret. I'm pretty sure if he had known he would've told me. ;-)

My Summer Garden Has Been Bountiful, Delicious, and Amazing!

Heirloom tomatoes from my garden

My fascination with gardening probably now qualifies as an addiction. Healthy addiction, I would say. I think about it all year round. I have secret stashes of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds seed catalogs. My Twitter and Instagram feeds are chock full of random photos of heirloom tomatoes, green beans, purple green beans, soup beans, corn, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, zinnias ... my iPhone screen is a photo of 3 varieties of my heirloom corn. I might have more photos of my garden than my kids on my phone ... uh-oh.

Heirloom soup beans: Sorana (white), Rosso di Lucca (red) and Tiger's Eye (self-explanatory)

I like to experiment with new varieties and veggies. For example, this year I took the plunge into soup beans. I decided to grow several different varieties because I love to make soups in the winter and fall. I bought the seeds from Uprising Organic Seeds in Bellingham, Washington, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in Mineral, Virginia. Judging from the photo up there ^ it's been quite a successful bean growing adventure, wouldn't you say?

Red Sun Sunflowers are gorgeous! Birds love 'em.

I also dedicated some space for flowers this year. I planted two different varieties of sunflowers (the red sun you see up there ^ are particularly gorgeous, eh?), zinnias, and strawflowers. They have been a striking and eye-pleasing addition to the garden. Plus there's been an added bonus: Butterflies, bees, dragonflies, and birds galore such as yellow finches, cardinals, and even hummingbirds. My Red Sun Sunflowers grew up to 8 or 9 feet high and attracted lots of birds. My neighbor told me that she's lived here 6 years and this is the first time she's seen American Goldfinches around and they practically lived in my sunflowers.

Oaxacan Green corn. Tortillas! Cornbread!

My second year of growing heirloom Oaxacan Green corn was a rousing success. Some of the stalks reached 10 feet and I am flush with corn to grind up for cornbread and to make into delicious tortillas this winter. I think the corn is just gorgeous as well. Looks good, tastes good. An excellent combination.

Bread 'n Salt tomato baby! That's 20 oz. of goodness!

June and into mid- to late July were amazing for my tomatoes that I transplanted from seeds I grew under grow lights in my shed. I was harvesting several different varities off of 30+ plants 20 lbs. at a time. Then disease set in. So sad. But that's life in Virginia's humid summers I suppose. Gardening will break your heart sometimes. I am thinking of staggering my planting next year and giving them more space, hoping that will make a difference. Once again we had boatloads of amazing pico de gallo this year and I froze and canned somewhere around 20 lbs. of tomatoes. You know I love to bake and cook and one thing I started doing is making my own spaghetti sauce. It's unbelievable. That's not hyperbole. Ask my family. Just for you, I've included a slightly modified recipe I cribbed from Marcella Hazan (Link to her recipe: Marcella Hazan spaghetti sauce) See my modified version below.

Extremely rare Tomato 'n Pepper Starfish I found in my garden!

My garden is still going. I have more soup beans, green beans, and blue Jarrahdale pumpkins coming along. I'm truly stoked to be making soup out of my beans this winter. I'll keep you posted.

Spaghetti Sauce recipe That Will Change the Way You Think of Spaghetti Sauce

28 oz. of tomatoes chopped up & drained

1 stick butter

1-2 t of Diamond Crystal kosher salt

2 green bell peppers seeded and cut in chunks (Love growing Carolina Wonder bell peppers!)

1 Vidalia or Walla Walla sweet onion cut in half (otherwise a plain ol' yeller onion will have to do)

At least 10 fresh basil leaves (I grew basil this year)

Fresh oregano (another herb I grow)

Combine it all and bring to a simmer. Then let simmer uncovered for 45-60 min. to burn off liquid. Blend it all in a blender. Put on spaghetti noodles after tasting. Immediately be wrecked for ever buying spaghetti sauce in a can or jar at the store again.

Note: This uses no sugar. Next time you check the label on your store-bought spaghetti sauce notice the 2nd ingredient. Sugar. Ew. 

Dad in the kitchen: Just a man baking bread

The kitchen. The one room where my drive for creativity, making things, tasting things, eating, pleasure, adventure, even peace, join in blissful union.

I finished my 20-month Master's degree program in Communication through Purdue University in December. Since then I've gone on a "creating and making" bender. Perhaps it's pent up creativity that was suppressed in a 20-month grind of studying. Maybe it's a joyful release of completing something that at one time seemed so unattainable. Could be both. Whatever it is, I'm enjoying this splurge. And so is my family.

Quite simply, I make things. And bake, cook, and build things.

Food, soup, photos, cutting boards, an office desk bread ... well, lots of bread. Bread is my new jam. Especially once I discovered King Arthur Flour and its fantastic website. I might bake six or nine loaves a week. With 10 kids in the house and a two sons and two daughters-in-law and one grandson who drop in frequently, plus two more sons who live nearby, nine loaves of bread a week is nothing around here.

There's a simplicity to bread. An honesty. A beauty. A pleasure. An ease to it. And everyone loves it.

The smell that fills the kitched and brings kids in wondering when the bread is going to be done.

The warmth you only get from baking bread on a frigid winter day.

The taste of life, because bread is life, right?

The satisfaction of how bread pleasingly fills the empty spot in my belly.

Am I going a bit overboard, eh? Nah. Bread is just really good. On so many levels.

Today I decided to add a bit of zest to my standard three loaves of bread. Here's my base recipe I found in The New York Times: Simple Crusty Bread. I always use King Arthur Flour and Diamond Kosher salt, which is something I picked up from Samin Nosrat and Salt Fat Acid Heat. My philosophy is if something works, stick with it. I had some lovely, fragrant leftover springs of organic rosemary and thyme in the fridge and chopped them up.

I added them to my yeast and Diamond kosher salt. Then added lukewarm water. Stirred. Then I added the King Arthur unbleached bread flour. Stirred some more and slightly kneaded to make sure that flour, thyme and rosemary are all snug together.

I covered and let the yeast do its thing for a few hours.

Then I made three distinct loaves. I added grated Swiss Gruyere cheese to one loaf and added grated Asiago cheese to another. Then sprinkled corn meal on them. Can you guess which one has the Swiss Gruyere and which one has the Asiago?

Then I baked them on our Pampered Chef baking stone we've had for years. The ol' Pampered Chef baking stone. Trusty, reliable, simple. A wonderful design, so functional and authentic, so steady. Just an absolute rock. It's been so good to us for so long. God bless my baking stone.

And there they are. Or rather, there they were. My experiment was a rousing success.

It's just hard to go wrong with a good loaf of bread baked from the heart. Especially when there's a dozen or more kids and grandkids around.