A Fool for Fazool

 On the eve of the global blackout to protest SOPA and PIPA, I am dreaming of a rainbow, of a world that is free.  I dream that we be free to eat what we want and free to post what we want and link to any site that we want.  (I will write more about that tomorrow in my Winter Wednesday feature.)  My hope is that we continue to  have choice, and that we continue to have the freedom of the Internet that has brought me the ability to interact through blogging with people from all over the world.

I invite you to learn more about SOPA and PIPA and the threat that they pose to sites like You Tube, Wikipedia, Reddit and more.

I rarely get political in my blogs, so I will now return to my normal programming....

One of the wonderful things about gardening is being able to control the vegetables you eat.  To be healthy, to buy local if you can't grow your own.  I don't do much gardening any more and my spouse now does the heavy lifting.  I thank him.

No longer at the mercy of the supermarket, the gardener is free to indulge the imagination.

Do you think tomatoes must be red?  That potatoes must have brown skins?  That peppers must be shaped like bells?  That dried beans must be one of the small number of varieties carried by your local market?

What you see above is a little sampler of the carrots my spouse grew in his community garden this year.


There is a very simple Italian soup dish called pasta fagioli, which is pronounced like "fazool".  The rainbow of carrots would have gone very nicely in this dish, but we saved it for a different meal.

The major ingredients in pasta fagioli are pasta and beans.  We used to grow dried beans in our garden, but no longer do.  We bought these canary beans in the Grand Mart food store in Centreville, Virginia.

The green onion would have been homegrown in season but, alas, it is winter.

The pasta is a pumpkin shape that we also bought in Centreville.  My spouse's fagiolis are less soup and more like stew, but you can add more liquid if you would like.

I am no food photographer, but this simple meal was delicious.

I invite you to try a "fazool" the next time you are wondering what to make for dinner.

And I invite you to browse the Internet tomorrow, January 18, and join the Internet Blackout.