Wholesome Wednesdays: Wildflowers

Watch out, Texas.... wildflower season is coming! Watch out for those wild super-corgis, too!

I like a bit of silliness now and then.
Wildflowers really are essential to our native ecosystem. They nourish bees and beneficial insects with their nectar and pollen, as well as birds and small critters when they go to seed. Many of the wild 'flowers' are also healthful herbs. Echinacea (or purple cone flower), chickweed, cleavers and more are all weedy, flowering herbs with powerful health benefits. Not to mention honey: my husband is especially partial to wildflower honey, i prefer clover honey. Honey is full of nutrients and is nature's anti-allergy tonic: the bees do the work of gathering all those pesky allergens together and processing them into a delicious elixer that will boost your immune system and help you cope with the pollen that floats through the air.

This website can get you started with identifying the useful wildflowers from the pretty, but best left alone varieties. In this day and age of bottled, packaged, pilled, and sprayed medicines we often forget that most of those medications are just man made variations on nature's  remedies. Take a few moments to ponder those 'weeds' before you pull them and toss them into the compost. They may have some wonderful and nurturing quality. Some common weeds and wildflowers with the best bang for their bloom are:

• Dandelion greens: digestive and liver tonic
• Chickweed: too many benefits to list! High in fatty acids, healing, weight loss. Can be eaten or used as a poultice
• St. Johns Wort: mood leveller and more
• Echinacea: Harvest that precious root of the purple coneflower to reap the benefits of this miraculous herb. All around immune system booster

There are too many beneficial herbs and flowers to list. Wildflowers are beautiful and delight us every Spring with their miraculous colors, they hold the dry late Winter soil down during Spring rains, they nourish wild creatures and our an essential component to our ecosystem. Wildflowers aren't all necessarily native. We can thank Lady Bird Johnson for contributing to the beautification of Texas' roadsides and the eventual spread of so many wildflowers across our state. They certainly fit nicely into our vast landscape.

What's your favorite wildflower? (I'm partial to these little coreopsis). 

What a Weekend!

We had such a great weekend for our first Anniversary. Could not have asked for a more relaxing trip with better weather or tastier food. Bill and Pat at Creekhaven Inn were amazing hosts and their magical spot on the Cypress Creek was thoroughly blissful. Our city dwelling bodies indulged our country souls from the big ole catfish in the creek, to the rock heron in the trees. I would highly recommend Creekhaven to anyone looking for a Bed and Breakfast getaway in the Texas hill country. Wimberley is a quiet, sweet little town with just enough going on to keep you a little busy.

I brought some garden grown tomatoes with us and i think they look quite fetching next to these tamales, don't you think? I don't often post reviews on this blog - but i felt the need to spread the word of the Gourmet Tamale Kitchen as far and wide as i can! Have you ever had tamales? Did you like them? Were they bland, dry, containing of strange animal parts? Well, let me tell you - whether you love tamales or think they're boring or gross - you MUST try these tamales!!!!!!!

We ordered some already cooked (no kitchen for our use at the Inn) vegetarian and spicy pork tamales. The spicy pork was indeed spicy, but the real stars were the vegetarian tamales. The masa was seasoned and moist - i tasted a hint of cumin along with some other delicious flavors. The filling consisted of corn, black beans, chopped spinach and some other yumminess including some kind of cheese. SO.GOOD. We have another package of chicken and poblano waiting in our freezer: they're sold in 'boil in the bag' packages, so cooking them will be a cinch.

Off to pilates on this Tuesday morning - i hope you fellow central Texans, or travelers through these parts will stop in to the gourmet tamale place. They aren't open Sundays though, so plan ahead!