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I know some of you have said the weather doesn't have to be cold for you to get in the mood for soup. But for me, there's just no better soup day than a cold, wet, dreary day -- kinda like today!
If the weather forecast on Weather.com is accurate, today won't get out of the 50s but tomorrow will be back up to near 70. So if you're looking for one last miserable, bone-chillin' day to whip up a pot of chili, soup or stew, now's your chance! Get cookin'!
Added bonus: With all this talk about biscuits, we're all craving a buttery biscuit. But I don't think anyone has mentioned how beautifully a hot, freshly baked biscuit pairs with a bowl of homemade soup.
For weeks, I've had a recipe for Anthony Bourdain's mushroom soup laying on my desk. This seems like a great opportunity to share it with you:

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Our tantalizing food photo of the week was submitted by blog reader Sean, who wrote:

"This is how I like to eat my Lox. In this version of the Lox I have a toasted bagel, cream cheese, capers and smoked salmon, of course. Then I add a little red onion, Tabasco, boiled egg and garnished with dill. Before I put everything together I sprinkle lemon on the salmon."

Yummelicious. To see the Fridge Magnet's fine collection of food photos, hit the Flickr site.
Please contribute your own photos! If you'd rather not join Flickr (it's free), feel free to send them to me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com.

Have a tasty weekend!

Some would say that if you don't like biscuits, you just aren't a true Southerner.
We had biscuits at just about every supper at my grandmother's house. Great Uncle Bill called them "catheads" and chose to have another cathead with gravy while the rest of us were having dessert.
Mom always made fabulous biscuits from scratch, but this past weekend when I visited her, I found her pulling a bag of frozen biscuits from the freezer and putting them in her convection oven.
What in the name of catheads is going on??
Well, once you try those frozen biscuits, you might find that they are far superior to the canned kind and almost as good as homemade.
Both Pillsbury and White Lily brands make a good frozen biscuit. And right now, you can win a basket of White Lily products if you go to their Web site and enter to win a contest.
All you have to do is answer their question: What is your favorite biscuit topping?
Seems easy enough, but for me, it's kind of hard to choose. Sometimes it's apple butter, sometimes butter and honey, sometimes bacon, egg and cheese, sometimes just a nice, fat slice of summer tomato.
As a true biscuit lover, I could eat them straight from the baking sheet.

Thanks to everyone for their great garden tips following yesterday's blog entry!
Here's a quick-hit list of the advice for first-time gardeners:

-- Don't plant too early.
-- Try watering with used dishwater.
-- Don't overwater your plants.
-- Mix in top soil and/or manure if your soil isn't already rich and dark. (This is a particularly helpful tip for me because my soil is almost straight red clay. Yuck!)
-- Hot peppers are a great beginner's plant because they are quite easy to grow.
-- Grow what is expensive in the grocery store in order to maximize the benefits to your grocery bill.
-- Try Liquid Fence to ward off deer. Hopefully, I won't have a big deer problem in the heart of Northwest Roanoke, but those little buggers will find a garden if there is one, I know.
-- Prepare well. Don't rush into the garden because if your soil and fertilizers aren't great, you'll have a big weed problem.

My next question has to do with controlling pests of the smaller variety. I know bugs can be a big problem with a home garden, but I don't want to use any harsh chemicals. If possible, I'd love to be able to use organic methods. Does anyone have any suggestions on that front?

Conveniently, I just received a big, beautiful cookbook in my mailbox called "Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden" by Jeanne Kelley. I'll attach a recipe after the jump.

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It's been four years since we bought our first house over in Northwest Roanoke, and it may finally be time for me to start my first garden.

I can't believe it's taken me so long.

As tempted as I am to go whole hog, planting row after row of tomatoes, green beans, squash and peppers, I think I had better start small this year. So I plan to spend this weekend tilling up a small square in the corner of my yard -- a patch just big enough for a beginner.

After my family relocated to Virginia from Colorado in the early 1980s, my parents always had a garden in the back yard. It was barely half the size of my grandparents' garden, but it still turned out all of the veggies I mentioned above, along with spring onions, asparagus, corn, lettuce greens and much more.

My father has a green thumb. When he ran out of space in his own backyard garden, he borrowed a big plot on a friend's farm and planted enough green beans to feed five families for a year.

I doubt if I'll ever get to that point of infatuation, but I know I have it in my blood to at least grow a few Better Boys. In light of the tanking economy and the burgeoning slow food movement, I figure it'll save money and help the environment if I can do at least a portion of my produce shopping in my own backyard.

How many of my faithful blog readers out there are gardeners as well as foodies? What are your favorite vegetables to grow?

If you've got any tips to share with a beginner, bring them on.