So many big melon jokes.

So, this is our melon patch! It's taking over the universe. I got in closer tonight and discovered there are dozens of goodies hiding below the foliage! 

Cantaloupes are the size of grapefruit a right now. 

Look at these watermelons! They're about 12 inches long right now. I've heard the vines will die a bit when they're ready. I really have no way of knowing, I've never had success with melons like this before! 

The striped watermelons are much smaller still, only about the size of apples. 

Cucumbers are thriving. Time for some pickles!

Stuffed peppers are also on the menu this week. I'm going to fill them with quinoa and Italian sausage, I think. Unless anyone has a good stuffed pepper recipe to share...

This makes me feel like singing.

After days driving through the desolate scenery of the southwest desert, all of this green was a treat to welcome me home. 

Come get some basil. 

Herbs.

This happened today. 

Sound the trumpet, there are fresh herbs in my home again! The rosemary and lemon thyme have already been added to the artisan bread dough I have rising for book club tomorrow. The houseplant in the teal pot is for Frances, and the basil in the green pot is for Laura the Great. Anyway, it felt good to get my hands dirty and pot these little guys. I'll be babying these little darlings in pots indoors for the next few weeks so they'll be a decent size by the time the garden has ready. They smell wonderful. Like springtime. 

Millions of Peaches, Peaches For....Not Me!

Yesterday I looked out my front window and saw the branches of my peach tree overloaded with beautiful fruit!  Almost time to harvest! 

Tonight, I went outside to check on them, and hopefully pick the first few peaches. 

Um, except there WERE NO PEACHES on my tree!  Gone! All of them. Totally gone!  Not one dang peach left on our tree.  Just yesterday there were over 100 out there. 
Where are my peaches?!!

Meg In the Kitchen

I've been putting our garden veggies to use, this week!

First up: a freezer meal.

There's a restaurant in Gilroy called OD's Kitchen that serves an awesome breakfast dish called The Kitchen Sink.  It's basically homefries with ham, onions, and peppers with cheese and an egg fried over medium on top. You get the crispy savory goodness of a breakfast skillet, but the eggs and cheese add a heavenly gooey heart attack that makes it the best breakfast over.

So, why not have the Kitchen Sink in my own kitchen?
#1 The Kitchen Sink:
I diced up some peppers and onions from the garden, and gently boiled the potatoes and diced them up. I froze everything on a large cookie sheet for a couple hours so it didn't stick together, then separated it into freezer bags in serving sizes for our family.  Now, I can just dump the bag onto a hot skillet with some oil or butter, wait 15 min for it to brown, then add the cheese and egg.  Dinner in less than 20 minutes! I made four bags plus a bag of plain diced potatoes and the only thing I had to buy was a package of ham for a few bucks.

#2: Pickles!  Homemade pickles are sooooo good.  I haven't made them in a few years, but if you want the recipe, click here for the 2009 post when I made a fazillion pickles with Jerushia.  One thing we learned is to NOT process them. The batch we processed in a waterbath got really mushy and the batch we left alone stayed nice and crunchy.
The best part about homemade pickles is that they are fast to make.  We whipped up 10 quarts of pickles tonight in about 45 minutes from start to finish, and it would have been even less time if I had done them by myself. Fast, easy, delicious, free!

#3 Veggie Pesto Pizza. 
Pizza dough recipe found here (CPK pizza dough)
Pesto recipe found here (Elena's recipe)

Seriously, how good does that look?  And y'all know I am a terrible photographer, especially when it comes to food pics.  This is actually as good as it looks and even my kids ate it.

For the perfect garden pizza, thinly slice up garden veggies. We used bell peppers, green and yellow squash, onions and tomatoes.  I thought about adding spinach, but forgot to get it out of the freezer to defrost in time.
toss with a little EVOO in a bowl.
Spread a thin layer of pesto sauce on pizza.
Top with veggies.
Now, add drained black beans (optional) and mozzerella cheese. Fresh mozzerella is better. All we had in the fridge this time was homemade gouda and white cheddar, so that's what we used, and it was still awesome.

Bake.
Chiffonade  some basil and throw it on the hot cheese right when it comes off the stone.

Eat.
Pat yourself on the back because dinner was great.

Digging for Gold

Yukon Gold!

The kids and I put on our garden boots and gloves at 7am this morning and headed out to attack our forest/garden.  We did not beat the heat, but working early certainly helped.  We set a timer for 2 hours and took a break to drink water, sit, and cool off every 30 minutes. Then we got back to work and pulled weeds, tore out the flowery remains from the spring vegetables that are done harvesting (the broccoli was 4 ft tall...oopsie!) and picked peppers, squash, and cucumber after cucumber after cucumber.

38 cucumbers, actually. And there are dozens more that will be ready in a week.  We will be making pickles, this week! 

This picture is ONLY what we harvested today.  There is more out there...a lot more. But we were tired and hot, and tired. and tired...

The fridge is already full of zucchini and yellow squash and the first few tomatoes, but we'll add a few dozen more. Who wants to bake me some zucchini bread? Come get some squash!

Corbin ran around with a zucchini in each hand and called everything "corn".

Quincy had the dirty job of wading through the squash plants with me. It "itched" her legs but she surprised me and toughed it out, and helped the most with the picking.

Reese hauled 3 wheelbarrow loads (with help) of weeds and dead plants to the compost pile.

We also harvested a few more tomatoes, carrots and onions, blackberries, jalapenos, 20 giant green bell peppers, and a plethora of beets, but the most fun was the potatoes.

"We're on a treasure hunt..." I told the children, and gave each of them a shovel.

They dove into the dirt and squealed everytime they hit something!
"It's a giant one!" "It's buried!" "Help me catch this one!" 

We dug up 17 lbs of beautiful yukon gold poatoes! 
I think I need to dice up these bad boys, add some peppers and onions, and freeze a few batches of home fries. I'll add ham and eggs and homemade cheddar later. Nothing like an OD's kitchen sink for breakfast. 

The week is off to a great start.
This morning was totally worth the cold shower I had to take to cool off.
I'm off to eat a popsicle and take a nap.

Anticipation

The concord grapes I planted last spring are growing rapidly.

I can't wait to get our juice on!

"Greens, greens, and nothing but greens!"

This is just today's pick.  We have another bowl full in the fridge! 
We will eat all the green beans we can stand, this week, and the rest will be blanched and frozen for Baby Willy's baby food. 

Tomorrow, we're starting it off right with bacon wrapped green beans.
Awww yeah.

"She got the way to move me, Cherry Baby!"

My sweet friend, Sue, generously gives me some of the sour cherries from her tree, every year.

I know it is not easy for Sue to reach the cherries on the high branches of her tree and this act of service is one that is truly selfless.
Sue's husband passed away on Sunday morning and Sue was on my mind, all day.

After church, Aaron and I were talking about her and Jim, and Aaron thought about our own cherry tree and walked around the fence to check on the cherries.  They were ripe!

15 mintues later, we had 4 cups of perfect cherries.

Aaron suggested that I go over to Sue's to visit, then offer to pick her cherries for her and bake her a pie. 
After the kids went to bed, I made a card and some cookies, then picked up Kasey and a couple ladders and we headed over to Sue's to hopefully do a little service and cheer her up.

   She got home right when we were unloading the ladders in the driveway.
The first thing she said when she got out of the car was a tearful,

"I'm so sorry to tell you this, girls, but the cherry tree died!"

Oh. man. Did I feel like a jerk. 

I'd thought I was going to visit my friend and offer some comfort, company, and bring a little distraction and normal-ness to her day, by doing something we do together every year.

Instead, poor Sue was left feeling sad about one more loss in her life, that day.

Regardless, we still had a really nice visit, and I am so glad we were there right when she got home from dinner so she didn't come home to an empty house.  I'm headed back over there today to plant her geraniums and help her get ready for the arrival of her children who will be coming in from all over for the funeral in the next few days. 

Last night, I realized I still have 4 cups of my own cherries in the fridge.

So to honor Sue and Jim, (and also Neil Diamond, because I just can't eat cherry pie without a little "Cherry Cherry") I made mini cherry pies.
 

 +

this recipe and 5 ramekins

=

midnight mini cherry pies at the Willy's.

Or Pie Babies.
a Che-rry Bay-bay! (said in Neil Diamond's voice)

When you eat it, you automatically start singing, "Baby loves me, yes yes she does!"

bap-bap! ba-da-bap-bap-ba-dap! 

Sue's cherry tree may have died, but luckily, her friends now have cherries to spare and we will be bringing her pie every year to let her know how just loved and appreciated she is by everyone who knows her. She is humble, cheerful, wonderful, and definitely sweet as pie.

"It has it's own weather system"

Check out the enormous head of broccoli we picked tonight!  Quincy was happy to show off her favorite garden treat for the camera.  Corbin was obviously frightened by the sight of such a large vegetable and can be seen running for his life in the background. 

Harvested

There are massive quantities of broccoli, spinach, kale, lettuce, strawberries, and fresh herbs coming out of the garden right now.  Green beans, squash, and beets any day now!  We are loving the early harvest for spring veggies, this year.

Willy 2012 Garden

Our garden is coming up roses.
Not really. I don't have any roses.
But I have just about everything else!
Right now, everything is just in the baby stage...except for herbs and broccoli.
We harvested our first few crowns of broccoli yesterday.
On April 11th! I can't believe it, either...there have been years that our garden wasn't even started until after April 11, and this year, we are already enjoying fresh produce. Happy Spring!

I found a little surprise in the corner of my yard today...the nasturstium seeds I threw in the ground a month ago (in a rock hard, acidic, partly shaded, neglected corner of the yard) actually sprouted! If they bloom, our chickens will be feasting on some delicious snackies.

The strawberries and kiwi plants came back from last year, and they have doubled!
We cleared out the rest of the rocky area next to them and hope to expand their play area a bit...because who can have too many strawberries? We can't. We've only eaten one so far, this year, but the plants are full of pink and white blossoms.

Also returning from last year (with a bang) are the grape vines! Yay! We planted them last year and are pleased to see the vines making their way up the pergola. Last year the birds ate the grapes (there were only a few), but this year we'll play it smart and throw a net over the goods and hopefully have a few to eat. The vines are still very young to be depended on for production, so we're pretty pleased with the several tiny bunches we see forming after only 1 year of growth.

In front of the grapes are a couple potted rosemary bushes and a basil plant.

Our ever sterile raspberries (left). It's a mystery. Hundreds of blossoms, dozens of bumble bees and not one dang raspberry. I think they need more direct sunlight. They are planted on the north side of the house and are always shaded by the house.

The blackberries (right) gave us a few pints of berries last year and are back in action this year...hopefully with even more fruit to enjoy. I love that I don't have to do anything to these bad boys, they just come back each year and give us food. Easy. Yummy. And they're thornless, so that's a nice bonus.

Oh tomatoes...I can't ever grow enough. Especially after discovering ina garten's tomato basil soup. My mouth is watering for July. We planted a few heirloom rutabegas this year, some better boys, big boys, celebrity, romas (this is roma's last chance, they used to be our garden tomato of choice, but they never seem to thrive in the Arkansas heat, so we've moved on. I planted a couple with the hope that this summer will be a cool one. hahaha.) and an early girl. 14 tomato bushes in all and not one too few. I can never run out of uses for tomatoes, and even after canning and saucing and souping and roasting and brushetta-ing last year, we still picked every last greenie off the vine in november and wrapped those babies up in paper sacks to be enjoyed until mid december. It was wonderful. Garden tomatoes are gold...especially after the hell-tempered summer that tortured us in 2011. We know very few people had a tomato crop at all last year, so we feel very blessed that ours was plentiful. Hopefully this year will be just as productive with 1/2 the bushes in a new location.

Behind the tomatoes are our traditional zucchini and yellow squash. I love them and sing to them as I water (not really. ok maybe I do.) and look forward to baskets and baskets of squash and am determined to not use any curse words when we inevitably become over run with squash bugs.

More tomatoes (back).
12 lovely bell pepper babies that won't take off until the heat arrives. Fine by me. We love our summer peppers and just ran out of the diced frozen bells from last year.

What's in the empty beds, Meg?

Well reader (yes. you. the only one actually reading this.), on the left we have some baby red potatoes that baaaarely surfaced 2 days ago, so I buried them with more compost. In the other half of the left bed and in all of the right bed we have a newbie to the Willy garden: Asparagus! I finally got around to planting some, and if we aren't around next year to enjoy them here, well...I'll dig them up and take them with us wherever we go. I have almost a dozen spears that crept up above the surface (only to be buried again with compost...poor asparagus, such a trodden down life they live...dumped on for weeks and then blamed for stinky pee when harvested.) and while I am sooooo tempted to just pick a few, I know we will have a better harvest next year if we wait it out and let these little babies do their thing this spring. They are beautiful. Waiting sucks. Next year, asparagus...next year.

By the way...I think I planted at least half of the crowns upside-down. Oops.

Here we have the real wait. Sunflowers in the waaay back, more tomatoes (the early girl is back there), pea vines on the back right, green onions (seeds..just planted), cucumbers (right) just sprouted and will be climbing soon, and kale on the left side, which sprouted a week ago but is taking it's sweet time to not look pathetic. I might re-seed.

A jalapeno plant will go in the front right corner after I get more compost in there.

Spring veggies are thriving!

In the left bed:

the thyme is back from last year and looking lovely (far left front corner)

bush variety green beans galore! (right front and back)

yukon gold potatoes (lots of em, baby) (left).

pettite sweet carrots (back left)

dill (back right)

In the right bed:

romaine lettuce (back left)

bush variety sweet peas (back right)

black seed simpson lettuce (front left)

frog skin melon (just planted the seeds, they haven't sprouted yet) (front right)

when the lettuce is done in a month, we'll plant butternut squash (and lots of it) and maybe acorn or spaghetti squash in the right bed.

And finally, more spring goodness.

in the back bed left to right:

cilantro

pettite sweet carrots

broccoli
beets

more carrots

vidalia onions

yukon gold potatoes

in the front bed left to right:

loads of basil (can't get enough)

kale (just sprouted!)

romaine lettuce (for the spoiled hens)

spinach (some is ready to be picked!)

vidalia onions

carrots
greek oregano (back from last year and out of control!

In front of the house, the mint I planted last year has spread and covers a 2 ft space. I love it.

There ya have it. (are you still here?)

More posts (too many, I'm sure) to come!

What are you growing this year?

Am I forgetting anything?

Today

Quincy was the first to spy the tiny florets growing on our broccoli plants.
12 happy little broccoli crowns will be harvested by the end of April.
Beautiful.

November Garden Love

I lied. The garden isn't totally dead.
The mint is thriving.
And a few other goodies, like onions and thyme are cold hearty.
The oregano (lower right) and cauliflower (a mistake, obviously. I mean, cauliflower? Have you met Aaron? I thought I was purchasing broccoli. But if we grow it, we keep it, and these guys are bangin'!) Maybe I should just plant cabbage and hope a baby or two shows up out there. Hey, worked for Xavier Roberts, right?

Look how cheery those plants are, especially when compared to the dying/harvested background. These guys actually came to life once the cold set in. Now that we know how well cauliflower handles the chill, we'll try broccoli next fall. Learn something new every year :)

And also, whaaaat? Yes! It's November, and we are still hanging in there. Yay for November vegetables!

Thanks, garden. You're swell.

Eating, the willy garden final harvest, more eating, a couple recipes and a restaurant review

Here's what we've been doing this week:
Eating.
Ok, there have been other things, but most of the good stuff revolves around the food we enjoyed.
The other night when I threw a bunch of onions and garlic into a pot to saute for soup, I drew in a BIG deep breath and smelled. "Mmmmm," I said, "who knew I'd grow up to be a pretty decent cook?" and without skipping a beat, Aaron replied, "I did. I could tell it was in you."
Cute right? I love him. He added that he never could have married someone that didn't love food as much as he did...he'd never truly be satisfied. Well. I'm happy to know that my love of food meets Aaron's expectations. We're eating up a storm of goodness right now.
For my fellow Foodie readers, I share:

A Note from the chef (chefess? I really should learn Spanish. I love the idea of masculine and feminine words): Y'all might want to loosen up your jeans a bit before reading this. Success in the Willy Kitchen is about to get real.

1) Thanks to our crazy surplus of jalapenos (we picked 4 lbs before the frost) we'll be snacking on baked Jalapeno Poppers this week. I wonder if I could make a bunch of these and freeze them.

2) We harvested every last green tomato off the bushes and they are sloooowly turning red in brown paper bags on my counter top. It's a pain to wait, but so worth it because I've been mass producing batches of Roasted Tomato Basil Soup. So far, we're eating it as fast as I can make it, but I plan to freeze some of the next batch. This is hands down the best soup I have ever eaten. Ever.
And I made it from scratch
from ingredients that I grew
and that makes me very happy :)

3) Pesto! We love pesto up in here. It's colorful, it's delicious, and thanks to our bountiful basil plants it's practically free...and I am all about free eats.

4) Butternut Squash Soup. I am sad to say that we only managed to harvest 4 butternut squash from the crop I planted before the frost, and I don't know if there will be any more since it is going to get cold soon. The tiny acorn and spaghetti squash were so promising, too. Stupid winter. The plants aren't totally dead, but they don't look fantastic anymore. Next year, I will try to remember to plant our fall squash 2 or 3 weeks earlier so we can enjoy a better autumn harvest. But since we have squash, we are making this soup weekly and it is a big hit with everyone who tries it.

5) Emily's Apple Blackberry Pie. Yum. My homemade pies are never as tasty or as pretty as Emily's are, but it's still pretty delicious and super Autumny. The recipe isn't mine to share, but if you stop by this week, I'll feed you a slice and buy your friendship, cuz yeah...it's that good. Kasey must have had the same brain today, because she dropped off an apple galette this evening. Winning!

6) Brownies from scratch. Yeah, I've never done that before. In the Willy House, brownie's usually come from a box or my friends. The other night, I had a major brownie emergency (read: there weren't any in our house) and I made these:

Baker's Chocolate Brownies
4 squares unsweetened Baker's chocolate
3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) of butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts

{1} Heat oven to 350* (325* for a glass pan)
{2} Melt chocolate and butter in a large glass bowl in the microwave (about 2 minutes). Stir until chocolate is completely melted
{3} Stir sugar into chocolate. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix.
{4} Stir in flour and nuts
{5} Pour into greased 9 x 13 inch pan
{6} Bake 30-35 minutes
{7} Eat
{8} Eat
{9} Eat
{10} Repeat steps 7-9

7) Zucchini Wrapped Pork with pesto sauce1 small zucchini cut lengthwise into 8 thin slices
1 pork tenderloin cut crosswise into 4 equal portions
olive oil
1/3 prepared basil pesto (no shortage of that around here!)
leafy greens or asparagus (optional)
fresh lemon (optional)

{1} preheat oven to 450*
{2} line baking pan with foil
{3} wrap each tenderloin with two zucchini slices. Place in pan and brush with olive oil. season with salt and pepper and squirt of fresh squeezed lemon juice
{4} roast, uncovered, 18-20 min for 12oz tenderloin or 25-30 min for 16oz tenderloin or until meat is 160*
{5} spoon pesto over each tenderloin just before serving.

Sounds yummy, right? Can't wait.

8) Chicken Drummies

(I don't take good food photos. you can say it. I'm aware.)

ingredients:
-chicken drumsticks (I love these because they are sooo cheap. Aaron does not love these because he doesn't like picking the meat off the bone. The result is that I don't make them very often...but when I do, I remember how good they are!)

-a couple eggs

-shake parmesan cheese (yeah, the crappy stuff for your pizza that you get in a green can that lasts forever.)

-bread crumbs (here is where you can get creative. You can use the store bought Italian bread crumbs and call it good. You can use smashed Ritz crackers. You can make your own crumbs by toasting the heels from a loaf of wheat bread and smashing them in a Ziploc baggie. This time, I used 2 slices of bread (toast, make into crumbs) and 2 large hand fulls of those Red Pepper chips they have at Sam's Club that are 40% pepper (and are totally addicting---thanks a lot, Tia!) smashed to smithereens.

Directions:
{1} in a gallon bag, mix 1 part shake cheese to 2 parts bread crumbs (or whatever you choose to use for crumbs)
{2} beat eggs in a bowl. Dip chicken into eggs, then into the crumbs then BACK into the eggs and into the crumbs again. THIS is an important step to get the perfect crumby coverage and crunchity crusty coating.
{3} place chicken in single layer in a foil lined baking dish
{4} cover and bake at 350* for 45 minutes. Remove cover after 30 minutes.
{5} we like these with el cheapo 99 cents a box Au Gratin potatoes or instant stuffing (shown above).

and now a couple restaurant reviews:
9) Travola Trattoria -this is a newish restaurant in downtown Bentonville that we tried out for our date night last weekend. It has the same owners as Table Mesa (one of our faves) so we knew the food wouldn't disappoint, but I have to say, the atmosphere was awful. Rather than sitting in a cozy Italian restaurant, we felt like we were in a bomb diner slash IKEA cafe slash what had once been a sushi bar. Lots of bamboo and Asian influences, everything was clean and modular like an IKEA, and we were seated in sterile booths, rather than at a linen covered table.
The food? Excellent.
We ate:
Yummy focaccia bread: not much...we were each served one slice of the "we only serve free bread because this is Italian cuisine and that's what we're expected to do", but it was excellent, and I so prefer a small amount of something wonderful over a huge basket of crap that you eat only because it is there and you are hungry.
chicken in lemon sauce: this was fabulous. I need to find a recipe. It reminded me of the lemony sauce chicken from Bucca di Beppo but the chef actually listened when I said, "easy on the capers". It was also loaded with artichoke hearts which were perfect and now I can't imagine a good lemon sauce without them.
a basic pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. The crust was thick and doughy and delicious, which we appreciated, since most of our local pizza favorites serve thin crust to perfection. We were stoked to have a pier 39 style thick crust pizza served to us. It was really good.
We skipped dessert and shared a bag of hot fresh tiny donuts at the movie theater where Aaron was one of 3 males in a packed showing of Footloose (it should be noted that the movie was Aaron's choice). It was a good remake and we totally loved it.
Restaurant Summary: Great food. Get takeout next time. It was too confusing for my brain to eat such a delicious meal, but feel like I was sitting in Hibachi Grill or Hollabong Gardens.

10) Table Mesa is one our favorite dinner spots, so we went there for our date on Saturday night before going to stake conference. We love eating here. The food is always excellent and the service is fast. The atmosphere is nice but not "kid friendly" (which is the main reason we don't take the kids there--it's definitely a date spot). We used to branch out and try new things and they are always good, but none of them top our favorites, the pork flautas with cream sauce, Spanish rice, and black beans. Mmmmmm. We always share an order of sweet potato fries with caramel sauce that are only ONE. DOLLAR. I can't even describe how happy that makes my inner (outer) cheapskate, and an order of fresh guac (their homemade chips and fried plantains are great). I also love their key lime tres leches cake. "It's so good I wanna take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant."

Wow.
Am I still talking about food?
Are you still reading this?
Know what's sad? I'm not even done. I have more to talk about and more yummy food links to share, so come back another day and we'll finish our convo.
Are you starving?
I am.
I need more pie...

More Butterflies and a Gross Biology Cycle.

Have you ever seen anything so disgusting??? These "big green monster" caterpillars or "green horns" can get 4 inches long. Sick. I did a little research and they are the larvae for the Luna Moth...which we also found outside. I sure hope these guys don't eat my tomatoes alive next year.

The caterpillar was eaten by my chickens for breakfast. Huh...the chickens then produced eggs that I ate for breakfast. Our waste water/byproducts will go to the water treatment plant, be treated and turned into compost, which we will purchase next spring to beef up the garden beds. The compost will be host for more green monster caterpillars. There's an amazing/gross biology cycle for ya.

We have a new swallowtail butterfly in the garden this week. They are so pretty.

Butterfly Summer

This morning, we watched a hummingbird fly around on the patio while we ate breakfast.
It was pretty amazing.

Quincy has a pop up book that she got for her first birthday from Mark and Melinda called "Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer" that she loves. The caterpillar eats all spring, and emerges as a butterfly when summer arrives. We are definitely having a "butterfly summer" here!

I had no idea that oregano, marigolds, and sunflowers attract butterflies, but we have quite the butterfly garden out back because of them.

I spy 3 butterflies in this picture. Q identified the buckeye on the left.

A Black swallowtail. These infest Bella Vista every year. So pretty!

"Oooh it smells like peppa up in here!"

The pepper harvest is in full swing.

Fajitas, anyone?

Under the Carrot Top

We are harvesting carrots and there are many many more where these came from!
Anyone have a yummy recipe for glazed carrots?

Speaking of "carrot tops"....I colored my hair red yesterday. It's not as bright or as red as I woul like for it to to be, but it's a nice rich auburn. I'm welcoming the winds of change, this fall.