Tag: garden

Monday Munchies
Gardening · Recipe Roundup

Monday Munchies

LSiehLeave a comment

Sorry for missing Simple Sunday. I had a very bad migraine and screens were making my vision double, so I couldn’t concentrate enough to pick a topic or see to find quotes. I’ll do a Wordy Wednesday post with some pictures and quotes later this week.

I was going through my food pictures though and realized that we have been having a lot of delicious meals. The featured picture is Fancy at our dinner tonight. She was very hopeful that she would get some and was very sad to only get her own dinner. We both seem to be out of our food funk, so even though meal planning has been haphazard, we have made it work.

Tonight, for example, we were supposed to eat yesterday, but the Husband had to go into work. Apparently bad things happen to electronics if the power goes out? 😉 He had to go make sure everything turned on okay. I knew there was no way I was going to make this just for me, so we had a very fancy dinner on a Monday. May I present Garlic and Rosemary Crusted Rack of Lamb?

Rosemary from the garden, olive oil, and garlic made up the crust. I completely forgot salt and pepper and neither of us noticed. Here is the recipe I used. https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/garlic-crusted-roast-rack-lamb

It was very good. Sometimes I don’t enjoy lamb, but this one was much milder than normal and tasted more of herbs than the gamey taste it can get. I think I cooked it just to done, not overly done too, so that was good. We had cheddar biscuits from the Red Lobster mix and I had asparagus as well. I also tried mango sprinkled with Pico De Fruita from Penzey’s.

It’s a spicy seasoning for fresh juicy fruits like mango and peaches. It has a surprising bite, but did give another layer of flavor. I might try this in a fruit salad with mangos and strawberries and see how it is. I think it would be good on grilled pineapple too, which I do plan on making this summer.

Side note, how is it suddenly summer? I still haven’t managed to completely switch my heavier clothes out of my drawers and have realized how many tank tops I need, but don’t have! Luckily, I have a couple of patterns to try, but that’s another story. Back to food!

We have grilled again this last week, on the one day it didn’t rain! Now that I’m home earlier on Monday and Tuesday, dinner can be a little more fun. We had grilled steak kebabs!

I would say I followed a recipe, but my parents told me never to lie. 😉 I did use the cook time in a Food Network magazine, but used our own ingredients and spices. They were seasoned with Sandwich Sprinkle from Penzey’s, which I have used on approximately 10 things, none of which are sandwiches… It’s basically Italian Seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper, if you wanted to try to recreate it. My kebabs were the ones with tomatoes and peppers. The Husband had manly kebabs- no veggies allowed, just meat and starch. They were delicious! We will definitely be making them again. Kebab all the things!

We have had a couple of fancier breakfasts too, not just dinners! I made the sour cream muffins from a couple of weeks ago with blueberries instead of chocolate chips.

They were good, but I think I liked the chocolate chip ones better. The Husband tried the blueberry ones and did like them. He’s not a huge breakfast eater.

I made these egg cups this morning in an effort to eat more protein to ward off migraines. Newsflash, it didn’t work, but they were a good breakfast. They would be a good lunch too.

They are filled with chicken breakfast sausage, red peppers, green onions, mushrooms, and fresh parsley, oregano, and basil. I forgot to add cheese and any spices, including salt and pepper. My brain was having fits this morning. They’re still pretty tasty though. The Husband will hopefully help me eat them. I had them with cinnamon toast, but had eaten in stages this morning, so no pictures.

We had a few standbys: Shells and Cheese with veggies and chicken sausage, Creamy Shrimp Pasta, and Instant Pot Korean Beef.

The Husband had the Korean beef sauce on country style pork ribs in the crockpot, but they messed with his stomach, so I don’t think he ate them all. Too fatty, I think. We haven’t had them in forever, since it seemed like too much for him to eat on his own. He said they tasted good though, just regretted it in the morning.

We did enjoy lettuce wraps too and I had the leftover meat on a salad the next day, which was pretty delicious.

We discovered that the Husband likes Boston lettuce better that romaine, so we might switch to that. Chef’s salad is more appealing in the summer sometimes.

Another really fun new thing I tried was Pineapple Sage Lemonade!

My pineapple sage is growing like crazy and I know you can make it into tea, but the hot tea wasn’t sounding appealing in 80 degree weather, so I made lemonade instead. I looked at a recipe, which I cannot find, but in the end, just made something up. I didn’t think to grab fresh lemons at the store, so I mixed about an 1/8 th cup of lemonade concentrate with water and then added sugar to taste. I bruised and ripped up five or six pineapple sage leaves and threw them in and let it sit for a while. It turned out to be very good! There was a subtle taste of the pineapple sage and it went really well with the lemons. I am planning on trying some cocktails too. Here’s some websites if you’re interested!

https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/pineapple-sage-tea-hot-or-iced-386388

https://punchdrink.com/recipes/pineapple-and-sage-martini/

https://www.fakefoodfree.com/pineapple-sage-bourbon-lemonade/

And some food recipes too!

http://theessentialherbal.blogspot.com/2009/05/pining-for-pineapple-sage-recipes.html

I have used the lemon thyme in my water too, which gives it a lovely flavor. I’m excited to investigate other ways to use the herbs this year, since they are all growing so well!

Fancy is being super weird about the windows. We think there’s a small animal out there taunting her, but we haven’t smelled skunk yet. I’d better go distract her before she attempts to exit the house through the window. Have a lovely (non-smelly) night!

Gardening Update
Canning and Preserving · Gardening · Life Posts

Gardening Update

LSiehLeave a comment

Hello! It’s supposed to rain here all week, so I had to hurry up and get the rest of the garden planted yesterday. The Husband pulled a bunch of dead wood out of the backyard jungle and it looks like we did nothing once again. The three yard waste bags and 3 full yard waste cans belay that notion though.

We haven’t found any other morels in the yard, but we have pretty flowers popping up.

As usual, I have no idea what they are. 😁

I do, however, know what plants I actually planted! I’ll start with the herbs.

Flat Leaf Parsley- I need to chop this back so it grows more evenly.

Garden Sage and Pineapple Sage-

The pineapple sage can be used in teas and is sweeter than the regular sage.

Greek Oregano and Lemon Balm-

Lemon balm for tea and you can make a tea with oregano too, I think. We used the oregano last night to marinate rib eyes and it was delicious.

Three kinds of basil. I just couldn’t stop myself, so we have Purple Basil, Sweet Basil, and Cinnamon Basil.

I’m excited for pesto and for caprese salad. Also, Basil Lemonade!

We also have two kinds of thyme- German Thyme and Lemon Thyme.

Lemon thyme will go in my tea mixes and the German thyme will be for cooking.

We have three containers of strawberries. The ones that I planted in a stacking container haven’t sprouted yet, so no pictures of that. The other two were ones that survived the winter and I separated.

Eventually we would like to have berry bushes in big containers near the garage, but we have a few stumps to dig out first and we’re going to put gravel down too.

The tomato plants all have trellises now out of twine, but it was starting to sprinkle after I had finished them, so imagine them all with twine.

I couldn’t find Mr. Stripey or the Indigo Rose tomatoes this year, which was a bummer. I do have a Yellow Canary Cherry tomato, a Lemon Boy hybrid, a Mountain something or other, 2 Romas, a Cherokee Purple, a Juliet grape, and a Husky Red Cherry tomato. I did buy one of the super fancy tomatoes, the San Marzano tomato plant. I seem to be missing a few, but I think I might have duplicated the cherry tomatoes too. I’m hoping the twine will help keep them in check. A couple of the plants have flowers already!

The second garden bed doesn’t look super exciting yet.

I planted bush beans in the spot with the trellis, and replanted carrots along the back. There’s also Swiss chard and bok choy along the sides. Radishes along the other edge. For peppers I have a purple bell, poblano, serrano, and jalepenos. I’m thinking of trying more pepper seeds in the ground, ut if it keeps raining, I may just have to go with this. Even though there should be a good amount of stuff geowing soon, I still feel like I could be planting more. Next year, I’m starting the seeds later so they don’t die. Also, I will be using bigger plastic pots to help keep them stable longer.

I also have a zucchini and two rhubarb plants in pots. The rhubarb hasn’t grown yet, but the zucchini looks nice and healthy.

The hydrangeas in the front have blooms. I don’t know if I’m supposed to pluck them to make them grow more leaves or not, but they seem healthy.

My flamingo flock is also coming along nicely. 😂

I bought this one at a city garage sale yesterday. It was made out of pvc pipe and affixed to a paver stone. I still haven’t named it yet, but the artist made sure to tell me that I could name it whatever I wanted. He also said that because it moves a little in the wind, it might work as a pest deterrent in the garden. I’ll try anything cor the squirrels, so it might be my backyard flamingo.

This year a bunch of the local cities are holding rummage sales in parking garages or other city areas and it’s very convenient. It’s a weird mix of vendors and items, but worked out for us yesterday. We found two Wii games, the flamingo, and I got some Lego pieces for work. There’s a couple more coming up, so we might go see what we can find. 🙂

Fancy has been excited about the warmer weather. She likes it when our windows are open and she can smell all the things happening. She’s also helpful when we are messing with sticks. This is her, after the kids across the street went back inside.

I’ve started my canning prep list and am going to try to start having at least one canning/freezer prep day every couple of weeks. The mason jars are taking over the house again. I have a few recipes that I can make whenever; Jasmine Tea jelly for my FIL for Father’s Day, pickled red onions, and pomegranate jelly. I will probably try to do some of these this Friday. I don’t think I have much else planned.

For now though, I need to start getting ready for work. Have a great day!

Gardening, Here We Come
Gardening · Life Posts

Gardening, Here We Come

LSiehLeave a comment

The Husband said I had to write about our gardening adventures because “we did a lot and it still hurts, so everyone has to know!” He’s got a way with words, that one… We did honestly do a lot though and I’m excited to get such an early start. I just have to keep an eye out for frost advisories.

I experimented with starting from seeds this year. A few more of them need to go in the garden still, but it poured so hard today that I had to dry off Fancy when she had to go outside. We did put in some plants and the Husband told me about the bulb planter that we had that I didn’t know we had. It cuts a neat little hole out of the soil! It was very helpful. I was covered in dirt, so didn’t get a picture of it, but it’s a cool tool.

We had pepper, tomato, carrot, onion, cabbage, broccoli and watermelon seeds that sprouted. They were a little sad looking when I put them in the soil, so I’m hoping that they will perk back up. Otherwise, I will need to plant some more and try again.

The seeds we are using are from a seed vault that I convinced the Husband I needed back in our last appointment when my prepper anxiety was at it’s peak. (We also ended up with a 12 inch cast iron Dutch oven…) I hadn’t wanted to use them until I had a real garden and they were sealed up super tight. Apparently they will keep for a rather long time if I refrigerate them. They were from the Patriot Seed Company.

There are a lot more seeds than I can use and some that I know we won’t eat, so I’m trying to figure out what to do with them. If you want a packet of cauliflower seeds, let me know!

So the can itself was sealed with a piece of heavy duty electrical tape and then the seeds were double sealed in a resealable foil packet and vacuum packed in an even smaller foil pack. They included all the info you needed to plant them too.

We’ll see how they do. I planted only two of them. I wasn’t sure how much cabbage we would eat.

Another proactive thing I did this year was to cage the spots where I want the tomatoes to grow. I only have twine on one of them so far, due to the rain, but the plants are still pretty short, so I have a little bit of time. Here is a picture of the tomato spots ready to be caged. Hopefully that will help keep them in check this year.

I have a couple of pepper plants planted at the corner, I think. We have sprinklers in both middles, as last year our soaker hoses seemed to not be working well. Here is the pepper and other veggie bed.

All the places with sticks or stakes have something planted there. I’m just waiting to see what grows. The carrots are along the back, onions are along the side, and broccoli and cabbage are along the front. I’m planning on planting peas or beans where the little cage is and trying zucchini staked vertically in a pot. I also have rhubarb to grow in a large pot and a bunch of strawberries, some of which are from last year. They survived the winter and I bought another pack of the roots.

My herbs will go into a cinder block pyramid by the garage, but the space isn’t cleared yet. We’re also planning to have berry boxes by the garage, to keep them out of the yard, but those will be a multi-year project before they grow viable fruit. This Saturday we are planning on tackling those areas. Luckily, we have our massage the next day, so will be hopefully less stiff for Monday. I will also remember to put on sunscreen, so will hopefully not have weird sunburn marks again.

Speaking of general yard work, after our garden work on Saturday, we tackled the front of the house which had gotten to be a disaster. We do have birds nesting in one of our window boxes, so although we took down two of them, we couldn’t get that one down yet. The birds freak out if we get too close. The part we did work on was the part to the right of this picture.

We’ve also chopped down the wisteria (we think?) by the front door as it kept trying to trap us in the house and brought a ridiculous number of beetles with it. That thing was hideous. We tore out all the daisies, which look half dead for most of the year, the terrible asparagus plants (actually yuca?,) and the random big purple bush thing. It felt lovely to rip it all out and start again. We planted two hydrangeas to match the ones we already had. Here’s some in progress pictures:

Ugh! I hated those plants with a passion. There was a layer of landscape fabric and what looked like lava rocks and a plastic layer under all the dirt. The fabric stuck to the roots, but we left the plastic down. I may have done a happy dance when we finally got rid of those terrible plants. Now it looks a little pathetic, but hopefully the hydrangeas will grow quickly.

I don’t have a picture of the jungle we’re tackling next week, but will make sure to grab before pictures. I’m excited to get things cleaned up. Last year, we didn’t have time or energy enough to start on things. This year, we’re planning small, specific chunks of time and projects and that seems to be working better. Maybe in 5 or so years, the yard will be what we want it to be. 🙂

For now though, I should probably go to bed, so I have some energy left for my long day tomorrow. Wednesdays are not my favorite days. Have a lovely night!

Simple Sundays · Uncategorized

Simple Sunday- Gardening

LSiehLeave a comment

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther

“To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“If a tree dies, plant another in its place.” – Carolus Linnaeus

“A weed is but an unloved flower. ” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“The secret of improved plant breeding, apart from scientific knowledge, is love.” -Luther Burbank

Gardening · Recipe Roundup

Things We’ve Eaten

LSiehLeave a comment

I’m still not sure what I want to do with the food portion of the blog. It’s a little hard to write about it when you don’t actually want to make food most of the time. Here’s some pictures of our meals lately and some food puns, because they are hilarious!

We had fried chicken and “velvety mashed potatoes” for dinner tonight from Fried and True. It was a Tyler Florence recipe, so we watched Food Network while eating. 🙂

I think we’ve decided we don’t like the texture of purees. They end up feeling funny. This one tasted good, but not enough for me to make them again. The chicken had a little bite to it and was delicious. 

We had lo mein last night. I tried to use a recipe, but ended up just making one up. The sauce from the recipe wasn’t good, so I made my own with soy sauce, a little sugar, sesame oil, rice wine, and garlic powder. Oh, and a little water. It was enjoyed by all. Fancy freaked out and then napped, since we had a friend over for dinner. 

We had caramel or macaroon brownie cupcakes. Okay, now, I have a super secret here… The brownies are the triple chocolate Ghiradeli box mix! I love them. The macaroon recipe was on the side of the box and I have been meaning to try it forever. The Husband doesn’t like coconut, so I added caramel bits to half of them instead. The brownies separated in the wrapper, but still tasted good.

Spaghetti and lasagna made an appearance as well. There were garden tomatoes, oregano, and basil in the sauce this time. 🙂

This was my tomato haul today, so I had plenty of them for the sauce too. I’m contemplating the multiple ways to use up the tomatoes. 

I think this is a 2 or 3 quart bowl? Mr Stripey has give us a few,  you can see one at the edge. They are very pretty!

We had herbed french bread to go with the spaghetti. 

Carbs on top of carbs! 

The Husband had pork this week and I made an alfredo sauce with mushrooms, garden tomatoes, fresh parsley and garlic to go over noodles. Mine looks much prettier! I picked out all the tomatoes for the Husband. 

I made a roux and then added the veggies, cooked them all down, added the cream and cooked it until it was all bubbly. Added grated parm too, for extra fanciness!

One last pun, just because… 🙂 Have a great night!

Fancy Sewing
Life Posts · Sewing

Fancy Sewing

LSiehLeave a comment

Fancy is shocked that this is not a post about sewing things for her!

I do have a dog costume book, but she is not so fond of things on her head. She is going to come with us to Renaissance Fest next year, so we may rig up a cape or something to attach to her harness. 🙂  

I did sew my fabulous costume and am quite proud of it. We went with K and J again and she made their costumes as well. Here’s a picture of K and I all pretty!

We had a lot of fun! We got to see some fun bellydance and a really cool African drum group. And shopped, of course! 

I had originally planned to go as a pirate, but got this crazy idea to make a vest and had started the shirt already. The skirt I had from my first bellydance at the Ren Fest. It was cold that day, so I was glad to wear my handmade purple leggings underneath. 

Here’s the details of the vest and shirt. Fancy was super interested while I was taking pictures. It probably smelled like turkey legs and all sorts of other things. 

I made it from a linen table cloth, given to me by a friend and her mom for experimentation purposes. It’s currently unhemmed, because I couldn’t decide how to finish it off. It’s pretty short, but I didn’t realize it when I made it that it would be that way and didn’t have a huge amount of fabric. The sleeves are made from a lace piece I had in my stash. The elastic twisted, but it isn’t really noticeable when it’s on. Despite the chill in the air when we got there, the linen was quite comfortable.

I wasn’t going to make something, but then my harem pants went wonky and I didn’t have a vest to match. Then, on Thursday, while driving to work, I thought “I should just make a vest with the peacock brocade!” For once my rational brain and emotional brain were in full agreement and when I texted the Husband and K, they both were very enthusiastic. My fate was sealed. I needed a new vest! In a day and a half!

The vest was actually the pattern I was supposed to make last year, so I had cut the pattern pieces already. I had this peacock brocade from a while ago and still have enough for at least a set of panels for a dance costume for my October dance. 

It came out so pretty and elegant! I used a cotton batik for a lining. The trim was from a Knitpop sale. I knew it would come in handy for something. I did have to buy the buttons and elastic cord. One side came out notched and one straight and I, of course, didn’t notice until I had sewn it all together. Brocade also frays like there’s no tomorrow, so unpicking it is not an option. Grr… 

Here’s a closeup of the details. This was before it was sewn, I was just checking to make sure it would match.

I had pretty flowers in my hair and a very large coin necklace to go with it. It was fun to get all dressed up again and I may use the vest in my October dance. Here’s a detail shot of everything. 

I’ve sewn regular things as well. I made this bicycle cardigan and it’s very cozy, but light enough for the weird transition point between summer and fall. I am making weird faces in all my full pics, so will post a shot later. 

In other craft news, my friend K made us these fun pictures for the Harry Potter party and I didn’t post them with the wands like I should have. I love the light/dark quote. 

I love them and am excited to display them. She did a great job! 

Hailing from my childhood, I decided to make use of my scraps from my clothes and quilts to make some American Girl doll clothes for my Etsy store and couldn’t resist buying this set of official doll patterns for my American Girl, Kirsten. I even had pretty close to matching fabric. This should be a fun experiment, I think. Maybe I can talk my Dad into a making a little spoon for her spoon bag. 🙂  I also bought a doll size treadle sewing machine online because it was the cutest thing ever and can you imagine the photo opportunities?

I haven’t been making too many new things for vending in October because I have so much! I’m hoping to make some things out of the vegan leather I bought, but I haven’t figured out what to do with it, or how to sew it. I need to find out what needle to use. It’s very thin, so I don’t know if a leather needle is needed. It’s also slightly stretchy. Hmmm…. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In garden news, the squirrels have declared war and I have accepted their challenge. Fancy has been showing more interest in chasing them, so I’m hoping they will stop stealing all my tomatoes! Terrible squirrels! The young jalepenos have also been targeted, but not eaten. They are super spicy this year, so I hope the peppers burn their furry little butts! 

I’m late at work this week, for most days, so that might limit my sewing time, but I have plans! Fall is sweater weather, so I want to replace the ones that don’t quite work with more comfy ones. Secret pajamas make the winter bearable! 

Right now though, it’s off to bed for me! Have a lovely, cozy night!