Tag: herbs

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!

Simple Sunday
Gardening · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday

LSiehLeave a comment

“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.” — Rudyard Kipling

“Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes.”                – Unknown

“Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts.” -Sigmund Freud

“Gardening is learning, learning, learning. That’s the fun of them. You’re always learning.” – Helen Mirren

 

Yearly Review- Canning and Gardening
Canning and Preserving · Gardening · Monthly Review

Yearly Review- Canning and Gardening

LSiehLeave a comment

Hello again! I thought I would separate out my canning list from my recipe list to try and make it not so long. I probably have one more review post and then it will be back to the normal posting schedule.

We were going to go to the zoo today, but I woke up with a sore neck and shoulder. Too much relentless partying! 🙂

Canning Review:

So I wanted to get more canning done than I actually was able to do. I still have the whole canning tomatoes in the freezer. I think I’ll just chop them up and use them whole.

Here is what I did get canned this year.

Apple sauce, two batches from The Ball Blue Book. I have no pictures of the second one for some reason. One batch of applesauce was canned and one is in the freezer. The Husband only likes the second one. The first one was too smooth. It works very well for cooking though and I like it, so all is not lost.

Tea Blends! I’m going to count these as canning because they are in canning jars. I made them for my vending event and when they didn’t sell, my craft ladies  happily snapped them up for Christmas. It was so much fun to put them together and I still have a bunch of the materials, so I would like to make some more up for me as well.

Pickles from The Art of Preserving. I didn’t like this recipe, but the ones with extra garlic went over very well. I will try more pickles with a different recipe for next year.

I also had my first burst jar in the canning pot. It was scary, but not as messy as it could have been.

Rhubarb marmalade from Taste of Home Canning 2012. This was delicious. I quite enjoy it on toast and on yogurt.

Strawberry Marmalade from Taste of Home 2012. This is also delicious and I like in lots of different ways.

Rhubarb BBQ sauce from the An Oregon Cottage website.   I liked this, but it’s possible the Husband is allerfic to rhubarb, so I haven’t used it since. This was a freezer recipe, it was too low of a PH level to safely can.

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate from Ball Canning online. This is lovely. I wanted to make some blackberry as well, but didn’t get to it. I have some blackberries in the freezer, so may try it. The Husband likes it with Sprite. He was excited to have our own lemonade.

Gardening Review:

My herbs did very well. I was able to move the rosemary plant inside even though it got caught in a snowstorm.  I was excited by how pretty this picture looked and it was also exciting to get to cut my own fresh herbs for foods. My only problem was keeping them watered enough. My work schedule was not conducive to watering schedules.

Strawberries! I waged a war with the squirrels and the ants to get some strawberries for us. We actually got a bunch this year and I’m hoping the plants will survive to be used next year. They are protected in the garage.

We got one zucchini! I brought it up with us when we went up to visit my parents and we had it sautéed with other veggies. Sadly, the plant didn’t survive much after this.  It was not happy in a pot.

Gardening Goals and What I Learned:

Next year we need to get the raised bed set. Now that we know how much work it will be, we’ll set aside a gardening weekend early. We’re thinking of putting raised planter boxes by the garage with berries in them. Perhaps the ants will not get them this year after all.

What I learned was that consistent watering needs to be a priority. Also, learning what is up with my tomatoes to stop end blossom rot would be good. I can’t stop it, it seems, but am hoping that when they are in an actual bed with tomato cages they will be less prone to it.

I am not good with cucumbers either. The only one I got this year was bitter and inedible. Blech.

Canning Goals: 

Try a pomegranate or wine jelly this winter. Put aside a few full weekends for canning. Prep everything one day and can the next.

Learning: Smaller goals? Make sure I have the time to properly deal with my produce.

I hope you enjoyed this review. It’s a good feeling to have these things prepared to use in the winter time.

 

Garden Start and Canning list
Gardening

Garden Start and Canning list

LSiehLeave a comment

Fancy has been doing a lot of napping to recover from the weekend. She got to go up to the cabin on the lake, had her first boat ride, and discovered the joys of digging in the sand. She was a very good dog and has even been invited back. I took a bunch of pictures of her and have a special lake dog Wordless Wednesday planned.

Today though, I thought I would share our garden progress. We did end up going with containers and there’s a chance I lost all self-control while picking things out.

It was originally just about 10 pots, but that wasn’t enough. Now I have strawberries, ancho/poblano  peppers, red bell peppers, cucumber, zucchini, romaine lettuce, and a “Mammoth Jalapeño.” That last one I got by accident. I thought it was a dragon cayenne pepper, but didn’t read the tag. I will be very disappointed if the peppers aren’t huge!

The tomatoes have to be listed separately, as I got seduced by all the tomatoey goodness and couldn’t stop myself. I have a cherry tomato plant , a Roma plant, a “Cherokee” heirloom, a “Golden Jubilee” heirloom, and a “Brandywine” heirloom.  I planted them sideways in the containers, as it was my Grandpa Ed’s secret for excellent tomatoes and added plant food as well. I hadn’t known that trick, but had trouble with spindly tomato plants last year and thought I would try it. My Dad reminded me if it when I was telling him about the garden.

The blueberry bushes both look like dry sticks, but I watered them and put them in the sun, as one of them had some new leaves. Hopefully they will come back.

I also have a ton of herbs: Sage, rosemary, parsley, German thyme, Italian oregano, and basil.

I decided to grow my own tea herbs this year, since I know a lot of tea drinkers. (They should probably forget about this post, if they read it, or at least act surprised when I give them tea for Christmas.) For that project, I purchased peppermint, chocolate mint, Lime basil, and pineapple sage. I’m planning a tea making party in either July or August, depending on when people can come. I thought about getting some edible flower plants too, but was in a rush. I may get some of those later.

Yes, those are the cinder blocks for the raised bed. I figured while they were not being used, I would use them to keep the smaller pots out of the shadows.

I also started planning my canning list last night when we got back. It’s very long, so it will be fun to pick the things I am actually going to do. I’m through two of the books and have 2 1/2 pages of things to make already. The Husband will be glad the canning jars are finally leaving the kitchen shelf. He’s been telling me to can “all the things!” for a few months now. In my defense, there just wasn’t time last summer and they make great storage containers.

I have four canning books and magazines, two Ball books, one called “The Art of Preserving,” and a Taste of Home Canning magazine. I had to resist the urge to get a new Ball magazine at the store today, reminding myself that I had four already. Plus, there is my Pinterest list as well. I want to try to do other types of preserving this year, including some different pickles (yes, Mom, for my pickle tray) and some fruit lemonade concentrates. We’re always buying the fancy lemonades and it would be handy to make our own.

Right now I have definite plans for Roasted Tomatillo- Chipotle Salsa, mango raspberry jam, Thai Sweet Hot Garlic Dipping Sauce, homemade Rotel, cardamom fig jam, and a Spicy Wine Honey Jelly. Tomato products of all shapes and sizes will be canned as well; diced, crushed, sauce, and paste.

Hopefully, if my canning plans work out, I can have lots of homemade Christmas presents. I always get silly and nervous about giving people homemade presents. Perhaps this year will be the year I can squash that and make a new tradition.

Right now though, I’m off to work and to dream up new canning plans. Wish me luck with everything in the garden. I think it’s the biggest I have made on my own before!

Crafty · Gardening

Garden Thoughts and Sewing Update

LSiehLeave a comment

It finally feels like it might be turning into spring for real around here and I’m starting to think about gardening. I meant to start from seeds this year, but as usual, time kind of got away from me and I wasn’t able to do so.

Last year, we had just decided to buy our house, so I ended up using a container gardening system. It worked pretty well, we had a ton of jalapeno peppers, a fair amount of tomatoes, and fresh herbs. Two years ago, I grew tomatoes and basil on an apartment balcony and got enough to make Caprese salad for a party. This year, I’m hoping to beat both of those years.

We are planning out a raised bed using cinder blocks. We’ve got a space about 5 feet by 16 feet marked out right now and know how many cinder blocks we will need. We’re planning on digging down a bit of the dirt, so we have enough space for the plants to grow. I’m excited for the garden, but not necessarily for the digging part. The spot is along our side fence and we’ll leave enough room to walk around it to weed. It gets mostly all sun, with some shade in the afternoon. I used this website to get some ideas for garden beds.

https://www.weedemandreap.com/12-raised-garden-beds/

So far our list is probably pretty ambitious. I’ve grown or attempted to grow most of these before, so hopefully the garden will be good. I’ve also got some friends who are excellent gardeners, as is my Mom, so I should have enough support if it all goes horribly wrong. 🙂

We’re trying to grow the things we most commonly eat. It doesn’t make sense to grow things like pumpkins or beans, as the Husband doesn’t eat them, so it would just be me. We are growing zucchini though, because I can shred them into soups and things and the Husband will eat it that way.

Our list:

Cucumbers, lettuce, onions, hot peppers, bell peppers, garlic, carrots, zucchini, and tomatoes.

I go through canned tomatoes like water sometimes, so if we can grow some to can as well, it would be a very good thing. I am expecting to buy some canning tomatoes still, but we can try to at least get a good start.

These are some of the cherry tomatoes I grew last year. I had a really cool variety called Indigo Rose, the bigger ones, which start out black and gradually turn red. They seemed to have a richer flavor than regular cherry tomatoes.

Herbs on the list:

Basil, Thai Basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley, and chocolate mint. I’m sure there are some more that I will see and immediately want to grow, but these will be a good start.

The herbs may be grown around the edges in pots, depending on how much room we have. The chocolate mint will be put in a pot and kept very controlled. The Husband says I shouldn’t grow mint, but I have Christmas present plans for it…

I also have this cookbook called Cooking From the Gourmet’s Garden that is herb based and I’m excited to grow my own herbs to use in the recipes. They all look so fancy and intimidating!

Two things that concern me are the skunk that seems to come around about once a month and the squirrels that are constantly around.

Last year, one of the squirrels kept eating my tomatoes halfway and leaving them by the door for me to find. What a jerk! He stopped when I started sprinkling cayenne pepper over all my tomatoes with great glee. I like to imagine his imagine his reaction at the first spiced tomato that he bit into.

As for the skunk, some friends use a dog safe deterrent, so I think we’ll try that and see how it works. I haven’t smelled the skunk in a while, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still around, or won’t be attracted to the food.

We are planning to start composting again. We did for a while, but it was too difficult in the apartment, so the bin got retired to my in laws’ house. This year we are planning to get a compost tumbler to make it easier on both of us. Hopefully, this will get our trash down. We’re already doing pretty good with this, most of our trash gets recycled, but it will be nice to do it again. And as a plus, we’ll be making more food for the garden.

I’ve been exploring natural pest control options lately too. Since we have Fancy, we want to make sure that everything we use is pet safe, especially as she has been wanting to be outside more. We’re hoping she doesn’t decide the garden is her new digging spot, so we’ve got some fencing options lined up already. I’m planning on companion planting to encourage good growth and using marigolds around the edges to stop some of the bugs. What other methods are out there for natural pest control?

Those are all our plans for the garden. Hopefully we can get things done in the next couple of weekends and can get started soon!

A small sewing update: I did get the Rainbow Snowball quilt ironed today, but the backing flannel needs to be washed before I can use it. It is very red and may run, so I need to find my other similarly colored fabrics and do a big load. I also got my sewing machine set up downstairs again and unpacked a sewing crate to add to my shelves. No pictures, as is all in the basement, and there is no good lighting down there. It felt good to get it a little more organized.