Tag: tomatoes

The Squash Have Invaded
Gardening

The Squash Have Invaded

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I hope y’all didn’t think the squash had gotten me in my post absence! We have had a lot of them, but I think they’re under control for the moment. Possibly. I trimmed my vines pretty drastically to get rid of the mildewy and dead leaves, so we’ll see if that helps or hurts. At last count, I think I had gotten 15 yellow squash off the single plant I have. Only about 4 zukes though. Luckily, the people at work are still charmed by my increasingly desperate emails if “Please save me and help yourself to the squash in the fridge.”

This was the plant before I cut it.

This was how many squash were growing at the beginning of this week. I have since brought 4 into work and have plans for the others as squash pickles. This is one side of the plant, by the way. The second side had just as many. *nervous chuckles* Yeah, it’s totally under control.

I had so many that we jokingly asked both house repair estimate guys if we could pay in squash. 😆 They both laughed a little nervously and started backing away fingering their car keys. I swear I may have heard both car locks beep to make sure we couldn’t sneak any squash in their vehicles.

My neighbor gave me a second enormous pile of cucumbers, which have made the office manager at work very happy. The first time she gave me some, she snuck a zuke in the bottom of the bag. It’s the enormous one at the top.

The two big zukes have been shredded and put in 2 cup portions in the freezer. I ended up with about 8 cups of shreds all together. Two cups of them went into a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread, which is delicious!

Most of the other things in the garden are doing well. My zucchini plants are having a bit of a rough go, but are still producing. My jalapeño peppers have given me several. I need to make some fresh salsa soon.

My small tomatoes have been growing really well. My bigger tomatoes have been slower growing as well, but I have heard from other people that it hasn’t been a good year for them either.

I have a bell pepper growing and a couple of cucumbers.

My herbs are recovering from it being super hot again, but they were doing really well. I made basil pesto from garden herbs to take up north with us and it was fabulous.

I had a handful of peas and beans, but the squash is doing its best to strangle them.

Piggy likes to browse the herbs for a fresh salad when she thinks we’re not looking. You’d think this would help her doggy breath, but you’d be wrong. 🙄

My nasturtiums are growing all over the place and I love it! I’m going to harvest and dry the blooms for fancy butter for our LOTR party this year and to make fancy floral sugar.

So overall, it’s a good garden year and I’m revising plans for next year already. Soon I’m hoping to start canning things, although I’ll have to find a good source for tomatoes. Wish me luck on that! I’ll send good garden vibes your way!

Gardening, Here I Come!
Gardening

Gardening, Here I Come!

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So first off, I was left unsupervised at a local garden store and I discovered their magical backyard area for the main greenhouse. Plus, I definitely want to support my local small businesses. So yes, I did need all these plants. 🙂

I ended up running out of potting soil for my last two herbs and my little fairy garden replacement plants because I had a lot of plants, but I’m excited to get the garden going.

I did plant seeds on Tuesday and next year I swear I will actually sort markers out, not just assume I’ll remember where things are. It’s going to be a squash and melon battle royale in the corner of one of the beds this year. I have two zucchini plants, a watermelon, and a pumpkin, I think…. May gourd have mercy.

Here’s the bed in question. I switched them this year, since I have had the tomatoes in the same bed for two years.

I have discovered that a true friend is one who will take extra zucchini plants off your hands, by the way. I could only get a pack of 4 plants, but would kind of like to have other things in the garden bed, so only wanted two. She’s also taking some sugar snap peas. The peas are getting their own tripod.

I’m using the same little trellis cage I used last year for beans and have three sets of cucumber seeds ready to go on a trellis, if they actually grow. All the vining things are on the right side of the bed, next to the path. I figured that would make it easy to reach them.

I have a row of carrots down the middle, since they grew so well last year. I added rainbow carrots, because you know I couldn’t resist. Across the front of the bed is arugula and little gem lettuce. There may also be swiss chard and a broccoli? Next year, I promise to label everything.

The peppers are in this bed as well. Nothing fancy, a salsa mix from seed, a poblano, a jalepeno, and a long cayenne pepper. There’s also a couple of bell peppers, one plant and a seed mix.

Now the tomato bed, is as usual, where things get interesting. 🙂 It’s also where I find another definition of a true friend, one who shares heirloom tomato seeds with me! She sent a Better Buy Yellow, a Casspian Pink, a Black Prince, and a German Ruby Green. I planted them all and am hoping they will all grow. I wasn’t able to get myself together to try seed starting again this year, so I have no idea if they will even grow in time, but I might as well try, I thought. Maybe, like the radishes, I might get some surprises.

I will admit that I buy tomato plants by name, not necessarily by what’s actually best for my garden or space. Kind of like my mother when she buys wine actually, so that must be where I got it from. 🙂 So in interesting tomato names this year, I have Mortgage Lifter, Lemon Boy, Pink Brandywine, Green Zebra, and once again, Mr. Stripey! I’m definitely going to try to save seeds this year, in case I can’t find him again. I have a couple of beefsteak and Sweetie cherry tomato seeds planted somewhere in the garden. Possibly next to the extra radishes. I also bought a tomatillo plant! I’ll be excited to try some slasa verde too!

I can’t forget my herbs, of course! I think I need more of them though. My thyme survived a little, but then when it froze again, it was no more. So far, I have flat leaf parsley, Greek oregano, spearmint, lemon verbana, lemon balm, and two kinds of sage, varigated golden sage and garden sage. I haven’t used all my dried herbs from last year, so thought I should try to go easy this year, but I really want more fresh ones to use. I get such a kick out of just stepping out to cut fresh herbs. Makes me feel all sorts of fancy!

My tea pot and the empty pot is basil

The strawberries mostly survived. The ones in the specific strawberry tower did not survive, oddly enough. I think they may have been too dry. The others are growing very well, although I still need to weed them. We even have some berries started already!

I also bought some fairy garden plants to fix my fairy gardens from last year, a succulent to take to my office (hooray for windows!) and some flowers to go in the empty front bed so it looks like we’re doing something in there. I don’t have a good picture of the bed, as it doesn’t look pretty yet, but here’s some of the flowers.

We do have some glorious iris starting to appear. My friend gave us a bunch last year and I’m excited to see the different colors. Here’s the purple one that’s open right now!

So other than the sunburn I’ve accquired, things are looking good for the garden. The Husband rigged a sprinkler temporarily up to water the beds for us and it’s one of the shooting and turning ones and it looks hilarious. We need to get new hose couplings to make the other ones work. We’re going to venture out for mulch and more herbs tomorrow. I will attempt to be good, but you know once I get in the plants, the garden haze descends upon me and I have no idea how all those plants just jump into my cart. Honestly, it’s almost spooky! 😉 Yeah, the Husband doesn’t believe me either, but he sure likes the salasa that we have all summer.

I hope you’re able to grow some fun things this summer. I know it’s perking me up to plant and sow some hope for the future. Happy Gardening!

Gardening Meals!
Gardening · Recipe Roundup

Gardening Meals!

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I love having a garden! I inherited some of that from both Grandpas and it was encouraged and fostered by my Mom. My Grandpa Ollie was a missionary Papua New Guinea who helped with agriculture. My Grandpa Ed was a fabulous gardener and I remember seeing his garden as a kid. I have very fond memories of gardening with Mom in the summer. Mmm… tomatoes fresh from the garden, pea pods off the vine, crunchy carrots, and raspberries! Now I have both garden plants and some very pretty flowers that I do absolutely nothing with. It’s a nice balance. The featured picture is our hydrangeas by our front door.

I have started to get some produce from the garden! I was getting worried, but went out to check and found some cherry tomatoes! I also have peppers to use in pico.

We’re talking about putting in another garden bed for next year, which I think will house the things with vines. I’ve gotten only two tiny baby zucchini this year from my plant. It doesn’t like being in a pot apparently.

Speaking of baby zukes, I had both of them sautéed in olive oil with some Sandwich Sprinkle with the rest of my garden haul tonight for dinner. We also had steak and mashed redskin potatoes.

It was delicious! I could have cooked the steak a tiny bit less, but I was distracted by apple recipes. I suddenly have a surplus, which will be turned into crockpot applesauce tomorrow.

I have officially used the Sandwich Sprinkle on a sandwich! I’ll give you a minute to absorb that information. 🙂 I even took a picture of it to prove it. It did add a bit of zing to the sandwich. I definitely need a bigger jar of it though!

I had fruit salad along with it. I’m a fruit monster in the summer and wanted all the fruit!

We had pizzas made with fancy things too. I used a pizza dough recipe that didn’t require a long rise time from The Kitchn. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-pizza-dough-recipe-221367

It did rise for a couple of hours at least. The Husband had mushroom and ham with fresh mozzarella. I had a lovely Margherita Pizza with fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella. The recipe was also from The Kitchn. https://www.thekitchn.com/easy-recipe-classic-margherita-pizza-recipes-from-the-kitchn-174103

They were both lovely! The crust for mine was baked on an upside down cookie sheet, which made it super crunchy. The Husband’s was also nice and crispy, but I used the pizza stone instead.

Here’s some pictures of the rest of the garden as well. Herbs, tomatoes, radishes, and carrots.

Oh! We have strawberries!

I’m excitedly waiting for them to turn red so we can get them before the squirrels! We don’t always have good luck with that. Things are growing pretty well. I have to re-stake some tomato plants. They’re falling over with the weight of the tomatoes. Next year, I will get some cages and will hopefully be better prepared.

For now though, I will leave you with this very relaxing picture of Fancy. I hope your night is as lovely as her nap was. Good night!

Future Food- Garden Update
Gardening · Life Posts

Future Food- Garden Update

LSieh2 Comments

We have had so much rain lately that the garden is growing pretty much every time you look away from it. I also haven’t had to water it very much at all, but finally remembered to today. We are using the herbs pretty regularly. Tomorrow for our Game Night, we are using some of the basil for lemonade. 🙂

I have massive amounts of all herbs that I think I will start freezing to encourage new herb growth. I’m always a little afraid to harvest them because I might run out, which is, of course, silly. Here are the latest pictures:

The basil box. My purple basil is coming back nicely.

Parsley, rosemary, lemon myrtle, and oregano. I used the rosemary on the lamb rack this week already.

The Sages are growing well. I have plans to use a bunch of the herbs in butter for a big chicken dinner on Sunday. You can see the thyme in the picture as well. The lemon thyme has tiny purple flowers on it that are also edible.

I want to try drying the lemon myrtle, lemon thyme, and pineapple sage for tea mixes. Maybe Sunday will be an herb drying day!

The tomatoes are growing very well. I’m pretty sure one of the second batch of seeds I planted is growing, which is nice. The poor little yellow tomato plant on the end isn’t growing very well. I think the bigger plants are stealing all the nutrients. I gave it some tomato food and some crunched up egg shells. Hopefully that will help. The bigger yellow tomato is doing very well.

My beans and pepper bed is looking well. I have radishes, bok choy, rainbow chard, and carrots coming up as well. It sorely needs a weeding though, but I’m not entirely sure what is a weed and what’s not.

I saved the best news for last! (Although I’m sure I’ll get a phone call from my Dad saying otherwise.) The zucchini plant has five baby zukes on it! I couldn’t get a picture of all of them, but I’m super excited. I’m going to be harvesting these as smaller ones so that I can maybe get some more production this year. It seems to really like the pot, so I will plan on continuing to grow them this way.

I hope you enjoyed seeing our garden! I’m very excited to see that even though I kill houseplants, I can keep a garden alive at least. Maybe there’s hope for the houseplants yet! On that note, I should probably go check the one I have managed to keep alive!

Have a lovely night!

Gardening Update
Canning and Preserving · Gardening · Life Posts

Gardening Update

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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!

Cooking Adventures Of The Delicious Kind
Canning and Preserving · Recipe Roundup

Cooking Adventures Of The Delicious Kind

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We’ve started to get some snow. So much for the yard clean up, I guess. The tree pictures I posted for my picture post were all taken a week or so before the first snow. I suddenly have dog attached anytime I sit down and feel the need for three layers everywhere. Most of my sweater fabric has arrived, so I plan to do a bunch of sewing this Friday to make sure I can actually stay warm this winter. My circulation must be off, because once I get cold, my skin stays cold and I feel cold forever. This winter, space heaters down in my sewing area are a must. That or fingerless gloves and a hat. Brrr… 

Chai spiced chocolate chip muffins with Siamo Spring Tips tea from Tea Runners

In an attempt to stay warm, I have been cooking up some delicious things lately. Fancy got some sweet potato pieces dried. She gets all excited when she sees the bag in the fridge. My dad laughed when I said I made her sweet potatoes with olive oil and cinnamon, but she can’t eat the sweet potatoes raw and both of those things are good for her coat. 

Part of my fun cooking day was on Sunday. The Husband was at his play and I made green tomato mincemeat and the tiniest bit of cardamom plum jam. The jam only made two and half jars. I’m not posting more pictures of it because 1. I didn’t get finished pictures and 2. You all might want it if I post it! I’m finding it very hard to part with. 😉 

I tasted a little of the extra mincemeat and it’s interesting. Vinegary, but not too much, with delicious spices and a little sweetness. Not having had it before, I’m not sure how it’s supposed to taste. 

I used this recipe from The Spruce Eats. 

https://www.thespruceeats.com/green-tomato-mincemeat-3057088

It will be interesting to try it in tarts. It felt super weird with the combination of things that were in my cook pot. There was quite an old fashioned homesteader vibe going on too. Here’s what it looked like in the pot. All those fall spices made it smell delicious!  

Some of the pile of chopped green tomatoes! I did cut the batch in half. 

Here is what it looked like after cooking down for a bit. 

And then the deliciousness after being canned. It got so dark!  

I have made a couple of other things too. More chocolate pudding, this time with my Mom’s homemade kahlua. It was delicious.

We have had Chinese food twice this week. We found these mini wontons at Costco (hooray for sample day!). They are chicken and cilantro based and don’t have any ginger in them. The Husband doesn’t like ginger, much to my dismay. They made a delicious broth with some veggies, garlic powder, white pepper, sesame oil, and soy sauce. 

Our new bowl color- Slate. Kind of like a blueish grey.

Today we had a noodle stir fry with some ground chicken and veggies. I added hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, garlic, sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, water, and a cornstarch slurry. 

My younger brother came for dinner, which was nice. I had texted him earlier in the day to say that the original recipe I had planned wasn’t going to work, but that there would be some kind of dinner. He sent back a text saying “I’m sure whatever there is will be lovely.” Isn’t he sweet? My mother trained him well, I think. 🙂 For the record, both the boys liked the stir fry. 

I want to make Cousin Jack cookies this week, probably on Friday, because I have currants from the mincemeat. Also, pannukaku. I’m out of thimbleberry jam though (hint, hint, mom and dad). My dealer of jam hasn’t been keeping up with the demand. 

In the morning, I plan to try one of these new teas from Tea Runners. I don’t get any money from showing them off, but do have a referral code if you want to try it (disclaimer: I get money off if you use my referral code). It’s a tea club that sends four samples out each month. So far, I have loved it! It’s definitely making me drink more tea and I’m excited to try these. I was especially intrigued by the Carrot Cake Rooibos and the Nutcracker black.  

The fact that it’s run by one of my favorite actresses and her husband, Jewel Staite (Kaylee from Firefly,) makes it even cooler. 🙂 I’m a dork. I’ll admit it. 

Anyway, there is a dog suggesting strongly that I go to bed, or at least cuddle her and share my couch blanket. Since I’m freezing again, I think I’ll join her. Have a wonderful, hopefully warm, night! 

Gardening · Recipe Roundup

Things We’ve Eaten

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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!

Musings
Canning and Preserving · Crafty · Gardening

Musings

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I’ve been doing some thinking on how the blog has changed in the past few months and especially at the amount of change since I started this project. I started it as a way to keep myself accountable for using my recipes and craft books and so far it’s definitely done that. 

I think though, I may have outgrown that strict model. I am still more likely to pull out a cookbook or to find a Pinterest recipe when I want to try something new, but I am finding it very limiting for some types of recipes, such as baking.  

The blog has definitely helped inspire me to sew more too! I am much more adventurous and willing to try new things, as well as finding a ton of new inspiration. I even wrote a short piece with a picture for a huge site, Sewcialists. A year ago, I was still not putting pictures of myself on the blog at all! Now there’s a picture of me with messy hair, wearing bellydance pants!

Don’t worry, I’m not planning on going anywhere, but you may start to see different content. Maybe some original recipes, maybe some tutorials or sewing tips. Possibly even some dog treat recipes! 

I’m also experimenting with the new editor, which is still in the Beta stage. Supposedly, it shows me all my pictures how they appear when loaded, but that’s not true… I was only recently logging into the blog on my desk top and saw that the pictures taken with my phone held a certain way loaded sideways. For the record, they look the right side up when viewed on my phone or IPad. Technology and I do not get along. So be patient please, I will fix them as soon as I can. In the meantime, maybe just use it as a way to stretch your neck? 🙂

I have gotten so far off my posting schedule with all the crazy going on here, that I figured tonight would be a great time to just admit it and start over. Fancy, our adventurous pup, got sprayed by a skunk last week, and we’ve spent most of the weekend attempting to make her smell less disgusting. She’s super stressed, as she doesn’t understand why she isn’t allowed in the bedroom, or why we don’t want her cuddling with us. Poor thing. Hopefully the shampoo and other things will help and she can be a snuggly dog again soon. 

Other things are going well though. The garden is booming! We have peppers galore. I think I may have to can some more salsa this Friday and use these tiny, but super hot peppers in it. We may not be able to eat it, but it will be delicious!

We also have Jalapenos and cayenne peppers growing. 

I will also use these in salsa. 🙂 We even have red bell peppers popping in. I think once I cut back the zucchini enough, they were finally able to grow and get the nutrients they needed. 

I am very excited. I thought the red peppers were going to be a wash this year. I had such lovely plans for roasted red peppers in the freezer. 

The herbs are growing well, except the bee balm. I killed that one by accident. The lemon thyme is growing back slowly. Everything else is good, but I forgot pictures. 

The tomatoes are, of course, growing like crazy! I honestly didn’t expect them to grow this well, but here we are. The Husband had to buy 6 foot stakes for me, as the plants kept falling down! The tomatoes got too heavy. I froze some green tomato salsa using the ones that fell down while being staked. 

It was meant to be canned, but I didn’t have enough head space to safely can it. I haven’t tasted it yet either.  We have two other jars of salsa opened that I should eat first. It smelled good though and I canned it before work!

Mr. Stripey has yellow tomatoes! They were all in weird places to get pictures of though. I’m so excited! I hope they are lovely. My Indigo rose tomatoes are getting huge! They are supposed to be cherry tomato sized, but they seem to enjoy being in the soil much better than pots. They are in the back. The front ones are a bush cherry tomato.

I’ve also made some delicious plum cardamom jam, which I may have to make a second batch of. I might be selfish and keep it all for me. I guess the Husband can have some too… Maybe… If he’s nice to me. It was from Southern Living: Little Jars, Big Flavors. Here it is on a chocolate chip poppy seed muffin. 

I could eat this directly from the jar with a spoon. Maybe I’ll get some more plums for Friday too. 

I have also been crafting for our Harry Potter party. I want to make it fit in with my fall decor so I can use it again. I’m a fan of multi season and purpose decorations. 

These were jars and vases from the basement that I used mirror spray paint on to make faux Mercury Glass. You know, the old glass that’s kind of streaky and wonderful? 

How cool are these? Here’s what some of them look like with LED candles in them. 

They are so pretty! I’m going to try some with colored glass items as well. For our party, we need lots of different glass vases, bottles, and vessels. These items will work through out the year too. It’s been fun to find new  uses for things. 

I’ll have to catch you all up on my sewing too, but that will come at another time. I should probably get to bed so I can finish more projects before work tomorrow. Have a great night!