Vegetable Adventures: Next year already?

This week's thoughts have been focused on next year.  Yep, already.  Here are my notes.

• More plants in pots in the sun ~ Our yard is quite shaded and is the kingdom of a 70 pound dog.  We have a few spots that get more sun than the current beds but they are not protected from the dog.  The best alternative for sun is in a pot, outside the yard fence in our drive way.  I would like to be able to use the lovey rasied beds for everything... but it seems the more I put in the pots, the more veggies I will reap.
• Use more compost ~ Realized lots of grass clippings in the compost pile is a good thing.  I do throw most all of my produce 'trash' in it also.
• Get plants from the Farmer's Market & local growers ~ the tomato plant we bought at the Farmer's market has 10 little green tomatoes, the four from the garden store only have one each.  They are different varieties, but I'm thinking the local grower may have a better idea of the right variety for our climate.
• Use new seeds or plant starts ~ thinking this especially for the lettuce.  We would LOVE to have TONS of lettuce but didn't get any this year with second year seeds, of which only 50% sprouted.  Then 100% of that 50% didn't grow well at all.
• Keep the herbs ~ my complete success story is the herbs!  Love them! I like to go out and pick some for dinner every day.  And I plan to learn more about drying and storing yet for this year.

PS. Sorry for the photoless (possibly boring) post.

Ah summer.
Vacations. Heat. Baseball games. Work. Long evenings. Cooking out.  Sun. Friends. Farmer's Market. Garden.

There is no menu again this week with all the fun things going on.

Vegetable Adventures: Tomato and cucumber plants

It's fun when we go away for the weekend and come back to a garden or plant that seems to have grown a lot; a difference I often don't notice when watering and monitoring twice per day. This weekend the cucumber plant showed what it's made of. I just hope the growth continues to the fruit!

Click below for more garden inspiration:

Welcome to our swamp

Three different days with a Severe Thunderstorm Warning over the last week lead to a soggy yard.

5 Star Meals

I enjoy cooking. 

I like trying new recipes and falling back on old favorites.  Each week I try to put a new meal on the menu.  Thing is, Ryan and I like a bit different style of taste in meals.  So sometimes we'll try a new one of his, and sometimes it will be one of my choosing.  Always trying to find that middle ground.

Last night, I made a new goulash recipe.   As we were finishing I ask the standard new-recipe questions, "Should I make this again? Often? or just once in a while?"  Last night's response... "Not a fan". Translated, I would eat it but don't make it again.  That's what I want to know... and it's on to the next new recipe to try.

Later that evening, talking with some other ladies, one mentioned that she and her husband had a 5 star rating system.  He would rate the meals based on 5 stars and put it right on her recipe card.  Sometimes she would want to make his favorite meal... or she could warn him "It's a 3 star meal tonight." 

Great idea! Went home, told Ryan and he responded that he was actually thinking about something like that during dinner.  So, we're going to implement the Recipe Rating System.

*****5 stars = Yum! Make it everyday!
****4 stars = It's good. You can add to the meal rotation.
***3 stars = I like it.  Make again someday.. but not too often.
**2 stars = Edible, but don't make it again, please.
*1 star = No good.  Didn't even finish it the first time.

These will probably show up on the weekly menu plan, as the blog is a good place for me to track things like this.  And then you can get to know our tastes... I know, how exciting! [with a hint of sarcasm]

Vegetable Adventures: Sun

Thoughts of this week:
It seems to me that a professional gardeners plot would not be so shaded at 5:30pm on a summer day. This is my plight. It's our second year of gardening and more than that of owning this house. We didn't buy the house for it's 'garden-able' yard - in fact it was all the shade that we liked. At the time I didn't foresee a veggie garden in our future. But now I'm definitely hooked and looking forward to more land and sun.

This photo isn't the clearest, but it's a good view of the garden overall... including accessories (named Camden). I know there is so much more I could do to make this more abundant, and sometimes I wish I put for the effort. But for now, I'm just working with the time, sun, soil, and chicken wire/snow fence I have.

On a more encouraging note, things in pots are doing well.
(Yes, I purposely put the green pepper in a pot because it's my favorite.)

And this first year with herbs is a huge success. I enjoy that when cooking I can just step outside and pick the needed herbs! Sunday I harvested some basil and rosemary and hung to dry.



Click below for more garden inspiration:

Menu June 13

Sunday: Chef salad, fruit
Monday: Feast with friends: Fried chicken, cole slaw, cheesy potatoes, green beans, dessert. Yum!
Tuesday: Goulash
Wednesday: Grilled dijon pork steaks, roasted green beans, potatos
Thursday: Ryan's choice
Friday: use the Quiznos coupon?

Dog's Bliss

Signs of a good time

It was supposed to keep him out

There is something very interesting going on in the bottom of our firewood pile. Camden has been doing his best to investigate the past couple of weeks. And creating a little chaos and destruction of the pile .

Since it is just firewood, we don't really mind, but for the past week Ryan has been doing his best to keep Camden out of the area. But the little fence seems to be no match for a dog on a mission.

Look at that cute innocent look on his face. What? Am I doing something wrong? But this is fun."

He gets in ... then has a hard time getting out.
Me, in a cheerful voice: "Camden, are you coming?"
Camden: "Uhh, Can I go under here?"

"How about here?"
"Come on, dude."
"Umm, I'm having troubles getting out." Insert dog whining here. "How did I get in here?"

...five minutes later:


"Now when I can go back to do more investigating?"

Landscaping

something my husband is only slightly better at than I am. Actually, I'm just a plant killer. I can grow veggies (because I reap the harvest) but plants just to look at don't last long in my care. Add to that almost full shade and under the eaves and it makes a horrible spot for me to work with.

Shortly after we moved in, we consulted with a local garden store and tried this.


Shortly later (ok maybe a year or two) those were all dead, save for those grasses in front of the window sill that are flourishing.

Today, Ryan shopped the 50% off plant sale at our local grocery store and came up with some new options. The hosta was given by a co-worker.


So, here's to hoping I can post another photo in two years in which all of the plants show the same growth as those grasses.

Sunday: Pasta Carbonara with homemade pasta
Monday: Pork with parmesan sauce, herbed broccoli
Tuesday: Gingered Chicken and Bok Choy (I think we're going to try this one.)
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Ryan's choice
Friday: Buffalo Chicken pizza, salad

Pasta on Sunday

Today, I decided it was time to finally put a fun Christmas gift to use. Using the pasta attachment for my KitchenAid mixer, I tackled homemade pasta for the first time. I'd been putting it off, thinking it would take a really long time to make. Actually I thought it might be one of those things that gets easier the more I do it. To my surprise it was easy to figure out and didn't even take that long the first time. The pasta could have been cooked and eaten right away but since it is still a bit before dinner, the pasta is drying ....

...and the floor cleaner-upper has finished his job. See that lazy dog in the background? :)

From a cruise to bok choy

Interesting post title? ...... here's the story.

When we went on the cruise last summer we stayed with friends in Seattle. A bag of veggies appeared at their door while we were there. They, of course were expecting it but we had never herd of this CSA thing. So an informative conversation occurred while Kelly sorted through her bag of surprises for the week. Our interest was piqued.

We looked into some local CSA's in our area last fall, thinking the closest one required a 40 minute drive. Not so economical or green. This spring Ryan discovered one in our own town. We considered for a while, went to gather some information and ended up signing up for an alternate list. Being somewhere around number 15 on the list I wasn't hopeful. But this week I received a call there was a bag available! The fun adventure begins.

I say adventure because we were told there would be veggies we've never had or cooked with before. And this bag didn't disappoint.

Of course, I know what to do with these beauties.


But we need some ideas for the turnips and bok choy. What have you ever made with these?
We might try this recipe I noticed in a Rachel Ray Magazine or do a handy dandy ingredient search on one of the recipe websites.

Vegetable Adventures: Something ate the Spinach

I actually laugh when I see these spinach stems. They look so ...umm... funny (which is why I laugh) and pokey, even if they should be a little saddening. So it seems our spring spinach will have to come from the farmer's market. I might try a fall planting this year and I think it's one of those plants that can grow again this year!

The broccoli is still growing good and the beans sprouted nice and strong over the weekend of neglect while we were out of town. Thanks to my husband's rain collection and drip hose idea the garden stayed watered. Then I get home from work today and only one still has leaves. Hmm... what likes spinach and beans but not peas or lettuce? Time to do some pest investigation - the dogs have quit doing their job.

In another area of the yard, the green pepper looks good and healthy.
I'm beginning to really see there can be so many ups and downs with gardening. And I'm glad my attitude is keeping me going rather than giving up. I'm ready to keep planting and learning and harvest more every new season!

Click below for more garden inspiration:

Four Day Weekend!

I'm a little off with the weekly posts I recently started. There is no menu plan this week and Garden Tuesday is going to be Garden Wednesday...



...because....



... I spent the weekend here

and here

(with a beautiful mountain top view ... from in a cloud.)

and here


with these fine people!