February 2012!!

Hello hello!  I know that it's been forever since I've blogged but I just had so much to share in pictures that it was definitely time for a posting.  What have I been up to this wonderful month?  Well it went a little something like this:

Got a fabulous new llama necklace!!

Tried my hand at making Scotch eggs from scratch.  I got the meat a little too thick and had to cook them until they were a tad bit Cajun...

Made an argyle heart wreath for V-day

Started harvesting basil and mesculin mix from our basement hydroponic garden!  There is nothing like fresh lettuce in the middle of winter. 

Hope all is well with you and yours!

100 foot dinner

I was so excited after harvesting the garden today that I had to rush right to my blog and share! Ladies and gentlemen, I grew my first SWEET POTATO!!!  That's right!  Who says plants from Wal-Mart are subpar? The folks at White Oak Garden center are getting a little snobby...We sprouted one full sized beauty and due to the lack of watering towards the end of summer a bunch of tiny siblings.  All will be eaten with glee.

On to the topic at hand: 100 mile dining.  The hip theory with all the foodies right now is that you should eat local foods that took less than 100 miles to get to your house.  Well I took that to heart with tonight's dinner.  The meat came from my new CSA and all the veggies were less than 100 feet from my house as I grew them in the backyard. 

Starting at 9 o'clock and moving clockwise we have basil, zucchini, veggie stock from the previous blanching blog entry, tomatoes, carrots and green beans.  At 6 o'clock we have a pound of local lean beef.  After the picture was taken I found the last of our backyard potatoes and threw them in as well.  It was four very small red skinned guys.  I diced everything and threw it in the pot after browning the meat.  It came out looking something like this:

As usual I have no idea the name of the soup as it came from the Lebanese neighbor of my friend Lisa who moved to Port Clinton two years ago.  So we call it Lisa's Lebanese soup.  Trust me friends, it is phenomenal and you should try it some time.  Happy Tuesday!

Welcome Fall!

Well, sort of...I'm not completely convinced that this fall weather is here to stay.  However, I welcome you with open arms since it marks the beginning of crafting season for me.  When it gets cold I love to cook, bake, sew and crochet!  I tried to ease into the season with a little project for my nephew of a felt play pizza.  Take a small pizza box with no grease stains on it:

 Then cut out felt toppings and add to top of box:

 

 And you are ready to make pizza!!

We've also been busy picking an assortment of winter squash out of the garden including a delicata, a spaghetti squash and several butternuts!!  Aren't they just beautiful??

Happy Crafting!

Before and After!

Here is a little trip down memory lane to remember what a difference two months and a lot of sunshine can make...

Peas and carrots in April.

Peas, carrots and a few beets up front in June.

 Swiss chard and spinach in April.

Spinach is gone so the swiss chard is with peppers in June.

The onions from sets in April.

Extreme close up of the onions in June!!

We started some onions from seed straight outdoors to see what they would do back in April in the front of the carrot bed.  Here is how much they have grown by June in comparison to the sets that we planted.  Now we know...

Preserving Party!!

When you have wonderful friends you can ask them to come over on a Saturday afternoon/evening and get them to do manual labor with you.  For the promise of dinner mine helped me blanch, shock and freeze all the green beans, broccoli and swiss chard that we currently had in the fridge.  It went a little something like this:

Harvest and wash veggies...

Cut veggies into bite size pieces...

Blanch for a few minutes in a pot of boiling hot water.  Then immediately shock veggies by putting them into a bowl of cold water and ice cubes to stop the cooking and preserve crispness.

Veggies will be much brighter in color!

We portioned ours in regular sandwich bags and then placed them all in a freezer bag so that they wouldn't freeze in one gigantic clump.

Lastly, Max couldn't take all that garden excitement and decided to harvest all the potatoes.  The baby russets were volunteer experiments from last year where we simply cut up a few old potatoes and threw them in the ground.  The red skinned potatoes were grown from starters we bought at the store.  That's 20lbs of potatoes you are looking at and we didn't even use the entire bag we bought for only $5!  Yum.

Weekend in pictures

Yellow, purple and green bean, banana pepper, jalapeno pepper and green bell pepper harvest!

Only doors and some trim left then it will be a masterpiece!!!

My first winter squash growing big!!  I think it's going to be a butternut...I'll have to consult the package to see what was in that mixture when I can find it...

June Updates!

A quick update on the shed progress.  We are now sporting siding, roof trusses plus a ridge board:

 We've been harvesting peas, snow peas, broccoli and swiss chard from the garden:

Then for my birthday we turned the backyard into a hippie commune and camped out:

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer too!