How does my garden grow?

Grilled Smoked Chili

2014-09-23T06:09:00.000-05:00

Last year, I saw a Twitter post from @WeberGrills about grilling chili. My husband and I saw their video http://www.weber.com/weber-nation/blog/fall-comfort-in-the-form-of-grilled-chili and knew we had to try it. First, we had to buy the Weber Original Gourmet BBQ System Hinged Cooking Grate and the Weber Original Gourmet BBQ System Wok for our Weber Grill. Then the fun began.

We've grilled / smoked chili now several times. Every time we add something different. We make a large amount so we can freeze it. We bring out the chili goodness while watching football on TV or just a lazy day of not cooking. Our last batch of chili went together like this:

Getting the grill started.

Roasted onion slices, home grown jalapenos and poblanos

Added 2 heads of fresh garlic (in foil) to roast as well

Onions and peppers ready to chop

Peppers and onions all chopped and ready to go

Almost forgot to char the green peppers grown from my mom's garden.
Garlic still roasting.

Grilled up a cup of chopped bacon

Next, 2lbs of course ground beef

We had leftover smoked pork from the week before and froze.
Decided to throw that in for added flavor and texture.

Time to throw in the grilled bacon!

There's all the meat.

Add grilled, chopped onions and peppers.
Also added chopped celery.

Stir it all up!

Added large can of tomato sauce and a can of crushed tomatoes.

Stir that all up

Added a bottle of Ale, a cup of beef broth and my mixture of spices.

spices:

1 TBL salt
2 TBL freshly ground peppercorn medley (red, green, white and black)
2 TBL paprika1 TBL chile powder
1 TBL chipotle chili powder
1 TBL ancho chili powder
1 TBL ground cumin
1 TBL dried oregano
¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper

Stir the spices in

Looking great!

While grilling, we had to keep adding more liquid.
So keep water or broth or beer handy.

Add pinto beans and black beans. I had cooked a cup of dried bean (each type) the day before separately. You get a good amount of beans from dried. Plus I didn't add extra salt (which you get from canned).

Oops, we have to get that roasted garlic in there.

.Simmered away for a couple of hours, adding liquid when needed.
We also had used soaked pecan chunks on the charcoal throughout this whole
process, from the peppers/onions to the end of grilling our chili to add a nice smoky flavor.

What a great chili. I hope you try grilling some chili. It sure is fantastic!

Enjoy!

Raspberry Jalapeno Jam

2014-07-17T17:49:00.000-05:00

First I picked my jalapenos and raspberries from my garden.

Of course, can buy them if you didn't grow them :-)

Then I rinsed them in cold water.

INGREDIENTS

4 cups raspberries
2 large jalapenos with seeds, chopped (less heat if no seeds)
6-1/2 cups sugar
1 packet Certo (liquid pectin)
7-8 1/2 pint Ball canning jars (sterilized)

Get out your big water canning pot. Fill with enough water that will cover the jars 1-2 inches. Start that boiling because that takes time.

Now on to the jam. I do things a little differently. I like to make my jam seedless. I put the chopped jalapenos with seeds and raspberries in a 6-quart pot on the stove and cook them down a bit, making them soft and extracting some juice as well. Cook for maybe 5-10 minutes on medium low heat. Pour the raspberry/jalapeno mixture into a blender. Blend it on high for a couple of minutes. You may need to do it in 2 batches. While blending, wash out the pot. When finished blending, place a fine mesh strainer (like the one above holding the washed raspberries) over a big bowl. Pour the juice blend into the strainer. Take a spoon and stir the juice. The juice goes through the strainer and the seeds stay. And I'll say, there is a big pile of seeds! Raspberries have a LOT of seeds. I throw the seeds away. You do what you want with them. Anyway, pour the juice from the bowl into a measuring cup. Actually, I'm lucky enough to have a BIG measuring cup so I use that as my bowl. You must have 4 cups of liquid. If you need to, add some water. You can get away with adding 1/2 cup of water. If that still falls short, you'll need some more fruit! Now pour that 4 cups of raspberry/jalapeno juice into your clean pot.

Pour 6-1/2 cups of sugar into the juice mixture. Stir until sugar dissolves. Cook on medium heat until there's a rolling boil (stirring all the time).

Have your Certo packet ready, open and standing in a cup because things can go fast! When the juice is at a rolling boil, pour the liquid Certo into the juice and stir for 1 minute. Then take it off the heat.

Time to ladle the jam into your jars. Fill to 1/4" from the top of the jar. Wipe the rims clean, and place the sterilized, heated lid on top. Take a ring and twist to finger tight on the jar.

Hopefully by now your water canner is doing a good boil itself. Using the jar lifter, carefully place your jars into the boiling water. Make sure the water is 1-2 inches over the top of the jars. If not, add water. If you do, make sure the water starts boiling again. Place the lid on the canner and heat in the boiling water for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, take out your jars carefully with the jar lifter. Don't shake or tilt. Let the jars sit for 24 hours. I love the sound of the "ping" when a jar seals. If a jar doesn't seal within an hour, refrigerate it. I know, a jar can sometimes take a couple of hours to seal, but since that doesn't usually happen to me, I would rather err on the side of caution and be safe with my canned food.

Enjoy!

The Seedlings are Grounded!

2014-05-21T15:49:00.000-05:00

My seedlings, which I lovingly grew from seed were placed into the ground this past weekend. It was one week past my intended planting day of Mother's Day. My husband plants my garden every year with direction from me :-) for Mother's Day. This year, while visiting his mom the day before Mother's Day (as is our tradition), he was trying to imitate some martial arts moves that his younger brother was showing him. While he impressed his brother with getting the moves right, I knew that the old guy was going to be in no condition to be planting the next day. I was right.... as usual :-) As luck would have it, there was even a late snowfall on May 16th that my seedlings missed, not being in the ground. Talk about thankful!

It took all week to get the husband back to normal. We were excited to get things started. We have the back garden along our fence that used to be just all tomatoes. No tomatoes this year!! That garden is in 3 sections. The first section has my 3 brussels sprouts seedlings. First time ever trying to grow these.

The middle section has a poblano, habanero, cayenne then another poblano. The cayenne had already grown a flower on it before we even put it into the ground. I did pinch that flower off. Those plants have some growing to do before they are ready to flower!

In the third section of our back garden, we have my 3 cubanelle seedlings.

And here's the entire back garden

Then we moved on to the garden right behind our house.

To the far left, we planted our herbs. The only thing that survived this past winter were my 3 huge bunches of chives. Goes to show, not much can kill those suckers! Rosemary, thyme, parsley, etc... didn't make it. We had to buy basil, parsley, sage, thyme, tarragon and marjoram. For some reason, cilantro and rosemary were not at the garden center. I still have to get those, as well as mint.

Last, but not least, we planted the giant jalapeno seedlings. This is the first year that we decided to go with less and spread out the jalapenos. We have 13 (don't ask why 13, it just came out that way) this year, when we usually go for 20+. We've never had a problem crowding in the jalapenos before, but the husband wanted to experiment. So why not see if our jalapenos yield as much or more than the past. It would be real sweet if it's more!

While the husband was planting the garden, I made up a quick snack. When he was ready to sit down (all right, he took a shower first), I brought out a tray of cheese and crackers, with some of our chives from the garden. I gave him a little dish of ranch dressing on the side. And brought out his favorite chilled Lynfred Winery Sangria Rouge Wine. It was like a taste of summer. Perfect!

And here we played with designing our cheese and crackers.

Time to sit back and watch our garden grow!

Lynfred Winery Event: SANGRIA WINE DINNER AT THE MELTING POT

2014-05-16T10:10:00.002-05:00

It's no secret that I'm a long time fan of Lynfred Winery in Roselle, IL and their name came up in conversation as to where we could go and meet a couple (Steve and Kendra) who love wine and food like my husband and I. I had never met them in person, but talked with Steve before, who used to work in the telecom field. My husband, Glenn, had met Steve before on the job. During our conversations through work, we found we had a lot in common, food, wine and gardening.

We kept up the conversations after he left telecom for the insurance industry. Talk about getting together for dinner came about when we were discussing our seedlings and how they were growing. His through aquaponics, mine in dirt. Steve suggested going to one of the Lynfred Winery events and we decided to try the Sangria Wine Dinner at the Melting Pot. We were drawn in with the true words from Lynfred Winery...

The Chicago winter has been brutal and a taste of summer is what we all need! Join us for a Sangria-themed wine dinner at the Melting Pot Schaumburg!

The weather is still brutal. It's snowing. On May 16th. Crazy.
But, I'm glad we went to the dinner. I finally met Steve and his adorable wife and we had a great time!

We got to The Melting Pot at 6pm and were there until 9:30, way past my usual bedtime, but I digress. Our conversation flowed from food and wine to eagles and puppies to gardening. All the while sampling Lynfred Sangria wines and eating fantastic fondue. What was on the menu?

Cheese Fondue – Cranberry Walnut Cheddar with Lynfred Sangria Rouge
Served with different types of bread cubes, apples, carrots and cauliflower.

This cheese fondue was fantastic. I hope I remember the ingredients they used to make it, which our super nice, bubbly and informative server did in front of us. The Lynfred Sangria Rouge, or the red sangria is what we called it, was paired perfectly with the cheese. My husband, Steve and Kendra all liked the Sangria Rouge as the best wine of the evening.

Salad – Strawberry, Mandarin and Almond Salad with Lynfred Sangria Blanc
My husband put fresh cracked pepper on his salad. I had to taste the pepper on the strawberries and mandarin oranges, and I really liked it! Goes to show, you can add cracked pepper to just about anything and it enhances the flavor. The Lynfred Sangria Blanc was my favorite wine of the evening. Light, fruity, and a hint of sweet, went very well with the salad.

Entrée - Kiwi Lime Shrimp, Teriyaki Sirloin, Ahi Tuna, Honey Orange Chicken with TMP Grand Sangria

We all agreed the shrimp was the best in the entrée. Maybe it was because that cooked the fastest in the broth fondue and we were all hungry. But the kiwi lime shrimp was to die for. Though everything else was delicious as well. We all realized that the TMP Grand Sangria tasted quite a bit different than the first two sangrias. Then we realized that TMP stood for The Melting Pot. It was their sangria, not Lynfred. While it was good, we preferred the Lynfred. Are we spoiled? I would say so. Be that as it may, we thoroughly enjoyed the entrée.

Chocolate – Passion Fruit Yin and Yang with Passion Fruit Sparkling Sangria

So we forgot to take a picture of the coolest dessert ever. Forgive me, we were getting tired, and full. This dessert was so awesome. The two different chocolates, swirled to form Yin and Yang. And the sweet things to dip into this decadent chocolate fondue, were too many. Let me see if I remember some of them... rice krispie treats, brownies, chocolate chip cookie bars, pound cake, strawberries and more. This alone could have filled us up easily, without dinner. It was the wow factor. And the pairing of the tart and effervescent Lynfred Passion Fruit Sparkling Wine was of course, absolutely perfect to end such a wonderful evening.

Thank you, Lynfred Winery and The Melting Pot for a wonderful evening!

Seedlings First Day Out!

2014-04-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

Temperatures in the Chicago area hit the 70's today for the first time this year. It was time to put my seedlings outside to start and acclimate them. I put them in the shade so as not to shock the living daylights out of them since they've never been outside before. I would hate to have the sun scald them before we even begin! It must be done slowly. One year, I mistakenly put them in the sun right away and they just keeled over. I caught them in time as I put them in the shade and gave them water and told them to man up. Can't be having weak plants! They perked up. Nice to have something listen to me for once. LOL!

These are my giant jalapenos outside on the deck.

Cayenne, habanero, cubanelles, poblanos and brussels sprouts.

My seedlings are outside and just loving it. Tomorrow is set to be another gorgeous day as well. But my little seedlings better get as much sun as they can because they are calling for possible snow Monday morning. Got to love the midwest!!

My Seedlings are Growing! Indoor Seed Update 3/27/2014

2014-03-27T11:27:00.000-05:00

It started out at 30 degrees this morning with a little snow coming down. But we are expecting temps close to 55 today! Up and down with the temperatures. Makes you wonder how summer temps will be.
Let's check on how my seedlings are doing.

Above is my tray of giant jalapeno seedlings. They are growing so well. Most of my seedlings have grown to over the height of the cup. They all have their second set of leaves in. I added about 4 tablespoons of new dirt in each cup to help strengthen my seedlings. They are all standing tall!

My second tray of seedlings carries brussels sprouts, cayenne, habanero, poblano and cubanelle peppers. Sadly, one of my cubanelle pepper seeds didn't come up. That's ok, I still have 3 more which is plenty for us.
Oh, and my habanero seed never came up either, so I replanted and have two small seedlings growing in the same cup. That's ok too. They will catch up once they are in the ground. I found that out last year. My brussels sprouts were the first to come up of all the seeds and are looking mighty fine. All these seedlings are not as tall as the jalapenos yet. But I did add 2-3 tablespoons of dirt in each cup to help them out.

Here are some closeups of my seedlings.

Giant jalapenos growing extremely well. Aren't they looking good? I love the giant jalapenos because we stuff them with cheese and herbs, wrap in bacon and grill them. I can just taste them now. Bring on summer!!

Above far right and the plant in front are my 3 cubanelle peppers. Growing well. In the way back to the left are my 2 little habanero plants. My 2 poblano plants are between the cubanelle and habaneros. Certainly not as tall as the jalapenos. But they will get there.

In the far left hand corner is my one cayenne pepper. It was the first pepper seedling to come up. Still kind of short. This is the first time growing this pepper. I'm hoping for lots of cayenne peppers so I can make my own cayenne powder. We use that quite a bit here.

And here is my biggest brussels sprout plant. I have 3 of them. One is kind of puny, and the other is big, but doesn't stand up straight. First time growing these as well. Always interesting growing something new.

Keep on growing! You'll be in the ground one of these days, my little pretties!

First Day of Spring!

2014-03-20T12:13:00.000-05:00

Happy first day of spring!

Woke up this morning and opened up the drapes and this is what I saw!

Snow. Bah humbug!

This past winter has continued to defy us! Well, I know that the temperature is rising and we should end up with approximately 49 degrees as a high today. Maybe more. The snow is just about melted already. Yes! Time to kick old man winter to the curb! Tomorrow is supposed to get to 60, and then our luck changes again. Back to cold weather. This up and down stuff will be changing soon, and the thought of snow will be in the distant past. I hope.

I then looked at my all my seeds that I planted indoors. They are doing very well. It really makes you think of SPRING!! I'll have to add more dirt to the cups soon as my seedlings continue to grow. Who is not ready for spring and gardening to begin?!!

Preparing for Spring. Planting Seeds Indoors.

2014-03-03T08:59:00.001-06:00

Who's ready for spring? With all the snow and cold we've had this winter, I really shouldn't have a need to ask! This past weekend, we got 4 more inches of snow, and now the chill factor came back to greet us with subzero temps again. #Chiberia is a fun place to live!

I usually plan to start my seeds indoors about 2 months before Mother's Day. Around the Chicago area, Mother's Day is usually a good day to plant outside. Of course, give or take a week or so, depending on this crazy weather we have. This past weekend was the time to start my seeds indoors. Time to get my hands dirty!

My setup is extremely simple. I have a small shelving unit with three shelves. This year, I'm only using 2 shelves. A couple of years ago, my husband and I bought 2 growing trays with the covers and little heating pads that goes with them. So we will use those. The bottom tray is so very light plastic, that I've noticed it has started to crack and break. Something to worry about next year.

Usually I start my plants in small clear plastic cups (with holes drilled into the bottom of the cup). Then I transplant to a bigger cup with more dirt when the seedlings are big enough. This year, I sent my husband on a mission to get 16oz clear plastic cups. I will add dirt as the seedlings grow in the same cup. Well, the husband came home with clear green cups. He said that was all he could find in the size that I wanted. The stores probably just had the green cups out to try to sell for St Patrick's Day. Ah well, we go with the flow!

The husband was kind enough to drill the holes in the bottom of the cups. I labeled each cup with a black Sharpie pen, as to what seed was going to grow there. I mistakenly didn't label last year. What I got was a habanero growing in amongst my cubanelle peppers. So this year, I labeled!

Filled each cup halfway with gardening soil. Then it was time to plant the seeds. In went 13 giant jalapenos, 4 cubanelle, 3 brussels sprouts, 2 poblano peppers, 1 cayenne and 1 habanero. Added some water to each cup. Placed the lid on the plants and made sure the little heating pads were plugged in.

I don't have grow lights. Maybe one day I will, but it is not this day! My plants face the north. Not optimum for the best sun. But it is the best and biggest area available to grow my seedlings. They do tend to grow "leggy". When it's time, I just place them deeper into the ground, maybe stake them up for awhile, and they take off like crazy. Never had too much of a problem with "leggy" plants. Leggy meaning spindly stalks.

Now comes the best part. Waiting to see my seedlings pop up through the soil. Let's do some growing!

January 1 musings...

2014-01-02T07:14:00.000-06:00

It's the first of the year. I'm tired of snow. I had put in my request for snow only on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but obviously my request was ignored. It is time to fight back and start thinking about the warmth and pleasures of springtime.

Is it too early to think about what I want to plant in my garden this year? I don't think so. This year we will do some more experimenting. We'll put in different veggies!

One thing is for sure, we won't be growing tomatoes this year. Basically, because we suck at it. We had great luck with tomatoes for about 2 years, then BAM, we suck. Blossom end rot all the time. We tested the soil and it's good. We watched our watering. We changed from roma types to regular round tomatoes. Bought plants instead of growing from seed. Nope, we just suck. So instead of wasting our time and money on growing tomatoes, we're going to change things around. Mix it up a bit.

Must haves in our garden are peppers. What kind? Large jalapenos, cubanelles, poblanos and a habanero. We had 2 habanero plants last year. This year, only 1 will suffice. We had so many habaneros from 2 plants that I ran out of things to make with them. I made habanero hot sauce which was a hit with my whole family. But an even bigger hit was my habanero mint jelly. Ok, I forgot to put the mint in there and the jelly didn't 'set', but I added red pepper flakes to give it an interesting texture and color. It's fabulous on meatballs and shrimp, probably on just about anything.

More herbs this year for sure. They did great in the ground. Better than in my deck pots. Maybe we'll try our hand at brussel sprouts or lettuce or beans. I received my big Burpee catalog and another catalog called Jung Seeds & Plants on New Years Eve. It's time to look through them and come up with my 2014 garden wish list.

Happy New Year!

Carne Asada Marinade

2013-08-17T11:57:00.000-05:00

What to do on a weekend with fantastic weather? It's time to grill. Especially time to grill using some of our own garden produce! Since it was a slow, lazy Saturday morning, I was in a quandary as to what to grill today. No plans whatsoever as to what to grill, except picking some of our homegrown poblanos. Stuffing and then grilling them. I mentioned this on Twitter, and one of my Twitter friends mentioned Mexican. Oh yeah, what better goes with stuffed, grilled poblanos? Carne Asada. Pretty much it means, "grilled meat". You marinate that meat (usually skirt steak) in a wonderful, aromatic marinade for a couple of hours. Then flash grill (quickly sear) that piece of meat, and you're ready to enjoy some terrific Mexican food. Here's my marinade recipe.

Carne Asada Marinade

2 jalapeno peppers seeded and minced (I used 2 from my garden)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced
2 limes, juiced
1 large shallot, minced
1 teaspoon raw sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon fresh Mexican oregano, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried)
2 tablespoons red wine (I use cabernet)
1 tablespoon tequila (optional)
1/2 cup olive oil

As you can see below, I put everything in a small container and shake it up, then pour on the meat. Refrigerate the marinating meat until it's time to grill.

Carne Asada with stuffed poblano (from my garden), refried beans, and tortillas - hot off the grill!

Brat Bites

2013-07-05T11:52:00.000-05:00

My husband got a new grill for his birthday, and he decided that he would christen it on the 4th of July with a new recipe, Brat Bites.

Brat Bites

Bratwurst - 1 package - each brat cut into 8 pieces
Onions - 1 large - sliced thin with a mandolin slicer
Jalapenos - 3-4 large - sliced thin with a mandolin slicer
Bacon - 1 package - slice the strips of bacon into thirds
Toothpicks - soaked in water for at least an hour

Take one piece of bacon, and place some thinly sliced onions on top.

Add a brat slice on top of the onion,
then add a slice of jalapeno on top of the brat.

Bring the bacon up over the top of the jalapeno
and secure with the water-soaked toothpick.

Hubby uses a wire rack, but the brat bites can be placed right on the grill.
It's easier for him to place and take off of the grill all at once.

Grill at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes with indirect heat.

Looking great!

Perfect! Ready to eat!

Enjoy!

Rose Petal Jelly

2013-06-23T08:51:00.001-05:00

Growing so many roses gives me a chance to make one of my most favorite jellies, Rose Petal Jelly. First and foremost you must not use insecticides or anything on your rosebushes. Second, you must choose blossoms that are healthy. Cut enough petals to fill about 2 cups worth.

Rinse those petals off!

Pour 4 cups of the distilled water into a 4 - 6 qt pot.

Place the washed petals in the pot with the water and slow boil them
until water level is about half. It doesn't take too long, so stir and watch.

Strain out 2 cups of the rose petal water.
Add 1/4 cup lemon juice.
Discard used rose petals, and clean your pot
or use another one. I cleaned the same pot :-)

Add 4 cups of sugar to the pot.
Add the rose petal water / lemon juice mixture.
Stir the mixture and turn on to medium heat.

Stir to dissolve the sugar. You need to watch this carefully.
Stir until it starts to boil.
Have your liquid Certo all ready opened and ready to pour.
Once the mixture starts to boil, add the liquid Certo.
Stir until it boils for a good minute.
Then you are ready to can your Rose Petal Jelly.

Steps in processing jams & jellies

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/uga/uga_steps_proc_j_j.pdf

For more info on canning jellies and jams, go to:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can7_jam_jelly.html

There's nothing like rose petal jelly on homemade herbed bread.
I made rosemary bread which we enjoyed with the rose petal jelly
while we watched the Blackhawks game last night. Go Blackhawks!

Rose Petal Jelly

2 cups, fresh cut, rinsed rose petals

4 cups distilled water

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 packet liquid Certo

4-5 half pint canning jars (sterilized) with lids

Make the rose petal juice:

Add the rose petals and the 4 cups of distilled water to a 4-6 quart pot.

Boil down to about half the water - 2 cups.

Strain out the rose petals and collect 2 cups of the rose water.

Add 1/4 cup of lemon juice to the rose petal water.

Make the jelly:

Add the rose water / lemon juice mixture into a clean 4-6 quart pot.

Add 4 cups of sugar, and stir.

Turn on medium heat, stirring and watching until the mixture comes to a boil.

Have the packet of liquid Certo ready to pour. Cut the top off of packet and have it sitting open propped up in a cup or glass.

When the mixture boils, pour in the liquid Certo.

Stir constantly until the mixture boils for a good minute.

Turn off the heat.

You are ready to can your Rose Petal Jelly.

Enjoy!

Pepper update

2013-06-17T10:20:00.000-05:00

As I still bemoan the fact that I started seeds late this spring, with my seedlings being planted when they were only 7 weeks old, I'm hoping that my plants will start to grow taller soon. In the past, I've grown my seeds indoors for at least 12 weeks. So at this time, while my pepper plants look great, they are on the very short end to what I'm used to seeing. They've been planted in the ground for 30 days now, and many starting to blossom. While, I'm sure that the slowness of growth is because of the strange cold weather we have had this spring, I'm hoping the heat we've had lately will start to make our peppers shoot up in height. I'm used to seeing 3-4' jalapeno bushes!

Cubanelle peppers. According to analytics, people come to this blog by searching mostly for information on cubanelle peppers. We're growing 16 plants this year in two different garden spots. Ten of them in our usual pepper patch against the back of our house. And six others out in the tomato garden which has much more sunlight exposure. I'm conducting my own experiment to see which grow better. Always fun to experiment!

Habanero peppers. Something new for our garden. We're growing two of these this year because my husband wanted to try them out. Not my type of pepper. I like heat, but not that much. The husband and our son like the hot stuff, so we're trying it. So far, very short, but as you can see, there are some blossom buds starting to come in.

Giant jalapeno. We grew these from seed last year for the first time. Fantastic jalapenos! These are the ones you see at the grocery store that are 3-5" long. They are thick-walled and perfect for stuffing and grilling. Our giant jalapenos are growing pretty well so far. They are taller than the cubanelle peppers and have many buds ready to blossom.

Giant jalapeno.

Poblano peppers. We love our smoky tasting poblano peppers. Last year, we were disappointed for the first time at the plant yield. Maybe it's because we had five of them? But we only got maybe four poblano peppers altogether. This year we are back down to only two plants with more room to grow. Hopefully we will see more results this year!

Cilantro. OK, it's not a pepper plant, but it sure is growing crazy!
Time to cut some of that to be used with dinner tonight.

Happy Growing!!

Alliums, Roses and Robins

2013-05-25T10:20:00.000-05:00

Checking in to show the progress of our flower garden "island". Our daffodils are gone, but the alliums are in full bloom. At least one type of allium.

There are various sort of alliums and long ago, we planted 4 different types. The round purple ones you see above. The clustered ones shown below, Nectaroscordum (which are technically not alliums, but a very close relative) which will bloom soon. Drumstick alliums, which I think are coming up yet. There was a fourth type we had, but it did finally die off two years ago.

Nectaroscordum

Bigger garden picture.

We've got roses galore in our garden. And as you can see all the rosebuds, we will be having plenty of blooms soon!

The last few years we've had robins hatching in one of the two weeping cherry trees that we have in our flower garden. Last year we had 3 baby robins in the other tree. This year, four. We don't even know how they all fit in there!

The chrysanthemums are still coming up.

Happy gardening!

The peppers and tomatoes are in the ground!!

2013-05-19T15:05:00.000-05:00

It's always exciting to get plants into the ground. My husband and I planted the peppers and tomatoes this Sunday morning. The herbs were already planted. We grew giant jalapeno, poblano, cubanelle and habanero plants from seeds. And couldn't wait to get them into the ground.

Another view of our just planted pepper and herb patch.

Here's a closer picture of our herbs. The chives in the left hand corner have been there for 3 years now. We decided to cut down some tomato cages and place them around the chives (also the parsley and cilantro), so that the herbs don't lay on the ground. Keep them neat and tidy as well. We have thyme and rosemary behind the chives, then come parsley and cilantro in their cages. To the right from back to front, we have marjoram, tarragon, dill and basil. We've already harvested chives.And it's looking like harvest time again real soon!

The picture below show our giant jalapeno seedlings. We have a total of 14 planted. There is a very small seedling up front in the middle row. We shall see how that one grows.

The picture below shows 2 poblano plants in the back row. The next 2 rows we planted 10 cubanelle peppers. The two peppers up front are the habaneros we decided to try this year.

Against the fence of our backyard, we have a long, thin garden which we always just planted tomatoes in. We've always grown tomatoes from seed. But not this year. We ordered 3 Super Sauce Tomato plants from Burpee, which are brand new this year, and they were just delivered to us this week. Hopefully we'll have good results.

In each third of the "tomato" garden, we decided to try something new again. The Super Sauce tomatoes are supposed to grow 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide. So we only planted one tomato plant in the middle. We planted 2 cubanelle peppers towards the sides of each box. So 3 tomato plants and 6 cubanelles in the back garden. We want to see how the cubanelles grow out in full sun as well as the semi-shaded ones against the back of our house. Always experimenting, we are! We have a total of 16 cubanelle plants growing from both gardens.

Now the true growing season for us begins. Updates to follow.

Happy gardening!

Herbs Herbs Herbs!

2013-04-29T05:56:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend we visited Meijers. They have the certain cat food our big old cat loves for the cheapest around. But when we got to the store, they had no cat food left. Gone!! Feeling sorry for the cat and for ourselves, we checked out the gardening section at Meijers. The husband got himself a new rake, and I hit the mother lode on herbs. Who doesn't love to cook with fresh herbs?

We bought rosemary, parsley, thyme, sweet basil, tarragon, dill, cilantro, mint and marjoram. There was no oregano out yet, and we already had sage (or so I thought). We went home happy enough... poor cat.

Herbs from Meijers

Herbs in our garden.

When we arrived home and decided to check out the garden, we found that the sage we had in the garden for years, had died. Probably when I asked the husband to clear out half of them since we had too much of it, last week. Ah well, maybe this year I'll plant some in a planter on the deck. Though I still have a lot of sage that I dried last year.

You can see how well the chives (lower left corner) have grown this spring, in the picture above. This is the first year that we have planted rosemary, thyme, tarragon and marjoram in the ground. Growing them in planters has always been successful for us. The hubby and I love to experiment. Time will tell if we did the right thing for those herbs.

We saved one rosemary plant for the deck planter, as well as the mint. Mint spreads like wild fire, so that definitely stays on the deck, contained in a planter. Can't wait to get oregano and perhaps the sage into a deck planter as well.

One thing is for sure, in the above picture, that row of herbs on the right is in the row we have always planted our first row of jalapenos. Hopefully, the jalapenos won't take offense like the sage did.

☺

Happy gardening!

The Joy of Chrysanthemums

2013-04-27T12:10:00.000-05:00

Over 20 years ago, my husband and I designed a little garden island in the front yard for our flowers. Throughout the years, we've had roses, irises, tulips, alliums, carnations and chrysanthemums. Roses and chrysanthemums, "mums", have remained a constant, where others have perished, or have been banished from our garden.

The tulips and carnations never took off there. But we had real tall irises and two yucca plants that just took over the whole island. They have since been banished. One of my sisters took the irises last fall, but no one wanted the yuccas. Now, the irises were very pretty, but they were so tall that they always fell over. Same with the yuccas, though not so pretty.

Since I'm basically lazy when it comes to flowers, that's why I stick with mums. They fill in a garden in the fall with such gorgeous color. And you don't have to do really much of anything to them. Mums can be annuals or perennials, and I always buy perennial since they come back every year. Only once did I mistakenly get some that were annuals. Never again! They, of course, died. If I took the time to dig a hole to put a flower plant in the ground, it better grow and come back every year! Did I say I was lazy??

I usually plant one new mum every year. This year, it's the Matchstick Chrysanthemum. It's a little different than the usual daisy head-ish looking mum. I like the unusual. Just wait until my unusual alliums come up! Unusual is cool.

Our little flower garden island.

Matchstick Chrysanthemums

Take a peak at what they will look like on the link from Burpee below.
http://www.burpee.com/flowers/chrysanthemum/chrysanthemum-matchsticks-prod003057.html

Mums coming up this spring in our island.

Our flower garden needs some cleanup! And that's just what the husband and I intend to do this weekend, while waiting for the perfect time to work on our vegetable gardens. We have a lot of space from getting rid of the yuccas and irises on our little island. So planning something easy for those areas. We have tried to keep the flower garden as maintenance free as possible. Our flower garden gets taken care of maybe once a month, since we are usually busy all the time with our vegetable gardens in our back yard. Looking forward to that soon! Time for flowers now.

Happy gardening!

Growing Pepper Seedlings Update

2013-04-25T07:41:00.000-05:00

Who's getting anxious to start planting seedlings into the ground? Me!! It's been fairly cold out but I'm still looking at the Mother's Day time frame for planting. But only if I see the temperature at night is consistently above 50 degrees. So my seedlings may or may not be in the ground on this Mother's Day.

Since I started growing my seeds late, they are not anywhere near the height they've been at in previous growing years. They seem to be growing really slow this year. It's probably just my imagination. And I really shouldn't worry too much.

Last year I started my cubanelle pepper seeds later than the other seeds. And when I put those tiny seedlings in the ground, they looked like they may not make it. But, all of a sudden they took off and caught up to the others. Here's what my seedlings look like right now.

giant jalapeno about 3-4"

giant jalapeno

poblano 1-2"

poblano

habanero 1-2"

cubanelle 1-2"

I received an email from Burpee that my Super Sauce tomatoes should be arriving today. I can't wait to see how those giant roma tomatoes grow. I believe I'm going to be getting in my matchstick mum plants as well. The tomatoes won't go in the ground yet. But I will be planting the chrysanthemums!

So far on my seedling count:

16 giant jalapeno seeds... 14 up

16 cubanelle seeds... 15 up

2 poblano seeds... 2 up

2 habanero seeds... 2 up

Surprise Vegan Dalek Wedding Cupcakes

2013-04-21T10:59:00.000-05:00

My daughter decided she was going to have a wedding that wasn't traditional. She and her husband to be decided they wanted a Maui destination wedding. It was just the bride and groom along with the parents. The bride and groom had a gorgeous beach wedding with the sunset photos that will live forever in our memories.

A little background on the bride and groom. They are both professional people. The groom being a high school English teacher. The bride has a bachelor's degree in business and she works at a software compliance company. They are gamers who could play video games for a good part of the day if they were able to. They are also into Doctor Who big time.

When my husband and I were in Maui for the wedding, we of course had to go shopping. We saw a t-shirt that had a stick figure bride and groom that had GAME OVER on it. A perfect shirt for gamers who are getting married! Well, we didn't get the shirts, but did mention it to the "kids". They thought it was hilarious!. After the minister pronounced them man and wife, my husband had to say GAME OVER. Everyone had a good laugh about it. Memorable for sure!

Back on the mainland, our daughter's 2 grandmas were planning a Luau wedding reception. The new groom's parents were going to throw a family reunion together in their home state as their reception. Did I say our families are very non-traditional? Anyway, my mom (one of the grandmas) was in charge of the wedding cake. She decided to make cupcakes. Now, the bride is a vegan, so I was enlisted to make some fun, personalized vegan wedding cupcakes for the bride and groom, while mom made the "normal" cupcakes. I took up the challenge!

The bride and groom love chocolate. The groom even more so than the bride! I knew I was going to make chocolate cupcakes. Then had to decide what to do to make it different. My daughter is always putting Doctor Who pictures up on my timeline on Facebook. Awhile ago I had remembered seeing dalek cupcakes posted. I figured I could make a pair of bride and groom daleks and put the gamer twist on it with the daleks holding a sign that said GAME OVER.

OK, now to make the cupcakes vegan. I bought a devil's food cake mix from Whole Foods. The instructions on the box said to make the mix vegan, use applesauce instead of egg, and a vegan "butter", which I chose Earth Balance original, plus water. Easy enough!

I know Pocky isn't vegan, at least the chocolate part on the stick isn't. But, I know that the daughter would still eat that tiny bit, or give that part to her husband. I wanted to have light chocolate dots for the boy dalek and white dots (wedding dress) for the girl. It didn't quite work out that way. Of course I waited till the last minute and ran around to about 6 different stores and couldn't locate the right color dots. So I settled on the pink and blue dots that were handpicked out of the multi-color mix I picked up.

I put two cupcakes together (stacked) and shaped it into the famously recognizable dalek shape. I "frosted" the daleks with melted semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips. Added the dots on the body portion and Pocky as the appendages. The crowning glory were the GAME OVER signs.

We brought the bride and groom daleks out at dessert time at the reception. The bride and groom were so surprised and they laughed! All their friends (Doctor Who fans and gamers as well) took pics and the couple shared the daleks with them. They were a tremendous hit!

Enjoyable people, enjoyable food, enjoyable time. GAME OVER!

So far on my seedling count:

16 giant jalapeno seeds... 14 up

16 cubanelle seeds... 10 up

2 poblano seeds... 2 up

2 habanero seeds... 2 up

Cubanelle peppers are on their way up!

2013-04-12T12:01:00.000-05:00

Since my cubanelle peppers weren't coming up like the jalapenos were, I swapped the two trays yesterday. And lo and behold, my cubanelles are starting to come up. And so are the 2 habaneros. Nice! Thank goodness I have my peppers marked, since the seedlings all look alike!

Cubanelle peppers

Jalapeno peppers

So far on my seedling count:

16 giant jalapeno seeds... 13 up

16 cubanelle seeds... 5 up

2 poblano seeds... 2 up

2 habanero seeds... 2 up

Everyone needs a time out sometimes. A rambling post.

2013-04-11T08:36:00.000-05:00

From working, to weddings, to everyday madness, everyone deserves a time out. As business owners in the tech world, we have found it hard to take time off just for ourselves. We work pretty much 24/7. On top of that, our daughter was getting married in Maui. We had to take time off for that! Crazy, busy days.

We've done the unthinkable. We have now taken time off twice already. Once to do eagle spotting in Wisconsin just to relax and calm things down. The other was the Maui wedding. When we want to relax, we don't have a schedule filled out. We like to sit and watch nature. And we did just that in both places.

The eagles were a site to see in Prairie du Sac, WI. While we had to sit in our car to take pictures, so as not to scare the eagles, we were able to get some decent ones. Not the sharpest, but good enough for us to view later.

It was so enjoyable to be able to see the eagles! But then we also got to see whales in Maui! While the daughter and her new husband, and her new in-laws were doing the helicopter tours, and such, we just sat on our hotel veranda and watched the whales, while sipping mimosas.

OK, we did get phone calls and emails for work. The husband even had to remote into our server at home with his iPad to help a customer through remote support, all the while watching the whales in Maui. While we tried to take pictures of the whales, they were too far away for our puny cameras. But at least we have the pictures of whales with water spraying from their blow spouts and then the flip of their majestic tails in our own memories. Beautiful! Oh, and so was the wedding :-)

Now back to work! LOL!

So far on my seedling count:

16 giant jalapeno seeds... 11 up

16 cubanelle seeds... 1 up

2 poblano seeds... 2 up

2 habanero seeds... 0 up

Chives are coming up!

2013-04-10T09:30:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, my husband and I went to check our garden area, to see what we need to do to make it ready for planting. I wasn't too surprised to see my chives already coming up. I have two bunches of regular chives and one of garlic chives. The picture above is one bunch of regular chives. I get so many chives over the summer, that I usually have to make a pesto out of them and freeze to use during the winter months. I put chives in everything. Soups, stews, casseroles, in cream cheese to stuff into jalapenos, etc...

The above picture is right next to my chive patch. This is where we plant our jalapenos, poblanos and cubanelles, and this year habaneros as well. Usually, this area is full of weeds by now. I'm actually pretty impressed with what my husband did last year to prepare the soil. He used the cultivator to loosen the soil. And then he added a good portion of peat moss and then added more garden soil to the mixture. We really didn't have too many weeds come up last year. Hoping for more of the same this year!

So far on my seedling count:

16 giant jalapeno seeds... 6 up

16 cubanelle seeds... 0 up

2 poblano seeds... 0 up

2 habanero seeds... 0 up

Jalapeno seedlings

2013-04-09T07:53:00.002-05:00

Last night before heading to bed, I checked on my seeds, hoping to see some seedlings started. I was not disappointed! Out of 16 giant jalapeno seeds, 4 have sprouted. YAY!! I have never had a pepper seed not sprout, so it is just a matter of time for the rest.

I am surprised that my cubanelle seeds haven't sprouted yet, since they grew pretty fast last year. I know that my poblano seeds do take a bit longer to come up. That being said from a few years of experience. The habaneros haven't shown their little faces yet either, but I am on new ground with those, as this is the first year I've tried to grow them.

So far on my count:

16 giant jalapeno seeds... 4 up

16 cubanelle seeds... 0 up

2 poblano seeds... 0 up

2 habanero seeds... 0 up

These guys need to be up and ready around Mother's Day, which is the usual day I shoot for to plant.

Pretty Purple Striped Crocuses!

2013-04-08T07:51:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine posted on Facebook that her tulips were starting to come up. So I had to check and see what flowers of mine were coming up. No, I don't have tulips, but I do have crocuses and daffodils! And I was not disappointed! The crocuses were up. Pretty, purple striped flowers!

Pretty crocus amongst all the old leaves and weeds. Looks like some weeding is needed in the very near future!

Patches of daffodil greens are up. Soon we'll be seeing their pretty flowers as well. It is truly beginning to look like spring!

I'm still waiting for my pepper seeds to break the surface of their little seed pots. It's been almost a week and I'm growing a little impatient to see that first seedling sprout!

Happy Spring!

Everyone needs a little Thyme

2013-04-05T11:18:00.000-05:00

Still impatiently waiting for my seeds to break ground in their little seed pots. It's been 3 days! Feels like forever though. So while we await... let's talk about another herb. Today, I choose thyme because that's another strong herb that my family loves.

I grow thyme in a pot on my deck, in full sun. Usually I have it sharing the big pot with oregano. They co-exist very nicely!

Just like my rosemary, it loves a good soaking. It is a perennial, but usually I have to replant every year because they like to die on me over the winter. Last year was the first time it survived. And it's looking pretty good for this year as well. Time will tell soon enough!

As with rosemary, I tend to put thyme in everything I cook. Well, just about everything. It's another strong tasting and scented herb. I don't have a specific recipe that I use with thyme, except my son's favorite, chicken noodle soup. He loves a lot of strong thyme flavor there. And don't forget to spice up the homemade bread to go with that soup, with thyme as well!

I'll leave you here again with some more "factoids" for thyme.

Oil of thyme, the essential oil of common thyme (Thymus vulgaris), contains 20–54% thymol. Thymol, an antiseptic, is the main active ingredient in various commercially produced mouthwashes such as Listerine. Thymol can also be found as the active ingredient in some all-natural, alcohol-free hand sanitizers.
A tea made by infusing the herb in water can be used for coughs and bronchitis.
Also used for clairvoyance, cleansing, courage, healing, protection and purification.