Creating Curb Appeal

When we bought our current house, it was a short sale days away from becoming a foreclosure. It was a (almost) brand new home in a brand new neighborhood and we got it for a steal, but the yard had been sorely neglected and has needed lots of TLC. We have slowly been getting the yard looking pretty again.

Since the Groundhog predicted Spring would come early this year, we have been experiencing wonderful springtime weather.  Cool mornings and warm afternoons.  Over the past couple weekends, Dave and I have been working on the "curb appeal" of the house. We decided to rip out the "flower bed" full of half-dead bushes and make an actual flower bed and try to make our yard beautiful and colorful.  I'm trying to expand our vegetable garden this year, and need to attract as many bees as possible.

We started our morning out at the local home improvement store and picked up some colorful plants.  Even though the Groundhog has said spring is coming early, the garden department hasn't gotten that memo, and the selections were still pretty limited.  But we still managed to find some colorful plants. 

Then, we loaded up the back of the car with some decorative stones. Those things are HEAVY!

We tore out the ugly old plants, and found these adorable little guys hiding in the underbrush.  They obviously love living here so much, that we decided to let them stay in the new planter bed. 

 

We built a planter bed out of the stones, filled it with soil, and made a beautiful garden bed.  It was a fun project, only took a couple of hours, and we got to work together, which is always exciting.  At the end of the day, we had a beautiful flower bed, complete with layers of bulbs that will bloom well into the fall.  See that giant rock in the middle?  It's hallow and plastic!  The sewer clean out is right in the middle of the planter bed.  We wanted it to be easily accessible in case of emergency, but still be able to have a beautiful flower bed!

We added this beautiful jasmine to hide the ugly drain pipe covering up the beautiful rocks.  I can't wait till it explodes with color!

We also planted this tiny tree to attract bees and provide us with yummy fruit in the years to come.  It's a grafted "cocktail" tree:  one half of the tree will produce plums and the other half will produce nectarines.  I'm very excited, but think it will be at least a couple years before that happens. 

Have you got spring fever yet?  

Are you planning on planting a garden this year?  

Learning To Eat My Greens

My mom and grandma used to always grow chard in the garden when I was a kid.  That stuff grows like a weed, so they were always feeding it to us.  My mom's favorite way to prepare it is to steam it in a skillet and add a little butter and salt and pepper.  That is probably my least favorite way to eat it.  So as an adult, I never bought chard because it was "slimy and gross."

Then my friend told me about this wonderful method of frying up a couple strips of bacon, then braising your chard (or other greens) in the bacon grease and topping it with the cooked bacon.

We all know that bacon makes everything better, so I knew I had to try it.

You know what else goes good with bacon?  Mushrooms!

I absolutely love eating chard this way, and actually look forward to getting it at the market!

Bacon and Mushroom Chard

4-6 slices of uncured bacon, diced
1 large bunch of chard, washed and chopped into bite size pieces
1lb mushrooms, washed and sliced


Cook bacon in a large deep skillet over medium heat.  You want to slowly cook the bacon to render out as much of the fast as possible.  Cook the bacon until it is crispy, but not burned.  Remove the bacon from the skillet and set aside (keep warm in the oven if possible).

Add the mushrooms to pan and cook them for about 5  minutes without stirring, so they get browned.  Stir the mushrooms and add the chard to the pan.  Let the chard sit on top of the mushrooms undisturbed for another 5 minutes.  Stir the chard and continue cooking until all the water has cooked out of the mushrooms and they are beginning to brown.  Remove from heat.  Add bacon and season to taste.  Serve hot.

***I think this would be really good served with a fried egg on top and a little bit of hot sauce***

Italian "Salsa"

My cherry tomato plants will not quit.  They keep producing like there's no tomorrow.  I finally had to start coming up with new ideas because I am so burnt out on all my standby recipes.   I made kalua pork in the crockpot over the weekend and was tired of having it in tacos or over plain rice and shredded cabbage like we always do. 

Don't you just hate when you get in a cooking rut? Ugh! 

As I was looking at the cherry tomatoes and was getting ready to throw them in the food processor once again for lazy salsa, I had an idea.  Couldn't I add similar, yet different ingredients and make an Italian style "salsa" instead of a Mexican flavored salsa?  A few minutes later, the Italian "salsa" was born.

Italian "Salsa"

4 cups of fresh tomatoes

1 bunch of basil, large stems removed

1 can of black olives, drained

1jalapeños, stem removed, seeded (if desired...seeds=spicy)

Juice of 1-2 lemons

Salt, to taste

Rinse off all your veggies.  Place all your ingredients, except salt, in the food processor and chop until desired consistency is reached, about 5-30 seconds.  Add salt to taste.  Can be served immediately, or chilled to let the flavors develop.  Stays good in the fridge for a couple of days. 

If you aren't eating GF, this would be great served with those crunchy toasts you would use to make bruschetta.

 

I served the salsa on top of some polenta rounds I baked in the oven until they were crispy and the leftover shredded pork.  It was really yummy! 

Shared on Southern Sundays 

Shared on Wednesday Fresh Food Link Up

Shared on Recipe Linky

 

Cucumber Tomato Salad

My garden is still overflowing with cucumbers.  We can't eat them, pickle them, or give them away fast enough.  Even if we ate cucumbers 3 meals a day, we would still have too many.  And yes, this is only from one plant!  Those things grow like weeds! 

When I was finishing up dinner the other night, I realized that I had forgotten to make a veggie to go with the meal.  I needed something fast so I decided to make a quick cucumber tomato salad.  It's so refreshing and tasty, it makes you forget you are actually eating something healthy!  

I like to start by washing and slicing up my cucumbers and tomatoes and putting them in a serving bowl.  I grind some fresh salt and pepper over the top.  Then I will drizzle over some oil and vinegar over the top.  In 5 minutes tops, I have a yummy vegetable to serve with my meal or as a stand alone snack.   

I have a slight addiction to gourmet spices, seasoning blends, olive oils, and vinegars.  I love that you can make the same basic dish and make it different every time based on a slight variation each time.   So even though I make this salad frequently, I always try to change it up to keep it from getting boring.  Sometimes I'll use rice vinegar and sesame oil.  Other times, I'll use olive oil and apple cider vinegar and toss in some fresh basil.  I've even added some sliced sweet red onions, mozzarella cheese, and olives to the mix.   

This time I used olive oil and a 20 year old aged pomegranate balsamic vinegar.  In place of salt, I used some Garlic Gold Sea Salt Nuggets.  Have you tried Garlic Gold before?  If you haven't you really should.  (No, they aren't paying me to say this...I just love this stuff).  I picked up some with a Groupon-like deal a while ago and I'm obsessed.  Little crunchy nuggets of garlic and sea salt.  This is not the garlic salt my mom used when I was little.  This stuff is awesome.  

I think that this was probably my favorite combination that I have put together so far.  Maybe we were really hungry, or it was really that good, but I was really disappointed when the bowl was empty.  

Cucumber Tomato Salad

1 cucumber

1 large tomato

1-2 tbl olive oil

1-2 tbl vinegar

salt and pepper

Wash cucumber, peel and seed if desired.  Slice.  Wash tomato and slice.  Place tomato and cucumber slices into a serving bowl.  Drizzle with oil and vinegar.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.   

This post was shared on Whole Food Fridays Week #11 and Creative Thursday Link Party #26

Lazy Homemade Salsa

My garden hasn't done as great as I hoped it would do this year.  

I'm not really sure what I'm doing right or wrong.  

I'm trying to grow everything organic, but stuff just isn't producing like I had hoped. 

This is only my 3rd year having a garden, so I know I still have lots of learning to go. 

One thing that amazed me this year is that I had a couple plants pop up out of no where and start bearing fruit. 

One is a zucchini plant that has produced two large squashes.

And the other is a yellow pear tomato plant that is the most abundant tomato plant I have ever seen.  

I picked so many of those tiny pear tomatoes the other night that I decided to make salsa.

If you have ever made salsa, it can be quite a labor intensive process, between peeling, seeding, and chopping all the tomatoes and other ingredients.  

And don't forget that time when you chopped a jalapeño and then rubbed your eyes a few minutes later....  OUCH! 

I did not have the time or the energy to do that to a bowl full of tiny tomatoes and a handful of tiny tomatillos. 

So I cheated. 

I got out my handy food processor, dumped everything in, gave it a whirl, and ended up with a tasty fresh salsa.

This "recipe" is very forgiving and can be modified according to your tastes and what you have on hand.

Lazy Homemade Salsa

4 cups of fresh tomatoes and tomatillos (husks removed) 

1 bunch of cilantro, large stems removed

1 onion, peeled and cut into quarters

1-2 jalapeños, stem removed, seeded (if desired...seeds=spicy)

Juice of 1-2 limes

Salt, to taste

Rinse off all your veggies.  Place all your ingredients, except salt, in the food processor and chop until desired consistency is reached, about 5-30 seconds.  Add salt to taste.  Can be served immediately, or chilled to let the flavors develop.  Stays good in the fridge for a couple of days (if it lasts that long!).

Eat with a giant bag of scoops because you are too tired to make dinner and then fall asleep on the couch in your {clean} gym clothes. 

Or pretend you are an adult and don't have the metabolism of a 12 year old, and use it in your favorite recipe, or to top a taco {salad} after your workout and post gym shower.

The Joys and Perils of Organic Gardening

This week was so crazy busy that, once again, I didn't get to check on the garden at all.  

We have everything set up on a drip system, but are trying "dry farming" our plants this year and only water them when they start to wilt, maybe 2 times a month at the most. So far, I think it's working pretty well.  Our tomatoes are doing much better than they did last year.

Saturday morning, I made myself walk the 10 steps out in the back yard and go visit my garden to see what was waiting for me.  

The random zucchini plant that sprung up out of nowhere gave us one zucchini and it's over a foot long!!!  And there are more tiny ones waiting to grow this week.  

The yellow pear tomato plant that also planted itself from last years rotton tomatoes gave us more tomatoes than all the plants we planted COMBINED.  It's also loaded with green tomatoes that will be ripening up over the next several days.  

And then the cucumber plant....  

The cucumber plant that I put on the side of the house in bad clay soil because I ran out of room in the raised beds in the backyard....  The cucumber plant that never gets watered or fertilized....

I am pretty sure that I picked 50 pounds of cucumbers.   Last week, there were several the size of pencils.  Today, they were the size of baseball bats. 

Note to self:  Check the garden more than once a week.  It takes 10-15 minutes.  You aren't THAT busy...

While I was pecking a peck of peppers to make into pickled peppers, I saw what I thought was a pepper move.  Only it wasn't a pepper.   

I screamed and started having a panic attack.  I don't like bugs at all.  They creep me out and give me nightmares.  But I dislike eating chemicals more than I dislike bugs, so I don't spray my garden and let nature take it's course.  But this is the first time in three years here that we have had a tomato worm. 

YUCK!!!  

I made Dave grab the gloves and extract him from the garden.  These guys are scary and they BITE!!!

Once the garden intruder was disposed of, I checked the garden throughly before I finished picking and weeding.  Don't want this guy and his family munching our garden away.  

How is your garden growing this summer?  

Are you tired of cucumbers and zucchini yet?  

This Is What Happens When You Forget To Check On Your Garden During A Heat Wave

It has been miserably hot so far this month.  The first 12 days of August has seen 10 days over 90* and half of them have been 100* plus (and always hotter than the weather report predicts).  I have been doing my fair share of staying indoors, spending time near the coast, drinking lots of ice cold water (and other frosty beverages), and eating cold foods like salad and sushi.
  

One thing I haven't been doing that much is checking on my garden.  We are trying to water as little as possible which supposedly is supposed to force the plants to bear more fruit instead of focusing on growing greenery.  We started our garden really late this year, so up until now, we haven't had any significant harvests.  A couple cherry tomatoes, but that's about it.  Every day I went out and checked, everything looked green, but no fruit.

Today, I told Dave that we should go check on the cucumber on the side of the house because I saw one over there last week and was sure it would be about time to pick it.  We were a little surprised at what we found.  Guess it's time to make some salsa and pickles! 

A giant cucumber that's bigger than my arm.

Up close with the giant cucumber.

More cucumbers! 

The plant has started trailing off the trellises, and dozens of tiny cucumbers are hiding under the leaves. 

Our first big harvest!  Cucumbers, tomatoes, and assorted peppers.  

I love all the colors.  It makes food so much more appetizing when it's colorful! 

New Beginnings

Every morning before work and every evening when I arrive home, I check on my garden. On the weekends, I find myself checking up on it a few times a day or just standing at the back door staring at the plants. It’s kind of an obsession. Since I’ve become a homeowner, I’ve come to resent the time and money spent in yard care. For what? Green grass that I’m very allergic to and can’t enjoy? Trees that make me sneeze uncontrollably? We should get something in return, darn it. Make our plants work for us.

When we decided to move to a new house last winter, I begged Dave to have a garden. He was very skeptical at first because I tend to have grandiose ideas and abandon them after a couple weeks when I get bored or distracted by a new, shinier idea. But now that we had a home with full sunlight all day long, I decided it was time to start our garden (and for him to do most of the hard work).

Dave hard at work...see how happy he is?!?!

Luckily Sasha is great supervisor/inspector.

We had to take out all the ugly bushes that came with the house.

But we had some good helpers.

This is our second year having a vegetable garden, but our first fall/winter garden. We’ve had so much fun with our summer gardens, we decided to take on the challenge of cool weather gardening. We are very lucky to live in Northern California where we have very mild winters that rarely dip below freezing, allowing us to grow a variety of cool weather crops.

After doing some reading and chatting with some “experts”, I discovered that many of the winter veggies are best planted from seed. So different from going to the nursery in the springtime, picking out the right plants, and sticking it in the ground, and immediately watching it grow. Seeds are so blah. You stick it in the dirt and wait. And wait. And wait. And then you wait some more. And I'm the least patient people in the world, I want to see results NOW. So for the first week after planting, I went out there morning and night and looked at dirt. And bare dirt makes me sad. Then one day, in the early morning, I saw a tiny little sprout, barely sticking up out of the ground. I really hoped it wasn’t a weed. By the time, I got home from work, there were dozens of tiny sprouts popping up all over the place.

Now a couple weeks later, the sprouts are turning into tiny little plants, growing bigger every day. In a couple weeks, we will be harvesting our first radishes of the season. I'm so very excited!

And I'm very glad that Sheriff Daisy will be there to guard them.