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Garden Update for the End of May

May 30th, 2009 by Becky

Life has been crazy and is only about to get much more busy.  That is my only excuse for not updating my site in a week.  Its terrible, I actually have, um, work stuff to do when I have computer time at night.  Its terrible, my unread Google Reader queue is taking over my computer and I’m having a heck of a time keeping up on senseless celebrity gossip.  What has my life come to?

Pepper and Zucchini Garden

Pepper and Zucchini Garden

But even though I’m busy, my garden is not neglected.  I find it to be some of my favorite times of my day when I visit my garden in the mornings and afternoons.

Tomato Garden

Tomato Garden

And I’m sorry to have kept everyone on pins and needles, but YES, the blood meal WORKED!!!  Grandma really knows her stuff.  The garden has remained free of bunny scavengers for over a week (knock on wood…HARD).

Broccoli Plants

Broccoli Plants

The three other broccoli plants are doing quite splendidly, with some nice florets even forming.  The plant that the bunnies attempted murder on decided to flower, I can’t blame it.  If I thought I was going to die soon, procreation might be high on my list of things to do too.  But there are some new leaves coming out on it.  Time will tell how it recovers!

More beautiful plants going down the line:

Tomatoes:

Patio Tomatoes

Patio Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes

Cucumbers – which have really taken off finally!

Cucumbers

Cucumbers

Tomatillos – which I had to re-stake because they are becoming huge trees!

Tomatillos

Tomatillos

Butternut Squash and Eggplant – The butternut squash leaves are like elephant ears.  HUGE!

Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash

Zucchini – these guys put on a few new leaves everyday it seems.

Zucchini

Zucchini

There are lots of peppers, all of which are looking lovely.  The jalapenos however, are winning the race for the first to fruit, so they get the glamour shot:

Jalapeno

Jalapeno

And last but not least, I finally planted the flower pot in the back corner.  So pretty, a much needed splash of color.

Flower Pot

Flower Pot

Wew! A whirlwind tour of the garden.  This is a wonderous time of year for gardens.  Plants are growing like mad, new fruits are appearing everyday, and it isn’t yet so bloody hot that the garden (and the gardener) are wilting.  Now if I can just keep ahead of the weeds and keep those bunnies away!

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Out for Bunny Blood

May 22nd, 2009 by Becky

Well, the bunnies have officially spit in the face of both my actual fence and the Liquid Fence.  I went out to check on my garden yesterday after work and found this.

Naked Broccoli

Its…NAKED.  Those little jerks ate nearly all the leaves off of my champion broccoli producing plant.  Thankfully not all of my broccoli was attacked.  I’ve heard the bunnies like the tender little plants.  They attack the weakest of the pack, the cowards.

broccoli

And then I uttered the words I didn’t think I’d ever hear myself saying: “Honey, GET ME THE BLOOD MEAL!”.  We’re on to the last home remedy before putting up a chicken wire fence around our entire garden.  Grandma says bloodmeal works and by god I hope she’s right.

blood meal

I wasn’t chintzy with the bloodmeal either.   Maybe its bunny bloodmeal and it serves as an omen for things to come if they keep eating my plants.

poor broccoli

Unfortunately, our neighborhood is absolutely SILLY with rabbits and there seem to be no natural predators around here.  Hmm, I’ve never thought about having a pet coyote, but the idea is becoming more and more appealing!

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The Start of Summer Grilling

May 19th, 2009 by Becky

Let the Summer fun begin!!

Grill

The weather was beautiful, 70 and sunny this past weekend, plus, we were trying at all costs to not leave the house in order to avoid the college town graduation weekend mayhem.  It was the perfect time to pull the grill out from its Winter slumber.  And this time, I was determined to learn to use this myself.  No longer will our grill be the strict domain of those possessing Y chromosomes.  Its just another cooktop, thus, it is my domain!  I think Greg was a bit relieved.  He felt quite a lot of pressure being the man-who-must-control-the-flames even though he really doesn’t feel comfortable at all cooking.

grill 2

And while outside we get to enjoy our deck and all of our lovely herbs.

Herb Planters

We started off grilling season with an absolutely classic Summer meal.  Rib-eye steaks, fresh corn on the cob, and fresh from the Farmer’s Market asparagus.  The steak and asparagus was done on the grill, the corn I did inside.  I know, I know…you can grill corn and its yummy, but I just didn’t want to deal with 3 things on the grill that all cook at different temperatures.  Can you blame me?

Corn

asparagus

Steaks

We preheated the grill to a ripping hot 450 degrees, then Greg scrubbed down the grates with a steel brush.  That’s how you clean a grill, and it was gleaming and ready for the food.

cleaning grill

I put the steaks (seasoned only with a LOT of salt and pepper) on the hot open flames while I put the asparagus (tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper) over hot flames, but atop a finer grilling grate that we bought for cooking vegetables.

grilling food

While the steak and asparagus were cooking (I allowed the 3 minutes on the first side), I started the corn boiling.  I used the following method for the corn:  Cook in boiling, salted water for 3 minutes, then remove from heat and allow the corn to sit in the hot water with the lid ON for 5 more minutes.  And let me just say, the corn was perfectly cooked.  Too bad I can’t say that about the rest of the meal.

grilled food

Turns out I had the heat set way too high, the steaks got a bit overdone, but not ruined.  Some of the asparagus was a bit, um, charred.  I only had to discard a few pieces.  However, even though the asparagus was more than done on the outside, some of the thicker pieces were underdone on the inside.  Oh well, live and learn, right?

I’d say for my first go around, the meal turned out well, and it really was quite delicious.  Now all we need is a set of deck furniture so we can actually enjoy our grilled food where it was meant to be enjoyed.  Outside, under the warm sunshine.  Happy Summer Grilling!!

dinner

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Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

May 17th, 2009 by Becky

More jam making today.  I went to the local farmer’s market yesterday, and there’s still a glut of beautiful rhubarb.  I seriously can’t resist rhubarb when its in season, so I end up buying it, and then deciding what to make with it.  I have my eye on a yummy looking rhubarb crumble recipe, but no occasion for which to make such a decadent dessert.  So I settled on Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, a favorite of mine.

strawberry-rhubarb-1

Today’s jam experience was shockingly uneventful.  After the Strawberry Jam Disaster, I had braced myself for the worst.  It pays to put into practice the lessons you’ve learned from previous mistakes.  Here are modifications that helped make today a success:

  • I did NOT double the recipe.  I did have extra strawberries and rhubarb, but I resisted the urge to up the recipe.  Instead, I turned the excess produce into a simple Strawberry/Rhubarb sauce to be enjoyed as dessert after dinner.
  • I used a LARGE, NON-STICK pan.  I don’t know if it was my mixing technique, or my heightened attentiveness, but I didn’t have any problem with anything burning to the bottom of my pan.  And my husband thanks me for that.
  • I did NOT leave the pan unattended after the sugar was added, even for a second.  Seriously, I’d rather turn my back on a 2-year-old that had just washed down a bag of gummy worms with a triple-shot of espresso.  The recipe calls for bringing the jam to a hard boil for a solid minute.  And let me tell you folks, that is just about the longest minute of your life.  Holding your breath, praying to the Flying Spaghetti Monster to that your pot won’t boil over and ruin your cook top.

strawberry-rhubarb-2

The jam turned out wonderfully.  I gave a little taste to Greg and he said it was delicious.  Like a great strawberry jam with just a bit of kick.  I agree, delicious!

strawberry-rhubarb-3

And as I mentioned before, I had about a cup extra of each ingredient.  I threw them together in a sauce pan, added about 2/3 cup of sugar, and simmered until the rhubarb broke down.  Basically like the jam without the pectin.  Tasty!

Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

Recipe for the Jam after the jump.  Plus the obligatory disclaimer…If you’re going to do any canning, get a reputable book and read up on it.  Safety and sterility are key, so don’t just go making up these recipes!

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My Favorite Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

May 16th, 2009 by Becky

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

More specifically, these are the only oatmeal raisin cookies that I actually really like.  The only ones I will spend my time making at home.  Dare I say, the only ones I’d make instead of chocolate chip cookies???  OK, I think that last statement might have taken the sentiment too far.  I don’t know that anything can displace chocolate chip cookies as my all time favorites.  But these are an excellent alternative if for some strange reason you’re not in a chocolaty mood.

The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and I encourage you all to go there for the recipe and Deb’s beautiful photos of them.  And while you’re there, you can lose yourself for about the next 5 hours looking at the most delicious looking food ever.  But I digress.  I follow her recipe exactly (something notable for me) and would suggest you do the same.  Not that I’m threatening your knee-caps or anything if you decide to add chocolate chips or anything else, but just try them exactly how she wrote the recipe.  You won’t be sorry!

Today, perhaps as a thank-you for making some of his favorite cookies, Greg bestowed upon me the use of his fancy SLR Canon Rebel XT (with a 50mm lens).  All of the photos taken thus far for this blog (including the photo at the top of this post) have been with my beloved Canon Powershot A590.  I will not abandon my Powershot, especially for the macro shots, well, until I spend $500 bucks for a good SLR macro lens…But today I tried my hand using the Rebel.  Enjoy the photos, I’m off to enjoy another cookie.

Can you tell I was playing with depth of field here?

oatmeal-cookies-1

oatmeal-cookies-2

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Posted in Baking, Cookies, Food | 2 Comments »

Chicken Broccoli and Rice Casserole…Mmmm, Comforty

May 15th, 2009 by Becky

Broccoli Chicken and Rice Casserole

This meal has been on the docket for quite a while, but I got kind of out of the cooking mood earlier this week.  I’m kind of glad it waited until tonight because it turned out to be the perfect night for a warm, comforting meal.  I’m not sure if you heard, but Kansas got about 37 inches of rain tonight.  OK, I exaggerate, but we got almost 5, and that’s a LOT.  This kind of downpour requires creamy, starchy, comforty food.

It also gave me the perfect opportunity to test out the new rice cooking method I’ve been excited about trying.  I’ve admitted before that I absolutely stink at making rice.  STINK.  I just can’t get it right.  So when I read this post about preparing rice in the oven, I thought, Perfect!  A fool-proof method!  Well, just leave it to this fool to screw it up.  To much liquid I’m presuming.  But luckily, the casserole preparation saved my somewhat wet rice.  And no-one will ever know…

rice

I would classify this dish as relatively simple, but it does have a lot of ingredients so it takes a bit of preparation.  Once you get the rice in the oven, shred some cheese, steam some broccoli, saute a cut-up chicken breast with an onion, smoosh some crackers and…you got all that??  I know, it sounds ridiculous, but its not too terrible, I promise.

OK, so like I said, shred some cheese and smoosh some crackers (or make your husband do it with his giant paws).

cracker-crumbs

And get the broccoli going.  I chop it up into large chunks, then once its steamed, chop it into little chunks.  And just because I’m always saying we don’t eat enough green stuff…look at this green stuff!

broccoli

And cut the chicken into bite sized chunks.  I just used one chicken breast because its apparently from the largest chicken in the world.  I mean seriously, this thing was at least a D-cup.

chicken

And last but not least, the sauce to hold it all together.  Sure I could have probably made a proper white sauce, but its Friday night and haven’t I done enough prep work for this casserole already?  Greg snapped a photo of me in all of my shameful glory.  Opening a can of condensed soup.  Well, you know what? It makes the casserole taste good, so who cares darn it!

soup

So once everything is prepped, just dump it all together, stir it up, and top it with the crushed crackers (or breadcrumbs).  I just combined it all in the dutch oven I used to cook the rice.

casserole

Bake for 20 minutes, then serve it up!  A big steaming bowl of this casserole, a good TV show and a thunderstorm.  Could you ask for a better Friday night?  OK, could you ask for a better Friday night if you’re totally old and lame like me?

yummy dinner

Prep Ranking: #2 – Weeknight Fare
Tastiness Grade: 8/10, a little bland, but totally yummy and comforting!

Recipe after the jump.  Enjoy on a rainy night with your favorite show!

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Buffalo Turkey Burgers

May 12th, 2009 by Becky

Buffalo Turkey Burger

To be completely honest, this is take #2 of Buffalo Turkey Burgers.  The first attempt was not very tasty and I didn’t really think it worthy of publishing. They weren’t a catastrophy, just nothing to write home about.  Turns out, the less work I actually do, the better!

My first attempt at these was ruined by my home-made “buffalo wing sauce”.  I’ve heard over and over – buffalo wing sauce is just hot sauce and butter.  Hot sauce and butter…simple, no?  Well, it didn’t work so well in practice.  I tried my favorite Cholula in equal parts with butter.  It didn’t taste…bad…but it just wasn’t right.  And somehow, even with all that spiciness, it imparted nearly no flavor to the burgers.  So although they didn’t taste bad, they just weren’t very good.

I promised myself I’d pick up some real buffalo wing-sauce next time we went to our favorite local (OK, nation-wide) hot-wing restaurant.  Can you guess where its from?  I’ll never tell.  And to my delight, it isn’t actually full of sugar or high-fructose-corn-syrup as I’d feared.  Just sodium, to be expected.

wing-sauce

The burgers are very simple, I didn’t fancy them up with a lot of ingredients.  I used grated onion to get strong onion flavor without crispy chunks of onion in the burger.  The other main flavoring, as it traditionally accompanies buffalo wings, is blue cheese.  Gosh we love blue cheese around here!

buffalo-burgers

Once the burgers are done, just top them with as much wing sauce as your mouth can handle.  This can of course be done with a grilled chicken breast to make an at-home version of these “spicy chicken sandwiches” like the ones my husband frequently pays about $7 for at restaurants.

saucy

And because I’ve been feeling SOOOO guilty about the lack of anything green on our plates, I made a side of roasted asparagus.  Is it bad that I’m already sick of steamed asparagus this year?  I love roasted asparagus.  Simply roast it at 450F for about 15 minutes with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Just turn them once about half-way through cooking.

roasted asparagus

And the verdict on Buffalo Turkey Burgers take #2?  Delicious.  Definitely a keeper!

dinner plates

Prep Ranking: #2 – Weeknight Fare
Tastiness Grade: 9/10

Buffalo Turkey Burgers (4 burgers)

1 lb ground turkey
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles (I prefer Gorganzola, its easy to find)
1/2 onion, grated
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
olive oil for cooking
Buffalo Chicken Wing Sauce, your favorite brand, as much as you’d like!

Combine the turkey, blue cheese crumbles, onion, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.  Mix thouroughly and form into 4 patties.  Try to get the cheese to the interior of the burger as much as possible so it doesn’t melt out or burn.  Saute over medium heat in a drizzle of olive oil.  It will take 6-8 minutes per side.

Once burgers are cooked, place on a hearty bun and drizzle with as much buffalo wing sauce as you’d like.  Top with lettuce and/or an onion slice.

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Posted in Cooking, Dinner, Food, Spicy | 2 Comments »

Honey Chili Baked Chicken

May 11th, 2009 by Becky

Honey Chili Chicken

I came upon this recipe from “Pithy and Cleaver” in my handy Google Reader and decided immediately I had to try it.  I just looked so simple and good!  And who can’t use another recipe for chicken?

This weekend at the farmer’s market I happened to stop by a booth that was selling fresh, natural chicken.  Normally I wouldn’t buy chicken like this strictly because of the price.  We just don’t have the budget to splurge on local, organic meat.  Although I’ve read enough books to make me quite leery of mass produced meat, but if that’s what you can afford, that’s what you can afford.  So I splurged and got the chicken.  And for 4 nice chicken thighs it was a bit over $7.  If you put that in the context of how much we’d spend going out to eat, pretty much anywhere, even fast food, we’d spend more than that for a meal for 2.  So all in all, not a bad buy.

The recipe itself is quite light, so you shouldn’t feel bad about using chicken with the skin still on.  The sauce consists of citrus juice, zest, honey and some spices.

chili-honey-chicken

The recipe only calls for the zest of the orange, not the lime.  But I didn’t notice that until after I’d made the sauce.  Oh well, it certainly didn’t hurt anything!  Simply coat the chicken with the sauce in an oven-safe baking dish.  Bake 35-45 minutes at 425F, until the meat is done.  Unfortunately I think I overcooked mine.  Its way to easy to overcook chicken!

cooked chicken

I really can’t cook meat without my probe thermometer anymore.  Be sure to take your chicken’s temperature before you dig in.  Cook to ~165-170F.  You may read that you should cook chicken to 180F.  That’s applicable if you’d also like to be able to use your chicken to floss your teeth with after dinner.

I just served it up with a side of mashed potatoes.  I asked Greg if he wanted some steamed broccoli on the side.  Why do I even ask that?  Do I enjoy seeing that look of disgust on my husband’s face?  I just get to feeling so guilty about the lack of green veggies on our plates.  I may just start photo-shopping in a serving of broccoli here and there to give the appearance that we’re not such terrible people.

baked chicken and potatoes

Click the above link for the recipe.

Prep Ranking: #2 – Weeknight Fare
Tastiness Grade: 7.5/10 – great flavor, a bit over done and not a lot of meat on the chicken thighs!

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The Jam Verdict

May 10th, 2009 by Becky

It occurs to me that I never to mention how the infamous strawberry jam turned out.  The reviews are in, and they’re good!

Pancakes with Strawberry Jam

Pancakes with Strawberry Jam

Apparently the burnt black flecks that got stirred into the jam impart no burnt flavor to the jam.  What a relief!

We enjoyed the jam several times last week on the fresh (no-knead) bread.  Delicious.  And this morning, Greg had his traditional Saturday morning pancakes with strawberry jam.  That’s how he always eats them, and its partly what inspired me to make a LOT of jam.  We go through a LOT of jam.

A little while after eating his pancakes, Greg said the kind of thing that was begging to be written into this blog post.

“I really like that jam you made, even my burps taste better.”

Well, I’m certainly happy I could improve your all around experience.  It makes all the pain and effort worthwhile!

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Orange Honey Muffins – a remote Mother’s Day dedication

May 10th, 2009 by Becky

I know, its so trite to make muffin’s for your mom on Mother’s Day.  But these muffins aren’t really for my mom to eat, I actually wrote the recipe for my husband.  No, I am somewhat “dedicating” these muffins to my mom because without her early guidance in the kitchen, I most likely wouldn’t be making muffins today, and I certainly wouldn’t be making muffins that I made up the recipe for.

orange-muffins-1

My mom does not usually make fancy or gourmet food, but she makes delicious food that everyone loves.  And pies, seriously people, the pies.  Most importantly, she took the time to cook with me and my brothers while we were growing up – and continues to take the time with her grandsons.  Without those early years in the kitchen, I’m sure I’d still be able to follow a recipe fairly adequately, but I wouldn’t have the confidence or joy for cooking that I have today.  And part of that confidence comes in the form of being fearless of making mistakes.  Obviously, I make a lot of mistakes in the kitchen but they never discourage me from going back for more punishment!  I don’t even let it bother me if anymore if my husband doesn’t like the meals I prepare.  Better luck next time!

orange-muffins-2

But of course its more than cooking.  Encouraging your kids to be productive and independent and confident and self-reliant, those are the traits that are important, and I can never thank my parents enough for instilling those traits in me.  I find part of the fun of becoming an adult is seeing how much like my parents I am becoming.  I know some people may find that to be one of the more dreadful parts of aging, but I like to think I received a lot of positive aspects of my parents.  My dad’s German efficiency and persistence (i.e. stubbornness) and my mom’s caring, generosity, sense of humor and ability to laugh at myself…which I do…frequently.

orange-muffins-3

I learned from my mom that the most wonderful thing you can do for someone else is to do something unexpectedly nice.  It doesn’t have be lavish or expensive, just something personal.  That’s what I had in mind when I wrote this muffin recipe for Greg.  He has been suffering terrible allergies lately and he mentioned that local honey is supposed to be good for fending off allergies, something about local honey containing local allergens…hmmm.  I saw it as a great excuse for a new kind of muffin!  I started with a basic honey muffin recipe and made it into orange honey muffins.  Take a gander, they’re  quite pretty!

orange honey muffin

They taste pretty darned good too, not overly sweet and they have plenty of orange flavor.  The raw sugar on top adds nice texture.  Greg would probably be happier with something a little heavier on the chocolate chips, but this is what he gets.

So on this Mother’s Day, I wanted to say to my mom – thank you for everything you did for me and continue to do now.  And I will make these muffins for you any time!  Or, you know, whatever else you want!

Recipe after the break.

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