(If you can’t tell, the bushes are trimmed. I should have taken a Before.)
Category Archives: Gardening
Today my laziness bit me in the ass.
I’ve been woefully neglecting my basil plants…and today I finally got around to harvesting what was left of the wildly overgrown mess. And it was pathetic. By the time I picked around the caterpillar-eaten leaves and the brown leaves…I didn’t even get a full food-processor’s worth. Last year I gave a ton away plus filled a bunch of containers and ziplocked muffin-tin pucks for my freezer. This year? Barely enough for a few meals.
Last year? I think I made at least THREE full Cuisinarts full. This year? Barely 1/4 of one. 🙁
My sad, overgrown garden.
With all the rain we had while we were gone (we’ve heard 9″), our garden went batshit crazy. The tomatoes overgrew everything and cut off the basil (you can’t even see it). Tom had to cut it back with the weed eater…and it still needs to be thinned out by hand.
The rabbits had a field day with things that hung outside the container (who knew they liked basil?). And the leaf lettuce got so big it’s now completely useless—and I don’t think I’m going to be planting any more.
I’m sad.
Getting the garden started!
An unexpected find… 😯
Triple batch!
I have basil coming out of my ears, so I’m making pesto like a madwoman. (If you come to visit, you might get some sent home with you out of the freezer!) This was the triple batch I made today…soooo pretty!
And I don’t even use a recipe anymore. I just toss in some garlic. Roast some pecans and toss some in. Fill the food processor with basil. Add salt and pepper and olive oil. Voilá! Since I’m freezing it, I don’t add the parmesan until it comes out and I’m ready to serve it.
The farmer’s market is open!
I also got radishes, lettuce, green onions (which were the size of shallots), and basil to plant!
I am almost done with being domestic today.
I have fed the boy breakfast and lunch.
I have made hard-boiled eggs.
I have watered the herbs.
I have baked potatoes for a new potato salad recipe.
I am frying bacon for that same recipe, plus for our BLT pizza tonight.
I have gone grocery shopping.
I have (well, we have) been to the farmer’s market.
I have filled Owen’s pool and splashed with him.
I have pretty much burnt the last batch of bacon. >:XX
I am done. DONE! My back is killing me. Tomorrow will honestly be a day of rest (or so I hope).
Random Blather
I am soooooooooo tired of this heat wave. I swear this is the hottest it’s been since we moved here. Too hot to do anything except quickly rush from A/C to A/C. Tom even says it’s hot, and he was in Iraq (although he does admit Iraq was hotter).
I went to get gas yesterday morning because it was still $3.86 (it had been that for, I swear, two weeks) and I knew it was supposed to be going up this week. So I pull in and there is NO unleaded—just mid-grade and premium. Of course, after work, when they had raised the price 12c, there was unleaded. Bastards.
Why must people try to exit a gas station by making a left turn, in rush hour, at an intersection—when they could just as easily have driven through the parking lot and exited 100 yards farther down where there is much less traffic? Instead, they sit there, blocking the exit for those of us exiting and turning right into traffic (in this case, about 10 cars). So I drove the extra 100 yards and was able to turn directly into the flow of traffic and bypass the jerk who was STILL waiting to turn left.
I love my Tivo peeps. I needed help with something that I just couldn’t figure out so I posted about it—and within 10 minutes they started having answers for me.
On same said board, someone started a thread called “What do you look like today?” and I just love it! Well, everyone loves it, actually! People post pics from their cell phones or webcams or whatnot…and it’s very interesting! After posting about 10 pics myself, I noticed that I look pretty much the same in every one—I just either have curly hair or straight hair—so I said I was going to stop posting, but apparently some of the guys like the cleavage that ends up in some of the pics and have requested that I keep posting. :)) So I posted this one for them today:
Depressing thought of the day: I just happened to login to take a look at our mortgage stuff, and after paying every month for coming-up-on three years, we are just SLIGHTLY under the official selling price. GAH!
I can’t wait for our tomatoes to be ready to harvest! We do have a few jalapeño that are ready to pick, and of course I have been harvesting basil all along, but the tomatoes are what I’m jonesing for. Someday, somewhere, I hope to have a REAL garden!
On another gas note, the Prius has been wonderful! We used to use my car for everything—every run to town, every errand, every road trip—and I had to fill up about once a week. Now that we take the Prius everywhere (and I only drive to/from work), I am only filling up about every 2-3 weeks! 😀 So, we traded paying for gas for paying for a new car. I’d say that was a good trade!
My first attempt at Fried Green Tomatoes – meh.
So we had some casualties when Tom repotted our tomato plants yesterday:
So I thought I would make some fried green tomatoes. I googled for a recipe, and the first one I found sounded fine – basically cut them, S&P them, coat them in corn meal, and fry in bacon grease.
Step 1 – they look good waiting to be fried:
The first batch I overcooked because the tomatoes were actually yellow, plus I cooked them too long and they got too brown. But the second batch was actually green, and seemed to be going well:
But the overall result was, simply, MEH. Blah. Boring. Completely different than what I have had in local restaurants. I think I need a different coating, so I guess I am off to google more (if we have more casualties—no way I am going to pick green tomatoes on purpose). I am thinking an egg and flour coating?
Things have been planted!
I have been waiting and waiting and waiting to get my things planted! And by things, I mean veggies and herbs! And by waiting, I mean…agonizingly over like two weeks!
First we bought the tomato baskets. Online. So had to wait for them to arrive. It was still kinda cool out, and we wanted to make sure we were all done with frost, so we waited.
Then a few days later we bought the potting soil.
Then a few days later we bought the root stuff—online, so had to wait for it to be delivered.
Then since we had to wait for that, we figured we might as well wait to get the plants so they didn’t just sit on the deck.
Then we finally went to buy plants at Lowes, and they didn’t have herbs.
So then we were still waiting for the root stuff, so went elsewhere to get the herbs.
So we finally had everything—and then Tom was sick.
And finally.
Tonight.
We planted!!
SWEET BASIL (6 bunches!!)
CHIVES, DILL & ROSEMARY
(The chives were replanted. They used to be in with the basil, but I wanted more basil this year!)
THAI BASIL & ITALIAN PARSLEY
(YET TO BE PLANTED)
TOMATOES (3)
(And in the background you can see the hanging peppers (2 red, 2 yellow, and 1 jalapeno.)
Mmmmm, our first tomato!
It was just about the most perfect little red cherry tomato ever. And man, was it tasty…soooo much better than the pieces of pink styrofoam the grocery store sells!! And it was mine—ALL MINE!! (Tom got one the next day!)
Our faux garden!
For the first time ever, we have plants (and herbs!) growing!! (I call it a faux garden, because it’s not really a garden, but rather a hanging planter and a pot.) Anyway, I have always wanted to grow basil and tomatoes, but I’ve never been successful—until now! It’s all Aunt Marge’s fault—for Christmas, she got us these cool hanging planter things, and since we were already planning on planting tomatoes, we figured we might as well plant some other stuff!! So, we have a few different varieties of tomatoes, as well as some sweet peppers and I think even one hot pepper.
On the deck, we have basil and chives. The basil just amazes me. I’ve cut a bunch off for pesto a few times (yummmmm!), but it keeps coming back (I know it’s supposed to do this, but it’s still neat to watch!). Today I plan on making some basil butter and basil oil. I can’t wait to have fresh tomatoes with fresh basil—and get some real mozzarella from Sams Club!
