Baby Veggies

Awwww, aren't they cute!?


I know, I know - it's so small you can't tell what it is, right? (NEVER EVER say something like this to a guy. I'm just sayin'....)

That's an okra. Yup, a red okra (or more of a burgundy color actually?)


I took those pics a short while back and I've now had a whopping THREE okra off the plants. THREE!? Mary's picked TWO POUNDS IN A DAY recently!! :( I don't know if it's because mine are shaded on the west side by the pea-carcasses (ok, so I haven't pulled them and haven't buried them - I need to pick off any dried seed pods, but now it's been raining for three days. No complaints about that, but it doesn't make for dry seed pods)

Anyhow - hopefully next year I'll have better luck with the okra. I transplanted these as seedlings I started in pots. I understand they're not fond of transplanting, so next year maybe I'll try side-by-side tests - transplanted and direct seeded, and we'll see how that goes.

Oh, and here's a green one...



I saw another couple forming on the plants yesterday. So while Mary's are dying off (she says it's neglect - I figure they've already cranked out so many okra they're spent!? And we're both blaming the cooler nights), mine are just starting to pick up steam. Weird. Oh, and Brian, who used to work here in my dept but is now elsewhere on campus, got some of the cast-off seedlings that I'd given Andy this spring - my babies are spreading out further than I knew! Anyhow - Brian peeked in the other day to say he wish he'd known when to pick okra - that he and Jess let them mature WAY too much on the plants and were woody. Yup, they'll do that. Not good for soups OR breading/frying once that happens.

And this picture is of my developing Brussel's sprouts.


Turns out I have quite a few plants that have done really well all summer, and are starting to show more growth (this pic is a couple weeks old now?) - maybe they're liking the cooler weather, or maybe it's that I finally started watering more AND we've been getting some rain. Either way, I think I'm gonna have a bumper crop of Brussel's sprouts. YUM!

Carbonara

We've been watching Jamie Oliver's "Jamie at Home" show on Food Network, which goes along with his same-named book, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. I haven't cooked a ton out of it, but it's a nicely organized (by season, then by veggie/fruit) book with BEAUTIFUL pictures, AND each section is followed by Jamie's tips on how to grow each fruit/vegetable. (I DO have SOME issues with this part since I had the impression he's only been gardening for a couple years now...so he may not have a ton of experience. I figure many of the tips are actually from his gardener. Yes, he has a gardener.)

Anyhow, watching his show is definitely inspiring me to try some new stuff with the veggies coming out of the garden. I love that his tomato and squash (aka courgette) episodes are airing while I've got the same veggies pouring out of the garden in droves.

While watching his squash episode, I was DROOOOOLING over his carbonara recipe. I don't have the recipe on me, and don't recall exact measurements now (let's just say it made WAY more than I needed, and Brett was picking the squash out of his), but it goes something like this...

Cut up about 12 slices of bacon and fry them up in a pan. Add to the bacon a ton of green zucchini and yellow summer squash (I think the recipe called for 2 medium zucchini and 2 medium summer squash?). To prepare the squash cut off the ends, slice in half lengthwise, slice each of those halves in half again (lengthwise), run the knife down their length to cut out the seedy interior (probably not really necessary), and then cut on the bias - you're basically cutting them to roughly the size/shape of the pasta you'll be adding. Salt and pepper, going heavy on the pepper for extra flavor.


Once the squash has gotten a bit tender, dump in the pasta you should've been cooking alongside (DON'T DUMP THE WATER!). Also add a ladelful of the cooking water.


Cook it up a bit more - looking good now, hunh!?


And then, VOILA! It looks perfect like this!


Wait, no actually, that's not quite right.

First you'll add some thyme leaves. You then take it off the heat and add a mixture of something like 4 eggs and a half cup of cream that you've whisked together, plus add another ladelful or two of pasta water to make a nice, smooth, creamy sauce. You MUST stir the whole thing rapidly so you don't get clumping, AND you're SUPPOSED to have taken the pan off the heat before adding the cream/egg combo, and this combination of skills and timing will make a nice, creamy sauce.

Yeah, whatever:


Mine got kinda clumpy. The eggs scrambled. I DID have the heat turned off, and I stirred fast, but 1) maybe not fast enough and 2) maybe I should've let it cool a bit more first? While this dish didn't LOOK picture perfect, it sure did taste good! I should definitely give this another try soon... It does use up a fair amount of squash, and it's not the unhealthiest of dishes (four eggs and a half cup of cream? That's not too bad! Plus I used whole wheat pasta!)

Mmmm...it's making me hungry!

Ever get that feeling...

...that you're being watched?

Reading Time

Tucker likes story time...

Jack O Lanterns

These two pictures are a couple weeks old now. Both of these pumpkins have developed quite a bit since then, getting bigger and changing color some.



I need to get some new pics, both of these, and the new pumpkins that have started forming. These two varieties started WAY earlier than the other ones I have growing - one of which started forming much later, but has already surpassed these two in size, forming a larger, longer, blockier shape. I think it's going to be a more traditionally shaped pumpkin. It might actually be a good things all these pumpkins are so late this year. In previous years when I've grown pumpkins, they've always been ready way too early for Halloween (luckily they've mostly held out til time for trick or treaters...).

Brisket

Recent pics I never got around to posting...


Mmmm....after we visited mom and dad about a month ago, and they had this really great beef brisket, I decided to give it a try. Super easy - take a beef brisket, grill it a bit first to sear it and give it some good flavor, then throw it in the dutch oven, dump in a beer and/or some water and/or a little vinegar - whatever you've got. Maybe some garlic cloves. Some salt and pepper. Maybe some Montreal steak seasoning. And then bake the hell out of it. (That's how my mom cooks just about all meat - it's not done til it's been in the oven for many hours) Luckily this is one of those cuts of meat that does well with this sort of treatment!

You'll notice I served it up with some Russian fingerling/banana potatoes that I dug from the garden, and some freshly picked green beans. YUM!


And because we had so much brisket, some went in the freezer, and some became a burrito for lunch one day. I was going for the barbacoa burrito effect, like at Chipotles. Didn't have the flavor QUITE right, but it was still very good!

Babies

These guys were SUPER cute and out on the deck railing and plants quite a bit a couple weeks ago - finally getting around to posting their pics. Looks like we had some baby sparrows hatch out. They spent a lot of time just sunning themselves.


This guy here looks like he's pulling a Christina Aguilera - "Don't look at me..."


When you're this young and exerting so much energy at just being cute, it's so tiring you can't even hold your wings up!


There were four babies total at the time - one of them had a wound on the front of it's wind (kinda scabby and featherless), but it could still fly around. Now I can't even tell if they're still with us or not....they might've moved on, or just matured and are blending in with the others.

Tasty Treats

Is this the beginnings of a tasty treat? Start by sauteing some red onion and eggplant (both from the garden!).


Add in whatever other veggies are coming from the garden - here's some garlic and a variety of squash.


Add in some garden herbs. Yup, sounding like it's gonna be tasty!


Throw in some tomatoes and swiss chard, and, sure thing, it's a tasty treat! This is my new favorite summer dish, and is a great way to use up a ton of veggies. The more it cooks, the more it morphs from a saute into a, uh, stew? I dunno - but it's good. I intend to try it over cooked pasta, over rice, and who knows what else. It's great with grilled pork or chicken.


Is this a tasty treat?


You betchya! I was having some fun - wasn't sure if I was going for art, or a food impersonation of a stop light (that's how it started).


Is this a tasty treat?


I'm gonna have to say "hell no", but it COULD have been for a bird. I cut off the stem it was chewing on, and put the whole thing on the bird feeder. Later that afternoon I noticed it had crawled up under the roof of the bird feeder. Honestly, I have ample tomato green leafy growth - I probably should've just left him where he was. Then again, there's signs there another one working it's way around the volunteer tomatoes popping up in my pumpkins....there's poop all over the place!


Is this a tasty treat?


Thankfully for Tucker, no, he didn't try. It's just a toy. SIMON, on the other hand, did eat one of the locusts, or at least part of it, and was puking for the next hour. I don't know if he got a leg stuck in his throat that was irritating him, or if there was something foul about the taste of the parts he DID eat. Needless to say, he came over and checked out Tucker's locust, and started making gagging gestures. Wow - that's like what the smell of Jaeger can do to me these days!

Christmas in August?!

Wow, it's been a nice couple of days here... Sure, I'm swamped at work, swamped with freelance, still doing some tidy up after my folks visited this past Fri-Mon, and have a To Do list that feels like it's growing faster than shrinking, even with things getting checked off daily. OH, and now it's dreary, humid and chilly out - here's a shot out the living room window (you can't see it, but it's raining - I'm not complaining though, as we DESPERATELY need the rain!). But it's just not feeling "ideal" right now. I'd like nothing more than to just go take a nap.


Then again, it's hard to complain when Brett showed up after work with something new for me to try. I LOOOOOVE artificial banana-flavored candy, cookies, etc. MMMM Just so good! And now? Banana creme flavored Oreos!? Whoa!! I gotta tell you - these suckers are pretty darn good! I want to make some ice cream with them I think!?


And what are they lying on? Well, to be honest, I don't know. It's a square piece of fabrice with strings on it. Perhaps a chef's apron? A funky tablecloth? I don't know! But it came in a box from Peter today - with THESE:


Mmmmmmm good! Total surprise - no special occasion. Just cookies. Because I'm a wonderful person and deserved them for being me, I'm sure. ;-) (Does my ego even fit in this blog anymore?!) LOL

And what ELSE showed up today? This!


Dad was talking about how he'd just gotten one of these and loves it - and I'm sure he checked around while here to see if maybe we'd aleady gotten a leaf blower. Since we didn't have one - look what he had shipped from Amazon - cool! I guess, more than anything, it's GREAT for cleaning out the garage. (Ok, so yeah, it's been a few weeks since I'd swept out the garage, AND I'd opened up a couple bags of mulch in there and needed to sweep out the little bit that spilled...) LOL But seriously - thanks! I haven't read the manual/box yet, but it sounds like it's a wonderful new gadget...and come fall, even though we don't really have any big trees on our lot, we ARE surrounded by them - so it'll come in handy then as well.

And EVEN THOUGH I swore I was too tired to do any real cooking, I was IMing with Sharon this afternoon, saying I wasn't sure what I'd be making for dinner. Gee, more smoked pork in bbq pork sandwiches? (I'll be posting shortly about how, after mom and dad's visit, we'll be doing a LOT of meat smoking!) Maybe not ANOTHER one so soon. Sharon suggested I try making Pioneer Woman's Mexican Lasagna, which Sharon recently made and "sharonized" it. "No no," was my response, "I really don't want to make something that involved - even if I went with the scaled down Sharon-version. Seriously. I didn't want to. But she keeps talking about how yummy it is, and I've seen all the pics.

Damn you Sharon! So here's some of what I came home with:



(Sharon, you'll note there's no 'salsa verde' to be found at our dinky Rootstown Giant Eagle. I DID get some green tomatillo salsa, which I believe is basically the same thing as a salsa verde - it's certainly verde!)

I also ran out in the rain to pick some veggies for the recipe, and to keep the squash plants under control (gotta show them who's boss):


Trust me - there's plenty more tomatoes, but I'm trying to leave them on the vine a bit longer - I want to a) try my Aunt Nadine's salsa for canning, which uses A LOT of tomatoes all at once, and/or b) just freeze a ton of tomatoes for use later. I'm not up for either of those messes in the kitchen this week. Maybe this weekend. We'll see.

And while picking up some of the salsa etc, I came across this. I'm sure it's no where near as good as Dave's Mexican Corn Cake when made from scratch, but I AM curious to see how this turns out. It'll sorta be a two-casserole dinner, PLUS lots of corn (I also bought fresh corn on the cob from one of the local farms), but I'm sure it'll be tasty


Anyhow - that's all I have to babble on about right now... It's still raining out. This is good because I fertilized the yard yesterday. It's not good because this cold wet weather, and the shorter days (I'm driving to work with my LIGHTS ON!), implies fall is just about here. (Sorry Finny!) I'm just saying I need a little more summer....that's all.

The Secret Garden

Ok, I FULLY admit that this post has a lot of very similar pictures, but it really was hard to pick a favorite here... And wow, check out how huge the tomato plants have gotten! Too bad they're only JUST starting to ripen (the standard size tomatoes) - and it's mid-to-late August already!




Yes, he really was just sitting there...contemplating something, or enjoying some solitude - who knows. Maybe it was pretending it was his secret fortress.

Pickles!

Mmmmm - check out what I've recently made more of!



And I'm enjoying the first batch so much, and have shared so many of them (Brett's mom, Brett's pregnant coworker, you get the idea), and the pickling cucumber plants are fizzling out, that I'm actually contemplating going and BUYING more pickling cucumbers just so I can make even more bread and butter pickles. Heck, I've got some dill plants drying in the garage - I could try my hand at dill pickles as well.

Butts

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon?

Rough and tumble

People say Tucker's fat.

Sure, he might weigh about 19 pounds, but he's also a plus-sized cat overall. He's just big boned!! Everything about him is bigger - head, paws, etc. (Ok, yes, also the belly)

So, out of concern (and because it's fun), sometimes we try to exercise him. For the most part he wants NOTHING to do with it. He's just not a playful cat...and then on the rare occasions he suddenly decides he wants to play, "Simon the Ruiner" (that's his official medieval title!) rushes in and, well, ruins it by also wanting to play. (Being an older brother, I can sympathize with Tucker)

HOWEVER, when outside and enjoying fresh air, Tucker sometimes decides IT IS TIME TO PLAY! It can be because I'm running the hose (he loves to chase the water and get soaked - odd, hunh?). Or, if I throw small things around, he'll decide he wants to chase them.

But it's GOT to be on his terms!


Now if any of you grow cherry tomatoes of any sort, you'll know you ALWAYS have too many of them. ESPECIALLY if you decide to grow more than one variety. So there's no real loss if you take some of the still-hard unripe green ones to toss around for your cat. And Tucker LOVES this! I can't see the tomato in this picture, but he's about to pounce on it as it lands...


Yup, looks like he got it!


So far this year I haven't seen him do it, but in the past he HAS been known to pick up a freshly "caught" cherry tomato in his mouth, even by the stem if there's one attached, and will bring it back NEAR me. (If you have cats and play catch, you know they don't believe in bringing things TO you. Just NEAR you.)


Ah - looks like he's catching another!


See here - you say he's fat, but he DOES do aerobic exercise!


Annnnnd then, just as I warned, there's Simon the Ruiner... I don't know how many times Simon's watched Tucker play catch for awhile, and suddenly decided he needs to go CHARGING at Tucker. Not to be NEAR him exactly...


...but, and please click on the following image for the full-size version, instead he has to go careening into Tucker. Sometimes it's like he's trying to shove his head up Tucker's butt, or in this case, it was a collision from the side. Seriously Simon - what is up with that?! LOL


Here we go again - full speed rocket Simon! ZOOOOOOM!


Anyhow - for those concerned about Tucker's weight, yes, I'm working on exercising him. It's either that, or you'll have to take all these spare cherry tomatoes! ;-)