Zucchini Monster September 24, 2009

I almost forgot about the monster!  My sis showed up last week with a 2 foot long  monster zucchini.  Apparently, one of her drivers (waste management recycling) was giving it by a customer.  He loves zucchini but knew he wouldn’t eat the whole thing so he gave it too one of the women who works in the office.   She loves zucchini but doesn’t have a kitchen right now and knew she wouldn’t eat all of it raw.  She gave it to my sister.  Meme doesn’t think she likes zucchini at all but thought I’d want it.  I did;)

All told it was about 9 lb of zucchini.  Most of it got shredded, bagged, and frozen for later.  I make a loaf of wonderful zucchini bread (it fell but still oh so tasty)  And my total triumph, Cream of Zucchini soup (http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/soups/cream-of-zucchini-soup/)  You must make this!  I added more cayenne to it then the receipt calls for.  Also, let the veggies brown abit to deepen the flavor.  unbelievably good.

And Meme, the confirmed zucchini disliker?  She loved it and is thinking that her dislike of zucchini may be that she’s never had it cooked well!

Lasagna and rambels

We got to see the Blue Angels perform last Sunday.  Those guys are nuts but supper exciting to watch.  Meme and Jon came over and we had the best seat in the house, well, on top of it.  We actually put blankets up on the roof and watched from there.  Lot of trees that got in the way for some of it, but they did fly bys directly over the house so it evens out.  Amazing to watch.  Not going to miss the crazy traffic tho.  Stead gets supper crowed that week.

Garden is doing pretty well.  Most of it’s winding down and being put to bed.  We’ve been working on new garden beds for next year, our soil in the side yard is awful.  So we did the bale gardens this year http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/strawbales.htm  The straw from those is now being used to make our lasagna garden beds. http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/lasagnagarden.htm 

And on a related note, I made an awesome veggie lasagna for dinner the other night.  Here’s the recipe

Lasagna noodles

2 jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce

15 oz ricotta cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese, shredded (I used about a pound and a half)

Veggies!  (I use a whole bunch of spinach, without stems, a half an onion, and a large yellow squash)

1- Boil noodles according to package.  Wash and dice all veggies.  Mix ricotta, eggs, and parm completly.

2-Drain cooked noodles.  Spoon some of the sauce on the bottom of 9x 13 baking dish.  Cover bottom with noodles.  Layer, cheese mix, veggies, shredded mozzarella, and sauce.  Cover with noodels and repeat.  (this made three layers of noodels for me)

3- Top the last layer with sauce and shredded cheese

4- Cook in oven at 350 until cheese is browned and everything is bubbly and hot.

Wonderful with a leafy salad and the leftovers are great for lunch.  I’m not sure how this would work with freezing, but I’d bet it’d be wonderful.

Spicy pickeled garlic August 27, 2009

I thought I published this last week.  Guess I missed.

 

We grew our own garlic this year.  Planted it in spring instead of fall so it didn’t get full heads on it, but supper easy to grow.  Just pull apart a head of garlic and stick them in them an inch or so under ground pointy end up.  Honestly one of the best parts of growing garlic is using the green garlic.  It’s the tops, they’re totally fabulous.  Garlic and sweetish and just a great flavor.

Anyway my garlics were looking pretty done so I decidedto pickle them.  With jalapenos of course 🙂  We didn’t can them this time, just store in fridge for about a week before using.  Yum.  These are really tasty and Matt loves them on sandwiches.  We also pickled some of the green garlic tops but haven’t tried them yet.

Spicy pickeled garlic (more of a process than a recipe)

Take skins off garlic.  Our heads were so small and tender that many of them didn’t need to be skinned. Trim off any inedible bits and stuff into serialized jars. (we did the same thing with the greens, just packed really tight)

Slice up a few fresh jalopenos into rings and pack into jars.  (I didn’t add to the greens)

To message the white vinegar needed, pour over the top of the ingredients in the jars.  Pour out garlic heads, jalapenos, and vinegar into pan.  (We poured off the vinegar but left the greens in the jars)

Add  1 12/ tsp pickeling salt, 1 tsp black pepper corns and boil garlic for 2 minuets (more boiling will result in softer garlic)

Ladle garlic and peppers into the jars, cover with hot liquid and place lids on.  (for the greens we poured the hot liquid, which is flavored with the peppers over the top then closed).  Leave cool overnight and store in fridge.

I’m sure you could properly can these so that they would last longer.  I just totally hate mushy pickled garlic so decided to give these a shot.  Very tasty.

Supper tasty summer squash

Picked my first couple of yellow squash last night.  Gods they are so good.  Amazingly different from what you can buy.  So sweet and crisp and just awesome.  Tho the plants tried to catch my hands, I never noticed before just how prickly squash plants are.  So here’s what I did for dinner last night.  Totally Fabulous!

Yummy summer squash thing

Summer squash

Eggs

Half and Half

Parmesan cheese

Sour dough bread torn or cubed

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Thin slice all of the squashes (I used yellow and a zucchini from my fridge).  Layer in a glass baking dish (I had 2 squash in a 9×9 pan) and lightly salt and pepper.  Cover the top with Parmesan cheese (you could put it between the layers also) Whip 4 or so eggs with some of the half and half, just make it nice and creamy.  Pour the egg mix onto veggies.  You want plenty of the egg but not to the point where the squash is swimming in it.  Toss the bread cubes in olive oil to coat.  Place on top and put into oven at 300 for about 30 min.  Once the eggs are set and squash is tender it’s done ( I turned up the heat on the last bit to brown the bread) 

Matt ate half the pan in no time flat:)

Busy work for a sick girl August 18, 2009

I knew it’s been coming.  I’ve been running like crazy at work for ages now and I knew I was going to get sick.  Oh well.  Had yesterday off but I’m back at it.  There are some days of the week that it just doesn’t work for me to be sick, so here I am. 

Work has been insane.  We have to take furlough days once a month for the next 6 months.  If we can’t get the new grants they’ll have to look at cutting jobs after that point.  I’m really keeping my fingers crossed but we’ve lost a lot of the state funding that supported us.  Programs have been cut all over the place.  The state institutions made insane promises to the legislators, now they want us to do much more with much less.  So life in a non profit just gets crazier.

On a good note.  Mufasa is doing really well.  His fur is starting to grow in again and he’s become a total lover boy.  My birthday was last month.  Had a lot of fun.  My sister took us out for a spa day.  Facials, manicures, pedicures, and a massage.  I think I’d go back for the facial and the pedicure but the rest of it was kind of blah.  I can do my own manicure faster and better.  And the massage was kind of strange.  Matt does a better one anyway :). 

The trees Matt and I planted this spring have grown so much.  They’re looking wonderful.  The newest tree I picked up, a contorted Filbert, needs to get in the ground.  It’s a good thing he has a year warranty because he was pretty scruffy when we got him and isn’t looking any better.   I’m thinking this next year and this fall I really need to focus on getting the garden beds and layout in.  I keep getting ahead of myself but, well that’s me.

Pasta salad July 15, 2009

Thought I’d share what I made last night.

Chicken pasta salad

Chicken breasts

Pasta Shells or other

Italian dressing

Frozen OJ

Veggies- I used green beans, yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, green onion, and black olives last night.  Broccoli is really good too.

Chicken breast in a sauce pan with OJ and water.  Mix fairly strong, it gives it a nice bit of sweet and keeps the chicken tender.  Bring chicken and oj to a boil and let cook until cooked thru and easy to pull a part with a fork.

While the chicken is cooking, boil water for pasta and cut veggies into easy bite size pecies.  

Cook pasta drain and rinse with cold water.  ( make sure it get’s really well drained to avoid soggy salad)

Shred the chicken with two forks and toss into serving bowl.  Add the pasta and all the veg.  Add Italian dressing to taste.

I like to serve it with some nice bread.  Or toss some bacos on top.  But it’s good however you like.  To make it quicker and still have some good protein, you can leave out the chicken and toss in some drained beans. 

 

And in other news- Mufasa is doing really well.  No problems since the last incident.  He’s starting to learn the basic commands.  I’m thinking about taking him to an obedience class. 

Work is supper crazy and I haven’t been sleeping well, so I’ve been pretty tired all the time lately.  I think tonight I’m not going to cook, Matt can take the dog for a walk, and I’m going to try out some homemade bath salts.  Well, after I clean the house.  Lol.

Update of sorts June 30, 2009

So life’s been busy and chaotic.  Mufasa wigged out on Friday.  Started growling, when I shushed him, he totally lost it.  Bit the hell out of my arms.  We rolled him down and held him until he calmed down.  Hasn’t done anything like it since.  I’m not totally sure what happened.  Combination of friends over, he had his bone? I don’t know.  It really struck me that you just don’t know what you’re getting into when you adopt.  We’re going to stick with it and he will become a well mannered dog. 

 He’s training is coming along.  Mostly knows sit.  And somehow he got it in his head that come means ‘go to the family room’.  We’re working on that. 

Had a gorgeous day at the lake Saturday.  My sister and her boyfriend came out with us.  Mufasa was a perfect gentleman, nice with the other dogs, good with the people.  A little freaked by the water but gods was he funny when he decided to drink from the lake (“hey! why are there waves in my water bowl?”)  We all bought masks and snorkels.  Matt was in heaven, swam all over the place looking at craw daddys and bringing back beads and such.  Jon and I had a tough time with the snorkels.  It’s definitely a skill not to panic in them.  Meme’s face mask wouldn’t seal so it didn’t work for her.  Still pretty much perfect.  We’re thinking about doing it again Saturday but I just realized that’s the fourth.  It’d be a mad house. 

Well, that’s most of it.  Work has been crazy, end of year sillyness and loads of new clients.  My garden isn’t doing too well.  Just feels like everything is supper slow this year.  I need to go weed too.   But at least it’s warming up:)

Update June 18, 2009

It’s nice to see the sun again.  It just doesn’t feel like it could possibly be the 18th of June already.  My garden is growing,  just feels like it’s going  really slowly this year.   But I think I may say that most years around this time:).

Matt’s company cut everyone to part time.  It sucks.  I know it could be worse but we were already struggling with how much his hours have been cut.  He’s out looking for a second job and we’ll do what needs to be done.  Send good hiring wishes please.

We’re doing a bbq this weekend.  My Papa and Maryann are coming over.  And Meme and Jon.  Matt will make his killer burgers plus bocaburgers for Meme.  We’ll probably have fruit and some sort of a salad too.  Should be a blast.  Sunday I will go up to the lake and go swimming (with Matt of course)

Mufasa is doing pretty well.  Matt took him to the vet Monday.  Turns out the sunburn isn’t.  It’s a massive skin infection.  He had to be sedated for the exam, tried to bite the vet.  Fortunately he’s not an aggressive dog, just in a lot of pain.  He’s on massive antibiotics and anti inflammatory.  And he’s doing better.  He’s starting to learn that his name is Mufasa:)   We’re planning on heading to the farmers market today.

Meet Mufasa June 15, 2009

This is our new boy.  He came home from the Humane Society on Friday.  He’s a chow that was picked up as a stray.  They had to shave him because his fur was so matted and he was so badly sunburned.  He’s a chow and most of the time is really sweet.  Couple of times so far he’s thrown a temper tantrum and tried to pull the male chow dominance stuff.  We definitely have a lot of training to do with this guy but he sure is a lover.

The slow return of normalacy June 10, 2009

So it was great having my Mum stay with us.  Really good to see her again but everytime someone stays for a long stretch of time I’m reminded why I don’t have roomates.  I’m around people pretty much all the time, but not people I can talk with for the most part, and my work is pretty much always chaos so by the time I get home I want quiet and organized.  Doesn’t work when there are other people in the house.  But still, it was really good to see my Mum.

The garden is doing well.  Spinach and lettuce and rocket and those cool weather plants have just been exploding with the raining coolness lately.  Some of the spinach leaves are as big as my head!  And tasty too ;).  The peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and some of the warm loving plants are being so with the cool weather.  They’re mostly just pouting until they get some heat. 

I made the mistake of wandering at Moana nursery last weekend.  Well, I know I’d end up buying something.  Found stevia plants and catmint.   I’ve never started mint from seed before but I’ve been trying with the catmint for a couple of months now and no luck.  Unfortunately the neighborhood strays found one of the plants.  Mauled it pretty bad. I’m going to have to come up with a better plan until they’re bigger and established. 

Hopefully the strays wont be much of an issue for too much longer.  Matt and I are looking to get a dog!  Supper stoked.  Definitely going to adopt.  I really want a corgi but we’ll see who we meet and fall in love with =)