Back at the grind May 26, 2009

So I’m getting back to work and am totally lost.  Lol.  After having an extra long weekend I can’t seem to focus properly.  But it was a very nice weekend.  Planted out a bunch of our peppers.  Still need to finish seeding the garden bed out back, plant the tomatoes, eggplants, and others.  I feel like I’m getting a slow start this year but I suppose it’s better than freezing my poor plantlings like I did last year.  

Matt’s truck is working beautifully with the new engine.  It’s good to have the truck back but paying it off it’s going to be fun.  Mums in town visiting.  It’s nice to have her.  A little odd to have someone else in the house again but it’s still good.  I’m thinking I might make black bean tacos for dinner tonight and lunches this week.  Supper easy.

Black bean and Potato tacos.

2 or 3 potatoes

1 or 2 cans of black beans (not drained)

1/2 to 1 onion, chopped

1 to 2 packets of taco seasoning

A few cups of prepared brown rice

Tortilla’s or taco shells

Cheese, Sour cream, Tomatoes, hot sauce, what ever toppings you like.

Microwave the potatoes until they’re just soft.  Let them cool abit and cut into small cubes.

Add a little oil to a pan, saute chopped onions until translucent, add cubed potato and let brown a bit.

Add black beans and taco seasoning.  Adjust the amount of liquid from the beans.  I recommend starting small and adding to get the consistency you want.

Simmer for maybe 5 min to let the flavors come together.

Serve on a hot tortilla or taco shell with a layer of rice, then taco mix, then add cheese and fixings. 

These are really easy and between the beans and rice you have a complete vegetable protein.  And it’s cheap

Wonderful weekend and a visit May 12, 2009

I am so excited!  My Mum is flying down to visit and the end of the month!!!! Mum moved up to Washington to be closer to her family, parents, siblings, cousins are all up there.  But it kind of sucks for us because it’s pretty hard to get up there to see her and none of us have alot of spare cash (understatement).  My little sis and I have been talking about trying to bring her down for a visit for while and it came together this last week.  Mom has 2 weeks off from her job.  Meme is going to be flying Mum down and she’s staying with Matt and I for 2 weeks.  It may be a bit long to have a house guest but we might not have another opportunity to see her for who knows how long.  I’m seriously looking forward to seeing her.

The weekend was lovely too.  On Sunday Matt and I took a picnic and a couple of books out to the mill pond in GrayEgeal.  Still a little too cold for swimming but it was a beautiful day.  The hay bales are starting to decompose well.  One of them had an internal temp of 120!  So they should be ready for planting before long.

Experiments in garden and a dish cloth May 7, 2009

So I’m attempting a gardening method called straw bale gardening.  Basically I’ve hunted down some cheap hay bale and I’m doing to be using them as a growing medium.  The bales are placed on cardboard to keep the weeds down.  Then you water them to encourage decomposition.  Once they’ve cooled off you plant your transplants directly in the bales and grow them there.  The benefits are sort of like with a raised bed, good drainage, easy to reach, not alot of weeds (tho if the bales have seeds they’ll grow and you have to trim them back).  So far I have 13 bales.  I’ve gotten cardboard under several of them.  I’m bringing home some boxes from work today and my little sister works in recycling so she brought me some yesterday.  Once the cardboard is under them I start watering (don’t want them to get too heavy and then add the cardboard).  Since nitrogen speeds up the process I’ve added some fresh horse manure to the tops of the bales and watered that in.  So I guess we’ll see how it does:)

A couple of months ago Matt and I stopped buying paper towels.  Mainly we did it to cut out an expense but so far I only miss them when I’m working on a craft project or when  I want a napkin.  I had some left over cotton thread so this last week I’ve crocetted up some napkin/wipe up towels.  This was the pattern for the one I liked the best.

Chain 22, Turn and single stitch in one back (would be the 21st chain). 

Single stitch all 21 back to end

Chain one to turn. Single stitch in one, chain and skip the next stitch, single stitch in 3, ch skip, single in 5, ch skip, single in 7, ch skip, single in 9, ch skip, single in 11, continue to end of row. 

Chain one turn and repeat on rows until you have the lenght you want.  Then Single stitch 21. 

Work around the edges as you want.  The pattern that I like to add to the edges is a simple ruffle.  Single stitch, chain three, single stitch in next place.  Shells are very nice too.

This pattern is really easy once you get it going and very quick to make.  It comes out looking a little lacy.  Something that really helps me keep the stitches in the right place is that after you’ve done the first row of single chain skips, the yarn of the single stitches will look sort of like a downward v.  Those downward V s are where you put the singles for the rest of the pattern.

New tree and a recipe May 4, 2009

I’ve been looking for a dwarf fruit tree for a while now.  I’ve been trying to be very logical and reasonable and pick my variety then buy.  Yah.  That fell apart on Saturday.  Matt and I were at Walmart and found a semi dwarf apricot tree for $20.  That little voice in my head said ‘this one’.  So I got it.  Turns out my little voice was right as usual.  It’s a Blenheim Apricot and apparently it’s fruit is wonderful.  I think it’s going to be in a pot for this year.  At least until I can get a spot prepared for it.  I’m planning on buying some gooseberry and current bushes too.  Planning on using them as a bit of a hedge. Have to make sure the nursery is still shipping them for this year.  Yay plants.

And now for something completely different-

Supper easy cobbler/dump cake-

2 cans of pineapple or fruit of your choice (I like 1 can of chunks and 1 of crushed pineapple)

1 box of cake mix (I’m very fond of french vanilla)

1 ish sticks of butter.

Heat oven to 350.  Pour canned fruit into a glass baking dish (maybe 8×12?  You want the fruit to be about an inch and a half to 2 inches deep).  Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the top.  Don’t break up lumps or smooth it out.  Cover the top of the cake mix with thin slices of butter.  Place in oven and cook until the top is browned and the fruit very hot.

This turns out so good.  The pineapple gets caramelized, the topping gets beautifully browned and crisp and the section where cake meets fruit is fabulously soft.