Working on Flower Beds

I'm attacking the edging on my flower beds again.  I started the edging on the south side of our home and I'm now working on the north side.  I love the red bricks for edging.  I know red bricks are pretty old fashion but for ole' home they look perfect. 

This big slab of concrete is something Gary made as the top of a step that used to go into a little building we had on our property.  It was my little workshop.  We sold the building and Gary had the idea of putting this into the garden but when I was thinking about how I wanted this flower bed I knew I wanted it here.  I love it and I know just the flowers and small succulents that I want to plant around this.  I'm going to be really pleased with this. 

I have planted some watermelon and what  I have read about it, it is supposed to be very sweet.  The reviews are it's the best.  So, I'll let you know.  Two raised beds of watermelon, one raised bed of cantaloupe, one raised bed of purple poll beans (these are supposed to be very flavorful too.)  Most of my tomatoes are planted, spinach, arugula, deer's tongue (a tender leaf lettuce), mixed lettuce greens, kale, swiss chard, cucumbers, squash and zucchini.  I'm going to be busy.

Now, I need to stay on top of all this. 

Beautiful Iris

These are iris that I moved from my mom's home to mine.  They are so beautiful and this is just two colors.  I see iris and I immediately think of my mom.  She had some of the most beautiful varieties and they have such a lovely smell.  The flower is very delicate and they really make your house smell great.

This week was my mom's birthday and she would have been 95.   I love having many reminders of her not only in my garden but in my home. 

Iris are very easy to care for.  They are a perennial and after they bloom you just let the greenery die  back to the ground then cut it off.  They will multiply and about every five years you can divide them up and give them to friends or if you have a large yard you can move them to various places.  The root is tubular and they are tough.  You can google iris and there are some great nurseries that specialize in iris and they have unique and beautiful varieties.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!  xo

The Sun Shines on Everyone

 

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbCBJ05gdwc&list=RDc1XCS0g6J4A  Click here

Did Your Garden Freeze?

I have been busy in the garden getting everything planted.  I had already planted about 8 tomato plants and there were still several varieties that I was looking for.  Thankfully, I hadn't found them yet because I lost all our tomato plants and a lot of the flowers I had planted.  So I'm basically back to square one again.  Still collecting, once again the varieties of tomato plants I want to plant.  If it is not the wind blowing everything to Tin buck too it's freezing everything.  And I did cover everything.  I went to our local hardware store the next day and was talking with the lady in the garden shop.  Her son has a meszonet and it recorded that Chickasha got down to 21 for 5 hours.  A lot of people lost their onions as well.  I always have new appreciation for my ancestors when things like this happen.  To think that what they planted they really had to count on for food.  Wow! lots of hard work.

I started digging the edging to finish up my flower beds with the red bricks.  I really want to get that finished this year.  I really have to much going and I was thinking yesterday that I need to focus on one thing at a time until I get it finished.  It's hard for me to do because there are so many things I want to do around the yard. 

That is what has been going on around our home for the last two weeks.  I'm hoping this weekend to get the garden done. 

My friend in Blanchard told me two weeks ago she saw her first hummingbird, so I got my feeders out the next day.  This is the earliest I have ever put my feeders up.  The next day after putting them up the hummingbirds were every where.  They are so cute and I really miss watching them from my kitchen and den windows when they leave for the winter. 

Brown Bean Tacos

When I have worked in the yard most of the day, I do not want to come in and cook.  This is a quick meal to prepare and I just love this.  It's so simple and so tasty.  When I cook a big pot of brown beans (I can't seem to down size this) there is no way Gary and I will eat all of them.  So I have started putting the left over beans in zip lock bags and freezing them.  I usually have enough for 3 more meals.  I never froze brown beans when our kids were home, we never had any left.  So I wasn't sure if they would freeze well.  They freeze very well.

All I had to do yesterday, was thaw the beans and warm them up.  I used a slotted spoon to drain off the juice and put them in a taco shell.  Put some cheddar cheese over them and into the broiler until the cheese melts and the taco shell warms.  Then pile it with tomatoes, lettuce and sweet diced onion. 
I had some sour cream, pace and a sliced avocado on the side.  I know I was hungry but it tasted wonderful. 

Quick, easy, cheap and tasted great!

Martha Stewart's Yellow Cake

This is a Martha Stewart recipe.  I always love her recipes but this one was a little different.  My daughter didn't have any special request for a birthday cake so I had wanted to try the recipe for quite some time.  This one was not a winner.  None of my family really liked it and I have to agree with them.  I was disappointed.  It's a yellow cake with a lemon filling and chocolate icing.  I thought it sounded interesting.  The cake is good and moist, the filling is really good and the icing is exceptional but combined all together, it is not all that great.  It is a lot of work to put it all together and since it's not that good I'm not sharing the recipe.  Only the icing recipe. 

This recipe is somewhat like a ganache.  I've never seen a chocolate icing recipe like this before and it is made from semisweet chocolate chips but taste like dark chocolate after it's cooked.  This is the recipe.

24 ounces semisweet chocolate morsels
4 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon light corn syrup

Place chocolate and cream in a heavy saucepan.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until combined and thickened, 20-25 minutes.  Increase heat to medium low and cook, stirring, 3 minutes more.  Remove from heat and stir in corn syrup.  Transfer to a large metal bowl and refrigerate.  Check every 15 to 20 minutes, stir until cool enough to spread, this will take about 2 hours.  Spread on cooled cake.  The icing will thicken as it cools.

I was thinking maybe a white cake with raspberry filling and this chocolate icing would be good. 

Little Rustic Garden Fence

I love this little fence.  I thought this idea was great for sectioning off a small area say for herbs and using this idea as an outside fence.  Or as a divider between different plants the way they used it. 

I'm going to see how flexible my crepe myrtle trimmings are.  But I was thinking that you might be able to use the trimmings from crepe myrtles for the circle part of this fence.  You could use cheap bamboo for the straight part or even the cuttings still from crepe myrtles but the limb would taper. I've seen cheap bamboo at the Dollar Store and Big Lots.

Have fun sculpting your garden!

Baked Fontina with Fresh Herbs and Garlic YUMO!!

This has become one of my favorite all time appetizers. You know I love cheese!  It is very easy to make and it takes only minutes to put together and about 10 minutes under the broiler.  This recipe calls for Fontina and they were out so I used  Havarti.  It was wonderful too.

11/2 pounds Italian Fontina remove rind and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup good olive oil
6 garlic cloves sliced thinly
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 loaf of crusty French baguette
(I also added one tablespoon of minced fresh dill, because I had it on hand)

Preheat broiler and position rack 5 inches from heat.
Distribute cheese cube evenly in a 12 inch cast iron skillet.  Drizzle with olive oil and combine garlic, thyme and rosemary and sprinkle over cheese and olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place pan under the broiler for 6-10 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbling and starts to brown a little.

Serve family style right of out oven in cast iron pan with crusty chunks of bread.

These two appetizers are so filling you don't need much else.  We had dinner several hours after appetizers and I was still full.