A little bit of progress

The boys and I spent part of the morning outside - what a gorgeous day!  I managed to clear weeds from a good portion of the garden in between keeping the baby out of the son and watching my toddler as he moseyed back and forth between his sandbox and my garden, often bringing dump trucks loaded with sand. He also kept demanding that I find more worms, as if that was going to be a problem!

Nearly half of the raised bed is now weed-free and prepped for planting. 

A view from the southeast side of the garden.

Simple breakfasts

Photos and descriptions of a few recent simple breakfasts:

This one was fast and simple. I fried some bacon, used the fat to cook swiss chard, cut up a bell pepper and threw on a slice of cantaloupe.  Perfect. Delicious. Healthy!

This morning's breakfasts for my son and I included a combination of my pork sausage, veggies, eggs, nuts and soup.

My plate: 1/2 of a red bell pepper, 1/4 C raw cashews, 4-6 ounces of my pork sausage, and a delicious sliced tomato with a bit of salt.

Breakfast for my two-year old: 1 egg scrambled in a bit of clarified butter, 1 piece of pork sausage, vegetable soup in a cup with straw (he had actual water for drinking, but enjoys consuming soup via straw), and about 1/2 an avocado.

Chard or Kale cooked in bacon fat

Ingredients 

1 bunch chard (or kale), cleaned, de-stemmed
2-4 tbsp bacon fat*

*either fat that you saved after cooking bacon previously, or fresh from a new batch of cooked bacon. you could use any fat of choice - coconut oil, clarified butter, etc.

Instructions

1. Place bacon fat in a frying pan over medium-high heat (a bit more toward medium than high).
2. Break/cut kale into pieces (2x2 inches or so) and place in pan
3. Stir periodically until kale wilts (usually about 8 minutes)
4. Serve and enjoy!

Pork sausage

Ingredients

1 pound bulk pork sausage
2 tbsp chopped carrots (i used steamed carrots for softer texture)
1 tsp sage
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt & pepper

for cooking
2-3 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 C water

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix sausage, carrots and spices together. Use hands or a wooden utensil to combine all ingredients well
2. Pick up 1/4 C sized portions of the mixture and form into sausage shaped pieces
3. In a large frying pan, melt coconut oil over medium-high heat
4. Place all sausages in pan
5. Brown on all sides
6. Add 1/2 C water to the pan, continue to cook/turn sausages until water evaporates

These sausages are truly delicious. My 2-year-old son LOVES them!

They store well in the fridge for at least a few days. While I haven't frozen them yet, I'm sure they would freeze just fine.

Prepping the garden

2013 will be my third growing season. I don't know all that much about gardening, but there are two things I'm pretty sure are true:

weeds = bad
earthworms = good

I keep attempting to prep the soil for this year's planting, but doing so with a two-year old and four-month old yields minimal productivity. I snuck out to my garden during the boys' synchronized naps this afternoon - thought I was pretty slick bringing the baby monitor to listen in on the little guy. But after 10-15 minutes of pulling weeds and turning soil, the monitor crapped out. It's a good thing I went back inside, because baby guy was crying (he rarely cries, and I would never leave him alone to cry - we were both pretty sad over the whole thing).

Weeds removed. Soil broken up and turned. Feels awesome!

Tool of choice. No idea what it's called, but it's awesome!

I started at the top edge of the bed and pulled the tool toward me, ripping up weeds and organic matter. I sifted through the softened soil to pull up weeds, but left behind anything that appeared to be decaying or dried out (that stuff counts as fodder for compost, right?), and then continued on to the next section.

A lot of work, a little pile of weeds.

The garden is four railroad ties long, or thirty-two feet. I think I got through about 5 feet of it. Planning to plant chili peppers, bell peppers, chard, kale, spinach, and carrots.

The husband trenched water AND electricity (though it didn't seem to be working today, hence the crying baby incident) out to my garden (SWEET!), and he extended the fence enough to accommodate three eight-by-eight raised beds (to be integrated next year).  As for this growing season, I will use the open space to plant melons, cukes, and potted tomatoes. I'll plant beans and luffas along the perimeter, allowing them to climb the fence.

banana pepper rings

i have 4 banana pepper plants in my garden this year, and they are producing nicely.  i've been able to harvest 5-10 at a time, a that's quite a bit of banana peppers all at once!  my favorite way to enjoy these veggies is to pickle them.  i have a simple recipe and method that takes very little effort, yet produces delicious pickled peppers; the recipe is adapted from a refrigerator pickle recipe shared with me by my mother in law.

ingredients

5-10 banana peppers

white vinegar (1-3 cups)

water (1-2 cups)

1-3 garlic cloves

instructions

1. remove pepper tops
2. slice the peppers
   
3. remove seeds & white flesh within the peppers (i prefer to do this after slicing, as it proves to be more efficient - a few minutes in a salad spinner, after being sliced and rinsed, helps as well).
4. place clean, sliced peppers in a gallon-sized ziplok bag, or another container.  i use a tupperware pick-a-deli and it works PERFECTLY!  i highly recommend it!!
   
5. add enough vinegar and water to cover the peppers.  a 50/50 mixture is probably ideal.  i prefer a bigger bite, and tend to go heavier on the vinegar than the water.  this recipe doesn't require a perfect science - experiment and see what your taste buds prefer!
6. add the garlic cloves - i always add 2-3.  if you love garlic less than i, perhaps use only 1 small clove.
   
7. refrigerate overnight, and they will be ready to go the next day!!!
8. they keep for weeks (1+ months) in the fridge.  if you eat them quickly, you can reuse the vinegar/water mixture for a second batch (though i usually top off batch #2 with a bit more vinegar).
9. feel free to add sea salt, a hot pepper (jalapeno or red hot chili), or anything else you might enjoy!

fudge puddles

my sister's mother-in-law shared this recipe with me.  the recipe is rather simple, but is more time consuming than basic chocolate chip cookies.  there is nothing healthy about this delectable dessert, but your taste buds will surely approve :)

"wet" ingredients
1 C butter
1 C peanut butter
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

dry ingredients
2.5 C flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

filling ingredients
12 oz milk chocolate
12 oz dark chocolate
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla

cookie instructions

1. preheat oven to 350 F
2. mix wet ingredients
3. add dry ingredients - mix or cream together
4. place paper cups in tiny tart pan or cupcake pan 
5. add cookie dough
6. bake 15 minutes for mini tarts, or about 18 minutes for cupcake sized (or until browned)
7. remove from oven, and press each cookie with "tart smasher," creating a hollow space for filling



this is what i refer to as a "tart smasher" - there may be a proper term to which i am ignorant.   mine has a small end for mini tarts, and a large end for cupcake-sized tarts.

8. let cool - remove from pan to wire rack until about room temperature

filling instructions
either use a double broiler, or a stock pot + sauce pan - i use the latter and will proceed with those instructions

1. fill stock pot with enough water to cover sauce pan (i.e. add water to stock pot, and place sauce pan within, to determine proper amount of water).
2. set stock pot to high heat to boil water
3. combine all filling ingredients into sauce pan
4. once water is boiling, place sauce pan within
5. stir mixture continuously until well melted and consistent texture (20 minutes or so)
6. pour the hot filling into the hollowed cookies/tarts (i use a 4 cup pyrex glass measuring cup - i heat it in the boiling water, and then empty the contents of the sauce pan into it - be very careful not to burn yourself - you'll need a well insulated oven mitt, or, a rubber handle cover for a cast iron skillet).

here's a sample of the finished product (cupcake-sized).  i failed to take a photo while they were displayed beautifully on the cake plate, so this will have to suffice.

* these tarts freeze well!!!
** recipe makes about 3 dozen cupcake sized tarts, or 6-8 dozen mini tarts