Well Now She Knows

My mom gardened almost all my years of growing up.  She would try to get me to help her plant and weed the garden.  I did not want to.  I usually would after being threatened.  But I hated helping.  We later realized I had a brown thumb.  Nearly everything I planted died.  I once tried to grow beans in a pot and they died.  Probably the easiest thing to grow and it dies.  My little sister, on the other hand, everything she touched grew wonderfully.

I could not find a picture of my mom in the garden.
But both pictures have the garden in the background.

Every year my mom planted tomatoes, peas, and a variety of other vegetables.  I didn't really care about anything but the peas.  I love fresh off the vine sweet peas.  I would go out in the garden and hide behind the wall of pea vines and eat peas.  I always thought my mom knew what I was doing even though I tried to hide.  A couple years ago I told my mom about it.  She said she thought her crop of peas for those years were just bad, and the crop the year I went to college was fantastic.  Well now she knows.

I did have one thing I liked to grow - strawberries.  But weeds were always a problem with strawberries.  I came up with a great idea of how to keep the weeds out of the strawberries.  We had a large tractor tire that we used to use as a sand box.  We filled it with dirt and planted the strawberries.  We never had problems with weeds again.  But we did have problems with the birds eating the strawberries.  I think my mom fixed this problem by draping a screen over the top.  Fresh strawberries are almost as good as the peas.

I now have my own garden.  I live in a rather small upstairs apartment, so a traditional garden won't work for me.  So I have a container garden.  I bought a couple rubber feed pans (for cattle) and planted peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, squash & zucchini.  I also have tomatoes, basil, mint, blueberries and garlic in pots.  With container gardening you don't have to pull weeds.  I love it.  I also love going out the back door to pick fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and mint.  My basil hasn't faired too well.  I think it's getting burnt up.  My blueberry bush will not produce this year.  I hope it will next because that's Lance's favorite fruit.  The eggplant is taking quite some time to produce and get very big.  And of course Lance loves the peppers.  I just wish I could grow limes and avocados.  It's just too cold here.

I recently found a recipe for guacamole that is perfect.  I think I could eat it everyday.  The fresh tomatoes make it even better.

Guacamole
2 Avocados
2 Tbsp chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp salt

Mash the avocados and mix in the remaining ingredients.


It's perfect on so many things - tacos, burgers, veggies, chips, your finger...

Bacon & Being Married

After a long hiatus I am back blogging, but it will be rather sporadic.  And I may include stories that are more recent.

In the last year, I got married.  Life is sure full of surprises.  For my husband, Lance, and I, we both had decided we were done dating and happy with being single.  Our friends, on the other hand, were not there with us.  They wanted us to be as happy as they are.  There are so many rabbit trails I can take with that, but I'll stick to the story.  A mutual friend of ours invited us for dinner.  Lance says he knew he would marry me when we met.  I wasn't so sure.  It took me a couple months to know I could marry him.  We got married in April and celebrated with our friends & family in May.

It's hard to believe it has almost been a year that we've been married.  I've always heard the first year is the hardest.  If that's the case, this is going to be so easy.  I'm sure we will have trials and difficulties from time to time, but if how we handled the first year is any indication, we will get through them.

I learned to cook long before I got married.  I have my staple recipes I like to use, but that's not enough for dinner every night.  So I've been trying out new recipes.  But if you know me, I can't leave a recipe alone.  I adjust and make it mine.  Some things Lance has liked and some have been terrible.  My recipe book is bulging at the seams with the new recipes.  Some day soon, I'm going to get organized with them and be able to plan out a month of meals at a time.  But until then, I'll share them with you.

Lance is a bacon lover.  One of the first things my friend Kelly learned about Lance is that he loves bacon.  So I try to find recipes with bacon.  I think his favorite so far is the

Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf


1 lb ground beef
1 lb bacon
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup mayo
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 + 2 Tbsp ketchup
1 small can french-fried onions

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spray loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.  In a bowl, mix first 9 ingredients plus 1/4 cup ketchup.  (I use my hands)  Place mixture in loaf pan.  Spread 2 Tbsp ketchup over the top.   Bake for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven & spread onions over the top.  Bake for 10 -15 minutes longer.  Internal temp should be 160 F.