How Time Flies...

I happened to see my blog when I posted my garden pictures and laughed because the garden doesn't look anything like that anymore. I thought I'd show you the difference.

When I first planted

Now

When I first planted

Now

When I first planted

Now

I have frozen 40 cups of zucchini and have made lots and lots of zucchini bread along with selling & giving away a little bit of zucchini.  Romaine is ready to be harvested. I also harvested spinach today and blanched & froze it.  Not enough to make spinach dip but close.  By the end of the season, I definitely will.  Today I discovered I have two baby cantaloupes.  I'm hoping I have enough time left in the season for those to get ripe.  And tomatoes - I have so many on the vine.  I don't quite have enough ripe to can but hopefully soon.

This is my zucchini & squash patch.  It is a little bit out of control.  The tomato plants look different after cutting them back today.  I only have a couple or so weeks left before out first freeze so I need as many tomatoes to ripen before then.  I cut most of the leaves off so the plants will put it's energy to growing and ripening the tomatoes.  

They Are Like Flowers

I was walking through the living room and saw that Pandora was playing a song by Duncan somebody.  It made me think of Bryan Duncan.  And that immediately took me back to San Cruz and meeting Bryan Duncan with my cousins.  Those were such good memories.  I would spend part of the summer with my Grandmother in Northern California and she would take me down to San Jose to spend a weekend with my cousins.  My cousins and I (well the girls anyway) would make up dances to songs.  One of the main artists we listened to at the time was Bryan Duncan.  So going to Santa Cruz to the beach boardwalk with them and meeting him was exciting or at least it was for me.

It's funny how some memories stick with you and other stuff is just gone.  And why is the stuff that isn't all that important sticks with you and things you really need to remember have left.  A few other memories I still remember are tips people have passed along to me.  A friend college told me once that when she makes her bed she puts the comforter on so the tag is on the head end of the bed instead of the foot.  That way when she wakes up in the night and the blankets are disheveled she can figure out how to put it back together by the tag. I still use that with the extra blanket on my side of the bed.  Another tip I remember is one I learned in jr. high.  If your pencil has an eraser that is hard and just won't erase anymore, rub it on the carpet until it is soft and erases easily.  The carpet takes off that hard crust that has developed.

These small things I remember aren't important but they make life a little better. They are like flowers.  They aren't that important, but they make life a little better.  I have found while cooking & baking it's those little things that makes the food taste so much better.  My mom's zucchini bread has that small thing that makes it so much better.  I actually don't know what it is, but her recipe tastes so much better than other recipes I've tried.

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini, squeeze the water out
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 325.  Grease 2 loaf pans. Beat eggs till they are light, add oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla.  mix well.  Add remaining ingredients.  Bake 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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...

It Was As Familiar To Me As My Own House

I was reminded this week that living in a small town is like living in a fish bowl.  For the last 15 years, I have lived in places that allowed me to be fairly anonymous.  I had gotten used to that.  I liked that.  But with everything, there is a good and bad side.  Living in a place that allows you to be anonymous also has traffic, lots of people, and crime.  I think I am ok with giving up my privacy to have no traffic, being able to get in and out of the grocery store in 5 minutes, and not hearing emergency vehicle sirens for months on end.

Fortunately, this go round of living in a fish bowl isn't near as bad it is was when I was a kid.  Being the pastor's daughter in a small church in a small town is far worse.  Not only do you have everyone knowing your business, you also have everyone criticizing everything you do.  Somehow you were supposed to be perfect.  I finally gave up on that idea.  Some pastor's kids give up on it early and just rebel.  I wasn't that kid.  I waited till my 20's to give up being perfect and by then knew better than to do stupid stuff.

Although I lived in the ultimate fish bowl, for the most part I enjoyed my church family.  We had children's choir, Christmas plays, youth conferences, and church camp.  We always had a great time with all the activities we did.

The church building became a second home.  We spent lots and lots of hours there.  When we first began meeting, we met in the basement of an old church building.  The neighbors to the building didn't like us meeting there so they would flood the basement weekly.  To prevent this, we would spend the night at the building on Saturday nights.  I am sure I slept at church many other times.  But of course not during the service! After we moved to the new building, it was as familiar to me as my own house.  I think Christians should be just as familiar with the throne room. 

Most everyone knows that church and pot lucks go hand in hand.  I attended so many.  One of my favorite things to take to a pot luck is Cornbread Casserole.

Cornbread Casserole
1 can corn, drained
1 can cream style corn
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sour cream
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
6 oz grated cheese

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together.  Grease a 2 quart baking dish.  Pour batter into dish and bake for 50 - 60 minutes.

Not Even the Dogs Would Eat It

Today was a day spent with lots of friends.  Friends I've had for a long time.  We got to talking about old memories from school.  I went to a small Christian school.  All the students knew each other and multiple grades were grouped together in classes.  There was a small group of us that were really close.  Some of the group are still friends.

I moved away from this area for about 15 years, and after moving back I felt like I just fit right back in with all of them.  We all know each other so well.  My best girlfriend from this group and I spent a lot of time together growing up. We met when we were 9 & 10.  We did a lot imagining together.  She lived not too far from the lake, and we would walk down to the shore to look for old things.  I think I still have a glass bottle that I found.  Because the town used to be where the lake is now, there are lots of antique things in that lake.  Sometimes those things wash up on the shore.  Treasure hunting was always fun.  We also played cards, dolls, rode mats down the stairs, and were just kids.  One of our favorite passtimes was baking together.  We experimented with things.  Some things turned out well and others didn't.  We once made a cake-like thing.  It started out as cookies but once we added strawberries it was no longer that.  It also turned pink.  We tried adding chocolate to turn it brown again, but it never really was anything but a pink goo.  After baking it, not even the dogs would eat it.  I don't think we kept that recipe.

I think our experimenting with recipes gave me the confidence to experiment with other recipes.  I rarely leave a recipe as is.   I think my changing of recipes drove my mom nuts, but I had fun with it.  One of my more recent recipes I changed is Chicken Pot Pie.  It's also a great recipe for a cold day, which it is here.  We've already gotten our second snow of the season.  I think really our first real snow.  It hasn't started sticking yet but we are supposed to have an inch in the morning.  Yay.  I love snow.  To warm up your home with this Chicken Pot Pie below is the recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie

2 Pie crusts*

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cups chicken broth

3/4 cup milk

2 medium russet potatoes

1 cup carrots, chopped

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 can corn, drained

4 chicken breast halves

Salt & pepper to taste

Chop potatoes and carrots.  Boil until tender.  In a glass baking dish, place chicken breasts and cover with plastic wrap.  Cook in microwave for about 7 minutes or until chicken is done.  In the meantime, in a large saucepan, saute onions in butter.  Once onions are tender, add flour.  Mix until it becomes a paste.  Add broth and milk and whisk until there are no lumps.  Add peas and corn.  When chicken is done, shred and add to the pot pie filling mixture.  When potatoes and carrots are done add them also.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  In a deep dish pie plate, place one pie crust.  Prick with a fork and bake according to the pie crust directions.  After crust is done, pour filling into the crust.  Top with the second pie crust and bake according to the directions.  Serve while it is hot.

*I use store bought pie crusts.  I am too lazy to make my own.

Go Put Some Clothes On

The weather has turned cold this week.  Some people aren't happy about it at all but I enjoy dressing warm and the cold crisp air.  I love baking and making soups. So I am loving the change of weather.

Although I like the cold weather, I don't like being cold.  I like to turn up the heat, snuggle under blankets, and wear sweatshirts.  When I was a kid, we didn't have a lot of money.  My parents moved to Idaho to start a church when I was 4.  Starting a church isn't a money making venture.  It is full of rewards, but money isn't one of them.  To save money, we kept our thermostat a little lower than I liked it.  I often would complain that I was cold and my dad would say "go put some clothes on."  I would tell him I have clothes on and he would tell me to put more on.  At one point, we got a space heater.  My favorite spot in the house was in front of that space heater.  The dog also liked it.  I could get my "flamigo legs," as my mom called them, warm.

As a junior higher, fluffy skirts were in style or at least we thought they were.  My mom made me several skirts.  I loved them.  I wore them often even if my legs froze off.  My love for being "stylish" and my love for being warm brought me to standing in front of the space heater.  I'm surprised I haven't come across a picture of me standing in front to of the heater because I was there a lot.

One Sunday morning, I put on my favorite skirt getting ready for church.  While I waited for everyone else to get ready, I stood in front of the space heater.  After a few minutes, I smelled something funny.  My dad says to me, "I think it's your skirt.  You are too close."  I move away to find part of my skirt had melted.  Boy was I upset.  I wore it anyway to church.  You couldn't really tell.  I was more careful after that about standing too close to the heater.

Since then I have found other ways to warm up.  Now I bake something or eat hot soup.  I am trying out a new soup recipe today and will share it later if it turns out well.  But until then  I will share with you a super easy soup recipe.  It has several different names but I call it Hamburger Vegetable Soup.

Hamburger Vegetable Soup
1 lb browned ground beef
1 can corn
1 can green beans
1 can ranch style beans
2 cans Italian style diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 pkg ranch dressing mix

Combine all ingredients in a large pot.  Do not drain water off the cans.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.