Greek Lunch and Lemon Harvest

Every weekend I make a menu.  I add one or two new recipes to try for the week and then get the thumbs up or down from my hubby.  Sometimes they make it into the rotation and sometimes not.  This one is definitely making it into the rotation!  YUM YUM
I got the recipes from Kalyn's Kitchen, an awesome recipe blog. 

Greek meatballs, salad, and tzatziki.  Actually the meatballs in the picture are the Greek meatballs, but earlier we tried a different turkey meatball recipe that we liked better and I think will stick with that one.  Both meatball recipes have egg in them. (allergen for me)  I don't seem to react to egg when I have it infrequently, only if I have them daily.  So the meatballs will be a once-in-awhile treat, but the salad and tzatziki sauce were fantastic!

Lemon Harvest

We had our first big harvest from the lemon trees in our backyard.  We made lemonade and a natural lemon household cleaner.  The rest we juiced and put in the freezer.  There are tons more that will be coming over the next month or so.  I'm gonna have to start baking I think.

Pest control is now becoming a serious issue!

I knew when we started the garden that we had gophers.  But I didn't realize how much damage the bugs were gonna do!  This week I will be doing some serious research on organic pest control.  Also, I am combating a continual crop of mushrooms.  I believe the mushrooms arrived with the compost that we got at the landfill.  Not high quality to say the least.  But considering we had so much space to fill, we liked the idea that it was free!

These pictures show:  Radishes eaten by gophers, eggplant ravished by bugs, and mushrooms everywhere!

I actually planted extra radishes specifically for the gophers, so that's not so bad.  But I swear that the eggplant looked beautiful yesterday.  The basil that I mentioned in a previous post is starting to recuperate now that I've been spraying it with coffee and surrounding it with coffee grounds.  Hopefully the solution for the eggplant is just as easy!

On a good note:  My Early Bird tomatoes are doing fantastic! I think that the number of plants that I planted has made a big difference.  There is still evidence of pests, but it doesn't seem to matter because there are so many plants.  Maybe I'll try that with the next crop I plant to test my theory.

The little pumpkin that could

Sandy is a totally relaxed gardener.  When she talks about her garden, it all sounds so easy!  Example:  Sandy usually takes the Halloween jack-o-lanterns and makes pumpkin pie and such.  But this year, she just didn't get around to it.  So eventually, she and her son took a shovel to the pumpkins and just chopped them to pieces in the dirt.  And that was that!   Or so she thought.

 

This is just one of the pumpkin plants that popped up in abundance.  I mean she wasn't even trying and got beautiful pumpkin plants.  No wonder it all seems so easy to her!

Sandy generously donated one of her plants to my garden.  I am hoping to keep it  alive and be able to harvest my very own pumpkins this fall!  The zucchini and cucumber I planted are doing well so far, but the crookneck squash is toast.  Here's to a wonderful fall harvest!

What's eating my basil?

I just put in some basil a week ago. I got 2 different varieties. One plant looks like the typical tall big leaf basil and the other was one I hadn't seen before that has tiny leaves and grows like a bush. Within 3 days of planting the basil, I notice that the big leaf basil is now a NO leaf basil!

What happened? Who's eating my basil? I haven't had any issues with pests so far. My tomato plants are growing beautifully. I planted the basil right smack in the middle of the tomato plants and it was basically raped in the course of 3 days! Poor guy.

So I went searching for answers. I love the internet. I would never have the patience to take on such a venture without it. I just Googled "What's eating my basil?" and quickly found the answer. Even better I found a great blog called The Green Adventures of a City Girl. She had the same problem and listed a variety of organic options that I could try. I decided to try the coffee grounds approach since I had some in the coffeemaker that I had yet to throw into the compost bag. I think it worked. Here are pictures of the basil after the attack. You can see the bushy little basil in the back, doing just fine. Hopefully I'll be posting another picture in a few weeks that shows a nice, healthy plant growing.

Conservationist

My husband and I like to clarify often that we would not call ourselves environmentalists but rather conservationists. We do have a hybrid car and I am concerned about all the many types of pollution. BUT...Did I think it was ridiculous to have to sign a random frog disclaimer when we bought our house? YES! Do I think it's ridiculous to separate our garbage into compostable, recyclable, and trash? NO!!!

We both believe that not only is it not necessary to be blatantly wasteful, it's rather egotistical.

So the other day, when my husband pointed out to me that ever since we've been cooking from scratch and eating at home, our trash has markedly decreased I was very pleased! What a super, unforeseen side effect of this journey! We were already composting and recycling, so that's not the change.

It has to be in the packaging. Here's what I've noticed:

• Way less plastic bags. I rarely use baggies for my veggies at the store. They have to be washed at home anyways. So why waste a bag.
• Virtually no styrofoam. We are buying meat in larger quantities because we can plan ahead and catch a sale. That means less styrofoam trays. We also rarely eat out, so no more take out containers!
• Our cupboards aren't full of all the snackfoods. Way less packaging there.
• Our compost bin gets a lovely batch of cut fruit & veggies daily.

I'm feeling pretty good about decreasing our waste. Even if it's just a little bit. If everyone did just a little bit, it would add up to a lot!

More veggies in the ground

My hubby has almost finished the 3rd garden box. I was able to plant in the half that is finished today. I mixed chicken manure, compost, and vegetable planting soil in with the soil. All organic. Then I planted 2 tomatillos, 3 zucchinis, 1 eggplant, 1 banana pepper, and 1 cucumber. I put them closer together than recommended but I hope it's not too much of a problem. I started to plant some lettuce I bought until I saw that it said partial to full shade. OOPS! No shade for this box at all. The lettuce will have to go in boxes on the patio.

It's really nice being out in the sun working with the plants. It makes me look forward to the long summer afternoons. I love looking out my kitchen window to see the progress. The 11 tomato plants I planted a few weeks ago are really taking off. I'm going to have to start guiding them through the cages soon.

My Ribs are WAY better!

My husband and I have been very diligent about keeping to our scheduled menu and cooking our meals at home. It's easier on our bodies and our budget. But Friday night we decided to throw caution to the wind and eat at one of our favorite soul food restaurants. When we got there we were practically drooling over the ribs, greens, hush puppies, etc. But when we got it home, eh, nothing special!

We couldn't believe it! We both decided that the ribs we had been making at home were WAY better! And all the sides...blah!

So then, coincidentally on Saturday while hanging out with his family, another trip to a rib restaurant was planned. We decided it was worth giving it another go since Friday's dinner was such a disappointment. Well, strike 2! Again we decided that we like OUR recipe better. It's really too bad since I knew I would be dealing with a case of hives from the corn syrup in the BBQ sauce at the restaurant.

So what's so great about OUR rib recipe?
1. It's allergen-free, so I don't get any hives later.
2. It tastes great on beef or pork ribs.
3. It's spicy and sweet, finger-licking good!

I can't post the recipe because we've decided that it's our SUPER SECRET rib recipe that maybe one day we'll enter into a cook-off! But I can say, it starts with a spicy dry rub and then ends with a sweet basting on the grill. YUM YUM!