HAIL!

The last two days we have had severe afternoon showers complete with an excess of hail. Huge hail. Ping pong ball sized and mean, mean marble sized ones. We lost everything on the right hand side of the garden! All the peas, green beans, wax beans and the watermelon starts. The garage wall sheltered the tomatoes, corn and green peppers, but only barely. I am fairly sure we will lose one of the tomatoes, it split the stalk lengthwise and is looking rather puny. The fence sheltered some of my cukes and squash, so I am happy about that. Should still get in an abundance of zucchini. *sigh*

Debating replanting.... since we are moving in about 6 weeks, I'm just not sure if it's worth it. Plus the forecast is calling for more storms late next week. I may just spread hay over a large potion of the ruined area and let it mulch for next year. That way Al has better soil to work with. Really need to put in a screen arbor or something for the hail... if we were staying here I would look into the cost of building one, it can't be too much for such a small space, but we aren't. I'll suggest it to Al and he can decide. He will have all winter to prepare it that way.

I'm still very upset about it all, but I am also learning things I will need to know for when I try to do this on a larger scale. The next two years I think I want to try to provide enough to get my family through and not have to grocery shop for produce.. then I really want to think about starting a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture.) I have so much in my head that I want to implement and put out there right away, but I know it's smarter to wait. Especially if I want to add nice things to my CSA shares, like local honey or eggs, to set me apart from other farmers in the area. Then, of course, there is the matter of having enough land to grow for a CSA. At least 2 acres of dedicated farmland... plus whatever land I need for my personal use meat and dairy goats, the chickens and all the rest! *huge sigh*

It's a dream right now, but I'm going to push through and make it happen... !!!

Forgetful

So I finally remembered to take my camera to the garden... four days ago! I've just been too forgetful to post the pictures. So, without further blathering... garden pictures!!

Cucumber, Squash

 Pea

 

Small tomato

 Radishes

 Green beans

 An unknown herb (Al planted it) May be sage...

 Green peppers

 Tomato!

 We picked it...

It was delicious. Sun warmed and sweet.

Pool

The pool opened this weekend. I dislike some of the people who "hang out" there, but I know Bastian will have a good time if we go so I can suck it up I suppose. *laugh*

Made honey wheat bread the other day. It came out beautifully and we made some fantastic French toast with it. I have pictures, but the computer is being lazy...

Some radish and beet seedlings have started to come up in the garden. Still need to get pictures, but I can never remember the camera!!

Water!

The hardest part of the land share is that it's 8 miles away and a pain to get to daily to water. It's good for me to get out and about, but -geez!- is it a chore. More than going out in my backyard would be. Still, I'm very proud of it. Can't wait for the seedlings to come up. I do have a few still in the house... I kept the strawberry basket and one tomato (heirloom rainbow) and radish, lettuce and beet seedlings that still need some time to get stronger. Not to mention Steve (our resident avocado tree, sprouted from an organic avocado pit.) --->


I actually harvested some tiny strawberries yesterday. They were tiny because they were on the vine during transplant to the basket and so were stunted from transplant shock... they were a bit tart, but still "berry" tasty!! *giggle*

Land Share!

So I have been horrible remiss in posting. But summer break is upon us and my only classes will be online, so I should have more time to post. The last few days we've been very busy at a friend of ours home. We helped him with some landscaping then his neighbor offered this little parcel of land to us to grow veg on. It's just a tiny alley beside the garage but it's beautiful to me! Any space outdoors is better than space indoors. I took progression pictures to show how we changed it:

The beginning -

 This is my seed drawer. It's horribly unorganized right now... semi-alphabetical. I love seeds!

This is the alleyway beside the garage... or at least this is how it looked three days ago. Just a poor scrap of land sitting very unused and begging for attention. *laugh*

Then we pulled up the large weeds by the roots, yanked a few patches of stickerburr type plants and mowed it all down. The hedge is still there, but you can't see it in this picture... we didn't remove it or chop it down, it provides a nice barrier from the road and dogs and such.











Then we tilled, turned and sifted out roots. We thought about renting a roto-tiller, but decided to do it by hand with a pitchfork instead. It let us see what we were working with dirt wise and we could control the weeds better. The soil is very clay heavy, but we added some "Sheep and Peat" (peat moss and sheep manure) and some Cottonburr blend to help it out.












<--- This is the Sheep and Peat mixed with the Cottonburr and some topsoil/compost dirt. It doesn't show well in this photo but it has the most encouraging dark black color... Which you can see better in the photo with Bastian. --->

 All set up. We put in so many things. There on the left are tomatoes, which I had started indoors and on the right are green beans and peas, also started indoors. On the back riser there are cukes, squash and zucchini which should sprout in a week or so and below the riser are carrots.

 
 Coming down a bit you can see a large blank area on the left which is corn, well... will be when it sprouts, and the little plant there is a bell pepper. We also planted a Bell Pepper "Color Mix" set in there, but again - seeds. On the right we have some more beans (a yellow version) and just in the left corner there are some watermelons! In between the flat packed squares (where we plan to put paving stones or something if we can find them on Craigslist) are rows of radish, beet and lettuces, easily stepped over plants. We tried to make the most of the tiny space and I'm pretty sure we did.

 It's not going to be easy... we'll have to hand pollinate the corn, which is time consuming, and we'll have to really keep up with compost/manure spreads and weeding because of the way the ground was. Next year we won't be here.. since we're moving to another state... but our friend Al will have a good base for it. Especially if he mulches it over the winter.

I hope to be able to remember the camera when we get in the sprouts and as it gets greener and more exciting in there I'll be sure to update.

Long Absence!

I know, I know... it's been forever. School has really been sapping my time. Not so much of my time I haven't managed to do a little container gardening though!

I have peas, green beans, bunching onions, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers currently poking their heads up and out of my big green pots in the living room. I am very excited. We also have a tiny mystery plant. I have no clue what it may turn up to be. It looks like a pea plant. There was a mystery seed in the bottom of the bag from Lowes. Since we had a few different types of peas this one could be anything! How exciting. It is definitely growing faster than the bush snap peas. It may be snow pea or a climbing pea. Its little tendrils are so cute. I have had to give it a branch to cling to, it's so tall, but not strong yet. I need to look into finding some deeper pots for the tomatoes. They are just an inch tall right now, but once they get bigger they will probably need more depth for the root systems.

Apartment gardening is a huge challenge. I really prefer outdoor gardens, but for now some green is better than none, right!? Oh, yeah. I love being dirt covered. I also marvel at how a few bucks worth of dirt and seeds can turn into so much. It's beautiful and it is why I want a farm more than anything in the whole world.

Finalized

My divorce papers came in the mail today. Everything went through just peachy. I am officially a single mom now. I'm not certain how I feel about that... On one hand, I feel good. Free, I guess. But on the other hand, it's the end of a chapter in my life. A long chapter. It will be alright, just ... it's like the end of a book or movie... sometimes a bit sad and you aren't sure you want it to be over like that. I realize it isn't over, that I'm beginning a new chapter in the same book... but I don't know... it's still sad. Mostly for Bastian. He's the one who suffers the most for this whole thing. He is very tough, but sometimes he shows the wear and tear of the whole situation. It breaks my heart when he asks for Scott to come back and for us to be a family again. It's hard to explain it to him.

Just need time, I suppose....

Cheesecake!

I baked a strawberry cheesecake today. From scratch. Including the crust! Though to be honest, the crust was simple. Just crumbled up leftover gingerbread cookies from Christmas and half a stick of butter, mashed up together and pressed into the bottom of the pie pan. You could easily cheat and use a premade crust though.

This is the cheesecake recipe, in case anyone else wants to try it. (Modifications I made to the original plain cheesecake parts will be in parenthesis and italics.)

Cheesecake!

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1 tbsp. lemon juice ( I omitted this and added 1 tbsp. strawberry extract instead)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Dash of salt
2 eggs

1 c. sour cream
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
(1 tsp strawberry extract)
(tiny bit of burgundy food coloring) 

In medium bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in sugar, lemon juice (extract), vanilla, and salt. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Place crust on baking sheet (I didn't use a sheet, I had a thick glass pie pan) and pour in filling.

Bake on sheet in preheated 325 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean . To prepare topping, combine remaining ingredients. Spread over top of cheese cake. Bake 10 minutes longer; cool on rack. Chill 3 hours.

Back!

Well, the holidays were nice and the break was fantastic. Bastian is back in school now and life returns to a semi-normal state. As normal as it can be these days. I am very excited to be starting school on the 18th. I bought my textbooks the other day and am anxiously awaiting their arrival in the mail. Yay for Amazon. *laugh* To be honest they were much cheaper. Though I am renting one textbook from Barnes and Noble, since the book itself was $80 and I can't ever foresee needing the "ServeSafe Manual for Food Safety" as a reference guide on my coffee table. I figured it was worth saving the $40 to just rent it and return it after the semester is up.

I am not nervous about any of my classes this semester. I know I can ace them. This summer, however, I am on edge a bit. I have to take a few math courses and I have serious doubts that my GPA will survive the term in a healthy state. I'm not a math person. I'm going to have to put in a ton of study time. It will be worth it though. Once those math courses are out of the way I know I will be able to breath easier and breeze through the rest of the courses until I finally get that darned degree! *sheesh*

Sporadic!

With the holidays looming, both Christmas and New Years, I find myself with a crunch for leisure time. I've been spending a lot of time with my son, and despite what some people think the "stay-at-home-mom" thing isn't a sit around on your butt and do nothing job. We play, we go out, we talk, he talks more... but still... Some days it's all I can do to log into Facebook and check my silly Zynga games. So blogging has been pushed to the background. I will possibly have more time come the second week of January, when he goes back to school... but on the 18th I start classes of my own. Bright and early morning classes!

Bastian will have to get used to a new schedule on Wednesdays and maybe Fridays. We will have to leave here a bit earlier and he will have to be dropped off at the school for breakfast at 7:30 instead of his usual just playground time of 7:50. It's a fairly big change, so we will practice it in the week leading up to the actual event. I think he will be ok. If we're lucky some of his friends will be at breakfast and he will want to do it every day. Some mornings he's a real bear about eating and I have to hover and nag him to eat half a banana. He's not an early morning eater. I'm not either, but  I am not a growing small child!

I am very excited to start my classes. The Pell Grant from the government pays for the classes themselves, so all I have to worry about is the books and supplies. I had originally signed up for five classes, but have cut one so the grant would cover it all. I will just take an extra class in the summer I guess. Four then instead of three, or something.

Right now the schedule looks like this:

One online class: Intro to PC Applications
Wednesdays: 8am-10am Food Safety and Sanitation
Fridays: 9am- 10:30am Nutrition for the Hospitality Professional
Saturdays: 8:00 am - 2:00pm Intro to Baking

I am most excited for the Saturday class. A neighbor of mine has told me she would watch Bastian on Saturdays for me for $25 a day. This eases some worry I had, since I wasn't sure what I would do for child care. The college child care center isn't open weekends. I think if I absolutely had to I may be able to change to the Monday (8am-2pm) Intro to Baking class, if I were to talk to my professor. Hopefully it won't come to that though. When I went to rearrange my schedule almost all the Culinary classes were booked full and ALL the morning classes were closed, so I'm glad I registered really early. I will have to register at the end of March for Summer term to be sure I get the classes I want there, too. I am trying to get the last of my degree out of the way and the sooner I can churn it out the better.

Day After Feast Turkey Stromboli

I found this recipe and LOVE it. It's a quick way to use up those leftovers, and I'm fairly sure you could make it ahead and store it in the fridge or freezer (depending on when you wanted to serve it.) If you had enough leftovers you could make more than one, serve one, freeze a few? Who knows. I only made the one. And I sort of cheated. I didn't have any actual leftovers so I just cooked up some turkey breast and instant stuffing to put in it. After Christmas I'll make one from real leftovers!!

Ok, so it isn't the prettiest... but practice makes perfect. Next one will be better. 

Turkey Leftovers Stromboli

Dough:
1 cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 ounce packet active dry yeast
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Filling:
3/4 cup cranberry sauce
1 cup (or more) shredded cooked turkey
1 cup stuffing

Finishing:
Egg wash - 1 large beaten egg and 1 tbsp water mixed well


First make the dough:
Pour water into bowl and stir water in until dissolved.
Sprinkle yeast in and set aside 5 to 10 minutes. Should be foamy.
Add the salt, the oil and 1 1/2 cups of the flour. Stir well for about 2 minutes. Should be well mixed.
Add remaining flour slowly until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (Like any other bread recipe.)
Form into a ball for kneading.
On a lightly floured surface knead the bread out until it's smooth and elastic. About 10 minutes.
Place in large oiled bowl and turn it about until evenly coated. Cover with plastic wrap, set in warm space and allow to rise until doubled. (Maybe an hour, depending on your "warm space.")

Set oven to 375*

Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray or parchment paper and set aside.
Punch down the dough.
Re-flour your surface, turn out the dough and roll it out into a 10x14 rectangle. Approximate of course. I didn't whip out a ruler or anything. Just made it a little bigger than the cookie sheet.
Spread the cranberry sauce over the dough neatly, then layer turkey and stuffing generously.
Paint one edge of the long side of the pastry with egg wash.
Roll the pastry beginning with the opposite side (the one you didn't just paint.)
Pinch together at the seam and tuck each end under.
Transfer to sheet, seam down.
Brush with egg wash (sprinkle with sesame seeds if you like them) and bake about 30 minutes. Should be golden brown and delicious!!

Let cool 10 minutes before cutting into it, it'll be prettier if you do....

Time...

Lately it has been hard to find the time to blog. I don't know if it's the holidays approaching or the seemingly new lack of time to do anything, really, but I want everyone to know I'm not keeled over or in hiding... just extremely busy!

I do have a recipe I want to share, but I need to make it first. I don't like recommending recipes that I haven't made. How do I know it's easy? Or quick? *laugh* It's actually very great looking. It's a Turkey Stromboli, made with leftovers from holiday dinner. It has a crust filled with cranberry sauce, stuffing and shredded turkey. It seems pretty amazing to me. Perfect use of leftovers after a huge meal, and I think you may even be able to make it ahead and fridge or freeze it to pop in the oven later. Which is ideal, since I know the last thing I want to do after a huge baking/cooking day is cook again the next morning!

A Six Year Old!

I can'r believe Bastian turned six today! It was very exciting for him. He told me he "didn't feel any bigger." He is though, so much bigger than last year.

Made 30 cupcakes for his class... in the fish style I showed in an earlier post. I was a bit more sloppy with these, since I was making so many. I didn't do the white dollop behind the eyes. They still look cute, but not as professional.

I also made him a 4 layer cake, with strawberry and chocolate. The icing I made for the piping came out much softer than I would like. I didn't anticipate the room temperature would affect it so much! That's ok though. He loved it anyway and had a great time overall.

Next cake my personal goal is to do fondant (the pretty flat icing layer) and make it look more smooth overall.

Holiday Fudge

Starting my Barn Hop post a bit early this week. I wanted to make sure I got it all written and didn't forget!! *laugh*

As promised, the recipe for fudge. Completely customizable as you will soon see. I will first post the basic recipe and then explain how to make it any flavor you want, with any add ins you may desire. I once made a delightful white chocolate cranberry walnut fudge, it was very popular.

I want to mention that you should have everything out and measured and ready before you start. Trying to tear open a bag of chocolate chips while the mixture is bubbling over = not good fudge. My first year (years and years back) was a complete mess.

This is pretty much the recipe on the jars of marshmallow cream in the stores, with a few tweaks. And of course in a bunch of flavors and styles.

Basic Fudge

Greased or foil lined pan. 9x9 for thicker squares, 9x13 for thinner.

3 cups sugar

2/3 cups or 1 small can evaporated milk

1 and 1/2 sticks (3/4 cups) butter

1 bag chocolate chips (12 oz.)

1 and 1/2 cups marshmallow cream or 3 cups marshmallows

1/2 cup nuts (any kind), chopped (optional)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Ok, so you take the first 3 ingredients and put them in a saucepan over -medium- heat. Don't try to speed it up by using high, that didn't work my first year either...

Mix, mix, mix constantly. It will melt down very nice, smell heavenly and bubble well. You need to do this about 5 minutes. I used to time 5 minutes exactly until I got a candy thermometer. The temp should be soft ball stage, 238*.

Remove from the heat and add the cream and chocolate chips (nuts, if doing nuts...). Stir like crazy, when almost blended add the extract and mix quickly. It will start to set up fast so pour it into your pan.

Allow to cool and cut into squares.

Now for the first three years I made this fudge, this way only. Then I decided it was boring and tried white chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate. I was very pleased. So to make any flavor you want just use any flavor chip you like. I made butterscotch this year, as well as a white chocolate with mint pieces. For the add ins just substitute your desire for the nuts, up to one cup. I wouldn't go over one cup because then you get crumbly fudge. So half a cup nuts and half a cup dried cherries = one cup add ins. You can also change the extract. One year  made a great chocolate orange fudge just by using orange extract instead of vanilla. Looked like chocolate fudge but tasted fabulously orange-y. Like those break apart chocolate oranges do. So you can see how this can be very versatile and super personalized to your family.

For my pictured fudge I used one cup of starlight mint candies, but once they were crushed it was only 1/2 cup. I used white chocolate chips in place of chocolate and I also substituted mint extract for vanilla. Once poured into the pan I sprinkled with a bit more crushed mint and lightly pressed them in so it would grip. I also used a 9x9 pan, which is why they are so fat.

Fudge

I am planning a few batches of fudge for this weekend. A plain, a mint chocolate and maybe I will try a chocolate coconut this year. I usually do 6 or 7 flavors, but the budget this year demands smaller batches and less, less, less. Still.. can't go through the season without making at least one batch. I will share my recipe on Monday for the Barnhop. It's very easy and I am sure anyone could make it. I love the fact that it's also VERY customizable. I use the same base recipe and just add flavorings or tints. As long as they have a "chip" in the flavor you want you can make fudge out of it. Peanut butter chips, mint chips, white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips... you name it you can fudge it! *grin* Not to mention if you just make regular milk chocolate you can add extracts to flavor them. Raspberry, cinnamon, rum, banana (if you wanted I guess) ... they have all sorts of stuff. I want to make Monday's post super Christmas-y because they are having a Christmas themed contest and the winning blog gets a prize. So I'll have to plate the fudge up really pretty and make it extra special. Oh, I bet I could do a peppermint bark type fudge... *ponder* Excited!

Pantry!

My neighbor Sandy gave us a pantry cabinet yesterday. It's empty now, but I plan to do some kitchen rearranging very soon.Perhaps I can make more counter space with this here. It isn't huge or anything, about the size of a regular bookshelf, only a little deeper. I want to put all my baking goods and supplies in there... cake pans, casserole dishes, flour, sugar, etc. Then maybe some canned goods. Also Bastian's after school snacks, so he has easier access to them and won't have to come to me for them.

This may also free up some space in the closet pantry so we can stock up on dry and canned goods. In case there's ever an emergency. I doubt there will be... I have been here three years and we have yet to get a serious snow or storm. I don't remember even losing power more than once for maybe 10 minutes... and that was a scheduled maintenance on base! Still... better to be prepared than to be one of those crazy people buying $40 worth of toilet paper when it looks like a storm 'might' be coming!! *laugh*

Just About...

The house is almost done. All the rooms are nice and rearranged. Everything is in place, except about four baskets full of laundry which are hiding out in my bedroom. I can't figure out where to put them. I'm out of dresser space and the closet isn't exactly making much space either. I will figure something out... Maybe move some stuff to the storage closet to make room.

Most of the Christmas shopping is complete. Santa has gathered all his gifts and they are ready for delivery. Toys R' Us was a madhouse, but they had the dinosaur toys Bastian wanted on sale buy one get one 50% off. Couldn't pass that up. I also got him some Legos for un-wrappable presents. As well as a WiiMote for his birthday that is made for younger kids. It has Lightning McQueen on it and the buttons are easier to manipulate. So the one he currently has in his room can be moved to the living room and his Cars WiiMote will match his room theme. The Wii in his bedroom only plays Netflix for Kids, but the one in the living room has games and such. Having his bedroom WiiMote in the living room will make multiplayer games easier.

Monday I have to make 30 cupcakes for Bastian's birthday so he can take them to his class. I am going to make those fish cupcakes I featured Monday. They are easy to decorate and kid friendly. I had to buy a muffin tin, but it was on sale at Target for $9 so I did pretty well there. They also had cake pans on sale for 96 cents!! I bought 6. Now I can make layer cakes!

Santa

Well... braved the mall today for the sake of my little one. Santa Clause has been informed of the gifts he is to bring and Bastian is rather pleased with himself. We also purchased some pictures, as this Santa Stop wasn't at all like the one a few years back at the mall in Texas where you could bring your own camera if you wanted to. $20 for 2 5x7's and four Wallets. *shakes head* I don't remember memories being this expensive in the past...

Fishies

These were so cute that when I saw them I knew I had to make them. Especially since it's such an easy decorating design. Just M&M and frosting. No special fancy tips or piping bags needed.

Make your cupcakes (whatever kind you want or are best at) and then make a base frosting. My favorite is the buttercream I have posted here before. Portion your buttercream into the number of bowls per color you plan to use.. in this case 3, but you can use more or less. Be sure to reserve a small amount for the eyes, which needs to stay white. This step with the eye background can be omitted, they will still look plenty cute with just a brown M&M. Add a few drops of food coloring or icing color to your bowls until you have the desired shade. Frost your cooled cupcakes. Now add your M&M's for scales, eye and lips. Using a small dollop of whit behind the eye if you want for detail. You could also do rainbow scales or contrasting scales... it's up to you and your imagination!

On relaxing...

Today will be a do nothing day. I spent the week working and cleaning and yesterday with a wonderful visit from family and today I am too tired to do anything. I'm even going to leave those toys on the floor over there... maybe....

I am also contemplating another crochet project, but I'm not sure. I haven't decided which pattern I want to tackle yet.