Garden Update...It's Beautiful Inside and Out!

Hello All-

I wanted to give you all an update on some of my indoor plants.  I have actually been having some trouble with a few of them...too much sun!!  I have always had a hard time getting my seedlings enough sunlight, while also trying not to let them bake in the south sun.  I have had a few shriveled casualties, but I think I have caught most of them before I've lost them for good. 

I'll wait a bit longer before planting my violas and daisies outside, but they are coming along nicely.  My tea garden isn't growing very fast, but it is still growing none the less.  I think I might transplant the three survivors into a larger pot so they don't dry out so quickly.  We'll see.

 My summer squash and cucumbers are growing really well!!  It won't be long before I can pop them into my outdoor garden.  I did lose my broccoli seedlings, but I planted more seeds that seemed to grow in record time!  I actually put them outside the other day, along with my lettuce seedlings, but I forgot to snap a photo.  If they don't drown with the rain we have headed our way, I'll snap a photo when the sun comes out.  Thankfully both the broccoli and lettuce can be planted outside as seeds right now too, so if I lose the seedlings, I can start over and not lose too much time.

 The other day I picked up a tomato plant.  I know, I know, it is too early for tomatoes, but at 50 cents, I couldn't resist.  I picked up a large pot for this little beauty and I am going to try to get tomatoes inside this year.  I just have to remember to play bee with a Q-tip once the flowers bloom.  If it doesn't look like I'll be successful, I'll just plant it outside.

This pot of herbs has a story behind it.  Yes, I still have the smaller pot that I created a few weeks back...those herbs are doing great.  We went to our friends' house for Easter dinner, and hubby and I decided to bring them a pot of herbs as a Hostess gift.  We found this lush pot at Canadian Tire for $25.  It has oregano, basil, chives, rosemary, thyme, and sage.  We bought it the day before Easter and leave it to me, I forgot it on our kitchen table when we left to go to Easter dinner on Sunday.  By the time I thought of it, we were too far to turn back.  So, back to Canadian Tire we went to buy pot #2!  So, I ended up keeping the first one, and I have already used a bunch of the herbs.  They don't go to waste in this house, that's for sure.  Hubby thinks I forgot pot #1 on purpose so I could keep it, but once we started using some of the herbs, he realized that it was a convenient mistake on my part.

Last weekend we roasted two chickens and used some of the thyme and rosemary inside the cavity of each bird.  Now that I know how to make my own chicken stock, I couldn't let him throw away the bones from the chickens, so I made lots of stock this week.  I used more thyme and rosemary in it, and it was delicious!!  I already had another chicken carcass in the freezer for the next time I made stock, so I threw that in too.  I also used carrots, onions, leeks, peppercorns, bay leaves, and lots of water.  In the end, I had 20.5 cups, as well as one ice cube tray, of stock!  (Hubby loves it when I freeze some stock into ice cubes...he used a bunch of them in some Queso he made the day we had the chickens, and the cubes were so handy!!

I don't know about you, but I think my freezer is going to be very happy with all of this yumminess filling it up!!!  I am going to make some homemade noodles and make up some soup this week too...I can't wait!!!

Cheers!
Sharon

I’m freezing…inside and out!

Hey Hey!!

First of all, thank you to those who have been so supportive of my break from knitting. I have received several messages, by email, Ravelry and here on the blog. It makes me happy for two reasons…one, it means that people actually read what I type and two, I have some great friends!

 

While taking a fiber break, I have gotten a bit reacquainted with my kitchen. If you know me well, you’ll know that I wasn’t that distanced from my culinary workspace, but I needed to work on getting out of a food rut (as I explained a few posts ago). Like any other Mom, stay at home or not, there are some nights that I just don’t feel like cooking…or I am not feeling creative. So, I thought I’d fill my freezer with some delicious meals for those “on the fly” moments.

First up, vegetable stock. There are two things that always amaze me about stocks…one, no matter what kind you get, they are loaded with sodium, and two, we always manage to throw half of the container away. In an attempt to get a bit more healthy and cost effective, I decided to make my own. I cut up carrots, potatoes, a turnip, onions, fresh parsley, peppercorns, garlic, celery, leeks, dried thyme, and a bay leaf, and threw it all in a pot with 8 cups of water. As for the salt? I only added about a teaspoon! I simmered everything for a good two hours and let it cool right on the burner. After it was cooled, I put it in the fridge overnight and put it in glass canning jars the next day. It yielded about 4 cups of liquid, which gave me two canning jars for the freezer. I didn’t want a huge amount since I also plan to make some chicken stock, so this was the perfect amount. Because I only used one or two of each veggie, the cost was minimal too. All in all, a complete success!!!

Next, with the cold weather we’ve been having, I was craving chili. The problem was that I didn’t have any tomatoes on hand, and frankly, it was too cold to go out to get some at the store. I didn’t want to run into this same problem again, so when we did our weekly shopping trip, I stocked up on tomatoes, beans, corn, and other staples and came home to make a double batch of chili for the freezer. My chili recipe is a hit in our house, mainly because it isn’t really spicy. Hannah even loves it!! By doubling my recipe, I was able to get two large canning jars filled (each one is plenty for a meal for the three of us), and enough leftovers for last night’s dinner and some lunches this week. The best part about the chili is that it is chocked full of yumminess. I used white and red beans, corn, tomatoes, onion, and of course, lean ground beef. Added with a bunch of spices, and my secret ingredient (shhh…don’t tell anyone that it is cocoa powder!), it makes for a super yummy and filling meal. For dinner last night I also made a batch of cornbread and we all went to bed with full bellies!

Finally, I froze some banana muffins that I made last week, and some pound cakes that Hannah and I picked up at our local indoor farmer’s market. (I was told a neat trick by the ladies at the farmer’s market…put your baked goods in the fridge for a bit before you put them in the freezer…apparently it helps them keep better in the freezer) Adding all of these things to the parsley pesto and marinara sauce I made and froze this summer, we should be set for a while. (I say that, but I have plans for chicken stock and some chicken pot pies in the near future!!)

So, while most here in the city have been inspired by the cold to climb under their covers and wish the freezing temps away, I used it as inspiration and brought some of that frozen goodness inside!

Cheers!

Sharon