Monday, April 30, 2012

Garden Update

I bought some six-packs at Putnam Farmer's Co-Op Sunday.

As they forecast for the next couple days is lows in the 40s, highs in the low 60s, overcast and/or light rain...looked like perfect weather to pop them in this afternoon.

And it's still officially April :D

Repaired the section of fence torn down last fall, a deer must've gotten inside and panicked. Rototiller fired up on the third pull :) Still a lot of weeding to do on this very unusual year when Forsythia, Dandelions, and Rhodendrons all bloomed at the same time...though I had the joy of seeing one weed that got frostbit last night! Then it was planting time:

Cabbage:


If you look veeeery carefully you can see the Onions popping up between the weeds:


Interesting...the light greens are Lettuce from my attempted fall planting :D


Broccoli, Cauliflower, Red Lettuce, opposite side of trellis Green Leaf Lettuce, middle are peas.


Got the manure pile from last year leveled off. There used be four raised beds from the driveway to the fenced in portion. Now I've managed to fill it in to a flat area (it's all gravel fill under the area so I have to work for every bit of topsoil!)

Mickey Lives...

So Mickey Mouse I'm waiting for Disney's Lawyers to serve me an injunction. Muffler held on by bar clamps, and a switch taped to the dash to turn on and off the electric PTO clutch until I have a good rainy day to troubleshoot the wiring harness which had already been hacked to heck and back. But it got the lawn mowed! Man I have a lot of clean up work on the yard to do though.

Asparagus Lunch

Was actually supposed to be dinner last night, had the steak marinating, but I ended up eating a sandwich at 4pm when I got real hungry and didn't feel like dinner:



Steak isn't anything special -- just some local London Broil from Cambpell's Farmstand, but the first asparagus was SPECTACULAR -- quite frankly the best I've ever had. Usually the asparagus flavor is overwhelming and I can only eat a couple spears. This stuff was a much more diffuse flavor -- each piece tasted like asparagus, but not intense. I could've eaten it till my belly was full!

Steak marinade: Olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice, parsley, basil, Badia steak seasoning. Put in a ziploc bag, and flipped every so often. Was supposed to be in it ~12 hours but ended up more like 28 hours because I didn't make it for dinner as originally planned. Seven minutes high, flip and five minutes medium.

Asparagus was just thrown on the grill on high, couple minutes and turned.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Sweet & Sour Pork



First attempt at this, probably overcooked ~5 minutes. May have had too much water in the bottom of the frying pan, too.

Put oil in pan, medium heat.

Mix 1Tbsp corn starch + 1Tbsp Soy Sauce.

Cut up pound of pork, mix well with coating above, put in pan to brown.

Chopped up vegetables, about 5 to 6 cups worth total (just piled high in a bowl :))

-- Carrots
-- Broccoli
-- Celery
-- Green and Orange Bell Peppers
-- Onions

Turn meat while cutting up veggies so both sides brown.

Add enough water to cover bottom of pan.

Add veggies.

Season with ground ginger, ground clove, parsley

Cook on high ~10 minutes, stir, cook and stir another 5 minutes

Add can of chunked pineapples.

Cook another 5 minutes.

Done when carrots & broccoli are crisp (soft?) enough for your taste.

Little bit of Sweet & Sour sauce on the side to be used as desired.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

My first white pizza...

Bacon, Ricotta, & Broccoli Pizza with a White Sauce instead of tomato. Plus while the grill was on I made chicken for the week...between these two, probably be Sunday before I need an oven or grill again!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Excellent map of Westeros

Games of Thrones & Mad Men...the two TV shows I look forward to each week. Mad Men has less nudity and bloodshed. Otherwise, not sure of the difference.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Garden Update

Peas & Onions planted...April 2nd! Weather is so nice this year, I could've planted two weeks sooner if I had my act together. Will try for lettuce this weekend.