How Does Your Garden Grow?

The garden flourished.

Corn

Potatoes

Onions

Tomatoes are being used in salads and tomato sandwiches.  Oh, and BLTs.

The pumpkins are growing and will be ready for October.

Make A Meal. From The Garden.

I've been waiting so patiently. Then I was waiting not so patiently. But the many many many green balls on the plants in the garden are finally turning!
RED! Well, okay. So they're just orange. But I've gotten a couple of red ones out. And more are starting to turn. YAY! And with all that zucchini coming in I've got a great recipe to share with you!

TOMATO AND ZUCCHINI PASTA

Here's what you need:

8 oz linguine

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium zucchini, sliced

1/4 cup parsley

1 Tbs olive oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tsp each:dried basil, dried oregano

1/8 tsp each:salt and pepper

1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Cook linguine (I used spaghetti), drain and keep warm. In a large skillet heat olive oil then add zucchini, onion and garlic. Stir fry for several minutes until zucchini is soft. Add tomatoes, parsley, basil. oregano, salt and pepper. Stir gently and remove from heat. Stir in pasta. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top and serve.

Ruthie and I had been watching Chopped on Food Network. I began making this dish for dinner and she came in and started to make comments like: "Wow. Look at you go chopping those vegetables" "You really know your way around a kitchen" "Wouldn't you think adding something like [she points to an ingredient I already have out] this would enhance the dish?"

Then while she was eating she said things like: "Mmm. This really is a great dish. The ingredients really stand out" "How did you get the tomatoes to be so....Mmm" It went on for a while. I finally told her she can't watch Chopped anymore! But we really loved this recipe.

This recipe originally came from my sister Emilie.

The Potatoes Are Coming In.

On Sunday we had our first potato dig up. Look at these babies...

Mashed. Baked. Fried. Shredded. Scalloped.

You name it, we'll do it!

Yum.

Oh Yeah. This Blog.

I have neglected this poor blog. I'm not sorry, though. We've been having fun. Lots of it, too. So I figure the best way to catch this darn thing up is to start where my pictures start. And just go from there. But no guarantee on the timeliness. We still have lots of fun to take on.


Here is our garden. The backyard veggie kind. We have potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, corn, zucchini, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers, radishes, peppers and I don't know what else. All our fruit trees are gone. Sad. But the garden is growing now that the rain has stopped and the sun has been shining and hot. We are happy about that. I want to add that I have absolutely nothing to do with this garden. Until we get to eat it. Daniel is the gardener here.
Some months ago I said my goal was to beautify the front porch area. Whoo hoo. I think I've succeeded. The day lilies were each split up and replanted to spread the beauty. Look at 'em! They lived and grew. I love my day lilies. They are the longest grown flower at our house.

For mother's day Daniel got me a climbing rose. I inherited the obelisk from my mom this Spring. (The rose is in the obelisk) My brother Aaron built it. He also built the bench and bird houses you see in these pictures. I think those were built out of old fence planks from my parent's house. I'm so glad I have these fun things Aaron built before he died 9 years ago.

Now, I'm a firm believer that a spot of such immense beauty must have a dose of reality. My dose of reality came years ago when my kiddos were very young. I sent them out to the front porch with paint and brushes and pumpkins. I told them to paint the pumpkins (because carving was waaaay too messy for my liking at the time) and then I walked away. Like into the house and closed the door. And this is what I walked back out to. See the lovely paint? Some guy who was delivering something at my door some time later made a comment about how unseemly it is to have paint on the brick and gave some suggestions to get it the heck off. Or even rebrick. Well. It's still the heck on and I love it. It reminds me of a super fun afternoon my kiddos had out on the front porch painting pumpkins for Halloween. So there!

Okay. Back to the beauty. There are wild flowers growing in the front area here. I added some flower pots I kifed from the neighbors across the street who said I could take whatever I wanted as they were vacating the premises for time and all eternity. The pots spoke to me...

I planted some pretties in the 4 pots and now they are a beautiful addition. Ruthie helped pick out all the flowers we put in. Believe it or not, this was my first attempt at potted flowers. And I think I'm hooked. Especially since I have really nice pots!

This year Daniel added several lilies to the flower patch. These are the yellow. There were also pink and white lilies. I LOVE them. There are also some calla lilies (my all time faves!) but they aren't fully bloomed.

I think it's safe to say I have successfully beautified my front porch area. It's flowery and pretty. I like it. If you happen to notice all the weeds, you are more than welcome to come pull them out. I put those down as another dose of reality in my spot of beauty!

Bloggy Bone.

Dang! My Bloggy Bone is sprained. Not extrememly bad. But enough to keep me off for a while. It's recovering and I am hoping after tomorrow it will be feeling much better. But there is no guarantee. We are getting ready for our Primary Program and change is in the air. It just stresses me out!

So I was going to do a Make a Meal, to stretch my bloggy bone a little, but my picture card won't register when I put it in and it's just no fun to do Make a Meal with no pictures so I won't do it today and will have Daniel figure it out when he is done picking the many potatoes from the garden. Speaking of the garden, it froze. Good thing all we have left is potatoes, pumpkins, gourds and really cool Hubbard squash.

I still have snot. Not as much as before but I'm still a snot machine. We aren't sick anymore, though. And we did not have the swine/H1N1 flu! Just head colds. Please don't spread rumors about us. Speaking of rumors, did you hear about the guy...Just kidding.

This is the first year we've gotten apples from one of our trees. We usually get a few along with tons of worms. So Daniel sprayed the trees and the red apple tree produced. I will be making some apple cake, apple crisp and apple other things. Until I run out of apples. Mmmm. They are so good. The other tree had worms. Maybe next year we'll get more apples and no worms.

My bloggy bone is healing. I can feel it! Wow! It's getting stronger. I will be blogging again soon. Stay tuned! Have a fantastic Saturday!

A Day In The Life.

Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. Pictures.

Monday...We scrapped our FHE lesson and went to a nearby pond/park. We took old hot dog buns from the freezer and a loaf of old bread. Total: 1 Loaf of Bread and 32 Hot Dog Buns. The kids had a blast and the ducks were well fed.

Tuesday...I had a presidency meeting (see the cookies in the background? I make meetings worthwhile!) and we went till after lunch time. My kids were great and we were all hungry so we went to the local Old McDonald's to eat and play.
Wednesday...Cucumbers. And here is where I have no daily pictures. So you will see some of our garden growth. Wednesday we went to the dollar movie with Kim and Jessica. We realized what a horrible movie Rugrate In Paris is!! It was also a day filled with preparation for Day Camp.

Thursday...Corn. And Day Camp. Remember? Yeah. Ankle. It was fun getting to know all 25 of the Activity Day girls who went! My kids had a terrific time at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Friday...Yay! A real Friday picture! We went to our Ward Campout. It was so much fun! All the kids just ran and ran until far far far past any sane parent's child's bedtime. Then they all started the next day really early! This is a lighted frisbee. After this (only) picture, my batteries died. We had a great time and hope we will have a campout every year. And maybe more than just one night!

Saturday...Green Beans. We had yummy dutch oven made breakfast when we woke up. It rained on us. I sat and talked to a woman in my ward...who I absolutely love and am so glad I got to know her better! We left when the rain stopped. Started laundry. Mom crashed hard. Ruthie went to play at a friend's house. Mom went to a baptism for 2 of our Primary kids. The whole family went to see cousin Jesse at an open house to wish him well on his Mission. We all went to bed without ice cream. (long story)

Sunday...Green Peppers. I actually made stuffed green peppers for dinner this week. But of course, I can't remember what day it is today, so how would you expect me to know what day I made it for dinner. Sunday...Oh Yeah! It's Sunday. Went to church. Felt the Spirit. Learned a lot. Came home. Took a nap. Had Family Movie Night to watch Escape to Witch Mountain. The kids are now in bed and I will soon follow!

Hope you had a fantastic week!

Make A Meal Monday...on Tuesday. Again.

It just seems like I'm a day late and a dollar short. But I'm really not a dollar short. I have enough, thank you. But a day late, yes! This is the ZUCCHINI verson. Because. I. Have. Zucchini. If you don't have zucchini at your house....what's wrong with you?! We should all have zucchini in our homes at this time of year.
It's gotten much bigger since this picture was taken. It is taking over the garden. Zucchini everywhere! There are also tons of pumpkins in my garden. But I'll post those another time.

I have one zucchini plant because more than that is insanity at it's best. Or worse. I'll let you decide!

And you would think I would put all the zucchini together in a bunch so you can take in all the lovely zucchininess at once. But no. I only pick one a day and then use it.

So what do you do with all that zucchini?? I found some real ideas. Because when you just throw it into everything you make, the kids start to complain. Cold zucchini cereal just isn't cool I guess. Whatever.

So this is one great recipe I used. It's called Spaghetti Zucchini Bake. It's yummy. But don't tell your kids the real name. Mine get scared when I put zucchini in a sentence. So let's call it Yummy Dinner That You Will Eat, Or You Can Just Go To Bed.

You will need:

1 lb. Penne or just whatever pasta your kiddos like.

1 lb Ground Beef, browned and drained.

2 cans Diced Tomatoes

1 can Mushrooms

1 can Tomato Paste
1/4 cup Diced Onions

2 Cloves of Garlic, minced or crushed

4 cups Zucchini, cut into chunks

1 tsp Oregano

2 tsp Basil

2 cups Mozzerella Cheese, grated

Salt to taste

Cook pasta until tender. In another pot, combine diced tomatoes, mushrooms, tomato paste, onions, garlic, oregano and basil. Heat to boiling and simmer 5 minutes. Place zucchini in microwave safe bowl and zap for 3 minutes. Add zucchini and ground beef to sauce. Simmer 5 minutes. Add pasta and 1 cup cheese and stir together. Put in a baking dish and top with remaining cheese. Place under broiler until cheese is melted. If you aren't ready to serve yet, wait and then bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

And then you need dessert. Because we all need dessert. And we all need chocolate. This next recipe is good. If you like zucchini in your dessert. I tell ya, I thought I loved it. I really did. It smelled divine. But zucchini should really stay in garlic and butter. But I'll still share it.

Death By Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup White Sugar

1/2 cup Butter

1/2 cup Oil or Apple Sauce (You know, if you want to be all healthy and stuff)

3 eggs

2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 cup Buttermilk

2 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (For healthy!)

1 tsp Allspice

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Salt

4 tsp Baking Soda

6 Tblsp Cocoa Powder

4 cup grated Zucchini

1 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 325. Cream sugars, butter and oil. Add eggs, vanilla and buttermilk and mix in well. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together, then add to sugar mixture. Fold in grated zucchini. Pour into greased 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle top of cake with chocolate chips. Eat the 5 chips that scatter onto the counter! Bake for 45 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

And then we have this. Because I had leftover crockpot chicken with gravy stuff. So why not throw in some garden stuff, including zucchini, and then add some mashed potatoes on top? Seriously! This is the best of all this stuff to me. Because I made it up as I went and it turned out yummy! You see the green beans? The carrots? The zucchini? The onions? Those are all from my garden. Mmmmm...

Just as a side note, before giving you the recipe. kind of. No girl should be without real garlic ready to be thrown in something! But no girl should be without this... Garlic powder. It makes me happy!

Leftover Crockpot Chicken and Gravy with Garden Veggies and Mashed Potatoes on Top!

So here's what you can do if you don't have leftover chicken. Just get some chicken, cook it, chop it into bite sized pieces. Then get some chicken gravy mix. Make it and then add Cream of Mushroom soup. Mix well and throw it on the chicken in the baking dish. Add whatever veggies you have. Don't forget the garlic powder!! And don't forget the zucchini. Make some killer instant mashed potatoes from the dry pack cannery. Put them on top. Bake at 350 for, oh, say, 20-30 minutes.

It was a hit. Zucchini is everywhere. It may even be evil. But if you use it daily and try to hide it whenever possible, your kids may... Never mind. Your kids will still hate you! Unless they really really really really really like zucchini. In everything. Everyday!

That's all I've got to say on the matter!