Starting our fall garden

 It's official. Our fall garden is underway. We now have collards, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, some leftover cucumbers and peppers and plenty of room to plant more. We still need to mulch but we were pretty weary after getting all this done.

It wasn't the most perfect summer for a garden and I have decided not to spend any time bemoaning the fact that we didn't have the most wonderful garden ever. I know that in the true spirit of farming you just have to move on to the next season. Droughts hit everyone pretty hard.

Much of the time was spent clearing things out and tilling under the vegetation that was left.

The pole from the beans need to be cleaned off and stored for next year.

The tomato and pepper cages can be stored in the shed.

My husband manned the tiller and it took awhile to get things ready.

We left some late cucumbers and the fence. They are growing pretty slowly. I was surprised they survived the last couple of weeks because the weather was so dry. In early spring, we will plant pea pods and let them run up the fence. It would be nice to utilize it while it is up. I am not sure we will have fall cucumbers but we had the seed back in August so we really weren't out anything but labor.

My job was to buy the plants. We would normally have waited a bit to buy plants but I was concerned that if I waited they will all be gone. That has happened to me before. At least the nights are cooler and since the stores have the plants, it must be the right time for them. I purchased a tray of collard plants, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and some cabbage.

I thought I had a half tray of broccoli but it was actually cabbage. I certainly didn't need that much cabbage. I guess I picked up the wrong tray at the store and had way too much cabbage and no broccoli. Luckily they have a return policy. Whew! I was so worried about my mistake. We now have broccoli plants and we will have broccoli in the ground by tomorrow.

The main thing we wanted to do for our spring planting was to till in some lime. It won't help right now but when spring rolls around, the pH level of the soil will be sweetened.

 

We decided to also treat for grubs. Milky Spore is a natural way to get rid of them. I would love to take care of those awful Japanese beetles. I hope this helps.

After putting out lime and milky spore it looked like this. We all looked like we had been dusted with cake flour when we were finished. The wind was blowing up small lime whirlwinds until we tilled it under.

Then it was ready ...

For our plants, heavily laced with Moo-nure and watered liberally. The photo at the top is the way it looks now -- a very good start.

Bears Week #1

Opening season game was an awesome game. Chicago's offensive and defense was on fire today. The Bears offense and defense overwhelmed the Falcons today.

1st quarter- Urlacher was on fire. He got an interception that ended up being a 56 yard touchdown. The defense was keeping the Falcons way from making any touchdowns.

2nd quarter- Both defense teams were doing really good and didn't get any real good runs.

3rd quarter- There was a 55 yard run just inside the one yard line and resulted in a touchdown. Then there was a fumble and Urlacher ran it in for a touchdown.

4th quarter- Looked like a fight was going to start between the teams. The Falcon quarterback got sandwiched between two Bear players.

After first quarter the offense started to protect Cutler so he could start getting good plays going. The whole team was on fire today and had a great game. 

Like I said this was an awesome game to watch. My eyes were glued to the t.v. watching the game. I would say to the Bears are the Monster's of the Midway. The final score was Bears 30- Falcons 12.

from www.thefrugalgirls.com

FREE Online Read-A-Loud for Kids: Llama Llama Home with Mama

By Heidi on September 8, 2011

This month’s FREE Barnes & Noble Online Read-A-Loud for Kids is Llama Llama Home with Mama.
Head on over here to have the book read aloud to your kiddos!

Gluten-free Pizza Pockets

There are some great ideas in the Flying Apron Cookbook I mentioned earlier in the week. We tried their recipe for pizza pockets and found it to be incredibly good. It starts with a quick yeast bread made with pumpkin and flax seed meal and a mix of white and garbanzo bean flours. We mixed the bread and rolled it into circles, inserted savory toppings and baked them until they were a delicious golden brown.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

This time we made the inside ingredients very simple. Pizza sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms and grated "cheese." Our cheese was made from soy. We baked it on a pizza stone and the crust was perfect.

Let's fact it. Most incredibly good things are not incredibly easy. I don't think I will be making these everyday but I will use this recipe over and over and I will be working on some new fillings to go inside. The pepperoni was a little on the hot side (I guess it is "pepper"oni for a reason!) but the taste was very good. I am thinking if you add some healthy ingredients, this would be a deceptively good meal.  This could be made from any bread recipe, though we liked that this was a gluten-free recipe that tasted like it could have been made from wheat. I think this recipe would also make a great pizza crust.

I like that you can freeze these either before or after baking. I like this idea for an easy meal. Just make a salad and thaw out some pizza pockets (they are much like calzones I have eaten in Italian eateries).

I am thinking my next filling will be chicken and vegetables in a nut cream sauce. I know that the recipe will get easier each time I make it and I intend to perfect my method as I go to help with the rolling out experience.

That's the Flying Apron Gluten-Free Cookbook. Savory pockets. Or experiment with a bread mix or your favorite recipe. Add a salad or soup and have a very nice treat. Your kids will love you for this one.

from www.thefrugalgirls.com

FREE Sesame Street Online Books!

By Heidi on September 6, 2011

Here’s something fun to enjoy with your little ones!
Read these FREE Sesame Street Online Books!
Just scroll down and select from the Free e-Books of the week.

Pimentos

With Labor Day behind us, it is time to get started on a new gardening season. Our garden played out early this year because we just didn't get enough rain. After a weekend of rain and with cooler temperatures, it should be time to get a fresh start.

The last thing we have in our garden -- peppers. These beautiful pimentos were a first for us this year and I do plan to plant more next year. I was hoping to can them but I didn't have quite enough to bring out the pressure canner, so I decided to freeze them instead.

The best way -- roast them, peel off the skin and then freeze them. The skins can be a bit tough and a little bitter when they are cooked or frozen, so it is best to freeze them without the peelings.

I think the pimentos are meatier than regular red bell peppers. We had to pick a few of them while green but they "colored up" well after leaving them out for more than a few days. I thought the pimentos kept well and I really liked the clusters of peppers on the vines.

It is almost impossible for my untrained eye to tell the difference between a bell pepper plant and a pimento plant, but the pimento pepper is very different from the bell pepper. The pimento has a rounded bottom and become a bright fire engine red when ripe. Pimentos have a distinctively different flavor that makes them perfect in pimento cheese.

My pimentos will be the star ingredient for my favorite pimento cheese recipe. It's a tangy, low fat version that my family really loves. A bit different, but healthy and tasty. This is great on whole wheat bread or on crackers. We often serve this as a dip. It has a fresh taste.

Low-Fat, Herbed Pimento Cheese

2/3 cup nonfat sour cream
1/3 cup nonfat plain yogurt, softened

1/4 cup low fat mayonnaise
4 ounces nonfat cream cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley (or other herbs of your choice)
1/3 cup chopped red pimento peppers (or one 4 ounce jar of pimentos)
8 ounces low fat sharp cheddar cheese, grated Salt and pepper to taste

In a bowl mix the sour cream, yogurt, mayonnaise and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy. Add the onions, herbs and pimentos. Add the grated cheddar until well mixed. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving so the flavor will be enhanced.

My First Grandchild!

Yes my granddaughter is here finally. Saturday I had gotten a phone call from my son asking me to come up by him. His girlfriend was getting induced. I told him I had to talk to my boyfriend about this. He said mom I need you here with me. My son kept begging me on the phone and I kept telling him I had to talk to my boyfriend. My son was lucky I had the weekend off of work.

I was talking to my boyfriend and my son kept texting me and asking me if I was coming up there. Then he was asking me to text him some phone numbers.

So my boyfriend gave in and I told my son and he was so happy. I told him we all had to take showers and I had to pack an overnight bag. But the phone calls and the text messages didn't stop with my son. He was so nerves. 

I had my ex husband's seven year old for the weekend too. So it was my boyfriend, my ex husband's seven year old, my youngest daughter. the dog and myself going up there. I had to try to get everything together for the trip. This was not in the plans for the weekend. We left about 3:30pm and got up there about 7pm.

The people that were there when we got to the hospital was my mom, my younger sister, my older daughter, my ex husband, my niece her daughter and my nieces boyfriend. My son was upset because no one from my ex husband's family came to the hospital.

It was about midnight we were told that his girlfriend wouldn't be having the baby until between 5-6 in the morning on Sunday. So we were getting ready to leave to get some sleep. My boyfriend and I went to get the girls and then we were told that his girlfriend was going for emergency c-section. The baby's heart rate was dropping. She was born at 1:35am on September 4th, 2011. This picture is my son feeding his daughter before we left the hospital right after she was born. I took this picture of my son and granddaughter.


We did manage to go and get about five hours of sleep and came back to the hospital to see the baby. The picture above is me holding my granddaughter after some sleep. My boyfriend took the picture above.  I am very happy for my son. But I also told him I can spoil her and send her back home to mommy and daddy. He gave me a dirty look for that one. But I have a feeling my boyfriend will spoil her more than I will.


It was a very long two days for us. By the time we got home Sunday night we were wiped out. We did have plans to go to a concert Sunday night but we never made it. The main thing for me is I did get to be with my boyfriend the whole weekend and we were able to be there for my son when his daughter was born. I never thought I would hear my son say mom I need you. I hope everyone was able to enjoy there weekend. I am a very proud Grandma!