Dill PIckles & Other Gardening Produce

I love homemade dill pickles. I have used one recipe for a few years. This year I decided to switch and use an old family recipe. I only did a few jars to see if dh will like them first. The cucumbers came from my parents' garden since mine only has tiny little cucumbers. We grow our own dill as well. The jars get reused every year. The only cost is the jar flats, vinegar, and pickling salt. It is a frugal recipe overall.

Last night dh shelled peas from the "family garden" my uncle plants. Those will be put in the freezer today. I also have some squash to put in the freezer. That leaves me with only a large zucchini, which I think I will turn into zucchini bread tomorrow.

VBS

I am back with my old digital camera. It works fine, but I do miss the new one. I am saving for a new camera though.

This weekend was Vacation Bible School at my church. Sunday night we always have family night with a meal. This year's theme was beach related so I made a cake in the form of a pair of flip flops. The fruit roll-up I purchased was a bit too soft so my straps did not stand up as well as I wanted. I still think they turned out okay. They did taste delicious. I used a butter cake mix and buttercream icing.



The leftover cake was not wasted. I cubed it up and put it in some cups along with the leftover icing. It was not as pretty as the flip flops, but it tasted delicious and was fine for my family.

Death of a Camera

Sorry for the lack of a garden update. I discovered yesterday that my camera no longer worked. After a chat online with HP support, I found out it had a fatal hardware error. I am charging batteries for my old camera, which is good but terribly slow. Hopefully I will have a garden update tomorrow.

A Cat's Life

My two cats have a pretty good life. Both are rescued cats. Paris, whom you have seen before, was rescued by my DH from his workplace where she had been abandoned. Fortunately for Paris, he has a soft heart. Lucy, our oldest, just appeared near our house one day. She was funny in that she did not want you to hold her, but she had to be in the same room as I was at all times. Here they are hanging out in the garden.

Garden Update

I spent part of yesterday afternoon weeding the garden. The only downside of free potting soil is that it has weeds in it. On the flip side I could never have purchased so much at one time, and weeding is good exercise.

It has been fun for me to see how the garden has changed over the weeks. Aside from the blog I am using the pictures for my garden journal. If you garden and do not have a journal, I highly recommend you start one. I use mine to record how long it took seeds to sprout, when I planted, when I first harvested. Everyone else may have a better memory than I do. It never fails that I cannot remember when I planted the previous years. It is also a nice record of your gardening adventures!

Here are the herbs again. The basil has really grown this week.

I think we can start eating some lettuce next week. The squash (left side) are growing slowly, but the zucchini (on the right) are doing better. I saw some tiny radishes yesterday too.

This area had the worst weeds and is the most improved after weeding. The cucumbers and mini pumpkins have started running. The few remaining tomatoes and peppers will need staking by next week.

Stars & Moon Watermelon Plant - Maybe you can see the yellow "stars" on the leaves

Cucumber Blossom

Tomato Blossoms

May Daring Bakers Challenge

This was my first Daring Bakers Challenge. When I saw the recipe for the Opera Cake, my first thought was "what have I gotten myself into??". I read through it a few (dozen) more times and got a pep talk from my DH. I took a deep breath and decided I could do this. I decided it would be a nice birthday cake for my dad. Knowing he does not like white chocolate or anything overly sweet, I opted to leave out the white chocolate mousse and glaze on top. Since we had plenty of fresh strawberries in the yard, I chose to add some of those in.

I got up early after dh left for work to start the cake determined to do it all in one day. It was my first time making almond flour. I usually make my cakes from scratch anyway so this was not much more difficult. The cake itself was delicious and very light. The ground almonds gave it such a wonderful texture. I could eat the cake plain. The syrup kept the cake moist even after a few days in the fridge. Buttercream is my favorite icing. I would love to try this again with a lighter, less sweet icing. The strawberries combined with the icing flavor perfectly.

I started off this challenge wondering why I even signed up and ended it with a cake I will definitely make again. Looking at some of the other cakes I found mine to be a bit plain. I realize that this is to challenge me to be a better baker and not to compare my decorating skills to anyone elses. I never would have given an opera cake recipe a second glance before Daring Bakers. Now I am looking forward to next month's challenge.

Strawberries on Top of Second Layer

My Finished Opera Cake

Garden Update

Well, I missed one week of my garden update due to several days of rain. These pictures were taken late Thursday of last week since rain was expected (and arrived) on Friday. I am not complaining about the rain at all. It is wonderful to not have to water the garden. Rain water makes it grow so much better anyway.

The Herbs

The herbs have done very well in the potting soil and have really taken off. I hope they will hold a few more weeks before needing a trim. I did find a nice focaccia bread recipe that calls for lots of fresh herbs. It sounds like the perfect use for all of these lovely herbs.

Lettuces, Radishes, Squash, Pumpkins, & Watermelons

The watermelon plants have been the slowest growing of the bunch. They are finally getting additional leaves. I have started seeing tiny radishes and will start picking those in a couple of weeks. I like them best when they are young and not too hot.

Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers, and Eggplants

Everything in this section is doing well with the exception of the hot pepper plant. The wind blew is over and broke the stalk. There were no paw prints so the cats are in the clear. I will need to stake up the other pepper and tomato plants.

Paris

Paris has finally learned to stay out of the garden for the most part. She still loves the cool, damp dirt and especially loves having her picture taken.