Garden Love...

This week was full of gardening prep & planning, so I wanted to take pictures to keep track of how things are growing. <3

The eggplant lives in the greenhouse, since it needs a hot environment:

 

Also in the greenhouse are these three tomatoes, including a purple variety(!), & some basil:



On the side of the greenhouse, I have this grafted San Marzano tomato that Coral gave me as a housewarming present, plus a hill of pickling cucumbers.  I also sprinkled some marigolds around, since they're companion plants:

 
Next to the tomato/cuke bed, I'm trying an experimental potato tire tower.  Unfortunately, I just read about the possible hazards of stuff leaching out of old tires, so I'll probably just keep the poisonous potatoes to myself:


In front of the greenhouse, I put two more tomatoes, plus some basil & radishes:


Next, there's the squash section that has two kinds of summer squash, & two kinds of winter squash:



The strawberries are doing really well!  The ones in front were here before, & the ones in the back were ones I brought, plus a ton from Coral's house:



My main vegetable bed has more pickling cukes, beets, sugar snap peas, carrots, kale, rainbow chard, nasturtiums, & Brussels sprouts:

 
Since the rest of the available beds are for my roommates & I still wanted to plant more stuff, I used a couple large containers for salad greens & peppers:

 
Besides all the edible stuff, I made a bunch of succulent planters out of these hole-y rocks from the coast.  My brother & I found them on our various walks:

 
This one is placed on a huge hunk of driftwood that Sean helped me lug home:

 
 Yay, gardening! 

Canning & Bike Riding Fun!

Early last week, I went to visit Coral & she sent me home with a ton of leftovers from the wedding, including several pounds of plum tomatoes (7 1/2 lbs.) & Anaheim peppers (4 1/2 lbs.). They sat in our basement for a couple days, while I wondered what I should make with 'em. I finally decided to make canned diced tomatoes & pickled Anaheim slices. For the peppers, I used a basic pickling brine, & added garlic, mustard seeds, peppercorns & a hot pepper to each jar. I have to wait about a month to try them (so they can develop their flavor), but I hope they're good! The tomatoes are just lemon juice, salt & tomatoes, so they'll be pretty versatile.

Before pickling:


After pickling:


Smels was gone all last week. Coral's sister, Laurel, had to head back to school in Wyoming after the wedding festivities were over, so Smels went with her & they had a fun road trip. All four of us: Coral, Laurel, Chelsea (Smels) & me, have been friends since we were toddlers. Their mom is like my second mother, & they're all such dear friends. <3 <3 <3

Thankfully, Smels is back. She got me this beautiful bowl in an antique store. I love it! It feeds my bowl habit & matches my tiered candy dish thingy too. :)


Yesterday, before work, my sister & I went to the King Farmers Market. I got some basil & Walla Wallas, & a treat from the Grand Central stall. Plus we each got a free bag at the Farmers Market, which was cool:


After that, we decided to go on a bike ride to the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant, then the Smith & Bybee Wetland area. Whoa...going to a stinky sewage place, for fun?! Well, there are both the Peninsula Crossing Trail & 40-Mile Loop around there, & Smels knows some good blackberry-picking spots nearby. We picked 4 quarts of them, so she can bake a pie or two.


We also saw three Western painted turtles! They were far away, sunning on a floating log, so forgive the blurriness:


After our berry picking, we rode to Kenton & went to an antique store, the library, & then got iced mochas at Posies Bakery & Cafe. Tasty!

Now for something sugary: the other night, I whipped up some raspberry crisp for a dinner at Smels' house, so I made a behbeh portion for myself too, mwa ha ha. I used the same filling as this raspberry pie, but cut down on the sugar, since the topping is sweet, unlike (most) pie crust.


This happens to be my favorite-est crisp topping in the Universe...

Fruit Crisp Topping

• 1 cup flour (white whole wheat is my favorite)
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Mix everything together until combined. Just lightly sweeten & thicken your favorite fruit by tossing it with some sugar & either cornstarch or flour, then put it in a casserole dish, generously layering a bunch of this topping over it. Bake at 350*F until the fruit is bubbling & the top is brown, around 45-55 minutes. I usually lightly cover mine towards the end of baking, to prevent over-browning. Don't cover tightly though, or you'll steam your crisp, making it pasty & sad. :(

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Ooh, I also made some Pad Thai today, using Pim's guide, but substituting vegetarian fish sauce for the real deal. I got mine at Fubonn, but it's probably available at larger Asian grocery stores. The resulting dish was pretty tasty. I made it with ingredients I had around (carrots, basil, tofu, egg, cilantro, Walla Walla onion, jalapeno, etc.), so it was far from authentic, but I was satisfied with it nonetheless.

Late Halloween & Birthdays Post!

I had a somewhat lacking Halloween this year, which sucks because it's my mom's birthday & my favorite holiday! Oh well. My sister & I went to visit Mom for one night, then I watched half of Wizard People, Dear Reader with my sister on Saturday & ate delicious baked tofu sandwiches & cranberry sauce. She's seriously the master of baked tofu & cooking tasty food, sans recipes. The main reason my actual Halloween sucked was because both Ethan & I had to work. Wah, wah, wah! Oh, and we never got pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns either! Next year, I tell you, next year!

I thought these tomatoes were really beautiful---all the colors of the rainbow. I picked them when they were really hard & green, so I was surprised at how ripe they got. They actually got much riper, but I didn't take any more pics.


Yesterday was my friend Drew's birthday, so I gave him this card that I made. I carved the mushroom & happy poo stamps too. It's really fun to carve your own, but the material I use is pretty fragile, like if you rub it, it will crumble. My advice: simple is better & don't be too attached to your creations!


Ethan recently found this owl that I made a year ago. It's been driving me nuts, not knowing where it is. I thought Ruben ate it or something!


I made some Halloween cards for sending out. They were made with a combination of purchased & homemade stamps.

For my mom. She loved this witch design that she found on the internet somewhere. I kind of simplified it, but she still thought it was cool.


Skull card. I carved the skull & really like how it came out!


More generic cards, made from the set of Halloween stamps I got at Joann's.

Purple:


Green:


Orange:


I also made a couple non-Halloween cards, in case something non-Halloween-y came up.

Green deer:


Brown deer:


That's it! I need to do homework now...

Completing Oodles of Projects!

I've been squeezing the last little bit out of my summer break by finishing projects & little odds & ends that have been cluttering up my life. It feels so freeing!

Firstly, I've finished knitting my second sweater. The first one didn't fit too well, so I've frogged it. At least I can use the yarn for another one! This is the "Cozy V-Neck Pullover w/Deep Ribbing" from Fitted Knits, by Stefanie Japel. What's so great about this pattern is that the ribbing does the shaping for you. It's really flattering in the waist department & is a great basic sweater.


Another thing I did was repair my Nintendo! When Sage was visiting, we played the hell out of it & it finally started to have problems when we'd switch cartridges. We ended up having to jam a particular book into it to hold the game down far enough to make contact w/whatever parts are necessary for play. I found this great place & ordered the repair kit. Using their photo guide, I was able to get in there, clean it out, & replace the 72 pin cartridge connector, which apparently wears out in 25 years or so, ha ha.

Here's the best picture I took. I was too busy cussing to take more!


It took an hour, at the most, then I ended up w/a happy NES, ready for 25 more years of action!


Another thing I got done was the "butchery" of our tomato plants. Coral recommended I trim the shit out of them, so they'd put their energy into ripening the stragglers. I hope it works! For some reason, I feel guilty pruning plants. :( Here's the latest batch I picked.


Ethan & I have been watching X-Files, but this puzzle got us hooked to the point where we were putting it together WHILE watching it. Horrible! This is from Goodwill, & stated on the bottom that there were two missing pieces. Whoever donated it is so sweet to write that on there!


We came up with the idea of replacing them with cardboard (traced, then cut w/an Exacto Knife), then painting them to blend in. I think it worked really well! You'd only be able to tell if it were pointed out. I Mod Podged it a bunch, then hung it on the wall this morning. Cool!


Speaking of mushrooms & Goodwill: Mom bought these giant garden shrooms for me, when she was visiting last time. I LOVE THEM! They're originally from Target, but our Goodwill gets a lot of their close-out & remainder items, so you can sometimes get new shoes & stuff for a steal.


I also mended my sister's slipper that her kitty chewed a hole in:


Other tasks I completed: cleaned my room, washed 3 loads of laundry, made fruit leather out of a box of pears from Coral, backed up all my photos to Flickr & DVD, plus sold a bunch of old books on Amazon. I am officially declaring my old habit of procrastination OBSOLETE! If it feels so good to catch up on things, imagine what it's like to feel that way ALWAYS!

Last of the Peaches!

We have finally used up the 67 or so pounds of peaches that we picked! It was no small feat to process &/or eat so many golden, juicy globes, believe me. I made 9 pints of peach sauce, which is similar to applesauce (or baby food!). It's really good, with a hint of cinnamon & the bare minimum of sugar. The downside is that it's runnier than applesauce, but I didn't want to cook the piss out of it & kill any & all vitamins, so whatevs.


The other night, Sage & I made peach crisp, which was EXCELLENT. We combined a peach pie filling recipe w/the crisp topping that I always use for apple crisp. We ended up with 3 individual ramekins, plus a large casserole of it.

Excuse the bad night-time photo:



Here's the recipe, if you want to try it. I cut the sugar down a bit, since I like the fruit to be on the tart side, which is balanced well by the buttery, sweet topping. You can make it sweeter if you like it that way.

Peach Crisp

Crisp Topping:

• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

Peach Filling:

• 4 pounds ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, & sliced***
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Make the crisp topping by combining all the ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside. Combine the peaches & lemon juice in a large bowl, then mix together the dry filling ingredients (flour, cornstarch, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon & salt) in a small bowl. Dump the dry ingredients over the peaches & combine them gently. Pour the juicy peach filling into whatever baking dish(es) you're using, then sprinkle the topping over it. Bake until the topping is golden & the filling is bubbly. Let it cool a few minutes before devouring, because it would be a shame to damage your taste buds before you could enjoy this feast!

***hint: The easy way to peel peaches is to cut a little "X" into the bottom of them, then toss a few at a time into boiling water. Leave them in for about a minute, then plunge them into cold water. This will allow you to slide the skin right off. Cool!

Our garden is trying its damnedest to grown & ripen, but we get so little direct sun, due to the ginormous tree outside our apartment. Imagine my excitement when I saw this little tomato the other day!


Most of the others look like this:



I'm really hoping that the red one sends out some hormones or something that will kick-start the rest, otherwise we'll be eating fried green tomatoes & canning green tomato relish. C'mon, babies, go!

Here's a cute succulent terrarium I made recently, using a cool goblet I found at Goodwill. I really like how it turned out.


I've also been knitting this Circle Sock for myself, which is reminiscent of a TMNT shell. Turtle power!


Noodle (Ruben) is doing much better, after a rough patch of health. He's been loving to sunbathe on the porch during our more temperate days.

Tons of Tasty Food

I stumbled upon a delicious combination for smoothies that I never would have tried, had I not had an abundance of nectarines floating around...nectarine-pineapple! So amazing.


Here's a tasty tofu scramble (w/red peppers & green onions) with toasted, buttery Dave's Killer Bread, roasted potatoes, & a behbeh strawberry from our garden. This is one of my favorite meals. YUM!


Now...a few things I've made recently at work. Jumbo-sized Peanut Butter Pillows from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. People were raving about them, so I'll definitely make them again soon!


And these amazing Hazelnut Caramel Bars, from here.


The recipe is from Sweet Pea Baking Co., here in Portland. They know their treats, that's for sure! I have made these with many kinds of nuts & they're always decadent.


Here are some simple Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies that are a variation on this recipe. No one would know any of these treats were vegan!


Lastly, some roasted tomato fettuccine that I just made for Ethan & I. We've been getting so much good produce, so in order to use up the cherry tomatoes, I made this...


The recipe is from Bon Appétit & is available here on Epicurious. I highly recommend it because it practically cooks itself & seems super fancy, heh heh.

P.S. It is raining again here. So weird.