Cooking with thyme

Yesterday the promised rain never did arrive and the rain today didn't arrive until the evening and then not much. They are still calling for rain tomorrow, but then we are in for another dry spell. I may end up watering the whole yard tomorrow if it does not pick up and rain some more tonight.

Last night I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies with some fresh peppermint added in. I baked up about half the dough and took a dozen in to work today. Most of my co-workers liked them and I sent the extras home with one. The cookies cooked up thin and crispy, not sure why. I prefer a more cake-like cookie. Don't know if it was because the butter was frozen when I beat it or what.

Tonight we finally used some fresh thyme. Almost all the recipes I can find call for dried thyme, but this one, which was a tofu and potato stew (from Vegan with a Vengence), actually called for fresh thyme. The stew itself was quite good and the smell reminded me of Unturkey (whose demise I still mourn...).

indoor work

Today I finally did some work indoors, of course not before doing a little work outdoors! I broke down and bought a string trimmer at Wal-Mart and ended up putting it on my credit card. I was loathe to do both, but as I still can't afford a lawn mower, there has been no progress on getting Bobbie's old lawn mower working, transporting a lawn mower to my house from Bobbie's is a REAL pain and the grass or at least weeds keep growing I had to do something. I ended up getting a $35 Weed Eater that is supposed to edge as well. I used it to cut the whole front yard and it did pretty well.

It was around 90 today and just terrible to work in outside, so after cutting the front yard, I decided I needed to work indoors. I got out my trusty drill (kind of a pretty teal color too) and set to work drilling holes for the screws in my window frame. It was not hard at all to drill and the difference between trying to get the screws to go in with and without the pre-drilled holes... well... working by myself I was able to get the other shade up in about 1/2 hour.

We had purchased 3 additional shades for the dining room, but my mom decided against them as she thought it would make it too dark. It is darker in the living room with the second shade up, but I'm hoping it will also be cooler (and we need to get another lightbulb for the light). I had bought the shades quite a while ago so I wasn't sure if I could return them, so I just took one back to Home Depot. I was able to return it for store credit, which I then used to buy a 4" wire shelf for the laundry room and all the things it needs to be mounted on the wall. I also got some new shower hooks as the old ones are impossible to open so you can take the shower curtain down.

I am hoping that we can install the new shelf either tomorrow or this weekend. We are still waiting on the promised rain. When I was out getting the shelf, it looked like rain, but so far nothing...

trying to make future plans

Today was another bad allergy day and when I went outside for just a short time tonight I got eaten alive by bugs. I just watered a bit this AM and other than that did nothing but work and help make dinner today. It was supposed to rain tonight starting at 7, but as of now it is still dry. The weather report did call for 4 days of rain starting today so I'm hoping we get at least some of what they are calling for.

I am off tomorrow but working on Saturday and I'm trying to make plans. I really want to work on trying to get the woodwork in the laundry room painted. This has been something I've needed to do since last oh... September... Maybe tomorrow, as it is too hot and buggy to do much in the yard. Also, now that we have the drill I would like to get a shelf put up in the laundry room. Another project to tackle is actually hanging the shade in the living room. I think that one might be easier if I wait until my mom is home to help out, not sure...

I need to get a string trimmer to cut the yard, as I just can't afford a lawn mower right now and we've never seen about getting Bobbie's fixed. I think I may go to Wal-Mart tomorrow and get one, maybe I can get some of the grass cut if it isn't too hot tomorrow.

My fairly new hanging basket of verbena is looking pretty terrible. At first thought, I'd say it was lack of water, but I've watered it almost every day. Now I'm wondering if it is a combination of too much water and no fertilizer or what. I need to find some fish emulsion to add to my hanging baskets as I really don't want to go down the road of spraying them twice a week with Miracle Grow. The verbena I have planted at the front of the perennial bed are also not looking good. I think they have powdery mildew. I've treated them several times and only one looks really bad, but they are all out of bloom. I'm trying to decide if I should keep them as is, cut them back or pull them out and put in something else. I also really need to find something to replace the pansies! They look pretty horrible by now.

harvesting herbs, making pesto, lantern update

Today was a big herb harvest day. I harvested enough basil (to keep it from blooming) to make pesto that my mom is going to take to her boss. I seem to have reached the point where I have enough basil plants that I can make pesto when I want to. And, I have more basil plants that are growing up from seed as I type. The cilantro I bought as a transplant is growing some but it is also flowering. I cut off all the feathery flowering parts and hopefully the cilantro will continue to do okay. I really need to get some cilantro seeds and sow them in a pot, as my cilantro is ready but the tomatos aren't, and I only got it to make salsa.

Here is the pesto recipe I used. When I make it for myself, I sometimes put in 3 cloves of garlic:

2 c loosely packed basil leaves
3 tbsp pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c Italian cheese

Process all but olive oil and cheese until chopped, then add oil while blender is running. Add cheese last and process until mixed in but not a totally smooth paste


Speaking of salsa, I have some more jalapenos ready for harvest, as well as a cayenne and several of the Thai hots. I will need to find a good recipe using peppers and I'll make that this weekend. I think the peppers will be okay to leave on the plant until then. I found another immature yellow bell pepper that had been attacked by insects and had to be throw out today. The plant still have 3 other peppers that are growing. I am hoping that I will get a few bell peppers. A co-worker who is growing her bell peppers in the ground has already harvested some green bell peppers. I have one yellow bell pepper that looks full size, but it is still definitely still green. So, unless the plant was mislabeled, it still have some more ripening to do.

We got a lot of rain on Monday, pretty much all night, so I didn't water any of the shrubs today. The flowers and potted plants all seem to be doing okay. I need to try to find some flower I want to put in where I still have pansies in the ground. I am thinking I'll just end up putting in some impatiens. I also have to find a time when it is cool enough that I WANT to mess around with digging up the pansies and digging in something else. The snapdragons back there are also looking not so great. Not sure if I should cut them back, dig them up or what. I'll have to ask around at work or at the nursery when I go.

My Chinese lanterns that I started from seed back in February are now blooming and I've found baby lanterns on several of them. I think I still have about 9 pots of them. I've given several away and lost one when it fell off the porch. I saw actual baby lanterns on 3 of the plants in the back yard along the fence line. I don't think I've seen flowers or baby lanterns on the plant that is on the porch. It doesn't get quite as much sun as the others.

Operation grass grow is still going okay. I'm watering regularly and I saw that some grass has sprouted in the new area I am trying to water in as well. Hopefully as long as I keep watering regularly it will make it until the fall, then I can seed in the area some more and maybe next year I'll actually have decent grass in that area. I am currently planning on working on overseeding my front lawn this fall. There are some bare patches and just some not good parts.

too hot

Today it is in the 90s again and very humid. We got a little rain overnight so I only watered the vegetables this morning. The weather report is calling for scattered showers every day until Wednesday, so hopefully they are right as we could use the rain. I wanted to get a rain gauge today, but couldn't find any at Lowes or Home Depot. I want to go out to Wal-Mart later in the day to get some cilantro seeds and maybe some more zinnia seeds and maybe even a string trimmer. I also need to get to Big Lots and get some sort of spray bottle to mix the horticultural oil in. I discovered a bunch of bugs on the cutting of my mallow I was trying to root. I think both mallows may be infested by some sort of bug. I will need to add them to the list of plants I want to spray.

Smoky Mountain Autumn

The daylilies I planted yesterday all seem to be doing well. Smoky and Unloosed both bloomed this morning and I was able to get pics of the blooms. Think that might be it for Smoky, unless it decides to rebloom and puts out some new scapes. Nothing is coming right now. I got the other Margaret planted in the front yard this morning and she looks great. She is a lot taller than the little plants I planted back in April from the clumps I bought and divided. I could probably have divided all the daylilies I bought, but the Lily Lady said to leave them alone to grow for as long as 4 years (wow!). And, as I was somewhat limited on space where I wanted to put them, that worked out fine.

Unloosed Joy

more daylilies

Today I went back to the Lily Lady to get another Mattie Mae Maxwell. I ended up getting 3 other daylilies as well: Unloosed Dreams, Frank Gladney, and Smokey Mountain Autumn. I planted Joy, Frank and Autumn back at the edge of the woodland garden along with Fairy Tale Pink. I am going to plant the Mattie in the front yard to replace the one that died. I will probably do that tomorrow morning, as it is quite hot and that area is full sun. The others are in part shade, but they do get sun in the morning, so hopefully that is enough for them to perform well. If not, i will move them next year I guess.

I also went to JFS and bought 2 hostas today, Diamond Tiara and Silver something or other that was brand new. I guess they sold the beautyberries well this year or they didn't far well in the frost as I didn't see any of the big beautyberries they had last year. I'm glad mine are doing well and said I'd bring a pic of the silver hosta once it got growing in my yard. I also found out that the nameless hosta is Undulata Variegata. Apparently it is the cheapest hosta on the market (though I don't see it at the big box stores). I still really like it and when the weather cools off I might get a few more for the yard.

Mattie blooms, cooking with basil

Today the Mattie Mae Maxwell daylily I bought back in March from the Lily Lady bloomed. I bought 2 plants and ended up splitting them into 5 total plants. Unfortunately, one of the pieces has just recently died, about 2 weeks before the other one bloomed. The Lily Lady is still open, so I am thinking of going tomorrow and seeing if I can buy another Mattie, even though this is definitely not planting time. If I keep up with the watering it should be okay.

When I was out watering this AM, I saw that my inground impatiens back by the camellias and also one plant around the dragon were looking wilted. I gave them a bunch of water and the ones by the camellia had perked up by this evening. The one by the dragon looked better, but not as good as the one by the camellia. Everything will get a good watering tomorrow morning.

I have basil that is trying to flower again, so tonight I cut several plants back quite a ways and used the basil to make Linguine with Sundried Tomato Pesto from the Garden of Vegan cookbook. I had 4 oz of silken tofu left over, so I also made chocolate pudding. I'll have that tomorrow night for dessert and I have enough of the sauce to make 2 more servings.

grow it, eat it- peppers pt 1

This evening I harvested two jalapenos and used them, along with the cayenne from earlier this week to make an African inspired seitan dish, out of the Vegan with a Vengence cookbook (yum!). I also made Maple Walnut cookies, but those didn't use anything from the yard. Tomorrow I am planning on using some of the basil to make linguine wih sundried tomato pesto.

tomato update

Watered this AM and got a look at my plants. The big beautyberry had been looking wilty yesterday but a good watering seems to have perked it up. The small beautyberry is flowering now. I sprayed my big pieris with baking soda yesterday as it had a sort of fluffy white fungi or something on it. Also hit the verbena at the front of the perennial bed. Think they have powdery mildew, hopefully I won't lose any.

I also sprayed all the tomatoes yesterday. Tom has some more leaves that look like they need to go, but he also has some new blooms and a bunch of unripe tomatos, so all hope is not lost The surprise of the day was seeing that all 3 of my new tomato plants have tomatoes! Hopefully I can keep the plants healthy and reap a harvest. I have Roma, Bush Goliath and Better Bush. I also have cilantro growing and peppers ripening, so I need some tomatoes to make salsa.

I am going to have to cut my one pot of basil back quite a ways as it is trying to flower again. I think I am going to make some pesto and maybe even... gasp... give some away!

fertilizing

Got an early start on things this AM by waking up at 5. I was unable to get back to sleep, so I headed out to the gym. My 7:30 AM I had worked out, eaten and showered, so it was out to the yard for a while. I harvested a few herbs for my mom to take to work. I also used my veggie fertilizer on all the tomatoes and peppers. I think it has been about a month since I last fertilized Tom and the peppers. One cayenne is turning redder, so it may be ready to harvest soon. I did harvest 4 more Tom tomatoes.

After that I got everything watered and took a few more photos.

too hot to do much work

I went out of town for a week, which as a bit concerning, as that left mom in charge of all the watering. I got some brass quick connects that actually worked, which made the whole connecting the hose to different things much easier. I was very pleased to come home and find everything thriving.

My coleus definately needed to be cut back again, but I am currently not having as much luck getting things to root. I've got a bunch of coleus cuttings and hopefully they start rooting soon. I also cut back a ton of basil and made pesto. I've been eating pesto pizza and even having bruschetta made with my pesto and slices of Tom Tomato. I harvested 4 toms this morning. He still have some yellow, but also has a bunch of tomatoes that are still ripening, so I guess things are okay. I am hoping that next week with a bunch of rain again I will see some more blooms. I have also seen my first blooms on the roma, so maybe I am on my way to sauce and salsa. In other salsa news, one of my cayenne peppers looks like it is finally starting to turn red. The jalepenos continue to get bigger, I don't quite know when they will be ripe. My cilantro also put up some funny looking leaves. Don't know if it is trying to bloom, being influenced by the dill that is nearby or what, so I pinched them off. Then my hands smelled like cilantro for quite a while.

Today is the first day since I've been home that it has not rained, so I haven't had much watering to do. The forcast is for no rain tomorrow, then a weeks worth of rain. I decided to try to seed in another area of grass, just past where I have been watering. Figure I would water it today and tomorrow, then let the rain work on it for a week. The area I have been working on is starting to fill in nicely. I do think the pine straw helps.


I did some weeding off and on today. It was very hot and I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitos. I was able to get some really nice flower pictures, which I couldn't resist posting!


Here are before and after shots of the area along the side of the house I call "the tunnel". It is still a work in progress (I would like to replace the fencing, maybe add a gate and grow my Carolina Jessamine on it), but it is a big improvement.

Before

After

rain at last

Right now outside it is raining. Bobbie told me today that we have gone 8 weeks without any rain. Grass everywhere is dead unless you have been heavily watering it. I am hoping all my shrubs will enjoy the rain.

I ran around today trying to get everything done before going to KY. I added dirt to the camellias, azaleas and rhodie. I also cut a wilting branch of the rhodie, afraid it has dieback so hopefully this will help. I sprayed it with neam as well. I also cut a branch off of the Margaret camellia that was wilting as well. No idea what might be wrong with it, but figured since it wasn't healthy anyway, why not just take off that little branch. I've been watering that area really regularly, so I think they are wilting from disease, not lack of water. I also added another back of mulch to the azalea bed. My biggest yard feat of the day was getting some brass quick connects that actually work, unlike the plastic quick connects from Big Lots that were a mess. They will cut down on my time switching over the hose and should make it a lot easier for my mom.

I pulled a dead for I don't know what reason penta out of one of my pots today. No time to replace it before I leave and no idea what was wrong with it. Oh well... It is definately disease time and I think I may have seen aphids today. There was some big nasty bug on one of my basils. My one basil was actually flowering, so I cut it way back. I also cut back one of the basils in with the roma tomato because I needed a few more leaves to make pesto.

The zinnias still look like they might have black spot on the lower leaves, but the upper leaves are looking pretty good. I sprayed them with neam today. I also sprayed Tom again and the wave petunia. I thinkt he fungus on the wave petunia is clearing up, but it now has some additional problem, as it is covered in what look like poppy seeds. I may call the nursery on this one tomorrow. I have a feeling I will be dumping this plant when I get home from KY. It seems to have a variety of issues now.

cookies!

I am going out of town for a week and wanted to take some treats with me. Since I have so much mint, I hit on the idea of making cookies with fresh mint from the yard. So, I did some web searching and turned up these two recipes (one uses dried mint) that I tinkered with a little bit and I thought they turned out well.

To dry the mint for the first recipe, I nuked it in the microwave on high between two paper towels for 20-30 second intervals until it seemed crunchy. Then I forced it through a fine sieve to grind it. I think it turned out well. I used peppermint in both recipes, but am going to make a second batch of the chocolate chip cookies with chocolate mint.

Mint Cookies
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp to 1 tbsp ground dried mint leaves
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream butter and sugar. Add mint, flour and salt. Mix thoroughly. Chill dough. Form small balls and roll in sugar. Press with thumb in the center. Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

Mint Almond White Chocolate Chip Cookies (basically Toll House cookies with a few changes)
2 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2 large eggs
2 c (12 oz package) white chocolate chips
1 c chopped almonds
1/4 c finely chopped fresh mint

Preheat oven to 375 F
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and almond extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips, nuts and mint. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 9-11 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooking racks.