Weather Report:
What did one clothes pin say to the other clothes pin? Wanna hang out sometime? Hee hee! We were expecting rain today, but it is looking like it might bypass us again . So, to thumb my nose at Ma Nature, I have hung not one, but two loads of laundry on the line. If anything will bring on good rainfall, that surely will. Hopefully!
Garden & Greenhouse Update:
We are enjoying our first Long English Cucumbers of the season from the greenhouse. There are baby sized green peppers and tomatoes in there as well. Yay!
We got the rest of the garden planted, including the bedding plants. I thought it might be a bit early for the plants, but Papa has been following the weather App on his new cell phone and reports that the fear of frost appears to have passed for our area. Hopefully the weather App knows what it is talking about!
We filled all the deck pots and planted out the rest of the bedding plants yesterday. He is happy to be able to be able to move around in the greenhouse again. He planted a new tomato in the greenhouse this year and is quickly discovering that this one doesn't like the heat as much as the one we normally grow. Hopefully it adjusts and fruits. I would sure hate to have to take cuttings from our usual Roma Tomato plants, to get a second crop going. That's the one thing about gardening, you are always willing to try something new - Not that it is better than what you already grow. You win some and you lose some, but we keep trying!
The Tulips have finally popped. They are late this year, but it has been so cold that none of us really wanting to hang around outside, so I don't blame them. They are just beautiful and I get the bonus of being able to enjoy them from my studio desk.
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| Beautiful Yellow Tulip |
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| A few of the 250 Tulip bulbs planted last fall So nice of them to show up |
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| Our daily harvest of asparagus |
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| I simply saute and season with Salt and Pepper |
As we were planting out, I had a good look at the yard to see almost everything has survived. We appear to have lost a Clematis, a Hops plant and an Englishman's Ivy, but everything is late, so we are going to wait on them for a bit yet. Even out garlic has been patchy this year. Some varieties are full on, others, not so much. We'll just have to wait and see.
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| Day Lilies and vines along the retaining wall |
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| Bleeding Heart and one of Papa's many peonies These are at the front step |
Kitchen happenings:
When we are busy in the yard, the crock pot becomes our very best friend. Who am I kidding? I think I use the crock pot more than any other appliance in my kitchen! It is such a time saver and I love to dump, forget about it and let it cook. It is wonderful to come in and smell wonderful, homey smells. You only have to make a pot of rice or slice up some veggies and you have a great meal, ready to serve with minimal effort!
This week's Crock Pot Hero was Sweet and Sour Pineapple Chicken
My Recipe:
1 diced onion
1 can of pineapple chunks, juice included
1 sweet bell pepper - any color - mine were frozen so I got a mixture of red, orange and green
thawed/raw chicken parts - I used 4 bone in breasts, but you can use drums, thighs, whatever you have
Layer these into the crock pot, in order given above, with the chicken on top. Salt and pepper the chicken then add the following:
For the Sauce, mix together the following and pour over all:
3/4 cup cold water
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce - or full salt if that's what you have
2 tbsp cornstarch
Set crock pot to high for 4 hours or 6 hours on low, and let it do its magic. Just make sure chicken is cooked. I serve this with brown or jasmine or basamati rice - your preference. Nice and tangy and the chicken is super tender.
Makes 4 generous servings - or enough for two busy gardeners for 2 suppers! Left overs rock!
I also made a great pot of Ham and Bean Soup this week for our lunches. As usual, I was rummaging in the cold cellar, searching for inspiration when I came upon some pressure canned Ham Stock, with Ham. Cool! Ham and Bean Soup, it is! I grabbed the stock, two pint jars of pressure canned Romano beans (that I rinsed before adding to the pot), and a quart jar of stewed tomatoes. This went into a 4 quart stock pot with half a diced onion, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 2 carrots, peeled and diced, 1 heaping teaspoon of commercially make Chicken Stock Paste, Salt & Pepper to taste, a handful of dehydrated celery leaves (I am out of my frozen celery) and some of my dried Thyme. I love having ingredients on hand to whip up a quick and nutritious meal. It was just awesome. I was happy it lasted for 4 lunches for us two. Bonus!
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| Ham & Bean Soup for lunch |
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| My dehydrated Thyme I leave it on the stem, in a zip lock bag If I am adding it to soup, I strip the leaves off If I am adding to a roast or stew, I leave it intact and remove the stem before serving |
Studio News:
Not much happening in the studio when the garden is calling for my attention. I am always happy for a windy day or otherwise unpleasant day to play inside! I do very much love it outside, but I get a little cranky when I don't get time to sew.
I am finally finished my lined and zippered pouches. I found some fun glass beads that I attached to the zipper pulls with some wonderful 8 wt perle cotton. Each bag is unique and I sure had fun making them!
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| My lined & zippered bags complete with bead zipper pulls |
Once these were done, I went looking for another project. I found a baggie of Safari pre-cut squares. I had saved them from a previous project, so they are only 4.25" square. When I added another fabric to the mix, I had enough to make up a #Simply Charming quilt. When I wrote the original pattern, it uses 5" charm squares, but I can make this work by adjusting the other block measurements. I will probably add an outer border to make it a bit bigger, since I am using much smaller squares. I am happy with how it is turning out. If anyone is is interested in the pattern, I do have it available for purchase in the studio, or you can order it and I will happily mail it out to you. You can see this and my other patterns on offer, on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PPQSPONOKA
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| New child sized quilt started with my own #Simply Charming Pattern |
It is wonderful to see the green grass and hear the birds sing as I putter in the yard. I even got to enjoy two meadowlarks singing away the other day. One was in the back pasture calling to the other, just a short distance away from me. I couldn't see them, but I sure enjoyed their afternoon performance.
I wish you all a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the beautiful weather.
Take care.
Until next time,
Gremlynn
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