Birthday Cakes

The Girl turns 14 today!

I'm not sure how it is possible - I am pretty sure she just turned 6.  And yet somehow she is turning into a beautiful and talented young lady and we couldn't be more proud.  Happy Birthday!

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Tuesday Garden Party - Pumpkin Help Needed!

For those of you out there who are experts in growing pumpkins... or have had success... or whose pumpkins haven't done this:

My question is - what is happening to them?  The plants seem to be growing well, and then they just die.

Some of them have this funny dusty-looking stuff.  I doubt that is good.

Any ideas?  I'd love to plant them again next year, but not if they are just going to die again.  :-(



Come on back next week to see what another week brings - in the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

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Harvest Monday: August 22, 2011

This week found our garden in a bit of a lull - just one day of harvesting... and it was....

Tomatoes!

Don't they look wonderful?!



Total Harvest for the Week:  1 pound, 2.8 ounces
Total Harvest for the Year:  36 pounds, 7.3 ounces

I'm hoping for more tomatoes and for lots of strawberries this week. And soon we'll have a wave of sweet peppers - yum!

Linked up with Daphne's Dandelion's Harvest Monday... hop on over and see what else is being picked this week.

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Tuesday Garden Party - Second Crop, More of the First and a Visitor

The sun and heat of the summer has been wonderful  for our garden this year.  We just started our second planting of corn and peas - peas are already showing the signs of the first flowers and corn is likely to be producing mid to late September... we are indeed lucky to live in such a lovely climate!

And suddenly, we've got tons of these little guys! Who knows - we may end up with a bumer crop of watermelon!

The hot pepper plants don't look very good, but they keep pumping out hot tasty peppers so I won't complain.

Habaneros are getting ready to ripen!  Yum!

And our great success story - sweet peppers in their own fancy screened in porches.  They are flourishing!

I'd be remiss if I didn't introduce this most recent visitor to our garden - I believe he's aSan Diego Alligator Lizard!

He's about 15 inches long - and, though I think he does have a fairly nasty bite, he's not aggressive nor poisonous.  And, most importantly, he won't eat my plants.  So he can stay.  ;-)

Come on back next week to see what another week brings - in the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

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Harvest Monday: August 15, 2011

What a colorful harvest we had this week!

Green Onions!

Red Peppers!

Orange Carrots!

Yellow and Red Tomatoes!

And Orange and Red Tomatoes!

Beautiful Yellow Lemons!

And a Green Watermelon!

Total Harvest for the Week:  4 pounds, 7.9 ounces
Total Harvest for the Year:  35 pounds, 4.5 ounces

This should be a great week for tomatoes... and our new peas are growing like crazy - a good chance we'll see something from them soon!

Linked up with Daphne's Dandelion's Harvest Monday... hop on over and see what else is being picked this week.

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Tuesday Garden Party - Fruit of the Devil

Today's Garden is brought to you by the letter "T"...

as in TOMATO!

I can just about say that our volunteer tomato army is going to deliver quite a few tomatoes!

This one is just about ready!

 And can you see all of the ripening fruits in there?

 And here?

 And this guy?  Is pretty big!

We just can't wait to get our hands on these when they are ripe!  Yum!


Come on back next week to see what another week brings - in the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

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Harvest Monday: August 8, 2011

Our garden continues to be a source of fun and vegetables (?!) for us. This week we got a pumpkin!  He's just a little guy, but he's a pumpkin nonetheless.

And the last of this batch of corn.  More in another month or so I think.

The pepper harvest is starting to heat up.  So to speak.

And the peas keep coming!  What hardy plants they are, coming back time after time, from slugs and mice and rabbits... they just keep producing more peas.

A couple of accidental tomatoes... good for fried green tomatoes perhaps?

More strawberries = love.

See the heat?

Total Harvest for the Week:  3 pounds, 5.9 ounces
Total Harvest for the Year:  30 pounds, 12.9 ounces

I think we'll have ripe tomatoes this week.  At least I hope.  Maybe a sweet pepper or two as well.  We'll have to see - I just know we are sure having fun with the garden this year!

Linked up with Daphne's Dandelion's Harvest Monday... hop on over and see what else is being picked this week.

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What's For Dinner (or Maybe Brunch?): Aebelskivers!

Aebelskivers are Danish puffed pancakes, traditionally made with an apple filling.  Though apple is traditional, any flavor of fruit is delicious, and cream fillings make these into tasty warm cream puffs!  They look difficult to make, but if you have an aebelskiver pan, they are really a breeze to prepare.





Aebelskivers

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 beaten eggs
• 2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup Powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cup Raspberry Jam

Instructions

1. Melt butter in microwave safe bowl or cup (About 30 sec.).
2. Sift dry ingredients, add buttermilk and beaten eggs. Beat with a whisk until batter is smooth.
3. Heat Aebelskiver pan on medium heat, quickly add to each pan hole - 1/2 tsp. butter and batter, filling each hole a little over half full of batter.  And a teaspoon of jam to each Aebelskiver.
4. When the batter is bubbling in the center, the pancake is probably ready to turn. Gently lift a side of the pancake with a little fork (I use toothpicks for this) and check to see if is golden. If it is firm on the sides and a nice golden color, flip it carefully to make sure it is completely inverted, so the golden cooked side is now completely on top and has no "seams" or holes in the sides. When you flip the pancake, the uncooked batter in the middle will spill into the hole and cook. If the cooked sides are sticking out, you can tuck them in with a fork. The pancake should be firm enough to invert without falling apart or collapsing. Let the other side cook for a few minutes, check for golden color and remove.
5. Repeat with butter and batter, until batter is finished. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve!

If you'd rather make this from a mix, Prepared Pantry has several very good mixes - traditional flavor, chocolate and jalapeno corn!

These are fabulous and quite easy to make - definitely worth buying an aebelskiver pan and frying up a batch!

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Menu Planning

San Diego has been hot and will continue to be hot (at least for here), which is reflected in my menu plan for the next week.  Can you see the theme?

Wednesday:  Steak on the Grill

Thursday:  Grilled Chicken and Potatoes

Friday:  Gnocchi with Tomato and Basil Sauce

Saturday:  Grilled Pork Loin

Sunday:  Drunken Chicken

Monday:  Fajitas

Tuesday:  Someone Else Cooks!

Linked here:  Organizing Junkie

What's on your table this week?

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Tuesday Garden Party - An Ode To Watermelon

So big and green
With lovely white stripes
Red on the inside

With black dots of seeds
So sweet and juicy
It fills me up
Even when it dribbles down my chin.

We're certainly excited to see our watermelon "crop" coming in.  The vines have totally taken over the rose garden...

And although they can be hard to spot when they are just little guys, we have found a couple of baby watermelons!

And check out their big brother!

Okay, to give him some perspective, he's still quite a little guy himself...

How fun are they?!  I can't wait until it is time to eat them!  (Don't tell them though!)

Come on back next week to see what another week brings - in the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

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