Sunday, June 27, 2010

Rainbows in the Garden...


I love the colors in the garden right now.  Thanks to the rain everything is looking so lush and now that we have had a little sun things are starting to grow fast! From up here it is just green, but if you look closely you can see...


 ...the tops of the radishes peeking out of the dirt...

...the bright lights chard putting on a show of yellow, red, and orange...

... and the creamy roses opening up their hearts of gold...


Saturday, June 26, 2010

Flower Arranging 101

I had the privilege of being in the wedding of two of my best friends last week! It was a lovely weekend  and I'm so glad I got to be a part of their wedding day and witness the beginning of their marriage.

I was visiting the bride and groom to be about a week before the wedding and they were discussing the "to do" list for the festivities.  I jumped at the chance to do the flowers for the rehearsal dinner because...well...I like flowers. 

In preparation for my florist duties I watched a couple of "how-to" videos at the Blooms in a Box Blog.  Good stuff!  Then, I picked up a variety of flowers at the store,  picked a few more from my garden, and voila!





Birthday Drinks!


A good friend just moved to a new house and celebrated a birthday. I wanted to come up with something that would be both a fun birthday present and housewarming gift. 

I was thinking back to gifts I have appreciated over the years and remembered that one of the best housewarming gifts I have received was a potted planter filled with herbs. It was wonderfully thoughtful and beautiful AND I actually used it! (Thanks Lindsay! :)).

I was so excited to come up with the idea of a planter with herbs that can be used for cocktails. I decided on thyme, mint, basil, and sage. Along with the planter I included recipe cards with a cocktail recipe using each of the herbs included in the planter.

Clockwise from bottom left: English Thyme, Sage, Spearamint, basil

Multi-Colored Recipe Cards

All wrapped up...

...and for those of you that like a good cocktail, here are the recipes:

Classic Mojito
12 mint leaves
1 TBSP sugar or simple syrup
Juice from 1 small lime
Soda water
White Rum

Place mint leaves in the bottom of a glass or shaker with sugar and lime juice. Muddle into a pulp. Add vodka and crushed ice to fill shaker. Shake vigorously and pour into a glass. Add soda water and garnish with a slice of lime.

Cucumber Sage Fizz
3 sage leaves
3 cucumber slices
Gin
Prosecco

Place sage leaves in the bottom of a cocktail shaker and fill ¼ with crushed ice. Muddle sage and ice. Fill the shaker with ice adding 1-2 shots of gin and 1 slice of cucumber. Shake vigorously and pour into a glass. Float prosecco on the top of the drink and garnish with a slice of cucumber.

Strawberry Basil Cocktail
2 strawberries cut in small pieces
4 basil leaves
Orange juice
Soda water
Vodka

Place strawberry pieces and basil leaves in a shaker and muddle into a paste. Fill shaker with crushed ice and add 1 shot orange juice and 1-2 shots of vodka. Shake vigorously and pour into a glass. Add soda water and garnish with a strawberry.

Thyme Lemonade
2 fresh sprigs of lemon thyme
4 slices of lemon
3 TBSP sugar or simple syrup
Soda water
Vodka

Add thyme leaves, lemon slices, and sugar to the shaker and muddle. Add ice and 1-2 shots of vodka. Shake vigorously and pour into a glass. Add soda water and garnish with a sprig of thyme and lemon slice.

Aphids from the Garden


As you can probably see I'm enjoying the flowers from our garden! The roses in our backyard are particularly spectacular. They last over two weeks after being cut. Amazing! 


Unfortunately, the roses are a huge draw for aphids. I recently brought in some roses and the aphids quickly discovered our plants sitting in the kitchen window. 



I have done a little reading about aphid control in the yard.  If you are having a similar problem I would check out this post from one of my favorite local garden blogs DigginFood.  I tried the water spraying technique several times but the aphids kept coming back. 

We decided the best option would be to put the plants outside and hopefully draw some lady bugs to the yard. 


Flowers from the Garden


These flowers are edible!  I think I need to make a cake just for them...they would really pop on chocolate frosting!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Flowers from the Garden

Future Tomato! :)

Canning Success!

I did it!  Strawberry mint jam!  Only two jars, but I'm still pretty proud of myself.  We opened one of the jars right away and we've been gobbling it up.  It is so great!  I used a recipe from the book Canning and Preserving with Ashley English:  All You Need to Know to Make Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Chutneys, & More.

If you are new to canning this book has really great step-by-step instructions WITH PICTURES!  I actually made copies of all the instructions because they spanned several pages and hung them up in my kitchen so I could easily follow along. 

I learned a few things that I'll pass along. 

(1) Water bath canners take a LONG time to heat up.  Especially on a glass top stove.  It is a lot of water.  Start your water early and think about starting with warmer water.  It can't be too hot or it can crack the jars but it doesn't need to be ice cold either.  For this jam I probably could have started the water when I started cutting the fruit. 

(2) Prep an extra jar and screw lid but hold off on the lid until the last minute.  Once they lids have been heated the sealant has been activated and they're no good to re-use.

(3) Consider using really small jars for jams if you don't eat a lot of jam.  We tend to eat jam more on weekends as we have more time for leisurely breakfasts.  This particular recipe called for half pints but you may be able to do even smaller jars.  Remember the home canning recipes don't have the same types of preservatives as store-bought jams they don't last as long (even in the fridge) once they've been opened.

(4) In all the research I've done on this topic there is one very important warning that must be heeded.  If you have ANY doubt that the jars didn't seal properly eat immediately or toss it!  You do not want to mess with spoiled food!

So focused....

Using my knife skills to cut strawberries

Strawberries macerating with sugar and lemon.

Pots on the stove.  Canner on the right and strawberry jam cooking on the left.
Prepped counter top with all the canning tools.  The towels help keep the jars warm when they come out of the canner so they don't crack.

Strawberries cooking down

 
Strawberry mint success!

More landscaping!


Here are some pictures of the expansion of the front yard bed.  We are gradually taking out all of the grass on the perimeter of the yard.  It is impossible to mow on the edge of our yard because of the chain link fence so it makes sense to just take out the grass. We are hoping to widen the beds over time so that we can get some fairly dense plantings once everything matures.  We could use a visual and sound barrier from the street and neighbors. Of course a new fence will help with that as well. :)

Animals checking out the yard. Mmmm...fresh bark.

Some new plants have been added. Snapdragons, a ground-cover (with tiny blue flowers that should spread), and Nasturium.


The lilac bush in the center is from the backyard.  I moved the bolting ornamental kale and it is still flowering.  (Yay!) Also I added some Snapdragons and more Irises in this area.

Watchin' My Corn Pop Up in Rows


Those of you who are country fans probably know this lyric to the to the Tim McGraw song "Where the Green Grass Grows."  That song has always invoked daydreams about leaving my office job and living on a farm.  Especially when it comes on as I'm sitting in nasty Seattle traffic!  But then I snap back to reality and realize that farming is a little harder than it sounds in most country songs.  My corn popped out of the ground last week.  I'm looking forward to watching it grow this summer and daydreaming about it when I need a little break from the rat race.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Flowers from the Garden

My dad was in town last weekend and I took him to a local garden store that I knew he would love.  He bought me two poppy plants for our yard.  

When I was transplanting one of the flower buds broke off.  I brought it inside and stuck it in water and I'm so glad I did...it opened up and is so cheerful! The next flower opened up outside the next day.  These poppies are called "champagne" poppies and they are multi-colored so we won't know what color each flower will be until it decides to make an appearance...



Time to Can!


I got my canning pot today and now I'm all set! 

I've been reading library books about canning, I got my canning starter set, and two cases of small and large size jars.  I'm going to start simple with some Strawberry jam this weekend.  We don't have enough strawberries from our garden...we are averaging about one ripe berry a day and somehow those berries aren't sticking around for long :)

I'm hoping to do a trial run with some strawberries from the market. Then my jam making skills will be honed by the time we have a crop I can do something with here...Wish me luck!

If you're interested in the canning pot, it is made by Ball, the people that make the glass canning jars, and it came highly recommended on Amazon.