RECIPE OF THE WEEK: TZATZIKI ~ TRAGEDY IN THE GARDEN ~ ADDING TO MY ADDICTION ~ TRIP TO DMV ~ PARTING SHOT

RECIPE OF THE WEEK: TZATZIKI

One of the things I have grown to love since we moved to Yakima is lamb. I don't think I had ever had lamb before we moved here and I am not even sure it was readily available back in Lumberton. But not too long after we arrived in Yakima, we went out to eat at a nearby Indian restaurant, the Taj Palace. I got a meat sampler platter and on it was something I could not for the life of me identify. Linda tasted it and told me it was lamb. I was hooked! Now I like to have it whenever I can, but the only kind of lamb I have actually tried to cook is ground lamb. I went online and found a recipe for Lamb Kofta with Tzatziki. What a wonderful dish this is! The tzatziki really makes it, so I decided to make that my recipe of the week. The main reason I am growing dill and mint is so I can make this recipe. The recipe I use is from the Kitchn and you can make this using either lamb or beef (click here for the recipe). Below is a picture of the ingredients used in making the tzatziki and what the finished product looks like. I'm not sure if I like the way tzatziki tastes as much as I just like saying the name.

Ingredients for Tzatziki

Tzatziki

TRAGEDY IN THE GARDEN

I was a day late getting my blog posted this week, and there is a story behind the reason why. Sunday morning  when I went out to check on the garden, I found that my little Zavory Habanero plant was half-eaten up and something had nibbled on all of the marigolds I planted around in the garden. Now, the Zavory Habanero plant was one I grew from seed and it was my baby. I was so excited to be able to have this "less-heat" Habanero in my garden this year. In addition to the little Habanero being munched on, a Tequila Sunrise pepper and a Delicata Squash plant were also severely eaten. I never seem to know what varmint is doing this when it happens, but I guess I should have known better than to put such tiny plants out in the garden. I did the only thing I could think of and that was to put some organic slug & earwig bait around all the peppers and squashes. On Monday morning, the little Habanero & Tequila Sunrise were eaten down to one leaf each, and one squash plant was entirely gone. I didn't know what else to do since I do not use any chemicals in my garden, so I just hoped that whatever was doing it would stop. WRONG! Tuesday morning dawned with the little Habanero and Tequila Sunrise plants COMPLETELY gone as well as all nine of the marigolds, plus part of a second squash plant with bites out of the leaves. So, that afternoon I made a natural, organic bug spray concoction to use. It is made from water, onion, garlic and cayenne powder, and let me tell you, it forevermore stinks! It stunk up the entire house! We had all the windows open and fans going, but finally we both gave up and decided to sit outside! That night I stayed up until dark-thirty (which around here is 10:30 this time of year). I went out with a flashlight and crawled around on all fours to check out each pepper plant, but all I saw was one lonely earwig. I made him pay the price for my little Hab and Tequila by spraying him. I also sprayed all of the pepper and squash plants really good. No need to spray the marigolds as there were only stems left of them. By the way, this spray is not harmful to the beneficial insects if you use it at night when they aren't flying around. All of the aforementioned activity put me going to bed after 11:00, which is unusually late for me. And to top it off, at 3:30 I awoke from a nightmare that ALL my pepper plants shriveled up and died because I had sprayed them! It took me forever to get back to sleep. I got up around 6:30 Wednesday morning and went out to check on things, fully expecting my peppers to be a mass of dead plants. To my relief all the peppers were still there (except the Hab & Tequila, which didn't miraculously reappear). They and the squashes didn't look any worse than the night before, but I'm sure I did. I was so tired from not sleeping well that I pretty much vegged all day on Wednesday. So that is why my blog was late this week. I did have a backup Zavory Habanero plant that is now in a pot, on top of a chair, in the garden. I don't think I will plant it in the ground.

The foul bug-killer concoction

The hapless little Hab plant before its demise

The backup Zavory Habanero plant

ADDING TO MY ADDICTION

Last Friday, before all the drama with the bugs, I went to the Farm & Garden Center to get some Impatiens to plant in a pot for our front porch. Of course I couldn't help myself so I came home with four more pepper plants. These were California Gold Bell peppers, which I have grown for several years and they really produce well. Besides, Linda loves them so that was reason enough for me to get them. I had to plant them over near the tomatillo since I didn't have room near the other peppers. So far, they haven't been eaten up, but I'm keeping my eye on them.


TRIP TO DMV

This morning I got to spend some quality time with the people at the DMV Licensing Office. Since my birthday is next week, I had to renew my license before then. This year I am getting the new Enhanced Drivers License so it will pass muster when going through security at any airport. I certainly don't plan on flying any time soon, but you never know. Although the whole process took an hour, it was not a bad experience and everyone there was courteous and helpful. Just as an FYI to any Washingtonians reading this blog, you will need to upgrade to the new Enhanced License before January 18, 2018 (the current deadline), as the regular Washington license will not be acceptable for airplane travel after then.


PARTING SHOT

Whenever I'm out in the garden, Summer Girl is usually there to help me.  Here is a picture of her "helping" me this past week.

That's all for this week. Here's hoping there is less drama in the coming week. During the summer, I may be a day or so late getting the blog posted due to so much going on, so be sure and check back later if you don't see it at the usual time.

ANOTHER RETIREMENT ~ VISITORS ~ GARDEN UPDATE ~ ROSES ~ PARTING SHOT

ANOTHER RETIREMENT

Last Thursday, Linda retired from being a teacher's assistant at Montessori School of Yakima. She had been working there for the past 10 years, ever since we moved out here. It was a bittersweet day, for sure, but it is nice that we are both retired now. We are looking forward to getting out and about more in this state. When we first moved to Yakima, we did quite a bit of exploring around this area before either one of us had a job. But now we need to go to some of the areas away from Yakima. There is a lot this state has to offer in the way of scenic beauty, recreational areas, wildlife refuges, hiking trails, etc. So, I am hoping that we will have some exciting adventures for me to report on in future blogs.

VISITORS

Linda's daughter Emily and her husband John visited us this past weekend and helped us celebrate Linda's retirement. I am happy to report that the cherry-infused vodka was a success for cocktails on Friday night. Although I really couldn't taste much cherry flavor, it made for a pretty drink. On Saturday afternoon, we went to another movie. Seeing two movies in the space of a couple of weeks is unprecedented for us! Linda's daughter really wanted to see Wonder Woman, so we gave it a shot. I wasn't sure how much I would like it since super-hero movies are not my usual style. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I really did enjoy it. The lead actress, Gal Gadot, did a fabulous job as the princess of the Amazons, and Chris Pine was his usual witty, likeable self. If you want to see a movie filled with a lot of action and a bit of comedy, then this is the one. After the movie we went to Cowiche Canyon Kitchen & Icehouse restaurant in downtown Yakima. While we were waiting on our meal (and sipping on beers), someone noticed a lot of old cars going up and down the street. It turns out that there was a car show in Yakima, so we sat and watched old Corvettes, Mustangs, GTOs, and various other cars from our youth, dragging the "Ave" (Yakima Avenue). Took me back to being a teenager and "dragging 2nd street" in Lumberton. A movie and dinner, plus a car show...it was quite a day!

Celebrating Linda's Retirement

On Sunday, we all went to the Yakima Farmers Market to see what they had to offer. Even though it is pretty early in the season here, there was still a lot of veggies to choose from. Local asparagus is always a favorite, and the spring garlic was just too beautiful for us to pass up! It was a busy weekend but we had a really good time and thoroughly enjoyed their visit with us.

GARDEN UPDATE

It is inevitable that I talk about my garden in this blog. In case you hadn't already figured that out, it will be the main topic of discussion this entire summer. The reason is because the garden will be occupying most of my time and energy. This week I finally got my soaker hoses situated so that everything is covered. I had to re-position some of them the other day after we had a very windy day with winds up to 35 mph. Yesterday I got some of the straw put down around the plants but I still have to put down straw everywhere.  Here's how it looks right now.

I also planted my tiny Zavory Habanero pepper plant. It is so small that I am not sure it will have time to produce any peppers, so I bought a regular Habanero pepper plant to put right beside the Zavory. I want to make sure I get some Habanero peppers this year, even if they will be scorching hot. Hopefully the less-heat Zavory will come through. Here's a picture of it with a quarter for size comparison.

The tiny Zavory Habanero

In addition, I planted some Marigold plants in various spots in the garden where the hose is just running across bare ground. At least something will benefit from the water coming out of that part of the hose, and I have been told that Marigold flowers are a great bee attractant.

My Cherokee Carbon tomato plant has a tomato on it! I noticed it a couple of days ago. This is the only tomato plant I have this year that isn't a salad-sized tomato, so I am hoping that it produces well. Hello, tomato sandwich with mayo on white bread!

I finally have almost all of the spurge weeds pulled up from the garden area. There are still a few pockets around the garden that I need to get up, but at least I have all the ones I could see from the area where I will be spreading the straw. For those who are wondering, here is what a spurge weed looks like. It kind of looks like an umbrella with a ridiculously long root attached to it.

Spurge Weed

ROSES

I took a picture of one of my rose bushes a couple of days ago because it was just gorgeous. Since then we have had a lot of wind and some rain, so the roses are pretty beaten up now. We named this bush the Mary Rose, because it comes from a cutting taken from one of my mother's roses. We have a lot of rose bushes in our yard and all of them have names. I will try to highlight some of the other ones in future blogs.

Mary Rose

PARTING SHOT

I went in search of Summer just now to get a picture for the blog and this is what I found.

Guess it's a really good book to read like that...

That's all for this week, hope to see you back next week!

TODAY'S POST DELAYED

I'm sorry, but today's post has been postponed until tomorrow. I've been out in the garden working all day and my back is hurting too much to sit in that dinky little chair at the computer desk. That's what happens when you are old, LOL! I will be taking tomorrow off from yard work as it is supposed to be quite windy, and I promise I will ge it up then. So, check back tomorrow, please! Thank you!!

JUNE 01, 1967 ~ RECIPE OF THE WEEK ~ MOVIE & DINNER ~ FIRST HARVEST ~ GARDEN HAPPENINGS ~ PARTING SHOT

JUNE 01, 1967

Baby Boomers hit another milestone this past week. "It was 50 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play." June 01, 1967 was the day the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released. And now, 50 years later, almost anyone who grew up in those days would agree it was a turning point in the evolution of the Beatles. It's hard to believe it has been that long ago. I must honestly say that this is my favorite Beatles album, and my favorite track is A Day In The Life. I can remember sitting in our den with headphones on, listening to that album over and over, and reading the lyrics that were printed on the cover...not to mention looking at the album cover, which was a work of art. I had the regular album that was released on that day, but I also got this one below.

Sgt. Pepper's Picture Disc

It's a picture disc, which means it's a vinyl album with the picture embedded into the vinyl. I still have it, in the original wrapping, and it's never been played. The price tag is still on it, which was $11.95. On June 1st, there was a lot of hoopla surrounding this 50-year anniversary. Linda and I watched a special program on PBS last night, "Sgt. Pepper's Musical Revolution", which explained just how innovative this album was. I knew it was very progressive for the times, but I didn't realize how much so until I watched this program. If you want to see this program, check your local PBS station online to see when it is replaying in your area. I highly recommend it.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK - INFUSED VODKA

For the recipe of the week, I decided to try something different this time. I have always wanted to try infusing some type of liquor with a flavor. Since fresh cherries are showing up in the grocery store now, I figured this was a good time to give it a try. Also, we are having company this weekend so that would be an extra treat to have for cocktail hour. Once again, I visited my favorite food blog, the Kitchn, and found a post for "How to Make Fruit Vodkas" (link here). This was perfect! I got it started on Friday and by Tuesday it was done. Doesn't it look yummy? I haven't tried it yet, so tune in next week to find out how it was.

Infusing Vodka

MOVIE & DINNER

Going to the movies is something that Linda and I don't do very often, but when a good science fiction movie comes out, then we just have to go. We decided not too long ago that we would turn it into a "Movie & Dinner" thing. We always like to go to the matinees, so we go to the showing that gets out close to dinner time, then we swing by Chipotle Mexican Grill and pick up a burrito. Last week we decided to go see "Alien: Covenant." There is much debate online about the Alien movies, but I have always liked all of them, although some more so than others. I recall when I first saw the movie "Alien." It was the scariest movie I had ever seen because I thought, "this could really happen." I mean, if humans ever get to traveling among the stars, something like that could happen. You never know. This newest entry into the Alien universe follows along the same path. There is a lot of action, as well as blood, guts and gore. This is not a movie for the squeamish. I put it right up there with my other favorites in the franchise, and I will be adding it to my wish list once the DVD comes out!

FIRST HARVEST

Every year I take a picture of the first produce that comes out of the garden. This year, as in most years, the first harvest was lettuce. Despite the fact that some kind of critter really loves it, the lettuce is producing well and I was able to pick enough for us to have a salad the other night. The second batch of seeds I planted are coming up nicely, so it appears that we will have lettuce for quite a while now. It's too bad the tomatoes and cucumbers will not be ready to harvest for a month or so. About time we get them, then the lettuce will be gone. But that's the way it goes!

First Harvest!

GARDEN HAPPENINGS

It never ceases to amaze me how fast some seeds can germinate here in Yakima. I planted 3 zucchini and 3 yellow squash seeds on Memorial Day. I just went out to the garden to check on things and lo and behold, there is one zucchini plant poking up, and two yellow squash plants. All this happened overnight because they were not poking up yesterday! The sunflower seeds I planted on 5/26 and 5/29 are already up as well. I have everything planted in the garden now, and I have pulled up all the spurge weeds from the garden proper. Everything is ready for me to put down my straw so it will discourage the growth of new weeds and also help the soil retain moisture. Here are a few pictures of how things are looking.

Zucchini (top) & Yellow Squash (bottom)

Autumn Beauty Sunflowers

 

 

It's always fun to look back on years past to see how the flower garden and the vegetable garden have grown over the years. I had a "memory" pop up on Facebook this week with some pictures of both gardens from 2010. Take a look below.

Flower garden 2010 (top) and 2017 (bottom)

Vegetable garden 2017 (top) and 2010 (bottom)

 

 

While watering the back flower garden the other day, I happened to notice this Praying Mantis egg case on one of our Golden Currant bushes. It looks like the babies have already hatched. Hmm, reminds a little bit of Alien...

Praying Mantis Egg Case

PARTING SHOT

It's hard to get a picture of Summer Girl during the summer months doing anything other than what she does best. Well, at least I tried.

Summer Girl Chilling

That's it for now, hope to see you back next week!