NO POST THIS WEEK

I'm sorry but there will not be a blog post this week. We are both too busy trying to get the garden plants picked and the produce processed, and we have even begun taking some plants up. I promise next week's post will be extra-special, so please stay tuned for that.  Thanks!

Here's a relaxing picture of Summer Girl to tide you over...

 

PEPPER SAUCE ~ POTATOES ~ CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD ~ TEN YEARS AGO ~ PARTING SHOT

PEPPER SAUCE

The garden is almost done for this year so I am busy cooking up a storm to try and preserve as much of our produce as possible. One of my favorite things to make is a homemade pepper hot sauce. I use the recipe for "Sweep the Kitchen Hot Sauce" on the website Date Night Doins BBQ For Two (click here to go to the website and here for the recipe). I found this recipe several years ago and it has always turned out good. You can tweak it to your own taste because it is just a basic recipe for hot sauce. I changed it up a bit this year by adding a couple of carrots to the mix. It is simmering right now and is making the whole house smell delicious! I can't wait for it to get done so I can taste it.

Sweep the Kitchen Hot Sauce

POTATOES!

This past week Linda and I got out into the garden and started digging up our potatoes. I planted 20 potato plants this year, so we figured it was going to be quite a job to dig them all up. By now they have almost all turned brown so we know they are ready to dig up. We got through about half of the plants and were pleasantly surprised to find that we got about 5-6 large potatoes from each plant. Half of our plants were Yukon Gold potatoes and the other half were Red Potatoes. We found that the Red Potato plants had about 6 large potatoes under them and sometimes we would get a few small (new) potatoes. When we were halfway through the plants we decided to stop because our backs were starting to hurt. It is hard work, digging up potatoes! You have to make the hole wider than the plant so you can be sure not to cut through any potatoes under the ground. And we found that we had to dig down about a foot to find the potatoes underneath the plants. But our potato count for getting halfway through was 55 potatoes! We put them on newspaper in the tub in our guest bathroom so they could cure. The first thing I did was make some potato salad with the few that had cut marks. Or, as we say back South, "tater salad." It was delicious, made more so by the fact that it was our homegrown potatoes.

The first bucket full we dug up

The complete haul from our first digging

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD

The other day I had seven large zucchini staring me in the face and I knew I needed to do something with some of them. As soon as I get rid of a couple of them I discover I have three more to pick in the garden! But things have slowed down a bit so I am slowly catching up. There is one way to use up zucchini that I have always wanted to try and that is by making zucchini bread. So I gathered all the ingredients for Chocolate Zucchini Bread (click here for the recipe) from the website Inspired Taste.

Looks good enough to eat already!

You can't imagine how good this recipe is. It's called "bread" but let's face it, folks...it's cake. Does that look like bread to you? Decide for yourself.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

TEN YEARS AGO 

Linda and I are continuing to celebrate our ten-year anniversary of being in Yakima. Every weekend during our drinkie-poo time (aka "cocktail hour"), I read an excerpt from my journal that I kept during that time. Here is a picture of my journal entry from September 15, 2007.

Journal Entry 09/15/07

We have also been looking at some of our video discs from back then as well. It is so nice to have the journal entry I read coincide with a video we just watched. It reminds us of how excited we were to be on a new adventure, moving to an area very different from where we both used to live. Yakima is worlds away from California and North Carolina in so many ways, and we have only begun to explore the many possibilities that this area of the country offers for recreation and entertainment. Now that we are retired, we are trying to regain some of that enthusiasm from ten years ago. We now have the time to revisit some of the places we went and also to go to places we haven't had a chance to visit yet. Here's to the continuing adventure!

PARTING SHOT

The little Summer Girl gave us a scare last week. I put her outside Wednesday night as usual around 9:00. The next morning when we got up she was not waiting at the back door to be let inside, like she usually is. We waited all morning and she didn't show up. We went outside and walked around the whole yard, looking under bushes and shrubs to see if she was hiding, calling out her name. Our worst fear was that she was somewhere hurt. Linda even walked around the neighborhood looking for her, but no Summer Girl was to be found. We waited all day and that evening and we didn't see her anywhere. We were both beside ourselves because we had no idea what else to do. Needless to say, we didn't sleep well that night. But the next morning when Linda went to the back door to check and see, there she was. I was still in bed asleep, but I woke up to hear Linda coming down the hall saying, "She's back! She's back!" What a relief! We were both so scared we had lost our sweet little kitty and we were definitely not ready to go through that again. For the remainder of that day, Summer Girl spent her time sleeping on the bed or the chair, two places she isn't usually allowed. It was very clear to us that wherever she was, she had been through an ordeal. But we were so glad to have her back she could have gotten away with anything!

Definitely off limits!

On her momma's chair, also off limits

That's all for this week, check back again next week to see what the three of us have been up to!

A SOUTHERN DELICACY ~ HAPPY PEPPER ~ GARDEN NINJA ~ PARTING SHOT

A SOUTHERN DELICACY

There are some recipes that are so "Southern" that they just aren't understood anywhere else in the country. People in other parts of the country just do not get the appeal of these recipes. Occasionally you will run across an enlightened person who understands, but this is rare. Today I have for you a recipe that is considered a southern delicacy which is only available in the summer. There are only three main ingredients in this recipe, and here they are below.

Three simple ingredients to experience Nirvana

Yes, my friends, it is the Classic Tomato Sandwich. I have been enjoying this delicacy for the past couple of weeks, ever since my Cherokee Carbon tomato plant produced some ripe tomatoes. As you can see in the picture, you start off with a good slicing tomato (use an heirloom variety if you can get it). An absolute must as the second ingredient is really, really fresh white bread. The way you can tell if it is really, really fresh is that it will stick to the roof of your mouth when you take a bite. I got the freshest white bread I could find, made by Franz Bakery. I get points for getting my bread from a somewhat local bakery, as Franz is based in the Northwest. Also, I get extra points for it not having High Fructose Corn Syrup. As the third ingredient, the traditional choice is Duke's Mayonnaise. Since I have not been able to find Duke's Mayonnaise anywhere around here, my backup choice is Kraft Reduced-Fat Olive Oil Mayonnaise. It is a decent substitute. Below is a step-by-step pictorial for making this fabulous recipe.

The main ingredient, a ripe tomato

Slather each slice of bread liberally with mayo

Add tomato slices and sprinkle with copious amounts of salt & pepper

Cut sandwich in half from corner to corner

There you have it. Ah, there is nothing quite like it! It is sad, though, that this can only be eaten in the summer because, as we all know, that is the only time you can get a good-tasting tomato.

HAPPY PEPPER

Every year I seem to get a chuckle when I go out to pick my peppers and I come across one like this:

I'm thinking this pepper was really happy to see me! Of course, it all depends on your perspective, because it may have just been doing a Jimmy Durante impression:

Either way, I got a laugh out of it!

GARDEN NINJA

I came across this Praying Mantis in one of our bushes the other day. I believe he is a Chinese Praying Mantis because he's so big. He must have been a good four inches long, and he was a brownish color instead of the usual green.

Ninja bug

He was keeping an eye on me as I was trying to get a good picture. I didn't want to get too close because he was so scary! If he had jumped on me, I would have done that "Oh my God, there's a bug on me" dance trying to get him off. Admit it, you know you've done that dance some time in your life. Especially if you live anywhere there are Palmetto Bugs, also known as Water Bugs or American Cockroaches. Ew, I don't even want to think about them. Thankfully, they are NOT here!

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl has started coming into the house more lately. You would think she would have come in during the really hot time of the summer, when we were having triple digit temperatures. But no, she wanted to stay outside most of the time then. Now that the temperatures are cooling off a bit, she has started coming back in. Maybe she has decided that she needs to bless us with her presence more often, since she will really want to come in once it gets cold and that white stuff starts falling from the sky.

The little Princess

That's all for this week, be sure to check back next week!

FINALLY! ~ JALAPENO-INFUSED VODKA UPDATE ~ MORE DEHYDRATING ~ MYSTERIOUS HOLES IN THE YARD ~ PARTING SHOT

FINALLY!

The moment I have been patiently waiting for has finally arrived. My peppers are starting to turn red! I know it always takes a long time for them to do this, but this year it seems like it has taken a lot longer than usual. We have had some freaky weather what with the cooler spring, and now we have had higher than normal temperatures lately. So I am just glad that they are finally turning color. Tonight I plan to sauté several Shishito peppers in my cast iron fry pan on the grill, to go along with our lamb burgers.

Shishito pepper on left, Jalapeno pepper on right

Shishitos destined for the fry pan

While we are on the subject of the garden, I just have to mention that the one little pepper on the Little Hab is getting bigger! And, as if that wasn't good enough news, there is another one coming on! I talk to it every time I go out to the garden (yeah, I'm weird like that), and I tell it to please, please, please give me just ONE ripe less-heat Zavory Habanero pepper before the season ends. So far, the little plant is complying with my request.

I just might get a ripe one yet!

Something else of note out in the garden is that we finally have a bloom on our only big sunflower plant out there. I planted quite a few sunflower plants around the back planting area in early summer, but only one has produced a flower. However, this is one of those really big-headed sunflowers. I didn't get any of the Autumn Beauty (red) sunflowers to come up, so I guess I will have to settle for this one. It's about seven feet tall and the flower is probably ten inches across the petals.

Mammoth Sunflower in back yard

We have a sunflower in the front yard that is even taller than this one. It is almost as tall as the peak in the roof of our garage. We have such a mass of sunflowers in front that we can hardly get back and forth through them to get from the front door to the driveway!

Our tallest sunflower, so far

JALAPENO-INFUSED VODKA UPDATE

If you read my blog last week you will remember that I made some vodka infused with a couple of jalapeno peppers. Well, Friday night I decided to make myself a Bloody Mary using that vodka. I don't think I had ever had a Bloody Mary before, but I came across a recipe that called for a frozen ripe tomato off the vine, as well as tomato juice, so I went with that. I cut up one of my Cherokee Carbon tomatoes and put it in the freezer on Friday morning. When cocktail hour rolled around, I put the frozen tomato and the tomato juice, plus a few other ingredients into my blender and let it rip. The resulting cocktail was extremely thick. I do have to say that I wasn't expecting the drink to be as hot as it was. I had only let the jalapeno pepper infuse into the vodka for two and a half days. The recipe said to infuse it for at least three days, but warned against leaving it in any longer than a week. I'm here to say that I don't see how anybody could possibly drink it if it infused for a full week! Although the flavor was good, it was very, very hot. I could only stand to drink one of them. But, not to be outdone by a measly couple of jalapeno peppers, I decided to make a Vodka Tonic with the infused liquor on Saturday night. It must have been the fact that the tomato juice helped cut the heat, because this drink was even hotter than the Bloody Mary! I only made it past a few sips before I relented and made myself a proper Gin & Tonic drink. I froze the rest of the Vodka Tonic in an ice cube tray. If I ever get bold enough, I may try using one in a drink. I'm not sure I will ever be that bold. All I can say is, "Don't try this at home."

Bloody Mary...hotter than H-E Double Toothpicks!

MORE DEHYDRATING

I'm still on the dehydrating kick as it is a good way to preserve all of those Armenian Cucumbers that are coming off the garden right now. This week, though, I tried something a little bit different, dehydrating apple slices. Since we live in the heart of Washington Apple Country, we can get really good apples fairly cheap when in season. They are just starting to get some in at the local fruit shops, so Linda got a few extra this week for us to try dehydrating. I put them on last night around 7:00 and let the dehydrator run all night. When we got up this morning I checked on them and they were not crispy yet, but still tasted good. So we left two trays in the dehydrator for another hour and took out two trays to cool. They are really tasty, almost like candy. We will definitely be doing more of them.

Apple chips on left, Armenian Cucumber chips on right

MYSTERIOUS HOLES IN THE YARD

When we first moved here we would sometimes see little holes in the yard where there was no grass. We couldn't figure out what the heck was making these holes. They were more like round indentations in the ground. (I thought maybe it was aliens, but Linda didn't think so). It wasn't too long before we found out the source of these strange holes. Take a look at this video to see what we discovered.

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl is out in the garden almost all day long. I can't seem to get a shot of her anywhere else, doing anything other than lazing around! Here she is fussing at me for waking her up.

"Meow!"