Things are poppin'!

Oh boy, things are lookin' great! Here's most of our garden as of yesterday afternoon and this morning. How is your garden growing?



Almost ripe Sweet 100 tomatoes - just a couple but more are right behind!


Upside down Sweet 100 plant - this one has no ripe ones yet


A sweet little zucchini!


Three bell peppers growing here


Romas growing on the vine. Sweet!


Here are some beets and beans in one of the planting tables


And here we have corn, beets, and more in another planting table


A mess of beans and peas!


Onions and peas in a planting table


Tomatoes and corn, growing beautifully


And for something a little different, some Black Magic Elephant Ears

Something's wrong with my squash plants

Two of them, anyway. The squash fruit are mushy and almost moldy looking on the end. Here's a picture of a 2 inch long squash I picked just a few minutes ago.



Although I found Squash Bugs on another plant across the yard, I see no evidence of them on the plant that produced this thing. The leaves aren't the best looking, though. They're kind of brownish. Maybe it's Squash Vine Borer. Whatever it is, I need it to go away and fast.

I posted a message about it at gardenweb.com and included a photo. Maybe someone there can help me identify the issue and I can figure out what to do about it.

How disappointing! I love squash and was looking forward to a nice big harvest of it.

Okay, I just read up on this and it looks as though the squash might not have been pollinated well. I'm going to see what else I can learn about that.

My pantry doth progress-show me your pantry!

Well over a year ago, my other half enclosed a corner of our large porch to make a pantry for me. We stock a lot of food and really needed the storage space. But rather than build shelves for me as we'd planned he started putting "stuff" in the pantry and it quickly became "the pantry that wasn't". I mentioned it a few times but really don't want to nag so I didn't squeal too much over it. Finally it all came to a head a few days ago and the next day he spent most of the day in there putting up shelves and organizing. He's going to put more shelves in and I'll more than likely rearrange parts when he does but I was and still am thrilled! I actually have a pantry now and it's going to be wonderful, I'm sure.

This was the pantry a few months ago, looking bad but not as bad as it did a few days ago - trust me, it was a real cluttered mess.



And here are some shots of how it looks now.

This shelf has my other half's satellite tv installation equipment on it.


Here are a few of our canned goods, seasonings, and condiments along with other dry goods.

Here's another shot of some canned items.

Here are some of our appliances that were taking up a lot of kitchen space.

And here are miscellaneous appliances and pans.

I think I'm really going to enjoy having so much stuff in the pantry and out of the kitchen. Right now I'm painting the cupboards with Kilz getting them ready for paint soon so some of the cupboard doors are off and we took this opportunity to move almost all the food into the pantry. I'm giving serious thought to keeping most of it in there and using the kitchen cupboards for very often used appliances and the most often used food items. I've also considered leaving the cupboard doors off but if I do that, everything must be so tidy inside the cupboards so that probably isn't the best idea for me.

Anyway, having the pantry cleaned out makes working on the kitchen so much easier! Now if I can just figure out what to do with the kitchen...

Do you have a pantry? If so, do you have pictures of it? Show me, if you do. :)

Rod's Biscuits make for a great morning

Today's been a slow day. I haven't done a lot of cooking or cleaning or anything else, for that matter.

The garden is going well. We have Sweet 100 tomatoes just starting to ripen and those should be ready to eat in a few days. I picked a small yellow squash and gave it to my mother. It's just enough for her to cook with some onion and it will be a tasty treat for her dinner tonight.

Speaking of my mother, she had to take my stepfather to work and she had an hour to kill before being at her job so she came by here for breakfast. My other half made homemade biscuits and gravy and they were incredible just as they always are! Mom is a tiny person who eats like a bird and she managed to eat a whole biscuit but just barely. I had one and after the rest of the household had theirs, there were two left. Those two went to Wee Black Doggie along with some of the gravy. He was a happy boy, indeed!

Here's his biscuit recipe:

Rod's Biscuits

2 to 2 1/2 c flour
3 heaping tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 to 1/2 c oil
1 1/2 c milk (we use powdered milk)

Sift the flour, salt and the baking powder into a large bowl. If you don’t have a sifter, go buy one. They’re cheap and the biscuits will be much fluffier after sifting. Add the oil and milk until you have a fairly stiff mixture. If the mixture is too runny, you can add some more flour to thicken it.
In another bowl, pour some flour into the bottom (roughly 1/2 cup). With a large spoon, scoop out enough of the biscuit mix to make a 2" ball. Drop this into the small bowl and roll the ball of mix around, covering the outside with flour.
Pat this into a 1/2 inch thick patty and place into a baking pan. Repeat this until you have used up all the biscuit mix. Place this into a preheated oven at 325 to 350 and bake for 15-30 minutes or until biscuits begin to brown on top.

Rod tells people he learned to make biscuits after trying for years to find a woman who could make them. He finally gave up and learned how to do it himself. I have to admit they beat the patootie out of my old Easy Baking Powder Drop Biscuits I made for years so I'm thrilled when he makes them.

So, what recipe do you use for biscuits? Come on, surely you don't use the wop kind! You know, the kind you wop on the countertop?

Whole grain pancakes

but tonight is YOYO (You're On Your Own) night at our place. It's been a long and busy day and I really don't want to cook. I have a round steak thawed but rather than cook that I'll make turkey bacon, eggs and toast later and if others want some, they're welcome to it. If not, they can have a frozen mexican dinner, cereal, or whatever else they might want. Oh wait, pancakes sound good, too! Maybe I'll do eggs,turkey bacon and pancakes. Yeah, that's it... yum!

Here's my favorite pancake recipe and it doesn't spike my blood sugar as long as I eat only 2 pancakes. These taste a lot like IHOP's Harvest Grain and Nut Pancakes.

3/4 cup Quaker oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped blanched almonds
3 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts

Lightly oil a skillet or griddle and preheat it to medium heat.
Grind the oats in a blender or food processor until fine, like flour.
Combine oat flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In another bowl combine buttermilk, oil, egg and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients, add nuts and mix well with mixer.

Ladle 1/3 cup of the batter onto the hot skillet and cook the pancakes for 2 to 4 minutes per side or until brown.

Makes 8 pancakes.

What kind of pancakes do you favor and why? I'd love to see your recipes.

Chocolate and Zucchini

I occasionally read Chocolate and Zucchini and today I found a great sounding recipe there. It's for Carrot and Peanut Muffins. It sounds great and the picture really makes it look so tasty! I think I'm going to try to make a blood sugar friendly version of this muffin this week and will see how it turns out from the Better Baker Bowl Maker. I think it will do fine but we'll see. I might also use some almonds in it, also, or maybe walnuts since those are so good for those of us with blood sugar issues.

At any rate, if you like carrots and peanuts, you might go to Chocolate and Zucchini and see what you think of that recipe.