Long time no post....

I've been spending so much time actually gardening (or weeding I should say) that I haven't blogged in a few months. So, this blog contains some special treats....some photos and a recipe!

<--- Here is a photo of a few things I picked from the garden. There are some baby carrots, green beans, garlic, onion, baby eggplant, basil, and parsley. Since I didn't have enough of the veggies to make a side dish for us, I decided to chop everything up and make a veggie skillet pasta.





Now for my recipe...... INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 shallot (finely chopped)
• approx 8 baby carrots (chopped)
• approx 10-12 fresh green beans (chopped into bite-size pieces)
• 1 baby eggplant (chopped into bite-size pieces)
• 1/4 cup both basil and parsley (chopped)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp light butter
• 2 tbsp light cream cheese
• 1 tsp italian seasoning (oregano and thyme)
• approx 18 slices of turkey pepperoni (halved)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup whole wheat penne pasta
• 2 tbsp canned chopped tomatoes
  

HOW TO:

1. Boil penne pasta in salted water and set aside.
2. Blanch the green beans and carrots, set aside.
3. In a large skillet combine the olive oil and butter until butter is melted.
4. Crisp up the pepperoni in the oil and butter mixture and set aside on a paper towel.
5. In the same oil add the onion and garlic to saute.
6. Add the eggplant to the skillet to soften.
7. Next add the cream cheese, italian seasoning, tomatoes, basil, and parsley to the skillet to form a sauce. (save a pinch of the chopped basil for garnish)
   
8. Add salt and pepper to the sauce to taste.
9. Add in the blanched carrots and green beans to the sauce as well as the pepperoni and penne pasta.
10. Toss all ingredients in the skillet to coat with the sauce. Garnish with fresh chopped basil.

To the right is a photo I took of the finished product!--->
It was pretty yummy and still healthy. I have a bunch of tomatoes in the garden but, they are still green. Once I have fresh ones I would substitute them for the canned tomatoes. Also, it would have been good to sprinkle some grated parmesan cheese on top but I didn't have any :(

EXTRA SUPER BONUS!!!!: I boiled the penne in vegetable stock to give some extra flavor without adding calories! I cooked a bit more penne than I needed so I kept the veggie stock and some of the penne, I added the remainder of the can of tomatoes and some frozen veggies to make a soup out of my extras......yummy! I added a bit of garlic salt and italian seasoning to give it some flavor. I high fived myself on that one....good idea me!

So, as you can see things are growing in the garden. I may take a picture of my garden but, it's pretty embarrassing....sooooo many weeds.....crab grass I think it's called. Also, my soil is a tad bit crappy because it keeps cracking I Googled and it seems that I have alot of clay in my soil......um okay! Well, I've got yummy stuff to eat so I guess I'm doing ok for a first time gardener.

BOO YA!

WE HAVE VEGGIES FOLKS!....or at least the start of them.

I worked in my garden for a bit tonight, weeding around what I have already planted. Since it's been non-stop rain, snow, and gross I haven't been out to check on my garden in a bit. I was pleasantly surprised to find my onions doing very well, I planted both red and yellow. I've got garlic sprouting (? I don't know the technical term for these things), chives and parsley. Now mind you I planted about 10 potatoes and I have two plants growing, I planted so many with the guarantee that more than half would fail. I planted some treats for my kitties in a pot, "cat grass" and it's sprouting up nicely. I found rhubarb growing in my yard, but I had nothing to do with that.

The only causality so far to what I've planted has been my radishes. Trial and error, this was definitely an error. Two things wrong with the radish situation: one, I planted them too close together and two, it f'ing snowed and killed off what was growing. I have a handful of broccoli plants planted and something is eating them, the leaves are half eaten. I also, noticed tonight that a few of my onions were out of the ground. I believe a mole is to blame because it looked like they were pushed out of the ground from the bottom up. I know for a fact that we have at least one mole because I looked down and it was on my SHOE!!! I freaked out and just swung my leg sending it flying across the yard. *I hope I didn't hurt the little thing... :(*

*An update on the dog poo situation. Nothing has changed, I planted a short row of carrots tonight and found a little treat when I was hand tilling the soil. It's was an unwanted buried treasure, a little warm pile of feces nestled into the soil. This dog (pretty sure I know exactly what dog it is too!) thinks it's hilarious. "I'm gonna hide this dookie here and she'll find it later, maybe even stick her hand in it....he he!"

Touche puppy, I always wear gloves so in your face!

WEEDS!

Does anyone have a suggestion for controlling weeds in a vegetable garden?

I tell you what, if I can grow my veggies as well as I grow weeds I'm gonna have more than we can handle! This gardening thing is a bit overwhelming and harder work than I thought. I went out in my garden and handpicked a bunch of weeds. I feel like I pulled every muscle in my body and just as the pain in my back seemed to go away there are more weeds that need pulled. I think my problem is that I want the results without any of the work involved (which is my same view on weight loss ;).

On a good note: I have some veggies peaking out of the grown. My red onions, green onions, garlic, broccoli, and radishes are all doing pretty good. Hopefully they all grow up to be delicious plants that can fill my belly all summer long!

REALLY?!!!

So I go out to my garden to check on my little plants. At first I get very excited, I see some of my little radish babies sprouting up. A few green onions peaking out of the ground and some parsley hanging out. My smile quickly turns to a frown when I find a lovely grouping of dog turds! :( What has happened is a communication issue with myself and the neighboring pets. I was under the impression that I was making a lovely garden to grow food for my family. The animals in the neighborhood thought that I made them a nice restroom facility. I'm sure glad I pulled every muscle in body and put all this sweat equity into creating a toilet for these animals. I looked in my gardening book and online, not one place can I find documentation stating that a must have gardening tool is a pooper scooper. I guess I better get down to Pet Smart and pick me one up! GRRRRRRR! Now my potatoes are gonna taste like crap....he he! (see what I did there?....because of the feces.....oh nevermind)

Who's this chick?

Hey there I'm Jess. Wife to Greg and mommy to Nathaniel. We've had our first home for about 7 months now and I am now attempting to grow a vegetable garden. When we bought the house the garden space was already there, the previous owners had a garden for about 20 plus years. I have no idea what I'm doing, so I figured I'd blog about it. Anyone who has any tips or wants to tell me what I'm doing is completely wrong please feel free to do so. Hopefully not all my hard work is for nothing. I want to enjoy some super delicious veggies and freeze some for the winter. We're gonna hold off on the canning for this year because I don't want to be responsible for botulism!