My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
There’s an effort by a group in our neighborhood to help increase the number of bluebirds in our area here in Northern Illinois. We’ve spotted them on rare occasions over the years, so 2 years ago we put up a house to attract them, which …
Spring has officially arrived here in Northern Illinois and yet they’re calling for an inch or two of snow tonight. Sigh. We had a week or so of nice 50+ degree weather though and we even grilled out a couple of times, so I know these …
Hallelujah, it’s finally March. It’s still snowing here in Northern Illinois but March is here and with it the knowledge that spring is just around the corner. I admit that I tend to hibernate a bit in the cold winter months but now, as the days grow a little longer and the sun shines a little brighter, I can feel my energy level rising.
Also rising are all of my seedlings that I planted in early February. This was the earliest I could start them this year, due to an incredible birthday trip to the French Quarter that my husband surprised me with for my birthday.
Though I used to try and start a number of plants indoors, now I just start tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. New this year, I also started some Imperial Star artichokes, which I’m really hoping gives us some of my favorite veggies this summer. We didn’t have much luck with these the last time we tried, but this time we got an early start. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
Here’s one of my beautiful tomato plants:
That’s just a little piece of heaven in my book. A lot of my seeds this year are from Sustainable Seed Company and they germinated quite nicely. I don’t usually start my seeds in Jiffy pots but my mom gave me a bunch of them and I think we all know how I hate for things to go to waste. So this year, I’m back to Jiffy pots and everything is looking good.
Here’s a shot of one of my artichoke plants:
I also started some purple Violetta artichokes, which I ordered from Reimer Seeds, but the first batch failed to sprout so I just planted my second round. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for those.
If you’ve not seen any of my previous posts on seed starting, I plant mine in pots with a base of potting soil and then a 2-inch topping of seed starter. This way, the seed starter is light enough to help the seeds sprout well but the base gives the roots something to really latch onto as they grow.
Also, I have a smallish, portable 3-shelf greenhouse with a cover that I use for starting my seeds. This helps hold in the heat and moisture until everything has sprouted. Lastly, I’m very lucky to have tons of windows to provide lots of sunshine and warmth for my seedlings.
It won’t be long now before we’re tilling up the garden and planting leeks – these will be another “first attempt”, so wish me luck. Man, I love leeks! Then come radishes, beets, peas, lettuce, greens, and onions – I ordered some cool black radishes this year that I’m very excited about. Finally, typically in mid-May, everything else will go in – tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, beans, fennel, carrots, etc.
I can’t wait! Are you growing veggies this year? What’s on your garden planner? I’d love to talk veggies, flowers, herbs and dirt…let me know what you’re looking forward to the most.
I’m excited to add a new notch to my creative belt – refinishing! Though I’ve done some mini-makeovers on things in the past – think paint, spray paint and such – this was my first full refinishing project, starting with stripping it and finishing with …
It’s been a long time since I looked up a lobster bisque recipe because I’ve always made it (and shrimp bisque) the same way. So what I discovered is that I’ve (apparently) been making it wrong all these years. Every recipe I came across called …
This holiday season was my first attempt at making peanut butter dog treats for Buster, our dog. I’ve made sweet potato dog treats for him in the past but then found out that the natural sugar in sweet potatoes was contributing to a yeast issue he has, which can cause excessive licking, chewing and scratching. It also makes your dog smell like yeast or corn chips which, in my opinion, smells pretty good. It’s not, however, so great for your dog, so Buster gets no more chewy sweet potato treats.
I haven’t graduated to making Buster his own dog food (yet) but I still prefer to give him treats that I know are made from real ingredients and not a ton of additives and preservatives. (for the record, Buster currently eats only Newman’s Own Organic Dry Dog food, which he does incredibly well on.)
These dog treats are a mash-up of my own design but, though they come together very easily, ended up being a little more high-maintenance than I’d hoped for. In other words, I had to watch and flip them more than I would have preferred…this is why I’m not big on baking. Buster does, however, love them, so if you don’t mind a little oven-watching, these are a doggie-success. His enjoyment prompted me to give some of the extras away as holiday canine treats.
Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a large stand mixer, gently mix together the peanut butter, stock, and coconut oil. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour until it’s blended into the liquids. On medium speed, blend well until everything is combined and the dough is smooth, about 4-5 minutes. The paddle or dough attachment would both work here, but I used the paddle.
Scoop dough out onto a floured surface and with a rolling pin, roll out to about 1/4 inch thick. (I rolled my dough out in 2 batches). Using a cookie cutter dipped in flour (An upside down glass works great as a cutter if you need one) cut out the biscuits and place on parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake the biscuits for about 15 minutes or until golden and starting to brown, flipping them at least once halfway through the cooking time. The larger your biscuits are, the longer they’re going to take to bake and vice versa. Also, these don’t really rise or spread much so you don’t need to leave a ton of room between them.
Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.
This made about 4 dozen biscuits for me, but some of them were pretty tiny.
Woof!
I printed up the cards for the bag on our printer which included the ingredients on the back of the card, should anyone have a dog with allergies. The bags are inexpensive brown lunch bags and I wrapped the biscuits in fresh parchment paper before placing them in the bag. Using a standard hole punch, I punched through the fold of the bag and tied the card on with raffia ribbon laced through the holes. Super simple but everyone I gave them to thought they were adorable.
If you’ve been a previous visitor to my site, then you can see I’ve made some big changes recently. With a desire to have more control over my content and design, I decided to make the move to a self-hosted site and, with that decision, …