Garden Update, 7 Things and Imma Schmooze!

I really am cooking.. it's not all salads and chicken breasts, really. In fact, last night's dinner was SO GOOD, but that's coming in a later post (as well as what promises to be the most decadent cake I've ever had the displeasure of trying to make - look for the next installment of Kitchen Disasters soon as well! :D ). But this post is all about our lil garden that is bursting at the seams, a meme I was tagged for by The Cooking Ninja (Thanks!!) and holy hell.. I've been given an award - a Schmooze award! hahahhaaaaa! We'll start this off with a pictorial - My lovely and dear friend Sara who has been keeping us updated on her very organized and awesome garden, has asked us to show her our gardens and how they've progressed. At first I almost hesitated for a second because showing ya'll our garden would totally "out us". You see.. where we spend hours each week making our flower beds look totally smashing, our garden doesn't usually get as much care and well ohmygod you are going to see all of our weeds. *blush* I feel so dirty. But, having opened up to the blogging world just this week by presenting to you such a loverly and charming picture of moi, the dainty flower that I am, I figured ya'll would be able to handle the shock of seeing our dirty lil garden secret. DO NOT JUDGE US!! Shall we get started? :) Clicking on any of the photos will bring you to my Flickr account where you can see bigger versions if you so desire. These would be photos of the "East Wing" where our Zucchini and Cucumbers are threatening to take over the whole area, as well as our tomatoes vying for a shot to do the same.. and our poor bell peppers stuck in the middle with no way of escaping. On the left is my grape tomatoes. But I think I've been hornswoggled. Yes, hornswoggled. I've never seen grape tomatoes get so fakkin long and big - so I can't help but to wonder if some jackass wrongfully labeled them? Gah. They are tasty though! We've actually harvested FIVE of them. Woo. On the right is a lil beefsteak mater, I'd say in it's teenage years? We've got a while before those are ready. Our really rather huge yellow bell peppers - although they haven't turned yet. And from what I remember of our yellow bells last year, they were at least starting to turn by the time they got this huge - the fakking, hornswoggling bastard probably labeled these wrong too. Gah. And yeah.. I hate green bells. Go figger. On the left is just one of the ELEVENTY BILLION burpless cukes that are in that nest of leaves and vines. This one has another day or two before it should be picked. On the right are some cute zucchini flowers getting ready to open up. I couldn't get a shot of any zucchini on the plants because we picked the easily seen ones before I realized I should be taking pictures. Doh. Here is yesterday's harvest.. 2 big zukes and 3 rather oddly shaped cukes. Rather oddly? The middle of our garden was host to a HUGE patch of leaf lettuce. Unfortunately, the first harvest was chock full of lil squishy slugs. Needless to say, as I was washing it and discovering the lil fakkers I was completely squicked out. So squicked, in fact, that I couldn't fathom eating it.. so we dug it up and then planted seeds in a container hoping to avoid the nasties - so far so good! :D The "West Wing" holds 4 finally forming heads of cabbage. As you can see, it looks more like Swiss cheese. We're not sure if we're going to win the battle against whatever is eating it. *sigh* On the right is our Swiss Chard - avert your eyes to the pretty yellow and red lined leaves.. DO NOT make eye contact with the weeds!! Gah. And saving the best for last... Can you see it?? squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Just THE cutest baby Eggplant EVER!!! I am so excited about this as I've never grown my own eggplant and didn't know how the plant would fare.. this lil beauty is just one of FOUR. heeee!!!!!!! So there you have it.. our garden. Definitely the best harvest of 90% of everything we've planted this summer. Only 2 failures - the radishes weren't happy and all but one bush bean plant took - I was too embarrassed to get a shot of it with it's wrinkly lil beans hanging off it all pathetic like. We prolly should have pulled it to put it out of it's misery. Moving on to a meme that I was tagged for by the very talented cook, The Cooking Ninja! This one is titled "7 Random Things About Me" - well, that's kinda hard as I've already listed 100 random things about me.. But here goes: 1- Over the past few years, I've suddenly developed a terrifying fear of heights. Just the thought of being somewhere high up now makes my heart pound. Which blows me away as I've always been the first in line for the tallest roller coasters at Cedar Point and standing out on the deck over looking The Grand Canyon was never a problem. I think it might have something to do with a reoccuring nightmare I've been having.. which I'm not going to get into here - but it involves a cruise ship and Nigel. *shudder* 2- Bugs. Motherfakking nasty-ass bugs. I HATE them with a Burning! Searing! Passion! I refer to spiders as "Monsters" and even the tiniest one is always met with me yelling for Hubbs to KILL THE MONSTER. Ants? Terrified. The common housefly? Sends shivers down my spine. Butterflies? As long as they aren't near me, I can handle - but if the lil bastards start fluttering my way, I'll take cover. I won't even tell you what kind of reaction I have to bees, wasps and other stingy-bitey mofo's - you might think me weird. :P 3- I'm a habitual locker upper of doors. I can't sleep at night if I've forgotten to "make the rounds" and locking up the front and back doors. It's so bad, that when I come in from the back yard, I unconsciously lock the slider behind me.. which pisses Hubbs off to no end when he's a few steps behind and walks into it or wrenches his shoulder as he tries to pull it open. hee. 4- I firmly believe that my bitch-cat could possibly be my father. Or someone else we love that passed. Seriously. I'll try to keep this short (yeah right) - she showed up one day while I was still living with my mommie after my dad passed.. just outta the blue. She'd leave each night and show up again the next day. Then I started to feed her. Then my mom started to feed her. Then we started to let her in (my pooch Jiggles Lu had recently passed, so I think both of us were starving for 4 legged furry love) during the day. One day my mom decided to take a nap, so she gets in her bed, under the covers, when her feet touch something. She pulled off the sheets and comforter to find cat poo. UNDER THE BEDDING. Ohhh my lordie she was NOT a happy camper. She calls me at work (as if I could do anything being over an hour away) and screams at me that we're taking the F'n cat to the Humane Society the next day. I was against this.. she wasn't a kitten, so I didn't think she'd have a good chance of getting adopted and I did not want to put her to her death over mistaking my mom's bed for a litter box. hee. We went round and round about this for days until finally I told her I'd go with her so she'd shut the hell up. We put her in the cage we bought for her and got into my car. Car wouldn't start and I ended up flooding it. So we get out, cat included. Couple minutes later, I go back out to try it again and it starts right up. I go get my mom and the cat and when they get into the car, it doesn't stall out once I put it in gear - it just quits. And it won't start again. We looked at each other and she spoke first, "I'll pick up a litter box and food dishes after work today." I've had her ever since (about 7 years now). 5- I'm a movie freak fanatic. Each and every Tuesday when the new movies come out on DVD I am at the Blockbuster first thing. I never miss a Tuesday. I always rent all the new ones, regardless of how many came out that day and then I spend the rest of the week stressing myself out because I have to watch all of them. 6- I watch the Simple Life. (don't hate me) 7- I'm always cold. You'd think with my padding that I'd be nicely insulated, but that isn't the case. I do get hot in the summer and I'll kick on the central air, but just minutes later I'll be shivering and putting on a sweater. At work, my teeth actually chatter at times. I wear a sweater or jacket year round at my office. 'kay that hurt! Sorry if they were lame, but I kept checking the 100 list and finding that I'd already listed what I was going to include in this list! hahaha I guess I get to tag 7 more people.. and I think this lil meme has been out for a while, so if you've already been tagged, I apologize and if you haven't been tagged yet but hate memes, I apologize. :P 1- Gracie 2- Kelly - yes I know you've done the 8 Random thingies, but you haven't done any memes on Sass. And uhh.. I KNOW there are more than just 8 random thingies about you. :D 3- Morven 4- Sis 5- Cheryl 6- Marce 7- Sara And finally!! My dear, sweet friend, Kelly of Sass and Veracity AND Kellementology (a must read - is hilarious) has given me a Schmooze award. heeee! Apparently she thinks I've made a lil bleep on the surface of the blog reading world with my incessant chatter and fondness of leaving dorkie comments. HAR! No really, this award was created by Mike of Ordinary Folk and Danielle of Pink Reviews to "recognize people who have a positive influence on the blogging community by developing and nurturing relationships. You know — commenting on other’s blogs, joining in on and sustaining a “blogversation.”" I stole that quote from Kelly. shhh I thank you, my sweet girl, for thinking of me and awarding me this very cool award. I think I'm blushing. :D Better than receiving this award is actually getting to pass it on to some people who I feel are worthy of such a nice thing! There are SO MANY I wish I could give this too, but from taking a que from Kelly, it looks like I might only be able to give this to five people. =( Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups - Not only does this sweet lady make an effort to comment on all of her favorite blogs, but her comments are always so uplifting and supportive. Thank you, Tanna =) Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen - Patricia is another beautiful gal who you'll see commenting on many blogs with such sweet things to say. She always brings a smile to my face once I've read one of her comments. Thank you, Patricia =) Helene of Tartelette - Not only does Helene make a conscious effort to support all of her favorite blogger friends, but she also goes that extra step in trying to help anyone who has a baking question. Her advice is always spot on and I, for one, am quite grateful for all of her baking advice and tips. (Which I took advantage of, last night when I called her freaking out AGAIN. hee.) Thank you, Helene =) Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms - I've said this many times before - just thinking of Elle makes me smile. This gal can make you feel good about yourself on your worst days! I'm mighty grateful to have the pleasure of meeting her! Thank you, Elle =) And last but not least, Mary of The Sour Dough - I have a feeling that Mary might have been a cheerleader in her youth? You can guarantee that when Mary leaves you a comment (which she does often and everywhere) you'll feel as if you've just conquered your biggest fear and not just that fakkin' chocolate cake. Mary is a woman who, no matter how rough things might get, puts you and what you're going through in front of herself. She's definitely one of a kind. And Thank You, Mary =) Again, I wish this list could be longer because it'd include every gal up there who got tagged for the 7 Random Things meme as well as Ivonne, Brilynn, Jenny, Morv, Mary, Laura, Gilly, Meeta, Karen, Kelly-Jane, Gattina, Deborah, Kirsten and OHMYGOD So! Many! More!! This is a great community to be in - virtual or not, I count myself extremely lucky to be a part of it. Much love to you, everyone! :D OMG I'm so late for work.. heee! xoxo

For Ellie..

As promised.. here's that close up of my Leezard.. she's pretty cool, eh? Beth, my friend that is the talented painter who done up my house for me, did an outstanding job. When we were discussing the mural, I asked if she'd include the lizard (and I really don't know why?) then we started joking around about it and I joked that it'd be funny if he had a lil sombrero.. so she stuck that in too.. hehe Okay I'm off to bed! xoxo

My Gawd, it's almost done...

Yesterday Hubbs finished building the fence. OH. MY. GOD. Three weeks and it's finally all up and looking glorious! Not only did he get this thing built pretty much by himself, but he also worked on the pond and mulched all the beds. He has been a very busy man. I've been with him every step of the way, but truly, I can't take much credit as I was basically just his helper and someone to keep him company while he worked on the fence. He did a most beauteous job, it looks gorgeous. The only things left are to stain it and install the 2 gates. As for the pond, we ran out of stone for bordering it and the waterfall is not built, pretty much for the same reason. We've decided to make the waterfall from the same flat stones/slate as the border, so hopefully another weekend or two will finish that up. I don't recall what I was doing last night, maybe making dinner or brushing out the dogs.. but while I was inside for a bit, he got creative and spruced up the area around the pond.. it looks so cute! Our office is decorated in a nautical theme, so he snuck in here and took a couple items to hang on his new fence. Then he ran lighted rope underneath the rocks and surprised me with it once it got dark last night. I'm so happy these projects are finally looking to be almost done. Here are a few pictures.. the rest you can see on my Flickr account, just click on one of these pics to take you there. PS - Today is the start of my vacation, so I promised Hubbs to make new dishes for dinner all this week. I've picked a bunch from the Cooking Light Annual Recipes book to decide if I'll be keeping it. Verdict will be Friday! :D

What does 8 men, good food and a LOT of beer make?

My new fence! That's what they make!! WOOO!! Just a quick blurb to show you's the "so far" pictures of our brand new privacy fence. The fence party started yesterday with a rocky start. First off, my Hubbs' crew from Arkansas ended up having to work for the company yesterday and we didn't know if they were going to be able to make it over to help out or not. This was the good kick in the heiney that was needed to realized that people who have good intentions, may not be able to follow through because of unforseen circumstances and how you should really plan for that kind of outcome.. which we didn't. Oh no... Hubbs decided that he'd have so many guys here yesterday that he really didn't need to finish clearing out all the hedges and wild life that surrounded the old chain link fence. Being a dutifully nagging wifey, I kept telling him that the clearing of our small Amazon looking yard would be a day's work in itself.. but did he listen? Mmm hmmm.. moving on! Our faithful friend, Stump (yes that's his nickname which he prefers over his real name, Pat) showed up first and we were so grateful, as Stump has pretty much become a fence building master - he has put one up in his yard a few years ago (with the help of Hubbs) and helped a few other friends put theirs up. So I felt a little better knowing his expertise would make this process go a little more smoothly. Of course there really wasn't much they could do by themselves other than to clear out the wild life and take down a section of the old chain link.. and just as they finished, two more guys showed up unexpectedly. They work with us but weren't on Hubbs' crew but they had heard about the fence party and just decided to come give a hand. Bless them. With their help the section that was wide open to our neighbor's yard could begin to get the posts set. Happily, a few hours later the whole crew showed up and after being fortified by some lil snackers I made (my cheesy sausage snackers and some chorizo & manchego quesadillas) and some frosty beverages.. all the posts were set and the frame work was done! Today they will fill in with the dog eared boards and install the gates. I'm so excited! After all this hard work, I made them a huge dinner of Jack Daniels' glazed ribs on the grill, pasta salad, potato salad, broccoli slaw and a peanut butter gooey cake (one of the many variations of Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake), which I will post about another time. Tonight's "thank you so much you all rock!" dinner will be my London Broil, roasted potatoes, corn on the grill, left overs from yesterday and another Gooey Butter Cake that I'm going to concoct myself, as Paula says that ANY flavor can be done.. so we'll see if she's telling the truth ;) Okay here are the pics and now I'm off to start preparing the snackers for their lunch break! Going to hide the ugly neighbor's house.. teee! Putting a fence on this side of the back yard will allow us to take down the ugly chainlink gate that the previous owners decided to install directly over the driveway, making using the garage for our vehicles impossible). This is the back of the yard, where you can see what I mean about the "wildlife" that has taken over the chainlink fence. Because there is no space between the new fence and the neighbor's picket fence, they decided to just leave that section of the old chainlink and bring the new wood fence in a foot.. which I kind of like as I hope the ivy growing up and through will start to climb the new fence and grow over it. =)

No, I haven't cooked yet

When we bought this house the previous owners were a bit, uhmm.. spastic? regarding their planting. It seemed that either the lady or gentleman of the house liked to buy hedges and rose plants and just dig a hole randomly all over the front yard and front beds. I wish I had taken a picture of what it looked like before so you could really understand what I mean be spastic. We moved in at the end of May in 2003 and one of the first jobs I gave hubbs was to tear out the rose plants (I'm just not a rose lover) and the hedges so we could plant what we liked. After all of the painting and minor repairs were done in the house, it was my job to put the inside of the house together and his job to make the outside look pretty. Hubbs and I dated for a few years before living together and he always told me about his gorgeous lawns and award winning beds, so I felt more than comfortable allowing him to do his creative thing outside. With that said.. imagine my shock and utter surprise when I went outside to see what he had accomplished. It had looked as if the previous owners' spirits had taken over Hubbs' body because he planted everything in a total mish-mosh way. There was no balance at all. I am a balance freak, people. I'm also thinking I must have some kind of compulsive manic disorder because when things aren't balanced.. I shake. I can't look at it. I start to sweat. I can't stop thinking about whatever it is that isn't balanced until it's finally balanced. I'm weird, eh? But what to do? He spent hours working out there and he seemed pleased with his work. I did a good job keeping a smile on my face while he was giving me the tour but that was only because my mouth went dry and my lips were stuck to my teeth. Which, really? I'm thankful for. I didn't want to tell him that this was wrong, all terribly wrong. I wanted to just get over my silliness and be happy that all the pretty flowers were planted and there were no more hedges and rose plants. So I kept my mouth shut and thanked him for a job well done. I made it through that summer without spontaneously combusting into a pile of unbalanced ash. That's as far as I made it.. I started making comments the following summer. Little things said here and there. Still, I controlled myself to not go batshit crazy and go out there and tear up the two beds. I did my thing and weeded and mulched. It was this spring that I just couldn't hold back any longer and I asked him if he'd be willing to move some plants around because the unbalance of the beds was truly killing me inside. teeeee! Thankfully, he didn't get upset and actually agreed with me that they were looking a "bit" off as the hostas had gotten huge and took up most of the space on the right side. Phew - thank you hostas! So yesterday we got to work. We moved every single plant to a more balanced and serene layout. And we started to make a bed in the backyard bigger. We didn't finish until about 7:30 and we've still got mulching to do sometime this week. Next weekend is the job of taking all the hedges out of the back yard to prepare for the new wood privacy fence. Wooo Hooo! Here are a few pictures of some of the new plants we purchased. And the herbs.. the glorious herbs :D Gerber daisies for my tiny wagon The glorious fall leaf looking plant I was telling you about - isn't it gorgeous? The top of my strawberry pot has basil and sage This side shows italian flat leaf parsley, lemon verbena and cilantro And this side shows chives, dill and thyme And these are my Tiger Lilies.. they really took off this year, look at all the blooms! Yay! Okay well there are more on my Flickr account if you want to peruse them.. I think if you just click on one of the above pictures it'll take you there. Have any of you seen that autumn leafy looking plant before? It's a perennial and someone at the nursery told me that it lasts year round. I'm wondering what it looks like during the winter? Alrighty, am a happy floral'd camper now. I can get back to cooking this week! I miss my kitchen :)

Our first flowers!

I just couldn't be in a better mood. Okay, well I could if Hubbs was home.. but that would just be the cream of the cake as we've had THREE beautiful warm days in a row here in NE Ohio and I'm finally starting to believe summer is almost here :D Although not food related, I couldn't resist bragging about my first flower of the year.. well the first flowers of the year that I like. We've got 2 azalea bushes out front that have been in bloom for a couple weeks, but they were left by the previous owners and don't really thrill me too much. But these clematis and peonies were planted by Hubbs last year and didn't do a damn thing - we thought they were dead for sure.. Hooray! They are not dead! I guess they needed a year to rest before they showed their glorious selves :D Unfortunately, my beautiful Dahlias did not go back into my beds this year - at least not yet, I hope. Hubbs took them out of the ground and stored them up in our attic last fall and unfortunately, he put them way in the back where I can't get to them.. so if they are still okay and it's not too late by next weekend, they'll go back in the ground and hopefully produce their beautiful flowers. I love Dahlias with such a passion.. especially the big deep dish bloom variety! Okay, here are my pictures, taken with the crap cam.. as per usual. Ugh. Yep the peonies are just budding, I can't wait to see the open bloom! Yay lil peonies! Happy Memorial Day everyone.. and happy summer is on the way! :D