Filed under: gardening
Here is the last of the spinach, lettuce, beets, carrots, onions and kohlrabi and the first of the potatoes, Japanese eggplant, cherry tomatoes, green beans and zuchinni. Summer has arrived early in Austin this year.
Filed under: quilting
This is the quilt with the new picture inserted from the party.
Now we have a picture form February 2008 instead of 1970.
Filed under: recipes
I put together a simple black bean salad , lo-cal. no oil. but you could add oil to it if you wish. There are only 80 calories per half cup serving. Be sure to drain and wash the bean, especially if the beans are homemade and not from a can.
- 1 cup black beans
- 1/2 cup corn off the cob
- 4 TBSP chopped red onion
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup green peppers
- 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
- garlic powder, salt to taste
- fresh chopped cilantro
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
- Chill and serve.
- I like to add hot pepper flakes to mine.
I harvested my first spaghetti squash of the 2008 season. It was just turning yellow, but I was so anzious to have it for Friday night dinner that I picked it anyway.
- I pricked it in 4 places with a fork and then baked it for about an hour at 350 degrees.
- I let it cool down and then cut it in half.
- I removed the seeds and then fluffed it up with a fork.
- I made a suace out of fresh onions, tomatoes and peppers from the garden.
- Then I added fresh basil and oregano and served it as a topping.
It was the best spaghetti squash ever. I think I will pick them sooner rather than later from now on.
Filed under: gardening
The weather station says that the tornado touched the tree tops but never touched down on the ground. Also the hail over 1.5 inch diameter was the biggest ever recorded in Austin.
Sunshine Community Garden sustained minor damage. My tomatoes plants with small tomatoes lost a lot of green tomatoes. The larger plants had damage on individual fruit but the fruit was not knocked off. The leaves on the squash, cucumbers, eggplant, peepers, chard, etc were somewhat shredded but they should come back. I picked beets but couldn’t used the leaves becuase they were too shredded.
The National Weather Service reported hail as large as four inches in diameter a few miles north of downtown Austin, service forecaster Pat McDonald said. Rose added that it may be a record size for hail that landed inside city limits.
National Weather Service officials say they don’t think a tornado touched down in the city. They point to radar images of the storm, which indicated it was a super cell with punching winds that blasted a wide area stretching about from Lake Austin to East Austin and 35th Street to just south of the Colorado River.
But insurance adjusters and a professional storm tracker say some of the tree damage suggests the presence of a tornado that dangled across the treetops for some distance but never touched down.
“If you look at the epicenter of the storm track, the way the trees are topped, twisted off rather than blown, that indicates a tornado rather than straight or sheer winds, or a microburst,” said Mark Nelson, a meteorologist and consultant who surveyed and photographed damage in Central Austin on Thursday….
Filed under: recipes
After I make soymilk in my small home machine I like to treat myself to a warm cup of hot chocolate. It is always delicious. The secret might be the freshly made soymilk.
- 8 oz. soymilk(unsweetened)
- 1 tsp cocoa
- 2 tsp. granulated sugar
- Add all ingredients to blender.
- Blend on the highest settling for about a minute.
- Enjoy.
Filed under: recipes
With the cost of bread up 65% in the past 5 months, I have been making more and more bread at home. I know that the cost of flour has gone up by 100%, but I still think making my own bread is more economical. Some day I will stop long enough to figure out if this is true. In the meanwhile I am enjoying baking bread. I keep trying new recipes. Here is one I adapted for my bread machine.
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
- .5 cup bran
- 2.0 cups white unbleached flour
- Put all ingredients in bread machine.
- Knead in bread machine.
- Let rise until double
- Punch down and form into a loaf.
- Let rise until double again.
- Pre-heat oven to 375 F.
- Put cast iron pan in bottom of oven.
- Brush top of loaf with water.
- Put in oven and simultaneously toss 4 ice cubes in cast iron pan.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- After 30 minutes toss 4 more ice cubes in cast iron pan.
- Take bread out of oven, out of bread pan and brush with water again.
- Cool bread on rack.
- Slice and enjoy!
Filed under: gardening
I have been so busy in the garden all month that I have not had time to blog!
Yesterday was the last day of April and the garden is gorgeous. We are eating beets, snow peas, the end of the lettuce, carrots, the beginning of the potatoes, the first of the tomatoes, yellow squash, chard, and onions galore.
The potatoes aren’t ready to dig up yet, but I have uncovered ones close to the surface and taken them home. They are so good, I can’t wait! And the cherry tomatoes are just beginning to turn ripe. The ones in my garden are Sungold. If you have never tried this kind, you must. They are delicious.
My cucumbers, spaghetti and butternut squashes, peppers, eggplants.okra and green beans are all growing nicely. I would like to write more, but I must get back to work and then my garden. As soon as we have a new moon on Monday I will plant my lima beans.
Eat Veggies, save the planet 