Caring for My Chaos

In our garden, we have an abundance of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash! Most of this has been eaten or canned in one way or another. I came up with this recipe the other night to use up some of the squash and it was a hit. It's extremely simple to prepare with little clean up if you use Reynold's wrap to line your pan. Plus it's a one pan recipe! Bonus! 4 thin sliced chicken breasts 2 medium yellow squash Butter Garlic salt Pepper Line your pan with Reynold's wrap and place the chicken in the pan. Sprinkle each side of the chicken with the garlic salt and pepper. Cut the squash into medium chunks and place around the chicken. Dot the tops of the chicken each with 2 pats of butter. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until chicken is done. Everything will come out buttery and delicious!

I know I just posted about salsa, but with our bumper crop of tomatoes, I have ventured into the canning arena. I have canned strawberry jam in the past, but this is my first time canning salsa. Now, there are the websites that tell you that you need to buy a canner and rack and such. I have never owned those. And have still canned with good results. Here's how I did it-- To begin, you must clean your jars, lids and rings. That is key. Everything must be clean, clean, clean so you get a good seal on the jar to protect your food! To prep the jars, I boil them for about 10 minutes with the rings. The lids I wash in hot soapy water. Then place on a clean dish  towel until you're ready to use. Make sure your jars are upside down so nothing can get in them while waiting. Now you make your salsa! This is the recipe I used, which I took a little bit of the fresh salsa recipe that I had shared here and a little bit from two other canning salsa recipes that I had found. I mixed th...

As you know, Hunny has been gardening up a storm and we have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year. He asked me the other day to come up with a salsa recipe and to try making it. So, I found one on Simply Recipes that is so easy to make and tasted delicious! I used the cayenne peppers that Hunny grew, but only put in one, so I was told that was not enough heat for him. What I love about making your own salsa is that you can tailor it to your tastes and make it hotter or milder, whichever you prefer! Plus, you know exactly what is in it since you are making it yourself. Here's the recipe- 2-3 medium sized fresh tomatoes (from 1 lb to 1 1/2 lb), stems removed 1/2 red onion 2 serrano chiles or 1 jalapeño chile (stems, ribs, seeds removed), less or more to taste (Like I said I used cayenne peppers. I liked it with one, but the next batch is having 4!) Juice of one lime 1/2 cup chopped cilantro Salt and pepper to taste Pinch of dried oregano (crumble in your fingers befor...

Who else has their garden all planted? Hunny and I have ours just about done, just need a few more seeds and plants. We have a few different kinds of tomatoes, including cherry, cucumbers, pole beans, hot peppers, green peppers and we are going to plant lettuce, radishes, squash and maybe some melon. We even finished the fence around it to keep the deer from having a buffet! They ate just about everything last year. As soon as a plant would get a bloom, they'd eat it. Hopefully, this year our plants are protected. I'm really enjoying our little project. It's great together time. I could take less bugs, but that comes with the territory. I can't wait to see the fruits of our labor! And Hunny can't wait for the tomatoes. He is such a tomato snob. Very picky about them. I don't know how many bacon and mater sandwiches that man would eat if you let him. I'll post pics when the harvest starts coming in. Let me know in the comments what all you have planted!

So, after getting up at 5:45 this morning to take Doodle to get on a bus to go to Busch Gardens with her chorus class, we went yard saling since our library was having their big sale and one big neighborhood near us was having their annual neighborhood sale. The first thing we found was a badminton set, which Hubby has been wanting. This coffee table, we found at the next sale, is one that the kids and Hubby wanted, but I refused to pay full price at Big Lots for. They were very angry at me because I wouldn't. Instead of paying 250$, we got it for 50$. Much better price. Then at the library, I got a bag of new clothes and we found a bunch of old books for Doodle, which she will go crazy for. But, what I am so excited about was my mail day today! Guess what finally came? My lemon tree! His name is Norm. I got my shipment from Michigan Bulb which had my dwarf lemon tree, strawberry plants, lavender, pink muhly grass, double anemones, gladiolias, and a raspberry bush! I named the...

Well, even though I planted basil, cilantro, thyme and oregano, the only one that did well was the basil. And did it do well!

 These are my basil and sage plants, which I haven't killed yet! The sage is on the right and is doing beautifully! My basil wasn't planted till about a week after the sage so it's not quite as big yet. Maybe I don't have a black thumb after all!  This is oregano. I didn't really pay much attention to how many seeds went in, they were really little! So, I think I'm going to have to thin it down. But, you can already smell the oregano! I'm so excited! And as you can see, Norman is still alive and thriving! I can't get over that I haven't killed anything yet! Even the flowering plant my dad gave me outside is still beautiful! I found out that the one he gave me last year didn't need to be watered every day, just every week. I overloved that one! Maybe I will be a gardener after all!

Over on Nature Hacks they have a list of 5 different herbs that you can plant outside to repel flies. I know we have a gnat problem in our yard so I wonder if this would work for them! But, go check out the list which includes yummy ones like basil and good smelling ones like lavender!

Can you see them? There is one bud near the top and one near the bottom completely through the dirt and there are more almost all the way up! This is my sage that I had planted when I got Norman, my pink plant, who is still alive and kicking by the way! I'm so excited! Maybe I don't kill innocent plants for no reason anymore!

This is another Pinterest experiment. I was reading up on this today, since me and Hubby do like to dabble in gardening. This idea is absolutely genius! I found it on Yahoo News but the original link in the article is a guy's Facebook page. You use straw bales instead of containers or soil! And they say that the plants come out better than if you planted in soil plus you have no weeds! This would be wonderful for us since where we usually put the garden is gone because our new shed is in the way now. No weeding, just fertilizer and water! Go read up on it, it's a great idea for small gardens.