Gardening, & Dinner

  

  Good almost afternoon. It is Wednesday, pouring down rain with no signs of stopping anytime soon. Dark dreary mornings are perfect for sleeping in and that is exactly what I did. Now I am all behind schedule.  Ha! Like that is anything new. I am always behind schedule. 
  Before the rains started Bill and I got a good bit of gardening done through out the property.  It is starting to look real nice up close to the house. In the spring it always looks pretty with the early blooming flowers.

 As spring progresses and we get things cleaned up, the mulch spread and the summer plants begin to emerge, the yards front and back start to become stunning.

 Slowly we are gathering together the plants we want for the big garden out back as well as starting seed trays of green goodness to go out back.

 Our Baby the sail boat is beginning to take shape once again as my kitchen garden. The sage, oregano, and chives wintered over nicely and are looking good. Even the exotic spicy oregano looks as if it will come back this year. I am experimenting this year. I have to many green onions on hand so I rooted some in water and they are now in Our Baby getting rained on hard and heavy. No Getty isn't after my onion rather the golf ball sitting there teasing him.

 The lettuce is loving all this rain I am sure and I hope the spinach seeds like it to. The basil is looking good. I am happy every year the way Our Baby produces for the kitchen and it looks like this year I will be just as happy.My thyme and mint in Madeline's kitchen garden wintered over very nicely too.

  
 I am not sure what else is going in that garden. For sure something Madeline will eat so she can use it in her kitchen.
                                                                              The big garden got a lot of work from Bill this past weekend.

He plowed it over, got the rows made and even planted a few plants. A full row of tomatoes,and a row of ( scratching my head trying to remember) I am not sure what.

 I am not willing to walk out back in the rain to find out. Sorry! My sage in that garden wintered over and is looking real good.

 My rosemary however did not survive the winter as I had hoped. Oh well try try again that is all you can do. The strawberries may or may not give us a crop this year. The deer were pretty heavy this year and they didn't leave many plants for us. 

  I am getting excited to see everything in full bloom and the yards all covered in one beautiful vegetation after another. Yes for sure you will see it too. 
  " What Was Dinner " I am not sure what to call it. I was in the mood for patty melts.I have recently found out that Mom can actually have rye bread here and there without adverse effect to her sugar levels. Mouth watering for patty melts I stop and pick up a loaf of rye bread while I was running some errands. I get home open the freeze take out my meat and then open the fridge to get something only to have an over ripe avocado stare me in the eye and scream " you have to use me NOW "  I had all day to think about it and I could not get my brain off a patty melt. Time to get dinner ready comes and I am still stumbling along without an idea because I want a patty melt and you can't make a patty melt with an avocado. Or can you ? .....................
 This is California burger meets Patty melt.

   Ground turkey not beef, Swiss cheese, lightly sauteed red onions, 2 leaves per burger fresh basil, avocado smashed with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Sandwiched between 2 slices onion rye bread with seeds pan toasted with butter.
  Easy to make and assemble. season the meat as you like, me it was salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and fennel seed. Make patties sized to fit your bread, cook in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Slice the onion crosswise for thin circles, smash the avocado and set aside. Top burgers with cheese and melt. In a separate skillet melt a small amount of butter add your bread toast on both sides. You can saute the onions in either pan that has room. Once everything is ready to assemble I like to cut the burgers in half and arrange on the bread so there is a small space down the center between the burgers,for easier cutting later. on top of the meat and cheese I added the onion and then the basil a leaf on each half. On top of that we place the smashed avocado as thick or as thin as you like. Top with 2nd slice of toasted bread and cut down the center where the meat is split.

  And this is why sometimes I don't get the best shot ever. It looks so good and I start drooling and figure what the hay I have to have at least one good picture.

   Happy Wednesday! Thank you for stopping by.  

Change of Plans and Dinner

  Good Monday morning. It is bright and sunny out with a little chill still in the morning air. It is going to warm up into a beautiful day and I plan to take advantage all I can. The rest of the week looks like a wash with cool temperatures and rain. The gardens will love it and all the blooming trees and flowers will love it, me not so much. 
  Yesterday was Uncle Al's 90th birthday party. I was looking forward to going and it was going to be the subject of today's blog. However Miss Madeline was in need of her Grandmama so I spent my afternoon and evening with her while her parents went to work. Bill and Mom went to the party and said it was wonderful. Well Happy Birthday Uncle Al and I hope I get to be there for your 100th.
  I am going to share some more pictures from the walks I took this past week and still more stuff from my yard. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy taking them.

  Not too many pictures today just a few of my favorites. The Blue Jay is in my back yard, the tulip is in the front yard not in the tulip flower bed and the tree is in the middle of Rancocas creek. The texture and its loneliness absolutely screamed at me.

 " What Was Dinner"? It was a steamy hot and hearty stick to your ribs bowl of bean soup.

 I finally got around to using my ham bone and making a nice pot of soup.

 My biggest issue was what to serve with it, normally I serve some sort of bread and maybe a salad. Well it isn't normally any more and while a salad would be okay the bread was not. I didn't have what I needed for a good salad and I was really scratching my head trying to figure dinner out when Bill came in and asked for the Stuffed mini bell peppers. Dinner side dish solved.

 I found this recipe on a site called Group Recipes. It is a weight Watchers friendly recipe I think I read on the recipe. I only read the recipe once.
Laughing Cow Stuffed Peppers
  I have made the dish 3 times and the recipe is so simple and easy you will only need to read it once as well. I have played around with different cheeses and found that the creaminess of the Laughing Cow Cheese is the most pleasing. All you need is a bag of Mini Bell Peppers and Laughing Cow cheese wedges any flavor. Cut open the peppers and seed them. I cut open the top because I can't figure out how to make it work cutting open a small slit in the side. I couldn't figure out how to clean them that way. So my biggest challenge was figuring out how to keep them tilted upright so all the cheese doesn't melt out. A meat rack is the answer and even that is tricky.

 The Laughing Cow is less likely to leak out of the pepper, cheddar and american tend to melt more and leak. Making the rack or some other way to prop the peppers up necessary. I have made these 3 times as I already said so I am sure you already know they have got to be good. Quick easy and very tasty.

 The pepper is packed with flavor on its own then when you add the creamy sweet goodness of cheese to it and roast them all up together, you get WOW.
   Cheery Monday! Thank you for stopping by.

Birds Flowers and Food!

 Spring is always beautiful and this year is no different. We have had some very good walking weather and everything is blooming in succession so each day is different and every walk is like a treasure hunt. 
  After finishing my blog on Wednesday I couldn't resist the call to walk. It was very windy and down right chilly but I went any way. I found a park not far from home that runs along the Rancocas Creek. The park has wide paths and because it is a new park the trees are not overly tall and the surrounding bush is not so thick you can't see through it. This all works for making me feel comfortable and safe when walking alone. There are docks and lookout points along the path where you can get a good view all around you and enjoy the natural beauty of the creek. Wednesday I got very lucky with the wind at one of the look out points. It was so windy the birds flying in front of me could barely move and I got pictures I would not normally get of a bird in flight.

 The wind was so strong it flipped the bird over and forced him to land on the reeds in front of the look out point. Too cool for words.

 Unlike the Blue Jays in my yard that are skittish and camera shy the Blue Jay I came across let me take more then a dozen pictures and was still sitting there when I walked away. The natural art work in nature always blows me away and these two pieces of wood are no different. 

See what I mean it is like a treasure hunt. You just never know what your prize is going to be.

  My yard is always a source of pleasure for me. I love walking around with my camera just in case I see something that needs to be captured as a digital memory. The dogs are at the door when they see me go for the camera, and Bill just has to ask don't you get tired of taking pictures of the same birds and flowers all the time. The answer is No, I pretty much always find something out there that catches my interest. 

This apple blossom took me three trips before I finally captured it the way I wanted. 

The tulips, everyday I walk out and more tulips  have bloomed and opened, each as beautiful as the other and to date no less then five pictures of the same flower bead. Each picture slightly different from the other.
  Yesterday was Arbor Day, as well as warm and sunny. I couldn't resist a walk. I grabbed my camera bag and headed for the little park on the creek. What a great walk. It left me full, satisfied and with a little lens envy. As I was walking I came across a guy on the path with a camera with a huge wide angle zoom lens. I thought at the time I would never be able to hold that up let alone take a picture. I thought that until I got home and looked at my prize pictures of an Osprey flying and perching on a tree. 

I am proud of the shots I got I just wish I could have gotten closer.  Now I am thinking I could learn to use that lens. 
The Blue Jay was hanging in the same area I first saw him and this time he had a friend. They were incredibly playful. 

While I was picturing the Osprey this cute Red wing Black Bird decided to sit above my head and sing me a song. If nothing else he is a loud little fellow.

 I believe this is a cat bird, it may be a Mocking bird, either way he greeted me as I entered the path just to let me know I was going to have a wonderful walk in his park.

 The old Queen Ann's Lace is as pretty dead as when living.

   " What Was Dinner" Oh dinner was so good and I am so proud. I wanted something with an Italian flavor but without pasta. I have two friends that love to use zucchini in place of spaghetti and that gave me an idea.

 Lasagna replacing the pasta with zucchini. I wanted something full a flavor, different and rustic. I created just that. We all loved it. Mom had two servings and asked for more. I felt good serving this to both her and Bill. Bill was still raving about it the next day after he at his lunch. He said it was as good cold as hot. This is rustic chunky and does not lay out as smoothly as pasta lasagna but is just as pretty. Prettier even.
4or 5 long zucchini
4 cups sliced Campari tomatoes
2 TBS finely minced garlic
dried basil
dried oregano
fennel seed
4 links mild Italian sausage
12 to 14 wedges Laughing cow Swiss cheese
1/2 cup or more Cheddar cheese
  While sausage is still slightly frozen slice into one inch thick round pieces. In a skillet place a small amount of oil and heat. Add the sausage and brown on all sides. As the sausage cooks slice the zucchini length wise in one inch pieces. Once the meat is browned start assembling your lasagna. Preheat oven to 400, and spray a 9 by 13 baking dish. Lay a layer of zucchini on the bottom of the dish, then a layer of tomato, sprinkle some of the garlic, basil, oregano, and fennel seed on top of the tomato layer. Repeat with zucchini, then tomato, and then the spices and herbs. Place the cheese wedges in a bowl and mash them until creamy. It won't spread well so I dolloped the cheese evenly across the entire dish. Place a layer of zucchini on top of the cheese, then the tomatoes and the spices, one more layer ending with herbs and spicing. Top with cheddar cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Bake uncovered another 20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Check in 10 minutes so you don't over cook and make the zucchini mushy. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes then serve. 
  I didn't give measurements on the herbs because I never measure them I go by feel. I use fresh dried basil from my garden that I dry and store whole and crush as I need. So I used about 3 leaves per layer. The oregano a 2 finger pinch per layer and the fennel seed no more then 1/8 of a teaspoon.

   As I said I am really proud of this creation and I hope you give it a try. 
   Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by.