New Uses for Squash

No need to remind any of you that I’m being overrun with squash this summer – both the straight neck, heirloom yellow squash, and the zucchini that I planted a few months ago.

This week I decided to tackle pizza as my next use for squash. I present to you the results.

Squash Pizza #1

This was a more traditional type of pizza, using thinly sliced yellow squash as a topping. If any of my tomatoes decide to turn red, they would’ve been used too, but alas I had to turn to a Kroger tomato.

Started with a whole-wheat Boboli pizza crust.

Add sliced tomatoes, sliced squash, and fresh basil and oregano from your garden

Add cheese and bake

 

Not bad! If I were to make this again, I’d probably use sauce instead of just the tomato slices. The whole wheat crust makes it seem dry as it is, so sauce is a must. But not bad!

Zucchini “Pizza”

This is a recipe that sounds like a dietitian’s dream, and yet it was recommended to me by one of the staff from my hospital’s kitchen, so I felt it must be good.

Basically, you use grated zucchini as the crust for the pizza! An awesome use for one of the monstrous zucchinis I’ve been pulling out of my garden.

See the size selection I have to choose from? haha

Crust recipe:

• 3 cups grated zucchini (pressed, drained, squeezed, whatever you like to get out the excess water)
• 1/2 cup flour (I used whole wheat, of course)
• 3 eggs

Press crust mixture into 9×13 casserole dish, bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes until dry/firm/crusty.

Then, add whatever toppings you like and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. I chose broccoli (my favorite pizza topping!), herbs, and cheeses.  Voila!

So, there are some pizza recipes for you to drool over. Today I’m baking batches of zucchini muffins to snacks, because surprise surprise there are more zucchini out there in the garden!! :)

Busy Bee Saturday

Greetings readers!

Currently waiting for my delicious dinner to come together. I’m making Jenna’s famous lentil loaf that won the USA Dried Peas and Lentils Recipe Rivalry contest. It seems similar to some lentil muffins I made a while back from Kath’s blog. I’m all about some lentils! You can’t beat a serving of protein for less than 10 cents, can you, carnivores???

Today has been a very busy day. I had initially planned on sleeping in, but by 7am the room was full of bright sunshine and hungry dog sounds (they eat breakfast at precisely 7am) so up I was.

I spent the first few hours of my day (while the temperature was still in the 70s) gardening, spraying putrid anti-deer spray on the plants, vacuuming, cleaning, and cooking up this lovely breakfast:

Then it was TV time – hours of tennis and soccer to watch, while I started my next embroidery project. The Nadal 5 set match was excellent entertainment, the US/Ghana World Cup game… not so much. I tried to get excited about soccer, but it’s just not as fun as tennis. Sorry guys!

I attempted a trip to Hobby Lobby for more embroidery project supplies, but wasn’t able to find anything. Gas, car wash, recycles rounded out the errands.

Now I’m home, cooking the lentil loaf, as well as sweet potato fries (McCain’s frozen crinkle cut.. on super good sale at Kroger today!) and green beans from the garden. Hoping to get lots of reading done tonight, but I also need to go cut the grass while the sun is down. Adios!

 

Good Reads

TGIF!

I went on a $10 shopping spree after work today and came home with a new pair of work pants, a bottle of hot sauce, 2 bars of deodorant soap, and 2 new library books.

The pants are being saved for when 10 pounds disappears on me (I’ve already eliminated 4ish from buying a nice new notebook at TJ Maxx and keeping track of my daily eats).

The hot sauce and deodorant soap are part of my latest anti-deer strategy. Not sure if I mentioned it, but the deer who disappeared for the past few months have returned, only to devour every single leaf from my 9 successful sweet potato plants. Ahhh!

The library books are for me to read and stay cool inside this weekend!

I’m currently reading Sophie Kinsella’s latest: “Twenties Girl”. It’s the kind of book that you finish and worry that you’ve slowly lost brain cells (aka chick lit), but I feel like I owe it to Miss Kinsella, since I’ve read all her other books. Plus, really, sometimes those books are good for you. Kind of like a literary detox. No thinking needed, just a nice entertaining break. I will note, though, the Shopaholic series was her best writing. And no, I never saw the movie. Don’t want it to ruin the books for me.

My next batch (wait.. 2 isn’t a batch) couple of books I picked up today are for the foodies out there.

The Art of Eating in: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove, by Cathy Erway, is based on the successful blog Not Eating Out in New York. It seems like if you can write a blog about some big crazy project of yours, and get lots of readers, that a book deal is the next step. Anyway, I’m curious to read it, since eating out is one of my bigger expense categories. At least it was until I moved out to the country by myself, haha. But my weekends back in Music City with The Boy are certainly filled with food expenses. Maybe HE needs to read the book :)

The Butcher and the Vegetarian, by Tara Austen Weaver, is a book about the food writer’s journey with meat-eating (and meat-avoiding) and how she deals with it. I’m always interested in reading about the philosophies and mindsets behind other vegetarians.

Any book recommendations from you?

A post-novocaine afternoon to relax

Got back from yet another trip to the dentist. 3 shots of novocaine and 4 fillings later…. I am so numb it’s not funny. Well, actually it is humorous. I drove home from the dentist, attempting to sing along with Queen and Bon Jovi on the radio, but was frustrated with my lack of mouth movement, so I switched to NPR.

The dogs are happy to have me back home from work, but I think they would rather be running around outside and in the garden than relaxing. Sorry puppies, no strenuous work today. Your fur mommy needs to rest.

I think they got the message :)

Now, if only it weren’t in the upper 90s outside with an air quality warning, I’d be all over that hammock. Instead, I think it’ll be the couch + netbook + reading/embroidery.

Tomato Update

I finally de-forested the 3 tomato plants that had become an overgrown bush.

Looks better now, no?

And here’s my little “hooter” that I picked up at last weekend’s Artisan Festival in Nashville:

There’s at least 50 tomatoes on these plants right now, and I keep thinking any day now that they should be turning red. In the meantime, I’m taking some in tomorrow for the staff to make fried green tomatoes. 

Longest Day of the Year

With today being June 21st, it is 2 things:

1. The first day of summer

It may be the first day of summer, but it’s felt like summer here for weeks! In fact, I saw on the news tonight that we’ve already had more 90+ degree days than we had in all of 2009!! I guess we’re in for a hot year.

My poor pumpkin plant was looking sad and droopy this afternoon. I have the soaker hose going on in the garden right now, hoping to perk my veggies back up.

2. The longest day of the year

Therefore, it’s only fitting to make it a productive day, since it’s only going to get ‘shorter’ from here on out.

Today’s to-do list included:

• go to work, delivering basket of homegrown squash
• grocery shopping
• buy free shampoo (thank you coupons)
• drop off paperwork at local school
• attempt to pick up package at post office (got there 4 minutes after closing. boo)
• bake oatmeal cranberry cookies
• cut up pineapple for healthy snacking this week
• put flea treatment on dog
• water outdoor plants
• de-forest tomato ‘bush’ and run away from black widow spider
• attempt to weed-eat/edge my garden beds with a big pair of scissors :)
• re-fill bird feeders
• spread coffee grounds on runt vegetable plants
• harvest 2 small squash for tonight’s dinner
• clean bathroom and kitchen sink

Impressive, right? Yes, I thought so.

It’s slightly depressing to realize that everyday from now on will bring a quicker sunset. Dang. And, in honor of the year’s longest day, I’m still awake, on the couch at 9:38pm. The Boy would be so proud. Last Comic Standing is only slightly addictive.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 

Above is my 2010 Harvest Log that I made to keep track of how much produce I end up with from this year’s garden. So far, it’s just been some squash and zucchini trickling in, but with 40 tomatoes already on my plants, I know I’ll have a lot in the upcoming months!

And here are the pictures, to show you progress:

Tomatoes:

2 weeks ago:

 

Now:

You can see the branches finally started to droop downwards, with the weight of 11 or so tomatoes growing.

Below, you’ll see  the massive “tomato bush” again, where there must be a good 30-40 tomatoes.

Pumpkins!

The mystery vine I discovered in this last week turned out to be pumpkins, complete with a baby pumpkin.

Here is the vine. It appeared in the middle of some grass, and is slowly taking over the garden. haha. But seriously, each plant has a primary vine, as well as secondary vines that are the food factories for the pumpkins. Yes, I’ve been reading up on pumpkin growing.

And here is the baby pumpkin which I initially thought was a watermelon because it’s green, dark/light stripes, and more elongated than I usually associate with pumpkin-ness. But I’m sure it’ll grow and morph rapidly from here on out!

Sweet Potatoes:

Here were the 2 hills when we originally planted them:

 

And now, 2 weeks later, you can see that the plants have grown out a lot (and so have the weeds!). I love how low-maintenance they are, since they appreciate the tropical weather.

Squash

Oh, squash. Not only do we have the original squash hill, but we’ve had to relocate and create a second squash community (I didn’t know they’d get so huge) as well as prepare for the random squash plants that are popping up throughout the garden (although some of those turned out to be pumpkin plants).

Here is the original zucchini hill (planted 5 weeks ago). The squash were next to it, looking about the same.

 3 weeks later:

Bigger and bigger plants. We ended up moving some to that space between the zucchini and the potato plants (luckily they just grow vertically!)

 

 

 Now:

Squash plants continue to enormify (and this is with about half the plants of the original hill!) and take over. I’ve gotten about 5 good yellow squash from them so far.

Here is a zucchini growing very well – ironically not from the zucchini plants I planted, but from one of the random/mystery plants that appeared out of no where.

Others

My basil plant has succeeded, even after the strawberries all stopped producing. But they’re still nice, green and leafy, and sending out runners all over the place.

This is a terrible picture of my carrots. They’re growing OK, but the weeds are so abundant that I hope they can still compete.

And here are my bush beans. No problems here – thankfully a plant that stays in the original row in which they were placed!

Not photographed: watermelon, cantaloupe, spaghetti squash (just imagine in a few months – my garden will be completely overrun with vines and squash plants of all shapes and sizes!), onions, leeks, garlic, bell peppers, other herbs.

Fillings and Tendrils

Hi there!

My day at work went by pretty quickly and then it was off to the dentist for my fillings! We opted to just do one filling today, and the other 3 next week. This way I only had to leave with one side of my face drooping. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if my entire face was stroke-like. Don’t think I would’ve managed to sing along to Michael Buble very well!

Some more intense summer heat today, along with afternoon thunder showers. I went out to the garden to check on my veggies. I had intended to do some serious weeding, but the sun is back out in full force. I’ll head back out after dinner.

No new squash to pick today. I made an excellent southwestern squash casserole last night which will last me throughout the week. The first of many squash casseroles for the upcoming summer, I can predict. After reading other gardening bloggers’ stories of nonstop squash harvests, when neighbors shut their doors at the sight of you coming over with a friendly basket of squash, I started to cringe. That will be me! Only I don’t have a family to feed my squash to, nor do I have any neighbors that I know.

But I do have friends that will be visiting me during the summer, and a boyfriend who is about to love some zucchini bread. haha

While trying to take inventory of the “mystery compost” plants that grew out of scraps thrown out during last fall, I discovered a long pumpkin vine, complete with a baby green pumpkin!

At first I thought it was a watermelon. I actually would’ve been more excited about a watermelon (believe me, I have plenty of those planted as well), but I don’t remember having any seeded watermelons last fall that would’ve been thrown out there.

I will post sometime soon with photographic garden update :)

I read a long article about growing pumpkins, training them to grow/climb/cover however you want. Those tendrils of theirs amaze me! Super curly, they wrap their fingers themselves around anything they come in contact with, almost like a little baby! So anyway, I’m thinking maybe I should teach them to climb something cool. I may not be able to teach my dogs tricks, but maybe I can train my pumpkins?

Elizabeth was at the beach?!

Had a great weekend with my friends. Sometimes it’s nice to be spontaneous and go to Charleston!

We spent Saturday down in Charleston – covering most of downtown on foot, enjoying seafood at Hyman’s and the shops along King Street, as well as walking through Charleston’s farmers market (and wishing I could come more often!).

It was a hot weekend out there, and we were sweating buckets. Our sun dresses were becoming sticky! This was helped (some) by a frozen yogurt stop… although plenty of other female tourists also had the same idea.

A late afternoon trip to Folly Beach was quiet pleasant. Now.. I cannot remember the last time I “went to the beach”. And so, packing my regular rain umbrella didn’t seem like a silly idea. It may not have been huge and massive like a beach umbrella, but it did the trick. I also came prepared with sunscreen, sheet/blanket, towel, reading material (book + magazines + latest nutrition journals) and cell phone (catch up with The Boy) while my friends explored the ocean. I did wade in the water somewhat (up to my knees people!) and make lobster-shaped sand castles, but I was plenty happy reading and people watching from my sheet.

We relaxed Saturday night with Mellow Mushroom pizza ordered in and Robert De Niro’s latest (sad and depressing!)

This morning included the CBS Morning Show, homemade oatmeal blueberry pancakes and fun catch-up talk, before the 4.5 hour drive home.

And then… the garden! Yes, my garden seems to have exploded during my 48 hour absence. I harvested 2 extra-large yellow squash, saw zucchini popping up like the jesus rabbits, pumpkin vines trying to engulf spaghetti squash plants, and weeds spreading like kudzu. On the other hand, my sweet potato plants are vining out just fine and dandy, and the watermelon plants are starting to flower. Oh, and I have probably a gazillion tomatoes in my “bush”. If they ever decide to turn red and ripen, I’ll be having my own version of tomato festival right here.

The Boy was warned that I will be armed with fresh produce during my next visit.

Time to find creative squash and tomato recipes!

Too quiet at the farm

A very quiet Sunday at the farm. The parents left this morning at 4am, heading back to Texas with Neuman + Annie Nanners, leaving me with my two high strung dogs. They definitely did better with the other two to keep them calmed down!

Sheff hasn’t been very happy about them being gone. Where has he hid himself?

Looks like just a bush, I know.

But pull back a branch or two and….

You found me!

He’s spent the better part of the day out there. I was able to persuade him out for a drink of water, and a run up to the garden, but that’s been about it. At least it’s shady in the bush!

~~~

I’ve been productive today, since the dogs got me up at 7:30. I got some vacuuming, laundry and dishes done, read the sunday paper and planned this week’s menu, and read this week’s NYTimes wedding story :)

Now we’re settling in for some apparent storms later this afternoon, reading my new book, and making black bean cakes for dinner.

Sheff + Bess are certainly going to miss their grandma’s company during the day as I head back to work tomorrow. No more daytime gardening and playtime outside. But I’ve promised them a real walk at the nearby greenway for tomorrow, so hopefully they’ll forgive me.

The short week comes to an end

I love these short weeks! The weekend is already here. Awesome. My dad flew in last night, just in time for his birthday/national donut day/international biscuit festival. A weekend of birthday cake, donuts, and biscuits is a weekend to smile about!

Being the “everything in moderation” blog, there’s also some outdoors, calorie expending activities going on. I made it back to the gym last night after picking up my car from it’s makeover (new brakes). Can definitely tell the difference after almost 2 weeks of no gym visits! Terrible. After this weekend, when my parents leave me and return to Texas, I know I’ll be better about it. And the dogs will get more walks, since they won’t be home with grandma all day to run around the farm.

I also picked up some new books at the library yesterday. I stopped by to use some free (and fast!) internet, while our rural satellite internet was out, thanks to me trying to download windows live writer on my netbook. I love carrying around my little netbook – it’s about the size of a library book itself! Anyway, I digress. The books I picked up are:

• The Twitter Job Search Guide
• Commencement, by J. Courtney Sullivan

Hoping to learn some useful job searching tricks to help out The Boy. Never would have thought to use Twitter, but who knows these days?

P.S. Did I tell you that my netbook has a battery life of 11 hours!? That’s almost reason enough to buy it.