Gettin' Ready

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and had a chance to do what you wanted to. This was not at all what we had planned to do but some how it turned into today's project. Photo Dude and I have talked about starting a garden since we moved out of our apartment four years ago. At the old house we never could decide where to put it so it never got done. This morning we woke up with every intention to do nothing all day. Then we looked at the plants I bought at the Flint Farmer's Market and we started talking about what to do with them (yeah that's a little bass akwards huh?). I got out some back issues of magazine's I have and all of a sudden we were spending the day doing this. It started with a trip to Tractor Supply Co. my most favorite store after Target and then to Home Depot (for the tiller) and to the local nursery. Today I'm going to show you just the building of the plot that my amazing, wonderful, exhausted husband put in for our family. Thanks so much for looking and if you have any tips for gardening I would love to hear them! Please remember we have never done this before and didn't really have a plan at all, we just dove in feet first.At some point in time the previous owners decided that they wanted rhubarb back here. OMG! That stuff is really hard to kill! I'm not completely sure that it is all gone but we tried really hard. The roots kept tangling up in the rototiller blades.Did I mention those roots? I never knew they could be so stubborn. I must admit I wonder if these are actually part of the tree that Photo Dude cut down.Photo Dude had sweat pouring down his face. He looked at me and said "I always wanted to use one of these things (rototiller) now I'm not sure why!" They make it look so easy on TV. He did say in retrospect that renting the larger rototiller would have been better but hindsight is always 20/20 right?We bought bags of compost at TSC and three bags looked like a whole lot in the store, not so much once we started emptying them over the new garden area.
Last picture for today. Photo Dude got all that compost added in and the dirt was a beautiful color. We found lots of worms as we were picking out debris so I have some hopes for this first time venture. Thanks for sharing our day with us. Next will be the fence he put up around this plot. See you soon!

Molly's Pants

My Molly is the skinniest thing ever (I was just like her once). The poor thing swims in even slim sized pants and finding pajamas is a royal pain in the bum. So I was the lucky recipient of a sewing machine just after Christmas and decided to whip up some pants. These were really easy to do and I made them with only about one yard of fabric with plenty leftover to make her doll a matching pair. My mom helped me because she used to sew a lot and I haven't sewed in forever. It took us most of the day it seems but it was so much fun to do and I can't wait to get started on the next pair. I bought some clearance flannel today for about $1.50 a yard and well darn you can't even buy pants that cheap! So that is one way in this New Year that I am going to be more frugal making more of our own stuff because even if my time is worth money there is no one I would rather spend that kind of money on than my babies.

Finding Direction

When the girls and I started this blog we wanted it to be about food. But we've let life get in the way of blogging at all. It's sad but it happens we've all been there. For the new year we are going to continue this blog as a food blog but we are going to explore other things too. We did a lot of canning this year and things of that nature. The three of us are interested in a more sustainable life style and even a little urban homesteading. So we are going to delve into that as the spirit moves us. Check back tomorrow to see the first posting about me (Erin) being far more domestic than normal.

Oh yeah!!!

Maria and I spent a day canning Bruschetta in a jar from the Ball Cookbook (post those photos later) and while we where waiting for everything to PING! she whipped this up fresh for use to nosh on! Have I told you that Maria is the most wonderfullest person ever?! She is and a damn good cook. Here is her recipe for the above yumminess (sorry for no actual amounts this is just the way she wrote it down for me).
Bruschetta
Diced tomatoes- Romas are better because they are more hearty
Olive Oil
Basil- dry is fine but of course fresh is always tastier
Garlic- minced about 3 to 4 cloves
add all the ingredients together in a bowl and add olive oil to taste, throw in a dash of salt, and a touch of lemon juice to taste.
The toasty bits are french bread sliced thin. You take butter and melt it in the microwave (or anyplace else really hot). Mince up even more garlic and then throw it into the melted butter. Let it sit for a few minutes or as long as you can wait which for us wasn't long. Spread the butter onto the french bread and bake at about 300 until it is toasty but don't burn it.
There you have a good old fashioned recipe with no real measurements except to eyeball it and taste it to make sure it's all workin' out for ya'!
Happy Cooking
Erin