Not Aunt Bee's Pickles Story. . .

The cucumbers are coming in like crazy so, the hubbs and I made some quick refrigerator pickles.  The hubbs loves his jalapenos and of course they ended up in my mild mannered dill pickles.  I  do not like sweet pickles or bread and butter pickles, I am a straight up dill pickle girl.   The hubbs got his jar with jalapenos and I got two jars, one with a little onion and one straight dill.  I just tried the jalapeno ones last night and I must admit they were awesome.   They are not too hot but have just a little kick.  I tried the ones with onion this morning, yes I eat pickles in the morning, anytime is a good time for homemade pickles.  The ones with the onion are good but, if you do not tell my hubby I said this, I will admit the jalapeno ones were the best.  The boys do not like any kind of pickles so the hubbs and I have three jars to eat and he does not like them that much either. 
Here is the recipe we used, we tweaked it to fit our personal taste, I do not remember where the original recipe came from but this is ours.

Refrigerator Pickles

We used standard mason jars:

In each Jar

3 cloves garlic peeled
3 tsp black pepper corns
1 small onion sliced
2 bunches of fresh dill
4 slices of jalapeno with seeds

Several cucumbers sliced into spears and cram as many as you can in your jar.

Liquid

2 cups water, 4 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 1/2 Tbs kosher salt.  Mix together until salt dissolved.  Pour over your cucumbers in the jar.  top with part of your dill and make sure your cucumbers are covered with liquid and put your lid on.  Invert your jar a couple times to get everything swished around and put in the fridge for 2 days.  This recipe is for one jar of pickles, you will have a little liquid left over. 

Hope you are enjoying my recipes and my stories, stay tuned. .. .

Garden Veggies and a Recipe. . . .

Our garden is coming along and I have learned a few things:  1. we cannot grow Brussels sprouts in the Summer, 2. cauliflower needs shade, and 3. I love cucumbers.  I am sad our pod people did not grow, we will try them again in the fall.  I do not think we will try cauliflower again, it seems futile.  On the upside my herb garden is doing wonderfully, I have dried lots of oregano, basil and sage.  Mark dug our potatoes and onions and we have them stored.  We have our first zucchini and I made an amazing pasta with it the other night, I will share that recipe at the end of this post.  I do believe the hubbs and I could live out of our garden, the boys on the other hand, require meat and other stuff. They are broadening their pallets though, with some veggies.  Our cucumbers are coming in like crazy, cannot wait to do some pickles with my very own fresh dill.  There is just nothing better than fresh veggies and herbs. 
Update on Sprat, we got to meet the girlfriend this week.  She came for a visit and Sprat took her on the sweet tea tour of our little area.  She is from the Boston area and this was her first trip to the South.  Sprat took her to all of his stomping grounds and local watering holes.  She went to Church with them ( I was working) yesterday and then to watch adult lacrosse Summer league.  She had not seen Sprat play lacrosse at school since his season was cut short with the school closing. 

Here is my Zucchini recipe:

2-3 zucchini sliced thin
1 box angel hair pasta
2 cloves garlic pressed
2 onions sliced
4 Basil leaves torn
3 stems of lemon thyme
olive oil
white wine

Saute garlic and onions in olive oil and then set aside,  add sliced zucchini to the oil and saute until tender add a little wine and continue cooking.  Add back the garlic and onions that you set aside and simmer then add Basil and Thyme with another splash of white wine and cover to simmer a little longer.  Boil your pasta and when it is done throw it in  with your Zucchini another dash of wine and cover on low. 
You can add mushrooms, peppers and pea pods if you would like.  I did not have those on hand the other night.
Serve with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese. 

A Good Bubble Bath can Sooth Everything. . .

A good visit with both families this past weekend and got to see some relatives that we had not seen in quite some time.  It was a good weekend with beautiful weather.  Our garden and the herb garden seem to be loving this change in the weather too, everything seems to be thriving.  I have dried some oregano and the oregano I transplanted to the new herb garden is very happy. 
I found a recipe on Pinterest for a Milk bath so, I thought I would give it a try.  I do love my detox baths so I thought this could be one to add to my list. This goes to my self care,  Here is the recipe: 

2 cups powdered milk (whole not low fat)
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup baking soda
10 drops lavender ( or what ever essential oil you would like to use: peppermint, rosemary, rose, eucalyptus)

put your dry ingredients in a glass jar and shake to combine, add essential oil and shake again.  Let this set for 24 hours in a dark place and shake occasionally.  You can add Epsom salt to this also.  I added 1 cup of this mixture to my bath.
I may give this one as gifts this year it is so nice.  According to history Cleopatra also took milk baths and claimed it preserved her beauty and kept her youthful.  It took 7,000 donkeys to provide milk for her daily bath.  I did not have a donkey so powdered milk will have to do.  The hubbs did say my skin felt very soft after my bath.  So, I guess I will keep this recipe handy. 
When the boys were little as a little treat they use to take baths with Aveno oatmeal bath, this mixture reminded me of that.  It was very soothing and in our Jacuzzi tub it bubbled like crazy, I never get that much bubble using a commercial bubble bath with all the chemicals.  This was truly very enjoyable and soothing. I love that it was all natural with no chemicals and that I made it with my own two hands.  I will tell you, you may have to look hard for powdered whole milk.  I just recently found it on Amazon, I could not find it in our local stores they only had low fat.  You want whole full of fat milk for your bath, it is the milk fat that will make your skin feel soft and glow like Cleopatra.

A Little of This and a Little of That. . . .

I follow a lot of different groups on Facebook and on pinterest.  My reasoning behind who and why I follow certain groups is to learn and better myself.   I have learned scads of interesting things through both sites.  I follow herbal garden pages, financial pages, recipe and craft pages.  On one of my financial pages someone asked what you did to pamper yourself on a budget.  I was amazed that these ladies are paying $20- $80 for a manicure and possibly a pedicure on a routine basis.  I shared what I do to pamper myself,  I have a detox bath with my herbs and some Epsom salt.  I do not do nails I enjoy playing in the dirt too much to pay that kind of money for nails.  Now this particular site is about paying off debt and gaining financial peace yes, it is a Dave Ramsey site.  You know how I feel about Dave, I really like him a lot.  The hubbs and I are proudly debt free except our house, that is why I still follow these sites.  There is always something you can learn.  I was telling the hubbs about this particular post and he laughed and said you know, you are a girly girl and you don't get your nails done.  He asked why I don't get them done?  I said, I play in the dirt too much and I am in the sink washing dishes and cooking.  I grew up going to the barn everyday working around the barn and riding horses and would have been a waste of good money.  I have to laugh that my husband thinks I am a girly  girl.  He has never referred to me as that before.  I am not sure where that came from but, I guess I am a girly girl, I do like girly things like jewelry and handbags.  Just the other night I took a very relaxing bath with green tea and mountain mint with Epsom salt.  We have a great Jacuzzi tub in our bathroom and it is perfect for the detox bath.  I also like using Epsom salt with Lavender, Rosemary, and Eucalyptus essential oils.  These make for a wonderful relaxing tub.  I am not sure if these baths really do detox or anything else but I sure do feel relaxed after them and that is all that matters to me. I guess my baths that I like make me a girly girl too. I am afraid the girly girl comment may come back to bite my sweet hubby.
One of my herb pages I follow has inspired me to try my hand at making my own essential oils.  I have an abundance of fresh oregano and I think that is the one I am going to try first.  According to one article I read oregano is a very powerful antiviral, anti-fungal, and antibacterial now my oregano is not medical grade of course but it might help keep some bugs away.  I put some of oregano in the dehydrator yesterday and it should be ready some time today.  My hubby has suggested I give my dried oregano to friends and family as gifts and I may just do that, we have so much and if I keep cutting it, it will keep growing.  We transplanted some to my new herb bed too, working in the dirt really is therapeutic.  We are still talking about my cutting bed for fresh cut flowers. 
I found a recipe for basil pesto yesterday and I cannot wait to try this one out.  I will share it with you if it turns out well.  My basil is not quite ready for cutting yet so it may be a little bit before I can try it.  Stay tuned for more herb stuff and the Boy will be coming home from college in a few weeks too.

Weekend Update: Garden, College, and Gossip. . .

My little side herb garden/bulkhead is planted.  Yayyyy!!!  My seedlings I was trying to start did not do so well so, I bought some plants to start my herb garden with.  I am  so excited and I cannot wait to clip my first sprigs of Lavender and put them in the bath, awww how relaxing that will be.   Below is the picture after we planted.

I also planted some Dianthus in this bed and some garlic, yes I am going to try my hand at garlic one more time. 

My next adventure is going to be a cutting bed somewhere in the back yard.  I absolutely love fresh cut flowers.  I have some that I cut now when they bloom but I would like a bed devoted for that purpose alone.  I use to have beautiful and very fragrant roses and they died.  I am going to plant some more this year.  

So I got a call from the Dean the other day looking for Sprat, she thought she had called his cell number.  Long story short they believe that Sprat's roommate may be suicidal and wanted to talk to Sprat about the roommates recent behavior.  Well, this just sent me spinning into never never land.  I am a worrier anyway and this was a lot to handle.  I ask that you keep the roommate in your prayers as well as Sprat because I did not know everything he had been dealing with this year.   Being far away from home is hard and add not knowing anyone in this new environment is very difficult.  Sprat was trying to help the roommate cope with some things, I love that my child wants to help everyone, but sometimes our friends need more than just a friend.  Prayers for  them both would be most appreciated.

On to the Gossip train. . .   So my husband went to Atlanta to interview for a job, the job was not in Atlanta the hiring manager was.  At this particular time while he was out of town Big T needed a ride home from lacrosse practice because I was having to work that night too.  I guess when he asked if he could get a ride from one of the players someone else overheard him and only got part of the conversation.  This how rumors and gossip get started, you  only hear half the story and then run with it.  The interview was about two weeks ago and while I was on the phone with Sprat about the roommate he asked if we were moving to Atlanta.  LOL!!!! One of his friends that is in college in another town  texted Sprat in Boston to ask if he was moving to Atlanta.  LOL!!!   All of that because a kid overheard half of a conversation and just went with what he assumed was going on.   Kids can make rash assumptions just like adults and all of a sudden your moving and did not know it.  

That's it for our update.  Stay tuned more college stuff going on and maybe some Lacrosse tournaments and camps for both boys this Summer.  

Herbs and More. . .

The hubbs was able to fill in my bulkhead with good dirt and I have now planted my first plant, a Rosemary.  I am so excited, we use to have a large Rosemary plant in the backyard and we had a brutally cold winter one year and it took its toll and my beautiful Rosemary died.  I have not had one in several years and I am so looking forward to having one again.  I use my fresh Rosemary to make a tea and once it is cooled off you can pour it on your hair, it will strip all of the product off and make your hair silky smooth.  I learned that trick from my sister, we used Mom's Rosemary to do this growing up.  Rosemary is also good in a bath with some Lavender.  I also cook with my Rosemary, it is good in poultry dishes and a friend of mine used it in a homemade spaghetti sauce recipe. 
My seeds I am trying to start of Lavender and Sage are not doing very well, I may be buying some plants later to plant. 
 

The Finished Product!!

My first little plant of Rosemary

The Man that made it all happen.  

Weekend Update. . . .

So, I shared earlier about having to get all my doctor appointments scheduled.  I still have to schedule my mammogram and my eye appointment and I have my appointment for my migraines.  It is rough trying to keep yourself healthy, I have realized these last few weeks that I seriously neglected my self over the years.  I am chalking this up to my resolution of self care this year. 
Young Moms, please do not neglect your own health for the sake of your family.  I wish I had been better to me while the boys were young but, when you are trying to hold down a household and take care of two boys you tend to neglect you.  Make you a priority.
I completed my Cologuard test, it was not as bad as I thought  it would be, I am waiting to hear back about my results.  This tests your poop for cancer DNA.  If it comes back positive it does not mean you have cancer it means you could have cancer and should have the colonoscopy to make sure there are no polyps.  If it comes back negative this will be the best thing ever because I will not have to have that nasty colonoscopy.  I will be honest I have heard horror stories about these and I want to stay as far away from them as I can.  I am a terrible patient, I hate doctors and I may have used the family as an excuse not to go to the doctor.  I am a terrible patient. 
We can chalk up a win for the Lax bros last night, our first win of the season.   Sprat got accepted to his new school, got his scholarship and will be playing lacrosse for this new school.  We are very excited for him and cannot wait to see what his sophomore year will hold. The hubbs has dirt and is going to work on my herb bed again today.  Big T is getting ready for his Prom tonight so stay tuned for photo overload. 

The Herb Garden. . . Possible New Flowerbed too. . .

The hubbs started the bulkhead/herb garden Saturday, Yayyyy!!  There was a lot of work going on around our house this weekend.  I planted some lavender, rosemary and sage seeds to get everything started.  My Basil seeds that I started last week are starting to sprout but the rosemary has not done anything just yet.  I am so excited about my herb garden, I cannot wait till we get the dirt and I can start putting plants in.  Fingers are crossed my little seeds will sprout. I have been reading a lot about what I can do with my lavender and rosemary when it gets big.  Here are some pictures of our progress.

Now imagine this little rectangle filled with rich beautiful dark nutrient filled soil and beautiful delicate purple little flowers and lost of lush green herbs.  

The hubbs let Big T drive to school this morning so he had to come back home and get his company car to go to work.  Today is trash day in our neighborhood and one our neighbors had put out a head and foot board out to be thrown away.  My hubby immediately thought of ways he could use that head board in a new flower bed he is plotting.  I must admit, that thought went through my mind also this morning as I was coming home from work.  After I got home he asked me if he could go get it and bring it home to use in a flower bed.  I told him go get it and we will find a way to use it.  I have been talking about planting a new flower bed or replacing and spicing up one of our old beds for a fresh cutting bed.  You know you plant beautiful flowers but the purpose is to cut them and bring them inside to enjoy their beautiful color and their breathtaking aroma.  This head board would be great to run a plant up and it would be a very interesting back drop to our flower bed.  

Stay tuned more pictures and updates to follow and don't forget Prom is Saturday and you know I will be flooding with pictures.  

A Planting We Will Go . . .

Garden is tilled and partially planted,  my dear husband planted our first part of the garden for this season.  He planted cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, radishes, onions, lettuce of all varieties, and the potatoes will go in in two weeks.  I planted some herbs for inside and out and cleaned out where my mint and oregano are growing.  I planted some dill and rosemary outside in my planters, I planted rosemary and basil for my kitchen and brought some oregano in to try and root.
I love playing in the dirt and it was a beautiful day today.  I even cleaned off my porch and trimmed my camellia bushes.  It was a good day.
While I was outside enjoying the sun and the dirt, I had an idea.  I think I will plant some herbs and take them to work for the kitchen so we can use them when we fix our lunch and dinner.   I will have to let you know how that goes later.  I will try and post some pictures later too.
We woke up yesterday and took Sprat to the airport to go back to school.  I am always so sad when he goes back to school.  He has a few more weeks and he will have completed his freshman year.  I was so sore from working in the yard on Saturday that I could barely walk.  The hubbs and I both are so very sore, I guess I need to do more yoga.  Today I am still sore and I have another doctors appointment.  I hope I do not fall off the table, my legs hurt so bad, you would think I ran a marathon or something on Saturday. 
Updates to follow on Sprat, Big T, the garden and the doctor. 

Playing in the Dirt. . . You Never Really Grow out of it. . .

I think my mom gave me that love of gardening, even though when I was little I hated working in the garden.  I did love the fruits of her labor:  sweet peas, corn, and radishes.  Mom grew other things in her garden but those were my favorites.  Mom also had a fig tree and I have one now too, mine is just getting big enough to supply us with lots of figs.  We had our biggest crop of figs last year and the hubbs and I ate every one of them, they were so good.
I am thankful my sweet hubby also has a love for gardening, he got his passion from his dad, funny how that works.  I think my hubby  said it best when he explained why he likes to garden, he says it is pure and the work you do you can see in your fruits of your labor.  It is being able to see what you have accomplished, he does not believe he is a master gardener but he dose have a knack for growing things.
I enjoy working in the garden with my hubby and planting and watching what grows.  It is a feeling of accomplishment to be able to supply yourself and your family with fresh produce from the garden. I am looking forward to my herbs this year.  Like I said before, we already have a huge plant of oregano and I dry it regularly to keep my supply, we also have a bumper crop of Mountain Mint and Lime Mint.  The bees love our mint, in the Summer when the mint is in full bloom they bees are everywhere.  We do have some bee keepers not too far from our house, I hope we are feeding their bees.

This is a picture of our Mountain Mint with one of our little bee friends. 

Spring is Right Around the Corner. . .

I must confess that little bit of warm weather we had has given me a little bit of Spring fever.  My very sweet hubby is going to fix me an herb bed right off of our back patio.  I am so excited because it is really going to happen this time.  He has promised this to me for a year but a few weeks ago when we had a dry day he sort of dug out my spot.  It is really going to happen, I cannot wait.  I will have Lavender, Rosemary, and Sage to start.  It will be big enough to add more if I so desire.  I have always loved fresh herbs and we already have a big plant of oregano and lots of mint around the patio.  I do believe I have Spring fever.
I have bought me some seeds to start in the house of a few things that I may just keep in the kitchen. There is nothing like preparing a meal using your very own herbs and spices.   The hubbs has cleaned the garden out so he will be getting it ready for early planting. There is nothing like fresh veggies from your very own garden.

This is the beginning of the new herb bed. I will post pictures of the progress.  The hubbs was not very happy with me this morning when I told him I was taking this picture, he said it was just mud. I told him this was a work in progress and I was showing the beginnings and when it is full of wonderful herbs we can look back and see how we started.  He was not amused. 

Plant Celebration. . .

Today I am celebrating our beautiful garden and our beautiful plants and herbs.  I love gardening and working with the soil.  It is very rewarding to watch a plant grow from a seed or seedling into a beautiful flower, herb, or vegetable.  I am very lucky that my hubby shares my love of plants and gardening.    I hope that my kids will learn to love gardening too.   I am sharing some of my pictures that I took this morning of our garden and my flowers.

Sweet Basil, not to be confused with my four legged one. 

A gift from my Mom.

Cherry tomato

Parsley 

Dahlia, a gift from my Mom on Mother's Day

Broccoli and Cabbage

Mixed bag of Lettuce

Fresh Oregano 

Gorgeous Geranium from my dear Hubby for Mother's Day.

Homemade Air Fresheners

Homemade air fresheners do not sound like much but, when you are trying to keep your car from smelling like a locker room,  it's big.   I have tried all the car air fresheners and they are so strong when you first put them in your car they take your breath.  That cannot be good for you.  I have been trying to find another alternative.  I am not sure where I read about this, just know this is not my idea.  I am borrowing it from someone else.  I looked back through my pins on Pinterest and I cannot find it. 
I love herbs and fresh flowers, so when I read about this I immediately thought this is a great idea.  Use a stainless steel mesh tea infuser.  I got mine at Wal-Mart.  Take fragrant herbs and put them in the mesh ball and hang it from your rearview mirror.   The sunlight coming in through the window will heat the herbs up and make them smell fabulous and your car too.  I am going to put Rosemary and mint in mine and I will post back to let you know how it battles the locker room aroma.  Who knows, I may start a new trend, instead of people hanging CDs from their rearview mirrors they will have tea infusers swinging.  

Drying Herbs. .

I love my flowers, I love my garden, but I really love my herbs.   I have basil, oregano, rosemary, sage, mountain mint, lime mint, thyme, and chives.  Most of these stay around all year.  I dug my rosemary bush up this year, so I have recently picked up another to plant.   Basil I have to buy every year, but everything else is pretty hardy. 
I love using  my fresh herbs in my recipes.   I also like drying them, you just never know when a hard winter will kill your plants.  I have a basic dehydrator (Ronco).  It has 5 trays and a heating element.   I generally leave my herbs on for at least 12 hours, sometimes it takes longer.  
Today while I was out I noticed how good my sage looked.  I started picking leaves and decided I would dry them since I was not fixing anything tonight that required sage.  I noticed my oregano was looking pretty good too, so I cut some of it.   I ended up with two trays of sage  and two trays of oregano.  I left the tray on the very bottom, closest to the heating element, empty. 
Everyone probably has several recipes that they could use oregano in but I bet you only have a few that call for sage.   This summer, when we had lots of onions in the garden, I would take a couple and cut them a little and add some butter, garlic powder, and some sage leaves.  I wrapped it in foil and put it on the grill.  They were so very good.  I have found a brown butter chicken with sage I will try sometime in the next few weeks and of course everyone knows sage is a prime herb in dressing at Thanksgiving.  
My house should be smelling really good by tonight.