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 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. 

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.

Crockpot Stoup. . .

I am posting twice today trying to get caught up.   I decided since our garden is getting ready to take hold I would use some of my items I had frozen from last year and make some vegetable soup.  The hubby and I went to our local meat market and picked up some tip meat and I decided I would throw that in my soup, now a vegetable beef soup.  
I had some peas and some tomato sauce from last years garden in the freezer so I somewhat thawed my tomato sauce to use as my base for my soup.  I also had some beef broth left over from my roast I had made over the weekend and that went in the pot too.  You could call this a cleaning out the freezer and cabinets soup, which means throw everything in that you have.
Here is how it all went in:
tomato sauce from the freezer, about 2 quarts
3-4 cups of left over beef broth
2 cups of frozen green peas from the garden
1 bag of frozen peas and snaps (store)
1 bag of frozen corn(store)
1 bag of frozen okra (store)
1 can of pinto beans (store)
tomato paste, V8 juice, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, thyme, dry mustard.
I added the tip meat last and this cooked about 8 hours on high.    We have eaten some of it but I am freezing a good portion of it for later.
I try very hard to make soup but inevitably it always ends up much thicker than just soup so my hubbs has nicknamed it stoup.  Too think to be soup and a little thin to be stew.  

Looking forward to our garden this year and we are so very thankful that the hubbs brother came and plowed and planted for us.   The hubbs has been out to check things out and yesterday he was out watering and making sure everything was doing well.  Thank you to my sweet brother-in-law.