Delicious Tomato Pesto Pie

Our tomatoes are just starting to come in. We had some end-rot early on, but now that seems to have gone away. It has been one hot summer, and I think we were a little inconsistent with the watering. Lately I've been feeding the tomatoes and up until now we have been watering twice a day.

Along with my tomatoes, I've planted plenty of basil. I made some basil pesto the other day with our own garlic and then I found this recipe for Tomato Basil Pesto Pie. Perfect!

All you need are ingredients to make a simple crust (flour, butter, baking powder, milk and salt), parmesan cheese (which you can put in the crust as well!), ingredients for basil pesto (more parmesan cheese, basil, garlic, pinenuts or almonds, olive oil) and then you add sliced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, and more parmesan cheese. I used some plum tomatoes and some others Genovese tomatoes that happened to be ready. The crust calls for milk and since I only drink fat free milk, I added some greek yogurt to my crust. Yum, yum, yum. I had some for dinner last night. I am having it for lunch today and hopefully I will have some for dinner as well.

The crust is perfect for soaking up the pesto and tomato juice and the cheese....oh this is so, incredibly good! You have to try it! It bakes in the oven for 40 minutes, and prep time was for me about 30 minutes. I hope you like it as much as I did! :-)

Here's the recipe for Farmgirl's Savory Plum Tomato and Basil Pesto Pie.
Finny over at Finny Knits has a version adding sausage for you meat lovers.
She also has a nifty page describing what she makes from her farmshare box. Cool way to categorize her recipes.

Cheesy Yumminess.

I'm getting hungry just looking at these pictures. Is it lunch-time yet?

My kind of gold

Golden Yellow/White potatoes are my kind of gold!
These are Carola and Yellow Finn potatoes that I dug up in the morning this past Sunday - before we made it up to 108F.

Lots of potatoes!

Then I made this - Rosemary Potatoes Au Gratin from Pioneer Woman's Cookbook. Yum!

Hot Garden Update

Here's a quick pictorial garden update. As you can tell from the picture above from The Weather Channel - it's HOT! My husband is away on business for a while, so all the yardwork (and housework) falls to me. On the weekends I spend from 8am until 11am in the garden and then I go inside and wait until temperatures drop around 7pm. Ugh.

I have some zinnias in our garden and they seem to LOVE the heat. In turn, the butterflies and the bees love the zinnias (and hopefully pollinate my tomatoes and peppers!)

Most of our tomatoes are green, but they are starting to turn. And crack. From the heat. :-(

The basil looks so pretty with the purple petunia wave flowers around the birdbath (yes, this is also in our veggie garden, in the middle of the peppers.)

Cucumbers are still going strong. I pick at least 6-10 every day. It makes my colleagues at work very happy!

Aren't these sunflowers adorable? Not sure what they are called, but they are about 10ft tall and these smaller 3 inch flowers. They make me smile!

The mini-maters are back! I enjoy these on my salads. From only ONE plant this year, and this was self-seeded!

More pretty zinnias.

Some peppers are coming in. They are delicious. Hopefully they love the hot weather!

A bell pepper!

The gorgeous Costoluto Genovese tomatoes.

Lima Beans!

Eggplant Bloom.

Leek!

And I leave you with a picture of our bi-color Crepe Myrtle. They are everywhere in the south, but ours is the only bi-color I've ever seen. I think they must have done a cutting and attached it and it was a different color. We have three of these going up the driveway, and this year they are really taking off. Probably because I finally read up on how to prune them correctly and they are showing off their gratitude! :-)

Have a great week, everyone! Stay cool, dry - wherever you are!

Strawberry Jamfest 2010

This year I made some wonderful strawberry jams using new recipes (for me). I found some new great blogs about canning and one of them is called Saving the Season written by Kevin West whom I've come to admire as a writer and blogger and whose recipes are absolutely delicious.
I made two of Kevin's recipes for strawberry jam. One was a regular no-pectin and low sugar recipe that was so wonderful I don't even have the words to describe it. I am doing my best to hoard each precious pint and half-pint that I canned and not give them away to (only) well-deserving friends. I've not been very successful because I want to hear people say "Oh, mmmmm, oh, wow, oh, mmmmmm" and so on......
The second recipe is for balsamic vinegar and black pepper strawberry preserves. It just sounded so different and delicious that I had to give that a try. The black pepper is only hinted at when you taste it and the vinegar provides almost a more adult flavor. I wouldn't pour this on my Kefir for breakfast, but I would eat it with some good cheese, crackers and I might even bake with it. Here are the recipes and links to Kevin's webspace:

Basic Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Preserves with Balsamic Vinegar and Black Pepper

I started out with 2 and a half gallons of strawberries from my local farmer at the Bush n'Vine farm just about 2 miles from where I live. That bucket of blueberries sneaked into my photo, but they got dumped into the freezer for now while I ponder what to make with them (other than these for sure, my favorite!)

Then we move on to the sugar. It's the season for the gigantic bags of sugar again. Kane is making sure it stays put and doesn't get carried away by cats or something.
The only other thing you need are a couple of lemons, and then balsamic vinegar and black pepper for the second recipe.

Kevin does not believe in pectin. And neither do I now....at least not for strawberries. I don't mind it being a little runny, just one less thing I have to clutter up the berries with. :-)

The recipes were both very easy to follow - keep in mind that the second recipe calls for soaking overnight though. I made mine in batches so that I wouldn't mess up the recipe by doubling anything. All in all I had 4 batches of each type of jam/preserve. Can you imagine how great our house smelled???!!

So if your local farmer or farmer's market still has fresh strawberries - go out and get them and make this recipe. I promise you won't be sorry. I'm not sorry. I'm only slightly miffed that I didn't buy like 10 gallons and make more. But then, I'd still be chopping strawberries right now....

So - have you canned anything yet this season?

Garden Crazies

I love living in the south! I love having vegetables already! Ahem, well...remind me of that again when it's in the 100s and humid, humid, humid and my hair is all frizzies....at least the garden doesn't care about my frizzy hair. :-)

Our garden is going crazy this year. Crazy in a good way and I just hope we can keep up with it. Here are a few photos of what we've harvested so far:

Cueball zucchinis that are growing next to the compost bin (courtesy of me tossing the bad ones over the fence from the garden in the "general direction" of the compost bin and then promptly forgetting about actually putting them ON the compost pile...oups.)

New potatoes - All Red, All Blue and Carola (yellow). Wow were they good. We've been handpicking a TON of Colorado potato beetle larvae and the plants that these potatoes came from were pretty much eaten up. So I figured they could be sacrificed. I think now I will have to dig up some more! New potatoes are the best. Heike eats them with creme fraiche, basil and lime....I will have to try that next time!

The bush beans are going absolutely nuts. I eat them, I blanch them and freeze them and still there is more! The Chinese yard longs are starting to come in as well.

I think I got a little too excited about the cucumber plantings. They are growing like weeds and even stretching their prickly tentacles over the beans and over towards the tomatoes. That's where I draw the line though and they get whacked. Noone messes with Lena's tomatoes!
So this weekend I think I'm going to try my grandmother's recipe for pickles. I've picked about 50 of them over the past week. Still there is more!


Next up in my contest to catch up on my blogging (work has been very hectic) will be some photos of my jamfest 2010. Strawberry jam was on the agenda (not sure how the blueberries sneaked in above, but they are on sale now at the local farmstand so they will be next!)....and I found a new recipe that I want to share with you. Coming soon....
Have a wonderful weekend!

The revenge attack of the mini maters

Here's a quick garden update. Everything is growing like crazy. The End.

Seriously, that could be it in a nutshell. We've had fabulous warm weather for a few weeks now. Nothing too seriously humid yet, but nice warm days and cooler nights. Everything but tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil and some of the leeks, kale and broccoli I had started indoors are in the ground. I've had a bumber crop of lettuce already and I keep getting more. I've made arugula pesto and put it on pizza and in pasta dishes. I just harvested some baby pak choi last night and going to use it in a stirfry tonight. Our peas, carrots, beans, corn, potatoes and cucumbers are growing really well. I think the combination of great weather plus the horse manure from our friends and neighbors is what is making a difference this year.

Did anyone notice the title of this post? Remember last years "Great Mini Mater Invasion"? The currant tomatoes that I had SO many of that I finally quit picking them? Well, guess what is coming back to bite me in the butt? (No, not Kane....he only bites arms. lol) Yes, the mini maters are back. In full swing. In what is now the cucumber bed (because I rotate my crop like a good gardener). Here's a picture:


After I took these pictures, I put Kane in a down and gave him a cow knuckle bone while I proceeded to weed the tomato plants out of the cucumber plants. It took him about 3 hours to finish the bone, and by that time the mini mater army was reduced to a rubble (a pile, really). I found 2 other tomato volunteers elsewhere in the garden, and I'm letting them live, for now. Mostly because I'm pretty sure they're not currant tomatoes. lol.


Meanwhile on the back porch - this years hopeful tomato plant contestants are sunning themselves hoping for a good showing and a nice new large lot space in the garden as soon as this weekend. Grow, babies, grow! I feel like one of the mom's on the horrid child beauty contestant tv shows (I just flip past them, honestly I can't stand to watch!) - everytime I walk by I tell my tomato plants to "stand tall, grow strong, you are gorgeous!"

Hope everyone's gardens are coming along well. I'll leave you with this video of Kane doing one of his favorite weekend morning chores; chasing away the Canadian Geese that come up in the yard to feed. As long as they stay away from the potatoes, corn and beans....I'm happy. Kane loves to make sure I'm happy. Good Boy!

Potato Planting Pictures

All the taters in a row....

About 3 weeks ago, we got our potatoes in the ground after some nice warm weather. Our wonderful neighbors let us have several truckloads of horse manure which we spread out over the Lakeside Garden plot. Some of it was not composted, so we let it sit on top and burn for a few weeks. Then Sean used the tiller and created these long rows that we planted in.

We had gotten the hoops that you see in the pictures, and fabric to cover the ground for cold weather, but it turns out we've not had to use them at all. We've had weather in the 70s to 80s consistently now for a few weeks. Go figure - oh well, we will probably use them for winter gardening then!
We've planted All Red, All Blue, Carola, German Butterball and Yellow Fin potatoes. We planted them in offset rows with a thin layer of dirt on top and then added about 6 inches of straw. As the potatoes start to come up, we will hill the soil around the plants.

Between then and now, we've also planted corn, beans and squash between the two sides of potatoes. Oh, and I'm planting some cotton as well. Just for fun and to see how it grows and how hard it is (so I've heard) to harvest it.

We are very excited about the start of our garden this year. I'll have more updates from the House Garden soon! :-) Happy Gardening and I hope your gardens are taking off as well!

Sprout Update

Here's an update from the kindergarten room: This year we have invested in a heating pad for the tomatoes and peppers, hoping to get some faster sprouters and some stronger plants. I haven't really had a problem with strength, more so that it takes FOREVER to get pepper seeds sprouting. Since my husband LOVES hot peppers, this is a must in our garden.

I purchased my heating pad and thermostat at greenhousemegastore.com. Fast delivery and the product worked really nice. My pepper seeds were started a week after the tomatoes, and they really came up in about a week and a half. The tomatoes were fast as always! I've also started eggplant, broccoli, kale, some flower seeds (bunny tails! I just couldn't resist the name....), and all the herbs (basil, bergamot, marjoram, thyme, oregano etc).

It's almost time to feed the hungry little sprouts, and the tomatoes are already developing 3rd set of leaves! Time flies - my how my little sprouts have grown! :-)

Markers for our garden

I've been going back and forth about markers for our garden this year. But finally I had to give in. If you saw my list a few posts ago, there is no way I will remember where all those veggies and herbs went! I do draw things out in a notebook, but I don't want to always bring that with me out to the garden.
I looked at expensive copper markers with etching pens, found ideas on other blogs about using plastic knives and Sharpies, saw crafty markers done using small terracotta pots and hangers, decorative paint and a lot of time! Something about putting plastic into my carefully crafted organic garden seemed all wrong, and I really couldn't see myself spending on those nice copper markers. I wanted something easy, cheap, long lasting and nice looking.
Sean helped me come up with this handy neat idea, that will look great in our garden. We had some left-over marker stakes, the kind that you mark out construction projects with. At our Lowe's they sell them over by the construction wood in a package of 15 or 20. They are pointed at one end and are about 1 1/2 inch wide.
Sean then used a woodburning tool to burn in the names of some of the vegetables for our garden. I think it looks great. Not sure how they will hold up through watering, rain, southern sun and heat, but if not - they were pretty inexpensive. Thanks honey!

Garden 2010 - Return with a vengeance!

Some of 2009 Harvest. Looks nice, but this was probably all the edible potatoes we got!

Last year we had a so-so gardening year. Probably because we were so busy planning the wedding and getting our yard ready for 100 family and friends, tent etc. This year, we are returning with a vengeance! Even more than usual, I feel the need to know where my food comes from, to not eat anything that didn't grow from the ground or had a mother (sorry, vegetarians!). I'm done with putting preservatives and chemicals in my body, or I at least want to do that as little as possible. So, what better way to do that then to grow the food yourself?

We were lucky to receive some great plants as wedding present from friends: blackberry bushes, raspberry bushes and a persimmon tree. I am going to find out if I can grow black and red currants in SC too. I'm so used to having these berries from Sweden, and I miss making jelly, jam and juice from them. I've ordered frozen berries from NY state, but I want to have some of my own.
This year our strawberry and blueberry patches should start producing as well. Can't wait for that.
We found some EMF on Craig's list, bought some garden fabric and are planning low covered tunnels this year to start our planting earlier and extend our season to all year around.

Here's a complete list of seeds/plants we are planting this year (take a deep breath):

Potato, All Blue
Potato, All Red
Potato, Carola
Potato, German Butterball
Potato, Yellow Finn
Tomato, Hungarian Italian Paste
Tomato, German Pink
Tomato, Costoluto Genovese (inspired by Inadvertent Farmer's tomatoes!)
Tomato, Riesentraube
Tomato, Yellow Pear
Sweet Potato
Sweet Pepper, Tolli's Sweet Italian
Sweet Pepper, Sweet Banana
Sweet Pepper, Carolina Wonder
Hot Pepper, Wenk's Yellow Hot
Hot Pepper, Serrano Tampiqueno
Hot Pepper, Ancho Gigantea
Squash, Yellow Crookneck
Squash, Black Beauty Zucchini
Squash, Waltham Butternut
Pumpkin, Musquee de Provence
Pumpkin, Connecticut Field
Beans, (yard-long) Chinese Red Noodle
Bush Beans, Provider
Pole Beans, Genuine Cornfield
Pole Beans, McCaslan
Pole Beans, Dean's Purple Pod Bean
Pole Limas, Violet's Multi-colored Butterbeans
Carrots, Chantenay Red Core
Corn, Pennsylvania Butter-Flavored
Corn, Golden Bantam
Corn, Stowell's Evergreen
Cotton, Red Foliated White
Cucumber, Boston Pickling
Cucumber, Homemade Pickles
Eggplant, Black Beauty
Sunflower, Cucumber Leaf
Sunflower, Selma Suns
Aragula, Aragula
Parsley, Dark Green Italian
Spinach, Long Standing Bloomsdale
Swiss Chard, Ruby Red
Swiss Chard, Rainbow
Herbs, Mammoth Basil
Herbs, Sweet Genovese Basil
Herbs, Cinnamon Basil
Herbs, Wild Bergamot
Herbs, Borage
Herbs, Bouquet Dill
Herbs, Oregano, Greek
Herbs, German Winter Thyme
Lettuce, Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce
Lettuce, Tennis Ball Lettuce
Lettuce, Thai Oak Leaf
Snow Pea, Mammoth Melting Sugar

WOW! Are we going to be busy or what?

In addition, my friend YD asked me if I wanted some asian seeds that she did not want anymore, so I'm getting some Komatsuna, Mibuna, Chinese Kale & Thai Yellow Egg Eggplant. Last year I traded some seeds with my friend Jeff at the office, and hopefully we can do the same again. It only takes one tomato seed to have a different kind of plant! I urge you to swap seeds with friends, it's fun to get some different varieties and then you can compare how your plants succeded (or not, lol).

Happy Gardening! Now I'm off to make some Inadvertent Farmer's Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread. Great smelling house alert in 3, 2, 1......

Newlyweds and Peppers Galore

Greetings from the newlyweds! :-) Yes, it's great although it really doesn't feel like much has changed. lol. Instead of the "When are you getting married?" questions, we now get the "When are you getting pregnant?" questions. lol. Oh and the "Mrs. Baaaaaaarley" wherever I go. Yep. You know who you are. I'm hereby letting you know that you're weird. And you should stop now.

Our honeymoon weekend at the Biltmore Estate in the NC mountains was awesome. We had a great time, eating good food, enjoying adventures that friends had so graciously given us as wedding gifts. Here we are enjoying the Segway tour. Off-road Segways are so much fun!

Back home I ventured out in the garden to find that the bok choi and chard I had planted the weekend before the wedding had survived, the cabbage and broccoli that still needs to be planted has survived the neglect, the raspberry bushes and persimmon tree that friends gave us for the wedding are waiting for their "place" and I had a huge bounty of peppers! I think I'm going to make some pepper jelly this weekend and can it as holiday gifts. We have a mixture of Carolina Bell peppers, Banana peppers and some Wenk's Yellow Hot. I also have some cutie Lemon Drop hot peppers that aren't in the picture.

I also have to take care of these that my friend Janice got for me during their trip to a mountain orchard. Apple sauce here we come.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!