Vegetable Medley

The onions have sprouted. Can you see them?The seeds have all been planted. I disregarded the directions for how soon to sow the seeds. I need greenery and I need it now. Before I receievd my new seeds I was impatient and searched through old packets of seeds and started: Sugar Sweetie tomatoes, along with Pumpkins and Walla Walla Onions purchased at the organic grocery store last year (or longer?)
Then my exciting package from Seed Savers Exchange came and everything was started last night. The seed type is all new to me, all heirloom. But the corn, gourds, watermelons, and bell peppers are a totally new thing for me. Ususally I only plant tomatoes and cucumbers and even then the dogs get a hold of everything. I made the mistake of teaching the smart one to pull pea pods off the vine. Last year I sectioned off a part of the back yard for the garden. It was great, except I located it under a huge maple tree and right next to a 6 foot fence. So lack of sun was an issue. This year I will relocate to another part of the yard, a sunnier spot.My future harvest:
Bushy Cucumber
Sutton's Harbinger Pea
Miniature Yellow Bell Pepper
Grandma Einck's Dill
Blondkopfchen Tomato
Mexico Midget Tomato
Lettuce Mixture (Amish Deer Tongue, Australian Yellowleaf, Bronze Arrowhead, Forellenschuss, Lollo Rossa, Pablo, Red Velvet and Reine des Glaces)

A few plants I am starting from seed:
Titan Sunflower
Lamb's Ear

And a few things to plant on my parent's 40 acres of land.
Golden Bantam Corn
Birdhouse Gourd
Golden Midget Watermelon

Did I mention my back yard is about 20 feet by 20 feet and I have 3 large dogs?

Yippie

The only good part of my day was that my pumpkin seeds have sprouted. That was before a challenging day at work and before my dog ate (stole) a tablespoon of wasabi and we ended up at animal emergency. (he's fine, just a little stinky)

Coconut Coir

I bought a brick of compressed coconut coir in the reptile section of the pet store (a non dog and cat "selling" pet store that is. Cost = $4.00

Next I soaked the brick in warm water until it EXPANDED in huge proportions. Look how fluffy it is.
I am waiting on my vegetable seeds from Seed Savers but for now had a few seeds left over from last year. Waiting on these pumpkin and tomato seeds to sprout.

Seed Starting

Due to my February funk, I have been reading my old issues of Organic Gardening lately. I am getting ready to start some vegetable seeds indoors for our March 1st frost free planting date. I have been searching for peat-free seed starting material. "60% of the world's wetlands are peat and about 7% of this has been exploited for agriculture and forestry, with significant environmental repercussion".
I have been going around to gardening centers asking if they have peat-free seed starting material. They look at me like I am crazy and then I leave frustrated. Until I read this post:
and discovered a good place to get one alternative to peat, coconut coir, is at a pet store in the reptile section. I am also taking Mr. Brown Thumb's suggestion and saving paper towel tubes/ toilet paper tubes for little pots.

Pantry

So in trying to think about what crafty things I could post about I thought my house would be a good place look. I bought the house several years ago and it was very very...well, gross. It was built in 1883 and had a lot of crumbling walls, layers of carpet, mirrored walls and styrofoam ceilings. But had great bones and character.
One of my improvement projects was building these pantry shelves. This used to be a random room with no purpose. We divided it in half and this portion is now the pantry:Note the back wall - It used to be the back of the original house! There was an addition put on at some point (a long time ago).Strong shelves!

Food stuffs

I've had quite a few cooking attempts lately with some successes and some not so much.
For a superbowl party I made these chocolate pretzels with a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen. I only had half the amount of butter I needed, so I used sour cream. Why? I don't know. I think they would have been very good, but due to my last minute substitution, they were pretty dry, but looked pretty at least.The husband and I made matzo ball soup as well, which was super delicious. Also a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. He wanted me to make the matzo balls "bigger!" we didn't realize they would poof up so much in the water. But they were still very tasty.
Last night for Valentines Day we made Spinachi Ravioli with Sappori de Lotta. A recipe from a cooking class I took in Tuscany.For the Ravioli
Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
pinch salt
t olive oil

serves 2 people - multiply amount as needed

Directions:
• mound flour on a table and make a hole in the center
• add whole egg(s) a pinch of salt and the olive oil
• scramble eggs in the middle and slowly incorporate flour
• half way through incorporating, start kneading
• once kneaded well, cover dough with cotton towel and set aside for 10 minutes
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Ravioli assembly using a pasta machine:
• Starting with #1 - roll small amount of dough through the machine.
• Roll 4 more times increasing the setting each time (#1 - #5)
• Before rolling with #6 dust both sides of the dough with light flour
• lay dough out and add large Tablespoons of your ravioli filling**, spacing 2 inches
• fold dough over, pressing down between raviolis with your hand
• cut ravioli apart with a knife
• boil ravioli for 7 minutes

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**Spinachi Ravioli filling

Ingredients:
2 lbs fresh spinach
1 lb ricotta cheese
2 eggs
4 T parmesan cheese
pinch nutmeg
pinch salt

Directions:
• cook spinach in a pan with a small amount of water until tender
• Squeeze water out of spinach and chop
• in a bowl add: chopped spinach, ricotta, parmesan, eggs, nutmeg and salt. Mix well

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"Sappori de Lotta" Taste of the Garden Sauce

Ingredients:
3 plum (or "Piccadilly") tomatoes per person
1 clove garlic per person, chopped
olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan
"handful" basil
1 cup parmesan

Directions:
• In a cold pan put olive oil and chopped garlic
• heat until it starts to bubble and remove from heat
• quarter whole tomatoes and add to the pan with salt and pepper and a handful of basil
• heat again until tomato is somewhat soft

• serve on pasta
• add parmesan to top

No photos of the final product, we ate them too fast.
Delicioso!

Wood Burning Stove

This past weekend we installed a wood burning stove in our home. It was just in time for a lot of cold and snow. Actually it was just in time for a bizarre heat wave and then a blizzard.
We began by trying to compromise on the tile layout ideas Here we are installing the chimney on the roof (after shoveling it). I am distracted by my urge to sneak over to the neighbors to paint their garage doors. It took two days to install and was much more complicated than I thought it would be. Luckily we have very handy family members Annie helps to make some kindling

yea! It is not only pretty but it heats up the back of our house which is always very cold.
The stove is a Quadrafire Yosemite which has a nice old fashioned look that goes well in our 1880's house.