One of my passions is paper crafting. I love creating cards and invitations. One of the blogs I visit is giving away a fantastic gift (in the crafting world we call it "blog candy"....cute). Debbie at the blog Passion for Crafts is hosting the give away. You can visit yourself and see the huge list of items included in the giveaway by going here:

http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/11/wow-200000-hits-blog-candy.html

Entry ends on Monday 11/16/09. I hope I win!

I am SOOOO disappointed in how the garden is turning out this year. Our radishes never got bigger than a pencil eraser. Carrots are not even turning orange...just skinny little root looking things and our tomatoes can't hang on to a blossom for nuttin'! And I think one plant is getting the same kind of wilt we had last year. It is the Black Prince again...maybe I should just give up on that variety. The other two plants are awful as well. The blossoms are just drying up and falling off. Some friends have said maybe not enough bees to pollinate? I think they are not getting enough sunshine each day. The tree in the back yard is pretty over grown. At any rate, I am afraid we won't get any tomatoes at all! Bummer!

(Entry edited 4/30 to include carrot/radish names)

In the last two weeks we have planted our vegetable garden for the summer of 2009. We added another bag of compost plus some organic fertilizer to each planter. In one planter we put two different types of carrots and one type of radish. We planted these on 4/18/09. The radish is called French Breakfast and the carrots are Royal Chanteray and Danver's Half Long.
Then after work on Monday 4/27/09, we planted three types of tomatoes, Green Zebra, Black Prince and one other I'll update on as soon as I can remember! All are heirlooms, like last year. I did not plant any tomatoes in the planter that had the wilt problem last year. Let's hope we have better luck with the dark skinned, Black Prince, tomato this year.

Here are some pictures of what we have so far. (Thanks to my husband Todd for the great pics)

The Carrots




The Radishes





Update on my dad- - he is doing well so far. Still smoking and having his whiskey but so far no more trouble with his heart. His memory is another matter. Seems like he is getting more forgetful in the last few months. Alison is going away for her sister weekend this weekend so Teresa and I will be going by to check on him and make sure he is taking his medicine properly.

My dad had a massive heart attack on Tuesday. He is doing well, in fact he went home from the hospital today. I really don't think he is going to quit smoking. I understand...I, myself, was a pack-a-day (at least) smoker for 26 years when I quit almost 9 years ago. It is hard, but it can be done. I just don't think he will do it. Makes me sad.

Writer's Block question-
If you could ask your pet any question (and they could answer you), what would it be?

Jack- black poodle- "What was your life like before we adopted you?"
Sophie- small cream mix- "Are you happier here with us than on the streets?"
Teddy-Labradoodle- "What do you dream about?"

I have been making hand crafted cards, invitations, announcements and gifts for a few years now. I have always meant to get around to posting photos of them and never got around to it. I figured this blog is as good as any to post them so here it goes!

This card is for my friend Roxane who happens to have been born on Valentine's Day. Appropriately, she loves the color pink and hearts (and pigs as well!).



This is an altered Altoids tin I made for her. It is filled with customized Hershey's nuggets covered with decorated labels (I used plain white mailing labels and stamped on them).



And here are some little boxes I made using a template I found on SplitCoastStampers under resources. They hold Ghiradelli chocolates.




Everyone seems to really like them and I have been thinking about putting some stuff on Etsy.com to see how it sells. People always tell me I should sell my stuff so maybe I should!

I found this recipe on the internet (grouprecipes.com) and adapted it to be low carb, with cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. It was YUMMY! Todd loved it too!

Low Carb Shepard's pie

1 oz Olive Oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 large carrots, diced
1 1/2 c sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 lbs ground round
1/2 c red wine (Fat Cat Pinot Noir)
3/4 c beef broth (made with Better than Bouillon-beef)
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 Tbs flour
salt and pepper

Topping
2 heads cauliflower
milk
butter
1 egg yolk

In large casserole dish heat 1 oz olive oil add onion cook for 5 minutes

In large frying pan heat small amount of olive oil and fry ground round, brown evenly. Add carrots cook for 4-5 minutes.

In casserole, add mushrooms and 1 Tbs flour, stir. add 2 bay leaves, 2-3 sprigs thyme, stir well.

Add chopped tomatoes, red wine, beef stock (reserve small amount to deglaze beef pan) and Worcestershire sauce, stir well. Add beef and carrots to onion mix and pour reserved beef stock to pan, deglaze, then add that to the onion mix. Bring mixture to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

Boil cauliflower, drain and mash with butter, milk and egg yolk. Season with salt and pepper.

Add cauliflower to top of beef-onion mixture, spread over surface. Sprinkle with parmesan, if desired. Cook at 400 degrees until top is browned, approx 30 minutes.

Here it is already the second week in January 2009.
For a speedy catch up of the last six months:

Finished with all of the tomatoes and pulled them out. I am happy with most of the results except for the Black Prince. I was so very disappointed that they didn't make it. This year I will try a similar variety along with the Marglobe if I can find it. I might also try some carrots or radishes. I still have the salvia planted and it is still putting out some blooms. I hope the hummingbirds are happy. It has been so very cold here the last month or so I have not spent much time in the yard.

Holidays have come and gone. I always enjoy them but am glad they are over. We bought a new iMac to replace the ancient desktop Mac. Love it!

Mom came up for New Year's Eve, our annual dinner-TV-fest. It was fun and not as many gunshots fired into the air as in years past. Maybe the fools are learning that what goes up must comedown? I doubt it.

Going back to work was not as difficult as I expected. We did have almost two solid weeks off. It was very nice.

I am attaching a picture of some bread I baked a few months ago. A very simple recipe and I used the new Le Crueset dutch oven that Todd bought me for my birthday. It was so yummy! I must make time to make some more.

It has been a long time since I've posted. Been busy (ha! code for lazy!) My last entry was in May after our vacation. The tomatoes are now actually in their last phase, I believe. I'll try to recap a little, mostly for myself for next year.

Here the plants are 3 months after their start. Seem to be very vigorous and doing very well.



Here is the Marglobe, the first one we planted. A first blush of color. This is the first week in June 08.



And here is the Black Prince, the one I was really waiting for. At the time of this photo (also the first week in June 08) it appears to have some sort of disease...some of the leaves and stems are starting to wilt and shrivel. The fruit still looks ok. I was hoping it would hold out so that I could at least get one or two to eat! And it did and then I pulled it out. I look looked it up on Google and it seems to have verticillium wilt... or that is the best guess I can make from my search. I'm so sad!




Here are some Marglobe tomatoes that are really turning ripe This is at the end of June 08.




And here, finally are the fruits of our labor! We had a very yummy tasting BLT with left over bacon from breakfast and one of the Marglobes. That alone makes it all worth while. Well...I'd like to have few more of these before they all stop producing.



Here is the sad currant tomato plant. It seems to putting out a lot of very little fruits, but I really don't think they are worth even harvesting. The largest ones are the size of a small marble. I feel sorry for feeling that way but take comfort in thinking that maybe the birds will eat them. The taste is fine, even good, but they are so small they are hard to eat in salad. Forget trying to stab them with a fork. I know I will not plant them next year.



I will wrap up more later, but for now I think next year we will go with something like the Marglobe and will certainly try one like the Black Prince. The few we were able to eat were so very good. I'm not sure about the Mortgage Lifter either. They are huge but the taste is not as good as the others. The Marglobe did have a nice, sweet taste. And forget the cherry or other small ones...I just don't think they are worth the effort. And we will probably go with one plant in each of the raised beds. Each of these plants got so huge it was bit much for the beds to handle.

Here I am, back at work. Home from a long Cayucos Beach weekend. Gotta get there permanently. Cooommme ooonn lottery tickets!

We did buy a couple of yard ornaments in Cambria. A couple of small, cast-iron fairies that I want to place on the corners of the raised beds. And then we got a really big dragonfly, metal with a blown glass body. Not quite sure where we will place it but it is cool! I'll post pics when we put them out.

Todd wants to make the tall, blue pot a bubbly fountain of some sort and put it where the hibiscus used to be. It will look nice there.

Checked the tomatoes yesterday after being gone for 5 days. They look pretty good. We might be able to snack on a couple of the cherry tomatoes tonight for dinner...literally...two cherry tomatoes. I hope they are better than the last two we ate. They were way too young and very bitter. I am just anxious to have some bites of that goodness. There are about 25 BIG green ones on the first-planted plant. I am really keeping an eye on them. No hint of turning red (sigh), maybe soon. I'm guessing mid-June.

Next year we may want to rethink the cage set up and how many plants we plant in each raised planter. I forgot how big tomato plants get. The cages work ok but as the plants get bigger they are tending to topple over. Maybe I need to stay on top of the arranging of the limbs as they grow.

Missed the dogs terribly. They got groomed (different groomer, kinda funky cut around the head area) and they smell so sweet. They were really happy to see us. Then we had to leave and go to Devon's 8th grade graduation. It was nice, but way to long. It's only 8th grade, jeesh! Wouldn't have missed it, though.