Despite The Snow

I've started planning for my next container garden. I think I will start early and plant seeds once a weed so that I have several plants that arrive at maturity at different times during the spring and summer. I'm going to be ordering some seed catalogs tomorrow. I'll try and remember to post some links so if you need your catalogs you can order too. I'll be looking for compact plants that will do well in a container. I still want to grow tomatos, eggplants and peppers. I didn't have much luck with the broccoli so I think I'll skip them this year since I'm very limited on space. I'm also looking at growing some winter squash so we have some nice fresh veggies in the winter.

For a Little While

For a couple of weeks the weather had been very warm here I even considered setting up a makeshift greenhouse to start some seedlings. Silly me!

Tonight it is going to snow. Don't get me wrong I love snow... absolutely love it... but It was so warm I just couldn't resist thinking about some lovely fresh tomatoes and zucchini.... yummm fresh veggies. It's time for me to order my seed catalogs I think I'm going to try and find some more compact plants. I won't be able to go for heirloom plants I have to go for something newer so my little tiny backyard.

Time to Get out of the Winter Funk

Ok I have to admit it's hard to write about gardening in the winter. Now it's time to start shaking off the winter blahs and start thinking about some nice fresh mouth watering veggies. Well the other day in the mail I got an advertisement for the Earth Box

This is apparently the ultimate in container for gardening in. I would love to try it but I'm not sure if I really want to spend $55 to $60 on a plastic pot for plants. I think I will have to keep an eye out to see if I can find one for less so I can try it. If it works as wonderfully as the ad promises it would be worth the cost in the long run.

Sorry I Forgot to Post my Pumpkin Recipe

It's been a little nuts around here with all the Christmas stuff and working more hours. I forgot to share my tasty recipes with you. Well I hope you froze some of that pumpkin you made (or at least have a can or two lying around after Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here are a few of my favorites.

Easy Pumpkin Loaf

Preheat Oven to 350.

1 C Sugar
1 C Cooked Pumpkin
1/4 C Salad Oil
3 egg Whites
2 TBS Skim Milk
2 C Sifted Flour
1tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Cardamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 C chopped Walnuts (optional)

Combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, eggs and milk. Mix flour baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices then add to sugar mixture. Blend well and add nuts. Pour into a greased and floured 9x5x3 inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

Pumpkin Casserole

Preheat oven to 350

3 c Cooked Pumpkin
1/3 c Butter
1/4 c Light Cream
2 TBLS Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg

Mix ingredients in given order and pour into a buttered casserole dish. Spready with net topping and bake for 30 minutes.

Nut Topping
1/4 C Dark Brown Sugar
2 TBLS light corn syrup
2 TBLS melted butter
1 c Chopped Walnuts

Mix until crumbly.

Pumpkin Soup

3 C Cooked Pumpkin
3 C Chicken Broth
1 Tbls Butter
1 Tbls Flour
2 Tbls Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 C Julienned Ham
3/4 C. nonfat condensed Milk
Nutmeg

Melt butter in pan and add flour stir until flour is golden brown. add pumpkin and chicken broth. Mix well. Mix in other ingredients in order listed except for Nutmeg. Heat but do not boil! Serve with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Pumpkin Recipes

Ok I got mixed up and posted this on the wrong blog but now I'm reposting it here and I will post all the other tasty recipes here too so Enjoy

I love this time of year when there are lots of wonderful pumpkins around to be made into tasty treats and I know I promised you plenty of delicious recipes for these bountiful orange squashes. I'm going to start off with the two recipes, the first is to get the pumpkin ready for all the other recipes and the second is for a wonderfully tasty snack..Pumpkin seeds.

Now when I do this I do it before making dinner when I will be using the oven anyway. This way I only have to preheat the oven once. (less energy saves money)

Now if this is what your going to do then plan about an hour to and hour and fifteen minutes for each pumpkin you want to prepare and about 20 to 30 minutes for each cookie sheet full of seeds. (about 1 sheet for each pumpkin)Preheat the oven to 350.

Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out the guts. Place pumpkin guts in a container of cold water (I find it easier to separate the seeds from the strings this way) and set aside.
Place pumpkin halves on a cookie sheet and add 1/2 cup water.
Place in preheated oven for an hour. While this is cooking you can get another pumpkin ready or do the seeds.
Pumpkin is done when the shell is soft. Take out of oven if you have another pumpkin to cook then put it in or put in your seeds.
Turn the pumpkins over and let cool. Now scoop out or trim away the shell and smash or puree and its ready for your recipes.

Pumpkin seeds

Separate the seeds from the strings and compost the strings. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with not stick cooking spray. Dry off the seeds and place them on a single layer on the cookie sheet. Lightly spray the top of the seeds with cooking spray and salt to taste. Place in oven preheated to 350. Set timer for 10 minutes. When timer goes off then stir up the seeds and smooth them flat again and wait another 10 minutes. Stir again.... if nice and lightly browned then take out if not browned to your liking place in the oven for 10 more minutes keeping an eye on them. Let cool and enjoy.

Starting to get cold.

It's starting to get cold here in New York (not that it got very warm this summer) and I'm trying to decide whether I should go ahead and pick the little watermelon. It was suppose to be small but I really did expect it to get a little larger.

It's also time to start cleaning up. I think after I clean out all the dead or dying plants I'll put in a few mums till winter just to make it look nice for the neighbors. I did get enough zucchini to make six loaves of bread and plenty of eggplants. I got some tomatoes though I was hoping for more because we really like tomatoes. It was just too wet this year. I never did get any broccoli. Every time it started to get a little head of broccoli it would jump straight into flowers. A friend of mine said her father use to grow broccoli and would wrap the leaves around the head to keep it from flowering and let it grow bigger. I'll have to try that next year. I never got any pumpkins (since I actually planted more zucchini) so I'll have to hit the farmers market to do my pumpkin baking. When I start I'll share some of our favorite recipes with you so you can enjoy the bountiful fall harvest too. Though I did hear that pumpkin crops were having some problems this year too. So I think I'll go this weekend before scarcity kicks in and the prices go up.

I'm going to be spending the winter doing a little research to help me get a better crop of veggies next year as well.

I Should Have Taken a Picture

Do you remember me telling you this was PUMPKIN??? Well it's not it's Zucchini!! How do I know ...

Well after months of checking for nice pumpkins and getting nothing but big yellow flowers. I noticed the other day the leaves were wilting and needed some water. So I headed out and grabbed the hose. I turned toward the plant and saw the biggest zucchini I have ever seen! It was a good foot and a half long and about 6 inches around. After I finished being flabbergasted
..... I mean how the heck did I miss that monster after all the checking I did??? I grabbed the zucchini and headed into the kitchen. Now if you want to use a zucchini in any recipe where you taste a lot of zucchini any one will tell you to use them before they get more then 5 inches long when they are still young and tender. So I chopped and grated my zucchini and made 4 Yes 4 loaves of zucchini bread. Now I wish I had taken a picture to show you but it's to late it has been eaten... My zucchini bread doesn't stay around for long!