Glad-man Gardens

 Add a hose and a man/child and what do you get?  A really nice garden and a...man/child.

 Dave and I built this stone porch, and added greenery and water, Dave has done most of the work.  Mother Nature has added the various touches here and there too.

 I like the stars and stripes whirly-gig.

 I love this pot.  I love the plants too.  Nice job Dave.

 There are nice surprises in every corner of our garden.

Here the creeping myrtle has taken over this section and it looks like my little pond is floating in it's own section of another green pond!

I seriously hope you will stop by and sit a spell and enjoy our garden with us.

Roses make me GLAD

My hubby loves to garden.  Would you just look at this rose he plucked for me today?  He gave it to me with a kiss and a smile.  If only I could invent a way to make the smell convert fiber optically.


Now to keep it really real, here is another version of same rose and a bit more realistic and less romantic.  But 100 % Dave.  Ah, boys will be boys.

Headline: Glad for Color

Mild Autumn Brings Wild Color to the Glad Home

"Due to the mild Autumn in Provo, Utah, many of nature's bounty is going through a revival of color," says Mrs. Glad at her west side Provo home. Mrs. Glad credits Mr. Glad's thoughtful planning of his spring plantings of annuals and perennials at the start of the growing season. "We cannot recall a more amazing floral growing season as this one!" stated Mrs. Glad. "I mean the size of this pansy was a shocking surprise when I saw it this afternoon."


Mrs. Glad loves to remind everyone of the amazing miniature roses that came from a sad part of the local Smith's grocery store. She says they took off after her putting them is a very sunny part of the garden. She rarely has to dead head them and they just bloom as fast as they can. "They have quadrupled in size!" exclaimed Glad, "I even revived one that my daughter had nearly killed at her office desk." she laughs.

Mrs. Glad thinks the secret to her lovely garden is the downward slope for drainage, and the strong western sun, for color and re-bloom.

"African daisy's are available in many colors, and they have bloomed for us from Spring to Summer this season." Mrs Glad could hardly believe these daisies kept blooming even after a killing frost, well into November. "I mean, here we are 2 weeks from Thanksgiving and my daisies are having a revival,"chuckled Glad. "Thank heaven, we have been too busy to put our garden to bed this season, or we would have missed all this wonderful color!"
Mrs. Glad wants to remind readers to let leaves rest on the garden bed, to mulch and provide ample insulation to tender plants over the winter.

Green Tomato Hot Dog Relish

I Refuse to Let Them Die

Last Friday I was aware that we would have a killing frost in Utah. Knowing this was coming, and knowing I would eventually have to say goodbye to my precious babies, I took action. I up rooted all of my plants except one low yielder. Then I hung them upside down in the garage. This crazy action is supposed to send all the energy left in the leaves and stems directly into growing and ripening the remaining fruit. I did have several green fruits that fell off and I collected them all with great intent. Got out my food grinder and got busy.....


Here is what happened to the Green Tomatoes...

Voila... Green Tomato Hot Dog Relish. I guar-ran-darn-tee that you will not be able to tell there are not pickles in this recipe. I have to give my self a great big pat on the back!

Green Tomato Hot Dog Relish ( I doubled this recipe and it yielded 10 - 1/2 pints)
6 cups finely chopped cored green tomatoes (unpeeled)
2 onions, finely chopped
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tsp. whole cloves
1 tsp. celery seeds
1 cinnamon stick,(4 in.) broken in half
2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1 clove garlic
1 Tbsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger

I sent the onions, peppers, and tomatoes through a coarse grind on my food grinder. Drained off the liquid in the tomato mixture and stirred in the 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of Kosher salt. Set this all in a glass bowl covered it and let it stand for 12 hours. The next morning I poured it into a strainer and rinsed it with cold water and then squeezed out as much of the liquid as I could.

Tie the cloves, celery seeds, and cinnamon stick in a square of cheese cloth, creating a spice bag, or bouquet garni.

In a large Stainless steel pot, combine the vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, mustard, salt, ginger and spice bag. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add drained tomato mixture, stir well and return to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until tomatoes are transparent, about 1 hour. Discard bouquet garni.

Meanwhile prepare canner, jars, and lids. I quick wash the lids and jars in the dishwasher and leave them in the heat of the dishwasher until needed. I get about 3 inches of water boiling in the canner.

Ladle hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1 centimeter of head space. Remove air bubbles and adjust head space, if necessary by add more hot relish. Wipe the rims, Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Place the jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

I made some AWESOME Ketchup with the 24 pounds of ripe tomatoes I harvested. 24 pounds condensed into 10 half pint jars. This is really the best thing I have ever preserved, and I will likely make it over and over now that I know how. In case you are wondering what the brown liquid is, it is cider vinegar with a bouquet garni of cinnamon, cloves, celery seed, and allspice. You can leave a comment if you want the recipe for the ketchup.


By the way all of today's recipes are from this simply awesome book. You can click on the picture and it will take you to Amazon where you can read more about it.

Sun-Dried Tomatoes

The end of the gardening season is near. I have been picking, the last of my beauties below. My rockin' oven has an incredible dehydrate option on it. I did some "sun-dried" tomatoes with today's crop. I put some of the stickier tomatoes in olive oil, but most of them I put in a plastic container because they were very dry and will keep for months on the shelf.
I did learn a few things:

• Line the pan with "Wax paper", for easier removal of the sticky slices.
• If the tomatoes are too thin they don't dehydrate as well; they almost disappear. An ideal thickness is 1/4 of an inch.
• About 5 or 6 pounds of tomatoes shrinks down to mere ounces, but the flavor of the dehydrated tomatoes is outstanding.
• It takes several hours to dehydrate anything. Mine took about 8 hours. No wonder they are so pricey in the store.
  

I have also been busy with some art. Batik art to be exact. I did these pieces while we were living in Malaysia, (you can click on the photos to enlarge them.) I entered them in a local art show and both were a delight to see on the wall. You can visit the gallery at the Provo Health Department and Judicial Building. I have been busy on other pieces as well, and I will be entering them in a Spring Art show with the city as well. I have had a busy, but fulfilling day. I always have a fulfilling day when I preserve food and push myself in unique ways.

Marinara Madness

I always, always, always plant loads of tomatoes. They are easy and fun to grow and obviously the payout is spectacular. This year our spring was so wet and cold that our tomato harvest is about 1 month late. I have lots of different varieties. Look at these orange ones called Sweet Tangerine.

I hate waste, and even though my specific recipe did not call for squash, I added two crooknecks; cut into bite sized pieces. I used a green bell pepper from my garden, a store bought onion, and a large handful of herbs that I have been growing on the deck. Basil, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, marjoram and oregano. Oh, and lots of garlic!
I cut an "X" at the bottom of each tomato to ease the peeling process. I dip the tomatoes in simmering water for about sixty seconds. Plunge them in ice water and slip off the skins. Then, I core the larger varieties. Roma's have small cores, I don't bother coring them. This was the yield from about 15 pounds of tomatoes. I just pureed them in a blender. Remind me to blog about my "rocking" blender sometime.
I have always wanted to make my own Marinara sauce. I got out my super huge soup pot that holds at least 5 gallons, sauteed the onions, bell pepper, squash, garlic in some olive oil. I always adjust the seasonings at every step. I did add the herbs once the saute was translucent, to bring out the oils of the herbs. Then I added the tomato puree and let it simmer, uncovered, until the mixture was thickened and reduced by half. Remember to check for salt and pepper. You will lose salt in the reduction process.A good dishwasher does all the jar sterilization work. Keep the jars warm, and ladle in the Marinara, leaving one inch of head space. Process in a pressure canner; 15 pounds of pressure if you live in altitude above 1,000 feet. I am at 5,000 feet so I processed for 25 minutes. Use 10 pounds pressure at sea level for 20 minutes.

Once the processing is done, the air will bubble up in the sauce for several hours and provide a very strong and safe vacuum seal.

I really like the color of my Marinara thanks to the awesome Sweet Tangerine Tomatoes. Here is my quart jar in the midst of my amazing herbs.

Does preserving your own food save money? No. But I absolutely love the feeling I have when I look in my pantry and see it there. It is like love in a jar. I love the entire process from soil tilling season to wiping clean and putting away the last jar in the pantry. Thank you Lord for our plentiful table.

Pickled Jalapenos (Escabeche)

I special ordered "Biker Billy"jalapeno's from Burpee last spring, because they promised they would be super hot. Oh my, they ARE super hot and they grew super great! I adapted this from Elise at Simply Recipes. It was amazingly easy to make. My version only made 4 pints. I adjusted the herbs more to my taste, and the vinegar as well.

I Feel Like a Pioneer

Okay kids, by now you know all things for me are food related. Will you just look at all I got accomplished today!

Look at what came from my garden today.I bought some incredible peaches at the Farmer's Market at Pioneer Park. I made this dynamite Lavender Peach Jam. (I grew the Lavender, thank you)

I even had the energy to make Tiny and her crew some homemade chips, and guacamole.
Tomorrow I sleep in.

Reminder to vote in the poll. Upper right hand corner of this page.

Dog Days of August (Go Lady Dogs)

The Lady Dog's Never stop playing softball.
I like this shot of Tiny because you can see where she held back the swing on a high ball. Look at those arms!

This is a good one too. You can see the damage where she was hit by a ball. Way to take one for the team, TINY!

Finally some freakin' tomatoes already. This was my first crop of the year, and I only got a handfull! What the heck? Our spring was too cold.

Will you just look at this amazing Cobb salad??!!??!! This came from Gourmet Magazine;August 2008 page 103. Again, my picture of the salad was better than the magazine. In my head anyway.

Green Dreams

I am busy ordering and planning my first garden in 3 summers. I am so happy. I cannot wait to get my hands dirty! I am going to try Biker Billy Peppers, a stunningly hot jalapeno, and Thai Dragon Hybrid, an extra hot chile that can be dried. I will be planting many herbs also. My family cannot get enough fresh basil, and I buy it in bulk at Albertson's ,but, at a premium price. I cannot wait to get that to grow.

We have fallen in love with Sugar peas too, and those great little green beans that are referred to as haricot verts. I am going to build a tee-pee for the vines to grow on.

I always plant way too much for my own family and I love giving and sharing the bounty of the garden with my neighbors. There is something really satisfying about growing and eating your own food. I really get enjoyment out of making jams and salsas too. I found a great recipe for a red hot pepper jam that my next door neighbor Brad cannot get enough of. It is so fun to garden. I am not the greatest gardener but I try.