Not much gardening stuff going on here. Sweet potatoes are doing good, and I replanted some blackeye peas and they are up. Other than that the garden is done for the summer. I have 6 Amish Paste tomato seedlings going that I'll plant soon, just to see if I can get any fruit in the fall. Kinda doubt it, but stranger things have happened gardening in Florida.
I am seriously rethinking how I garden. I think next spring I'm only going to plant tomatoes and blackeye peas. The squash take up too much room and I can buy them cheap, and my husband doesn't eat cucumbers, so I'll just do that in a container. Plus, I'm going to try getting the tomatoes in the ground late February instead of mid-March, depending on the weather.
I have my seeds for this fall and winter: turnip, buttercup squash, spinach, radish, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and carrots. Garden area is at a premium so I'm going to have to come up with a tight garden plan if I want to grow a little bit of everything. I may do the radishes and lettuce in containers since I'm the only one who will eat them. Can you tell hubby is a meat and potatoes kinda guy?
I hate to wish the summer away but I'm looking forward to working in the garden when it's not 95 or more. Looking forward to firing up the wood stoves too (but that's still a long ways off). It's another grey rainy day here, but we do need the rain, and our high temp today is only supposed to be around 90.
Ordered hubby's birthday present last night, another iPod Classic to replace the one that got stolen. Bought a refurbished one through Apple and saved about $50 (even got free shipping). Now I'm waiting on him to ask me what I want for my birthday... an Excalibur! Dehydrating has turned out to be a very good option for me for storing food. So I'd really like a better dehydrator that has an adjustable thermostat and a fan. I'll have to start hinting.... and I really don't think it's weird at all to want food storage gizmos instead of jewelry!
I also dug out my electric coffee bean grinder last night (haven't used it in years) and cleaned it up and made onion powder and celery salt. Worked great. I think today I'll grind down some dried tomatoes to make my own tomato paste as needed.
Hubby and I had a conversation the other night about TV... I'm soooooo tired of paying $$$$$ for hundreds of cable channels when we only watch 6 or 7 (sometimes I can go through EVERY SINGLE channel and not find anything worth watching). I watch Hulu on the computer a lot for free, but would rather watch it on the TV and not get a stiff neck. I need to do some more research on Apple TV... and we're wondering if a splitter can be put on the HDMI cable???? We've got a (rip-off) package deal with the cable company - TV, internet and phone - but I'd love to have them turn off everything except the internet (unless I can find a cheaper alternative) and figure out an inexpensive cell phone option. I'd also like to get Netflix. We do have one must-have though... access to all the Gator football games. So this may not be doable... more research needed.
I made a great jambalaya the other day... I got the recipe from one of my Food and Wine cookbooks. This recipe called for leaving the chicken in pieces instead of pulling the meat off the bone. Very tasty! Definitely a keeper recipe. I have 3 of the Food and Wine compilation cookbooks that I've found used. They are wonderful - whole food recipes - and while some of the recipes can be a bit involved, there is nothing tricky about them. The jambalaya recipe is easy peasy as long as you have everything prepped ahead.
Well, better get to work. Thank goodness I've been busy busy busy... usually summer is my slow time but this summer has been full blast.
Expensive stuff.
