work, work, work

We started to warm up a bit in our area. The night temps in upper 40s, and in the day low 70s. So what do we do when we have a beautiful day outside? We run and work, and work, and work in our garden. Planted tomatoes and eggplants, some sweet peas and scarlet beans, basil, thyme, tarragon, etc. Here are the pics from our Memorial Day Garden Craze Bonanza…

Gucci is our number one helper in the yard

beautiful apple blossoms all over the property

carrying my gorgeous tomato seedlings to their final destination…

making some potion before planting eggplants and tomatoes

preparing a structure for our peas and beans

strong defense against rabbits!

homemade fajitas after the great day of work…mmm…

Happy Memorial Day!!!!!!!

New Green House

My dreams of having a nice green house came true! We got ourselves a simple, inexpensive, but sturdy enough, plastic green house. I really do need it in this area. It is constantly cold, raining, with freezing temps at nights even by the end of May. Summer is also very wet, cool, not much sunshine. My veggies are doing alright, but could be better if we would live in some warmer place. So this spring we finally decided to ahead and try a simple green house. I am hoping it will not blow away with the wind storms that we are getting here very often too. Where do we live! Anyway, the installation of the green house went very quick, Jimmy anchored it to the very sturdy wood construction we have in the yard, hopefully it will help keeping the green house in place. We will see how all of this will work, I am crossing my fingers, hoping for the best. My little seedlings for sure enjoying being outside instead of sitting in the basement. Also we put a tiny space hitter on the floor of the green house to keep my veggies warm during freezing nights. We will see…

the installation process

the green house view

eggplants are very happy

newly replanted tomato seedlings

misterios hot pepper bush (still didn't figure out what kind of pepper this is)

first daffodils in bloom

Easter feast

What a gorgeous weekend we've had! Temps climbing to mid 70s, sunny, can not ask for a better weather on Easter! Jimmy came home, Barbie was home, so the whole family got together for a beautiful time. We cleaned in the yard, cooked, baked, ate, drunk and were very very merry. I LOVE my family. But anyway I need to share our Easter dinner menu. I was searching online to find something fresh and tasty, and colorful, and healthy, and in the end that is what we ended up doing…

                                     Easter Dinner  Menu 2014   

• Deviled Eggs with Smoked Salmon & Herbs
• Champagne Limoncello Cocktails
• Spring Pea Salad with Radishes and Lemon Zest Dressing
• Roasted Fingerling Potatoes & Baby Artichokes
• Slow Roasted Rosemary Leg of Lamb
• Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake 

Placek baked the evening before Easter

Chosen tablecloth for the Easter Dinner

Spring Pea Salad, colorful, healthy, tasty, refreshing 

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes and Baby Artichokes….mmmm…

Slow Roasted Rosemary Leg of Lamb, tender meat was falling off the bone…

Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake, silky, creamy, lemony, melts in your mouth

Setting up our table on the patio

Happy Easter, Everyone!

snow day

In the morning we woke up to that…

so it seemed like a perfect day to try and bake homemade croissants. I've searched sites for many days and in the end came up with the recipe that combines three of the ones that looked not that difficult but in the mean time kind of authentic. The process is so LONG! I actually started it yesterday in the evening. And in the end of today we are going to have a hot chocolate with freshly baked croissants! Perfect conclusion to the weekend.

preparing the slab of butter for the laminating process

the dough is rising and the slab of butter is in between of layers of the dough ready for tourage

layers and layers after couple of "double turns"

gruyere and prosciutto di parma

Gucci, my little helper

final product!

The seeds are in!

Alright, it's been a really nasty winter, and the spring is just refusing to take over. Where do we live? Sigh…I still have a hope for the better weather to come, for the spring blooms, and summer vegetables. To speed up the process I started my seeds of eggplants and basil. That was 10 days ago. Right now I am very happy to report that all of my seeds sprouted very well, fast and plentiful. And as of today my eggplants are starting the first pair of true leaves, and the same with basil. And to top my excellent gardening mood about three days ago we had an absolutely beautiful weather, very sunny and almost warm (53F!). So we've had our first outdoor afternoon tea of the season on the patio. Lovely. Gucci was rolling in the dirt though, so the day ended with a cat bath in the kitchen sink and one very unhappy furry creature.

the cells are ready for the seeds

the seeds are soaking in a seed starter potion

eggplants are sprouting!!!!!

first outdoor tea of the season

little Gucci snoozing after his bath

Precious

My little baby niece is 1 week old today! Happy first week birthday, dearest!!!!!!!

Last year growing season update

I was not active on my blog during past several months. Lots of things happened, good, not so good, or just plain terrible. But in the end the family wins, its so strong, lots of love and support for and from all of the members. Couple of days ago we welcomed to this world my very own and only baby niece. What a great addition and gorgeous news! We are so happy and thankful. In the mean time it's March, time to start thinking and planning my garden for 2014 season. Just yesterday I received my seeds from rareseed.com, will try some new verieties of veggies. But for right now I want to remember our last year growing season with some pictures.

Hummingbird hovering over our garden fountain

mourning dove is quiet curious 

house finch resting on the wire

our beloved hummingbird, we have so many of them during summer 

Monet garden on the side yard

Mint is taking over the yard

beautiful "pillow talk" peony in full bloom

"lemon" tomatoes

summer squash

excellent "little fingers" eggplants, very tender, delicate flavor and taste

organically backyard grown veggies