The list of things that are growing in spite of me (it sure ain’t because of me!!):

Cucumbers
Russet Potatoes
Tomatoes (not great, but we do have baby ‘maters)
Green Beans
Carrots
Onions
Peas (done for the season)
Lettuce (it grew really well, too bad I let it bolt to seed!)

I thinned the carrots and got these (the onion was thanks to the kids “helping”):

Hi readers! I appreciate each and every one of you listening to my sadly irregular and strange ranting about all things garden and food. I love to hear from you and I’ve gotten a lot of emails about how the comments math question is not working. So I’ve deactivated it one more time and will see how it goes.

Oh, and I flooded the garden today! First time this year, go me!

I make 2 rectangle pizzas with this recipe. SO EASY!

Have your bread machine ready with paddle in place and in this order, add:

2 tsp dry yeast
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 T sugar
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 cup + 2 T water

Set your machine to dough cycle, hit start and walk away.

When it lets you know it’s done, grease a large mixing bowl, place the dough inside, turn over, then cover and let rise about 30 minutes, or til nearly double.

Next, knead the dough lightly, let rest 5-10 minutes then roll out to your pan shape/size.

Add your toppings and bake in a 425F oven for 8-20 minutes (depends on your toppings, so keep an eye on it!)

Let your pizza rest for 5-10 minutes after baking to let any cheese “set” and not be runny. Enjoy!

Apparently the City of Salem is becoming a nationwide spectacle over this chicken mess. So much so that the Wall Street Journal is interested. I guess the mayor thinks it’s because they’re dragging it out so long, which I suppose could be part of it, but I think the other part of it is that chickens are even such an issue. It’s rediculous! We can have pot bellied pigs, and we don’t have a leash law (which makes me nervous…) but we can’t have chickens. Sigh. Priorities, people?

Yeah, not so much! But I finally needed to water yesterday. I need to do more weed control, I might as well not have bothered before. I hate weeds. Mulch, either organic or plastic, will be my friend next year. Don’t ask why I didn’t use it this year, it might have been forgetfulness, or laziness, or both? Maybe?

The russet potatoes are huge! But the red potatoes seem to be dying, I don’t get it. The reds aren’t even 6 inches tall, while the russets are a couple feet. Very weird. We do have teeny tiny cucumbers, but no tomato fruit yet. Lots of flowers, so I hope soon!

Happy Father’s Day

to all my daddy readers!

….that sounds weird. You know what I mean :p

I loved this spring. We had a week of hot and it’s been so mild otherwise. Think it’ll last into summer?

…or the lack there of…

Once gain, I’m looking through the Territorial Seed Winter 2009 catalog and just wishing because we think we might move come tax-refund-time. The yard is great, but this house is too damn small. We need at least one more bedroom, preferably 2. I also need a full size dishwasher, because this half size one with 6 people is almost useless. I do 2 loads and then hand wash 2 sinkfuls of dishes (because half the stuff won’t even fit in the dishwasher!), every day, and it’s really not fun. I’m too busy with kids and work to spend 2 hours a day on dishes! I have no room for food storage, except in the garage and it’s annoying as all get out to deal with that, plus the garage gets too hot and I can’t keep potatoes and onions in there.

Can’t wait to buy a house! But it’ll be at least 4 years before that happens, so we’re stuck in this sort-of-but-not-really-able-to-make-plans life. Makes gardening a PITA. I can’t even plant flowers and TRY to keep them alive (container flowers always – always - die on me). Can’t I just win the lottery? I keep playing (and really, people criticize me for that, when I spend $4 a month on Powerball tickets, and then they go and buy $5 cups of Starbucks every day..and wonder why I look at them like they’re morons) but the machines never give me the winning tickets. Stupid machines!

I did manage to get out and weed after these picture were taken, but honestly, it’s so bad that all I could do before my back gave out was clear out around the each of the plants. Some gardener I am

I have garden pictures but need to find my card reader to get them onto the computer. It’s growing great, mostly in spite of me – definitely not because of! The snap peas are going crazy. I think the weather has freaked out the onions, a couple have bolted and are flowering. The potatoes, compared to last year especially, are monsters. I’ll have to take some comparison photos.

I’ve been crazy busy. Work is picking up wonderfully. The kids are doing great with their school work.

I did a close-to-authentic mexican dinner today. One of those all day affairs? Yeah, it was :drool good. I started carnitas this morning, along with homemade refried beans.Then before dinner, I made spanish rice and served it all (with cheese, tomatoes, salsa, etc) on tortilla shells. Which I wanted to do homemade, but I think I did enough for one day.

The rest of the week I’ll be working but hopefully I can get a day to do some weeding because there is easily 2-3 times as many weeds in the garden, and they are taller than most of the plants!