Yesterday in the Garden

YESTERDAY, we found a wittle turtle in the flower garden. 

Fluffy Whole Wheat Cinnamon Muffins

I based my recipe on this one at Food.com.  It sounded pretty good but there were a number of complaints about it being tasteless, dry, and sometimes burnt.  (Other people raved about it, honest ;)

I knew though if I made it with White Whole Wheat flour that it wouldn't get any more moist, because Whole Wheat flour can really absorb  moisture.  I also knew that I'd need a little more leavening because WWF is heavy due the extra protein and bran.

So I made these this morning and they were very very light and fluffy.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat flour
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup organic sugar (depending on how sweet you like things)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 slightly heaping teaspoon cinnamon (you can certainly add more)
• vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk or cream
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/3 cup organic applesauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Get out your cupcake tin and line it.  Makes 12 muffins.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Combine eggs, oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir.
5. ADJUSTMENT.  Weather can change how wet or dry a batter turns out.  This batter should be moist, like a thick cake batter.  If it isn't moist enough add more milk and/or applesauce.  (If it's dry in the bowl, it will be dry in the mouth.
6. Fill muffin tin about 2/3 full.  If you are going to add streusel, this  is the time.  (To spoil my kids, I push a small marshmallow into the center of one of the muffins.)
7. Bake at 300 degrees for about 15 - 18 minutes. (Don't over bake. Have your knife ready to test!)

Cheery Doorway Idea

I couldn't find what I wanted -- which was a plant hanger with two hooks.  So I made my own using a tall wrought iron hook and a shorter hook, placing them side by side.  

I want to place another set on the other side of the landing.  The petunia varieties that I chose are ones that will eventually trail over the sides.  I think it'll be really cheery.

Quickie Chart for Square Foot Plant Spacing

clicking on image makes it bigger if using Firefox

Totally doing things a bit differently this year.  I'm going back to growing some veggies along with flowers.

For this busy mom, the only way to have tasty toms and garden fresh red peppers is Intensive gardening.  Most people are familiar with Mel Bartholomew's interpretation of this tidy, efficient form: Square Foot Gardening. 

 I'm constantly referring back to this useful chart.

Pam :)

FREE DIY BOOKS

Found these Free books at Amazon.  I've downloaded them but not had the chance to evaluate them.**

**on another site I am an Amazon Affiliate. There's a tag on these books, even though I make nada, so I can track whether anyone finds this helpful.

 
25 Low Fat Vegetarian Meals
Lose Weight and Feel Great With These Vegetarian Dishes 









 35 Easy Casserole Recipes
The Easy Casseroles Recipe Collection







 
The Absolute Beginners Guide to Homesteading

WooT! National Grilled Cheese Month

It's National Grilled Cheese Month. And I see no reason not to use this goofy fact to pull together an exceedingly inexpensive meal (or two) for the family. 

If it were cold --like it was last week in Northern Virginia-- I'd add soup.  But since it's gotten very warm I'll be tossing in a salad to round things out.  (Best thing is that even picky Dave will eat grilled cheese.)

IF you don't know how to cook a good grilled cheese sandwich, check out these instructions at the All Recipes website.  Or if you're looking to spice things up, I like these two recipes:  Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich and the Italian Grilled. 

As for soups, I don't think anything goes as well as tomato.

Bon Appetit!

Duh. Pie Ring with Foil!

Why didn't I think of this before? 

The Pie Ring protects the edges.

The Pie Ring covered in foil makes it super easy to protect the entire crust WITHOUT having to mess with tenting foil in the oven.

Yes, Sugar IS Poison

I will look at this before I cook. I will look at this before I bake.

Must educate myself, so I can educate my kids.

Onions Arrived!

Our onions arrived from Johnny's Seeds yesterday.  I chose lovely Walla Wallas because they have nice green tops perfect for dicing.   

Here's a picture of a few that I've planted in your standard plastic planter box.  I have a place for them out in the garden, but it's been very cold.  In fact, there's currently melting snow on the lawn.  Using the planter allows me to haul them inside.

You can see they've already look greener.

And since hub and I are stepping up our anti-deer, anti-bug plan this year using a kennel (which I'll add a photo of later).   I'm thinking I might hang some planters of things deer don't like on the outside.

Looking forward to fresh salads with delish chopped scallions. 

SAVING MR. PARSLEY

What better way to start a blog about home than with something totally inane.  An herb saver is what I'm talking about.

Since I started gravitating back to my hippie-dippie roots, there's a lot more herbs hanging around the house.  And since it's Winter there's nothing in the garden but remnants, twigs and stems. So I'm having to pay hard cold cash for my thyme, rosemary, parsley and cilantro. 

I found this herb saver on Amazon for $7 dollars. You might be able to get a better deal locally, but since we have Amazon Prime I thought that was a reasonable price.  And now that I've found that it works, I'm going to buy a couple more.

Sad parsley left unloved in the fridge

Look!  The parsley actually looks better.  (What wonders water will work)

Here's the parsley crammed into it's new home.