chickees!!!

i finally talked my hubby into chickens!!! so these are my two banty chicks- ones a brahma, one i dunno? i have three buff orpington chicks coming in a couple of weeks. but they are sooooo cute. and we heart them. the kitties are rather confused about it though. one wants to play with them, and the other is so jealous, and hates the world. but yay for the chickens!!! i will have to post a picture of the chicken coop my hubby built. (ps i have the best hubby ever.)

its a celebration b*tches!

now that i started things off with a line from dave chappelle, i must say, its really is cause for a celebration. I HAVE MY VERY FIRST TOMATO!!! and thank goodness, because i was out trimming the tops off all my plants, because they just had to grow taller than the wallo waters, and the frost night before last showed them whats up. sad day, i probably lost 20 tomato blossoms. anyways, i have my first tomato! that guy is mine in a couple of months!

where i live

i live in the desert of southern nevada people. not las vegas southern, but its still called southern, even tho we are up the mountains, freezing out tushies off most of the time. there are all sorts of weird things to behold here (things you dont see in texas) and there is no water. yet i have the urge to plant things that require lots of water all the time. its ridiculous really. the town i live in is so small that they actually just started using water meters to bill people. ! it amazes me. of, and the power goes out frequently. last time it was out for 8 hours i think, all because some shithead was using a forklift and knocked down a telephone pole. and knocking down one telephone pole causes the whole town to lose electricity. for eight hours. this is where i live. ridiculous. but it is neat, to have a mountain on the other side of my street. oh, which by the way is cemetery lane. and guess what. my dead neighbors out populate the live ones by like, oh, 5 to 1. but its quiet. and i get a kick out of the dead end sign on my street. but i will leave you with a sunset from my backyard...

delicious blueberry goooooodness!

i made this when my in-laws were here. (don't you know i try to show off my impressive cooking skills to anyone who eats?!?!) this was sooo good, and it was still delicious the next day. but alas, i had to use frozen blueberries because sadly, i have very alkaline soil. poo.

Blueberry Crumb Cake
From Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

For the crumbs
-5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
-1/3 cup all purpose flour
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup chopped walnuts (i left theses out, we don't eat nuts in this house, lol)

For the cake
-1 pint (two cups) blueberries (preferably fresh, or frozen, not thawed)
-2 cups plus 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon slat
-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
-2/3 cup sugar
-Grated zest of 1/2 lemon or 1/4 orange (i used orange)
-3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
-2 large eggs, at room temperature
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk

---center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. butter an 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.
---to make the crumbs--- put all the ingredients except the nuts into a food processor and pulse until the micture forms clumps and curds and holds together when pressed. scrape the topping into a bowl, mix in the nuts, and press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface. (covered well, the crumb mix can be refrigerated for up to three days.)
---to make the cake--- using your fingertips, toss the blueberries and 2 teaspoons of the flour together in a small bowl just to coat the berries; set aside. whisk together the remaining two cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
-working in the bowl of a stand mixer or in another large bowl, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic. add the butter and, with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar with the butter at medium speed until light, about three minutes. add the eggs one by one, beating for one minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla extract. dont be concerned if the batter looks curdled- it will soon smooth out. reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, the flour in three parts, and the buttermilk in two (begin and end with the dry ingredients). you will have a thick, creamy batter. with a rubber spatula gently stir in the berries. scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the tip gently with the spatula. pull the crumb mix from the refrigerator and, with your fingertips, break it into pieces. there's no need to try to get even pieces- these are crumbs, they are meant to be lumpy. scatter the crumbs over the batter, pressing them down ever so lightly.
-bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden and a thin knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. transfer to a rack and cool until it is just warm or until it reaches room temperature.

and this is now.

that mess, is what i call my garden. i will take all the wallo waters down next week, and show you what is actually growing! but i think our last freeze is in two days, so i dont want to mess with it now. oh yeah, and thanks to the DH again for putting up the fence as well lol.

back tracking.

so i wanted to back track today, and show you the by-products of tilling the garden. i love my husband, because if it wasn't for his brute strength i could have never accomplished tilling the garden. well, i can't take any credit really, he did the entire thing himself. but apparently God does have a sense of humor. He thinks rocks, particularly big ones, are funny.

I LOVE my new cookbook!

so i bought Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. i love it with all my heart. and i made creme brulee. and it was delicious. and easy. and it gave me a reason to buy a little blowtorch!!!

Creme Brulee
from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk (i used 1% and it still worked)
3 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
about 6 tablespoons sugar for topping

---Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.
---Bring the cream and milk just to a boil.
---Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla together in a bowl until well blended, but not airy. Still whisking, drizzle in about one quarter of the hot liquid (to temper the eggs). Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the dream and milk. Give the bowl a good rap against the counter to de-bubble to custard, then strain it into the baking dishes. (I used 4 ramekins, it says to use 6, but we wanted more custard.)
---Bake the custards for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the centers are set. Lift the dishes to a cooling rack and let them sit until they reach room temperature.
---Cover each custard and refrigerate at least three hours. The sugar will not carmelize properly unless the custard is COLD.
---Sprinkle the top of the custard with about 1 tablespoon of sugar, and blowtorch away my dears! Just start off easy until you get the hang of it, you don't want really burnt sugar.

Apologies First

I am so bad. NO posts in a month and a half. but let me explain. first, it was freezin ass cold, and i think i had plenty of pictures of seedlings, and my in-laws were here for a week, and then I had my wisdom teeth out. so i am sorry. but now i can get back to posting. and to start things off, here's a few pictures of my blooming fruit trees!!! i have no idea what they are, lol, they were here when we moved in, and since this is my first spring/ summer here, i guess i will just have to find out. but the bees are having a blast. and i found their hive. its underground! anyways...

what IS this?!?!

what the hell is this? i found it while i was digging in my flower beds. is is some sort of fungus? i dont like it. haha.

PLANTED: gladiola bulbs

i finally got the friggin flower bed weeded- or de- grassified. it only took my three days. but i got my first set of bulbs put in the ground. now all i have to do is wait for them to come up, and who knows how long that will take...

death has been *eek* avoided?!

so i haven't killed everything folks. i lost 3 tomatoes. sad day. but now i have a whole new tray of seedlings just waiting to check out mother earth. so i will be giving away tomato seedlings this year. but damnit. screw the blue. fertilizer that is. ohhhhh, and my parsley has its first true leaf. *sniffle* i am so proud.

snuggly huggy bun

so i was convinced that i had killed everything, and i decided what the heck, and started a whole 'nother tray of seedlings. this t. pink tomato germinated in 1 1/2 days and he came out hugging himself. i think its so cute!

wanna cuddle?

SH*T!

i over- fertilized. my maters are now marching towards their respective graves. i was told to pull them out and soak them in clean water to see if they can flush themselves out. well we will see... i friggin want to slap myself right now.

tomato on death bed.
last ditch attempt to save tomato babies from my murderous grasp.

warm weather

makes me want to drink iced tea. sweet ice tea of course, i am from texas after all.

my first child

it may as well be, i post enough pictures of him... the first brandywine, growing up!

the monster from the closet!!!!!!

well i thought all my tomato seeds were done germinating. so i put the tray up in a pitch black cabinet and left it. and i looked at it today, thinking about starting my green onions, and i found this little guy. no light= leggy seedling. i committed murder though, i doubt i could have gotten him to amount to anything. mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

i lost 3 maters. i am a bad mommy :(

stupid damping off. ugh. damnit.

angry with puss.

one of my cats is the coolest thing in the planet. she plays fetch (seriously, i have a video of it if you don't believe me), comes when you call, rough houses on the floor. but you let her out after dark, and she becomes deaf, or forgets her name, i can't figure out which one it is. so we had to get our handy dandy 10 million candle power spotlight out and go on a kitty hunt. here's the culprit.

but my deer are coming back, i saw 8 does and one teeeensy weeensy buck. tiny. and i love them so, but how i will be cursing their very existence in 2 months! but they are more than welcome to come poop in my yard.

march of the maters

mater babies are making progress. since thursday! so i learned something today. that potato leaf tomatoes have smooth edged leaves, and normal ones look like amoebas. at least i think they look like amoebas. but amoebas aside, i was wondering why my brandywine tomatoes had smooth edges... google! i ended up on thisgardenisillegal.com. i am fascinated with all her tomato tastings and whatnot. so back to marching maters, i know no one wants to hear me blab, they want to see my mater babies!! gotta give people what they want you know.
freshly potted up brandywine
tlacolula pink- amoeba leaves!

herbies

that is my name for baby herbs. herbies. i love them. the basils smell sooo good already, but they are only one bites worth of goodness. so i will let them get bigger before i eat them. i have several things going... everything is labeled in the picture except for the basil, i have sweet and genovese going. i thought i was a failure with the little seeds (mint, thyme, organo) but after a little extra tlc they stuck their heads out to see what was going on. they are so tiny though. and then the parsley! i was informed that parsley has to "go to hell 7 times and back" before they would germinate. well they popped out too! i swear, if i could grow plants year round, i dont think i would ever need to have a human baby, because i love my little botanical children so much. DH thinks that i am a little nutty for it tho.

my wee babies

i love my wee little babies. i would let them sleep in the bed with me if i could. but alas, my DH probably doesnt want them in bed with us, he can barely stand the cats. i finally got around to taking pictures of them! i am growing a few different types of tomatoes this year... DH thinks that i am crazy i believe, since this is my first year with a garden. i am so gung- ho about it, i figure the more the merrier, that way if i kill 90% of everything i will still have something to eat, right? this year i went with Black from Tula, Brandywine, Tlacolula Pink, and Matt's Wild Cherry. The top photo is of my first tomato seedling, a Brandywine, that is about 2 1/2- 3 wks old. Everyone else ranges from 1 1/2 wks to 3 days (those cherry tomatoes were scaring me, I never thought they would germinate! well i roasted the heck out of their tray, and lo and behold, little babies came up three days ago!)

Brandywine Baby

Black from Tula/ Tlacolula Pink

Stubborn Baby Cherry Tomatoes