September Survivors

It's been a month since I posted.... not sure if I should blame that on the extreme heat of August, the pregnancy, or just being lazy. Anyway... my garden has been neglected just as much as the blog, so what you see here are plants that can truly grow in the deep south, and clay soil, with zero care.
First up, turks cap hibiscus:

I got this at a plant sale in March, and it was just a few inches tall. Plopped it in the ground with a little compost, watered it maybe twice - and now it's 2 feet tall, bushy and thriving.

I planted two beautyberries last fall and have never watered either of them. This one is in the partial shade of the backyard, and is absolutely huge. The other one is in the front sun and is smaller, with smaller leaves and smaller berries (it's alive, though!).

The only things still producing from the spring veggie garden are eggplants and peppers. Both take a long time to get moving (especially started from seed!), but will produce deep into the fall. I have a couple of varieties of eggplant growing:

They have not been watered since the day they were planted.

A good use for summer veggies like tomatoes and banana peppers is nachos! This is one of my favorite recipes and a recent dinner:

I accidentally let some banana peppers turn red on the plant, and Scott has been using those in omelets. They taste surprisingly like bell peppers at that stage.

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

End of July Garden Updates

The forecast calls for it to be in the 100's here the next three days - just in time for the weekend, my only free time to work in the garden (very funny, Mother Nature). My garden has been suffering this year. I'm not sure if it's from the heat or what. Things that always bloom haven't (bearded iris, tiger lily), and my veggie garden has been ridiculously hit or miss (lots of green beans early, lots of cherry tomatoes and cowpeas later, a very few eggplant and larger tomatoes now, bell peppers just getting started, no cucumbers in sight, and some utter failures: corn, pole beans, butter beans, winter squash).

One weird thing about pregnancy is that your tastes change, so some things I planted in the garden the spring don't appeal to me now, namely eggplant.

This is the second year I've grown these asian eggplants from seed. The basil and black krim tomatoes were grown from seed, too (the red tomatoes are from a friend). Trying to figure out what to do with these eggplants that sounded remotely appetizing right now was a challenge, but then I found this recipe. I basically followed it except that before frying the eggplant pieces, I breaded them in flour with salt and pepper mixed in (and skipped the step about drying the eggplant pieces after rinsing them). It was so good!

The tiny fish pond is the only area of the yard that looks lush. I was thrilled to find this helvola dwarf water lily blooming! Word to the wise, even a dwarf lily will send out an incredible number of lily pads. I'm glad I didn't just get a small lily, because this is all our ~100 gallon pond can handle.

These naked ladies took a couple of years to bloom, but they were worth the wait. They are a shimmery pale pink and so pretty.

I love how they come up literally overnight on these long stems.

The heat has not put a damper on the critters. Check out this neat/creepy sphinx moth that was hanging out in our carport last weekend. It was huge! It reminded me of the stealth bomber.

Have a great weekend and stay cool!

Back to the garden!

It's been a busy summer (more on that soon), but I didn't realize it had been nearly a month since my last post - yikes! If anyone is still reading, here is a snapshot of what's happening in our garden in hot, hot July:

Above: I bought this veronica last year because it was covered with bees at the nursery. Looks like that wasn't a fluke.
Below: orange "roadside" daylilies, pink double delight coneflowers, and shasta daisies brighten up the front yard.

The vegetable garden is mostly thriving, with the exception of the epic failure of corn. These sungold cherry tomatoes are delicious and prolific. A keeper for sure.

Dinner tonight included three crops from our garden: snap beans, potatoes and pinkeye purple hull peas. I cooked the beans and potatoes in homemade vegetable stock for 30 minutes (with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper). For the peas, I sauteed yellow onion and jalapeno in butter, then added hot water, shelled peas, and s&p. Cooked for about 30 minutes, then stirred in chopped tomato just before serving.

Our pond is doing surprisingly well in the midst of its first hot summer. We haven't had an algae problem yet, and the three original fish are still kicking. Here is the pond last August, right after we finished installing it:

And here it is now! A beautyberry, a turks cap hibiscus, and a confederate rose hibiscus frame the pond and help hide the fence. In the pond are a mini water lily (helvola), Louisiana irises dug out of my mom's lake, pickerel rush, and a variety of annual floating plants.

Thanks for sticking with me though my inadvertently long break! Happy 4th!

GBBC and Valentine's Day

We participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count last weekend, and it was a very cool experience. We only spent 15-30 minutes observing each day. Here is what we saw:

SATURDAY:

2 Northern Cardinals
1 American Goldfinch
1 Carolina Wren
1 White Throated Sparrow
1 House Finch
2 Mockingbirds

This mockingbird (I think) perched in the bottle tree like a real tree cracked me up.

SUNDAY:
2 Mourning Doves
1 White Throated Sparrow
2 Tufted Titmice
1 Carolina Chickadee
8 American Robins
2 Northern Cardinals
2 House Finches
+/-25 American Crows (creepy!)
1 MockingbirdHow cute is this goldfinch?!

Moving on...

Scott and I are very low-key about holidays, and generally don't buy each other gifts. Since he works nights, we hardly ever see each other - so a Valentine's Day spent at home together was a treat! We just cooked and lounged around. I made these blueberry scones with lemon glaze for breakfast:

Here is Tyler Florence's recipe for the scones. He says not to use frozen blueberries but I often do, and they work out fine. I half the amount of lemon juice and butter in the glaze recipe, otherwise it is too thin.

Scott made my favorite, eggplant parmesan, for dinner. It was delicious (tough to photograph, though, and I didn't feel like spending much time on it and letting my meal get cold).

Here is the basic recipe. This is from Bobby Flay's Throwdown. We use regular old shredded mozzarella, parmesano reggiano instead of the romano, and a mixture of lowfat milk and one egg rather than the four eggs. We use this sauce recipe, which is from my favorite vegetarian chef, Heidi Swanson (her cookbook Cook 1.0 is awesome).

White Trash Toffee was our dessert:

This stuff is addictive, and so easy! Get the recipe here. I sub pecans.

Savory and Sweet Summery Pies

Every gardener ends up with too much of something, such as the notorious zucchini. Here are a couple of family recipes I make to use up some of the excess:

1. Tomato Tart -- this is me and my mom's adaptation of a Junior League of Jackson recipe (original recipe is in the cookbook "Come On In"). It helps me use up basil when I'm tired of pesto! You'll need to preheat the oven to 350.
Ingredients:
Defrosted frozen pie crust (not deep dish)
8 oz. shredded mozzarella
Fresh basil, sliced in a chiffonade
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Tomatoes, thick sliced and drained on paper towels

Put the mozzarella in the crust, then top with basil. Top that with the tomatoes as shown below.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes and then sprinkle with S&P. Bake for about 35 minutes. It will need to sit for a few minutes before slicing, and you should drain off any excess water. It's also great leftover, cold, room temperature, or hot. I slice this in about 10 slices (slivers, really) for a party, four slices for a meal. 2. Apple Crisp -- OK, this isn't a pie, but it's in a pie pan! Anyway, my mom has three apple trees that produce "cooking apples," which seem to be the only kind of apples that grow well in the deep south. She gives me BAGS of them every summer, so I made up this recipe a few weeks ago, and it is delicious. First, preheat your oven to 350.
I combined diced cooking apples with some white sugar and fresh lemon juice. You could leave out the white sugar if you were using granny smith apples instead. Spread this mixture in a pie pan or similar shallow dish.

Combine the following and spoon atop the apple mix: chopped pecans, cinnamon, brown sugar, a little flour, a pinch of salt, small chunks of butter.

Bake for about 35 minutes. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

What do you make or do with your excess garden produce?