hummingbirdkiss

OMG CSU that makes perfect sense! I remember I used to have a neighbor who dug half her garden put organic waste grass clippings whatever in it and covered it then the next year planted on that side ..she would go back and forth ..never occured to me to try this I am going to start doing that on on of the tiers I plan to plant next year .. thanks

let me say first of all I AM SO SORRY YOU HAVE TO BE TENTED!!!! HUGS!!!!! second I love mango pie with coconut milk, palm or regular sugar.. lime and cardamom in the filling (just make to your taste ...light on the cardamom ..you can use mace if you dont have the cardamom or even ginger to go with your gingersnaps) ..I just toss it together with a couple of tbl corn starch I usually just put a top crust on but you could make a topping with the gingersnaps ...some coconut ...and butter I think? then just bake it like a pie! sorry I dont have a recipe I just made this filling one time and it was really good

thanks for the response and questions I was not sure how much someone would need ...if this was a common thing I just have just never seen ....or what? here you go the scoop part holds almost exactly a dry measure cup it is 13 inches long and 3 inches high it measures from 0-200 grams or 0-7 oz the scoop part sits on the base and just comes apart when you are done or I leave it like you see it and it says "made in France" in English it does have a stamp that says b.i.s.g.d.c. (I think but it is really hard to read)

8 correct...I suck.. but it was fun guessing...thanks!

Ok I have had this scale and used it for years and years...People always ask me about it and I have nothing to say! because I have no clue except I just love it...it works for my needs... it is cast aluminium..it measures grams and oz ..you just slide the thing in the middle of the spoon part to the amt you want and then scoop until you balence it like shown (make sense?) ... I got it forever ago at a thrift store for a dollar ..the only marking besides the measurments says "made in France" I have never seen another like it ..does it have a name? can anyone tell me more than it is a scale? thanks in advance

ok one more thing about tourism and the SW ...Chufi if it was not for tourists there would be a lot of starving and homeless people there...honestly ..you will see untold beauty eat wonderful food as you drive these roads around the Canyon ...and elsewhere through Arizona and New Mexico ...... but also you will see severe, unexpected poverty like you may never have seen before... so really be proud of spending yor tourist dollars in a place where there is very little other work for folks... have a wonderful trip!

That soup looks wonderful!!!!

PS if you are a good hiker it only takes a few min to get away from any crowds .."tourists" do not walk that far

I am gasping ..but agree go ..drive ..enjoy a Navajo taco! I am not at all touristy obviously and I will never ever forget the Grand Canyon or the hiking I did there amazing sight besides most kids are back to school in September so you will miss the high season probably

No you can not live with yourself and not see and hike the Grand Canyon!!!...go there!!! of course!!! it is a world treasure!!! Nothing will prepare you for just how beautiful it actually is ..so the hell with the tourists ..go!!!

a friend of mine took beef jerkey to Japan when she went to see her family and the teens went wild over it! if you have good local jerky do not over look it as a gift!

I agree that after smoking in a typical 250 degree smoker the skin is rubbery and not at all fit for service. For this reason, I typically undercook the chicken during the smoking and then grill it to give the skin a fighting chance of being eaten. ← me too... I do a little of everything actually ..butterfly it ...a very short (like 30 min max in brine) .....under cook it with the smoke (indirect heat ...wet chips in foil on the coals) at about 250...then get the heat up (like about 325-350) still use indirect heat ..dip it in sauce and grill turn dip grill turn dip grill until you have the glaze you want... voila BBQ chicken with nice smoke flavor inside sticky sauce glaze on the outside..

for an appetizer this is super easy to make.. the only thing I have ever heard them called is a Korean style California roll .. You just julliane the following Carrots Green onions Egg pancake cooked thin with a little toasted sesame seed (I roll the cool pancake and slice it thin) Pickled diakon Fried tofu or marinated strips of cooked cooled meat …crab is good ..my friend shreds the fake crab legs Spinach (whatever you like actually) do all the prep of these the day before ..make more than you think you will need and just put them in zippy bags... Day of pile the items on a platter in a circle of attractive piles in the center put a bowl of sauce made with soy sauce a few dashes of vinegar and a shot of wasabi (the stuff in the tube is fine) On the side put a big pile of toasted nori cut into squares … People take a sheet of nori then put a little of each thing inside and the sauce is spooned on top they are bite sized ..you can put small tongs on the platter if you don’t want people touching the piles of fillings or chopsticks whatever This really is a wonderful …very simple ..inexpensive...and popular party food …people hover and make their own while talking… Have fun hope this helps

Thank you so much for all your kindness and hard work ..I look so forward to your future posts and hope we can "hunt and gather" our way all the way through cyberspace!!! OOOXXX Heidi

Ok last Friday I went out to dinner at a lovely place in Olympia ...we ordered our food was brought to the table ..with in a few min the server came over and asked "so how is your food tasting?" I laughed so hard I almost fell off the chair ...I know this was rude and I had no way of actually explaining or even controling myself ...maybe it was the wine ...maybe it was the whole irony but it just hit me as hysterical and I felt compelled to post this

as you thin the cilantro and you should use the sprouts in salad or anyway you want to I think you will need bigger pots however 6 inchers are kind of small ..great for starting but small for growning .. if you can swing it I would use at least gallon sized pots for them and the lettuce..go for it ..I have peas growing like crazy in a three gallon bucket I get those for free from local restaurants poke holes in the bottom and they work beautifully for all kinds of things...lettuce tomatoes...just about anything you can think of you can grow in a 3 gallon bucket! when I grow lettuce I always just pick the outer leaves and leave the center growing until it bolts .....unless it is butter lettuce or something I want an entire head of ...so in a pot you can make more room by just trimming the plants as they grown good luck container planting is fun!

Make some mint chutney it uses a lot of mint .. 2 handfuls of fresh mint 2 jalepenos Juice of 2 limes 1 sweet onion Put everything into the food processor and chop it well add a little water if needed for consistancy taste and add salt if you like you can add anything to this but that is the basic recipe I use

If you have an Asian market you can usually find chestnut flour and/or dried chestnuts there for a very reasonable price Looking forward to your results report! "Having done some shopping I've found that this year it's extraordinarily difficult to get chestnut flour here in SA, unlike last year where it seemed like every shop had some. The only source I can find in Australia is Cheznuts. They have products in stores in Melbourne, so that might be ideal for you. I was able to get some fresh chestnuts, so I'll try making a puree from them and dehydrating it a little to concentrate the flavour. I'll keep you posted."

thank you so much for saying that I did not come like this ..it is an evolution on my part that is for sure ..and also a very cheap form of therapy! I have always wanted a beautiful garden from the time I was a little girl ...I wanted to grown flowers and vegetable ..having a place to wander and fuss over .....it is coming along and I love sharing it with you tamiam I am curious how your eggplants come out I have not thought of planting those! does anyone grow okra I resisted peppers again ..I want to ..I yearn to but I have wasted so much time and space to grow the worst peppers imaginable .. I will just wait for the ones from Eastern WA they are doing great with chiles the past few years!

cream of anything soup ... asparagus ..I take the tips and just set them aside ..dice up the stems cook them in chicken broth then puree and strain (if you want) ...saute the tips gently in butter just until tender ...add cream to the soup ..salt and pepper then stir the tips in and put a few on top for garnish use this process to make any cream of soup cream of carrots (cumin) creamy roasted corn chowder (add some potatoes and green chile) cream of mushroom (little shot of very good sherry added at the end) cream of tomato (basil) cream of spinach (garlic) cream of squash (with curry) cream of fresh peas (with some mint) cream of onion cream of garlic cream of leftover roasted vegetables you can take any vegetable you like and make a wonderful soup with just 3- 4 things added not including the salt and pepper'

I almost forgot !!! that particular brand of sorgum makes a really good caramel corn and granola ... just replace the molasses in a traditional recipe for either one

everything is doing great ..Eden I would love to see your garden do you have some pictures? salmon berry is a brilliant idea what a beautiful berry to put in the garden ..did you put it in a shaded area ? when I see them in the woods they are always deeply shaded and wondered if you could grow them in the sun as well? I need a gardener I feel ilke the more I work the more there is to do ..but then this garden gives a sense of purpose and keeps me pushing forward because the reward is so wonderful I almost adopted a goat .....I had this very fluffy vision of the goat only eating the weeds and grass ...then I was reminded that while they will not only eat you out of house and home they will eat your house as well ... so I am going to get some chickens instead and my husband offered to make a portable coup so we could just move them around the yard where we wanted them to scratch ..poop and eat ... maybe just another dog the one I have is very much into gardening and sometimes I find her toys and stuffed animals neaty planted in my raised beds I put all my strawberry thinnings in the stone walls of the tiers and they are filling in nicely ... the deer are starting to wander up my hill (please see my picture link below) that buck found his way into the yard later that evening I was sitting eating dinner and all of a sudden my husband yelled the "F" word and went running out the door just as I saw the deer taking one huge branch off my baby 5 way cherry we are working on building the gate over our driveway but it is a decorative wrought iron one that my husband is making himself ...he has made four already this is the last, largest and aboslutely most complicated one of them all!!! and I wanted him to work trilliums into the metal work ...so that further complicates this ..I can understand his frustrations! ...there is a strange shape of this entry way ..it needs to keep dogs in and keep deer out ..open and close easily ...not be foreboding to visiter but keep anyone who does not want to open a gate to help me find my true religion out.....the problme ..the entry is on a slope..not bad if you want it to open in the downward direction ..and we don't ....both sides are about a foot off the other ..it is not insurmountable I keep telling him!!! so we put a wire fence with strips of ripped cloth on it and hope he does not just jump over and feast away .. we have a couple of bunnies setting up house in the blackberries but there are tons of dandilions and other things for them to eat so they have been good and not found the raised beds yet ...we did fine with them last year ...I make a pile of trimmings for them far away from the garden and they seem to fill up on that and not venture farther into the yard.... no slugs yet but they have not been a huge problem for me we have a lot of wildlife up here and I am grateful for it ..and don't mind sharing some stuff ..but damn that beautiful deer managed to eat a whole branch in two seconds and I imagine it would have been a stump if we had not noticed...we have so many other options on this vegetable buffet I want my trees to grow to adulthood!!! other than that everything is doing great .. eating fresh salads of baby greens with radishes and baby onion thinnings every day ...along with something made with rhubarb daily as well my potatoes need another level added to the box they are shooting up as fast as I can pile the straw on top has anyone used straw to grow potatoes? this is my frist time trying this and it almost seems to cheap ..neat and easy!!! lots of pears on the 5 way Asian pear tree ..the pruned fig is finally starting to show its buds so I may yet get some figs ..I was so worried about that today is going to be much cooler and I have a section of the garden mapped out to work on when I finish this coffee ...right now the view is beautiful and rest feels good I am so looking forward if anyone else wants to share pictures ...the best ideas come from sharing I think already I have learned so much from you guys!

I made these yesterday and I am just overwhelmed at how well coconut and rhubarb taste together and the taste and textures of this simple very easy to make ... four of us ate it and four of us really love it .. it is a very nice dessert thank you so much actually everyone thank you ..the rhubarb is coming in nice big handfuls and picking up speed as we speak ... such a nice season Linda cardamom would be good in this lassi with the rhubarb for sure great idea thanks!

I have done it the way Dana mentioned as well but really packed it with a crust of cracked red white and black pepper ..Kosher salt and whatever else I could think of leaving it over night to dry the crust ...and then cooked exactly as mentioned ..cold leftovers are better than warm I think ...it makes a good sandwich ... eye of round does make good jerky...very neat ..uniform pieces ...you dont have to trim anything just slice the partially frozen meat about 1/3 inch thick ...marinate the slices with whatever you like ...(I have a recipe I can share if you want?)... if you do not have a dehydrator ... you can put tooth picks through it and hang it in the oven from the rack (with foil under for the drippings) and dry in the oven at the lowest setting until done ... I hope this makes sense? it is very easy and the jerky is uniform size and tender! you can also control your own seasonings so it does not have to be too salty

"Hah! Who would dare show photos after seeing the astonishing things you've done with your garden? You obviously have good taste, a good eye and a good back. To top it off, you have an incredible view of the Olympics. By the way, the unidentified greens in one of your photos looks like young broccoli rabe." OMG thank you!!! I look one way and see nothing but work...a lot of work ..and everything costs money!!! go figure... I dont want to work at my job for anymore than I do... I would rather be broke and in the garden than have money and have to be at work! ...Our weather finally turned and I just have to be outside! ..the only reason I am online now is because I am having coffee ....My house is a mess from neglect....is there such a thing as a gardenerholic? I picked a huge bowl of baby escarole and tiny onions yesterday that I am going to go eat for breakfast now .. what are you all harvesting now? please post pics it is so fun seeing what people grow ...even window boxes ..buckets whatever... I have an old clawfoot cast iron bathtub I wanted to plant as an herb garden ... or what else could I do with it? ..a fountain??? help?