The garden is almost ready

I spent a lot of time on the garden this weekend.  Here are a couple pictures of the progress so far.  I have the following vegetables planted so far.  I will post a longer list of activities as the season progresses.

• Better Boy Tomatoes (5)
• Big Boy Tomatoes (5)
• Yellow Hierloom Tomatoes (2)
• Goliath Tomatoes (6)
• Broccoli
• Green Onions
• Broccoli
• Radishes
• Carrots
• Crowder Peas
• Lima Beans
• English Peas
• Silver Queen white corn
• Yellow Squash
• Zuchinni Squash
• Hot pepper mix
• Sweet pepper mix
• Okra
• Eggplant

 

It’s that time again!

It's that time again!.

Once again, I have found a good article on a blog from someone who is really ready for planting in their garden. I hope she is successful this season and I will be following her blog through the summer.

Squash, Winter Festival

Reblogged from The Land Rover Owners Wife:

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This is a record of how long this particular set of seeds took to germinate and how they looked at various stages from first appearance to the development of the first set of true leaves and beyond. I hope this will prove useful.

Variety: Winter Festival

Sown indoors: 29th March 2013

First Seedling: 11th April 2013

Germination: 13 days

Read more… 104 more words

I finally had time to plant my squash and Zucchini seedlings in the garden and they are not doing that great. I believe they have sun scald or something like it because the leaves have turning yellow and shriveling up. I'm not sure what I did wrong with them but I hope they can bounce back soon or I'll have to just buy some plants from the big box store. I thought this was an interesting blog to re-post on my site today since I've been out of the game lately with my posts. I hope to get back in the swing of things as I continue planting stuff in the garden this Spring. I've so busy with my wife's blog @ http://twistystitches.biz that I haven't had time to post anything on my blog.

Ever heard of a Chicken Bog?

A co-worker of mine recently stopped by my office and asked me to say the first thing that comes to mind when he says “Chicken Bog”.  I really had no reply because my mind started racing to figure out what a Chicken Bog really was.  I didn’t want to look dumb but I believe my expression gave me away this time.  :)

I really thought this had something to do with chicken manure or something for the garden but alas, it has little to do with gardening or manure.  I did a quick search this evening for more information about Chicken Bog and this is what I found…

CHICKEN BOG RECIPE

Traditional Preparation

A coastal South Carolina delicacy with chicken, sausage, and rice – This authentic recipe was contributed by the Loris Chamber of Commerce.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 cups water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (3 pound) whole chicken
• 3 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1/2 pound smoked sausage of your choice, sliced
• 2 tablespoons Italian-style seasonings
• 2 cubes chicken bouillon

PREPARATION:

Place water, salt and onion in a large pot. Add chicken and bring all to a boil; cook until chicken is tender, about 1 hour.

Remove chicken from pot and let cool. Remove skin and bones and chop remaining meat into bite size pieces.

Skim off fat from cooking liquid and measure 3 1/2 cups of this chicken broth into a 6-quart saucepan. Add rice, chicken pieces, sausage, herb seasoning and bouillon to this saucepan. Cook all together for 30 minutes; let come to a boil, then reduce heat to low, keeping pan covered the whole time. If mixture is too watery or juicy, cook over medium low heat, uncovered, until it reaches the desired consistency. Stir often while cooking.

Chicken Bog

What is a Chicken Bog? “While anecdotal evidence exists that the name ‘chicken bog’ was related to the “boggy” nature of its home, the Pee Dee, in his book Stews, Bogs and Burgoos, southern writer, James Villas claims that a ‘bog’ (unlike a pilau) is any stew that includes wet, soggy rice. ‘Pilau’ more commonly know as pilaf is a dish consisting of sautéed and seasoned or steamed rice often prepared with meat, shellfish or vegetables.

Karen Hess, author of the benchmark work, The Carolina Rice Kitchen, describes chicken bog as “a pilau made in large batches, which would always cause it to end up wet.” Culinary historian Damon Lee Fowler defines chicken bog as “a highly localized form of pilau, probably of African provenance, in the U.S. found only in South Carolina.” Traditionally, the only ingredients are chicken, rice, sausage, and onions, seasoned with salt and plenty of black pepper.

Whether a bog is a bog or a soggy pilau, this one-course dish remains the stuff of South Carolina legends. The bog even has its own festival, the annual Loris Bog-Off Festival, which pits bog chefs against each other in an annual chicken bog cooking contest. Started in 1979 and held every October, the festival features a parade, arts, crafts, games, local bands and gospel singing. See our Festivals & Events listings for great SC food festivals held year round.

Recipe: Candied Orange Slices

I have been looking for this candied orange slices recipe for the last couple weeks and I think I found it, finally!  It all started about 3 years ago when I was watching some videos on the NYTimes.com website made by The Minimalist.  I believe his name is Mark Bittman.  I know he still writes a blog over there but I couldn’t find this recipe nor the video he created anywhere.

I was finally able to find the recipe that is as close to the original as I can get.  If I remember correctly, the recipe that I tried years ago took hours and hours to complete with a lot of simmering.  :)  This recipe seems to be much quicker so I’m going to give it a try this Sunday if I have some time.  These were absolutely delicious with some vanilla bean ice cream or some sweetened mascarpone cheese.

Candied Orange Slices

1 Large Navel Orange (or any citrus really)

1.5 cups water

1/2 cups granulated white sugar

 

Let it boil for about 5-10 minutes, turning once or twice, then reduce the heat to medium and let it continue cooking for about 30 minutes turning occasionally.

The liquid will thicken and become a syrup. Reduce the heat until the oranges are at a low simmer… continue cooking and occasionally turning until the syrup is thick and the oranges are translucent but still in tact.

Remove from heat but let the orange slices remain in the pan as they cool for about 10 minutes… then remove to a sheet of wax paper to cool completely.

Here’s the link that I found for the Candied Orange Slices:  http://therepressedpastrychef.blogspot.com/2008/07/candied-orange-slices.html

Just in case the blog above disappears, I’m going to print it out also.  If you want to try this recipe I would recommend you print it out also.  Just in Case!

Enjoy

 

Garden Expansion (Melon Patch and Bean Teepee) Completed!

Garden Expansion (Melon Patch and Bean Teepee) Completed!.

I received a request from Spy Garden to check out their new blog and I’m glad I took some time to visit them. I think the bean teepee is a great idea and I can’t wait to see the melons growing in their new plots. I really enjoyed the drawings that the kids created. Check them out and give them some Likes and Follows.

Blotanical.com

Blotanical.com

Join the friendliest bunch of gardeners from all corners of the globe. You don’t have to be a garden blogger – you just need to enjoy nature and all that it has to offer.

Great Arts and Crafts blog

I found a very cool arts and crafts blog site this weekend.  It looks like the site is a fairly new blog but so far some of the articles are very interesting.  The site is called Twisty Stitches @ http://twistystitches.biz

I always try to promote new blogs to my readers and would suggest that if you know of an interesting site or blog, send it my way and I will give them a looksy.

It has been a couple weeks since my last gardening post but I have been very busy with yard-work and preparing my garden plots for the Spring.  I have planted some early tomato seeds along with some peppers, eggplant and squash so I can get a good start this year.  The family and I spent a couple hours yesterday cleaning up some undergrowth and leaves in the lower part of the yard yesterday.  It looks like the previous occupants of our house spent some time discarding their garbage at the edge of the woods so we had to contend with old water hoses and garbage underneath the leaves.

I also found a pile of metal as well as about 30 eight foot landscape timbers piled up deep in the woods.  Not sure I will try to salvage the timbers because I’m sure there are some nice snakes, spiders and scorpions in that pile.

I would like to ask you to click on the Like and Share buttons at the bottom of this post to help me promote my blog for other gardeners.  I am always looking for new blogs to read so if you have a blog or know of an interesting blog please leave a comment below.  I will check it out and may even drop a quick review on my blog if it is interesting.

Recipe: Broccoli and Cheese Soup

This recipe is for one of my new followers to my blog.  I hope you try this recipe “Life Is Short. Eat Hard!”

Broccoli and Cheese Soup

Spicy Sausage Cornbread Pudding Recipe

I just added this recipe to my blog and I hope my readers will try it out.  I was very happy with the results but I will warn you, doubling the recipe will make it better.  :)  You won’t regret it!

http://thehomevegetablegardener.wordpress.com/recipes/spicy-sausage-cornbread-pudding/