...And He Bought Me A Camera

Before he took me to my favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner, and before he took me to my very first Circus...Peter gave me a gift I had been wishing for, for months.

A brand new Cannon EOS Rebel T3. A digital camera that is top of the line, and takes amazing pictures. Peter always inspires me to take up new things to expand my creativity. Now, my outlet is photography, just enough time now that my vegetable garden is at its end of life.

Because the only training I have ever had when it comes to still shots is my high school photography class, my pictures have many common mistakes which divide them from the standard of photographs my Aunt Lisa takes. But I can't wait to channel her talent and force her to educate me on the million things this camera is capable of doing.

At this moment I have realize I do not like taking portraits. However using my dogs as subjects or capturing landscape seems to be my forte.

Following is my first round of pictures that I am actually proud of...all staring Peter and I's amazing dogs.

...And Its About Time

(Last Garden Update)

I was extremely discouraged when it came to our very first vegetable garden. In previous posts I ranted about all the things that went wrong (and are still going wrong). Still our garden managed to produce some editable fruits and vegetables! While we still have at least 20 tomatoes and 15 peppers still maturing, I figured everyone was getting sick of hearing about the perils of growing your own food. So here is the closer to this summers main project.


Due to a severe heat wave (that is still continuing) some of our tomatoes split open before they were ripe. This "big boy" split open due to many factors, one being its tremendous size, and also because of a dry spell followed by a down pour of rain in one of our infamous summer storms. The water caused the tomato to swell, breaking skin. However we were still able to eat a few slices. There is a huge difference between store bought and freshly picked.


We had several varieties of tomatoes, this "Chocolate Jasper" was only one of two that this heirloom plant was able to produce despite fertilizing and adequate conditions.


The best part of fighting the elements of weather, bugs and worms, and unexpected issues (like Penny and Dexter) was that we could actually use these fruits and veggies in meals. From fresh salsa shared with family, southwestern stuffed chicken, and "lemon boy" bruschetta.


All in all, if was a successful first season, and I am already planing the contents of next years garden. I am hoping for a broader range of vegetables like squash, spinach, and whatever else comes to mind!

...And Then There Was Three.

Meet Idge:
Nick Name: Idga Widga, Skidge
Likes: Cat nip, midnight terrorizing, stalking "sprikets", and drooling while receiving attention.
Dislikes: Penny and Dexter




Meet Penny Lou:
Nick Name: Penny Woooo, Penny Weeny
Likes: Eating plants, scratches on the head, killing birds, digging to China, and playing in snow.
Dislikes: Water, baths, rain, or anything else having to do with water, air blowing from vents, and vacuums.



Meet Dexter Goliath
Nick Name : Dexta Boo, Eor
Likes: Belly rubs, Cheerios, licking house vents, snuggling, swimming, and eating rocks.
Dislikes: Not being fed, loud noises, and pillows.




(Idge refused to pose for the following picture...)

...And Living Here Doesn't Mean I Can Grow Corn

GARDEN UPDATE.
Peter and I have had a lot of fun watching seeds grow into massive tomato "trees" and food giving vines. All the hard work seems to be paying off, but when you look close at our garden you can tell...we're no Kansas farmers.


Our most recent addition, which is my favorite...he is low maintenance.


Our big boy tomato plant has about five others tomatoes growing, but none as big and beautiful as its very first...


These are the first of our Chocolate Jaspers, this plant along with the non pictured stripped roma tomatoes have been the most difficult.


Our first pepper off one of three pepper plants, the garden pepper.



Our first small harvest of bush green beans.


The first "premature" red onion, while its small it will still taste just as great after 2-3 weeks of curing.


This is onion flower, not what I was hoping to sprout from my onion bulbs but due to fluctuation in weather it caused some onions to bloom. The reason why I wasn't hoping for this is because the moment this stock sprouted it took nutrients away from the onion bulb, all energy goes to the flower to produce seeds, and in nature reproduce onion bulbs. I have harvested some seeds and will plant them in september which will remain dormant through winter and grow early spring.


Our pole green beans started to show signs of Halo Blight which is a disease that there is no cure for. Small brown spots appear on the leaves and each one is surrounded by a yellow "halo". Unfortunately this causes our growing Green Beans to produce fewer pods and the plants themselves become stunted.
This issue has nothing to do with over watering or poor soil...its was in the seeds that we purchased and sowed. These plants have to be pulled in order to protect the bush green beans from catching the disease.

And who said this would be easy?!?!

...And My Cooking Skills Came With

I have to start off by acknowledging all those great cooks I have in my life.

There is my Dad who is often imitated but never duplicated by me. He is the master of baked mac n cheese (my Grandma G's recipe) and rotisserie chicken, honey mustard grilled Brussels sprouts, and his many other mouth watering talents that have included lamb, from scratch Cesar salad dressing, and bacon wrapped shrimp.

My grandma Mary whose spaghetti sauce is a favorite of my childhood. I remember weekends at her house, spaghetti on Friday nights, pizza on Saturdays, and grandpa Bills pancakes on Sunday. I always asked for extra butter on those, typical butter obsessed me.

Then there is Grandma G who I constantly call asking "what temperature to I bake chicken at?" or "how do I make that one thing you made that one time?". No offense to my dad or anyone one else but Grandma G has my heart when it comes to home cooked meals. Every birthday she makes my favorite Swiss Steak and mashed potatoes. She also has the best stuffed bell peppers and salmon patties anyone has ever had.

Then there is my newest mentors in the world of cooking. David and Paula Burger. I secretly stalk them during their cooking endeavours. If its David manning the grill or Paula making homemade pizza sauce...I am taking it all in. Asking for recipes and advice, storing all the information to claim it as my own.

So with all of them being credited to my "cooking education" here or some of my own kitchen projects that I am proud of.





(Baked Garlic and Herb Chicken with from scratch creamy pesto sauce and angel hair pasta)



(Sorry for the foggy picture, it came out steaming hot, from scratch chicken Parmesan in tomato and garlic sauce, and farmers market sourdough wheat bread)


(Ribeye steak courtesy grilled by Peter with sauteed garlic green beans)



(Broiled lemon salmon with seared zucchini and brown rice)



(Sausage and bell pepper omelets with country potatoes)

...And Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

(Garden Update)

I m an extremely impatient person, so it's obvious I have been overwhelmed with the slow progression of our vegetable garden. For months I have dealt with relentless weeds and issues like blossom drop, early bright, and poor pollination. I've watched two plants wither from erratic weather, poor soil drainage, and issues I can't seem to pin point...

But like I have always been told "good things come to those who wait" and finally good things are coming.

Here are a few pictures to show our growing vegetable garden, and all the good things that will turn to better things...like peppers, tomatoes, and green beans!

(Big Boy Tomato)

(Fresno Chili)

(Okra, prior to its slow withering death)

(Carrots)

(First blossoms on our Salsa Pepper Plant)

...And I've Learned A Thing or Two About Tornadoes

Although I have been in Kansas City for two years now (not including the two years I lived here in High School) I have never quite experienced what I did yesterday.

On May 25th, 2011 at approximately 11:45am I endured the exciting yet stressful process of hiding in a basement. It all started when the gut wrenching sound of tornado warning sirens began to scream.

At this point for me it was pure terror, I was away from Peter, my dogs, and my dad, and multiple cells in rotation seemed to be hovering over all of their locations. My boss wasted no time rushing us to the basement, and all I could think was this wasn't going to end up with me and a bunch of midgets having a sing a long.

While most of my coworkers remained calm (they have been through this many times) I paced the basement trying to get service bars on my cell phone, which ended up useless. I have this amazing piece of technology I spend nearly $100 dollars on a month to be informed and connected to the outside world when things like this happen, then it turns out a basic 20 dollar radio is all you really need.

I wish I could vamp up this blog entry by telling you we barely escaped the twisters with our lives, that I ended up meeting a talking lion in a far away world...somewhere over the rainbow. But truth is, I spent 45 minutes stuck in a basement with my coworkers. Only to emerge from there to blue skies and singing birds.

However, as serious as those warnings were and how boring it turned out to be...I am truly thankful. Some areas over the past few days weren't as lucky.

Joplin, Missouri/Ozarks Red Cross News & Donation
http://www.ozarksredcross.org/

...And We Started A Vegetable Garden

There are many great reasons for one to have a vegetable garden. Better tasting produce that has more nutrients, a lesson of self reliance, and to do our part to smaller our foot print on the world. Neither Peter or I have ever started a vegetable garden, so it is safe to say there were many mistakes made, but all good practice for our next years crop.

We started two months ago, with no idea how much work we had a head of us. Our backyard is a lush oasis, with over grown, aggressive vines, and massive trees shading almost every inch. Luckily we had a small patch about 5x4 foot area that received more that 6 hours of direct sunlight to work with. However this small patch had a years worth of weeds and vines covering the area. We worked tirelessly to remove every bit, until we saw what seemed to be a rich dark soil just waiting to be cultivated.

After doing much research (thank you Martha Stewart) we learned about the benefits of prepping soil early on. With a mature compost heap that had been started by previous tenants we were able to prep the soil with rich, rotten, organic matter. We tilled and mixed in extra organic fertilizer and let the soil set for a few days.

While this was going on, I put my green thumb to the test, which was almost an utter failure. I had started to grow cherry tomato seedlings in a window in our kitchen. While they looked promising at first, I became overly eager to see more results. Mistake number 1: Fertilizing too soon. In just a day I watched my seedlings go lifeless.

However there were some things that I was patient enough with, and now they are thriving in their new home in our small garden. Radishes, carrots, and green beans that I started from seeds have flourished, and are growing larger than I had expected. I am currently in the process of babying my green bean successors that will be planted later on so we can have a summer bounty of my favorite vegetable.

As for the tomatoes I lost, we purchased some hearty seedlings, they transplanted well and are flowering this week. We have one "Big Boy" tomato plant, and two heirloom tomato plants, "Lemon Boy" (yellow tomatoes) and "Cherokee Purple" tomatoes (I am assuming they will be purple).

Also, we started with 10 red onion bulbs...now nine. Mistake number 2: Crushing plants while weeding...not a good thing.

We also have one okra plant, that is in my opinion "taking it's sweet ass time to grow".

Two plants I am particularly excited to watch grow are our "Fresno Chili" and "Salsa Pepper". These two were bought as harden seedlings, and are blooming as well.

Prior to all this hard work, killing things, making things grow...we had two things going against us.

Penny Lou and Dexter Goliath.

Our ever so adorable dogs have a license to kill, a license to kill every green thing growing and/ or blooming. At first a small wood fence, not even a foot was our first attempt to protect the garden. Thank you to our dogs we realized not only would it not keep them out, but it wouldn't even keep the bunnies out. Mistake number 3: Appropriate Fencing Required.

After upgrading to a slightly taller fence (that Penny still likes to jump) it seems we are keeping unwanted visitors out (other than her). We haven't seen any other problems...other than Dexter eating my organic fish bi product fertilizer...gross.

All in all it seems we are off to a good start, fingers are crossed for a great harvest this summer!

...And I Love It.

I come from a dried out desert city, in what we like to call "the arm pit" of California. Trust me, the nickname is as flattering as the place is itself. While I have many loved ones in Fresno, all shortening their lives from breathing in cancerous smog, it was never enough to keep my roots planted there.

So I moved to Kansas...(originally Missouri but I ended up in Kansas and that's all that needs to be known). And here, in a city that I thought would look more like vast cornfields overpopulated with rednecks/hicks/hill billies/oakies... I fell in love. (Yes with a person, but that's a different blog, and a different day). After moving here I always found it odd that I wasn't chronicling all my "adventures" for friends and family back in Fresno. So with that being said, this is my action to change that.

This blog will lack in basic journalism skills, it wont discuss politics (unless I intend to blog under the influence), it wont critique movies (unless one has pissed me off, for instance the movie Dear John), but hopefully for friends and family that are so far away, will open up a window for a small glimpse of this city. With all my antics (and wedding plans) displayed for them to enjoy or not enjoy.

Using online networks to shorten the distance. Cause after all...I did move to Kansas.

(Image taken at the top of the WWI Memorial Tower in Kansas City, Via my cell phone)