The First Seeds!

This year I am hoping to plant a vegetable garden for the first time ever. I’ve never grown any sort of vegetables before. I’ve been doing a lot of research online and also reading the Reader’s Digest Illustrated Guide to Gardening, a book I got off the bargain rack at the bookstore. I’ve been reading a few gardening blogs as well including You Grow Girl, a really fun gardening blog that I found out about through Real Simple magazine. I’ve decided that 2008 is the year of experiment. I’m going to try growing several different vegetables and flowers without a lot of expectations in hopes that I learn a lot about gardening to be more prepared for next year.

A backyard vegetable garden requires a lot of planning up front. You have to decide what you want to plant but also consider what grows well in your area. You need to think about whether you want to start your vegetables from seeds or buy seedlings from a nursery. You need to decide where to plant your seeds or seedlings; not only where you will put your garden plot in your backyard but also where you will plant each type of vegetable within the garden plot. Finally you need to know when to plant your seeds or seedlings and how to care for them.

First I decided what I wanted to plant. I chose my vegetables based on what I like to eat and what I want to can. There’s no use growing veggies that will just go to waste! I love broccoli, bell peppers, green beans and zucchini. I also chose basil and parsely because I use those two herbs frequently. Finally I chose roma tomatoes and big boy tomatoes. Now I actually don’t like to eat tomatoes plain but I do like them in sauces and salsas. I plan to use these tomatoes for cooking and canning primarily. If I end up with too much produce I plant to share the love with my friends and family. I considered growing lettuce since I love salads, however you can't can or freeze lettuce and I expect to receive lettuce as a part of my CSA membership.

I also decided to plant some flowers and picked out seed packets for marigolds, zinnias and impatiens. I’ve read that marigolds are good companion flowers for a veggie garden because they keep insects away. I’ve had success with planting zinnias before and then I picked impatiens because they are pretty and I wanted to try something new.

You Grow Girl had a great post several days ago about seed starting that explained what you need to do to start your seeds indoors. I went to Lowes to procure my seed starting equipment. I purchased the following:

Large-ish tray - $0.99
32 peat pots - $1.99
Seed starting mix - $3.49
Seeds – $1.00 - $2.00 per package

So I’ve been reading and researching, reading and researching and waiting until just the right time to get started. And finally last Monday night I planted my first seeds!

Depending on what you are planting, you should start your seeds approximately 6-8 weeks before the frost free date in your area. I’ve been told that in Kansas the frost-free date is generally Mother’s Day. I bet it is actually earlier than that but last year we had a late frost in April that killed everything so I am not taking any chances this year.

The first thing I did was cut the peat pots apart. They came in four trays of eight and I cut them up into 32 individual pots. I decided to plant four pots of the following: broccoli, big boy tomatoes, bell peppers, roma tomatoes, basil, impatiens, marigolds and zinnias. I plan to sow the zucchini and green beans directly into the ground in May. Finally - and this is very important – figure out a way to mark your seeds. You may think you’ll remember what you planted but you won’t. So make little signs out of cardstock or paper or mark on popsicle sticks or attach flags to toothpicks. Anything to help you remember what’s under the soil will work.

I arranged my peat pots in the tray:


Following the instructions on You Grow Girl I dumped some seed starting mix into a bowl in my kitchen sink, moistened it with a little bit of water and stirred it up. I filled each peat pot about 2/3 full will seed starting mix. Then I opened each seed packet and put 2-4 seeds in each pot depending on the size of the seed. The big boy tomatoes were the largest seed so only two went into each pot. The basil seeds were the smallest so four seeds went into each pot. The rest got three seeds. It’s a good idea to plant more than one seed in case some of them don’t germinate.

Finally cover the seeds with a little bit of seed starting mix. Don’t put too much on top of the seeds. You want the little seedlings to be able to push through the soil. The last step is to water the seeds. You Grow Girl says to water the seeds from the bottom and not from the top. Apparently watering from the top will cause mold and mildew on your seedlings. So pour some water into the tray and allow it to soak into the peat pots.


Seeds need to stay warm in order to germinate. You Grow Girl advocates the use of a seed heating mat. I checked into these and found them to be a bit expensive for the year of experiment. I used an old electric blanket that I have on the lowest setting. It doesn’t work very well anymore so it doesn’t get too hot. I also placed the seeds in a warm area of my house (ie. not near a window). The seeds don’t actually need light until they germinate.

Now you wait. Water the seeds and wait some more. Keep them damp but not soaking wet.

I actually did not have to wait too long. The winner of the germination race was….broccoli followed shortly by zinnias!

Broccoli:


Zinnias:


They germinated on Thursday morning after I planted them on Monday night. I was quite shocked that they germinated that fast. I fretted over them for those first three days and was very concerned that they weren’t warm enough. But I guess I did something right!

By Friday I also had marigolds. Once the seeds sprouted I moved them in front of a sunny window.

And now a week later I also have roma tomatoes sprouting and bell peppers and basil just barely peeking through. They look like this:

Monster broccoli:


Marigolds (left) roma tomatoes (right):



The roma tomatoes came out of nowhere in the last 24-36 hours.

And here are the zinnias:


The big boy tomatoes and impatiens are still snug in the soil. Hopefully they will show themselves soon. As the seeds have grown I have started thinning them out. If you don't know, "thinning" means to pull out some of the seedlings in the pot to allow room for the others to grow. I will pull out all but the strongest seedling in each pot once the seedlings are a couple inches tall. I hate thinning out the seedlings! What if I pick the wrong one? But it has to be done or else the roots will be too crowded and the plants won't be healthy. I'm determined to do this right and actually grow something I can eat.

Other gardening resources:

Backyard Gardener
Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Stay tuned for the next seed update!

Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

Recently I’ve become more and more conscious about what I’m feeding my dogs, especially after that pet food contamination business that happened last fall. If you read the label on dog food and dog treats it can be somewhat disturbing what the manufacturer actually uses for ingredients.

A lot of manufacturers use corn and other fillers in dog food and dog treats (amongst some other things I can’t pronounce). Again looking at the labels of dog foods you’ll see that many different brands list corn as the first ingredient. I’ve read that many dogs have trouble digesting corn or have allergies to corn so a dog food primarily made of corn is not a good idea!

There are dog foods out there that do not contain corn or at least do not list corn as the first ingredient so look for those when you are at the store. Of course you could always make your own dog food at home, but who has time for that? Not me.

If you can’t make your own dog food, fortunately it’s very easy to make your own dog biscuits. It’s a lot like making sugar cookies. A quick Google search will bring up tons of recipes for all kinds of dog treats. I have tried several different recipes and found that my dogs really like peanut butter, as do most dogs.

The recipe is very simple and makes a ton of biscuits. They keep well in your refrigerator and also freeze well. You can make dog biscuits any shape you want. I have a dog bone cookie cutter that I bought at JoAnn for about a buck. The size of the cookie cutter should be in proportion to your dog. The bigger the dog, the bigger the cookie cutter. The smaller the dog, the smaller the cookie cutter. If you have a small dog Wilton’s make some nice cookie cutter sets that are about one inch in size. If you don’t have a cookie cutter, use a glass to make round shapes, or just cut out squares in an appropriate size with a knife.

Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits
Makes a whole bunch

3 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup rolled oats
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ cups milk
1 ¼ cups all-natural peanut butter
1 tbsp molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine flour, oats and baking powder in a large bowl. Mix the milk, peanut butter and molasses until smooth, then add to dry ingredients. Stir until well combined and a stiff dough forms. Add more flour if dough is still sticky. Form into a ball and knead for several minutes on a floured surface until smooth adding flour as necessary.


On a smooth surface roll the dough out to ¼ inch thick. As you roll out the dough continue to pat flour into the dough to keep it from sticking. I flip the dough over several times to make sure it is not sticking to the surface. Once the dough is rolled out cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on a cookie sheet. Gather up scraps and roll out again. Continue cutting shapes and rolling out scraps until all dough is used up.


Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Turn off oven and leave in oven overnight or until oven is completely cooled. Store in airtight container or freeze.


Leaving the biscuits in the oven overnight while the oven cools off allows them to harden really well. That way the biscuits are more crunchy and dogs find them more interesting to eat.

So is it worth it? I say yes! I’ve made these several times and my dogs always love them. I’m happy to feed them treats that I know are good for them. They are fairly cheap to make and I usually have the ingredients already on hand. Plus its just a fun project.

It’s important to remember when making treats for your dogs that a dog’s digestive system is different from a human being, so what you eat is not necessarily good for your dog. For a list of foods that dogs should not eat please visit PetEducation.com.

CSA: Community Supported Agriculture

About a month ago I was poking around on the web, checking out some of my favorite blogs when I came across an article on CSAs over on Bankergirl. Being an accountant and interested in numbers and finances I read several personal finance blogs regularly including Bankergirl and The Simple Dollar.

Anyway Heidi at Bankergirl had posted a nice article on CSAs, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You can read her post here. So what is a CSA? After reading her post I think of it as an investment in a local farm and in return for your investment you get a "dividend" in the form of a share of the farm's harvest. Basically you pay a fee at the beginning of the season and then throughout the season you get regular portions of the farm's harvest.

I have always been an environmentally-conscious person but recently I have been more aware of buying local. Buying local supports the local farmer and is better on the environment because the food doesn't have to travel as far to get to you thus putting less pollution in the air. A lot of small local farmers also use sustainable farming practices.

After reading Heidi's post I decided to investigate CSAs in my area. You can do this on Local Harvest. I live in Kansas and as you can imagine there are a lot of farms in my area. Unfortunately all the CSAs in Kansas were already sold out for 2008! I kept investigating and luckily found one just across the state line in Missouri that was starting a new CSA program for 2008. The farm is called NV Ranch and what really drew me to them was their very nice website. Their website explains all about their farming practices which I enjoyed learning about.

All CSA programs are different. NV Ranch offers a produce program, an egg program and a meat program. There are different levels of investment or membership depending on the size of your family or how much food you want. The produce shares are sold for 1, 2 or 4 people. The meat shares are sold for 2 or 4 people and the egg shares are sold depending on how many eggs you want - a dozen every week, every other week or every four weeks.

The program begins in mid-May and runs through the end of October. CSA members pick up their shares weekly at a designated pick up location. The produce items vary each week depending on the season. The website lists what you can expect to receive during spring, summer and fall.

To me it sounded like a great deal. An individual produce share is only $150 for the entire season and a partial share (approximately 2 people) is only $280. The egg program is $27 for a full share (a dozen eggs every two weeks). I wasn't really interested in the meat program since I don't eat a lot of meat.

Here's the catch. A CSA member also bears the risks of investing in the local farm as well as the rewards. So if a tornado hits the farm and everything is destroyed you do not get a refund. Or if there's a drought this summer or a flood or anything there are no refunds.

I debated for several days about whether to join or not. I really wanted to support the local farmer and have farm fresh produce every week. But I was concerned about being able to use it all and also about getting something in my share that I don't like (beets for example...). I was also worried about being able to pick up my share every single week from May all the way to October. It's a little bit out of my way to go pick it up since I have to drive over to Missouri.

In the end I decided to just go for it. It's important to me to support local farmers. Receiving different vegetables than I normally eat will just force me to try new things. I can always give some things away to family or friends if I don't think I will use them. Hopefully I'll eat healthier all summer as well since I'll have a regular supply of fresh produce. I also decided that it was too good of a deal to pass up. If I end up not using the items as much as I think then I won't sign up next year.

I am SO glad I decided to sign up because I checked their website today and ALL shares are sold out for 2008 for ALL programs. Good thing I got my deposit in!

I'm excited for May and the first share pick-up. I'm going to try to post weekly about what's in my share and how I like the program as the weeks progress.

Kitchen Remodel Update

Back in February I posted that I had started remodeling my kitchen. Well I'm finally ready to post an update. The first part of the remodel is to paint all the cabinets. I originally considered buying all new cabinets. However new cabinetry is very expensive. It also felt weird to me to buy all new cabinets when the cabinets I have are perfectly fine. They are in good shape and function well in my kitchen. I wasn't looking to redesign the layout of my kitchen at all. The only thing I didn't like about my cabinets was the color. It seemed silly to remove perfectly good cabinets so I decided to paint them instead.

Well this project has been very slow-going. I only really work on it on the weekends and I've had several other events come up that have kept me from working on it more. Eventually it will get done though!

This week I finally finished painting a section of my cabinets that I have been working on for two months! Painting cabinets is a long tedious process to say the least. Here are the steps I have taken:

1. Empty cabinets and find place to store everything previously in cabinets
2. Remove doors from cabinets; remove all handles and hinges
3. Clean cabinets with soap and water, let dry
4. Sand all surfaces to be painted - cabinet frames and front and back of cabinet doors
5. Clean cabinet surfaces again so they are free of sawdust.
6. Apply first coat of primer to all surfaces including both front and back of cabinet doors
7. Apply second coat of primer to all surfaces
8. Apply first coat of paint to all surfaces
9. Apply second coat of paint to all surfaces
10. Attach new handles and hinges; attach doors to cabinet frame
11. Replace contents of cabinets

Whew! While doing all this I had to pick out new handles and hunt down a very specific hinge that this section of my cabinets requires. I went to four different hardware/home improvement stores and finally ended up ordering the hinges online. The handles I found at Home Depot for $1.98. What a deal!

So without further adieu, here are the pictures. Here is what my cabinets looked like before:


And here's what they look like now:


They look brand-spanking new! I love them! It was totally worth all the work. I can't wait to get new countertops and paint the walls a different color. However I still have all this to do:


Ugh. That's going to take forever. I hope that looking at the section of cabinets already finished will keep me motivated.

So if you are planning on painting your kitchen cabinets be prepared for it to take a long time unless you are super motivated or can take some time off work to work on it. I'll probably be posting the final finished product in June - ha!

Baked French Toast

I have very fond memories of French toast. When I was in elementary school my mom worked early in the mornings so my Grandma would come over to watch me and my brother before we went to school. She would make us breakfast and make sure we got on the bus. Many times she would make us French toast. She made the best French toast! My brother and I loved it. We loved it so much in fact that when we were old enough to stay at home by ourselves in the mornings we would still call our Grandma and ask her to come over and make French toast for us.

Awhile back I hosted a brunch bridal shower for my best friend. I had to choose my recipes carefully because I was hosting the shower at her mother's house (my house being on the far side of the city away from everyone she had invited). I wanted to make everything in advance and only have to slide a couple of casseroles into the oven when I got there. Egg casserole recipes are plentiful and I have a great one that I make quite often. I also wanted something sweet to complement the saltiness of the cheese and sausage in the egg casserole. I found Baked French toast.

Baked French toast turned out to be perfect for the shower. It is assembled the night before and then in the morning all you have to do is make the topping and pop it in the oven. It was such a hit at the shower that I made it again on Christmas morning.

This is Paula Deen’s recipe. Click here to view it in its original location on the web.

Baked French Toast Casserole
6-8 servings

1 loaf French bread (13-16 oz)
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half
1 cup milk
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Dash salt

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch thick. Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 x 13 pan. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Make Praline Topping:

½ pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp light corn syrup
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread in the 9 x 13 pan and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.


Here’s my take on it: First thing is that when you are shopping for ingredients, make sure you get French bread from the bakery and not from the bread aisle. The bakery French bread will be a little tougher and have more of a crust while the bread aisle French bread can be a little too soft and is too flimsy when you dump the egg mixture on top of it. I’ve made this recipe with both and thought the bakery French bread worked much better (plus it was significantly cheaper).

Then I had trouble arranging the bread slices in the pan. I tried to lean them up against each other in two neat rows and that just would not work. The bread would not fit. So the first time I made this recipe I laid one layer of bread flat in the pan (cut slices in half to cover the entire bottom of the pan) and then laid a second layer of bread on top of that. When you are ready to serve just cut it into squares like a casserole.

I also found that the Praline Topping was just too rich for my tastes. The first time I made this recipe I actually only made a half recipe of the Praline Topping because I only had one stick of butter left. I spread it out a little more thinly on top of the casserole and it worked out just great. Everyone raved about how good it was. When I made this the second time I did have all the ingredients for a full recipe of Praline Topping so I went for it. Now don’t get me wrong, it tastes really good. It’s just really rich and it actually gave me a bit of a stomach ache. My family agreed with me. I plan to go back to a half recipe the next time I make this.

Finally Paula says to serve this with maple syrup. Well it is so sweet and yum on it’s own that you really don’t need it. I offered it up when I served this at the bridal shower and not one person had any.

So to sum up: use bakery French bread, stack your bread slices on top of each other, use a half recipe of Praline Topping instead of a full, and don’t worry about serving with maple syrup.


So is it worth it? Most definitely. This recipe has found a permanent place in my arsenal. I love that you assemble it the night before so that the next morning all you have to do is pop it in the oven. It’s perfect for a big breakfast or brunch. Because it is very sweet you should balance it out with something a little more salty. When I made this for the bridal shower I also served the egg casserole (post to come because that’s also one of my favorite breakfast recipes), bacon, fruit salad, pumpkin bread and mimosas. Oh and chocolate cupcakes of course – ha. It’s like a muffin just with frosting :)

Change Your Car's Air Filter

I love my car. I have a 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 that I call Bert. It’s bright blue and sporty and zips around town. It has 168,000 miles on it and it’s never had any major problems. I’ve only ever had it in the shop for minor issues and routine maintenance (knock on wood). I just put on my third set of tires about 3,000 miles ago.

My car isn’t worth anything to anyone except me. It has a ton of sentimental value to me and I dread the day that I have to get a new car. I acquired this car right after I graduated high school. My dad made me a deal when I was a kid that if I got enough scholarships to pay my own way through college he would use my college fund money to buy me a brand new car for graduation. Well I did it! I got enough scholarships to pay almost my entire way through my undergraduate degree and then took money out of my savings to pay for the rest. I have always felt so blessed to have my car.

Anyway despite loving my car, I know nothing about working on my car. I put gas in it and drive it and take it to the mechanic for anything else. But last weekend I decided to change Bert’s air filter. Bert has been getting not so great gas mileage lately and I thought the air filter might be the problem. I knew that air filters were relatively easy to change but I’ve never actually done it myself. I was going to write a very detailed post with pictures and everything about how to change the air filter, but then I realized that unless you drive the exact same car as I do then it wouldn’t help you much.

What I will do is provide some general tips that would apply to everyone. First you need to go buy an air filter. The easiest way to do this is to go to Autozone or Advanced Auto Parts or a similar place. All you do is go up to the counter and tell the clerk the year, make and model of your car and what part you need and they will pull up the exact item that fits your car and ring it up for you. Piece of cake! That way you don’t have to figure out which air filter you need on your own.

Next you need to open your hood. Pretty easy except it took me a few minutes to figure out where the latch was that unhooked the hood after I popped it open. Now if you are not familiar with your engine it can look pretty intimidating when you first open the hood. What you need is a guide. The Haynes Repair Manual is a good resource. They have books for all sorts of different cars. The first part of the book is on routine maintenance and in that section is a part on changing the air filter.

The book had a good explanation of how to change the filter. On my car I had to unsnap this band thing and unhook this one piece to reveal the filter (like my technical terms here?). Then all I had to do was take out the old filter, pop in the new filter and then do the reverse of what I had just done – hook the piece back up and snap the band thing back on.

Depending on the size and shape of your air filter, I would recommend writing the mileage and the date on it so you know when you changed it last. My new air filter was black so I wrote on it with my silver Sharpie. Side note – a silver Sharpie is fantastic to have around the house to write on dark items. I also saw that the last time the air filter had been changed was almost 2 years ago and 30,000 miles. Eeeeep! It was way overdue according to my maintenance guide.

So is it worth it? Yes! Changing the air filter was SO easy. It took me about 15 minutes and that including looking in my book about how to do it. And I know absolutely nothing about cars. The air filter cost me about $15.00 with tax. I know that places like Jiffy Lube have charged me at least $20-22 in the past. So by doing it myself I’ve saved $5-7. It’s not a lot but it’s a little something at least. That savings could be a lunch out with a friend.

I will always change my own air filter from now on. And I promise not to wait two years until the next time I change it, if Bert makes it that long! Tear….

Oatmeal Buttermilk Muffins

The first time I made these muffins it was on a random Saturday when some family was coming over for breakfast. I really wanted to make some sort of muffin to go with my egg casserole so I leafed through my cookbooks and found this recipe. I chose it simply because I already had all the ingredients on hand. They turned out exceptionally good for a very simple muffin and quickly turned into one of my favorite muffins ever.

Now anytime I have an extra cup of buttermilk leftover from another recipe I make these muffins. Even if I’m not planning on eating them right away I still make them and stick them in the freezer for later. It’s a great way to use up an extra cup of buttermilk.

I had an extra cup of buttermilk from my cupcake baking extravaganza so I decided to make these muffins last night. Since they are one of my most favorite muffins I thought for sure I had already posted a blog about them. But I haven’t! I couldn’t believe it!

I love these muffins because they are really moist, have a great flavor and are super simple to whip up. They go great with breakfast but I also think they go great with dinner. Actually I pretty much eat them anytime. This recipe comes from the cookbook Baking by Carole Clements. It’s the same cookbook that houses the recipe for Buttermilk Wheat Rolls.

Oatmeal Buttermilk Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup raisins (optional)

In a bowl, combine the oats and the buttermilk and let soak for one hour. Set out the butter and egg at this time so they can come to room temperature.

Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or use paper liners. I don’t use liners for this recipe. I just spray my pan with nonstick spray.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. I never sift. I put all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together.

Stir the dry mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the oat mixture. Fold in the raisins if desired (none for me thanks). Do not overmix. I do this part by hand. It is very important not to overmix the batter. It will be very thick and clumpy. The dry ingredients only need to be just moistened. Over-mixing is what makes a dry, tough muffin.

Fill the prepared cups two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20-15 minutes (18 minutes for me). Transfer to a rack to cool.


So is it worth it? Well I already said this was one of my favorite muffins so of course it’s worth it to me. Even if you don’t have an extra cup of buttermilk laying around you can still make these muffins with the “homemade buttermilk trick.” Stir one tablespoon of white vinegar into a cup of milk and let stand for a few minutes. Then use as directed in the recipe for buttermilk.

Have I told you yet that I love these muffins? I think I might have to go eat one right now…