The Last Day of Summer

Today is the last day of summer break that I'll ever have as a student. It is strange to think about. I'm entering the last year of my MFA degree as you know, and I've gotten entirely used to the cyclical nature of the school year. All along I've relied on summer as a time to recapture my sanity. After I am done with my degree, I will try to get an adjunct teaching position, but with the economy the way it is now, many totally qualified people are having to look elsewhere to make a living.
So much of the next few years of my life is completely out of my hands. I've been having a bit of anxiety over the whole situation, especially when people ask me about what my plans are. In the midst of the chaos of this last week of summer break, I've been cooking a lot. It calms me down.
Chocolate Chip, Zucchini, and Flax Muffins:

Pasta with homeade fresh tomato basil sauce with tomato and mozzarella salad:

We've been getting so much food out of our garden as well. We've been eating well. This is about what we've been getting out of it every day:

Plus the tomatoes and the cucumbers have started to ripen as well. I made some homemade hummus this week too so that I could make some veggie sandwiches with hummus, cucumber, tomato, and feta cheese on them. I've been eating those for lunch almost every day.

I also spent a good chunk of this week in the studio, which was good. Ann and I met there one day and had coffee afterwords. Ann is a fellow classmate and makes really beautiful artwork. I hope you have a chance to visit her blog - A Beautiful Party - she needs some cheering up this week too.
'Hellcat' - By Ann Flowers

In the Studio

I've been chugging away with some ideas I've had for a while now. Lets see where this goes.






I've also been getting a lot out of my garden lately. Everything is ripening and maturing all at once.
My favorite (at the moment) is the swiss chard. I feel like I am eating candy because of the colors.

And I've been using herbs every day as well.

Clockwise from the top left: thai basil, italian basil, cilantro, chives, and lemon balm.
My sunflowers are taller than me as well. :)

Apple, Radish, and Chive Salad

My radishes are growing really well so far, and I've been getting about 4-5 of them every day when I go out to the garden. The chives are also growing pretty prolifically this year as well. The first year I planted them they were super wimpy, but they are perennials so this year they came in really thick!
All of the stars aligned, and this salad was born!

It is made from 4-5 radishes, one granny smith apple, chopped chives, 1tsp flax seed, and a tablespoon of creamy poppy seed dressing (I used Brianna's). I tossed the salad before serving it so that the dressing was evenly distributed. It made enough for a single serving as a light meal, or two side-servings. If you have some sprouts, add those as a topping for extra-fanciness.

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden, and it was nice to be able to enjoy some of the fruits of all the work -- even though it is more fun than it is work. Up until the last week or so, the weather here has been very wet. There were a few days when there was standing water in the garden (no good...) and some of the veggies were looking a little unhappy. But after a week of sunshine, almost everything has doubled in size!
Yellow Pepper

Yellow Pear Tomatoes (remember when they were just babies??)

Baby Basil Sprouts! -- I've got Thai basil and Italian basil started. To anyone interested in planting basil, I would recommend starting it from seed, I think it grows way better than the plants you buy. :)

Radishes

Zucchini - I'm pretty sure it was 6" bigger when I went out this morning than it was in this pic. :)

Everything else is coming in swimmingly now, I was a little worried about the cucumbers and the beans, but the cucumbers have made a comeback and look perfectly fine now. I've managed to salvage one row of beans, and I'll plant another couple of rows tomorrow. The extremely wet weather made it impossible for them to sprout before, and only about 8 plants came up out of four rows. But all is well now :)

A Sneak Peak and The Garden

First off, a sneak peak! Can you tell what it is? More on this in upcoming posts. The garden is coming along swimmingly. Here are the zucchini, I started the seeds early for these.
Tomatoes!! I started half of these from seed and I picked up a few small plants as well, so we'll see what grows better. There is a lot of mulch around them to keep the moisture in the soil. Last year some of my tomatoes cracked due to the soil drying out.
Yellow wax peppers. Yum. If I get a lot of these, I think I will try to can them. They are my favorite thing to put in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Radishes -- I planted these all over the garden in the spaces between the zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers in effort to maximize space.
Chives -- I've been using these on eggs and everything else.
The beans are just starting to sprout up -- along with the weeds. It has been so rainy the last few weeks, I've only had to go out and water once. I'm going to contact our apartments to see if they would install a rain barrel to cut down on water use this summer.
I'm heading in to the studio tomorrow to work on my painting, I've really got to get it done so I can move on!

The Dog Days of Summer

I love summer. No lie.
We went to a fabulous barbecue last night hosted by our friends Ann and Christian. Christian has three dogs, I think I am going to steal Slim. Don't tell the other two, he's my fav.
And the food, it was d-lish. Pita pizzas with a ton of topping choices.Ann, whatever is so interesting over there?I had mine with tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil, and red peppers. Actually, I had two. Whoops!
We were gluttons. :)
I was more productive today though. I planted 3/4 of my garden, and am exhausted!!
I've got the beans, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, jalapenos, yellow peppers, zucchini, armenian cucumbers, and chives in the ground. The rest is going in tomorrow. I am tired! :)

Cannot Wait to Start Gardening!!

Our landlord is tilling the gardens this next week ( I know, we have an awesome landlord right?? ) and I can't wait to get out there and plant!! Some of the things that grew really well last year were the Thai Basil, Zinnias, and Green Beans. I am going to do a lot more beans this year because they are so easy to freeze and use later.
On the list for the garden this year is:
- Beans
- Tomatoes
- Yellow Tomatoes
- Spinach
- Jalapenos
- Red Peppers
- Zucchini
- Armenian Cucumbers
- Carrots
- Green Onions
- Chives
- Cilantro
- Sunflowers and Zinnias

I know this year will go better than last year for sure! I will be starting a whole month earlier, and that will make a huge difference. We are past the date for the last frost, so I am going to put everything in the ground right away next week.

Do you guys in the midwest have any good ideas for mulching?? I was a little bit overtaken by weeds last year, so I would love to be able to avoid some of that this year. :) Thanks!

Eat. Sleep. Paint. Class. Knit. Repeat.

I cannot believe it is already going to be the third week of school next week! I am just starting to get into the routine of school again, and somehow I've been able to time manage everything in my life (barely!). My garden has been bearing some more fruits lately, here is a snippet of yesterday's bounty:

I've also been cooking a lot these last few days, trying to use the food from our garden, and also taking advantage of the fact that I go past a fresh food market every day on my way home from class.
This is what we had last night for dinner -- It is a portabella mushroom burger with provolone cheese and homemade pesto (which is hidden under the bun) on a toasted rosemary bun. We had it with bakery bread and cooked green beans and brussel sprouts.
Friday night we also ate well. We had panini sandwiches with provolone, beef, pesto, and honey mustard sauce on them. There was also corn on the cob, but it didn't make the cut due to our scarfing it down so quickly. Anyone looking for a panini maker, don't buy one. Buy a George Foreman grill with a floating hinge instead. That is what we have, and once summer is over, it is really the best thing ever for grilling indoors, and with the floating hinge you can make paninis and grilled cheese without squishing them.
Yesterday for lunch we had nachos. I know, really healthy, but it was really yummy. I've been playing around with making fresh salsas from canned tomatoes, and I'm getting near what I would consider the perfect salsa. We also made some guacamole. I think Nate had two full plates.
Other than cooking a lot, I've also been knitting a fair amount. A lot of this is because Nate and I have been carpooling to class, and therefore, I wait around for him quite a bit (I'm not complaining, I actually use the time to write lesson plans and knit!) I've been going to the Dekalb stitch and bitch as well the last few weeks, so I get a lot of knitting done there too. This is Emerald from Knitty, and I've been chugging away with it. I'm almost to where I'll join the sleeves to the body, and then start the cabled shoulder decreases. I've also started a little vest, and I'm about halfway done with the back. The lace stitch used is really easy to memorize, and I think it will really pop once it is washed and blocked. It is the Vine Lace Vest and I'm knitting it in Cotton Ease as well.
I can't wait to be done with both of them so I can wear them. I've got a sneaking suspicion that I'll finish the vest first though. :)
Here are some more little treasures from my garden.
Not all of the flowers are being destroyed by the little aphids from hell!
It is such a nice morning here, I've got the windows wide open, it is quiet, and there is a nice cool breeze coming in. I'm going to be doing homework most of the day, but as long as it is so lovely outside, I don't really mind that much.
I've got a fun (but busy) week coming up, involving taking my students outside to draw, visiting artists, and some classes that I really enjoy.
Hope you all have some things to look forward to this week as well. :)

Garden Update 2

I cannot believe how prolific this basil has been! I'm planning on making batches of pesto with it, and then freezing it, so that it will last us through this winter. I read somewhere that if you pull off the flowering heads of the basil, that it will keep growing new leaves longer, so that's what I've been doing, and it has worked like a dream!
My parsley is finally coming up all of the sudden too. It's been slow to grow until recently, but now I've got a ton of that as well.
I also got the first cucumber out of my garden a few days ago. When they were growing, I started thinking to myself "hmmmm those cucumbers sure look strange, and pale, and wrinkly...." Turns out I didn't read my seed packets closely enough, and I got Armenian cucumbers, not regular ones. They stay wrinkly and light, but they are also super crunchy and almost completely seedless! The perfect cucumber in my book! Look how prettily they slice as well! They look like cute little flowers. I've been making sandwiches with them for the last few days. Just cheese, cucumbers, hummus, and red onions with a little honey-dijon dressing. Yum. There are three more baby cucumbers still on the vine, and I'm sure a few more will come in before it gets too cold out.
Also, there is some kind of bug that is eating my pretty little zinnias! I've been having to pick them the day after they open up because if they are open for a few days these little green bugs start to destroy them. I'm really not up for using any pesticides though, so I guess that's the price I'll have to pay. I did find this little pretty poking itself up from the wildflower patch the other day though.
I'm still waiting on the tomatoes. I'm getting way too anxious for them to ripen. I'm one of those people who can eat a warm fresh tomato just like an apple. No salt or anything. Yum.
I also strung some basil in the kitchen to dry out. It made the kitchen smell really good!
The green beans are also flowering again, so we'll get a second round of those in a week or so as well. My homely little garden has been such a good learning experience for this year. I'm already planning next summer's garden. :)

Garden Update

My garden is starting to take off! We have been enjoying some of the benefits around here.

My favorite things are the flowers, these are some of the wildflowers that have been popping up:
The Thai Basil is huge! I've been using it on everything. It is really good on toasted sourdough with hummus, tomatoes and cheese. Yum. There is also a regular basil plant coming up along with the thai basil, which is fine with me.

Zinnias, quite possibly my favorite flower. They are easy to grow, they grow fast, and they keep growing new flowers when they are cut! Here are a couple of them right before they open up:

Oh, and tomatoes! I was determined to grow tomatoes, but I was starting to get scared that they weren't going to grow to maturity before it started to cool off. I started these from seed, and about half of the plants are coming along just fine. Some of the plants are still only about 5 inches tall though (this one is about 2 feet tall now), and I'm not really sure why there is such a gap between the plants. It is strange.
All in all, the only thing that has been scrapped is the spinach, we got it in too late and it shot straight up without producing very many leaves. I got 2 measly salads out of all 8 plants. Oh well. We have gotten a lot of green beans though, they are really tasty too. I think it is pretty amazing considering I haven't used any pesticides or commercial fertilizers at all.
Can you tell I love my homely garden patch?
:)

Progress in the Garden

Even though we got a late start, everything is coming up so far in the garden. Some things may not get big enough by the time winter comes, but these are some of the things that are doing really well so far:

Thai Basil- Smells D-lish, can't wait to add some to my curry!


Spinach- tastes great.
Cucumbers - Looking good so far

Zucchini- again, going to be used in curry.
And a baby birdie! Don't worry, we won't be eating him. He hangs out in the mulberry tree that is right by the garden.