Garden Weekend

This weekend we devoted ourselves to our new garden. The couple that owns the house that we will be renting are kind enough to let us come and start a garden while it's time for planting. We had our work cut out for us.

Here are some before shots from my phone:

Grass, everywhere.

Grass and weeds!

After we pulled most of the grass and weeds and then some more grass, it was time to till.

Blake pretty much handled this part.

I planned the layout and then took some pictures. I did other supportive things too, like bringing water and making comments on his manliness. Unfortunately, my plan isn't to scale and I didn't leave adequate room to draw the mounds that we planted squash and watermelon in, or the rows of big onions we planted off to the right side of the boxes. Next year, I'll get it right.

We are using the Square Foot Gardening method.

Here are some of the flowers I'll be taking care of. It's interesting to be moving into an established house with fully landscaped flowerbeds and lawn. Lets hope we can keep it up ;)

Not sure what kind of tree this is...

I *might* resort to using this photo for my photo challenge
day 4 - clouds. So don't look too hard if you're a part of that group ;)

We went out to dinner - a rare treat - and went home and hit the sack. We were beat! We only got half of the space tilled (which is only half of the garden that we're using). Blake got up early on Saturday and finished tilling and leveled it out some. He also had some garden dirt delivered and built some raised beds with the neighbors leftover boards and landscaping fabric (Score! We have awesome neighbors!). We were worried that all of that grass and those weeds would just come back, since most of it had already gone to seed. We figured we'd keep some weeds out by lining the bottom of the boxes and using new dirt. We'll see how effective it was in a few weeks!

I was productive at home while Blake was working.. but who takes pictures of vacuming, laundry and cleaning toilets ;). Once the dirt was delivered and boxes built, I showed up with the results of my plant buying trip that afternoon. Now the action really begins! We got most of it done on Saturday, but had to come back Sunday after church and plant the things that are outside of the boxes (corn, squash, melon and onions).

Lots of shoveling dirt, super dry dirt, which took forever to wet down.
That was the hardest part of it all, wetting and mixing the dirt!

First box planted! 8 little peppers and several tomatoes in this one.

The last plants to go in were the onions.
Walla Walla Sweets and red onions

A row of corn started, a row of corn in seeds, and in two weeks,
we'll plant another row of corn from seeds. That should space out the harvest.

All done! 

We planted:
Tomatoes - three varieties, hot peppers - three varieties, beans, sugar snap peas, artichoke, cauliflower, broccoli, okra, carrots - regular and rainbow, beats - golden and red, cucumbers, onions, celery, corn, butternut squash, acorn squash, watermelon, zucchini, yellow squash, oh, and cabbage.

We have one empty square in one box, not sure what will go there, and some empty squares in another box for spinach and lettuces. We'll wait to plant those until we've moved in, because once they start producing, you have to stay on top of them or it will bolt in no time flat.

We bought what we could find in starts, but had to plant some things in seeds. I hope they come up! I'll keep you posted ;)

Multnomah Falls

Okay, I'd hardly call this a hike.. but we did walk a little over a mile to view this iconic waterfall. We've been there several times as kids, and maybe once or twice as adults, but we drive by it a lot. Finally, we drove by it during daylight hours and weren't in a hurry. Fortunately, I had this fancy-pants camera with me to snap some photos.

Quintessential Pacific Northwest. Green, green, green. (water, water, water) ;)

the view from the bottom

along the way. LOVE all the green

from the bridge

looking out at the Columbia River

I thought this was a cool sign. My brother works for
Union Pacific and most of those cities have meaning to me.

Mother's Day

Mother's day is a little more like Mother's Weekend, since we have to travel to see our mothers and we generally stay for the whole weekend and celebrate our mothers. Or at least try to spend some quality time with each of them.

So here's a little about my mom and a little about our weekend. The older I get, the more I appreciate my mom. Maybe when I was a teenager I cringed when people said that I did something 'just like my mother' but nowadays, I take it as a compliment.

My mom is incredible. She knows something about everything (in a good way). It amazes me to think of all the things that she's done in her life so far. As I learn things in life I realize that somehow, in some way, my mom prepared me for it. She has always been on top of it. She has always been an extraordinary example in faith, love, common sense, and almost every hobby I attempt.

She not only excels at the usual wife/mom/woman things like cooking, cleaning, paying bills, loving her kids, being nice to my brothers' girlfriends, loving on the elderly, listening like no one else can, putting up with me, etc. but she also tackles the hard outside stuff. I can remember waking up at noon (or later) during the summers growing up, and there was mom, coming in from her full morning of clearing the fence lines, herding the cows or Bush Hogging the field - by herself. (My dad does things too - I'm just impressed with the things my mom handles).

We always had cows growing up, but now my parents have added chickens, pigs, a horse and a mule and soon they'll have a new calf and add milking a cow to that. Which means that she'll be making some cheese, butter and probably sour cream. I'm pretty sure she can do anything, with or without electricity. She's a homesteading inspiration these days (a hobby I'd like to start)!

Here are some pictures of the animals, a.k.a. my mom's babies (or substitute grand-babies maybe). 

The old chickens - rulers of the roost.

The new chickens, still a little shy and scared to venture too far.
Remember them from this post... they've grown!

Not impressed. She has an attitude.

This one is a sweetie. Please excuse her for not getting up.
She's about to have a calf. Like, any. day. now.

Also not impressed.

Sally the Mule. She's sweet but nosy.

Curious horses are hard to photograph.

Pigs are also hard to photograph. Harder than toddlers
I'd wager. The second they hear you, they are in your FACE.

Shiner the pig.

Curly tails.

Miss Piggy is camera shy, but that's
the back of her head anyway.

An unintentional segue, but for lunch we decided to try Traegering some ribs from last year's pigs (honestly, it was unintentional). They were DELICIOUS! My mom feeds these guys healthier than many people eat, and I love knowing that when I eat this:

There's nothing like home grown pork.

Picked clean.

Momma and her boys.

Not great, but we're all in there. It was a quick shot, no retakes.

After our incredible meal of home grown, traegered pork ribs, we digested for a bit and then set out to start planting in the garden. Blake and I will be doing this next weekend, so I was glad to soak up yet a little more of my mom (and dad's) wisdom. Also.. I took some pictures.

Chives

Flowering rosemary

How to make a straight row - a line of string.

Corn sprouts

I seriously love their backyard. 

Bleeding hearts. We used to pick fist-fulls
of these for mom when we were little. 

I also seriously love their front walkway.

Additionally... I love these rocking chairs.

My momma. 

Strawberry-Lemon Puddings

For the record, I can not claim this recipe and therefore had no part in naming it. I got the recipe from my newest beach cookbook: Dinner at My Place. Here is an online copy of the recipe, which has the same picture as the cookbook and shows these made in cups or ramekins. To me, these are not puddings so much as they are little cakes. You can let me know what you think.  Here is my take on it.

I started by making my own lemon curd but the original recipe is intended to be easy and quick and calls for store bought lemon curd. Absolutely acceptable. Lemon curd is pretty easy to make, but should be done ahead. I wanted to make it so that I would have extra to give to a friend. Sorry... no photos but here's the recipe I use:

   1/2 c. lemon juice (about the juice of 2 large lemons)

   1 tsp. lemon zest

   1/2 c. sugar

   3 large eggs

   1/2 stick (1/4 c) butter, cubed

Whisk together zest, juice, sugar and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Add butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks from the whisk and when the first bubbles appear on the surface, about 6-10 minutes - depending on your stove.

Force lemon curd through a fine-mesh sieve into a wide shallow dish, scraping bottom of the sieve, then cover the surface with plastic wrap (so it doesn't form a film). Cool completely, stirring occasionally if using the same day, about 30 minutes. If preparing ahead, stir before using.

: :

I would call these Strawberry-Lemon Cream Stacks

   2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved (I made these smaller, because I was making mini cakes)

   1 Meyer lemon, juice only (I only had a regular lemon)

   2 tablespoons powdered sugar - or to taste
      (I also added 3 Tbsp of granulated sugar, it was tart - probably because I used regular lemon).

   1 pint heavy whipping cream 

   1 cup powdered sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish 

   1/2 cup store-bought lemon curd (see above)

   1 store-bought pound cake (yes, I totally used store-bought pound cake)

 

Cut up the strawberries into a size that suits your serving method. Save at least one strawberry to cut up for garnish.

Tricky, tricky. I learned that I can balance my camera on my
shoulder, set the timer, and take a picture with both hands.

Add lemon juice and sugar to strawberries. Mix and cook on medium low heat for 4 minutes, or until strawberries begin to soften. Remove from heat and cool.

Meyer lemons are a cross between an orange and a lemon, which results in a sweeter orangey tasting lemon. I'm sure this would have added a nice element to the dish, but alas, I forgot to get one.

 


Whip heavy cream in a large mixing bowl until soft peaks form.







 

Fold in the 1 cup powdered sugar and the lemon curd, a little at a time, until combined. Set aside in the refrigerator while you prepare the cake.









 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
Cut pound cake into 1/4-inch-thick slices (the rounds should fit snugly inside whatever you are serving these in). 
Break the remaining scraps of pound cake into coarse crumbs and toast on a baking sheet in the preheated oven about 5 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant. 

I was in a hurry to finish this and didn't realize these
pictures were turning out blurry. Sorry. This was the
least blurry, and you can mostly see the layers in there.

To assemble, start with a cake round, followed by some strawberries, and lemon cream. Add another layer of cake, strawberries and cream. Add a final layer of cake. Drizzle the final cake layers with syrup from the strawberries and then top with a swirl of lemon cream and some toasted pound cake crumbs. Garnish each cake with a reserved strawberry slice and dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

I assembled in a mini cheesecake pan with removable bottoms. Essentially using the pan as a mold.