Pickled Jalapenos, Bean Sprouts, Chicken Breast and Basil Butter

I was out checking the garden this morning and decided that the jalapenos need to be harvested.  The leaves were looking pretty bad.  The leaves were starting to yellow and curl.  I've never pickled jalapenos before, so back to the Internet I went.  I found a recipe at gimmedelicious.com called "Quick 10 Minute Pickled Jalapeno.  Since this was my first time with this recipe, I read  the reviews and followed it exactly

I took the precaution of wearing gloves.  I keep a box on hand just for situations like this. I went ahead and got all my brining ingredients together and as they came to a boil I decided to de-seed most of the jalapenos.  I'm really glad that I did.  The jalapenos are nice and spicy.  My husband will love them. They have a great flavor.

 

 While I had been harvesting and chopping jalapenos, I had some bean sprouts that I had placed in the sun to green up.  My husband and I really enjoy these in our wraps and salads.  While I was waiting for the jalapenos to do their thing in the brine I 'cleaned' the sprouts and jarred them for the week ahead.

 When I have the opportunity, I try to get a head start on meals for the upcoming week.  I had one chicken breast in the freezer and  decided to roast it for this weeks salads or wraps.   After I pounded my chicken breast thin,   I took my home grown  dehydrated basil, added parsley, garlic, onion powder, poultry seasoning, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, seasoned both sides of the chicken breast.  I  place the chick in parchment paper and roasted in the toaster over at 375 for 40 mins.  Of course I couldn't resist a  sample bite.  Hmm, delicious!

I decided I would make sauteed zucchini and squash to go with the broiled pork chops I'm making tonight.  So I went back out to the garden to harvest a little bit of basil to make a garlic and basil butter to go with it. Yum, I can't wait to start cooking.

If you have any favorite recipes or uses for fresh herbs,  leave me a comment below!



                             

It's Been a LONG HOT Summer!

Hurricane Harvey was an unexpected and un-welcomed surprise this summer.  The amount of damage done by this hurricane is unimaginable.  We were very lucky, and blessed. Our home and our business were spared.  There are so many others that weren't as fortunate.  Our hearts and prayers are with them 

Hurrican Harvey

The garden after Hurricane Harvey

My first spring garden did very well.  My tomatoes did pretty good.  The cucumbers were wonderful, the bell peppers weren't as successful, unfortunately.   Prior to Hurricane Harvey I had cleaned the garden out and all I had left were bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, basil, sage, garlic chives and some green onion.

 

Spicy Sprout Salad Mix

Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Popcorn

Over the summer I decided to try my hand at growing sprouts.
After a lot of research, I ordered a sprouting kit from Amazon and have been Sprouting all summer!  It's a great addition to our salads and vegetable wraps!

Top Shelf Green Onion
Bottom Shelf Cinnamon Apple Chips

I came home from work one day and found a surprise waiting for me.  My sister had sent me a new food dehydrator and a new cook book!  Since I had a road trip planned, I went to work making hubby some snacks for the drive. One of our new favorite snacks is Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Popcorn.  It was a perfect, healthy snack and not to spicy for me.  I also made some cinnamon apple chips that were absolutely sweet and delicious. I tried some sea salt zucchini chips that were a great success as well.

                                             







As we move forward into October I hope we have some cooler days coming.  For this fall I've planted 2 more tomato plants and some cabbage.  I did get another Cilantro plant and hopefully I'll leave it long enough to grow!

 My jalapeno plant is loaded right now so I'm hoping that it will keep producing long enough for me to have some fresh tomatoes.  I'd really love to make some home-made salsa.  If you have a favorite recipe let me know in the comments below!





 For more pictures of my garden and more info about my obsession with food dehydrating, check out my facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/Vegetable-Gardening-on-the-Texas-Bay-2249871568570602/

Mother's Day in the Vegetable Garden

                                                                                                                                                                                   It's been a couple of weeks since I've really been able to get out in the garden.  Last weekend we had the pleasure of having the grand kids over ( 6 yrs and 4 yrs) , so all my free time went into to them.  We spent the day making butterfly magnets for Mommy for Mother's Day and a bouquet of flowers made out of egg cartons, and of course the Grand daughter had to 'steal' one of my stones for her garden.  I didn't mind a bit and was thrilled to share with her.  Unfortunately I didn't think to get any pictures but we had a great time.  

      We managed to get some rain this past week, so I knew I was going to need to put more DE in the garden.  I planned on making time on Mother's Day to give the garden some much needed attention.  Right away I started seeing troublemakers .

See Mr. Stink Bug?

 I have been wanting to play around with some home remedy pest control and this was the perfect opportunity.  I found this website ( http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/natural-pest-control-remedies.html ) and decided to try out the apple cider and vinegar recipe, as that is all I had on hand at the time.  I'll being making a trip to the store tomorrow for some more home remedies  

   I used 1/2 a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to half a liter of water.  I'm not sure if this is going to help a lot but at least I feel better 'thinking' I'm doing some good. 

   I took this time to really inspect the plants, checking under the leaves and really taking a good look at the stems and stalks. 

   As I did this I made sure to use spray the under side of the leaves with the apple cider solution.  I felt very confident that I had used the spray to the best I could, so now we'll see what happens

                                   

Early Girl Tomato's

   In the mean time, I decided that one of my tomato cages were leaning to close to another, so I zip tied it to the trellis, hoping that it will help anchor it away from the other tomatoes.  

Mr. Stink bug on the
cucumber plant

   I waited a few hours and went back outside to check on things and as I suspected Mr. Stink Bug was still hanging around!  I'll be putting the DE out tonight so he won't be around for long!  

   While I'm waiting on it to get late enough for that I'll be checking out different websites on good and bad bugs.

  Here's one of my favorite websites:

https://www.fix.com/blog/common-garden-pests-and-how-to-get-rid-of-them/ 

The Pepper on the left is the
Chocolate,  right is an Orange
and in the middle is a Jalapeno
Pepper

3 Hard boiled eggshells that I
crushed and then sprinkled in'
the garden.

 I had read in my research that eggshells when crushed and sprinkled on the top soil  in the garden, slugs, cut worms and other insects are repelled by they're sharp edges.
  Since I boiled eggs for Potato Salad (part of tonight's dinner) I thought I'd give it a try.
 My peppers occasionally drop flowers or leaves so I sprinkled around the base of all 3 pepper plants and decided to put some around the green beans as well.

Crushed eggshells on the base'
of the green beans

So far so good with the Tomato's.They look beautiful to me.  I can't wait for those Grape tomato's to ripen. 

 The one on the left is an Early Girl Tomato.  Top right is a Grape (Tami G) and bottom right is Rutgers Select 

 I also found some time to give my mini roses some much needed attention.  I re potted them a few weeks ago and gave them some fresh dirt, but a lot of blooms have died off.  I spent a little time pruning off the dead blooms.  They look so much better!

  I'm getting ready to break up my cactus.  When I first received it, there was just the one part in the middle.  It's since sprouted 3 arms. Since the last rains the arm on the right has 3 raised bumps.  I'm not sure if it's getting ready to bloom again or if it's going to sprout more arms.  The blooms are beautiful and only happen at night.

This is the last of the Lettuce in the Aero Garden!  

Tonight we'll clean it up and see what to next with it!