In The Kitchen With Wee One

Grandma's and granddaughters in the kitchen ~ is there anything better to hand down in a family but home made love from the kitchen?  I loved being with my Granny, and I love when my girls want to help!

While mom and dad are vacationing in Europe, we are with the children.  The two older children actually went off to camp this week, so Wee One and I have had a blast 'just hanging out' and having a great old time!

You all know one of my favorite things to do is creating in the kitchen, and I've shown you bits and pieces of our garden.  One of the kids, big and little kids, favorites is Grandma's special recipe of Zucchini Bread.  Here's the first bread sized zucchini from our garden!

This guy came in at 4 pounds 9.75 ounces!  And it made a total of 6 loaves of bread, 12 cups total of shredded zucchini!  And, this little gal helped with the entire process ~

Cleaning this guy up ~

Shredding ~

Stirring ~

Measuring the dry ingredients (yea, we got a little goofy!)

OK - we added the zucchini and dry ingredients - then got serious - "hey, Grandma, doesn't this look like zucchini puke?"  Yea, maybe we got a little goofier!

We stirred, stirred, stirred, never even complained once, not even spilling a drop on the floor, t-shirt, a girl after my own heart!

Then she looked at me very serious and said, "remember what the special ingredient is?"  'Yes, I do ~ do you?'  "Yep, stir in my love with my finger!"

I've always told the kids is my secret ingredient is love, by sticking my finger in and giving the recipe a good stir!   


6 yummy loaves of bread, with lots of love in them, and a great time in the kitchen!  Being a grandma is one of the most precious things God blessed me with ~ 5 wonderful grandchildren!

Blessings to all,
Donna

What A Difference A Few Days Make!!

Boy, we all prayed for some sunny, warm weather for so long, and then it happened!  A heat wave that started in the Eastern States and spread all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  For those of us with gardens, we are really happy because it makes everything grow so well.  At least certain plants, tomatoes, peppers, squash of every variety and so on.

Here are our winter squash, peas and beans in June a few weeks after we planted them.  We were so happy they had grown so well in just a couple of weeks, but unlike the middle of the country to the Atlantic Seaboard, we were only seeing occasional 'hot' days and remained in the 70's and 80's for the most part.

We planted 3 Butternut and 2 Spaghetti Squash plants, and in between the beans and peas. Yes, everyone has asked the same question - "Why so many plants?"  Well, because one year one plant gave us so much we had to give them to everyone we knew and the following two years, well one of them?  Not a squash to be found.  They would shrivel up and die before they could grow!  The following year, could not buy a Spaghetti Squash plant anywhere because the weather was cold too late in the season, and the Butternut Squash was barely enough to get through the winter, eating one squash every two weeks or so.

This year however, we will be giving them away once again!  We have literally hundreds of squash, both Spaghetti, already the size of footballs, and Butternut, which are growing a bit slower, thank goodness.  What we are afraid of now is the Spaghetti squash splitting before it has a chance to dry on the vine.  So if anyone out there knows how to hasten the process, please email me!

Here are the plants now, and this is after several trimmings.  We keep trimming it every time it grows in to the lawn, or out under the fence!  What a difference 4 weeks and 20 to 30 degrees hotter makes!  We go out and push the plants towards the middle away from the lawn at night, and every morning it's crept back out.  Like it's got little legs!  But, we'll have plenty of winter squash this year, basically all winter long!

Tomorrow I'll show you one of our Zucchinis - we're really excited about growing some of our own veggies!  When we lived in the Monterey/Salinas area, there wasn't enough heat or sun to grow much of anything but herbs.  So we are still learning!

Is anyone else growing a garden this year?  What did you plant, and how is it doing?  We'd really like to know, "How does your garden grow?"  You knew that was coming, right!?

Blessings,
Donna

~ ~ ~ How Does Your Garden Grow?? ~ ~ ~

Well pretty darn good right now!  Hot weather is supposed to be coming - a one of these days! The last two weeks the weather guessers have been saying, "Winds will be dying down and the weather will be warming up 10 degrees tomorrow, 10 degrees the day after and we'll be in triple digits in a few days!"  Still not happening, but our garden is doing pretty good in spite of only 80's (all of the plants we put in are for hot weather!)

Here's what we have so far - and we're happier than can be with it!

Do you see the pea pods!?  There's about 6 Snow Peas and Snap Peas!

Butternut Squash - 3 bushes - and so far I've counted about 40 babies like this and a ton of flowers!  We just enjoyed our last one from last year's crop!

Spaghetti Squash!!  It's growing like crazy this year!  Remember last year, last Spring when it stayed so darned cold and Spring just passed us by?  Nobody had much success with this plant because we had so many late frosts, it killed them all!  I quickly counted this evening - hold your headbands ladies - 25 already with a ton of flowers and this is the first wave!!

Zucchini Squash!  Yeah!!  It's been growing like crazy!  We've been enjoying stir fried veggies now for a couple weeks, given a few away - and can't wait to grow a couple of boats for bread.  Looks like we'll have another bumper crop, which is a good thing - we're down to the last 10 or so loaves and that's the family favorite!

Yellow Crook Neck Squash - well of the two plants, one is straight, one is crook neck!  Planted together in the same pot - love them both so no matter!

Our first baby Bell Pepper!!  Think this is a red one.  The one on the left isn't making it so I'll need to take it off, but I hope you can see the one in the middle?  These plants are small and not growing vigorously - they need the HEAT!!!   We are still finishing up our peppers I froze last year!  So, these will be ready just in time!

Last but not least this evening, our tomato plant.  We chose a Patio Tomato because it stays a bit more compact. Only one plant this year.  We've found more than one produces so many, we thought we'd stick with only the one this year - and it's already been providing tomatoes.  I hope you can see it even has tons on it already and it's still a baby.

If I get adventurous next year, maybe I'll plant my Yellow Pear and Beefsteak Tomatoes, some Jalapenos, and the herbs needed for salsa and can some for the year!  We'll see - we're just at the beginning of this season!  I forgot to take photos of the beets and carrots!  The tops are about 4" high already.  Probably should thin them out, but I hate to toss out those babies!  Those are growing in large pots this season - a new one for us!

So ~ that's how my garden is growing, so far!  With 3 Butternut, 2 Spaghetti, 2 Zucchini, 2 Yellow Squash plants (last year was not so proliferating as this year has even started out!), 4 sets of Peas in two mounds (again, last year didn't yield but 10 or so ALL SUMMER!!!) 3 Bell Pepper (red, yellow, orange) - always great to freeze, and 1 Tomato, along with the Fruit trees Blueberries, Beets, Carrots and Herbs so far- we should have a fair crop.  Lots to put up, lots to give away and share with friends and family!

If you have a garden, please let me know so I can pop by and see how your's is growing!

Have a wonderful weekend, Ladies!!

Blessings,

Grandma, Grandma - Let's Go Harvest!!

Oh my goodness, I can hear her now!  My grandchildren and daughter in law are coming next week to help me celebrate and when she sees the 'fruit on the vine' my little Leila will be grabbing the vegetable basket.  I'll need to get a small one.  Last year she was so disappointed when we took the big garden basket and had two squash and a tomato or two.  She looked up at me, pointed to the basket, and said, "How do we fill it up?  Is there more plants somewhere? This is not a harvest!"

Now - I'm going to show what we have today - and no laughing - it's still a young garden!  And, the plants were itty bitty or seeds - so we've come a long way, baby!

 3 Butternut Squash in the middle, 2 Spaghetti Squash - 1 on each end.



We took out over half of this side lawn to use for garden and trees.  In the background are our 4 Citrus Trees.  We have babied them for over 4 years, and this is their first time out in the elements.

Fruit almost ready on all 4 and new blossoms!  Good signs of being happy!






I know it looks like I may have gone overboard with the squash plants, but last year we had some that just didn't make it.  The weather again this year is crazy!  Near 100 last week - barely  80 tomorrow!  Here are the 2 Zucchini and 2 Yellow Crookneck!  So, I over planted - a little.




Lookie, lookie!!  Our first Zucchini!











And Yellow Squash!

3 Pepper plants - Red, Orange, Yellow.  And, a must, Tomatoes!

The Peach Tree is growing and getting very sturdy.  The new Blueberry looks great, too!  And it even has several of these.  Not enough for a pie, not even for a tart, but enough for Grandpa and Wee One to see if they are tasty!

And the favorite part of our yard ~ ~

Yep!  My Humming Birds!  You know how we love these little guys.  Papa and Mama birds!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - be safe, be happy and have lots of fun!!

Blessings,
Donna

Summer Canning Begins ~ ~ ~

Today was the first day of our canning!  Mmmm ~ strawberry season is right on track this year to be spectacular!  We live half way between Santa Maria and the Salinas areas where most strawberries are grown.  Which means great big, sweet berries are plentiful and very inexpensive!  Four pounds for $5 of giant, sweet strawberry's!!  

These are 4 pound packages, so you can see how large they are, no green, even on the very bottom tips.  They are field ripened and just as sweet as can be.  The eight pounds we put up today we had 2 berries that spoiled, 7 that were a bit too bruised for the jam, so we just ate them, and the rest - well they cooked up to 7 pint jars, and 1 half pint jar!

I thought there would be more ~ you too?  Well, I forgot a pint does take a pound of fruit. We got to taste a bit left on the bottom of the pot - oh yummyness heaven!!

Today we made a double batch at once.  Holy strawberries did that take a long time to bring to a boil!  Normally I do half pint jars because I gift so many (one year I even made 1/2 CUP sizes - total waste of a good jar and time!)  So tomorrow - I have 18 half pint jars to do!  

I'll make one batch at a time to speed up the process.  I know - it does sound backward.

So, what about you?  Do any of you can your own veggies or fruit?  Do you make jams or jellies?  I'm growing lots of beets, hoping to can those this year!

Oh my gosh!!  I just remembered!!  For Christmas, our youngest son and daughter in law bought us a food dehydrator and I think it's time to crack the box and learn to make fruit roll ups, or dried fruit!  Oh yum - now I can hardly wait for mangoes to come in to season!  Dried mangoes are just soooo, so so good!  As a matter of fact, mango jam, roll ups - frozen. 

Oh my, I'd better get going - I need to get the dehydrator how to book out and read it in bed tonight!  So, nightie night!

Blessing to all!

Hugs,

Donna

Honey, I'm Home! What's For Dinner?

Oh my gosh, got home too late last night for dinner.  Had a light bite to eat and then laid down for a bit and I was out like a light!  This morning I didn't wake up until 11:20 am - can you believe it!!??  No little arms or legs flopping all over me all night, all cozy in my nice bed.  How is it our bodies know when we're home?  I don't know, but mine knew last night and I slept like a rock!!

Friday, Karla got the children up early and they all went to Yosemite with family from out of town ~

Leila with Mrs. Whiskers and a dog  are ready to go!

And Elise putting a tail on her animal cap!

Big smile and a nap on the road for our Isaac!

I'm sure they had a lovely day, home with mom later, before off the next day for a bid weekend in SoCal at the Amusement Parks! Lovely to entertain!

What's that I hear???  Drat - no little voices, no needing drinks or dinner, sure do miss them after we leave each others company.  But, I'm home with my Sweetie, and we keep each other company.  The best thing??  I'll be back with them when mom and dad go on vacation and stay with them for two weeks!

Thank you all for your comments regarding Jill's Sneaky Momma's tutorial blog!  She's great.  I know we have many friends that have tutorials, and we thank all of you too.  But, this gal has really taken a lot of time organizing and putting up tutorials for those of us who (hate to say it this way) are like beginning, beginners!  That's me.  And, from some of the comments I've gotten, some of my friends have enjoyed the plain English and the pictorial images she uses.

Bought more plants today - oh yeah - more gardening!  And, we followed the instructions on mixing to soil additives for the plants in the ground we planted the last couple of weeks from a gardening expert at the Nursery, only to find it's burning them and we need to dig them up yet one more time - three times now - so this should do it, don't you think!?  So, that's our Sunday!  Hope you all had a happy Saturday and enjoy the day tomorrow!

Hugs to you all,
Donna

Guess Who Came For Dinner???

That's what we wondered, too!  We bought way too many plants to try to get done in a short period of time, but ladies, honestly, do we ever admit we bit off more than we could chew?  Sure we do - but we just want to keep it between us - don't tell the guys, OK?  Tell you what, I won't tell yours, if you don't tell mine!  Deal?  Deal!!

In case you forgot what these little sticks with the leaves on top are, they are our apple trees - this one is a Fugi Apples - mmmm - so crisp and tasty!

The on to the right is a Honey Crisp Apple - also pretty sweet and crisp and both will bear fruit at different times of the year! Apples almost all year!

Here the are together - yep, pretty small!  The gentleman helping us at the store must have thought we were much younger than we are, because it will take years - many of them - for these guys to give us a couple of sweet crisp apples!  Already made the mistake and we were ready to live with it!  We had our gardener come out and plant it a week ago and they seemed to be doing well, until Saturday morning.  My Sweetie gets up every morning and checks on all of the plants - just in case a water line has blown off and we need to do some hand watering and this is what he found on the left tree ~

Yes, you see it correctly!!!  Every leaf is gone!!  What the heck!!??  I mistakenly called OSH who told me, 'Oh ~ it's Grasshoppers. Buy Malathion and spray both trees and any other plants you have.' We try like the dickens to do everything organically without a lot of poisons and I really didn't want to put this stuff on it (I'm sure it's great, but we have lots of wild life around and we just don't want to hurt any of them needlessly.)  When our gardener came later that day, one of his guys said it was ants.

Oh now what to do??  Sweetie reminded me we didn't buy them at OSH, we bought them at Lowe's.  They are the best and our store is fairly new, so I forgot ~ and when I called the gal there said, 'well, bring it back and let's have a look!'  So we did - everyone in Lowe's said the same thing - 'Oh you have deer!'  Great!!  They were really busy in the store and the Manager and staff said it had happened to many in our neighborhood! So now we are rethinking our front yard!!

It makes perfect sense though, as their habitat is being disturbed just below us, and it is the beginning of fire season and all weeds and brush must be cut down.  The river bed runs behind us about 1/2 mile, as the crow flies, or as the deer roam.   So for now, no apples unless I find room in the back for two!

We did get our Lavender, and Breath of Heaven planted and those look lovely - and the deer should stay away from both.

Oh, we're also getting some of the rocks rearranged, too.

This one really looks grand here, and the four in the background I have to think about.

Right outside my office/craft room window are these blooming Star Jasmine plants.  Oh my gosh, the odor is like Heaven here on earth!  I just love it and feel so blessed after it being 100 degrees today, it has cooled off to the low 70's, high 60's and I have opened my window to smell these beautiful citrus like blooms!  Love it!

It's time for a brand new week to start in a few hours!  I hope everyone was able to do what they wanted this weekend and this new week is blessed and productive for all!  

Blessings,
Donna

A Whirl Wind Week!

Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's almost dinner time on Thursday already!  Where in the world did this week go?  I mean, my Heavens, one would think I'm still raising wee ones and working full time outside the home!  Blink, blink and the week is gone!   I've had lots of appointments, meetings and house guests this week (special friends we adore!) and haven't even had time to visit my blogging friends.

I would love to mention June over at Dezinaworld again because she's doing something new I thought some of you creators might just want to partake in!  If you make cards or create art work using her images (a couple of posts back I wrote about all of her wonderful sites she has where you can both buy and get free images June has put together!) you may unload them to her, and she just might select yours to highlight on her new blog!  How fun would that be - to see your creation being praised and singled out as something special!? June, what a wonderful way to show off other people and their work! See, didn't I tell you she was a great gal!?

Well, after looking at the current creations listed, I saw the most beautiful card you ladies simply must go and see!  This card is one of the most beautiful cards I have ever seen!!  I would love for you to take a look at Sassy's Secrets who has incredible blog candy available, too - but you'll need to go visit to find out more.  She's an exquisite artist!

See!  I told you this was beautiful!  The image is from Dezinaworld, the card is Sassy's Secrets!

The weekend is coming - yea!!  What are you all planning to do?  I'm finishing up my garden - yes, I'm still working on it!  I have tons of crafts to get finished, cards to make!  What ever we do, let's all have a great time, get lots of projects completed, see our friends or loved ones, see the beautiful flowers blooming!

Blessings to all!
Hugs,

Donna

Help With Wicker Repair!!

Almost the weekend ladies!!  I hope everyone has something fun and productive they will be doing, whether doing things around the house, garden, crafts, creating - - - we all do so many things!!

This morning I'm coming to ask you for your expertise!  I have tried looking all over this world wide web and you wouldn't believe some of the answers I get to this question.  I guess my computer just cannot compute what my brain really wants to say (oh, now that's a scary thing to think about!!) so here I am!  Why didn't I come to you first?? My goodness, YOU ALL are the EXPERTS in all things fixable!!  If it is fixable.  I think it is - so here it is - - -

See how the wicker is breaking off and unweaving around the bottom of the legs? .

 

I have a lovely three piece set - Loveseat, and two large chair.  OK - maybe not so lovely right now, but I think if I can re cane these and paint them, they would be!!!  

So - I need help from my fixing up friends - they either get fixed and get used - or in 2 weeks it's yard clean up week and they get kicked to the curb!  (By the way, I picked these up second hand as a gal who I was yard sale hunting with said they'd be easy to fix.  Don't see her enough right now to get any questions answered!) 

Any suggestions??  Ideas??  Secrets??  Help??!!  

Thank you, my friends!!  I know if there is a way, you'll know.  

Have a great weekend!!

Hugs,

Donna