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Home made chicken tenders.

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

You have been listening to me talk about our kids Christmas get together. I made these chicken tenders for our get together. Since it was for Christmas I attempted to make them in the shape of Reindeer heads. They looked pretty good considering I made them.

There are so many recipes floating around out there for chicken tenders. When I decided to make this for the kids I wasn't sure what to follow. This is what I did (I didn't follow a recipe) and it turned out great and the kids loved it. I didn't get a photo! I could kick myself! But the kids loved it and my husband (who isn't really a food person) gobbled up all the rest! This recipe fed 5 children and my husband.

--6 chicken breasts- I use Foster Farms

--Bread Crumbs with Italian seasoning

-- olive oil - enough to coat the bottom of the pan

-- 2 eggs

First crack open your two eggs and beat them in a bowl. Place your bread crumbs in another bowl.

I took the chicken breasts and rolled them out and sort of beat them with a rolling pin. Then I cut them out with my reindeer shaped metal cookie cutter. Dip them in the egg mixture, then cover with bread crumbs.

Place oil in the pan and heat over medium high. Place the chicken nuggets in the oil in batches.

I let ours cool for a little so the kids didn't burn their little mouths.

Enjoy!!!!

Slow Cooker Hot Coco

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is another crockpot recipe from Stephanie O'Dea. It is so easy to make and absolutely delicious. For ours I put together a little hot coco bar for the kids christmas get together that we had last weekend. The kids loved it and we loved it. It was really great because I was able to put it together and walk away from it which was fabulous because I had a million other things to do before all the kids got there.

-3 cups of nonfat dried milk

-1 cup powdered sugar

-3/4 cup cocoa powder

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/2 cup chocolate syrup

-7 cups of water

Combine the dry ingredients in the crockpot and stir with a spoon then add the chocolate sauce. Add the water, a cup at a time (if you do this to quickly you will have problems getting the dry chuncks to decinigrate). Cook on high for 2-3 hours or till hot. There are other variations you can do with this recipe that you can find on Stephanies website. I used our 6 quart crockpot but next time I will use a 4 as this only filled it halfway.

Slow Cooker Hot Toddy

2011-12-21T08:00:00.001-08:00

I was under the weather over the weekend and my husband attempted (I say attempted because it obiously didn't work) to keep me confined to the couch. While on the couch I watched alot of TV and my mind started to wander. I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could make a Hot Toddy in the slow cooker?" The anwser is .... YOU CAN! This style is apple cider based not tea based. My husband said it tasted like a hot carmel apple. I'm not sure about that but it did make me feel better!

I made this in our 4qt slow cooker.

--1/2 gallon or 64oz of Apple juice

--1 small orange

--1 cups dark rum (2 if you like it strong)

-- 1/8 cup orange juice

--1/8 cup lemon juice

--1/2 cup dark brown sugar

Place all ingredients in the crock pot. Cut the orange into slice and float on top. You can add some cloves for show if you like. Turn the crock pot on low for 3 hours or on high for an hour. Serve steaming hot in large coffee mugs or special glasses. I topped ours off with one cinimon stick per drink. The rum can be left out however you may want to add rum flavoring.

Cheers!

Home Made Snow Globes

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love snow globes at Christmas time? For our kids Christmas get together we made these adorable snow globes. Ours took some preparation so the kids could just have fun putting them together. I didn't want them to have to wait to see their creation. These are incredible easy and totally worth the work so don't be alarmed with the prep.

Ingredients

--empty jars- we used Trader Joe's PB jars. We found ours off of Freecycle. I didn't use mason because I didn't want upside down writing!
--silicone sealant - you can find this at any hardware store (Look for one that is aquarium safe or for bath or showers).
--glycerin - this can be found at a specialty store like Joann's (used to correct dried frosting coloring). If you can't find glycerin I have been told you can use mineral oil or baby oil in place of the distilled water below.
--distilled water - distilled is so mold doesn't grow in your creation. If you can't locate distilled you can boil tap water for 20 Min's and then let it cool to room temperature.

--glitter or crushed up egg shells- this is for your snow effect.

Make sure you have cleaned your jars really well. Take you lids and glue your decoration with the silicone sealant to the inside of the lid. I got lucky and found 100% silicone sealant in white! I used this on the lid of our jars for a snow effect. Make sure you let this set for 24 hours to really stick.
Note- we used faux pine branches, the holly berries were made of Styrofoam and disintegrated once they were in the water turning our water red! So you may want to test your item in water before you glue it down.

After your decorations have set, take your glass jars and fill them with the distilled water. Add the glycerin. 1/4 tsp for a small jar, 1/2 tsp for a medium jar and 1tsp for a large jar. Add your glitter or crushed egg shells to your liking. I crushed ours ahead of time so the kids didn't have to wait for me.
Place a small beading of silicone sealant around the grooves of your lid and close the jar tightly. Let it sit for 12 hours before you shake it up (I didn't follow this direction and I let the kids see one swirl of their jar before placing it upside down overnight.

Cranberry Pork Chops- Crockpot cooking

2011-12-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

I recently came across a blog written by Stephanie O'Dea. She has an obsession with her crock pot. An obsession that I completely share. All summer long I wanted to use our crock pot but it was just to darn hot out. Now that it is cooler I am using it at least ever other day. So I've decided to start sharing some of the tasty recipes with you (I have come across some really bad ones-I won't share them).

This crockpot recipe my family really liked. Next time we are going to try it with a shot of whiskey!

Ingredients

6 bone-in pork loin chops

1 can (14 ounces) jellied cranberry sauce

1/2 cup cranberry or apple juice

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup cold water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

I covered the pork chops with the salt and pepper and then placed them in the bottom of the crock pot. I literally dumped the rest of the items on top and let it cook for 6-8 hours. I made rice pilaf and beans so green from Trader Joe's for the sides.

This was tasty and everyone thought it was really good. Even our 1 year old!

Home made bath goodies

2011-12-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

It's been weeks in the making! My friend Erin (whom definitely needs her own blog) and I have been making home made soap for Christmas gifts. We decided to go with a Rosemarry based sent and let me just say, my house smells absolutely amazing!

We started ourselves out slow by making a home made salt scrub. Shown in mason jar above. This turned out really well. All you need to pull this off is Epson salt, sea salt, a carrier oil (but we noticed we could have easily used less oil) and your scent. You can get the recipe here.

We then decided to try out making bath fizzes. This seems like it would be difficult. I had to order citric acid online (anything I can't walk into a store and buy I consider to be a pain). But it went together quick and the outcome as you can see is very nice looking. We made snowflakes and tree shaped fizzes. Recipe here!

The last item we made was the soap. Beware making this is not for the faint of heart. It requires Lye. Lye in days gone by was used for cleaning drains, and making soap and all sorts of other things. I warn you it is abrasive. You need vinegar around while making this, in case the Lye gets on your skin. It will "burn" you this feels like annoying itching.
Other items needed are coconut oil, vegetable oil, and in our case olive oil. We used the Rosemarry oil for scent and chopped up Rosemarry for show. You can use coloring we decided on no coloring to achieve a more rustic look. I will put the whole recipe up later.

The process requires you to get the lye and the oils between 75-78 degrees before you combine them. If I do this again I will be buying two digital thermometers (one for each pot) because we went back and fourth between the two pots with the thermometer and this slowed down our process and caused complications.

Once the oils and lye were combined and went through their sopification process it rested in a plastic shoebox that had been greased with Crisco.

It sat in the shoebox for almost a week. Then we removed it and let it dry out (shown above) I used a cake leveler to cut the block.

The soap works and smells great. I'm really glad we tried it. Now I have fabulous home made gifts to give my friends and family. I will post photos of eveyting in their baskets once that is done!

Change In The Weather

2011-12-15T06:01:00.000-08:00

The fall to winter change always reminds me of Mary Poppins. Especially with all the wind here. Because I'm a wimpy California girl I spend most of my time indoors during the colder months. So get ready for some crock pot cooking!

Santa Anna winds

2011-11-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

Part of living in our local (in Southern California) is the extreme high winds that we get in the fall. When I planted our garden at the end of spring I completely forgot about this! Because I wasn't prepared ahead of time this is the outcome. The below pictures were taken after I put the lattice and tomato cages back up (they all were blown over). The plants don't look very good and they all got wind burn. I guess we will just have to see what happens. Moving foward I'm going to have to invest in some covers for the planters.

Betsy

2011-10-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take a moment to share a new member of our family with you.

Xavier has lovingly named her Betsy. She was found by a coworker of mine behind our office building. She was left in a bag behind the trash cans. She looks good in this photo but this is after two baths and a hair cut. The vet said she is about 4 months old, 4 pounds, and a mix between a Poodle and a Shih tzu. I'm not sure what you would call that...

Betsy is adapting really well to our family. In fact now that she is here it feels like she has always been with us. She gets along great with the boys and they just adore her. In fact everyone that meets her tells us if we aren't sure we want her they will take her ha ha! Betsy is here to stay. The universe works is mysterious ways.

Pomegranate Tree

2011-10-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

When I was little I loved fall because it meant Halloween was coming. Now that I'm an adult (and a homeowner) I adore fall because it means the Pomegranate tree in the backyard is going to produce. This particular tree is actually our neighbors tree but it is positioned so the majority hangs over our fence, oh darn!

When the tree first blooms in the summer it has tiny red flowers all over. The flowers grow a red tube like shape and the flower wilts and falls off. This tube is what is eventually becomes the end of the pomegranate at picking time. The easiest way to open them is by scoring the outside flesh with a knife and breaking it open. I've been told it's easier if you freeze them first but I haven't tried it.

Poms are known to be high in vitamin C about 19% of a persons daily intake. They are also a good source of vitamin B5. And if you eat them with seeds in they are high in fiber. In India Poms have been used as a remedy against diarrhea (by eating the rind) as well as a tonic for the heart and throat. Although this sounds strange some studies have found that the consumption of Poms help with diabetes, rhinovirus, and the common cold (from Wikipedia).

Besides the health benefits there are so many delicious recipes to use with pomegranates. Grenadine syrup is derived from the pomegranate and the seeds are used regularly as a spice in Indian cuisine. Last year I basted pork chops the pom juice from our tree for Christmas dinner. Here are some recipes for great food made with pomegranates that I love: Pear and Pom salad, Apple and Pom crisp, Pom Margarita, Roast Pork with Pom and Ginger glaze, and Avocado, Grapefruit and Pom salad by none less than Ms. Martha Stuart.

Usually the squirrels get a large amount of our crop before we can get to them. This year I've been determined to pick them as soon as they are ripe. Do you have a favorite pomegranate recipe? do you have a favorite fruit that is out of the ordinary? I would love to hear about them.

Velcrow Plant Ties

2011-10-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

What will they think of next? I was in the gardening section and found Velcro plant ties. At first I though - nah, but then I wondered would they be reusable? I had been using little twist ties that I found around the house but sometimes they were just sort of a pain. So I purchased the Velcro ties. It looks like this...

It is actually quite convenient and it sticks to its self well. Its softer than the usual Velcro and it has been doing well outside. Here is a picture of it on one of the tomato plants. Its nice because as the plant grows I can take it off and reposition it and it isn't a funky mess like the twist ties.

2011-10-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

I had read an article in Better Homes and gardens on planting edibles in pots for showy fall arrangements. I was so taken with it I decided to try planting lettuce in pots for myself. So far so good. But because our weather here in California is so wonky they do better then worse as we get heat here in the 90's, on and off, till the end of October. Here are some pictures of the pots.

Right now they are up with the strawberry plants on our outdoor bar. But I'm hoping to eventually have them next to the back door to have accessible while making dinner.

Planter update

2011-10-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

It has definitely been a while since my last blog post. Our camera was broken so I had to purchase a new one. Definitely not a purchase I wanted to make right now since we just started saving for a DSLR camera. To top it off after we purchased the new camera we figured out there was smutz stuck in the lens of the old camera so it was unable to open fully. Lesson learned, keep your camera away from tiny fingers (our children). So now we have a backup in case the old one fails again.
Planter one has had a bug infestation that I have been diligent at working on. Since we have desperately been trying to only use organic products to fight the bugs eating the plants in our planters it has proven to be a long road to recovery. Planter 2 on the other hand has been doing gangbusters! Here is a picture...

The tall bushes are the tomato plants. They have just about taken over the planter! A helpful hint I learned from one of my mothers friends, is to pinch off the ends of the buds. This will help the tomato plant use its energy to produce tomatoes, instead of using all of its energy to produce long lanky lengths. The same friend also said that sometimes pumpkins will take a year to develop fruit. We definitely haven't seen any this year and our vines keep getting eaten by green caterpillars that we keep removing. As you can see in the right hand bottom of the photo. So it seems that the food is still in growing mode. Gardening is not for the faint of hear, for sure!

Strawberry Plants in Pots

2011-10-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

I just love Saturdays, with the whole weekend ahead to enjoy. It really puts me in good spirits. I love spending the morning in the garden, or attempting to spend the morning in the garden. This usually never works out the way I think it is going to, and I get sidetracked with the boys. But I still just adore walking amongst my little green 'children' planted outside.
A few months back at the begging of summer I had purchased strawberry seeds and if you remember they took forever to bud. So in mid-August I went to my local garden store and proceeded to purchase (break down and purchase) a couple of strawberry plants. Since I, as a new gardener, know nothing about strawberry plants, I just decided to purchase one of each type they carried (they carried three types). I figured worst case secenero, I kill them ... right?

Fast forward to October and they are all still alive! The seeds are finally growing but the little leaves are only the size of a pen cap. One of the varieties I at the store very well the Quinalt. All the plants I purchased at the store are by Bonnie Plants. But the Quinalt put out offshoots, and one of the offshoots took. Apparently the secret is if you lay the offshoot in dirt it will grow roots, and grow roots it did. It is still small but it is growing as well. So now I have 7 strawberry plants that are still alive!

The Quinalt has been blooming and has even produced flowers and teeny-tiny strawberries. Just big enough to keep me going back to adore the little guy. Here is a picture...

I decided to plant them in pots only because they shouldn't be planted were potatoes, tomotoes peppers, or eggplant have been planted becasue they can contract Verticillium Rot. So I decided to keep them out of the planters. We have a big bar area that I keep the pots up on in attempts to keep the bugs away. So far this has worked.

X-mans 4th Knight Birthday

2011-09-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

Shortly after Logan's 1st birthday party Xavier immediately came up to me and asked for a Knight and Princess party. Since I had six months to plan the party I was able to come up with so many ideas. So first the invitations. Xavier decided on the below invite and the little pennant banner at the top really inspired me and got the ball rolling.

The entrance to our house was decked out with a fabric drape and royal banners with Xavier's initial.

We created a 'stone' (from cardboard) for each royal knight to pick their sword from. They were also able to choose their own armor.

We set up a workstation on our dining room table for the children to create their own shield. Stickers and jewels were available to decorate with. We fashioned the shields from cardboard boxes and installed a handle on the back. Each was painted silver.

The girls were able to choose skirts and princess hats from a variety of girly colors. They received wands instead of swords and had the option to dress up with earrings, necklaces, rings, and jewels.

The beverage table was covered with a simple black table cloth. We covered water bottles with a knight and princess theme label that my dear husband created. We also had royal gobblets available to drink out of. We had Lemonade, Ice tea, Capri Sun's, and water to drink. We also had M&M's and Ring Pop's to subdue the sweet tooth untill cake time.

The eating area was set for a king, or in this case a few knights and princesses. We were given the covered canopy from a cousin who was getting rid of it. We used leftover fabric to create the curtain effect. I'm planning to use this fabric again for a ship mast for Logan's Pirate party (coming in February)! The pennant banners were made from fabric and double bias tape. We rented the table and chairs at a local party rental and I used leftover red fabric to create the table runners. The carpet is an old one we regularly put outside to create an outdoor living space in the summer.

The chandelier a friend found on free-cycle. It was a little dusty and needed different light bulbs. It wasn't anything a trip to Home Depot couldn't fix. I found a string of beads from Joann's for a dollar and draped them over. The centerpieces were made from take out boxes and plastic plates from targets dollar bin. The dragons were purchased from Joann's for Xavier a couple of months back.

There was also an area for the adults to hang out at. It was covered with pennant banners as well.

The castle bounce house is the largest we have ever rented. To give you a size comparison the step stool in front of it is a normal size step stool you get at Target. This thing was huge, but it had a slide and a basketball hoop inside.

The dragon pinata was filled with candy, stickers, and small toys. The children played 'battle the dragon' with real practice swords (wood covered foam) also given to us at some point in time from a cousin.

The cake was homemade from scratch.Vanilla buttercream icing, vanilla cake, & rasberry filling. The towers were made of ice cream cones held together by icing. The little pennant banners were made of fabric and lolipop sticks.

Xavier enjoying himself with some of his best friends.

Garden Update

2011-08-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

The garden is doing well. The tomatoes and pumpkin plants are doing best. The watermelon and cantaloupe are also doing well. The bell pepper plants and strawberry plants have started growing (finally!). The only issue we have run into is a crop of Cabbage Loopers. They have been crazy hard to get rid of. I've tried all sorts of organic sprays but the only thing that has really worked is finding them and getting rid of them via trash can. They don't eat the fruit or crop but they eat all the leaves and its pretty darn unsightly. We started using fish emulsion and it has really helped the growth of the plants. I would completely recommend it. We purchased ours at our local Lowes.

First ripe tomato!

2011-08-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

The topsy turvey has been doing really REALLY well. We even have our first fully ripe tomato. This tomato plant is a heirloom organic beefsteak. I have found the topsy turvey has to be watered every day and alot. So it requires extra tomato food because it most of the food drains out the bottom. But it is doing well and I have a full crop of little green tomatos sprouting up. You can't see them very well in the photo below but they are definately there.

Mustache Bash 70th Birthday

2011-08-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

We threw a Mustashe bash for my dad's 70th birthday . I created in publisher and had it printed by vistaprint. I decided on the mustach theme because my dad has had his stash my whole life. Its so a part of him that no one even notices its there. To prove my point one of my dads friends asked me at his party "so why did you choose the mustach theme?" When I told her why she said "what mustache?" and noticed it for the first time.
I punched out the red and white confetti for the centerpeices from various circle punches I have laying around the house. Brandon modified the photos and added mustaches onto my dads 'kid' photos. I got vases from the dollar store and the green leaves came from a plant I had in my backyard. I went to purchase red flowers at the florest and they wanted two dollars a stem! I about fainted. I went to Wal-mart to print out the photos and found these red daisys for two dollars. Each plant had at least three flowers a piece. So now I have some cute flowers to plant in my backyard! To accent the tables I wanted to buy a fabric pennant banner but I couldn't afford what I wanted. So I bought some clearence fabric at joanns and sewed together a pennant banner that was black and white with red accents that said "Happy 70th Bruce" in the same text as the invite.
The mustaches on the plates, cups, and serve bowls I cut out using a die cut that I found online. I purchased chalkboard contact paper so they went on just like stickers and I was able to write what each item was in the serving bowls and the guests could write their names on their cups.
The most challenging part for me was the food. I don't know how to cook for more than 20 to 30 people and we had almost 70. So we rented a taco cart locally and I just made the orderves. Flautas, corn cakes, & empinatas and of course chips, salsa & guacamole (above). We had a seperate beverage station with Tea, Lemonaide & Punch. We also offered water and sodas under the table in ice chests. For desert we had a cake for my dad to blow out and a cupcake tower. The cupcake pix I made from paper straws and again the die cut but with black paper.
My amazing husband made our photo booth. We were originally going to create the photo booth for our 10 year annivarsary party (a year away still) but thought this was the perfect excuse to put it together and enjoy it sooner! We had a booth we had made for a previous party laying around so we painted that black and added a PVC frame and purchased some black curtians. I made a little prop station to go with it from an overnight case that was handed down throught the family. I tought it added some vintage flair. (I forgot the table to put it on so it ended up on the ground!). In it we had stick mustaches and stick chalkboard signs, coke bottle glasses, feather boa's and some miscilaneous crazy sunglasses and animial faces. Here are some photos from the booth

Planter 2 the plants

2011-07-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

I am completely late getting this photo up but better late than never. I planted a whole bunch of plants two weeks ago for planter two. The photo to the right is the beginning photo. As you can see the tomatoes already sprouted, big surprise! I also planted some more watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin, and some bell peppers since they didn't take the first time. At this point most of them have sprouted and I planted them in planter 2 today. I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them.

Topsy Turvey update

2011-07-27T00:51:00.000-07:00

I was surprised when my tomato plant started to grow well in the Topsy Turvey. Well Bert the tomato plant is doing really well! He is already growing three tomatoes that are a nice size and a ton of little yellow buds. So it looks like I'll be putting my own tomatoes in my salad soon!

Planter 2 the begining

2011-07-16T21:19:00.001-07:00

Planter two is finally up! My only issue now is I don't have enough to plant in it. I had a whole box of strawberry seeds & Bell Peppers that didn't come up. So I've planted one pumpkin a tomato and one cantaloupe. I've re-started the strawberries in the hopes that they will eventually arrive. Only time will tell at this point.

Planter 1 planted

2011-07-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since the last post. We have been recovering from our 4th of July weekend getaway. We finally were able to get our seedlings planted in planter one. Its just amazing to watch the little guys grow. Using the square foot garden guide we planted watermelon, Pot Marigold, tomato, Pumpkins, leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, bell pepper, peas, cantaloupe, onions, carrots, and garlic. Below is a layout of planter 1. We used leftover Popsicle sticks to label the plants.

The Topsy Turvey

2011-07-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

My husbands boss received a Topsy turvy and decided she didn't want it. When she found out we had a vegetable garden she gave it to us. I had only heard bad reviews about the Topsy turvy so when the tiny plant started growing like mad I was really surprised. It is already producing a bunch of blooms and has grown . I can't wait to see the first tomatoes :).

RATS!!!

2011-07-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

We found out after trying to plant strawberries on the side of our house that we have a RAT! He is smart and elusive. I foresee this is going to be an issue with our veggie garden. He runs down the wooden fence making it really hard to catch him. But my biggest issue is even thought he is a pest for us, I still want to be humane (this can be tough). I researched different methods and after a family discussion my mom purchased us an electric rat trap. I read really good reviews on the electric rat traps and had a game plan. I put the trap out with out touching it directly (I wore old really dirty gloves from the garden). Placed strawberries in it and didn't turn it on (We live in California so moisture isn't an issue for the electric trap-its summer!). I was going to get him familiar with the trap and then turn it on and get him. But he never went for the bate- he is smart! So then my husband who does not care about being humane put out decon. He didn't take that either. So now my dad is going to come over and do his mojo with his wood traps. I refuse to touch the wood snap traps. I think they are inhumane and really dangerous. I really have a hard time even thinking about them. But he owns a business in Oxnard and they get a lot of rats so he has a really good system down. In the meantime I'm going to try peppermint oil to keep him away from the strawberries. Wish me luck!

Sowing Seeds

2011-06-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I finished sowing my seeds for the vegetable garden. It is very late in the season but it seems that the weather this year is mild so I'm giving it a try. I used some leftover Popsicle sticks to label my plants and some leftover plastic shoe boxes that I purchased from target forever ago to plant in. I ended up using the Jiffy soil disks that rehydrate to sow my plants in. I like them because they can be planted directly in the ground. I think this just makes it easier to transplant the plants and the plants also get to keep their soil. I'm really trying to conserve funds so I used some neat helpful hints from Mr. Brown Thumb's blog you can check him out here .The butter lettuce, tomato, peas, onions, cantaloupe, and pumpkins are already starting to sprout! I can't wait to get them out in the yard.

When one man's trash is the same man's treasure!

2011-06-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

I never intended on writing a blog post on our compost bin. In fact when we first started our compost bin I knew it would work, but I didn't realize how quickly and effectively it would work. I was really exciting to turn my own trash into treasure, well... okay soil, but free soil! The pictures above are of my soil I made from our compost bin. It literally only took 15 days to get it! Now that I have the compost bin, I can't believe I have been paying the city to dispose this 'trash'!
There are all sorts of compost bins out there in different shapes and sizes. Really if you have the land you can find a spot far away from your house and just dig a hole in the ground and put the compost in. But the urbanites like myself probably want to get some sort of bin to contain the contents. I find that the flea flies in my back yard are very attracted to the bin and stay in there instead of flying around my yard. So its a win/win for both myself and the insects.
So what goes into a compost bin you ask. There are a few simple steps to having a successful compost bin. First you want to line the bottom with some sort of dry coarse materials such as twigs, hay, straw or even dry leaves. This I have found helps my compost vent and gets the air in. Next you want to add a combo of brown and green materials. Brown materials are cardboard paper napkins dried leaves and such. Green materials are any sort of materials that were recently growing such as grass clippings, dried banana peels etc. Although if you are going to add weeds and plants make sure they are dried out first so they don't go to seed in your bin. Also a word of warning don't add meat or animal products or your bin because they will stink to high heaven. Finally bugs like earthworms and such help to breakdown your trash into soil. I never really had a liking for bugs until I had my compost bin. I used to dig into the dirt and freak out when I saw earthworms and bugs. Now you see me sreaking with delight and running the earthworms over to my compost bin. My neighbors probably think I'm out of my mind. But thats ok with me!
Suprisingly our bin really does not smell. After I add contents into our bin each week we add a layer of dirt to keep the smell down this also keep the bugs at bay. The dirt will also provide the necessary bacteria that your bin needs to help accelerate the brake down of materials.
To maintain your bin you want to keep the contents moist but not to wet. You want it to be moist like a wrung out sponge. After we add our scraps and dirt I take a garden hose to it to make sure it has an adequate amount of moisture.
Marion Owen has a really nice list of items you can compost on her website page 163 things you can compost . Any type of organic matter banana peels, apple scraps, cooked veggies, freezer burnt veggies and fruit, Newspapers, brown paper bags, even lint trap scraps and dust bunnies! So you get the idea.

Veggie Garden - The begginings

2011-06-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

Because of the price hike in food we have decided to start a veggie garden. Money is tight so a good start is to plant what we eat the most of. After researching the different gardening techniques we realized the soil in the section of our house that we want to use is not the best. The area is also small and an odd shape. So we decided the best option for us was a combo of square foot gardening with a raised bed Lasagna garden. We measured the space and it looks like we can fit 4 - 4'x4' beds in the section and still have room for our compost bin!

What is a square foot garden and a Lasagna garden you ask?

Well square foot gardening is a technique of intensive planting developed by a civil engineer. Mel Bartholomew came up with square foot gardening in the 1970's. The Technique is a system of planting based on a grid of 1'X1' squares with plants placed in carefully determined spacing. In his book Square Foot Gardening Mel explains his system "The square foot system lets you make the most of your garden space to conserve the amount of water, soil conditioners, and labor needed to produce a maximum amount of food in that space. A square foot garden takes only one-fifth the space and work of a conventional single-row garden to produce the same harvest."

Lasagna gardening really takes square foot gardening to a whole different level. Patricia Lanza explains in her book Lasagna Gardening that this garden is a no till no dig organic method. You can check out her website at www. lasagnagardening.com. In a Lasagna garden the first layer is either Cardboard or three layers of newspaper laid directly on top of the area. Then you apply layers to the garden. Grass clippings, veggie scraps, leaves, etc. Then anything you would put in a compost pile you can put into the lasagna garden. The materials will break down to produce the soil to plant in.

So this last weekend we purchased the wood and some soil (We don't yet have enough compost for both sections) for two of the four beds. and started to layer our Lasagna garden. Its coming along nicely. It is way less work than I thought it was going to be. Next up is planting the sections!

Butterfly Birthday Party

2011-06-02T22:50:00.001-07:00

Recently my couson was moving and her daughters birthday was at the same time. I took it upon myself to help out with the party. Her theme was butterflys. The birthday was at a local park she rented the covered tables from the city. So I made tissue paper poms and strung them and hung them in yellow and pink along with butterflys. I made a smaller version of the tissue pom poms and secured them to a stick decorated with a butterfly (I had them hanging around!) and put them in bright pink tins that held drinks at each table. The cupcake pics were also butterfly theme. We did a make and take tissue butterfly using a clotspin. The goodie bags were stamped with stampin up set "Baroque Motifs". It was alot of work but totally worth it.

More Garden Flowers

2011-06-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

As promised here are some more pictures of flowering going on in our garden. The little red one is a bloom on our pomegranate tree. Once the bloom dies the hard part of the flower (which is red) turns into the bottom of the actual pomegranate! So the blooms showing are very exciting around here. We also have several varieties of roses in our garden. They were part of the landscape when we originally purchased the house. Rose bushes aren't my absolute favorite plant but I just couldn't see killing them.

Garden Flowers

2011-06-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

I just love the weather right before summer. Warm enough to wear a dress but still cool enough to pair it with a sweater. If only California was always like this. But I know soon it will be scorching hot and my flowers will wilt. So I wanted to share some of the blooms that have been growing around our garden this spring. I'll will have to post more later on.

The first offical post

2009-06-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

So this is my first offical post to my blog. I am so excited to be starting this blog because it is something I have wanted to do for so long!