 |
| Who you callin' pansy? |
What a week it has been already! The local stores and garden centers are in full bloom with the various trees, shrubs, and plants on display. Have you hit up your local garden center to check out the latest variety of fruit or vegetable this year? I'm a little sad that the only place that I can get the black petunias at is a small drive away. Even then, they're not the 'Black Cat' variety but 'Phantom' (yellow/black) or 'Pinstripe' (pink/black) since most are making way for this year's varietal of 'Blackberry Hybrid.' That's all well, but I want my black petunias! Maybe there will be something at this years plant sale.
 |
| The nice void |
 |
| Hey look! I made a mountain! |
I'm looking forward to spring since we're working on expanding the vegetable gardens. Container gardening is nice, but since we have the room we're going to try our hand at raised beds. It's just a matter of clearing out the old driveway to make room for said beds. So what did we do this weekend? Took a sledgehammer to the old concrete. We didn't get all of it out, but a good 8ft section. It made a nice mountain in front of the fence. There's a local place that accepts old concrete so it's just a matter of hauling it away.
While visiting the local centers this year, we found a new flower that we're in love with: hyacinth. The blooms have a sweet aroma with delicate looking flowers in a variety of colors. Of course, I got a few. Two purple, grape hyacinth and two pink. In my zone they're perennials but above zone 8 they have a tendency to become annuals. Arriving at the same time as daffodils and tulips, these bulbs can add a nice accent to the larger flowers.
Ms. Mouse's Thoughts on Food
I have made vegan breakfast sausage. There, I said it, I am awesome. Go ahead and ponder this thought for a little bit. Now you may ask how I accomplished this wonderful feat of culinary genius? Trial, error, and taking apart several other recipes to create a hybrid. Ready to try your own hand at these nummy little patties? Then read on!
 |
| the work in progress |
oil, for cooking
1/4c onion, sauteed
1c black beans, rinsed/drained
3/4c oatmeal
2tb flour
1/4-1/2ts fennel seed
1ts sage
1/4ts salt
1/4ts onion powder
1/4ts garlic powder
 |
| They look like sausages!!! |
dash cayenne
1ts maple syrup
+/- 1/4c water
Directions:
1) Chop & saute onion
2) Place all ingredients in a food processor until smooth
3) Use a melon baller or something similar to plop mixture into the skillet on med/med-lo heat (stove temps vary)
4) Let brown on each side (cooking roughly 3-4 minutes) and gently flip, repeat
As I said in an earlier post, recipes are like guidelines - unless of course it's a baking recipe then try to stick with that unless you can without uncertainty fiddle with the ingredients/ratio that most baking requires. After testing these sausages out, I found the 1/2ts fennel seed to be a little much for my taste even with processing it into microscopic bits. The maple syrup gives it a nice sweetness that can compliment any breakfast entree. The next thing I need to figure out is how to do omelets without egg...that way I can make my own damn breakfast sammies.
Final Thoughts
Got your garden all planned out? Great you're one step ahead of me. If not, it's okay, it's not too late to get some idea of what you're planting this year, but don't wait too much longer! Soon the major planting time will have long gone and it will be time to focus on keeping those little buggers alive and producing!
Zone 5: pinch back strawberry blossoms, sow bush/pole beans, and start installing collars to protect seedlings from cutworms!
No comments:
Post a Comment