National Grilled Cheese Day!

Source: thecookmobile.com via Angela on Pinterest

Today is National Grilled Cheese Day. I don't know who decides these fake holidays, but my favorite sandwich is a grilled cheese, so I'm going with it.

It is pouring down rain this morning and a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup, of course, sounds very appealing. If you're into grilled cheese, here are some links you might like:

• The Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches in San Francisco - includes one made with Brussels sprouts. I might actually eat Brussels sprouts if piled into a cheese sandwich.
• Best wines for grilled cheese
• Allrecipe's different recipes for making grilled cheese sandwiches
• Yahoo's 12 Grilled Cheeses to Eat Before You Die (so dramatic!)

As a kid I only wanted plain American cheese melted onto white bread, but as an adult I've been getting into interesting combinations, like these:

Source: foodiecrush.com via Kelly Ann on Pinterest

Spinach-artichoke grilled cheese

Source: bsinthekitchen.com via s on Pinterest

Jalapeno popper grilled cheese

Source: recipe.com via s on Pinterest

Farmers' market grilled cheese (recipe calls for zucchini, spinach, tomato, and mayonnaise!! I would pass on the mayo, but otherwise it looks really good!)

You can click on the picture and/or source link under each picture to go to the recipe.

I think I'm going to have one like in the first picture--with melted mozzarella, tomato, and basil.


Do you like grilled cheese sandwiches? How do you make them?

Great Gardening Weekend

We had a beautiful sunny weekend in DC. I'm sure everyone who was in town for the Cherry Blossom Festival appreciated it too. Just to remind myself of  how time passes, exactly one month ago, on March 6, it snowed!

On this sunny weekend I had the windows open in my house each day. It felt so good to have fresh air circulating through the house. The rest of my April weekends will be busy with out of town travel, a crawfish boil, birthday parties, and a going-away party, so I took advantage of the nice weather to get some yard work done on my free weekend.

First, I started some sunflower seeds. (I am so woefully behind on seed starting in general. I only have some onion seedlings sprouting from seeds I started a couple of months ago).  I'm determined not to let the squirrels dig up my sunflower seedlings this year. We'll see who wins that war. I'm growing Teddy Bear sunflowers, Mammoth sunflowers, and Chianti sunflowers.

These are my Queen of the Night tulips. They're growing more every day and I can't wait to see those lovely dark purple blooms. I planted some peach colored alyssum seeds in the spaces between the tulips. I think the color combo of peach and dark purple will look nice.

My big garden task was weed work. Look at how these weeds have almost taken over my onion patch. Now imagine all of that on a 10x10 space. That's about the size of my backyard and it's all full of weeds. It's going to take a while to weed everything.

But for now I managed to liberate my onion patch. This was a lesson learned for me. I will mulch better and/or plant some cover crops next fall to prevent this from happening again.

I also squeezed some shopping in this weekend. I treated myself to these cute pink shorts. I don't think I've ever owned pink shorts in my life. I must have spring fever. I can't wait for the weather to warm up enough to wear them.

Did you get any garden work done this weekend?

The Snow Storm That Wasn't

A late winter snow storm was supposed to hit the DC area yesterday. The news people predicted 5-8 inches of snow--possibly even a foot! Salt trucks and snow plows were idling on the side street, waiting to spring into action. And then...nothing really happened. I live just outside DC and we barely got a few inches of snow, it was a rainy slushy mix. This is the peak of the rain/snow fall at around 10:30 a.m. By evening most of it had melted away. But a friend of mine who lives about an hour's drive away in Virginia said they got 7-8 inches of snow, the good snowman-building kind. Funny how a few miles made such a difference.

Did you get much snow from the storm? I hope you're warm and didn't lose power!

Also, did you notice that they were calling this Winter Storm Saturn? When did they start naming the storms?

Pine Syrup

Source: foodnetwork.com via Angela on Pinterest

Here's something random I found on FoodNetwork.com : How to Make Your Own Pine Syrup.  I've never heard of pine syrup, but they said to try it in cocktails so now I'm intrigued.

We've already taken down our Christmas tree and recycled it. But maybe I'll snip some branches off the trees outside and try it...

Have you ever heard of pine syrup? Have you ever made it? I'm curious!

Life of Pi: Book Recommendation

Source: goodreads.com via Angela on Pinterest

I just heard that the book Life of Pi is being turned into a movie. I first read this book almost 10 years ago and it instantly made it to my Top 10 list of favorite books ever read. On the surface, it's the story of a boy who is stuck on a boat with a tiger, but I think it's really a book about faith and self-reliance.

Whenever I hear of books being made into movies, I usually want to read the book first and get the story and characters in my head before I see someone else's interpretation. So if you haven't read it, and want an interesting but easy read for the summer, I highly recommend this book.

Have you read Life of Pi? What did you think of it?

Quote of the Day: Charles Dickens

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  ~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

This quote sums up the month of March perfectly, at least around these parts. That's exactly how it felt around here on Saturday--freezing in the shade, but warm and cozy in the sun. Sunday was better, not as windy or chilly, but still sunny. On Sunday I ventured out to do some garden chores: trimming back the ivy near the fish pond, weeding, seed starting.  But I didn't do any of it.  I blame my lethargic attitude on my allergies. I know when spring has arrived because I spend most of my waking hours sneezing and itching.


I did check on the few plants I do have. The broccoli transplants are doing OK, but the containers where I started spinach and lettuce seeds a couple of weeks ago are still empty. I saw one little lettuce seedling coming out, but it was so small that it wasn't worth photographing. There is a seedling in the spinach container, but I don't know if it's spinach or a weed. I've been waiting for spring to get here, and now that's it's practically here, I just don't feel like doing anything. :( 

Hello, Weekend

{Photograph by Paul Poplis, Getty Images, for National Geographic}

It's been a long, stressful, chilly week. I'm so ready for the weekend! I need a warm, sunny beach and a margarita. I found this list of Top 10 Beach Drinks by National Geographic. And don't forget to move your clocks forward one hour this Sunday!



Moon Gardening

{photo credit}

Have you ever gardened by the moon? I don't mean gardening in the dark or by moonlight, but have you ever timed planting your seeds by the phases of the moon?

I have not, but I first read about this concept when looking through the Farmers' Almanac website. It seems that the phases of the moon affect moisture levels in the soil, so there are certain optimal dates for starting seeds. I've never done it and thought it was an interesting concept. Here's the link, if you're interested in reading more.

Thunderstorms

Well, these are the hazards of a container garden. We got some much-needed rain last night. Unfortunately it came in the form of a flash thunderstorm that knocked over most of our pots. My Sweet Chocolate and Purple Beauty peppers fell over (top photo) and so did most of my Black Krim tomato and tomatillo pots. We'll need to re-stake the tomatoes, but thankfully we didn't lose too many fruit.

p.s. In the last picture, you can see a Black Krim starting to turn red (lower right corner)!

My Own Mutant Vegetables

In my Freaky Fruit post a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the misshapen fruit that can sometimes grow in a garden. Well it turns out that I have a few little weirdos of my own. The first three pictures are all Black Krim tomatoes, a new variety I'm growing this year. Three different Black Krim plants have odd-shaped fruit developing. The first one looks like a spider, the second one is growing a twin attached to it, and the third one has a fruit that appears to be growing flat. 

The last two pictures are not of a mutant, but it's an example of the difference in size between yellow squash grown in a container (left) and one grown in the ground (right). The squash on the left came from my own garden. The huge one on the right came from my husband's office community garden. He planted yellow squash seeds there from the same packet that we used at home in our container garden. What a huge difference! Oh, how I wish we had more yard space! 

UPDATE: I should have pointed out that not all the Black Krims look like that. The plants are growing some normal looking tomatoes. The giant squash in the community garden got way too big and it's forming seeds, so he brought it home because it wasn't going to be donated.

Freaky Fruit

While trolling the internet recently I came across photographer Uli Westphal, whose work "deal[s] with the way humans perceive, depict and transform the natural world." My favorite photographs are the series dealing with food, specifically fruits and vegetables.

The first one that caught my eye is the "Mutatoes," or mutant food series.  In the artist's words,

"The complete absence of botanical anomalies in our supermarkets has caused us to regard the consistency of produce presented there as natural. Produce has become a highly designed, monotonous product. We have forgotten, and in many cases never experienced, the way fruits, roots, and vegetables can actually look (and taste)."

Because of my deep love of tomatoes, I really like the Lycopersicum series. These photographs show the many different varieties of tomatoes that exist. The artist writes that industrialization has led to a focus on high-yielding, uniform crops and livestock. This, in turn, has resulted in many varieties of fruit, vegetables, and even livestock becoming extinct or on the brink of extinction. He writes that the tomato pictures are the first in a series of photographs that will show different varieties and breeds of food and animals that we may not be aware of.

I like the photographs, but I'm also interested in the message. I recently read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and the author touched on the subject of endangered varieties of farm animals and vegetables. Until I got interested in gardening and growing my own food, the thought of a dark reddish-purple tomato, or a tomato with ridges and ripples, seemed too weird to me. This wasn't what I was used to seeing in the store, i.e. perfectly red, round tomatoes. Now I understand and appreciate the many different varieties of tomatoes I can get and grow. Nothing beats the taste of a freshly-picked tomato from your own backyard. I like experimenting with different varieties too. Three years ago I had not heard of Black Krim tomatoes, or chocolate peppers, and now I'm growing both!  One of my new favorites sites is Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit dedicated to preserving heirloom seeds. I've spent time looking through the online catalog and wishing I had the space to grow more crops. While on the farm over the weekend, I drooled over the kitchen garden. Oh to have room to grow melons and potatoes!

p.s. I plan to put pictures up of my Oklahoma farm visit as soon as I organize them. Although they lied to me about the watermelon and getting to ride a combine, I did thoroughly enjoy our BBQ and loved spending time in the middle of nowhere. It was so peaceful out there.

Weekend in the Garden: Very Productive

weekend of 4/16

weekend of 4/23

What a great weekend! In addition to having a good weekend with friends, I also completed a lot of gardening tasks. I weeded about half the garden, plus I trimmed back the ivy and Japanese magnolia that had been bursting through the fence. It was long overdue, and Sunday was sunny and dry enough to get some of these tasks done. What a difference!

We planted giant yellow sunflower seeds in the big containers above. I also have some leftover Chianti sunflower seeds that I still need to plant. I plan to look for different varieties over the next couple of weeks to get some different colors in the garden. We plant so many vegetables, it's nice to have a few flowers around. The sunflowers also attract my favorite bugs, those little bumble lush bees.

I also added some acidic fertilizer to my hydrangea plants. The blooms are usually light to dark pink--and very pretty--but I would love to have some blue blooms. I've been adding this fertilizer for the past two springs, but no luck yet changing the pH balance of the soil to get blue flowers. Maybe I'll have better luck with the hydrangea in the container.

I also learned that my new neighbors (not the mint destroyer) have started their own vegetable garden this year. I'm very happy to have some company with this new hobby of mine.

On the Right Track

Although spring has officially been here for a month, I don't usually feel like we've really hit spring until mid- to late-April. The temperatures here in DC have been nice and mild during the day, but still chilly at night, perfect for leaving the windows open to let the cool breezes in. I love it! I don't even mind the rainy days. There's something about April showers that I find peaceful. They're not cold like winter showers and don't leave the air thick and muggy like in the summer. I mostly feel this change from winter to spring quite literally in my skin; it's not as dry anymore as it was over the winter months.

Garden work is going well too. We have pretty much started seeds for all the vegetables we want to grow this summer, which I have listed on the Growing this Season tab. We'll be staggering the planting of squash and beans to get a steady flow over the summer. I actually did just realize that I meant to buy cucumber seeds, so that is one last thing on my list of things to plant.

Although spring just got here, I'm anxious for the summer harvest. I dug up some random pictures of my garden from last year, including some of the vegetables we harvested, which is just making my anticipation build. Crossing my fingers for a good growing season for my garden, and for all gardens big and small!

Weekend in the Garden: Chores I Didn't Do

On Friday I made the following Weekend Garden To-Do list:

1. Plant seeds
2. Weed backyard
3. Trim back ivy bursting through the fence 

This is what the list looks like Monday morning:

1. Plant seeds
2. Weed backyard
3. Trim back ivy bursting through the fence

I planted a couple of tomato seeds sent to me by the very kind Emily. They are Tiny Tim and Oregon Spring varieties, and I can't wait to see what these tomatoes look and taste like. So Chore #1--check!

Now about #2 and #3: they didn't get completely done. In my defense, it rained buckets on Saturday. I'm talking destructive thunderstorms experienced up and down the east coast, making it the perfect lazy Saturday. (Side note: I secretly like rainy weekends sometimes. It makes me feel OK about not getting all my outside chores done).

Sunday was beautiful--sunny, breezy, and cool--and I decided that was the day to get to work in the yard. But the ground was still saturated from the Saturday rains. I couldn't walk behind the fence to get to the ivy without stepping in a puddle, so I decided to let that chore go until next weekend.

Our backyard is small, and much to my chagrin, full of weeds of right now. The benefit to the soggy ground was that I was able to yank some of the dandelions out by the roots just by tugging slightly on the flower. As a kid I used to love dandelions. My friends and I would take dandelions and clover and make chain necklaces and tiaras out of them. I had no idea then that they were regarded as a vile weed. Now I know better. That's why #2 is only half crossed out. I didn't get all the weeds out. That, too, is a chore for next weekend.

Also, I have new hobby as of two weeks ago--knitting! I've learned that rainy Saturdays are perfect for practicing knits and purls and trying to learn how to read patterns.

Weekend Garden Recap: Lazy and Rainy

Hydrangea buds

patio princess seedlings

A rough work week and cold, rainy weekend made me feel very lazy and somewhat unproductive this past weekend. I did notice the hydrangea plants had sprouted some buds. That to me was my personal official notification that spring is on its way. I was also happy to see that the tomato seeds I planted last Sunday have already sprouted. I can't wait for it to be warm enough to get them outside!

I had planned to hit up some nurseries and look for seeds, both vegetable and flower, but I didn't quite get around to it. However, while at Whole Foods, I noticed they finally put seeds out for sale, and I bought oat grass seeds for our cat. We planted the last of his seeds in September and I didn't replenish his seed stock before winter. The poor thing has had to live off a pet store cat grass kit all winter that just didn't grow grass as fully as the real seeds. I know he'll be happy once we get his little garden growing.

And now Monday, bleh.

Jalapeno Plant Progress

We have a good progress report on the little jalapeno plant that survived a blizzard, cat attack, and spider mites. It has a lot of healthy looking peppers growing, along with lots of blooms, which means even more peppers on the way!

December 2009 blizzard. It still had peppers from the summer! To me they looked like Christmas ornaments. We picked them, and the redder these things get, the hotter they are.

same plant, May 2010

And these are seedlings from a new plant we're growing. They're very easy to grow. We started this one indoors in April.

Welcome!

Bumble Lush is a food and garden blog.  We began experimenting with growing our own fruits and vegetables in 2009 and informally documented our progress.  This is our online garden journal for 2010 and beyond.