No sweeping look at the garden this week.
I thought I’d show you some of my garden oddities.
Have you ever watched the show Oddities on the science/discovery channel?
My husband and I love it. Love it.
In honor of our love of Obscura and Oddities….I give you oddities, garden style.
Squash twins.
Acorn Squash twins, but only one is really thriving.
Twin Tomatoes
I love the oddities that nature creates.
This week my garden is in major production mode. Zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers…we got em.
Beans and peas are booming!
My onion has a flower.
Cucumber and squash.
The tomatoes are ripening….finally!
The baby watermelons are growing well. I just found another this morning, so now we have 4. The 3 bigger ones are pictured below.
The newly planted spaghetti squash and butternut squash are growing well.
The peach tree my husband bought me for my birthday is planted and doing well so far.
How is your garden growing?
I have Phun with iPhone Photos!
Come, join us for dinner.
Squash casserole is one of my favorite comfort food dishes.
When I was a teenager, my Mother and I would go to a restaurant called “The Black-eyed Pea” and order veggie plates. Plates full of broccoli rice casserole, fried okra, cheese-y broccoli soup and the most amazing squash casserole.
It was one of our favorite dinner spots, and one of my favorite teenaged memory clusters.
Once I was all-growed up (yes, I said growed up) I began trying to replicate the squash casserole.
Years and years ago I found a copy-kat recipe that I have altered until I was happy with it.
Cut the ends off squash and cut each squash into 4 or more pieces.
Place the squash into a pot of boiling water, use enough water to cover the squash. Reduce heat and cook until tender. I cooked my squash fir about 12 minutes. Drain and mash.
While the squash is cooking, mix the beaten eggs, 1-cup breadcrumbs, melted butter, sugar, salt, onion, tarragon and pepper together in a bowl.
Combine the mashed squash with the crumb mixture.
Place the mixture into a casserole dish that has been lightly sprayed with a non-stick baking spray.
Sprinkle the top with the 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
I used the broiler at 500 deg. For the last 5 minutes to give the top a nice crust.
I have Phun with iPhone Photos!
This is the 2nd bunch of squash I’ve gathered.
Meet Quasi-mato.
He’s a happy little tomato with a hump. Quasi-mato is hanging out on my window sill in hope that his hump will ripen.
Later this week I’ll have a squash casserole recipe for you. It’s vegetarian friendly, but not a vegan recipe.
Pictures from my growing garden.
Flowering bean plants.
Lettuce.
My 5 tomato plants.
I’m growing corn, well corn stalks.
Beets, peppers and (I think) watermelons.
I did not plant lettuce there. It must have washed there in the heavy rain a few weeks ago.
What one thing does not belong? The little oak tree. We had a ton of seeds blown into our yard. One must have found it’s way to my raised garden bed.
Happy Friday the 13th Peeps! may your day be nothing like the long running horror movie series.
Meh. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a regular garden update. Surgery can do that to a girl.
Here are some pictures of my garden’s progress.
The raised bed garden is doing much better than the in ground beds. Only issue with the raised bed? Munchy, hungry bugs.
My small side garden has been under a different sort of attack. Feral cats decided it was a wonderful litter box.
I disagreed.
Here are pictures of the in ground beds. As you can see, some things are growing….other things.
Not. So. Much.
The tomato plants are happy.
Beets.
Pepper plants. Half are bell peppers and half are jalapeño peppers.
Since my seed markers blew away in the storms…I think these are watermelon plants.
Squash, and a lot of seeds that refused to sprout.
Corn.
This is either more squash or cantaloupe. Heh. Time will tell.
If you’re gardening, how’s your garden growing?
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
The wind blew away most of my seed markers.
at least that is how the weather team on T.V. is treating it. It’s been raining here for a little over 12 hours. Storming, wind howling, thunder booming, lightning flashing, big, cold drops of rain falling.
Since we just planted the garden, this is a blessing and a curse. Water is great, a good soaking rain is great.
Puddles, not so much.
Yesterday we had high wind, crazy wind. Crazy blowing away most of my seed markers wind. This year the garden will be a little but of a surprise…. I can not remember where I planted everything. Ha!
Seeds are all about snorkeling, right?
Clearly we have some high and low areas....
Below the garden is a swamp....
My swamp.
These strawberries are survivors from last summer. They laugh at the water, they are already planning strawberry-topia 2
The raised bed is protected from much of the rain. The cats and birds are another story though.
There is no real update on my Grandmother, she is still hospitalized, they believe the mental confusion is due to a slight bladder infection. She is fighting her treatment. She keeps removing her I.V.
If you’re a prayer sort of person, I’d appreciate your prayers for her.
Over a month ago, Andrea of From the Bookshelf gifted the 7 links challenge to me. Heh! I’m quite tardy to the 7 links party. Sorry about that Andrea!
I’ve been writing posts on A Dash of Domestic since March. 6 months, 197 (now 198) posts, so many new friends.
According to the rules of the challenge I am supposed to list 1 post for each of the following categories and then pass this challenge on to 5 people.
One word? Yum!
Never turn your back on a little red duck!
6. Post that did not get the attention it deserved: My homemade Cranberry sauce. This cranberry sauce is requested by family and friends all. the. time.
7. Post you are most proud of: The Evolution of a Domestic Engineer, the article is only partly on my blog. The full article is here. I wrote it for Women Worth Knowing.
It was both overwhelming and fun to look through all my content to find the perfect articles for this post!
I am trying to tag bloggers who (hopefully) have not had a chance to participate in the 7 links challenge yet.
This week is the 4th week in the canning link-up Allie and I are hosting.
I almost made brandied cherries…next time….maybe.
I had a busy cooking weekend. I bought a small army of onions and jalapenos on Saturday. I made more Jalapeno Relish and Candied Jalapenos. I also made Slow-Cooker Caramelized Onions via Andrea- From the Bookshelf-’s recipe.
15 small jars of jalapeno-ey goodness
Busy, busy and boy did my eyes water a lot over the weekend with all the onion and jalapeno slicing.
Since I had more onions than I needed to make the Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions (which I separated into 4 meal sized serving portions and froze).
I decided to look for an onion canning recipe. Easier said than done. Onions and canning can be tricky business. Without something acidic in the recipe (like vinegar) you need to pressure can the onions. Pressure canning is not something I have ventured into yet. The pressure canning cook times are LONG, and I am concerned about the issue of Botulism.
I wanted to do something a little different this week. Something with wine, something with onions.
I decided on a sweet, savory onion relish.
Since this relish has balsamic vinegar in it, it is water bath can-able.
To see our canning link up from previous weeks… Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3
I’ve had Onion relish as an appetizer. It’s great on burgers or with steaks. According to My Pantry Shelf (where the recipe I used came from) it is great on pizza too.
adapted from My Pantry Shelf and The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
My adaptions are in purple
Here is what you will need to make Caramelized Onion Relish:
4 large red (I used yellow) onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of celery seed
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
2 cups dry red wine
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper (or to taste)
Place the onions in a pot, over a medium heat. Add the sugar, celery seed, turmeric and pumpkin pie spice. Stir the sugar and spices into the onions.
Cook the onions for 30 minutes or until onions are soft, browning and caramelized. Mine took 45 min to cook down. My onions were very moist.
Once the onions are cooked down until most of the liquid has evaporated, add the wine, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the mixture for 15-20 minutes until the liquid has reduced and it begins to thicken. Mine took about 40 minutes to reduce and thicken, but I made a double batch, so that might be why it took longer.
Prep your canning jars: sterilize the jars and warm the lids.
Ladle the relish into the hot jars, making sure to leave 1/2 inch of head-space.
Wipe the jar rims and place the lids onto the jars.
Process the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes (for half-pint jars) or 15 minutes (for pint jars).
Allow jars to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing the them from the water bath. Place the jars on the counter top to rest overnight.
Check the seals on the jars and store them in a cool, dry place for up to 1 year.
The MyBlogSpark giveaway has ended. The winner was comment #18
Your banana bread looks very yummy, Thanks Jamie, I would like to try it with oatmeal raisin cookie.”
Say hello to Samah on her blog, Good Cooks.
I will have another giveaway soon, because giveaways are fun! 
Anyhoo……Happy Friday my friends. It has been a few weeks since I have updated you on my garden.
See all my earlier Garden Gab posts here.
I’m afraid my gardening is winding down. My raised garden box is sinking-sideways into the earth. The super hot, relentlessly dry summer, combined with water restrictions created large cracks in my backyard. Don’t worry, my house foundation is perfectly fine thanks to soaker hoses.
I tried to show the crazy lean in a picture. I’m not sure I did it justice.
I swear, I'm holding the camera straight. Notice the lean?
Pardon my grass, it needs to be mowed. So, hopefully you can see…my raised garden bed is sinking. My husband is working on my expanded garden space, but it won’t be ready for Fall planting so, I’m probably done gardening until the Spring.
I cut the okra down. Since my garden is sinking I have been removing the plants. The only plants left in the raised garden? The (unexpectedly) hot peppers. The royal purple bean plants. The purple hull peas. And, of course, Strawberrytopia.
The royal purple bean plants are very small still, they flower but have not produced any beans.
The mint plant is still doing well. It has not taken over the side garden. I believe the heat probably stunted its growth.
The carrots are still small-ish, I think maybe I planted them too close together?
Now for the really exciting part. The purple hull peas? Growing lovely little peas. The pea pods start out looking like strange monster claws.
Rawr.....monster claws
The monster claws grow longer and wider, the peas within grow and swell the pods. Then they look like this…
They grow peas that look like this…
There are not enough peas for a meal yet, but I’m very excited about the purple hull peas! They are the only reason that I have not completely gutted the garden box yet.
How is your garden growing? Are you planting this fall?
Don’t forget that Allie and I will have a new set of canning posts for you on Monday. We would LOVE IT if you would link up with us!
Have a super weekend!
