From Garden to Gut!

Our basil is out of control so I decided it's time to do some harvesting! I found a simple pesto sauce recipe online and decided to make some sort of pesto pasta with chicken. Here I am harvesting our first crop from our garden!

The pesto calls for 3 cups of fresh basil leaves, 1 1/2 cups pine nuts (which taste a little like a pine cone - or so we can only imagine!), 4 peeled cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, 1 cup olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Put everything but the olive oil in a food processor and blend.

Slowly drizzle in the oil while still mixing. WARNING: Don't try to take pictures while you're doing this - you may end up with a super oily pesto sauce!

The pesto can be eaten on pasta or pizza or even as a dip with toasted pita points. (today's blog is brought to you by the letter P!)

We had ours with some whole wheat pasta and grilled chicken. Yummy!

Hopefully next time we try this dish, we'll have some freshly harvested peppers to throw in!

Produce Galore!

It's been a busy couple of days in the garden! Yesterday Alec discovered zucchini and squash!


This morning we found cucumbers!

Here's what the garden looks like now.

Our Little Southern Bells

We have produce!



They are the tiniest bell peppers you've ever seen, but they're there! We were sure the squash would be first because their vines and blooms have really taken off. Now the true test of our green thumbs is produce coming from the seeds we planted!

We went to the 62nd Annual Cavalcade in Pawhuska on Saturday. This is the world's largest ameteur rodeo and you can see everything from roping and barrel racing to the pony express and chuck wagon races. My sister and I used to go to the Cavalcade every year when we were growing up so I thought city boy Alec would love it...and he does!

We stopped by to visit my family in Wynona on the way home and my grandparents loaded us up with veggies from their garden. They had 2 cucumber plants that went crazy and produced waaaay more cucumbers than they needed (my grandpa doesn't care for them) so I brought home lots of cucumbers and made my sister's jalapeno dill pickles.

I didn't have everything you need to successfully can - like a super huge pot or those fancy canning tongs, but I worked with what I have and I think the pickles will turn out fine. I was nervous about the lids sealing all the way but all last night you could hear little pops coming from the kitchen! We only had 2 this morning that didn't appear to be sealed. Hopefully they'll seal today or we'll just have to eat those first! I put a jalapeno (some fresh from my mom's garden) in each jar which gives the pickles a little kick!


A few weekends ago, Alec put in a brick walkway between our patio and the hot tub. I failed to post about the project and all his hard work so...

Alec first measured out the walkway and spray painted the outline. He then dug up the grass and transplanted it to a bare spot in the yard. He tamped down the dirt and spread sand all over the area. He layed out the bricks in a pattern then filled in around the bricks with dirt. Our hope is that grass will eventually grow around the bricks so the walkway looks more incorporated into our yard.



We don't have a lot of pictures of this because I was at the store for most of the morning and by the time I got home, I was distraught about how much time it takes me to accomplish simple tasks.

Our next project is hanging a clothes line to help conserve energy and money! We found a few different styles and think we'll get one of the retractable kinds so we can just use it when we want then put it back when we don't need it.

Hopefully we'll have more produce pictures soon! Woo Hoo!

Let Us Have Lettuce!

It's official! Everything we've planted in our garden has sprouted! Woo Hoo! We didn't think the lettuce seeds were ever going to sprout, but lo and behold:

Everything is really taking off. We don't have actual fruits and veggies yet, but all the plants are healthy and buds are blooming! Berman did a quick quality check this morning and he gives the garden 2 paws up!

We got a ton of rain last night and it brought out all sorts of critters!

Since the yard was a bit swampy, we kept our weekend projects on dry land. After hanging a few pictures (we finally have wall decor!), Alec replaced the light fixture in the stairway. Turns out, he's gotta little bit of monkey in him! I helped by sitting at the bottom of the stairs taking pictures!

Our dining table and chairs belonged to Alec's grandparents. While his grandpa was overseas during WWII, his grandma saved up all their money. When Alec's grandpa finally came home, the dining set was the first furniture they bought! I love things with a story or history. The chairs had been repainted and antiqued and looked really sweet and old. One chair had been stripped so I attempted to match it with the others. After I painted it, I put on a dark stain which I wiped off. I think it's gonna be pretty close.

Alec is working on mastering the smoker. So far we've had brisket and ribs. Today he's smoking a chicken. He even created his own rub! The furkids always keep a close eye on the smoker, except Lucy is petrified of the smoke!

Things are Sow Sew

Our garden is coming along quite nicely! All but the lettuce seeds have sprouted and the plants are getting bigger and bigger. There's one patch of sprouts that we aren't sure what they are. We didn't exactly label everything because we thought we had a system. I guess we'll have a mystery vegetable/fruit for now - may be a watercumber!

We for sure know we planted: yellow squash, zuchinni, cucumbers, tomatoes, red bell peppers, jalapenos, beans (3 kinds!), peas, lettuce, watermelon, cilantro, rosemary and basil.

We water our garden each evening and on every Sunday, I give it a good dose of Miracle Grow. I sprayed it with Sevin spray (the dust is too messy!) the other day though we haven't had evidence of bugs. The bunnies haven't been by either. We're going to add a little fence around just in case they do decide to visit. Hopefully a fence will keep the furkids out too. They've been pretty good about staying away, but sometimes Mango accidently flops her tennis ball in the middle of the garden.



Alec's mom brought by a sewing machine that's been in her family for a few decades. Now, I've never ever ever used a sewing machine. I can reattach buttons or fix stiches that have fallen out - all by hand, but I have no idea how to use a sewing machine. I think they stopped offering Home Ec about 2 years before it was my time!

But Marge cleaned up and fixed up the old machine so I could give it a try. She was VERY patient with me and I think I have it down now. After she left, I sat down to try a few stiches on my own. That ended badly. Luckily the thread did not become "unthreaded", but somehow the thread from the bobbin and the thread from the spool weren't cooperating. I had to Google how to fix this, which I did, so now I'm ready to get started! I have many projects in mind...curtains, patio chair covers, maybe a nice pant set for Berman...I think I'm more excited to go buy all my notions and start my little sewing kit! Hobby Lobby's having a sale!



Another project we're working on is adding a brick path from the patio to our awesome hot tub. We found a pile of bricks behind our shed (leftover from the flower beds?)so they match our house perfectly. We're going to dig up the grass and transplant it (hopefully that'll be the last of our bare spots!). Then we'll lay the bricks down in a pattern. We want the grass to grow up between the bricks and through the holes so they won't be slick.



Alec's been working really hard on the hot tub - adding chemicals and what not. Last night we soaked while we watched all the fireworks going off around us. A lot nicer than sitting out in the yard and getting attacked by mosquitos!

And finally, Alec got our flag in place just in time for Independence Day! We'll probably fly it as often as we can. After all, we are living the American dream!