Sugar Pea Pods

They are later than they were last year, but we finally have Oregon sugar pods from our garden. Last year we planted sugar peas and sugar pods but we definitely like the pods best. Why? No shelling--enough said!

We are a little relieved because a couple of weeks ago it looked like we might not have a harvest at all. The vines were ranging between 3 and 6 inches tall with no blooms. They were a bit spotty so we didn't have as many vines as usual because of the drought.

One mistake we probably made was in not mulching the peas. Mulching is always a good idea, especially in a year where warmer than normal temps and partial drought is a problem.

Now, as you can see, they are making up for lost time.

To prepare the peas ...

Actually there is no real preparation required, unless you want to cook them. Some of the larger pods may need stringing but they are sweetly delicious just like they are. You can eat them straight off the vines. I think it is a good idea to wash them but it is a real treat to have them this way.

You can also serve them on a vegetable tray with a veggie dip. I usually use ranch dressing.

We also love to add them to a tossed salad. They are SO crunchy and sweet in a salad.

You can also cook them in a microwave, a serving at a time. Just add a little water and microwave for a couple of minutes until done, then add salt, pepper and a touch of butter.

Then you can saute them. Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan, brown a chopped up green onion and add the pods and stir for a few minutes. It won't take long since they are very good with minimal cooking.

I know we will really enjoy them because they are the perfect taste of spring!

My Mexican food favorites

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and though I don't really celebrate the holiday as if I were a descendant of Mexico, I can at the very least celebrate Mexican cuisine. It has become a large part of our culture. I think every town in America has at least one Mexican restaurant and most school children will be having a fiesta today. I am the designated party goer for my 6-year-old grandson who wore a sombrero in honor of his Cinco de Mayo party this afternoon.

That is why I am suggesting a couple of my hearty Mexican inspired dishes for your fiesta tomorrow. This is a hearty dish featuring peppers

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

1 pound ground beef
1 8 ounces package Mexican-style saffron rice, prepared according to directions (I used Vigo Mexican rice, but it does have MSG and corn solids. I think any kind of rice mix would work.)
2 cloves garlic, chopped (or green onions)
1 can black beans, drained
1 large tomato, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (use more if you like it hot)
1 teaspoon Adobo seasoning (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 cups mild salsa
6 green bell peppers, washed and halved, lengthwise with seeds and cores removed
cilantro, chopped
4 to 6 ounces Mexican cheese, grated (I used Sargento Artisan blend)
4 to 6 tablespoons water

Cook rice according to directions. Brown ground beef in large frying pan until well browned and "scrambled." Drain ground beef. Add garlic and brown. Add rice, beans, tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, seasonings and salsa. Mix well. Pour half of the mixture into a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish and pour 4 to 6 tablespoons of water over rice mixture. Stuff peppers and place on top of the rice mixture in casserole. Sprinkle with cilantro and bake, covered at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, or until peppers are soft. Uncover and sprinkle grated cheese over the top. Bake for 15 minutes longer and the dish is ready to serve.

What to serve with this. I think a salad with shredded lettuce tomatoes, topped with guacamole and sour cream. Also to round out the meal, Mexican cornbread. Here's my easy recipe.

Mexican Cornbread Muffins

2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3/4 cup chopped green onions
1 cup  mild salsa

Mix cornbread according to the directions on the box (add buttermilk and eggs and blend well). Add chopped green onions and salsa. Spoon the mixture evenly into a twelve-count muffin pans, sprayed with baking spray.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until done.

Don't have time to make a dish? My favorite local Mexican restaurant is Chylacas. They have the best fajitas. Our old stand by restaurant in downtown Newnan, La Fiesta is almost as good. They have a mouthwatering chicken quesadilla I could eat every day!

An idea for Mother's Day

I know my mother and my mother-in-law may get tired of the present I give them almost every year, but I usually make them a mixed pot of summer plants. The one above which is actually my daughter's plant is what I will try to put together for gifts next weekend.

I always like to add a tall tall plant for the middle, a plant with colored foliage, some kind of vine and a flower like the petunias above. It doesn't cost nearly as much to put your own mixed planting together since most of the plants can be purchased for under a dollar. You may also include fragrant herbs like lavender, basil or mint.

It is a good thing to buy potting soil that also has some kind of fertilizer in it already. Miracle Grow and Jungle Growth are both good brand names. Both can be organic, too. I don't mix it with anything, just plain. The plants love it.

The pot doesn't have to be fancy either. I have been known to pick up an oval-shaped tin bucket and put individual pots of flowers in the bucket. It is better to have a pot with drainage holes. Keep in mind whether the plant should be kept indoors or outdoors. The petunias above will need some sunshine. It is probably not a good idea to mix full-sun and full-shade plants together unless you know something about flowers that I don't know.

Some places to look for pots--discount stores, second hand stores and yard sales. I have purchased some of my favorite pots for a dollar each at a yard sale.

Keep the plant well-watered but don't water right before you give it away. In your card or on a separate paper you could write care instructions. I am sure that would be appreciated.

The main thing is that you don't forget Mother's Day. Moms are special and deserve to be treated that way.

Strawbales with--squash!

On Friday I left you with straw bales but nothing else. I was hoping my squash seeds would sprout up any day. Over the weekend I happened, sort of. I do have three little squash plants with the first two leaves  peeking out above the soil.

That is the good news, but it looks like I will be waiting for a few days on the rest of the squash plants to sprout above the soiil. As you can see by the photo above, my straw bales are still looking pretty bare. I have a feeling things are going on under the dirt and we will see the evidence of more plants by the weekend.

I am just relieved and I won't have to plant more seeds, just yet. The experiment continues.

Strawbale Update

Here is my straw bale squash garden. The bales have been fertilized, watered and watered and I am waiting.

I think I placed a little too much dirt on the top. Hopefully this method is forgiving of my obvious flaws. I am a person who thinks that if a little is good, a lot is even better. I know that doesn't always work but I can't seem to help myself.

The weather turned cool after I planted the squash seeds and I am still wating, and watering. There is a little straw grass growing. That is good and some flies buzzing around but no plant sightings yet. Maybe my next update will include squash plant sightings. It might be similar to watching a pot boil.

Baked Gluten-free Chicken nuggets

 Here's a recipe that I came up with after watching a video by Sarah Carey of Everyday Foods. It is a great recipe for Baked Chicken Nuggets and I was inspired to make it because my grandson really loves chicken nuggets but gets to have them only on rare occasions since he shouldn't eat wheat.

He was excited when I told him I was making his favorite food. He said, "Are they nuggets I can have?" I was happy to tell him yes.

I started out with 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut them into nugget-sized pieces. I then salted and peppered them and drizzled them with olive oil.

I used 3/4 cups of rice flour to coat the chicken pieces. I then put them in an egg mixture of three eggs and one tablespoon of almond milk. The egg gives it that great yellow hue that make the pieces look like true chicken nuggets. You could also dredge them with plain almond milk but they won't have the golden brown appearance.

After that I used crushed Rice Chex cereal. Corn Chex would have worked, too but we were trying to make it a rice day. Those on rotation diets know what I mean. Any gluten-free cereal that is not sweet would work.

I put the Rice Chex in my blender (a food processer will work, too) and whizzed them on a low until they were all crushed up. It takes about one cup of crushed cereal for one chicken breast. Olive oil should be drizzled onto the cereal crumbles and mixed in.

The chicken pieces can be rolled in a bowl, as I did it, or the crushed cereal can be poured into a baggie and you can do a little shaking before the baking.

This step is very important and the reason I just had to try this recipe. I put a cooling rack on top of a baking pan and then put the nuggets on the cooling rack. The nuggets have the hot air all around them and that is why they are so crispy. I was so amazed! I had always used my cooling racks for just--cooling. I didn't know they had other purposes. I think this is the reason this recipe turns out so well. Thanks Sarah Carey for this great tip!!

After the nuggets were on the rack, I baked them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, turned them, changed the oven temperature to 450 degrees and baked them about 8 to 10 minutes longer and checked for doneness. I used a meat thermometer. Mine read about 155 degrees and I knew they were plenty done.

 Serve them with dipping sauce. I made some mustard-agave sauce but a barbeque sauce or ketchup would be great.

My grandson really liked them and said, "They are good, but not as good as Chick-fil-A." I was pleased. Not much is better than Chick-fil-A. My husband said the recipe was a keeper.

For the Mustard sauce I added a tablespoon of agave, 2 tablespoons of mustard a sprinkling of garlic powder and 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise.

Gluten-free "Oven-fried" Chicken Nuggets

2-1/2 to 3 cups of Rice Chex or other gluten-free cereal that is not sweet
Cooking spray
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into nugget-size pieces
Generous amount of salt and pepper for the chicken
Onion powder, optional
2 tablespoons olive oil to drizzle on the chicken and the cereal
3/4 cup white rice flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon almond milk

Prepare the Rice Chex by crushing cereal in a blender on low or in a food processor. You will need 2-1/2 to 3 cups of finely crushed cereal for this recipe. Pour crushed cereal into a bowl or gallon-size plastic bag. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil in crumbs and mix well.

Prepare the cooking pan by putting a cooling rack inside a large baking pan. Spray the rack with cooking spray.  Preheat oven at 400 degrees.

Cut up 3 chicken breasts into nugget-size pieces. Generously salt and pepper the chicken and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Sprinkle on optional onion powder.

Put rice cereal into a bowl and break eggs into a separate bowl and beat well.

Dredge chicken in rice flour, then egg mixture, then roll in crushed cereal. Put chicken on top of rack placed on large baking pan.

Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees on one side, turn all pieces over, increase oven temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 8 to 10 minutes more or until chicken is completely done.

On planting organic squash

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you might be a little tired of hearing about my squash problems. We have tried so many things and have not had very much success. This year we are trying some extreme things and I am not holding my breath, but I am hoping to have some measure of success.

Even the expert gardeners we have talked to say everyone has problems with squash bugs and squash vine borers. The vine borers have been an epidemic in our garden. If we used sevin dust, as non-organic farmers do, we wouldn't have a problem at all but that is not an option for us.

This year we are using row covers to see if we can prevent our young vines from being exposed to the squash vine borer moth. I am hoping we can grow them under the covers long enough to avoid some of the horrible pests.

We have also planted some marigolds in between the squash plants and are hoping to discourage pests from our squash vines. At the very least it may be confusing to the pests. Of course the marigolds are not up yet because the weather has cooled and we may have to replant them.

It has also been quite windy and even though we have used pins to hold the row covers down, we have had to re-cover some of them. I am hopeful that using this row cover will help. After the plants are larger, we will mulch heavily and either uncover the plants at some point to let the bees pollinate the blooms or keep them covered and use a paintbrush to pollinate them ourselves.

What we go through to avoid those horrible pests and have organic vegetables!