June 7, 2008

Well. I'm stating the obvious here, but no post yesterday. I came home early and ran some errands for the party today. Then I cleaned and took care of the boys while my wife went and saw Sex in the City with some girl friends.  When she got home we raced all over the house and cleaned like fiends until 2 am.  This morning we woke up early and finished up cleaning and decorating for my youngest's 2nd B-day party.  Unfortunately, the weathers' been crappy all week so there was no way I could mow.  The bright side was that the weather was crappy today as well so the kids didn't go outside to play.  /sigh.  It's June, aren't we supposed to get decent weather?  I know the beans would like it even if my peas love the cool weather, and so do my greens, hehe. 

Boy do I wish I could do a veggie barter with Judy.  I'd love a cuke and a home grown heirloom tomato.  I seriously think I'll go for heirlooms if my tomatoes don't taste much better than the bland ones I had on my burger. "Heirloom Hyroponic Large Tomatoes" the sign said (at $3 a pound), ROFL Thank goodness my tomato plants look like this..



I must say, the SWC is an incredible water saving method.  I think I've grown these with the first filling and maybe half a second refill.  That's so much less than I've watered the rest of my garden it's not even funny.  Remember that you can follow the link to Judy's site to get great instructions to make one (or more) for yourself.  It's easy and cheap.

Speaking of Judy, she wanted a pic of my potatoes. So I chanced a glance and after I came to, I took a picture...



Yep, as you can see, I need to add a board (or two) and the dirt's not even up to the top of the existing board. I've got a ton of dirt to add, and what little you see in the bag on the right is all I've got left.  If this weather doesn't clear up my potatoes will be ruined.  I need more dirt ASAP.  Let's hope tomorrow is dryer.  I'd like to finish up my to-do list but I'm not hopefull. Apparently this 55 degree weather and regular rain showers is expected to be here all week long.  GRRRRRRRR. It's June for goodness sakes!

Oh, even though we barbequed, I did get my garden into the action. The lettuce we used for the burgers was my Red Sails.  It's the best one for burgers because it fans out nicely over the entire bun.  It tasted great!  I also picked a ton of spinach for my mother-in-law to take home.  The funny thing is you wouldn't know it for looking at it.  Boy do I have a ton!  I still have the leaf miner problem, but I just tear around it when I'm cleaning it up.  And I don't put spinach into my compost anymore.  Just to be safe. 

The good news is that I haven't found any more damage from the larva. I'll re-apply the Spinosad when the rain stops for a few days, but it appears to be working with as much as I got to stick until the rain washed it away.

Oh, speaking of pests. I was preparing a craft for the party today (small terra cotta pots to decorate and plant annuals for the kids to take home) using my potting Mel's Mix I made up a while ago and stored in a coffee can.  I used older compost and peat moss, but I figured it would be ok.  Well, I removed the lid of the plastic Foldgers can and out flew dozens of little black flies. My guess is that they're the spinach miner flies that I had under my hoop cover.  What that means is that it's in the dirt, which is bad.  Darn municipal compost.  GRRRR.  Let's hope my home made compost is disease free and that the flies don't survive in the soil for next year.

Well, that's about it for today. Time to put the kids to bed. It's been a very long day and they had a blast.

Oh, and I just had to share perfect burger recipie.  My brother created it and boy is it tasty!  Here's his recipie...

Recipe for burgers is as follows figures based on 2 total pounds of meat:

Equal parts (1 pound each) ground beef and ground pork

2 eggs

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp Tobasco Sauce

1/2 cup parmesan cheese (shreded)

1/4 cup bread crumbs

3  to 4 tbsps Montreal steak seasoning (I usually go with 4, but I really like this seasoning...)

1 Tbsp Garlic powder

2 Tbsp Mustard

 

Mix this all together by hand, then measure out balls of burger mix 1/4 pound each (makes 7 burgers).  Flatten between two small plates to just about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Place in between plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour to firm up.

 

If you want, you can sprinkle a bit more Montreal Steak Seasoning on the burgers if you really want a big bite taste.

 

BBQ those up, medium high for 3 to 4 minutes each side for done.  2 1/2 per side for medium to medium well.

 

Only flip once.  Do not press (as this just drives out the juices.)  Remember this is meat, so letting it rest for 5 minutes helps immensely.  If you want to add cheese, do so about 2 minutes after the flip.

These are the best burgers I've ever had!  Enjoy!