This Week's Menu: Buffalo Style Chicken Thighs and Chorizo and Eggs

Chicken wings are so good but it's a lot of work for just a few bites of meat. We fix that by using thighs instead and a homemade Buffalo sauce that's easy and out-of-this-world good.

Some farmer's market dollar-a-pound squash makes a medley for the side dish and breakfast is one of our easy staples, chorizo and eggs.

Recipes are at the links below.

DINNER: Buffalo Chicken Thighs

SIDE: A summer squash medley using our basic super side barbecue vegetable recipe

BREAKFAST: Chorizo and Egg Burritos

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

It's The Middle Of July...Where Are My &*$#@ Tomatoes?

This year, I decided to try growing heirloom tomatoes instead of the usual hybrids. I harvested the seeds from some fruit I bought at the farmer's market, so I don't know what the exact variety is.

I planted in February, transplanted late March, and now...finally...it's just starting to flower. Usually, I'd have scads of tomatoes by now but these are taking forever.

Next year, I'll be planting hybrids as well...quick growing ones.

The zucchini's getting close to played out.  I've just got a few of these smaller squashes coming up now.

The plant started to grow over the walkway, so I took this stick and am attempting to hold it back in the planter.

The chiles are really pumping out the fruit and we'll be harvesting this from now til...who knows? These last a long time.

Finally, the dragon fruit is producing it's first flower of the season. Incredibly spectacular looking fruit but a bit on the bland side.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Too Hot to Handle

I had a slate of chores to do this weekend but a heat wave hit and temps spiked to over 110 on our patio (that's about 44 degrees for my European friends). 

Had to take a breather and take it back up next weekend. The lawn did need mowing but I just hit the worst spots with the weed whacker. 

This zucchini was in danger of going overripe, so I went out and got that too before I died of heat stroke. It's big enough for the three of us to feed on for a week.

I'll try to pick it back up next weekend...

 

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Seasons of Bounty

After finishing the chores this weekend, I had some time to reflect on the upcoming harvest.   I nabbed some zucchini for the evening's barbecue. I think I'll get about a fruit a day from the plants the way they're going now.  What else can I see...

I counted 13 ears of corn on the 7 stalks in our 4-foot long cornfield. We'll have some with the coming weekend's barbecue...I'm going to smoke a tri-tip in my new smoker. I think there will be more than that as the season progresses, too.

The chiles are showing fruit...

...while the plumerias bloom.

Our heirloom tomato is climbing in its cage while the sweet onions are maturing to the right.

For a long time, I didn't think this jalapeño was going to make it but we'll have some good salsa after all.

The guava tree is in bloom, we're hoping for our first crop in three years.

On the flower front, this epidendrum is back in bloom...

Mr. Lincoln is going on his third bloom of the season, with backing from the Lincolnettes...

...and this unnamed yellow rose is on its second.

 

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

While the Cheapskate's Away...

We've been on an island in the Caribbean for a week, it's always interesting to see what the garden's been doing while we've been away. To start, the last cymbidium of the season bloomed, this yellow one above.

The zucchini plants will keep their place as the first to be harvested, I'm sure, but the radishes are also giving them a run for their money.

Our cornfield has grown a foot while we've been gone.

This hanging dendrobium is really doing well.

The plants have been behaving well but the weeds are sneaking back in. A pinch at the base of the plant is all it takes to get it out, roots and all.

This single rose has really broken out the blooms...

...but it looks like another deadheading session is in this weekend's plans.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Meet The New Neighborhood Transplants

Our seeds have been sprouting and growing in their peat plugs for a month. Now, it's time to transplant as the warmer days of March have arrived.

Each transplant is pretty easy, it's just that I have to do it 72 times. The soil is prepped, just stick in a trowel and dig a little hole.

Insert the plant plug.

Make sure it's straight, like the onion above.

Cover with soil.

That's it, water it in and you're done.

Here's our new vegetable list for 2013...

Radishes
Tomatoes (two heirloom varieties)
Onions
Lettuce
Bell Peppers
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Corn (two varieties)
Jalapeno
Basil

Stay tuned to see how they turn out!

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

All Thatched Up!

This is my next door neighbor's lawn. I'm showing it because she has an excellent sprinkler system and gardeners to take car of it. It's the same kind of grass as mine, St. Augustine, and as you can see in the wintertime, it's not a real lush green. In fact it goes kind of dormant. Still, this shows what a perfect St. Augustine lawn should look like at this time of the year.

I don't have a sprinkler system and I'm the gardener. My lawn is far from perfect. St. Augustine has some built-in problems that have to be dealt with on a regular basis. It goes dormant in winter (a plus for me since that means around 2 months I don't have to mow) and the hot, midsummer sun scorches it, so in the height of summer, it looks pretty much like it does in winter.

In fact, there only about 3 or 4 months of the year when it looks really good...in the spring.

Another problem that it has is thatching. St. Augustine puts out many rhizomes, runners to some people, that creep along the surface, taking root as it grows. Great, the lawn spread itself, I hear you thinking. 

Not so much but it does tangle up in itself, creating a dense mat that eventually chokes out everything underneath it...including itself. Above, you can see a significant patch of my lawn that has very thick thatching. Below is a close up of that mat...probably about 2 inches thick including the root layer.

Every now and again, it becomes necessary to break up that thatch. I've tried wearing golf shoes, buying special de-thatching tools that tend to fall apart as soon as you stretch them, and even attacked it with a hoe to varying degrees of success...mostly not too successful.

This year I'm going to try something different.  I'm taking my heavy duty gardening fork, sticking it in the ground, and pushing it forward so that it rips up four holes of thatching and roots, thereby not only breaking the thatch but also aerating the lawn, letting water and nutrients down to the roots below.

Here is what it looks like after I do one.

Now, repeat around 300 times to cover this patch of lawn and then the finished project looks something like this.

I mow to get rid of the raggedness and then we'll wait for spring to see how this idea worked.

Stay tuned!

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Recipes for a Cheapskate Gardener - Barbecued Veggies

One of the best things about gardening is being able to create your own food from scratch...I mean REALLY from scratch...having everything in your dish come from your own yard.

You don't even have to go to the supermarket...

Among other crops this year, we grew corn, summer squash, onions, tomatoes, and carrots. This is how I use them in a summer barbecue.

First, I pick the squash, onions, carrots and corn and wash them thoroughly (except the corn).

Next, it's on to the tomatoes. Same thing...wash them well and set aside for later.

Chop up the squash, carrots and onions. Chop the onions very fine.  Dice the tomatoes and set aside separately.

Get a large ziploc bag. Put the carrots, squash, and onion in it. Also drop in around 3 tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon each of kosher salt, pepper, and chile powder. Seal the bag and shake it vigorously.

Now, get a sheet of foil paper and dump the contents of your ziploc bag on it. Loosely gather up the foil paper so that everything is wrapped up. Loose is the key word here, leave some gaps for the heat and smoke to permeate.

Start your barbecue, coals on one side (or if gas, leave at least one side unlit). Put the veggies in foil on the indirect heat side. Leave with lid covered for at least 30 minutes...you can use this time to cook the meat on the barbecue too.

About 15 minutes in, I throw the corn with the husks still on on the indirect side of the grill. These should be done at the end of the original 30 minutes too...they don't take as long to cook as the carrots do.

Serve as is on a plate and sprinkle some of the diced tomatoes and parmesan cheese on the veggies. The picture at the top shows what the veggies and corn looks like with my fabulous grilled duck breast. 

Aside from the meat, this meal probably cost me less than a dime. It is also fresher and tastier than anything you can get at a supermarket or a farmers market.  Can't you just imagine how good it tastes?

-Darryl

Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick

All rights reserved