Red Hot Poker – Something not to grow, and bunnies.

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Do Not Buy a Plastic Greenhouse

February 25th, 2012

In 2010 I blogged about a new little greenhouse I had bought covered in plastic. I bought it at Lowes and was pretty happy with it, it allowed me to start seeds early outdoors (I have problems indoors due to a lack of a south facing window, kids, and cats).

I gave it a pretty good recommendation, I hereby rescind that. In 2011 during the summer, one year old, I noticed the plastic had started to fail at the top. I even kept it in the shade most of the time. By now the plastic is all but gone on top, so much for holding in heat and moisture eh.

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First Flower of 2012

My first bloom of 2012 has surfaced. A crocus as normal, this time out by the road. Though a yellow crocus again.

It bloomed on the 10th, which is early.

In 2011 my first bloom, also a yellow crocus was the 15th. In 2010 it was on the 16th, in 2009, again a yellow crocus, it was on the 15th. In 2008, which had a really cold Spring it wasn’t until early April. That is the extent of my records.

So it portends a slightly longer growing season to have it come a week earlier than the recent norm this year. Should get better yields on my fruit trees and vines, if a late cold snap doesn’t freeze off the buds. That is always a risk with an early Spring. The trees get all excited and start flowering and then a freeze comes and kills all the buds, vastly reducing or eliminating the fruiting potential for many plants for a full year. But a warm Spring is a good thing, so long as it lasts.

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Buzzed

How sweet they’ve been, the first days of Spring. Though March played with our sense of seasonal order, growling out like a temperamental lion, we harvested twenty pounds of honey this week; a sap of sweet, slow, amber translucence.

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Split Pea Soup with Spicy Italian Sausage

Here's a hearty and fast Split Pea Soup Recipe - don't skimp on the ham...

I have used the traditional ham before and the canning process seems to leach the flavor out of the ham, leaving chunks of meat without any flavor to chew on.
I wanted to try something different. I like this a lot, DH thought it was too spicy.


2 lbs dried green split peas (rinse and pick out any strange looking peas)
10 cups water (I used part chicken stock)

Bring to a boil and while boiling cut into chunks

5 carrots
5 potatoes
3 spicy italian sausages (about 9 inches long each)

then add to the liquid

1 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt
1 tsp powdered garlic
1/2 tsp black pepper

I then added the cut carrots, potatoes and sausage to the boiling liquid
and waited for it to come back to a boil and ladled into 5 quart canning jars
added water to the jars to the fill line,and cooked at 11 lbs pressure for 90 minutes.

I took about and extra 20 minutes letting my canner get to 11 lbs.
When the timer went off I turned the burner off and waited until there was no
pressure left in the canner.
I had no liquid loss when I opened the canner to remove the jars.

In this recipe and almost any recipe you can add or take away veggies.
I tend to use whatever I have on hand and make liberal substitutions.

Any soup with meat needs 90 minutes for quarts and 70 for pints.Posted byCynat12:23 PM

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Green Sauce for Soups, Dips etc.

Another quick and tasty recipe...

5 lbs tomatillos washed and cut into small hunks
2 lbs anaheim chili's roasted and prepared or 1 lg can roasted green chili
6 jalapenos chopped
3 large onions chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice or to taste
2 cups water
8 cloves garlic chopped
1 TBS Lawry's seasoned salt, or to taste
2 TBS Cumin or to taste

Bring all to a boil and boil covered on low for about 20 minutes.
I then took my stick mixer (immersion blender) and blended all.

Pour into jars, wipe rims and I pressured this at 11 lbs for 25 minutes.

This sauce may have to have some thickening before using. I will be using it as
a sauce for enchiladas and as a soup base. I really like the color and the flavor.
You can add tomatoes if you want as well. If you like spicier add more jalapenos
or a pinch of cayenne powder. I have made this using lime juice insted of lemon and
really liked it as well. The tomatillos keep this sauce mild. I shop at ethic markets and love it. My tomatillos were 3 lbs for a dollar.


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Enchilada Casserole Experiment

Who among us is not experimental when cooking at times?
Onward intrepid cooks...

I have leaned to make only 3 to 4 jars of anything I experiment with. This is not really a recipe as much as it is an idea you can change as needed.

I stir fried cut up chicken pieces, no bone or skin.... until lightly cooked.
I cut up corn tortillas into small squares.
I used green enchilada sauce and some whole beans I had canned, some onions, corn and
green chilis.

I put 1/8 cup enchilada sauce in a quart jar and added a few squares of corn torillas,
then added chicken, a bit more sauce, more corn tortilla squares, then onions and corn, more sauce
then more corn tortillas, then green chilies and beans.  I layered this using a lot of sauce and then when through layering, filled the jar to the top fill line with sauce and used a wooden
spoon handle to get the bubbles out and added more sauce.

The verdict?   I used way too many corn tortilla squares and it mushed up a lot.
I will do this again and use less tortillas.  When I took this out of the canner it was full of liquid and bubbling, later it sort of congealed into this mushy mass that was delicious.  I like it!

DH does not like the green enchilada sauce so next time I will make it with red sauce and with beef.

I used to make a casserole a bit like this when I had kids at home, I used stale corn tortilla chips instead of corn tortillas and think that flavor would be a bit better and easier to make.  You would just smash the chips.

As I said above, this is my personal experiment.  Can at your own risk. 


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