This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Thanks for your support! I am having so much fun in my garden this year, more than ever before. Here in Phoenix, with our hot summers, summer gardens have to go in very early because not much will grow in the hottest months of July and August without a lot of shade cloth, water and work. Also, depending on when you decide to travel during the summer, it is best to get a garden in that will be harvested in Spring before you flee the heat of the summer for cooler climates. So, In late January into early February, I decided to start planting crops that I can harvest by May. I didn't start anything indoors. I took advantage of having my green thumbed daughter Alicia here for a few days and I put good new soil in my garden beds and sowed my seeds straight in the ground. Because we had a couple of cold snaps, I almost gave up on any of my seeds growing, but now everything is coming up! In my front beds, I put in flowers, both starter plants and seeds. We also put in some spinach seeds. In my backyard garden, I put in peas, beets, carrots and zucchini to start with. All of those I started from seeds. When my seeds were being so slow sprouting, I worried that none of my vegetables were going to come up, so I decided to get some starter strawberries and I put those on the edge of my vegetable garden. Then, low and behold, everything else started to sprout. First the peas, then the beets, finally the carrots and now the zucchini. I guess one reason I am enjoying my garden so much is I've noticed that with all of the things going on in the world right now and the grocery shelves are looking pretty bare, I feel the urge to be able to feed my family by growing what I can. The war in the Ukraine is making me very nervous, so I kind of feel like I need to prepare more than ever for what may come. Being able to garden helps me to feel that I am doing something that can help my family and makes me feel like I have control of at least this one thing in a totally crazy world. So, in spite of still wanting to be able to harvest everything before we leave for our family reunion this year, whenever I go to the store or to Lowe's, I find more things to add to my gardens. At the grocery store, I found a large, healthy basil plant in the grocery section for $3.99. A little plastic packet of fresh basil was $5.99. So, I picked up the plant and put it in my front garden with my flowers! Then, since I couldn't plant tomatoes in the backyard because of them being toxic to dogs and Maddy's puppy might eat them, I put two tomato plants out front as well! (I couldn't stand not to have fresh tomatoes growing in my garden!) Then, one day Alicia called me and said, "Mom, look what DollarTree has! These stackable planters for people's patios or garden areas! They would be awesome for our gardens!" Of course, I ran right over to DollarTree and picked up 3 of them. I went back to Lowe's and found a shelf that had vegetable and fruit starters, 4/$10. I noticed that the strawberry starters actually had 2 plants in each container. I picked up 2 containers of strawberries and 2 containers of yellow squash. I planted the yellow squash in a different area of my garden, as well as a bed of sunflowers. I've never grown sunflowers before , so I am excited to give them a try. Although I have some strawberries in my regular garden bed, I decided to plant the 4 new plants in the stacking planters. I put in the strawberry plants, and then planted seeds of Italian Parsley, Mint and some marigolds in the remaining spots of the planters. Since the weather is warmer now, I am hoping that it doesn't take these seeds as long to sprout! I've been very happy with the stacking planters so far. They aren't too flimsy. I used a utility knife to punch out the pre-marked drainage holes in the bottom, and they are big enough for the plants that I am using them for. If you want any, you can run right away to DollarTree before they run out of them. Or, if you want to do an entire container garden with them, you can order them online. (P.S.They come in blue, terra cotta and tan colors.) I am hoping to grow plenty of beets this year to be able to can some. One thing that I am trying is when I thin the beets, I transplant the seedlings that I pull out to another part of my garden to allow them to grow. So far they seem to be thriving. Has anyone else tried this with success? I love that I have food crops both in the front and in the back of my house! I don't need to worry about the watering in the front bed because I put a timer on my front faucet with a soaker hose to water everything and it has been working just great! Are any of you doing any new things in your garden this year? I would love to hear about them. Please drop me your ideas in the comments. If you want to see other posts about gardens, you can check out these:
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Just the words Molten Lava Cake make me want one, even if I'm not hungry. The idea of that creamy warm chocolate, flowing out of a moist chocolate cake sets my makes my mouth start to water.
Unfortunately, I rarely allow myself to eat one because I know that they are not the healthiest things in the world for me. Then, I heard about a Molten Zucchini Cake and realized that if I made a Molten Lava Cake in a healthier way, I could enjoy the chocolatey goodness way more often! Plus, there is a bonus! This cake is a great way to use up the zucchini from your garden! Here are more great reasons why it is okay to eat this cake:
Here are a few tricks to making this cake successfully the first time. (It is pretty easy anyway!)
Here is the recipe:
Don't forget to sprinkle on the powdered sugar like you mean it! Enjoy!
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Originally posted by 3 Winks Design March 24, 2017
I was recently rereading this post from 5 years ago and I found the messages so timely for today! I decided to repost it in advance of Women's History Month so that you can take advantage of some of the wise quotes and ideas contained herein. (If I do say so myself!) If you are interested in more Women's History resources, be sure to check out our informative Women's History Coloring Pages in our Etsy Shop!
Wow! It is Women's Month, so we thought that today for Friday Faves we would offer up who our favorite Women throughout history are. What a difficult decision this has been! Every time I thought about it, I discovered another woman who deserved my consideration. Some that I thought of right away as a possible choice, after I studied more about them, left me feeling disillusioned at times and confused. I had to remind myself that no one is perfect and although we put people on a pedestal, they are human, after all, with human weaknesses, but they are still capable of doing wonderful things. And, no matter how wonderful a person is, they will always have detractors. Look at Jesus! He had a bunch of detractors and he WAS perfect! So, I finally came to a decision! But, before I tell you our choices, think about it yourself.
Who is your favorite influential woman throughout history?
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This is the time of year in Phoenix when your friends with lemon trees gift you with bags of lemons! It is amazing! They still charge 69 cents per lemon in the grocery store, but everyone can get them for free if you have the right connections with people who have lemon trees! Lemon trees are very high producers and there are a lot of things to do with lemons. So, not having a lemon tree myself, having friends with a lemon tree is the next best thing! And they don't mind that I will return the favor by bringing them pie or marmalade.
So, since I am the welcome recipient of some really large and awesome lemons, you will probably be seeing a few delicious lemon recipes on the blog here for a few posts. Because they are ripe this time of year and yet lemons are great to use all year in so many recipes, it is nice to put some plain juice up in storage. You can freeze it or can it. Some people even can lemon slices! I have published a few lemon recipes myself that are well loved by my family and friends, such as:
I read recently that you can can Strawberry Lemonade concentrate for making that delicious beverage during the summer months. I want to give that a try, but the first thing I decided to do with my lemons was make Strawberry Lemonade Marmalade! I had to make it up as I went, which is always iffy because if you don't get the right amount of pectin and the right amount of sugar to fruit ratio, your jelly or marmalade will come out runny and you will be using it as a sauce! But, I am happy to announce that my marmalade jelled, my lids all sealed and this tangy concoction tastes great on an English Muffin!
When you have a lot of fruit to put up, it is always great to have a recipe that uses a lot of the fruit and produces a volume of jars. A great thing about this recipe is that it uses up 10 lemons! Not only that, you will end up with about a dozen jars of jam, depending on the size of jar that you use! That gives you plenty to store in your pantry as well as give as gifts.
I made these cute little labels for the tops of my jars. You can find the file and print them from here.
They are editable.
This marmalade is actually more like a jelly, but if you want more chunks in yours, add larger chunks of lemon rind and more coarsely chopped strawberries.
Without further ado, here is the recipe:
I hope that you enjoy it! Stay tuned for more lemon recipes!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
June 2024
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