A little bit of this and a little bit of that...and summer is starting!

First of all, my Hungarian fold art A is finally done and framed.  I love they way is looks. 

I'm hoping I can start on B soon.  See my process here 

My garden is growing so well!  I am harvesting zucchini, pattypan squash, kale, Hungarian wax peppers, green beans and herbs.  Soon I should have tons of tomatoes, radish and carrots to add to the list.  I've also found a volunteer vine of some sort, I think it's a melon...we will see.

Pattypan

Zucchini

Hungarian Wax Pepper and you can also see the big vine next to it which I think will be some kind of melon...or pumpkin?

I also planted a new rose bed.  This is a neglected area that gets strong afternoon sun, not a lot of water and has poor soil.  Unfortunately it's become our cats toilet more than anything else!  In an attempt to reclaim the area I though thorny rose bushes would do the trick.

  I have mostly hybrid tea roses in my garden so I was excited to plant 3 David Austin roses. They are so much nicer than that stinky patch of dirt.  I amended well with compost and so far the roses (and I) are pretty happy.  The cat is sort of bewildered...

As summer approaches I am gearing up my healthy eating and exercising.  One of my favorite new smoothies is based on a recipe from Harley Pasternak.

1/2 apple, cored

1/2 banana

5 almonds or cashews

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup greek yogurt

Enough milk to fill my blender cup - about 1/2 cup.  Can be any milk or milk substitute.

Blend and enjoy.  It tastes just like apple pie to me. 

Sometimes I also add a handful of spinach.  Just enough to add some greens but not enough to change the flavor.  Usually I can't even taste the spinach.

I've been really into mason jars.  Overnight oatmeal in a mason jar has become my staple breakfast, I don't have a picture but here is my go to recipe:

1/3 cup oats (not quick oats)

1 T chia seeds

1 T maple syrup

1/3 cup greek yogurt

1/2 cup milk

Mix well and seal in a mason jar overnight.  In the morning I add some or all:

1/2 sliced banana

1 teaspoon raw cacao nibs

1 teaspoon chopped pecans

This is just my recipe but you can have fun creating your own.  There are hundreds of variations at your finger tips via Google.

I also chop salads up into large mason jars up to three days ahead and refrigerate.  I add protein like deli ham, hard boiled egg and the dressing when I am ready to eat.  I find it easier to make healthy choices for lunch when these are in the fridge ready to go.

 And last but not least, after months of neglecting my art, it's time to get the creative juices flowing because ICAD's and Summer of Color are starting! 

I loved the ICAD challenge last year.  See the roundup of what I did here.

And this year I am determined to keep up with Summer of Color, too.

Join me! 

Click below for more information:

Happenings Today

Last year I had a banner vegetable garden year, I had more tomatoes than I could handle.  I made Homemade Marinara Sauce.  I peeled, seeded and froze the extra tomatoes before I found a much easier way to preserve by pureeing them in my blender.  I am still using up my pureed tomatoes that have been in my freezer!

My vegetable garden is off to a slower start this year but I still have plenty going on in other parts of the garden.

 

 

 I'm growing better strawberries this year thanks to a tip I learned in Sunset magazine - spend the first month of growing season pinching off all the pretty white flowers from your strawberry plants.  The berries that grow later will be bigger and sweeter.  It worked!

Hoping for a lot of blueberries, I have 6 bushes but they are still young.

These are baby Golden Dorsett apples which grow nicely here because they have a a very low chill requirement.  I have had this little tree for a few years and it's amazing how many apples I get.  Given my success pinching strawberries I thinned some apples hoping for better fruit but it was really hard to cut off the baby apples...I want them ALL to grow!  I also have a Fuji apple tree which is still young, it only gave me 2 apples last year.

Pole beans

Chives.  I love to put the purple blossom petals in mashed potatoes, they look so pretty.

Pomegranates.  I have two small trees in pots, I thought this one was non-fruit bearing because years went by with no fruit so I got another and then this one woke up!  I only got one fruit last year and it was tiny.  It's covered in blossoms, so I hope at least a few of them turn into fruit.

I also have Fuyu persimmon, Santa Rose Plum, a dwarf avocado, blood orange, Meyer Lemon, Pixie tangerine and a dwarf navel orange.  Nothing much going on there...I have a strangely hard time with all my citrus...but I keep tyring.

And today is Oberon's birthday!  He is one.  This is his serious look.

A Hungarian Folk Art Butterfly

My last two posts have started off with apologies for not posting...so I won't do it again. 
Maybe 2013 is just going to be a differnt kind of blogging year.

I enjoyed doing this pencil & pen drawing of a butterfly with Hungarian folk art flowers.  It's quite small so I'm not sure I can add color properly.  I like it in black & white.

My garden is so full of weeds right now.  I am heading out after this post to weed.  I had to take these pictures at particular angles so you can see the blooms and not the weeds!

 

 



Another folk art drawing

 We are going camping again this weekend so I hope to spend some time painting lakeside.


 

Color in the Garden

There has not been a lot of art happening lately.  I have carpal tunnel syndrome which makes it hard to do much of anything.  I am currently challenging my brain by trying to work using shortcut keys and moving the mouse to my left hand...makes for a slower day, that is for sure.  Luckily my work has not been busy so I have been able to enjoy the beach and this last week of summer before school starts.  Today ended up with thick fog that never burned off close to the beach so I took my 50mm lens out into the yard to experiment.  I like the watery backgrounds of the pictures.

A dwarf pomegranate...I wish the little fruit was in focus instead of the leaves in the foreground but I could not get the camera to cooperate!  I had almost given up on this little tree, it's been years with no fruit.  I was thinking it was just an ornamental variety and so glad to finally see fruit! 

  

Despite my neglect I've still got roses.  These are called Strike it Rich.

 

A little bit of the tropics on a foggy day.

 

I never get tired of these tiny orchids.

 

Blood oranges!  Like the pomegranate, this is another first for this tree.  I can't wait to taste these.

 

Giant fern.

 

I wish I could remember the name of this one...another tropical addition to the garden.

 

 

Amaryllis belladonna.  We like to call them "naked ladies"

Pink Melaleuca

 

Another one whose name I can't remember!

 

15 weeks old.  One more week before we can take this little guy to the beach.

 

A monarch chrysalis.  My 7 year old daughter thought it was so charmingly located in this little opening in a rosemary bush that she called it "pixie hollow" and decorated it with flowers and pretty stones.

 

 

How To Peel, Seed & Freeze Tomatoes

My garden runneth over with tomatoes.  I've been hit & miss (mostly miss) with tomatoes in the past, because I have a coastal Southern California garden I don't always have the heat needed to grow great summer vegetables.  Since I don't have to worry about frost, a few years ago I started planting tomatoes in the winter, as soon as they show up in stores.  Having the longer growing season seemed to help but I still was lucky to get a dozen good tomatoes every summer.  This year, I spent extra time getting the vegetable beds ready and it has sure paid off!

After eating many, many tomatoes and giving away a bunch to friends and family I am still left with a huge amount so I decided to prepare some for freezing.  I am a big fan of freezing foods but have never tried tomatoes.  It was surprisingly fun, easy and kid friendly.

First peel and seed your tomatoes.

Bring a pot of water to boil and while waiting for water to boil core out the stem and cut an X in the bottom of each tomato.  If you have a child who is old enough to handle a knife, the cutting of the X's was such a fun task that my children fought over who could do it (they took turns.)

Place tomatoes, a few at a time, in rapidly boiling water.  Watch them carefully, most of our tomatoes started to peel themselves after only 20-30 seconds in the water.  Remove them with a slotted spoon as soon as you see the peels curling back, you don't want to cook the tomatoes, just get the skin loose.  Immediately place in ice water bath to stop them from cooking and to further loosen the skin.  Leave them in the ice water until well chilled, just a minute or so and then remove with slotted spoon and place in another bowl.

 The tomatoes should now peel very easily, you should only need to give them a gentle squeeze and the peels should just slide right off.  A few of my tomatoes were stubborn so I repeated the boiling water and ice bath.

When all the tomatoes have been peeled, cut them in half and use your fingers to gently dig out the seeds as best you can, you don't have to get them all.  Do this with a strainer over a bowl to catch the seeds and reserve the juice. When I was all done I pushed the seeds around the strainer a bit to really squeeze out all the juice.  Add the juice back to the peeled and seeded tomatoes.

I sometimes freeze in glass storage containers but they do take up a lot of space in the freezer and since there is air in the container I feel the food inside doesn't last as long once frozen.

To save space in the freezer, place desired amount of tomatoes in plastic zip bags, leaving at least an inch at the top.  Squeeze out excess air and zip closed.  I use Natural Value bags which are PVC and BPA free.  Freeze while laying flat.  Once frozen you can stand them up and keep them well organized. Don't forget to label your bags or glass containers so you know what you've got and when it needs to be used up.  Tomatoes should last up to a year.

I'm linking up with Shabby Nest. and At the Picket Fence.  Both great websites with lots of inspiration and great Friday link ups.  Check them out!

More Color in the Garden

It was a beautiful weekend. I took these pictures in my garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to see more garden colors.