Meet my Little Urban Garden

I figured it was time I do a post about my vegetable garden. Now, I don't at all claim to be a brilliant gardener, in fact, I'm a pretty lame one. All I ask of my garden is that if I put in a little work, it will give me a little food. I never get enough to can or put away for the winter, but I get enough to make me love fresh, straight from the garden veggies. I'm addicted. I can't buy tomatoes at the grocery store. Those hard or mealy things are not tomatoes. Please, wait until they are in season and grab them fresh off the vine, you won't be sorry.

Here's a quick tour of my little urban garden.

First of all, my favorite of the garden produce is the tomato so I have a lot of them, both in pots and in the ground. I think I planted 24 tomatoes in about 5-6 heirloom varieties including zebras, cherries, and julians. I've collected all my seeds from farmers market tomatoes and my CSA tomatoes. I'll do a post later this summer on collecting tomato seeds. It's so easy!

My tomatoes all in a row

I also have three varieties of cucumbers, including Mexican Sour Gherkins which look like tiny watermelons and have a lemony flavor. I love the way cucumbers climb up the trellis with their telephone-cord death grip. 

This is also my first year growing beans. I have green, purple, yellow wax and edamame this year. My edamame isn't doing great, but the others have given me quite a bit already. Thank you, beans!

And then there's the basil which is a must for a home garden. It's so delicious on pretty much anything, but makes a great pizza topping, is perfect for throwing in a pasta dish, and makes up the base of a simple pesto. This year I'm growing 5 kinds: purple, fine verde, lettuce leaf, cinnamon, and lime. Plus, planting basil with tomatoes is supposed to make your tomatoes taste even better. 

So that's that. Not the prettiest thing ever, but it gives me a little taste of summer produce right from my back yard. With my infrequent waterings and my lack of fertilizing, that's really all I can ask. 

Assateague Island

We just got back from Assateague Island today. My husband and I, along with my sister and brother-in-law, journeyed to this Maryland island earlier this week to relax on the beach and enjoy some camping together. The Assateague beach is lovely. The waves are big enough to rough you up a bit, but not overwhelming and the water is shallow a long ways out which makes it a great place to bring kids (not that we did) and the sand is soft on bare feet. Plus there are seashells everywhere for collecting.

Who knew seashell collecting could be so addictive? 

If you have any fun ideas for how I should use my little stash, I'm up for suggestions. I just couldn't resist these beauties and I don't remember ever collecting seashells before so I enjoyed myself while the others napped on the beach.

Our campsite was separated from the beach by a small dune, but it was so close that we could hear the ocean as we were going to sleep.

The campsite on the left and the ocean on the right.

When we weren't relaxing on the beach or frolicking in the waves, we were avoiding the mosquitos like the plague because, well, they were like the plague.

My mosquito bitten legs (and sunburned feet!)

We often ate our breakfasts or lunches somewhere else, like this Assateague Market parking lot, where the mosquitoes were sparse and didn't swarm like the skillfully-trained guerilla blood suckers who waited in the bushes for an innocent victim to pass their way.

Thank you, Assateague Market for the bug spray, the hard lemonade,
and the use of your parking lot.

I have to say that some good food was produced in this parking lot.

Parking Lot Omelet courtesy of my sister and brother-in-law.

This was a memorable trip, full wave jumping, sweet time with family, and the new experience of beach camping (i.e. sandy beds), but I have to say, that Assateague Island camping is not for the faint of heart. We left a day early since my family loves me enough to not want me to turn into one giant red mosquito bite (the suckers loved me best and my bites swell up big and red) and with the number of bites I had received, we probably left just in time. We were in good company. Three of our neighbors also left earlier than planned.

Glorified Port-a-Potties

Oh yeah, and then there were the chemical toilets. Nice for a water-free bathroom, pretty clean, but also mosquito infested. We avoided these as much as possible. Thankfully, this was never far away...

Don't pretend you wouldn't have done the same.

Hand-quilting Jane Brocket Style

Not too long ago, Rita of Red Pepper Quilts, referred to Jane Brocket’s, The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking , in one of her posts and, as I was on a putting-things-on-hold-at-the-library kick, I added it to my queue.

When I received it last week, I quickly flipped through admiring the bold, color-rich, floral explosion of Jane’s quilts and then got down to reading. I love the way this book is set up with a story behind each quilt. Jane finds her inspiration in her garden, in beautiful dresses, in hammocks and beach huts, and then makes these wonderfully simple yet intensely colored quilts. If you want to quilt, but are afraid it’s too difficult or that you have to be too precise, read this book. Jane’s keep it simple, keep it fun approach to quilting is very refreshing if you spend most of your time drooling over intricately pieced, delicately stitched quilts. 

While I can admit, I hope with no offense to Jane, that I prefer fewer floral prints and more negative space in my quilts, I was quite inspired by her hand-quilting technique. She keeps it so simple by quilting with colorful thread in 2-3 mm stitches instead of fussing over the more accepted tiny pin-prick stitches of more traditional hand-quilting. She actually made me want to try it. And on top of that, she usually just does linear quilting, pretty much in the same way I’ve done my machine quilting in the past. So guess what, for better or worse, I’m going to try it on my Modern Meadow quilt. I was a bit nervous at first since I have in mind that I want to post this one on Etsy and I’m not sure whether hand-quilting will make it more or less desirable. I’d appreciate your input. But really, it can’t hurt too much to try, right? I need to be willing to push myself into new territories if I want to grow and learn. So I’m going with two different colors (the obvious pink and green) and am going to get right to work. Anyways, after a few rows of quilting, I love the way the stitching pops and it makes it look even more cute and summery than before. My stitches aren't perfect yet, but for a first attempt, I think it's turning out beautifully. I'm so excited to see it all finished!

Berry Modern Meadow Quilt Progress

I've been down and out this week recovering from minor surgery, but that meant I was home all week and was able to get a little bit of quilting done. But on Sunday, after I was really feeling better, I put a border on my quilt top and made my back panel. I'm excited to get quilting on this one. I just love the pattern and the fabrics of this quilt. It's so fresh and just screams summer. Mmmm...watermelon...

Does anyone else get attached to their quilts? I'm not sure I'll want to sell this one.

This quilt will be my largest so far measuring 50" x 66". I hope my little Brother machine can handle it!

Updates to come.

Well, there goes my motivation...

I've been working on a quilt, really, I have (see proof below)!

But I'm realizing that quilting is not a summer sport. At least not for me. Our house is old and very drafty and, well, we don't have AC. *Gasp* I know. It's our own doing. I think in some sick sense we like to "rough it". Don't worry, we don't have any kids so no one needs to call the authorities. However, our house does get quite warm, to say the least, and our bedroom my awesome quilting studio just happens to be one of the hottest rooms in the house. Therefore, when I finally scrap together the few bits of energy that the heat or other busyness of the day haven't sucked away, I end up sweating it out over my sewing machine hoping that it doesn't overheat. And don't get me started on ironing! Phew! So, as I said, quilting, I'm realizing, is not for summertime. I'm okay with that. I've been wanting to try my hand at pillows, clothes, and a few other small projects. But now there is a less-than-half-finished quilt staring me down every night when I get into bed. I'm going to finish this before my summer hiatus. I pushed myself a bit today to get something done on it and sashing was up next. I got them all cut and sewed them together in one long strip. Then on to sewing them to my long-hexagon strips. First one done and pressed and...

...well, that doesn't look right does it?

*Poof* There goes my motivation. I packed up for the night. Decided to write a blog post instead (makes me feel like I'm still being productive) and will later watch a movie with my darling husband and my seam ripper. Curse you, tiny stitches! (Anyone seen Despicable Me? Love the scene with the tiny toilet! Does that mean I like potty humor?)

Anyways, if anyone finds my motivation, please send it my way. Much obliged.

Lentil Burgers: Why I love my husband

There are, of course, many reasons why I love my husband, but here's one close to the top of the list...He almost never complains about what I set before him for dinner. Definitely, there are things that are not at the top of his food-love list, but if I spend time making him dinner, he's always appreciative. There is only one time that comes to mind when I felt I really disappointed him and that's when, in a rush, I basically made him a plate of dry noodles. Little irks him more than dry, bland food. After all, he was raised on his mama's Korean home cooking, full of spice and drunk with flavor.

That being said, lentils, quinoa, and couscous are not high on his favorites list. He tolerates them well and sometimes even likes them, but he would definitely take a good hunk of meat over any of my vegetarian dishes. Fair enough. But when I stumbled upon Heidi's lentil burgers featured on her health-guru blog, 101 Cookbooks, I thought I'd give them a try.

When my husband sat at the table, I probably should have told him right off that these weren't beef burgers, or my more typical bison burgers, but I just let him take a bite.

Hey, this isn't meat!

That was his first response. But after the first disappointing/confusing bite, he warmed up to them. He finished up his vegetarian burger by saying that this was a particularly nice way to prepare lentils. So I think that's the green light to make more in the future. Hooray! I also really enjoyed them and was surprised at how good and flavorful these burgers were. The texture is definitely different, but perhaps similar to a falafel. Topped with some fresh basil and spinach from my garden, a few slices of avocado and a dollop of lemony goat cheese, these little burgers really hit the spot on this very hot summer day.

Lentil Burgers
Source: 101 Cookbooks
makes 10-12 burgers

3 cups cooked black or French lentils (this is probably 1-1.5 cups dry lentils)
1/2 t. fine sea salt
4 eggs
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup bread crumbs
1 T. olive oil

Pulse the lentils, salt and eggs in a food processor until mixed, but still somewhat chunky. Move the mixture into a large mixing bowl. Mix in the onion and bread crumbs. Begin to heat your pan over medium low heat while the bread crumbs absorb some moisture.

Add the oil to your preheated pans and then form burgers about 1 inch thick. Cook on one side for about 7 minutes and check to make sure you don't burn them (I did the first time). Once browned, flip and cook the other side for 7-10 minutes until cooked through. Top them with whatever you have around. I used spinach, basil, avocado, and softened goat cheese mixed with some lemon juice.

I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not to tell your husband before he takes his first bite. But it does look like meat. Maybe he won't notice?