I changed the way, once again, that I’m organizing my links list. I’m using Google Reader to do so, which is easier for me. So I wouldn’t have just a long list of nothin’ but links, I organized them into categories, and you can see the list here. You can also find that link in the left sidebar with the picture of Miz Poo on the bookcase confusingly entitled “Blogs I Read.” You can ALSO find the link in the right sidebar with “Links” in the header of the block and “Blogs I Read” as the actual link.
Or you could just frantically enter “links,” “blogs you read,” “llinks,” “linx,” and “list of links” or any other descriptive phrase in the search box. I don’t know if that’ll get you where you want to go, but it’s worth a try, I s’pose. Whatever works for you works for me.
That list doesn’t include blogs that don’t have an RSS feed. Which isn’t to say that I don’t read blogs that don’t have RSS feeds, I just need to make a list of them to add to the bottom of that page. I’m perpetually behind in my blog reading (right now, Google Reader informs me that I have 1000+ unread items. I think it’s unfair that they stop counting at 1000. I NEED an exact number!) and I’m especially far behind when it comes to blogs that have no RSS feed.
I’m always behind on everything always, is what I’m saying to you.
I tried a couple of new recipes last week, and both of them were really good.
The first was Dried Cherry and Ricotta Muffins. They were really good, and I bet you could add just about any kind of dried fruit to the recipe that you like. They’re a lightly sweet, moist muffin, and I give ’em two thumbs up. Fred didn’t care for them, though, not that I was making them for him, anyway, SO THERE.
The other was Poppy Seed Chicken, which could not possibly have been easier or tastier. The fact that I always have canned chicken on hand made it even easier. I was a little worried that it would be bland, but it wasn’t at all. It’s comfort food, really, is what it is. And a good way to use up some of that canned chicken you have laying around!
Yesterday I worked out in the garden for a couple of hours, weeding the part of the row of tomatoes where I haven’t put down newspapers to block the weeds. I also went through and did some pruning. Honest to god, I’d like to tell you that I have some idea of what the hell I’m doing when I prune tomato plants, but I so don’t. I kind of hack willy-nilly, and as long as there aren’t blossoms on the parts I cut off, I’m happy.
Unfortunately, I found blossom-end rot and had to pull and toss about 15 small tomatoes. We still haven’t gotten a single damn ripe tomato from the garden, but last night we had oven-fried green tomatoes, and while they were really good, they made me want some ripe tomatoes that much more. I’m starting to think that tomatoes just don’t like our garden, and maybe next year all the tomato plants should be in raised beds behind the back yard. The six tomato plants I have back there right now look mighty happy. Actually, the tomato plants in the garden look pretty happy, too, since this year I’m keeping on top of the weeding and pruning.
The green beans we grew this year – Contender Bush Beans – are really good, but the last time Fred brought in a big bucket from the garden, more than half of them had holes in them from some damn bug or another. I’ve only got 26 pounds of green beans put up thus far (I was aiming for 40), and I’m not sure whether he’s planning a second planting or not. He decided to do bush beans this year and after the first time he picked beans, he announced that he remembered why he hadn’t planted bush beans last year – apparently they’re a pain in the ass to pick and pole beans are easier. Last year I canned all our green beans. This year, I’m freezing them. The canned green beans are easier to deal with at meal time, but I have decided that I like the consistency of the frozen-then-cooked beans more. Next year I’ll have forgotten that fact and will go back to canning, I’m sure.
The squash is coming in like crazy, especially the scalloped squash. We’ve had stuffed scalloped squash, oven-fried scalloped squash, and mashed scalloped squash (cut up squash, boil ’til tender, drain, add salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of cheese of your choice). I tried canning scalloped and yellow crookneck squash, but I think I’m going to boil it, mash it, and freeze it instead. Canned is a nice idea, but since squash cooks down to almost nothing, we’ll just about be drinking the canned stuff through a straw.
Fred planted a lot of spaghetti squash this year. I think we’re going to have more of that than anything – good thing I love the consistency of spaghetti squash, because we’ll probably be eating it at every meal over the winter.
Have you ever had purslane? Fred thought he’d found some growing in the ditch and I was all for cutting some and eating it, but he talked me down from it since (1) the runoff from the road flows directly through that ditch and (2) he wasn’t completely sure it was purslane. But ever since he brought it up and I read about it online, I’m dying to try it. Have you had it? Is it good? Do I want to grow some next year?
I could look for it in the wild, but to be honest, I really thought the stuff in the ditch was purslane – Fred’s stepmother told us it isn’t, it’s some poisonous something-or-other (THEY ALWAYS RUIN MY FUN) – and I’m not sure I could successfully identify it.
Someone asked yesterday if the Bookworms are ready for adoption yet. The answer is that while they’re certainly big enough to be neutered (Corbett, the smallest of the litter, is over 4 pounds), they still have to be retested before that can happen. (Those of you who are new to the site, the Bookworms came up FIV positive two months ago.) I’m going on vacation in a couple of weeks, and once I get back I’ll be taking them for that. I have no doubt at all that all four of them will test negative and can then be neutered, id-chipped, and go off to the adoption center to be adopted.
(Unless one – or some – of you nice people are interested in adopting them and want to save them from the sad fate of sitting in a cage for 10 seconds before someone comes along and falls immediately in love with them, that is.)
So that’s why they’re still around even though they’ve moved from their tiny cute kitten stage to their long and lanky teenage stage. If it wasn’t for the positive FIV result, they would have gone off to be adopted two months ago.
“C’mere, Elweird, you have shmutz on your head.”
The Bookworms in the sun.
Happy Corbett.
“I can’t help it. I don’t like those little bitty kittens. I’m the baby around here!”
Rhyme and Corbett.
Garrity jumps! He misses! But he certainly looks amused by the fact that he missed, doesn’t he?
Sheila does love the feather teaser…
Pondering.
Considering.
Thinking.
Planning.
Later.
She smacks! She misses! (Note Gavin and Garrity over there in that basket egging her on.)
Got it!
I hear tell there’s a magical place where the cats do NOT take over all the furniture in the house. Is this a real place, or just something they made up to make me jealous?
Previously
2009: The airport for the night, then.
2008: No entry.
2007: No Mister Boogers.
2006: No entry.
2005: Oh, the hilarity that ensues when your car and foster kitten have the same name! I could almost hear the laugh track in the background.
2004: PMS, anyone?
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001:No entry.
2000: Charmed life, have I mentioned?
Elweird… BWhahaha…
Shumtz… BWhahahaha… oy vey !
xoxo
Gonna be trying the Poppy Seed Chicken!! That looks really good and since I am the queen of casseroles that should fit in pretty well around here.
My better half (much better half) decided to try the topsy turvy for tomatoes and strawberries this year. We live in a townhouse and there is just no room for gardening. He lost his first two tomatoes to the birds…and then put mosquito netting around the plant. Over the weekend he plucked off about 5 or 6 beauties and conjured up some homemade salsa. We still have about three that are reddish and tons of green ones too. Since I am not a tomato person, the topsy turvy is great for us.
Now the strawberries…they did great in the beginning but since the first yield, not so good. Maybe I just don’t know how to prune the plant or what it needs. Still green, a strawberry once in a while, but it’s small…not like the original yield.
The only place where cats don’t take over all the furniture is a place with no cats! And … don’t you have another permanent resident cat to create a link for?
`
Thanks for your help and posting the link Robyn 🙂
Robyn,
My cats can’t reach the top of my dresser or bed’s headboard/cabinet system. Unless I leave my ironing board up, they don’t have anything close enough to jump on to step up to the furniture. The fact that they could not get up on the furniture drove the cats nuts until I put them on the furniture to check it out. Once they determined the furniture was boring, they ignore it. Of course, the dresser would be too tall for you too! It’s about 5 1/2 ft tall.
Val
PS the previous empty comment was compliments of my cat Andy who HAD TO BE PETTED THIS VERY SECOND and he climbed on my laptop.
Hey Miz Robyn, my SuperGardener fiance says that spraying neem oil on the plants and/or pouring it at the base so it’s drawn up through the roots will get rid of your holey-bean problem. 😀
I had a yard full – FULL – of purslane when I first moved in here (after the first good rain). The people who owned this house before me were originally from India, so it may have been intentionally cultivated; it covered virtually the entire back yard. I am not a big fan of, “What is this? Let’s taste it!” but after much googling, I decided to nibble on a bit.
Now, I am an inveterate vegetable-hater – virtually all vegetables taste bitter and acidic to me – but I was pleasantly surprised; it tasted fresh and a little lemony, not bitter or acidic at all, and the texture was unremarkable (i.e., didn’t make me gag).
Your mother in law might be mistaken – google says there’s no real look-alike for purslane, although there is a poisonous plant that frequently grows with it. Spurge grows in the same conditions (I had some right along with my purslane) and is toxic, but to my eye it doesn’t look anything like purslane.
I have yet to get any red tomatoes, too. I’ve got a ton of romas on the vine waiting to ripen and I can’t wait. Homemade tomato sauce, yum! How did the potato growing experiment go? I can’t remember if it was last year or the year before that where you were going to grow potatoes in kind of a raised bed upon bed thing. Did it work?
I like your new blog list … but now I need several days off to go through it!
You are going on vacation?? Just you to Maine? Or are you & Fred finally going to FL. And if so, who is taking care of Crooked Acres.
On the tomato note, I’ve noticed my plants in containers are doing better than the plants in the ground. For what that is worth.
Never had or heard of purslane but Elayne’s descritpion makes me want to try it. I want the basket o Gavin and Garrity for my very own. Adorable series of photos. I especially love the first one with thier paws in the air-so damn cute!
Blossom end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency. It’s probably too late to do anything about it now, but lime or bone meal at the base of the plant will help fix that. Also, you probably know that tomatoes don’t like to be planted in the same place year after year, you have to rotate them. Fussy SOBs.
Bush Beans tend to come in all at once, so they do a huge heavy crop and then you yank and replant. Pole beans will bear all season long. All beans should be inoculated with bean and pea inoculant (sold near the bean and pea seed typically, it’s a microbiological additive that helps legumes fix nitrogen in the soil), and they are pretty heavy feeders, I top dress with a lot of compost after I plant. They also like being watered if it’s hot out, or they stop producing.
I really liked the Burpee “Tenderpod” and “Tenderpick” bush bean varieties, they tolerated hot weather, made nice stringless pods, and if you picked ’em every day, they yielded huge crops that didn’t get woody. I am real fussy about my green beans, since I come from a long line of green bean farmers. I don’t like pole beans because they get out of control and I like the heavier yields from pick-and-pull bush plants.
There’s this great book called the WORD method of gardening…http://www.amazon.com/Vegetable-Gardeners-Bible-High-Yield-Gardening/dp/1580172121
It’s kinda awesome. I don’t do everything he suggests, but he gives a lot of great tips on how to prevent common problems with yield, germination, etc.
And there is my 25c about gardening. I had 2 cents and then I just wouldn’t STFU.
Also, I’m glad you are healed from your tumble down the stairs, and I vote that the new semi-feral cat is totally at least Newt’s COUSIN, they have those same close-set eyes!