Home Grown

Archive for the ‘Good Things’ Category

Thank you everyone for your kind words and wishes. It is going to take us a long time to get over the loss of Bella. She took a piece of our hearts with her. The smallest things remind us of her and then we have to collect ourselves after a pile of kleenex is disposed of and get on with our business at hand. I have never loved a dog like I love Bella.

I have written before about my front porch. Okay, twice. There is just something about my front porch that strikes me nostalgic and sends me back to my childhood. Hot summers, pea and butter bean shelling, ice cream trucks, cool breezes and good neighbors. My grandmother had a big white house and a long front porch filled with red and white rockers and a glider. Remember those matched sets from the 70′s?

As children we spent the mornings at my grandma’s watering all the plants on her front porch. And did she ever have plants. My plants look poorly next to hers and her numbers were far beyond mine. On hot summer mornings it could easily take an hour to water and feed her plants. In recent years I have felt a need to gather many of the same flowers she used to keep. A few that I had just couldn’t survive some of the super cold winters. Even thriving indoors was hard on them and they looked a bit ragged and worn by mid-winter.

Evenings at grandma’s often found people porch sitting. Porch sitting is a lost art these days but back then everyone sat on their porches and enjoyed the cooler evenings. Conversations, shouts of good evening and many salutations could be heard as families took evening walks and called to those who were content to sit and rock. My granddaddy was most often found on their front porch with feet up on the banister. He teased us children mercilessly, told us ‘scary tales’, and intrigued us with rhymes and riddles. We didn’t figure out it was a joke he was telling us at the time.

He would say, “Run around the house 3 times without looking behind you and there will be two calves following you.” We would run and run and there never two baby cows appearing out of thin air for our pleasure. I was probably 10 before I realized he meant the calves of your legs. Doh!

I can’t seem to convince my kids to run like we did.

So, I love my front porch. Did I tell you that already?

I love my plants that make it look lived in and loved.

I love my rockers that are just now developing a slight squeak.

I love when people visit they love sitting on my front porch.

Perhaps there is something Norman Rockwell-ish about porch sitting when people come to our house. I know Steve never complains or has issues when I add plants or things to our front porch. He loves driving up to the house and seeing our porch welcoming him home. Our front porch is also his dream of a front porch.

I would love to see your front porch if you are willing to share. If you write about your front porch please come back and leave a link so I can come visit. Pretty please? With sugar on top? And a cherry?

From time to time I get emails or comments from very nice ladies (Hi, Ladies!) who often tell me they live vicariously through my life on my blog. Be it gardening, milk goats, baking, sewing, spinning, etc or all of the above so many of you out there express similar desires to do some of the same things I do but feel you can’t because of your current living arrangements.I am here today to tell you to stop that and to encourage you to participate with me. Make it happen for yourself wherever you are. You can do it on a small scale and have wonderful results right now.

Right now! Don’t wait.

You don’t have to spend alot of money. In your apartment or townhouse you can grow herbs and other fresh food! Even in a HOA subdivision you can have it all. There is always a work around.

Let’s start with growing herbs. In a pot. On your balcony or your stoop or your front steps or out back in your tiny postage stamp townhouse yard.

You can scavange around for a planter or a pot. You can be creative and use other decorative items for your planting container. You can spend a little money and invest in something that makes a statement about your decorative tastes. Whatever it takes get a pot or some sort of planter. A nice sized one 16 inch diameter or larger if you have a place for it will hold lots of herbs. If not think about a window box that you could set along a step, or on a sunny spot on your balcony. I know some apartment complexs don’t allow things to hang or be on the railing but very pretty plants and hanging baskets are most commonly allowed. If you can’t set a pot try hanging a basket.

I have two of these terra cotta clay pots on my front porch.For the past couple of years they have held pineapple tops that I rooted. Only the pineapple tops died last fall due to my forgetting to drag them in when we had our first frost. Ooops! So the pots have been sitting empty for a while.

For a pot this size I needed some fresh potting soil and some herbs. I chose basil, curley parsley, tri-color sage, chocolate peppermint and golden thyme. I chose these because I like them but also the variety of color pleased me. You could also plant seeds in your pot(s) and though it will take longer for them to grow and produce it is a huge money saver and you can reseed as needed.

These small herb cups where $1.29 each at my local plant center. I could have started them from seed but I wanted instant gratification so I bought the already well established little plants. Into the pot. Lots of fresh soil packed in around them. A good watering and time in the sun. Voile! An instant herb garden.

If you are starting from scratch you will need some rocks in the bottom of your pot for drainage. If you are using a pot that isn’t meant to be a pot to plant directly into you will also need to punch some holes in the bottom to let the water drain out as needed.

You can also plant in a cheap plastic pot and later when you have found a decorative pot you can simply sit your plastic pot into your more decorative planter. 

With a little TLC, weekly feeding and water (daily watering when the temps are scorching) and there will be plenty of fresh herbs for most any dish for supper.

These pots are heavy when filled with rocks for drainage, potting soil, plants and water. I put them on casters for ease of movement. Here where we are the summer temps will climb to one hundred and above by the time late August rolls around. The sun is a scorcher and no amount of water will keep the tender leaves from burning. With the pots on wheels I can move them in out of the sun as needed. The morning sun is most desired and by the time the midday sun comes around I can move them back a bit where they don’t take the full brunt of the sizzling rays.

I labled this photo so you can see which plants are which. I chose 3 taller plants for the middle of my pot (basil, sage, parsley) and low growing, creeping type plants for the outer ring (thyme and chocolate mint). You can see how the thyme and mint are growing down the sides of the pots now. It took barely a week for these pots to take off and the newly planted look to disappear.

I want to encourage you to make yourself smile. If you can’t do a big pot maybe you could do a grouping of a few small pots each with one type of herb. One small pot on each step with lovely foliage is an attractive look. You can do it. So get busy. That’s an order. When you finish come back and tell me about it. I would like to see what you are doing.

I have been baking alot lately. It is one of those things I have never done well but decided I needed to perfect this skill. Bread has always been my downfall and I have never had much luck with it.

Times be changing!

I have searched high and low for one good white bread recipe that would be versatile and suit any number of bread desires*.

Thanks to a lovely young woman in southern most Virginia for sharing her recipe. (Hey, Stacey!)

Homemade White Bread

2 cups warm (almost hot) water
4 tsp. yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
-Combine together and let rise for 5 minutes

1/4 cup oil
5 cups bread flour
2 tsp. salt

Add to yeast mixture and knead until smooth and elastic.  (I use my KitchenAid mixer w/ the dough hook to do this.  If you have a mixer with a dough hook, it makes this process MUCH easier!)

Cover and let rise for 20-25 minutes.  Beat dough down and make into loaves (this recipe makes 2 loaves).

 Here’s the trick to get your bread to come out right.  You need to roll out the bread into a rectangle, then roll up into a loaf, like you would when making cinnamon rolls.  Lightly slice top of bread to get diagonal cut look when baked. (refer to pic)  Let loaves rise (I put my loaves on separate cookie sheets) for 20-25 minutes.  Bake on 350* for 20-25 minutes, until top of loaves are golden brown.  Let bread cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

And it is easy. With my new Kitchen Aid stand mixer and dough hook the bread is no work at all.

It is also versatile.

When rolling out the dough into the rectangle I have added fresh garlic I ground to a paste and italian seasonings before rolling it into a loaf. The top was sprinkled with more seasonings after a quick brush with butter. It was awesome! The aromas filling the air had people asking if I was baking pizza.

The other loaf lended itself to a lovely braid.

I have also done this recipe with cheese in the dough. Fantastic fresh ffrom the oven.

Another fabulous idea for this bread is cinnamon rolls.

In the first stage when rolling out into the rectangle smooth softened butter over the dough and top with brown sugar, raisins, pecans and lots of cinnamon.

Roll like you would a jelly roll and then cut into 1 inch pinwheels.

Line a baking sheet. My silpat is perfect for these rolls. The melting brown sugar doesn’t stick and make a baked on mess.

Bake.

And eat.

Try it. Show me what you can bake with this simple but awesome recipe.

P.S. No one is watching your weight but you. Indulge. You only live once. Besides sweatpants stretch. Hahaha! 

*Yes, desires. I have hot steamy lustful thoughts when it comes to bread – my one true love that is determined to keep me fat, barefoot and in the kitchen for all my born days.