Saturday, April 27, 2013

Pete Control

Well, we're around two weeks into gardening and we just now have many sprouts coming up in our gardens after our lovely recent rains.

Mr. Neighborhood Cat seemed to respond to our cat repellent spray, and Mr. Pete seemed to respond to the sprouts.

As in, he dug them up.

Only one of the yellow green bean squares was really damaged, and I think I managed to replant what was left of the sprouts fairly well.

Post damage-control:
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Pete dug around in the marigold sprouts, too, and we can't spend all of the time he is outside watching him, so we came up with this:

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Chicken wire! 

We got the idea from the square foot gardening book, but we cover the top with wire yet. We're not sure we will need that. (We'll probably end up doing it next weekend just to keep the birds out.)

It looks kind of trashy, but if that's what it takes to keep the damn dog out of my green beans, I'll do it. Pete hasn't even been interested in the other garden bed. He seems scared of the tomatoes. That dog....

I'm sure Chris was secretly pleased; he hates green beans.


I have a pot with nasturtiums in it. They just started to sprout, too. They looked really neat after the rains. The sprouts had rain drops trapped in their leaves.

(Sorry the picture kind of stinks. The sprouts are tiny!)

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The pot was knocked over, so I had to replant a lot of the nasturtium sprouts, too. I didn't realize what intricate root systems such tiny sprouts would have!

Even though I've been really frustrated with that stupid dog today, I'm trying to remember the neat things I'm learning about plant sprouts. 

Dumb dog. 

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(Who, me?)

Friday, April 26, 2013

Hobo Dinner

Apparently this meal is common in the scouting world, but I had no idea it existed: Hobo Dinner!

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You'll need: 
4-5 medium potatoes
4-6 carrots
1 red or yellow bell pepper 
2-3 tomatoes
(optional, but not FODMAP friendly*) 1 onion
3-4 links polish sausage 
2-3 Tbsp butter

foil

an oven or a grill

Preheat oven or grill to about 350F.  Wash and chop the veggies into 2 inch (ish) pieces. Slice the sausage the same way.

Cut 3-5 large pieces of foil.  Fill each with a mixture of veggies and sausage.  Divide each tablespoon of butter into cubes or smaller pieces and spread the butter out among the foil packs. 

Seal the packs and place on the grill/in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn. Grill/bake for another 30 minutes.

Enjoy your moist and steamy veggies and yummy sausage hobo dinner!


*I'll post more about the FODMAP diet later. Google it if you're curious.