Mozzarella, Tomatoes, and Sweet Pickles

I made Mozzarella yesterday using The Kitchn’s recipe. So simple and yummy. I was really hoping that I would have ripe tomatoes by now to eat with this, but mine are still green. I made a quick salad of store bought tomatoes, mozzarella, and my quick sweet pickles.

I used one Roma tomato salted. I let it sit for about 10 mins to drain.
About 1/3 cup of the mozzarella
1/3 cup for the cucumbers and onions from my Sweet Pickles Recipe

I mixed these up with a little bit of the brine from the pickles. It was a yummy quick lunch!

Yogurt Sauce Base

The cream sauce I use is always changing just a bit. The basic ingredients are:

½ cup yogurt
a squeeze of mayonnaise (for me, I use just a little as I am not a big mayo fan)
a couple of cloves of garlic (around 5/6)
Juice of a Lemon or Lime (can also use zest )
Salt and Pepper
Blend all these together in a magic bullet or blender until smooth. You might need to add just a little water or more juice if the mixture is not blending well.
At this point, I taste and adjust the seasoning.

This gives me the base for this sauce. I add herbs like cilantro, basil, or chives. Other ideas are onion, cucumber (salt and drain before adding),  hot sauce, honey or anything that sounds good to me at the time. When adding new ingredients that I have never used in this, I add them slowly and blend. Taste to see if I want more of that flavor not. Adjust as needed.

Salmon and Cucumber Rice Bowl

Salmon and Cucumber Rice Bowl
So, I was excited to think about how to use some of the yummy things coming out of the garden but also use some things I had in the fridge to make a yummy dinner! I had some frozen Salmon, and thought a rice bowl would be fantastic! I knew I wanted to use fish or shrimp since my Hubby was not going to be home and he dislikes seafood.

This was very simple and easy!

So, I had half of one yellow zucchini (from the garden), zucchini flowers (from the garden), half a cucumber (from the garden), carrots, green onions, and rice. This also gave me a reason to pick the bell pepper that got sun-scorched before it when bad. I also had some limes in a bowl that I wanted to use.

I also usually have a few homemade sauces on hand. One is oil based, and the other is a garlic yogurt cream sauce. I chose to use the cream sauce here, but I think the vinegar one would have been great too.

This rice was from yesterday and was cooked with coconut oil, so it had a sweet floral flavor which went nicely in this. I put this on parchment paper to reheat it. I let it cook long enough where some of the rice crisped up and got crunchy for some texture.

I really like my seafood cooked with my sous vide. I prepared it by thawing it and then marinating it in the bag it would be cooked in. I did a garlic salt dry rub on this. I used more salt than I normally would use to season my fish. Once that sat for about 20/30 mins, I poured the juice of one lime in the bag and swished it around to get some of that salt off. I let that sit for 10 mins while the water came up to temp. I poured the lime juice out of the bag before submerging it with the fish inside in the water. I let that cook for 45 min at 120 degrees. I wanted this to be cooked but not overly so. You could cook yours to whatever temp/texture you wanted.

I cut all the veggies into thin rounds or strips. I decided I was going to eat all the veggies raw.

Once the rice and fish were heated, I assembled my rice bowl! I topped my bowl with my cream yogurt sauce! This was really great! You could use salad dressing instead.

The cream sauce I use is always changing just a bit. The basic ingredients are:

½ cup yogurt
a squeeze of mayonnaise (for me, I use just a little as I am not a big mayo fan)
a couple of cloves of garlic (around 5/6)
Juice of a Lime (can also use zest from the lime)
Salt and Pepper
Blend all these together in a magic bullet or blender until smooth. You might need to add just a little water or more lime juice if the mixture is not blending well.
At this point, I taste and adjust the seasoning.

This gives me the base for this sauce. You can add herbs like cilantro, basil, onion, hot sauce, honey or anything that sounds good. When adding new ingredients that you have never used in this, add it slowly and blend. Taste to see if you want more of that flavor not. Adjust as needed.

This was great! Very fresh tasting and healthy! I will definitely do variations of this as my vegetables start coming in!

 

Cucumbers are really starting to produce

6/3 – I have a few great looking (and growing) cucumbers! SO hard to wait for them to get full size! I decided to pick the biggest today and make Lime and Cucumber water. I am a big flavored water and sparkling water fan. I ran out yesterday, and I did not feel like going to the store. Think this will be a great solution and a way to use some of my extra cucumbers! With the other half of the cucumber, I think I will make Salmon and Cucumber Rice Bowl tonight!

Sweet Pickle Brine – AKA Joan’s on 3rd knockoff.

I lived in LA when I was 24/25. It was there that I had some of the best pickles of my life! These were from a deli/bakery shop called Joan’s on 3rd. However, I no longer live in LA, but I still think about those pickles. I started to look up what type of pickles those were; low and behold, I come to find out, I am not the only one thinking about those Pickles! There are a few versions of this recipe out there. They all seem to have the same basic ingredients.

Brine for 1 16 oz Mason Jar:
2 tablespoon salt
1/3 cups white vinegar
3/4 cups cold water
1/3 cups plus 2 Tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon celery salt/seed (I had celery salt but not seed. I think it worked just as well. Use what you have)
1 1/2 teaspoons juniper berries (I bought mine on Amazon since I did not see them in my grocery store)
1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard seed
¼ cup fresh dill or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried dill (I used dry since that is what I had)
1/3 small onion, sliced thin

What I have brined in this mixture:
1 Cucumber and 3 small zucchinis (Just items I had from my garden that day)
You will want to cut up your items and LIGHTLY sprinkle some salt on them (too much salt here will end up giving you very salty pickles). Let them sit and drain for about 30 mins before adding them to the brine. You can also do this to the onions.

Other ideas to add to this? How about sweet and spicy? Add a pinch of red pepper flake to this!

Most recipes have you bring this mixture to a boil and then pour into the jars. I don’t really think this is necessary, since I plan to eat mine within a week or so. I do not recommend using this method for long-term storage. I just poured all my ingredients in the jar, closed the lid tight, and shook it until all the sugar and salt had incorporated. Plus, one less thing to clean!

This is NOT a long sitting pickle recipe. In fact, I did not wait more than 30 mins before I had some.

**This was the first time I made this. I will refine the mixture when I do it again.

After Vacation – Summer 2017

Well, I worried about the plants while I was away. So I was glad to see most of them did well while I was gone! However, the pepper pot that I had problems with before was not doing well. In fact, all the peppers were dead!!!! My neighbor thought they got too much water from the rains. I tend to agree. So, I decided to replant!

This time I went to my local garden shop Palmer’s since it is close, and I was not coming home from work where I drive right by a big box store. I looked through all their stuff and decided to go a bit of a different route. I got one more pepper and a Japanese Eggplant. I grew a regular eggplant fence garden. The plant looked great, but never had enough sunlight to produce. 😦 I have never tried to grow a Japanese eggplant. This time I only did 2 plants and a Marigold. I got a second tomato cage for my Cucumbers.

I did not re-fertilize the whole, which thinking about it later, I wish I had. So I fertilized the top of the soils. I had a problem for about a week after this with the pot being full of water. I have had to drain it a few times. Since the other pots have really well-established plants in them, I do not seem to have a problem with over watering in them.

Most of my other plants were thriving! They had gotten big and bushy!!! The tomatoes seemed bushy enough to cage. I tied the plants to the cage and did a bit of pruning on these plants. I cut off a lot of the leaves that were closest to each other in the middle of the pot. I cut off the leaves close to the ground to prevent soil-borne diseases from getting on them. Any leaves that were in poor shape were also cut off. There were also some big suckers that had developed, so I cut them off. You can root suckers pretty easily by taking them inside and putting them in water. These happened to have pretty long stems, which allowed me to put a lot of the stem in water. Every part that was in water started to root! It is pretty awesome to have 3 new free tomatoes. Again, I wished I had labeled my tomatoes and suckers better as I have no idea what types of tomatoes they are. I will be giving the tomato plants to my neighbor.

The cucumber had also gotten LONG runners on it (I think that is what they are called), so I put a cage on it. I wish I had been able to do this before! Before vacation, the plant was too small. Now, it was really long and the stems were not as flexible! I had to very carefully train the cucumber up the cage and tie it off. Sometimes I felt like I was damaging the plant. It went all the way up to the top of the cage. I kinda need a taller cage! I pruned this plant too. I cut all the leaves off that were near the soil. Also, I cut off leaves that blocked a lot of other leaves from getting light. I also cut off any leaves that did not look good. The cucumber was also in full bloom by this point! I knew I needed to keep watching for fruit!

I staked my big peppers as they were starting to flower. By now, most of them are really sturdy plants! I have one in the good pot of peppers that is a little smaller. I did not stake that one yet. I wanted it to have a bit more time with the elements to develop. I did not stake my new peppers as it too needs some time to develop! I pruned off any leaves that did not look good.

I also staked my Zucchini as it was leaning towards the ground and the leaves once again had signs that powdery mildew was forming from all the rain we had. I staked it so it would be more upright. I cut off the affected leaves and sprayed the plant. I also cut off any leaves what were not looking very good.

I have decided to just cut off leaves that do not look good as part of an ongoing care plan.

I cut back my herbs too. I froze the ends I took. I am hoping this helps them produce more.

My strawberry has still not come up. I don’t think it ever will. Pretty sad about that.

The potatoes were sprouting by the time we got back. They were about 3 inches in height. I was happy about that. They are determinate types, so they will not get very big. Also, I think that means they will be limited in what they produce.

I decided to prune part of my pink lemon. Since it is in a pot, I do not want it to get too big. I cut back some of the branches and any parts that were not looking great. There are some branches I will cut back once it is done fruiting. The pineapples are still neglected but doing well. I actually just planted 3 more in small pots on my porch.

First Couple of days Summer 2017

While April is not technically summer, in Central Florida is might as well be! It is hot, and I wanted to make sure my plants were well watered and got the best start I could give them having just a bit of experience. I did a bit of reading. It seemed a lot of “pros” suggested pinching back the tops of some of the plants to encourage side growth and to get a bushier plant. Wish I had taken better notes on which ones I did this to. I have two vigorous pepper plants and one that is doing well but not as well as the others. I feel like this plant was not pinched back.

One pot of pepper started to fair a bit better than the other one. I started to notice some whiteflies under the leaves and on the tomato leaves, so I decided to spray. I had a problem with these in my grad school patio garden. This time, I wanted to deter them before they became a problem. Unfortunately, I did this when it was full sun and hot out. I think I damaged the leaves as the next day they were looking pretty rough! While I sprayed both pots, this seems to only have hurt one of them. Full reason is unknown. NOTE TO SELF – spray in the morning or evening but not full sun!!! 

I also pinched back some of my tomatoes. Same here but the one that is not as big, I believe is a smaller variety of tomato. A determinate type tomato instead of an indeterminate, which the other two plants are.

I checked the strawberry, but nothing was happening yet.

The zucchini and cucumber were coming along as expected. However, I was starting to see signs of powdery mildew on the Zucchini. I also experienced this for the first time in my grad school garden. Now, I knew to check under the leaves of squash and to spray as soon as I saw a problem. By now, the plant was pretty well established, and I decided to cut off all low hanging leaves near the ground to discourage soil-borne problems. This helps with powdery mildew!

The cilantro is doing ok but is a bit spindly. The pineapple sage has done well.

I planted some companion plants with these plants. Marigolds are supposed to be good for tomatoes and Peppers from what I was reading. Also, garlic is said to be good. While I am not sure if I will actually get any garlic heads from this experiment, I am excited to see what happens. I had some old heads of garlic in the pantry anyway. They had lost their hardness, so I figure, why the heck not! Stick the cloves in the ground! I did individual cloves about an inch down from the top of the soil all over the pot.

Old Plants:

I have a few plants that did survive the fence-line garden and they are currently in the garden too. One is a Pink Lemon tree. I have had it for about 3 years, and a few pineapple plants ground from the tops of store-bought pineapples. This is the first year the lemon tree has lemons on it. I got some citrus fertilizer from my dad that I used on it. I am not sure if the fruit will be good the first year, but I am excited to have fruit on it! The pineapples probably need to be replanted in better pots. I kind of neglect them, but they are still around!

 

 

 

Parking Lot Garden

I decided I really wanted a garden, but I live in a condo. So, I do not have a lot of space or a lot of spots I can use with full sun. 😦 At the top of “my parking spot” (I do not really have a parking spot, but it is the one I almost always park in) and the one my neighbor parks in, there are some good spots for VEGETABLES!! Yay! Some of the spots get 8 hours, 6 hours, 4 hours and then none.

In the past, I have had some unsuccessful gardens due to apartment living and lack of sun. One of the biggest problems was the sun’s position in the sky changing from the time I planted, with enough full sun in that spot, to the sun going behind a tree or fence. So frustrating! The plants would look great but would not have enough sun to produce fruits or veggies. The lettuces and lower light vegetables did fine. Boy, did I eat a lot of salads out of my grad school patio garden!

I decided this time to plant in pots as the plants could easily be moved to spaces where the sun was still shining 6 to 8 hours a day. I planted my garden on 4/14/2017. I have already moved a few of my plants. I predict I will need to move a few more of them over into the space in front of my neighbor’s regular spot as the sun moves. Thankfully, my neighbors are cool with the plants and excited to see if this experiment works. They have had a composer out back for a while, but we have only recently started to make big contributions to it. They even helped me get some water out to the plants, put in some dripper lines, and watched over the plants while I was out of town. Awesome!

I am going to keep this blog as a bit of a diary how well my plants do in containers in my parking lot. I have to say, I did a bit of research before planting and really could not find much helpful information about how to do this that was not “pro” info. Well, I do not have “pro” equipment, fertilizers, or goods. Since this was an experiment of sorts, I wanted to do it a bit cheap in case it did not work out. There are some upfront costs, but I wanted to minimize those. I did still have some supplies from my last ill-fated garden. Some of those supplies are a bit useless here like the drip lines and weed screen. Others like fertilizers and sprays have come in handy. The rubber on my gloves had, unfortunately, dry rotted.

Things I did buy:

• potting soil – I mixed up a few of them: Like Miracle Grew, Nature’s Care, and Black Kow.
• plants
• fertilizer for tomatoes. I bought Dynamite Mater Magic Organic Tomato fertilizer.
• dripper for the hose which I got on Amazon
• a couple more pots – almosts all of the pots I got are the self-watering or water reservoir type. Florida gets really hot, and water evaporates pretty quickly. I also did not want to waste water as it might come out the bottom of the pot. So far so good – just watch for over watering if it rains a lot. These look like the ones I got at Home Depot, but this is for 6 of them.
• hay that I bought at my local garden store.

I think, for now, I will leave this as the introduction to my parking lot garden! I hope this is helpful to someone!