Garden Update

Just wanted to give you an update on my garden. I had promised to post some pictures and as you know, I do not(still do not) own a digital camera, so these pictures are not quite up-to-date.

Here's my garden in early April, very bare. It's just a small one, about 10' x 20'. Please click on pictures to view larger image.

Chives and mint and a row of peas that the bunnies devoured.

Those sticks were my "marking" sticks. I used them to mark where I planted seeds, that way I won't acciddentally pull them thinking they are weeds.

Next picture shows when everything just got started. At the bottom of the picture is a row of mesclun mix. In the middle of this picture (which looks like * l *) are a row of radishes and broccolis that had just sprouted. And at the top is a row of onions.


This last picture was taken in early or mid June. All the warm weather plants(tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans) had been planted by then. A great thank you to my husband for putting in the sprinkler system for me this year.

I will try my best in describing the layout of my garden according to this picture. Here goes(looking at the picture): To the left of the gate, in the front are chives, mint, mesclun mix, broccolis, radishes(harvested), onions, bok choy(harvested), mibuna(harvested), another row of onions and basil. Starting from the 3rd pole to the end of the garden are all tomatoes, 22 plants in total. To the right of the gate from front are green beans, more mesclun mix, parsley, cucumbers(along the fence), butternut squash, sunflowers(along the fence), green bell peppers and jalapeno.

The garden is coming along very nicely. All the tomato plants are really big and tall now and I have also harvested 5, yes 5 cherry tomatoes! The sunflower plants are way taller then me(I'm 5'3"). One of them is at least 7' or 8' tall! Another one has 1 rust-colored flower that opened up! So exciting! Also harvested are some beans and cucumbers and lots of parsley and basil.

I do have some questions regarding onions to those of you kind readers who have more expertise in gardening than me. This is my first year planting onions and I have read that onions are ready to be pulled when the tops have fallen over. Well, mine are all fallen over and when I pulled one up it's still very small like the size of a golf ball. Should I leave them in the ground and let them keep growing bigger? Will they keep growing bigger? Did I do something wrong that they are not growing? Please help?

What did I make with my new toy?

I got a phonecall from hubby one day at work and it went something like this:
M: Hey honey, how come this KitchenAid Stand Mixer is still sitting here on the countertop not used?
Y: Ya, how come?
M: Well, since I got that for you for your birthday I think you should use it and make something.**
Y: I'm trying to think of something to make. What would you like?
M: I don't know.
Y: I can make a cake but we just had cake for my birthday. Alright, I'll think of something. **Note: When he gave me my birthday present, these were his exact words: "I figure if I get you this mixer, I benefit from it too. You get your present and I get my desserts." Hmmm...it's a win-win situation I guess.
Since this would be my first time using a stand mixer, I opted for a recipe from the KitchenAid manual/recipe book:


Cream Puffs/Eclairs

Choux Pastry or in French Pate a Choux:(This recipe came from the KitchenAid manual/recipe book)


Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup sifted flour
4 large eggs


Instructions:
1) In a sauce pan heat water, butter and salt to a full rolling boil. Reduce heat and quickly stir in flour, mixing vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan in a ball. Remove from heat.
2) Attach bowl and beater and add flour mixture to Bowl. Turn to speed 2 and add eggs, one at a time, beating approximately 30 seconds after each addition. Scrape bowl and beater. Mix at speed 4 for 15 seconds. If you don't have a stand mixer, a hald-held mixer works just fine on medium speed(I've made some eclairs in my "pre-stand-mixer" time)
3) Drop dough from metal mixing spoon onto greased cookie sheet or you could lined it with parchment paper. For eclairs, squeeze through pastry tube or gallon size ziploc bag into any desired shape, forming mounds three inches apart.
4) Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and bake for 25 minutes. Puffs are ready when doubled in size, golden brown and firm to the touch. Remove the puffs from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet. Once cooled, the puffs are ready to be filled.


For Filling, I've previously made some eclairs before using Gale Gand's recipe from The Food Network and I love it.


Ingredients:
2 cups whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter


Instructions:
1) In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean to a boil over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse for 15 minutes. **If you don't have vanilla bean, just use 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
2) In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cornstarch and whisk vigorously until no lumps remain.
3) Whisk in 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture until incorporated. Whisk in the remaining hot milk mixture, reserving the saucepan. Pour the mixture through a strainer back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and slowly boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool slightly. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at least 2 hours or until ready to serve. The custard can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Refrigerate until 1 hour before using.


To assemble:
1) Make Glaze: In a small saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat just until it boils. Immediately turn off the heat. Put the chocolate in a medium bowl. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Set aside and keep warm. The glaze can be made up to 48 hours in advance. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use, and rewarm in a microwave or over hot water when ready to use.
2) With a serrated knife, slice puffs lengthwise, but not all the way through. Pipe custard mixture into the center. Or for eclairs, use your fingertip to make a hole in the end of each eclair or you can use a chopstick. Using a pastry bag or ziploc bag fitted with a medium-size plain tip, gently pipe the custard into the eclairs, using only just enough to fill the inside (don't stuff them full).
3) Dip the tops of the eclairs or puffs in the warm chocolate glaze and set on a sheet pan. Chill, uncovered, at least 1 hour to set the glaze. Serve chilled.

Note: I have also made some raspberry cream to fill the puffs...more on that recipe later.

Now, making cream puffs or eclairs is quite time consuming but if you love to bake like me, you'll know it's worth the time when you sit down and enjoy the fruit of your labor. Some people will say why go through the trouble, just go to the store and buy them. It's just not the same.

Hide and Seek

This is June's newest game. Can you see where she is in this picture?

She likes to find tall brush, get inside, dig a hole for herself and then hide in there to cool off.

There she is:

And look closely at this one, you will find her hiding in there:

I've been tagged

I have been tagged(for the first time) by Little Veg Patch to share six random things about moi and then tag six person.

In order to do this, I will have to follow some Tag Rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules on the blog.
3) Write six random things about yourself.
4) Tag six people at the end of your post.
5) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

And here are six random things about me:

1) I used to hate parmesan cheese or other types of sharp cheeses because I thought they smelled like vomit. But now I love'em, the sharper the better for me. I think my favorite is extra sharp Cheddar. I buy Cabot's Seriously Sharp Cheddar very often to use in cooking, such as my very cheesy Mac-N-Cheese(I promise I will post a recipe some day), mashed potato, shrimp alfredo....

2) My hubby is the one who got me into canning. 3 years ago when we moved to our current place, we started planting a small garden - mainly tomatoes. We harvested lots of tomatoes and he decided to make tomato sauce. From then on I've been canning: tomato sauce, salsa, pickled jalapenos, jam, pears.

3) I LOVE Italian food and sweets. I have learned to make lasagna, stuffed shells(Thanks to Giada De Laurentiis from Food Network's Everyday Italian), Italian Christmas cookies and so on.

4) My favorite color is lilic/bluish purple, not the redish purple. This, this, this, this and this I like. Not so much of this.

5) I love Gerbera Daisies, Sunflowers and Asiatic Lilies

6) I was borned and raised in Malaysia. Came to the US in 1995.

And here are the six lucky winners I'm tagging:

Julie from Elisharose News
Debra from Sparrowgrass
Juri from My Life!
Kim from Achorn Farm
WVFarmgirl from Creating Utopia in WV
Crossview from Down A Red Dirt Lane

There you have it! You've learned something about me. To my other blogger friends whom I didn't get to tag, please feel free to play along if you would like. Please let me know that you have also played by leaving me a comment.

Have fun!

I'm So Excited!

This is an overdue post about my new toy:



Yahoo!!! Woo-Hoo!!! Yeah!!!

My birthday was a couple of Saturdays ago and my wonderful husband gave me this KitchenAid stand mixer as a birthday present! First of all my apology to my dear husband for not posting this exciting news sooner, like as soon as when I got it. Second of all, I apologise to my dear blogger friends for not sharing this great news with you sooner.

I have been wanting one for a long long time. Each year around Christmas time places like Kohls and Linen n' Things would advertise on these and I have mentioned that perhaps I should get one while they're on sale and hubby would say "Ya, why not?". But each year I would tell myself that's just another spending, I can still use my handheld mixer and give all kinds of excuses not to buy it.

Now, if you remember from last month in one of my Friday Fill-Ins posts(you can read it here), I mentioned that birthdays are not a big deal in our household. It is true. We don't normally make a big fuss about our birthdays, just a simple "Happy Birthday honey" and a cake is usually what we do. But this time hubby thought he would surpirse me with a great gift and he also threw me a birthday party!!! OMG! I have not had a birthday party(for myself) like in ages....let's see...the last birthday party I had for myself was 12 years ago when I turned 21!

So, with this new toy of mine, I promise I'll post some recipes very very soon. :-)

Vent and Rant Wednesday

Here we go, it's Vent and Rant Wednesday, time for me and for you to get your frastration out. Tell me what's bugging you, who makes you mad, what's been bothering you....just remember one thing: please keep all your venting/ranting at G or PG rating.

Well, mine this week has to do with my pet peeves. Now, I don't really have many pet peeves but this really bugs the crap out of me. It happens almost everday at work(I'm glad it doesn't happen at home): people leaving empty papertowel roll or toiletpaper roll on the holder or empty half & half carton in the fridge. OMG, these are all adults I work with but yet some of them acts like little kids! It's not hard to just take out the empty roll and put in a new one...no, they just walk away. There are many time I just felt like putting up a sign saying "Please be courteous and change the roll when it's empty!" or put in a hidden camera to catch who's doing it.

Friday Fill-Ins

It's time for another Friday Fill-Ins!!! Please feel free to play at your blog. If you do, please don't forget to add a link to Friday Fill-Ins.

1. Oh, I can't wait until I have a bigger garden next year.

2. Gallons of tea is the first thing I see when I open my refrigerator.

3. I never leave home without my purse.

4. If I were a condiment, I would be salsa because it's hot & spicy.

5. Leaving an empty roll of papertowel/toiletpaper without changing it, is really high up on my list of pet peeves.

6. The last thing I thought of before I went to bed was "ahh, tomorrow is Friday".

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to just doing absolutely nothing, tomorrow my plans include picking more black and red raspberries and Sunday, I want to make a batch of red raspberry jam!

***I answered in this color

Wishing you a wonderful and fun-filled weekend!