Posts Tagged peppers

pasta with garden veggies

May 19, 2010 at 2:46 pm · Filed under recipes ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Turns out I had a few other things ready for pickin’ in my garden this week:  1 small white onion, 1 garden salsa pepper (hot!) and fresh basil.

white onion, garden salsa pepper and fresh basil

Only missing a few ingredients to make a killer pasta dish.  Since my tomatoes are still ripening, canned will have to do today.  But I still feel satisfied to have 3 of my own grown ingredients in this dish.  Here’s the breakdown for this easy dinner:

  • 1 small-medium yellow or white onion, chopped (or whatever is growing in your garden – this recipe is very flexible)
  • 1 pepper, chopped – again, your choice of variety.  We like spicy (and the garden salsa pepper made this dish spicy!)
  • handful of fresh basil, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup white wine (I used pinot grigio)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 8 oz. turkey sausage (optional, and could also use chicken – whatever you like)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 7 oz pasta – whatever shape you like

Bring a pot of water to a boil for your pasta.  Cook pasta per package directions.  Saute onion, garlic and pepper in a medium skillet in a little olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes.   Then add wine and simmer until half the wine is evaporated.

Pour a glass of wine for yourself, and sip while you finish making dinner.

Add the can of tomatoes (with juice), sausage, chopped basil and salt and pepper

Let this simmer for about 10 minutes – it will thicken slightly.  Drain the pasta once cooked and add to the pan with the sauce.  Mix well.

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese (or not, it’s your dinner after all), and dig in. 

bon apetit!

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Dad’s garden

May 14, 2010 at 3:25 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

So apparently I inherited my love for growing veggies from my dad.  He lives about 300 miles south of me in Kingwood, TX, just outside of Houston.  We always talk about how our gardens are doing and what’s growing.  Since he’s so much further south, he was able to plant about a month before me, and his garden is doing fabulous.  Clearly from the pics, he loves to grow tomatoes (as do I – what’s not to love about homegrown tomatoes?!).  He’s hoping for a better crop than last year, and from the looks of it, I think he’ll get it. 

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flowers, flowers everywhere, but not a veggie to pick

May 13, 2010 at 2:35 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

 Week 3
It’s been perfect veggie growing weather at my house.  Not much rain unfortunately, but low to mid 80s for the past week and my plants are loving it!  So far everything is looking nice and healthy – no diseases or bugs that I can see.  Here’s the pics for the week – I’ll let them do the talking.
The tomato zone, week 3. Lots of growth this week, and lots of little tomatoes popping up.

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everything is blooming – week 2

May 3, 2010 at 5:35 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

My plants are finally starting to take off.  Up until this point, their growth has been slow, but they seem like they are about to all shoot up.  I have lots of stuff blooming, and my first few tomatoes have revealed themselves. 

view of the garden, standing in the tomato zone the tomato and pepper zone. Soon this should look like a jungle.

Yesterday everything got a healthy dose of liquid seaweed – yum.  That will be my primary fertilizer all year.  Last year I mixed up a big jug of Garrett Juice as well, but I haven’t needed that yet.  It helps with diseased plants and some insects, and is organic.  And of course, just like the seaweed, is super stinky. 

Green zebra heirloom tomato plant. This plant is doing well. I LOVED this variety last year, and the plant produced a lot.

Homestead tomato plant. This plant is the smallest tomato still, but has 2 tomatoes already! Go homestead go!

Sweet 100 tomato plant. I'm trying this guy out in a pot because I ran out of room in the garden.

Garden salsa pepper plant - my fastest growing pepper plant. If you look very closely, you can see the first little pepper on it.

And here are some pics of my giant (and some not so giant) herbs that I didn’t post last week:

Cilantro - I planted this from seed in the fall, and it grew really slowly all winter, and then shot up about 2 months ago. It's out of control now.

these chives are left over from last year - they lasted through the winter, and have taken off this spring. I like the flowers - really pretty.

my basil is starting to grow pretty fast. If it gets anywhere as big as last year, it will soon by taking over this area!

I planted 2 kinds of flowers in the veggie garden this year to help pollinate and keep bugs away – marigolds and sunflowers.

I planted several sunflowers thought the garden this year to help with pollination and bugs. I read that aphids love sunflowers so will stay away from other plants if you have them.

 And here’s everything else that’s growing: 

I'm thinking this guy is going to take off in the next week or so. I hope so - I want to make zucchini bread!

1 row of shalots, next to a flowering thyme plant

potatoes getting bigger everyday!

my onion plants are starting to flower. These are red and sweet yellow varieties.

Happy Gardening!
 

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first planting

March 4, 2010 at 5:16 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , ,

Today it was sunny and 67 degrees, and I couldn’t help myself….I planted some flowers and herbs.  Only in pots in case we have another cold snap, but I’m really hoping spring is almost here and I just got a jump-start.  I’m trying my hand at some new flowers this year, hoping I will have some for cutting.  I planted peonies, runnuncolas, zinnias and marigolds, as well as a bunch of chamomile.  Now the waiting game to see if my seeds and bulbs will grow. 

Since I was already playing in the dirt, I thought I would try once again to plant a few peppers from seed.  I’ve tried 3 times to start my own peppers and tomatoes with no luck.  They always sprout, but never grow past a tiny little seedling.  I really want to grow a padron pepper plant and was unable to find a transplant last year, so am trying from seed.  I only did 6 pots so far, so we’ll see how they go!

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