Hand in the Dirt {how does my garden grow?}

This garden of mine is growing quite nicely!  I do owe it a bit of weeding, but in general it seems to be thriving. 

I'm going to contribute the success to these.  Puddles.  Which means it's been raining.  Plenty.  Meaning I'm not guilty of forgetting to water my garden.  Cheesy grin!

Here you can see a row of potatoes that are getting full, bushy, and green.  I only planted these about 2 weeks ago and they are racing taller every day. 

A closer look at an individual potato plant.  It's my first year growing these.  Can't wait to see what happens... and goodness knows I love potatoes!!  Bet they are incredible fresh from the dirt!

The peas on the trellis are doing their pea thing.  Climbing and climbing and getting so intertangled with each other.  There are a ton of flowers and I am so looking forward to seeing those turn in to pea pods!

A closer look at the wee pea flowers.

The squashes are happy. 

I have summer and a winter butternut variety.  A total of 8 or so plants, but I still wonder why this particular one is so much bigger than all the others.  And the leaves are getting so big that in a rain storm the water makes them heavy and they lean on the ground for support.

This is my first time growing orange peppers.  I love how early they are emerging and really looking forward to seeing the orange color!  Hello fajitas!

Here's a look at on of the grape tomatoes plants.  Lots of fruit emerging, but I also seem to have something eating on these.  Going to have to investigate a bit more.

I always seem to have a doggy shadow when I get about my gardening work.  I know they are just as excited about eating things straight from the garden as I!

And I'm not sure I've properly introduced you to my favorite rock in the garden.  This particular one is part of the stone wall that the Mister built for me in the spring.  I just love the character and it's even more interesting in the rain.  Makes me smile every time I see it!

Hope your gardens are doing wonderful too!

Three Sources of Happiness {005}

1. Tea tag wisdom with a wonderful reminder to nurture my spirit!

2. Two goofy dogs who are interested in every single thing I do.  

And with silly grins to share. (Sammy the 8 month old pup on the left and Katie our almost 5 year old on the right)

2. I succeeded at making twice baked potatoes with cheddar and bacon.  They were even amazing as 'left overs' for lunch. 

Now go ahead, why don't you look around and find your own surprising and maybe not so surprising sources of happiness today!

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And if you haven't seen these yet... check out these great ways to savor and be inspired by the happiness around you:

• Project Life - a memory keeping system to capture the little amazing bits of life.
• Photo a Day - but with a really cool list of inspiration words that I really dig!
• A Year of Good Things - could be a good thing for you or a good thing for a stranger, but the neat part is that you document that goodie as a way of slowing down and taking more notice of things,

Nom Nom BBQ!

It's the unofficial, official start to the summer.  And no doubt a lot of us will be BBQ'ing this weekend!

Here are some easy (and 100% tasty) things to cook up and share!

Guacamole!

You might not think of this when you think of BBQ, but I love how easy this is whip up and how delicious it is chilled on a hot summer day. 

I started off with lots of recipes and have really simplified things after a making this a few dozen times.

Start with 1 ripe avocado.  Look for one with dark green skin and that you can squish a little with your fingers. If you can only find hard avocados, one trick I have learned is to leave them on the counter in a brown paper paper for a few days till they are squishy.
Mash the avocado fruit after cutting it out of the skin (cut around the big round seed in the middle).  I then add some combination of the following (to taste):

• grated parmesan cheese
• pepper and salt
• garlic (chopped, smashed, or sometimes powdered)
• red pepper flakes
• basil or oregano
• chopped jalapenos

Once you mix that all up, taste, and tweak to your liking from there. I have also seen lemon juice, cilantro, and salsa added to guacamoles. 

Part of the fun is putting your own spin on it or making it to compliment you specific taste for the day!  It's great as a dip with crackers or chips.  It's yummy as a spread on sandwiches.  And I honestly can't resist eating it right off my finger from the bowl -YUM!

Next up... Twice Baked Potatoes

These have a lot of bang for the effort -- plus who doesn't like potatoes that sing with their BBQ?

I made a few tweaks from the hand written recipe provided by my mother in law. 

I didn't have sour cream on hand, so I substitued greek yogurt (YUM!).  I also only made two monster potatoes for Mr. Happy and I. 

Lastly, I noticed this days later.  My mother in law cuts the potatoes in half and then scoops out the insides.  Then refills what looks like mini boats.  I accidently forgot the "cut in half length-wise" step and just scooped out the whole potato.  I think they are nice either way.  But, I think I will try the cut in half ones next time, since these were HUGE and we only ate half of them anyway.
So, to make these.  Grab a few potatoes.  Wash them and poke a few holes in them with a fork.  Then zap them in the microwave to cook them (you can cook them in the oven... but this is so much quicker!).  I think I used about 10 minutes for two hu-mung-o potatoes.

Once cooked, either cut in half length-wise or just scoop out the whole potato.  Put the innards in a bowl.  Mix with cheddar cheese, sour cream (or greek yogurt), butter, salt and pepper, and chives.  You can also add bacon if you like!  Mix those together and then put the mixture back into the potato skins.  Bake the skinds for about 15-20 minutes at 325 degrees.  And voila!  Topped with a little shredded cheese and dill = fancy potatoes that are sure to be a crowd pleaser!

Next, drum roll please....

We'll finish off with a Rack of Ribs!

My mouth is drooling just thinking about them!

Mr. Happy can really make a killer [insert anything here] on the grill, but he really wow'ed me recently with these ribs!

He cooked them for about 4-6 hours in the crockpot with the ribs covered with broth, BBQ sauce, garlic, salt, pepper (and some other stuff that he was feeling at the moment).

When he took them out, they were already tender and flavorful.  The looked a little something like this:

 His next step was to slather them with BBQ sauce.  His BBQ sauce of choice was this:

Then he put the ribs on the barbie... or the grill rather.. and let the BBQ sauce carmelize in the heat from the grill.

By this time I couldn't hardly hold myself back.  I mean there. they. were. 

The ribs of my dreams.  Just begging to be ate.  Fully cooked and ready to go.  Come on grill, finish those puppies up!  Pha-lease!

Are they done yet?

How about now?

Are they done yet?

And bingo!

They were done.

The table was full.

So was our mouths.

And then our bellies.

It was like eating summer.

Not literally.

But really it made me even more excited about all those summer-y things we have coming up!

It really is an awesome time of year!

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I hope you are having a great Friday and enjoy the weekend my loves!

Entertaining

I love to entertain.  I think I always have.  There is something so satisfying about bringing people together. 

I had a gathering recently that looked a little something like this.

Wine glass arranged thoughtfully.

Charms on the stems to lighten the mood and help you remember which glass is yours.

A small center piece of origami flowers to dress the table.

I snuck a swan in there too!

Cutlery and plates set out to to make desert all the easier to serve.

Dishes for the table to make it easier to set it for the meal when the time comes.

Potatos washed and drip drying in the sink ready to be quartered for mashed potatoes!

Aged cheddar out being warmed to room temperature for hors d'œuvres.

No matter what your gathering looks like it's the laughs and good times that are remembered.  The items that make up a gathering are merely a road taken or tool used to get to that happy place with a group of people!

When are you having your next gathering?  What special things do you use to set the mood for happy?