Garden 2016

Last year our garden kind of fell by the wayside. I had the best of intentions, but once the morning sickness monster of pregnancy reared it's ugly head, I had no desire at all to look after the garden, let alone harvest the food that grew. We also had a small problem with a certain vegetarian staffie helping himself to the cucumbers and squash as soon as they were big enough to eat. Who knew dogs could be vegetarians?

If you've followed my garden posts in the past, then you know I'm usually super organized to the point of being anal, with my graph paper and drawing out plant-o-grams. If you have no idea what I'm talking about I'll link to my past garden posts at the end of this post. Well this year I went with the "I'm going to get me some plants and plant them" method.

The first improvement you'll notice about our garden is our ever so classy plastic green fence. Like I said, we had a staffie problem last year and unfortunately there is no spray to keep it at bay, so we were forced to put up a fence. Granted the green plastic is a lot more appealing than the orange plastic I thought we were going to be stuck with, but it's still an eyesore. But I'm willing to deal with the ugliness if that means we get some delicious fresh food!

Before heading off to the garden centre I made sure to ask Roman several times what he wanted to plants in the garden. If you have kids then you understand the importance of asking a toddler the same question several times. You don't go with the response you get, but rather the average number of times they say the same thing. Roman was adamant that we had to plant broccoli, strawberries, watermelon and pickles (cucumbers). I've been wanting to give potatoes a try and of course we have to plant tomatoes, so that only left a few spaces left in the garden for whatever random plants I came upon.

When all was said and done, this is what ended up in our garden this year.
- potatoes, and a lot of them      - carrots
- tomatoes                                  - broccoli
- cucumbers                               - brussel sprouts
- zucchini                                   - watermelon
- jalapeno peppers                     - strawberries
- chives (because even the zombie apocalypse won't kill these plants)

As you can guess I don't stand my garden from seed. Quite frankly I just don't have the patience, so I prefer to pay a little more and get the actual plant. The only thing I had to buy seeds for was the carrots (obviously) and watermelon. I've tried growing watermelon in the past and didn't have much luck, so hopefully these seeds fair better. We also have some raspberries popping up through the fence. There is a bush in the alley along our yard but I guess the sun is nicer on our side. We'll leave them for now, but if they get really invasive then they'll have to go.

As I type this post the garden has actually been in for about a month and we have already harvest a bit of food! We actually cut off a couple good size stalks of broccoli, Roman ate the few strawberries we had, and I've given away stacks of chives because it was so big that it was laying on top of the carrots. Obviously different plants are going to be ready at different times, so I think I'll just post a collective "harvest" post at the end of the growing season.

Also, does anyone else feel like their garden looks better right after it's been watered?

**Update: Bronx breached the perimeter and ate all the broccoli. Luckily I found one last broccoli plant in town, so we are starting over. 

Past Posts
Building the Garden
Garden 2015

Coconut Cake with Coconut Frosting

This isn't just any coconut cake. This is John's absolute favorite cake. I used to make this cake every year for John's birthday but haven't for the last few years, on account of being pregnant, having Roman, and being pregnant. June is also a super busy birthday month for our family (John on the 21st, me on the 26th, and my mom on the 29th), so we usually just have one cake for all of us. But this year is different! This year John is on holidays the week of his birthday and Bianca is a champion napper, so that means that I have time to make the coconut cake!

If you like coconut you are going to love this cake! I don't believe is subtle flavour when it comes to cake. If it's supposed to be a coconut cake I want the coconut flavour to smack you in the face and then kick you in the shin! I came across this recipe many moons ago on AllRecipes.com but have tweaked it a bit to make it absolutely perfect. Of course I couldn't just top the cake with my regular buttercream icing, so I whipped up some coconut buttercream, then topped the cake with shaved coconut. There should be no questioning what flavour this cake it!

Coconut Cake with Coconut Frosting
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
5 eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/2t baking powder
1/2 cup coconut milk*
2 cup shredded coconut
1t coconut extract**
Coconut Frosting***

* If you've never used coconut milk before it can be a little confusing. When you open the can it looks like the milk is solid, but if you dump it into a bowl and whisk it up if will become more of a cream texture. To thin it out a bit you can add some water, or to keep the coconut theme going, add some coconut water, which is what I did.
**I used Lorann Professional Kitchen Coconut Bakery Emulsion. This extract isn't as artificial tasting as others I have used, so if you can find this one I highly recommend it.
***For the coconut frosting I used my go to buttercream icing recipe but replaced the vanilla with coconut extract and the milk with some of the coconut milk I mixed up for the cake. I made it fairly soft so it was easy to spread over the cake.
I swear that's the last * for this recipe!!

Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9" round baking pan. I, or should I say Roman, used Wilton's cake release to grease the pan. This stuff is amazing and I've never had a cake stick if I use it.

In a large bowl, or a stand mixer named Martin if you're me, cream together butter and sugar. *TIP - the more creamed the butter and sugar are the smoother your cake will be! Fold in eggs one at a time, allowing each to fully incorporate before adding the next. Add flour, baking powder, coconut extract and 1 cup shredded coconut, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure all the flour is mixed in. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Or if you're power goes out while you're outside, which you don't notice until you come back in an hour later, 2 hours!

Let the cake to cool in the pan for a few minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack, and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, slice the cake in half using a bread knife, or one of those fancy cake slicers if you have one and can find it. Line the outside of the cake plate with strips of parchment paper and set half of the cake on top (you'll see why in a minute). Spread a good amount of the frosting on the cake on the cake plate using a offset spatula, and sandwich the other half on top. Don't be cheap with the frosting, nobody likes a cheap froster! Spread the remainder of the frosting all over the cake. Don't worry about being too perfect with it because once it's covered with shredded coconut you won't be able to see your mistakes. You can press or throw the shredded coconut onto the side of the cake, whichever you prefer, and then sprinkle some on top. You're almost done!

Gently, very gently, slide the pieces of parchment out from under the cake to reveal a perfectly clean cake plate. Best magic trick ever and you look like a frosting wizard!

I made this cake a day early, so I had to wrap the cake in plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge. I was a little concerned that the frosting was going to stick to the plastic, but it didn't and all is well in the world. John, Roman and I all enjoyed the cake today and it was delicious. It's super rich so this cake will feed a ton of people because you really can't eat too much in one sitting. And that's saying something coming from the girl who used to eat pie filling from the can!

Greek Chicken & Lemon Rice

Holy chicken recipes Batman! I didn't realize how many of our favorites these days are chicken. But I guess that's what happens when you don't want to fight with a threenager about eating his supper. Why can't we go back to the days when Roman would devour anything I put in front of him. On an unrelated topic, the legend of the threenager is not a legend, it's truth! I know! I've seen it!

Roman liked this dish, but John LOVED it. He says it tastes just like Greek take-out! I love finding recipes that replace take-out and can be frozen. It gets rid of all the excuses for picking up food or having it delivered. Unless of course you forget to take it out in the morning and it's still frozen solid one hour before supper time. Not that I would know anything about that happening....

 

Greek Chicken & Lemon Rice
5-7 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1-2 lemons, zested and juiced
1T oregano
4 garlic cloves, minced

Rice
1/2T olive oil, separated
1 small onion, diced
1 cup long grain rice
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup water
1T oregano
1t salt
pepper

Combine chicken, lemon zest & juice, oregano and garlic in a freezer bag. Place in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight.

Heat 1/2T oil in a pan over medium high heat. Cook chicken, reserving marinade, until golden brown on both sides and set aside. Add onion to the pan and cook until translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients and reserved marinade. Let the liquid simmer for 30 seconds. Divide the mixture between two 8x8 pans, top with chicken thighs and cover with foil. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes covered and 10 minutes uncovered.

To Freeze: Bake as directed and allow to cool completely. Cover with foil and freeze.
To Serve: Defrost and reheat in the oven or microwave. If reheating in the microwave, be sure to scoop it onto a microwave safe dish first! No sparky sparky!

Originally posted on Recipe Tin Eats.

Organization: Dressers

I love that Roman can get himself ready for the most part in the morning, but something choosing his clothes takes forever. He has to dig through all the shirts to find the exact one he's looking for, only to change his mind and try to find another one. Folding shirts every day gets old really fast.

I knew there had to be an easier way to deal with his dresser drawers but I didn't know where to start. I was watching the Clean My Space YouTube channel when I came across a video about folding t-shirts so you can see the design on the front. Ah ha!!! Exactly what I needed to know! This video has forever changed how I organize Roman and Bianca's dressers. I'm sure I'll eventually apply this system to my drawers as well, I just haven't gotten that far.

The key to this whole system is the folding of the shirts. The kids' clothes are still small enough that I can easily fold them on my favorite folding book, but once they get a little bigger, or if I actually get to my clothes, then I'll buy myself a folding board. Not only does folding the shirts this way look nice but they actually take up a lot less space than stacking them on top of each other.

I try to organize Roman's shirts the best I can by putting all the same type of shirt (short sleeve, sleeveless, collared) in the same column. If you don't have enough of the same type of shirt to make an entire column you could use drawer dividers to separate them, or use a square of heavy cardboard to separate them. Don't like the look of cardboard? Try wrapping it in fabric so it doesn't look like cardboard!

Roman has more pairs of pjs than anyone I have ever known. So to keep them organized I put all the tops in one column and all the bottoms in another column, with the corresponding pieces beside each other. This might just be my OCD kicking in, but I can't stand when Roman's pjs don't match. Which doesn't make any sense at all because nobody actually sees him in them anyway. But in my world you can't have a Ninja Turtle top with monster truck bottoms, you just can't!

I take the same approach with Roman's pants and shorts. His pants are folded in thirds so they stand up as well. I organize them into jeans, sweatpants, and other casual pants. Because he doesn't have a ton of shorts they all just hang out together in a separate drawer, along with his swim clothes.

So that's how I organize the clothes for the littles. I find folding the clothes this way takes a little more time on laundry day, but it saves a ton of time when I'm trying to get everyone dressed and out the door. Hopefully you found this helpful and you don't just think I'm a crazy lady who has too much time on her hands.

Peanut Butter & Banana Baked Oatmeal

Pinterest for the win! For me, trying recipes I see on Pinterest is always a game of Russian roulette. Sure the pictures look amazing, the comments say it's "super easy & delicious" but you never really know what you're getting yourself into. I mean, there is a reason #pinterestfail exists right? But I find that when you can find a good recipe on Pinterest, it's usually amazing, which kinda makes up for having to eat all the fails.

I could literally live on this oatmeal. Breakfast, Lunch, Supper, snacks, middle of the night craving, just because; whatever the occasion, this oatmeal is the food answer. If I was going to die tomorrow, this very well may be my last meal. It's THAT GOOD! Even if your kids don't like oatmeal I bet you can get them to eat this. If you don't believe me, try it!!!

PB & Banana Baked Oatmeal (Serves 8 or 1 Kendra)
3 cups quick oats
1/2 cup flaxseed
2t baking powder
1/2 cup honey
1 cup milk
2T melted butter
1/2 cup peanut butter, melted
2 eggs
2t vanilla
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 chopped walnuts

Mix oats, flaxseed and baking powder together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine, honey, milk, butter, peanut butter, eggs, vanilla and bananas. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and add chocolate chips and walnuts and mix until well combined. Divide mixture between two 8x8 pans and bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.

To Freeze: Bake as directed and allow to cool completely. Cover with foil and freeze.
To Serve: Defrost and reheat in the oven or microwave. Be sure to remove from the tin pans if using the microwave. No sparky sparky!

 

If you happen to forget to add the milk to the oats before you bake it, don't panic! I may have done this very thing and it can be saved! If you add a bit of milk to the oats after you reheat it, it will soften right up and be just as delicious!