Roswell Adventures

After a glorious 4 weeks on the road, we returned last night. We were most excited about seeing our garden. We had our wonderful friend water for us while we were gone, and in spite of 100+ temperatures and us not being here to baby the little darlings, the garden looks great! Sure, there were a few losses, but that happens even when we're home. So, here's what we came home to...   Our pots of flowers and some of our tomatoes in bales closest to our porch. The main tomato garden in our side-front yard. We planted marigolds in the sides and some basil in between, but those aren't doing as well.  Our first harvest! They tasted great sauteed up with onions and garlic :) That's one of our sweet potato vines on the bottom. Tomatoes in bales and squash planted in a straw heap...something new we tried this year. The coffee canisters are there because our first squash were taken our by rampant pill bugs. We replaced them with these "collars."...

If you are looking for a tasty, low-calorie dish, this is wonderful! You can leave off the cheese for a lower-calorie option, but I enjoyed the extra flavor. It starts with small tomatoes tossed with olive oil and sprinkled with Herbs de Provence (or herbs of your choice)  Then you add the fish, brush it with olive oil and sprinkle it with more herbs. Yup - it's that tough to make ;) Use a white fish of your choice. The corvina we tried first was actually a white sea bass, but "corvina" is a name that can refer to a variety of fish. Corvina Baked with Tomatoes and Cheese Serves 2 2 cups Cherub (or similar small tomatoes) olive oil 1/4 tsp herbs de provence 8 oz Corvina, swai, tilapia, or other white fish 2 pieces part-skim mozzarella string cheese (optional) Place tomatoes in toaster-oven-size baking dish. Add about 1 tsp olive oil and stir in. Sprinkle with about 1/8 tsp crushed herbs de province. Bake at 400 degrees about 10 minutes...

I spent years wondering "What is the big deal about pesto?" I had tried some recipes using store-bought pesto, and my impression was "meh." The one day a couple of years back, I picked up my basket from Bountiful Baskets and discovered several large fennel bulbs. Not only had I never cooked fennel before, but I couldn't see just tossing those lovely fronds into the compost heap. So, I tracked down some recipes and made fennel frond pesto. Good-bye "meh", hello "YUM!" Since that first experiment, I have made pesto out of leek leaves (you have to par boil them first - more work, didn't like the flavor as much), kale (another huge YUM ), and eventually even basil (took me a while to get around to that because we kept using all of our basil making caprese salads with our fresh tomatoes). When I recently ended up with a ton of cilantro in my Basket, I decided to make - you guessed it - cilantro pesto. I used this recipe but added garlic (...

Sure, I've heard of guavas before, but prior to picking up my Bountiful Basket yesterday, I had no idea what one looked like. Thank goodness one had a sticker on it! Yup - unlike most I saw online, our guavas were white fleshed. No problemo. It took a bit of internet research to figure out what to do with it. I tried eating it raw - just slice and chow down. The flavor was good...the seeds that stick in and in-between our teeth were not. Further searching on Pinterest led me to some guava margarita recipes. So, I looked around a bit then decided to go for it. I started out by using this resource to guide me in making my guava nectar: http://www.instructables.com/id/Guava-Juice/ From there, we decided to wing it, and here is what we came up with: Guava Margarita 2 shots guava nectar 2 shots tequila 1 shot orange curacao 2 shots margarita mix Add the ingredients to a tall glass. Mix well, and add ice. No, I don't have any pictures of the completed product...we...

Several months back I found a Swiss chard recipe I fell in love with. When I tried to find it yesterday so I could pass it along to a friend - plus make some for us - I found the link no longer worked. Since both Chuck and I truly loved that recipe, I set out to recreate it, with some special tweaks. It's easy and fairly quick - and it is delicious!  And it doesn't look half-bad, either :)    Start by rinsing your chard and shaking off as much water as you can. Next, trim the very bottom of the stems before chopping the stems crosswise into about 1/3-inch sections...you don't have to be horribly concerned about this measurement.  Next slice most of the stem out of the leaves and chop like the rest.   Cut the leaves into strips about 1/2-inch wide.   Slice onion, then add it and the stems to a large, heavy pot with heated olive oil. Cook until soft. Stir in garlic.  Add in the chard leaves and cook until almo...

This is a blend of a few different recipes we enjoy. We love lentil tacos (great for Meatless Mondays) and we have really started enjoying spaghetti squash prepared in a variety of ways. As long as you recognize the word "spaghetti" refers to how it looks and "Squash" refers to the taste, you should be fine :) And to be honest, with all the flavor you have going on with the lentils here, the rather mild taste fo squash is overwhelmed...but you do get all those good vitamins :) Sorry - no pictures on this one. I just kind of threw it together and didn't think about the blog until even the leftovers were gone. Anyway...here goes! Spicy Lentil Squash Casserole   Ingredients: 1 large or 2 small spaghetti squash  Olive oil 1 cup finely chopped onion 2-4 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup dried lentils, rinsed 2 1/2 cups chicken broth 1 teaspoon dried oregano 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 table...

Here is an update of our pre-garden yard for Spring 2016...   This picture is of the side of a small hill built up as Chuck excavated for our patio. We decided to put two bales on top and try some gardening.  This is one of the reasons I LOVE straw bale gardening. I know it is kinda tough to see, however, if you look closely you will note that the soil in the center of the photo is a bit darker. This was directly under one of the bales. So, as the bale decomposed, it added nutrients and organic matter to the soil. I know it is not a dark, rich brown like what comes out of a compost bed, but this improvement is significant in that over the course of the decades the house has been here, the soil has been severely depleted. Just one season of bale gardening had this effect...and it wasn't even a prolific bale! Bales that keep producing continue to break down and enrich the soil. We won't try gardening in this spot again, as it is west-facing, and between the brick an...