Cornbread Patties

Larry made a soup today and I decided it really needed cornbread. There are various ways to make cornbread and we pretty much like all of them. Today I decided to chop up three cayenne peppers, and an onion to add to the mix. I put them on the griddle like pancakes. They were excellent. I didn't really expect Larry to like them as he doesn't like hot peppers nearly as much as I do, but he raved over them. I can't have cornbread very often because it isn't low-carb, but once in a while is fine:)

Apples and Soup

I had all this stuff I'd picked. Then I picked a basket of tomatoes this morning.

So I made a vegetable beef soup with lots of tomatoes and peppers, the left over white beans in the refrigerator, an onion, some ground chuck, and some elbow macaroni noodles.

Then I peeled and sliced most of the apples and sauteed them in butter with artificial sweetener and cinnamon.

It all turned out pretty good. 

Fall Stuff

Several kinds of peppers, apples, and tomatoes were ready to be picked today. Larry had a doctor's appointment in Memphis. I decided to be helpful and pick stuff so he wouldn't have to come home and do it. He won't get home too late to do it, but I'm pretty sure he'll be happy enough not to.

Tomatoes Are Pretty

This was a volunteer. I didn't plant any cherry tomatoes this year.

Fall Vegetables...and Tomatoes

Bell peppers, banana peppers, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, okra, and eggplants are still happening at our house.  I think the colors are pretty.

Iris Reblooming

Last fall we had an apricot colored iris to rebloom.  This year we have two white ones reblooming so far.

Gourd in Mimosa

I have gourd vines on a fence.  One of the vines outgrew the fairly tall fence and latched onto a low-hanging limb of the mimosa tree.

Grapes and Apples

 These will be purple when they are ripe.  I'm thinking about trying to figure out how to make wine.

This is an Arkansas Black apple.

Lavender Cuttings

I trimmed back a lavender bush that was taking over three other plants and trying to spread into the yard, too.  I used the greenery as cuttings to try to start more plants.  Only eight of them look good, two more may make it.

I started to think about where to put ten plants that grow big.  I was trying to tell Larry about it when he said he thought they would be nice between his cypress trees.  He has at least 100 in various stages.  About forty of them are one year old with weeds taller than they are.  The ones he put out last year are taller, and the ones from three years ago are even taller.  So his idea of putting them between cypress trees means I need to start a lot more cuttings.

I liked that he said cutting the grass in that area would be really nice with the lavender releasing its fragrance as the lawn mower brushed by.

Larry Made a Pie

Larry has made cobblers before but this was his first pie.  He decided he would use Splenda instead of sugar.  He put less than it called for and also added lemon juice.  It didn't call for it, but he thought it would be good.  One might think adding more Splenda when adding lemon juice would be a good idea.  But although it was tart, neither of us left any.  He used blueberries from our bushes.

Red, White, Silver Plants

 The first time I became aware of allysum, I was walking on a sidewalk in a residential area in Germany.  I suddenly smelled a wonderful honey fragrance.  I stopped and looked over the little fence to see mounds of the snowy flowers. I bought a couple of seed packets and sprinkled them on the cobblestones of our patio.  I thought they would be delightful growing among the bricks and would smell fantastic.  Our energetic cleaning lady brought a power sprayer to wash the little flowers away.  She didn't realize they were flowers.

Since we've moved to Tennessee, I've tried growing them in the flower beds but couldn't get them to live.  I think they wanted more water.  This year I decided that putting them in my flower boxes would make it easy to give them enough water, plus the fragrance would be right where I sit when I'm on that porch...which is a lot of the time since my husband complains when I walk on the front porch as it scares the hummingbirds.

The dichondra trailing from the basket I first noticed at Bellingrath Gardens.  It took a while to find it as I had seen it but didn't know what it was.  I usually have a little notebook I carry around with me, but there was no marker on the basket.

The angelwing begonias I got from Mama.  She had a wonderful plant and generously allowed me to take cuttings.

Black-eyed Susan Vine

Last year I had yellow black-eyed Susan vines.  A friend gave them to me.  They did all right, but I didn't like the red of the angel-wing begonias with the bright yellow of the vines.  I liked it that they trailed down, but the colors weren't wonderful.

This year I ordered white and pink or red ones (don't remember which).  This is the first bloom.  I hope they seed as readily as the yellow ones.

Scuppernongs

This is one of the scuppernongs that Larry rooted a couple of years ago.  They are already producing fruit.  I've been looking at wine-making kits.

Food Today

I added strawberries to my oatmeal this morning.  I don't eat oatmeal very often because it isn't exactly low-carb, but I'm just so convinced it is healthy that when I'm not trying to lose weight (that would be low-carb, maintenance stage), I have it sometimes.  The strawberries I picked from my tire garden were wonderful.
Then I made a slaw from a cabbage and bell pepper that Larry picked from the garden.  We also have squash that he grew and turnip greens from the freezer that he grew and we put up.  I like it that we grow some of what we eat.
I made a chicken salad that was soupier than I thought it should be but it was very tasty.  I finally decided that it was because I had so many bell peppers that the liquid had come from the peppers.  If I had gotten too much mayonnaise in it, the extra liquid would have been cloudier. 

Visiting Friend

 I'm very excited to have a friend visiting me.  We worked, played, exercised, shopped, and sometimes cooked together in Germany.

 Since she was here, I wanted her to share her knowledge of puff pastry with me because I hadn't used it before. She was willing to brainstorm how to make a dessert with it.  I wanted to use the fruit from our yard to make a filling.  The two white things that look like marshmallows are two figs peeled.  I made a thin glaze using a low-carb sweetener, some water, and Splenda.

We put the fruit in the little pastry shells and enjoyed them.

How Do You Know?

I neighbor's kid (early 20's) came over and said he'd noticed we have apple trees.  He said they have apple trees, too, but don't have a clue when to pick them.  I said to notice when they look good to him, pull one, eat it.  If he likes them like that, pull more.  Different apple trees have apples that ripen at different times so it is hard to tell somebody else when their trees will have ripe apples.

Bowl of Fruit

I made a bowl of mixed fruit containing blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries...all from our yard:)  Next year hopefully we'll get more strawberries and blackberries from our plants.  The blueberry bushes are several years old and make a lot.  The strawberries and blackberries are first year, so we aren't getting much, but the plants look healthy.

July 2013 Color in Tennessee

 This is bee balm with a butterfly.  When I went to the nursery, I asked for perennial plants that bees and butterflies would like.

This mimosa tree looks hazy, but it's because it was raining when Larry took the picture.  Mimosa trees grow wild, but Larry found this one in our woods and transplanted it.  It is bracketed on each side with crepe myrtles.  The color is a little darker pink than the mimosa.

We also have blooming at this time roses, day lilies, clematis, and the monkey grass is beginning to bloom.  The lavender plants are blooming, too.

Pear Tree Problem

We planted a Comice pear tree and a Bartlet so we would have cross pollination. It is their third year and we were happy to see blooms and tiny pears.  But then we started noticing some of the leaves turning black.
I looked up "fire blight" and found the best way to control it is to prune the branches off that show it.  Well, our lovely, well shaped pear trees look really sad now.  I'm not sure we'll be able to get any pears off of them...ever.

Not Cereal for Breakfast

I like cereal with blueberries for breakfast...especially when we have fresh blueberries.  So this morning I thought a couple of sausage patties and a measured amount of cereal and blueberries would be good.  Well, it would have been.
But I am out of cereal.  So I had two sausage patties and a bowl of blueberries with Splenda and cream.  It was very nice even without the cereal:)