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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Spongebob for my nephew

My nephew's birthday was June 29th, but all my baking supplies were in storage so I couldn't do his cake. He told us that his birthday was going to continue until he got his cake. This cake was a little less than a month late, but better late than never.

The flavor he wanted was the same as last year, banana strawberry, and I wanted to try a different recipe so I used Dorie Greenspan's Lots of Ways Banana Cake. I boiled some strawberry jam with a little water and spooned it over the cake. The icing was strawberry flavored, so he was able to have both flavors.

My girlfriend ate the scraps and said the cake was good, hopefully my nephew did too.

Happy 5th Quantay!



Saturday, July 17, 2010

The garden

My parents are from Alabama and have grown up around gardens, on a much larger scale I might say, so it comes as no surprise when my father started a garden. This year, the garden included some items I started at home from seeds. As you can tell I am excited since I have never done anything like that.

I always thought that you needed a yard to grow anything since that's all I saw growing up. Wrong! There is this wonderful book called Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail of www.yougrowgirl.com that shows how to grow fruits, vegetables, plants..... in small spaces. After hearing about this book I knew that I could do this. My mother said, "I didn't know you had a green thumb." Read on!

Before all this, though, the story goes back a little further. Back in middle school...the 80's...I, for some odd reason, decided that my science project was going to involve acetaminophen and a pothos. I wanted to know the affect Tylenol would have on the plant so of course one plant was fed the drug along with water and the other was just plain water.

I am in my 30's and my parents still have those plants and they are growing, growing, growing. Needless to say, I had to remind my mother of these plants and the crazy idea I had for a science project.

Most of the photos are from my father's crop and one is of my tomato plants, while the sage is my nephew's. It feels good to grow your own food without all the "extras" the grocery stores have.

Oh, yeah, I am already planning more for next year since I know it can be done.

OKRA AND CUKE
THE GARDEN
CORN STALK

SUMMER SQUASH
CANTELOPE

MY FATHER'S TOMATO
BELL PEPPER
MY TOMATO PLANT
MY NEPHEW'S SAGE

OKRA FLOWER