Sun series beginning

I've started sketching some ideas for a new sun series that I plan to paint. I like the way this sun's face turned out. I always find myself doodling suns, moons and stars on things while I wait. Just out of curiosity, how many of you like suns and would want suns or other celestial type subjects in your home for artwork? My mom got me into them and I've always loved them. She had them around her house and I treasure the ones I have from her home.

I made fish and veggies for dinner tonight and just look how pretty they came out. If you are trying to lose weight, this is such a low calorie meal that fills up your belly. Came together super quick, too. Here's what I got in there...  

About a cup and a half of zuchinni, tomatoes, onions, peppers that I sauteed up in a teaspoon of olive oil with a fair sprinkling of Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy. Scrape all that on the plate. Using the same pan, I added a little non stick spray and then added 8 oz Tilapia (frozen, thawed) and a little more seasoning. Cook till it flakes with fork easily, just a few minutes turing once. That's it. Quick, yummy and uses up your garden veggies. You could add any veggie you like. I thought about mushrooms after the fact. Oh well, next time.

The total calories for this entire plate, which really could serve 2, is only 288. I ate almost all of it because I thought I was really hungry, but I couldn't eat it all.

I've lost 20 pounds since the first of May. I've been using My Fitness Pal which is a free program for your computer and/or your phone. It has made it so much easier. If you've got any weight to lose, I highly recommend it.

Dehydrating Tomatoes!

It all starts with a whole lot of cherry tomatoes and not enough people in the house to eat them :)  In all honesty, I'm the only one who eats them : /

Washed, dried and sliced in half, they get arranged on a borrowed dehydrator. (Thanks Amelia!)

Layer after layer...

5 layers in all

In to the dry sauna they all go!

So here's what they look like and there is still 4 hours left to dehydrate! 22 hours in all! I don't know if a bigger dehydrator would be quicker or not but if I like these, I'll need to investigate that. I had a recommendation from a friend of an Excalibur brand with like 9 trays.

9 trays would have been better because this is what was leftover. Apparently I need a bigger dehydrator considering this is just one picking from three different plants. Hmmm... we'll see. It takes a horribly long time and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all. I got this idea from a friend who is a crafting, baking and writing guru named Lynda Heines over at Bloom Bake & Create. Lynda's got all kinds of creative ideas to check out.


If anyone has experience with dehydrating, I'd love to hear any tips or suggestions you have.


Enjoy your Friday!

Is your grass greener?

Do you ever think about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence? I do sometimes. It always cracks me up to see horses and cows stretching and creenin' their neck to eat a little something greener on the other side of the fence.

So my greener side of the fence is this: Since I'm almost in the throws of peek tomato season. They are just waiting to turn red (and yellow and mixed)! *squeals* and I am already eating them as they come in. I was wondering when tomato season was down south. I'm thinking they've got this yummy goodness all year round, right? While we hafta eat hard tasteless impostors from October through July. Up here in Zone 6b, it's a mad rush to get them in the ground about the last of April, pray for good rain but not too much and pray again to get maters by July 4th which I did this year - yay!  By September they are slowing down and kinda get a wonky taste by October if a early frost doesn't get em first.

Mom used to pick all her green ones before a frost and put 'em in brown paper bags and we'd have tomatoes till almost Christmas if we rationed them. To her and I a feast during the summer was cornbread, fried potatoes, doctored up pork n beans and a big plate full of garden fresh tomatoes. Oh man, that is making my mouth water just thinking about it. Heaven!

Off to go paint something in my Sistah hood books :)

Beans and corn and corn and corn and beans

Sweet Corn - temperatures so hot the camera kept fogging up - but how cute is my little helper?!

So the garden has come in and in a big way. Every year about this time, gardening... vegetable gardening that is, becomes hard work and makes me want to give up quit and just buy grocery store food. Between the mosquitoes that think I'm a free all-you-can-eat smorgasbord for them and my sensitive skin blistering up from just rubbing against the leaves and weeds it's been a trying season.

Especially like the last couple days. I've picked beans, snapped beans, canned beans and they never end. Hours and hours of beans. Yesterday in the sweltering 98 degrees (F) with heat indexs of about 105+ we picked corn, cut down the corn, schucked the corn blanched the corn and wrapped each cob in Saran wrap and then froze the corn.

Today... still more corn to schuck, blanch and this time cut the corn with this blood thirsty little machine that sliced me up good all to get the kernels off and then freeze for creamed corn (but don't freeze the bloody corn). Now the dang beans need to be picked again. I feel like Jack and the Beanstalk, only it's the beans that just keep coming and coming. Oh and guess what I'm doing Thursday (today technically after I go to bed and wake up)... you guessed it, more corn. Plus, the tomatoes are just coming in too so that means salsa and canning tomatoes and maybe some sauce. Wow, no wonder I've got no time for creating any new art!

Yeah, yeah I can hear you all now saying Dang... she's crazy! Well, yes. Yes I am. I've turned into Psycho Suzie Homemaker haha... living off the land but bitchin' about it the whole time. But come December when I'm cracking open those jars of home grown green beans and heating up that sweet corn that tastes like I just picked it I'll be feeling pretty good about myself... haha.  Not to mention munching tortilla chips with my to die for Dee-licious Salsa! Yummy! see it here cooking

Jaime's Dee-Licious Salsa
Makes 8 pints + a half pint to eat right then! ;oP


Ingredients:
9 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained (I don't bother seeding, but you can)
2 1/2 cups onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups green peppers
1 cup jalapeno pepper, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vinegar ( I like apple cider vinegar)
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste

Mix all together and bring to a slow boil for 10 minutes. I can it and I've also froze it in jelly jars with great results. It smells divine and you'll have to beat off the people with a big stick to get them to leave you alone trying to get you to make more. But believe me, you'll wanna make more.

I'm a busy bee!

I have been MIA for a while now. I'm sorry I haven't really given any kind of explanation. I show up for Paint Party Friday and that's nearly it.

Life has been a whirlwind. A gardening whirlwind! I've been trying to sell my heirloom tomato plants and get my veggie garden planted along with picking out gorgeous new plants for my flower gardens. I always go overboard on the flowers. It's my weakness and I can hardly say no. So I thought I'd share some of my garden with you.

part of my veggie garden - just starting out

other part of veggie garden - corn and beans just peeking their heads out of the soil to the left

Now these pics aren't from the new flowers I've bought, I'll post pictures for those as soon as I finish planting. I take my time, carefully deciding where each little beauty will take its place in my beloved gardens. I set the plant in pot in gardens and step back to see if I like the color and texture combinations. It takes me forever, but I so enjoy it.

The Swing Garden

The above picture is my Swing Garden. I love the roses on here. My favorite being the climber on the left. It was a start from my mother. The only one I've been able to keep alive of all the rose starts she gave me. She could put a stick in the ground and I swear it would grow. She always called this Seven Sisters.

Siberian Iris

just a pretty red rose - I don't recall the name

a vigorous phox - I keep spreading it around cause it just keeps spreading!

peony

I have big plans for the Farmer's Markets around here but I am dreadfully behind on everything. I want to get back to painting my painted pots that I like to do and wanted to sell them with herbs and plants in them this year.

Oh, I wanted to show you also my finished graduation card that I made. Some may know it didn't quite get the warm reception from the recipient that I hoped for, but hey she's 18 and it didn't have any cash in it... haha   But it does make me feel good that as soon as I listed it on my Etsy shop, it sold! woohoo!

I have a mystery plant that I would love for anyone to help me identify. I went to pick them out and thought better of it. It just looks like it should be a flower. But I have no idea what it would be. I don't have anything that looks like this that I have found. It may be a bunch of weeds, who knows.

? Do you know what this is?

 Thanks for taking the garden walk with me :)  Oh, also my son had his last day of Pre-School! More pics are on my Facebook.

Asher and his little crush ~ her name is Piper... how cute are they?!

Speaking of Facebook, I finally made myself a page for my heirloom tomato plants. If you want, look me up... it's called Jaime's Heirloom Tomato Plants. Till next time...

Watermelon Wednesday

Fresh from the garden watermelon here! Get yer watermelon here!

Yummmmmm...

Doesn't this look refreshing and yummy?! That's because it is! Ha ha... sorry to rub it in. I just cut up this watermelon today for dinner. (dinner is lunch for those who aren't country, and supper is what you eat at night) It is soooo tasty and refreshing on this hot, hot day. It is only 97 degrees out there but the heat index is 108 and there is an excessive heat warning for our area. So today we are inside til this evening at least and I don't think it'll cool off much then either. 

Everything is wilted out there... poor flowers. Here's a tip, if your flowers are wilted and you know that you just watered them DON'T water them again. It's the plant's vascular system's fault. Basically the plant cannot get water circulating up to the leaves fast enough from the moisture evaporating from it's leaves. Hopefully it will bounce back in the cooler hours but if you keep watering chances are you'll drown the plant and make the roots rot. Not good, root rot = dead plant.

I think watermelon is one of those elusive flavors that the food people/scientists cannot recreate correctly. Oh, they've got sweet watermelonly smells but it really doesn't even come close to the real thing. Don't get me wrong I love watermelon gum and enjoy looking silly sucking on a watermelon ring pop, a real blast from my past memory for me that I'll share another time.

Next year's bounty :)

Stay cool and try a watermelon to stay hydrated and refreshed. Go ahead and spit those seeds... how far can you get?

Veggie Garden Mayhem

First, I gotta say I have nearly eaten this whole box of Grippos by myself (in less than a week), not a hard thing to do btw... they are soooo good. Hot and spicy and a little sweetness to them... yummmmmm! My favorite chip. If you have never had them, do yourself a favor and buy a bag or do one better and get a box. I think they are regional to my area, but I'll bet you can order them online from their website which is www.grippos.com I tell ya, summer just ain't the same without BBQ Grippos, homegrown tomatoes and iced tea! Add some fried potatoes with onions and I am in heaven!

Whew! I've been busy lately!! I haven't had time lately to create any art or to blog. I've got lots of ideas, but no time to do them. I'm trying to finish up a Memory Book I'm doing for my high school reunion and that was LAST August in spare time!! I'm only about a year late. the rest of the time I'm too tired to drag my stuff out. My house is in ruins. I've got a "studio" upstairs, but it is packed with stuff and all my sewing stuff is out. Someday, I'll have it to where I can go up there and do something and leave it there if I need to and not worry about Asher stealing it or something getting put on it. My kitchen bar has all kinds of canning stuff on it along with tons of tomatoes from the garden, some art supplies, mail, crap, etc. and I have to cook on it too! It's all I can do to keep up. Holy Cow! Canning and having a veggie garden is a lot of work. We've been picking green beans 2 or 3 times a week. All from just 2 little 20 foot rows of beans! I've bought countless jars and spent countless hours snapping beans and canning! and freezing tomatoes and corn and zucchini! oyi! I get tired just typing about it! I haven't even had time to make salsa yet! My jalapeno's are going rot on the plant if I don't pick them soon! My bell peppers haven't come in yet. Dag gone Blight is taking over my toms, hope they keep going.