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Quick & Easy: Summer Salad
An easy summer salad with an interesting combination of hearts of
romaine, Vidalia onion, creole tomato, fresh basil, black olive and
feta cheese. Tossed with a flavorful balsamic vinaigrette dressing,
it's perfect alongside grilled steaks and barbecue meats, or topped
with sliced grilled chicken breast for a meal unto itself.
Posted by Doug on Monday, May 07, 2007 @ 18:53:39 CDT (226 reads) (Read More... | 1314 bytes more | 3 comments | Score: 0)
Quick Pickling
It's been so hot this summer, the tomato crop is virtually
non-existent. On the other hand, the cucumbers are coming one after the
other. After trying a few quick pickle recipes-- not interested in
full-blown canning, really-- and not producing anything very
remarkable, I found one that I think works really well.
Posted by Doug on Sunday, September 17, 2006 @ 19:47:11 CDT (286 reads) (Read More... | 3298 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0)
Drip Irrigation
Watering the plants-- you gotta do it, no matter what. No water, no
garden. It would be nice if rainfall was predictable and regular enough
to let nature handle things, but it just ain't always so. Garden
irrigation can be a real pain-- if you water manually, you can't forget
to do it, especially during the heat of summer. You don't want to under
or over-water, and different plants have different requirements in order to do
their best. One solution is to set up a low-volume or "drip" irrigation
system. Using low-pressure tubing and dripper or sprayer heads, you can
tailor your system to serve a variety of plants. Plants that need more
can be supplied by adjustable drippers or spray heads; plants that
need less can be supplied by fixed drippers that supply as little as
one gallon per hour.
Posted by Doug on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 @ 20:58:16 CDT (756 reads) (Read More... | 4219 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0)
Vermi-Composting
Feel bad every time you look in the refrigerator vegetable crisper bins
and find stuff going to rot? There's a gardening bright side to this
dilemma, and it's called vermi-composting.
What's that, you ask? It's actually nothing more than a fancy term for
composting using worms. It's easy, and is probably one of the best
things you can do for almost all your plants.
Posted by Doug on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 @ 19:25:52 CDT (371 reads) (Read More... | 6896 bytes more | comments? | Score: 5)
Raised Bed Garden
Not abandoning hydroponics by any means, I decided to try to go organic
this season with a raised bed. I built mine 2 ft. by 12 ft. to go along
the edge of a patio.
Construction, after a bit of design brainstorming, was fairly
straightforward, and I was filling it up with soil in about an hour and
a half.
Posted by Doug on Sunday, April 16, 2006 @ 23:40:12 CDT (431 reads) (Read More... | 1759 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0)
Let's Build A Light Stand
Since my fall growing season pretty much got blown out of the water by
recent catastrophic weather events, I decided to look ahead towards
spring and start making preparations to be ahead of the game for once.
To that end, I took the high intensity compact fluorescent light
fixture I bought (last year) and constructed a stand for it. Now it can
be put to use starting all my spring seedlings. A quick trip to the
Home Improvement Center was all it took...
Posted by Doug on Sunday, December 04, 2005 @ 19:50:05 CST (562 reads) (Read More... | 5775 bytes more | comments? | Score: 5)
Quick & Easy: Ground Beef & Cabbage Casserole
Another one pot, under-an-hour recipe-- low carb, yet filling. Prepare as directed, or spice it up at your discretion.
Posted by Doug on Thursday, August 25, 2005 @ 12:51:40 CDT (1322 reads) (Read More... | 895 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0)
Making A Composter
If you do a lot of gardening, you know how valuable compost can be
towards enriching the soil and improving plants. Rich in organic
material, compost acts as a soil conditioner and nutrient source, and
also contains beneficial microbes that assist in making those nutrients
more readily available to your plants.
Commercially-available compost making units seemed rather costly to
me, so I decided to build a one out of an old trash can. Holes had been
worn in the bottom of the can over nearly two decades of use, but I
figured it could continue to be of service in a different way.
All the necessary materials: One old 32-gallon RubberMaid trash
can with lid, and a length of 4" diameter corrugated, perforated
plastic drainage pipe (available from most home improvement centers).
Posted by Doug on Saturday, July 23, 2005 @ 19:22:00 CDT (634 reads) (Read More... | 3486 bytes more | 1 comment | Score: 0)
Quick & Easy: Southwest Chicken Pasta Salad
This is a flavorful rotini pasta salad with grilled chicken, toasted almonds, red bell pepper, black olives and green onions, all in a chipotle mayonnaise dressing. Prepared in as little as twenty minutes.
Posted by Doug on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 @ 20:59:49 CDT (735 reads) (Read More... | 2522 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0)
5-Gallon Bucket Tomato Planters Revisited
Now that all danger of frost has passed-- 5 weeks ago in fact-- it's time to plant some tomatoes. The bucket containers from last year got a thorough cleaning and disinfecting and are ready to go...
Posted by Doug on Sunday, May 22, 2005 @ 18:31:16 CDT (1909 reads) (Read More... | 1882 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0)
Quick & Easy: Turkey & Eggplant Casserole
This is a great comfort food dish that can be prepared and ready to serve in under an hour, in one pot on the stovetop. It's naturally low carb and low fat, too. There's a bit of spicyness from the Rotel tomatoes, diced chiles, onion and garlic, but it's all nicely balanced and in no way overwhelming.
Posted by Doug on Monday, May 09, 2005 @ 14:00:25 CDT (592 reads) (Read More... | 1497 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0)
Quick & Easy: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad for Two
Cooking for two isn't always easy-- you end up with the same big mess
in the kitchen, and leftovers you have to figure out what to do with
later. Here's a great Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, with a freshly-made
dressing that you can whip up in minutes with ingredients you're likely
to have on hand.
Posted by Doug on Sunday, May 08, 2005 @ 16:40:58 CDT (876 reads) (Read More... | 2306 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0)
ABTs
ABT = Atomic Buffalo Turds. Once you get past the name-- I didn't make this one up-- a great appetizer you can make in your Bullet or other smoker. Made with fresh jalapeno peppers, cream cheese and leftover BBQ meat. Although typically made using pulled pork, I did an ABT variation Christmas day using leftover pastrami instead.
Posted by Doug on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 @ 21:41:30 CST (664 reads) (Read More... | 797 bytes more | 2 comments | Score: 0)
Smoked Mushroom Dip
We used to pay through the nose at a local high-end grocery for a smoked mushroom dip like this one. It's darn tasty, and I knew I could duplicate it. Already having a smoker helps.
Posted by Doug on Friday, October 15, 2004 @ 16:24:48 CDT (654 reads) (Read More... | 1324 bytes more | comments? | Score: 5)
Eric Clapton 2004 Tour
I guess it's a testament to an artist's being long past the drinkin'-n'-druggin', party-all-night phase of their career when a show goes off like a well-oiled machine headed down the highway. On the way to the venue, I should have taken the advice of the local classic rock station's "on-air personality" with a grain of salt. She advised that, at 6:45pm, the doors were open for the 7:30pm showtime, and to expect the opening act to take the stage at 8:00pm followed by the headliner at 9:00. She must have been working from empirical evidence gathered from decades of concert-going, assuming that all such shows start fashionably late. Such was not to be the case.
Posted by Doug on Thursday, June 17, 2004 @ 20:53:25 CDT (728 reads) (Read More... | 3752 bytes more | 1 comment | Score: 0)
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