My initial thought was to have elevated boxes or containers and I started looking around online but couldn’t find what I was looking for.  The few things I did find for container gardening were ridiculously expensive.  So, I decided to ask my brother for some help and fortunate for me he said yes!  I came up with some very basic plans and sent them over to him and he took my idea and then added some insight and this is what he made:

Didn’t he do awesome?! Each box is about 4 feet long and 18″ wide.  Which gives me a lot of room to work with.  I had to move the boxes around a bit because the bottom box doesn’t get a ton of sun due to the shadow of the top box.  Originally I had planned to position it so that it was parallel to the fence but the then I realized the bottom box wasn’t going to get much sun at all.  Once I got it in place I went to work filling the containers.  A few days before my brother brought the boxes over I stopped by a nursery and picked from the available vegetable plants.  Since I’m a little late getting started gardening I didn’t want to start with seeds and opted to go with transplants.

I wasn’t going to buy anything that day, I was planning to just ask a few questions but they were starting to run out of the veggies I wanted.  So I decided on two bell pepper plants (I meant to get the same kind but ended up with a “Big Bertha” and a “California Wanderer”), a jalapeno plant and a strawberry plant.  Then I also grabbed a basil, rosemary, cilantro, sage and mint plant.  After I picked out those plants I discovered the citrus trees and decided to grab a Mexican Lime tree.

I had to go in for jury duty the day I bought my first round of plants and because the lime tree was a Mexican Lime Tree, I decided to name it Pedro after the defendant in the case.  And I have to say the lime tree is what I was most excited about.

To fill my containers, I did a layer of rocks, then I did a layer of organic soil, a layer of compost and finally more soil.  The reason I did a layer of rocks was to help with drainage in the containers.  I did all of this at night so I couldn’t really snap any photos.  In the top container I decided to put my peppers because they need a ton of sun, or so I’ve been told.

After filling in the top container with my goodies I set to work on the bottom container and quickly realized I didn’t have enough plants.  I had the strawberry plant, thyme, basil and sage.  I went and picked up another strawberry plant and then went in search of a cucumber bush.

I put my mint in its own container because I hear it really takes over the whole garden.  Lastly I decided to get a tomato plant and went with the Roma Tomato.  Of course whenever I’m out in the garden my little helper likes to be out there with me.

There are a few things I’ve learned right off the bat.  First of all, if you buy Bell Pepper transplants, don’t be alarmed if your plants look droopy.  They will also look this way after being out in the sun; it is a way that the plants conserve water in the hot summer sun.  You’ll notice at night that the leaves will perk back up.  On the strawberry plants, if the leaves look brown, it cold be an indication that there is too much water in the soil.  This can be an issue in container gardening because drainage can be an issue.  I’m hoping that not watering them for a couple of days will help them to dry out.  Unfortunately over watering isn’t something I can help right how.  We had a big rain storm and they got a few hours of rain the other day.

On the plus side, I can already see peppers developing on all 3 pepper plants.  It looks like 4 peppers are forming toward the top of each of the plants.  Pedro is also already sprouting limes, I guess that’s what you’d call it.  And I see quite a few new buds starting to grow.

Because I don’t just want one round of crops, I decided to sow some carrot, turnip and cauliflower seeds.  I’m a little nervous about the seed process but we’ll see how it goes.

For now, here is what my little container garden looks like:

Stay tuned for updates with my container gardening adventures!

I called Stampede 66 earlier in the day to make a reservation and the gentleman that answered the phone was very friendly and made me even more excited about my dinner plans.  When I walked in the door, I was the first one there of my party for two and the hostesses seemed preoccupied and sent me to the bar to wait.  So I decided I’d order a cocktail while I waited.  That didn’t exactly go as planned.  I sat at the bar for an awkwardly long time to not ever have one of the many people behind the bar ask me if I wanted a drink.  My excitement about dinner instantly plummeted to disappointment.

When my friend arrived and we were seated, I decided to pretend my first 10-15 minutes in the restaurant did not happen and start over with a clean slate.  Our waiter was awesome and I decided to started out with a specialty cocktail and went with the Passion-Chile Margarita:

It was so good! I loved the spice of the jalapeno, because of that it was definitely a drink to sip and enjoy so that you avoid burning your throat.

We gave a few appetizers a try, and I was impressed with the creativity of the menu and the choices available.  We couldn’t decide what to get so we opted for:

That is the Chicken Adobo Tamales.  They come two to an order so they were easy to share.  And because how many times doe you see this on the menu we went with:

Yes that is a frito pie!  It was AMAZING! I’m not normally a fan of Frito Pie but this isn’t your average Frito Pie.  The Fritos are made in the restaurant.  The beef was way more lean than any other frito pie I’ve seen and there were jalapenos!  You have got to try this if you head into Stampede 66!

Then it was time for dinner…I went with the Honey-Fried Chicken, Mable’s Buttermilk Biscuits, Mashed Potato Tots

The honey in the batter added a nice sweetness to the chicken and it was delicious.  I had never had anything like the Mashed Potato Tots before and they were really good.  But I think my absolute favorite were the Buttermilk Biscuits, they were amazing!

My friend went with the Chicken-Fried Buffalo Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Gun Barrel Greens, though he swapped out the Greens for an order of Mac and Cheese.

I have to say, the Chicken-Fried Buffalo Steak was amazing.  The unique combinations of flavor worked very well together.  It came with a spicy, I believe chorizo gravy, that I was skeptical about but it absolutely worked!

Whenever I go to dinner with this friend you can’t ever say no to dessert, I don’t think it’s allowed!  I was so full but I decided to give the Cobbler of the day a try.

This particular cobbler was mixed berry and chipotle.  I forgot about there was chipotle in it until I got a little kick of spice.  It was a match made in heaven for this spice lover!

I loved the rustic dishes and serving pieces used for all the various foods on the menu and the decor of the restaurant was unlike anything I’d ever seen before, it was a modern twist to western rustic.  After that delicious meal, I can absolutely forgive the hostesses and bartenders that made my visit to Stampede 66 start out a bit rocky.

I picked up a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio because they were only $3.  As I’ve probably said many times I’m not really a fan of Pinot Grigio but I thought I’d give it a try.  As it turns out I finally found a Pinot Grigio I like, and as luck would have it, I can get it very inexpensively!  I’m not sure if this is something I should be proud of or that I should admit, but I think I am a fan of Charles Shaw’s wines.

I’m sure some winos would turn their nose up at Charles Shaw’s wines, but I like that I can get decent wines without breaking the bank.  You could get a six pack of wine at Trader Joe’s for less than you could get most single bottles of wine.

Have you tried any Trader Joe’s wines?  If so which ones and what did you think?

Because I’d never made Chicken Pot Pie before, I turned to my friend Kandice for a recipe.  With Kandice you know you’re starting out with a good recipe so if it goes wrong then it’s your fault and not the recipe’s.  So I was confident I would enjoy this dish and I was right!

Chicken Pot Pie Filling

3 chicken breasts, cooked cut into cubes or a whole rotisserie chicken
5 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 to 3 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
1  to 2 celery stalks, chopped
1 to 1 1/2 cups carrots, peeled & chopped
sliced mushrooms (optional)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 to 2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup green beans, cut/snapped to 1 inch size
1/2 to 1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg white (to wash the top – optional)

First I have to say, I think these carrots from my Greenling delivery are so cute and squiggly!

First, I put my three chicken breasts on a pan and drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper.  I cooked them for 25 minutes on 350 degrees.  It’s just a really easy way to cook them and they turn out tasting great.  Plus it’s fast and easy.

Next I began to chop the vegetables.  I didn’t necessarily stick to the above measurements but tried to get as close as possible but chopping equal parts of celery, carrots and onions as Kandice suggested.

Once the veggies were chopped I drizzled olive oil in a skillet and added the garlic and let it cook for a few minutes.  Then I added the carrots, onions, celery and butter and let it cook about 15 until the onions were transparent.  Then add the flour and stir continuously for 2 minutes or until the flour is blended with the veggies.

Add the chicken stock and simmer for 2 minutes until it thickens.  Then add the heavy cream and salt and pepper.  If you need to add a little more flour to make the sauce the right consistency, go for it.  It needs to be pretty thick.  Then add the chicken and remaining veggies and mix well so that it looks like this:

Now it’s time to talk about the crust.  I wasn’t going to have enough time to eat it all, so I divided it into four parts and froze three of them.  Because of that I didn’t use Kandice’s crust recipe.  Plus after all the chopping I didn’t really want to make anything else.  So I went the easy route and bought crescent roll dough to put over top.  I was blown away by how good the chicken pot pie was and a little sad I’d never had it before!

Bake the chicken pot pie for about an hour at 375 degrees or until the crust is as golden brown as you’d like.

Since making this I have pulled one serving out of the freezer and it was still good!  Not as good as fresh out of the oven, but definitely not bad!  And that time I used Kandice’s pie crust recipe and it was awesome, but I’m not going to give away this part of her recipe.  You’ll have to keep an eye on her blog for when she posts about it. 

I will definitely be making this quite a bit in the fall and winter!

The Great Gatsby was my favorite book from high school and I couldn’t wait to see the new Baz Luhrmann film which is why I wanted to reread the book.  Even though it is one of my favorite books from high school, I’ve read hundreds of books since then and didn’t remember the details that well.

I absolutely loved the movie and it was better than I could have imagined!  The way Luhrmann brought The Great Gatsby to life was magical.  The lavish parties thrown be Gatsby were breath taking and amazingly over the top.  There were a few minor tweaks to the story line but nothing major.  The actors were expertly cast and truly seemed to embody their characters.  I wasn’t all that excited about Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, but he really did a good job.  The movie is long, at almost 2 and half hours, but the time flew by.  Don’t worry if you haven’t read The Great Gatsby before seeing the movie, you won’t be lost.

Have you seen The Great Gatsby?  What did you think of the movie?  How do you think it compared to the book?

The recipe we found called for a lemon, but since I have a lime tree in my backyard I decided to use lime instead.  I am entirely too excited about my lime tree, I can’t even contain it.  I had jury duty and on my way home I decided to stop by a local nursery and start investigating what I should grow in my garden.  While I was there I asked about lemon trees and then decided I’d rather have a lime tree.  Because the gentleman on trial’s name was Pedro, and this is a Mexican Lime Tree I decided to name the tree Pedro.

My first attempt at making this cocktail at home turned out so-so.  I think a lot of it had to do with the Vodka I was using.  I really thought that I hadn’t met a vodka I didn’t like, but I was not impressed with Dripping Springs Vodka.  I hate to say that being from Texas and all…but this is the second cocktail I’ve had with it that was just disappointing.  So for round two, I stuck with my Texas roots and picked up a bottle of Tito’s Vodka.

Second attempt at the cocktail and I think I nailed it!  I’ve decided to call this the Strawberry Lime Garden Cocktail.

Strawberry Lime Garden Cocktail

2 strawberries
1 lime
2 mint leaves
2 basil leaves
1 1/2 ounces of Vodka
1 packet of Truvia
ice
tonic water

Because my lime tree isn’t producing limes yet and my strawberry plant isn’t out of the nursery container, I had to use the store-bought variety.  But now I’ll be ready when my garden is.  There are a few steps involved but I think that it is worth it because the drink is nice and refreshing.  Though it does make me want to invest in a muddler.  I think the drink would be prettier if I had one.

Technically you should probably use a muddler, and since I don’t own one…I got a little creative.  First I cut up the strawberries and tore the mint and basil leaves into smaller pieces and put them all in the small cup that fits on my “bullet” (it’s really an off brand).  Then I quartered my lime and squeezed one into the cup and added the packet of Truvia.  I let the blender smash it up for me and then I poured the mixture over ice in my shaker.  I added the rest of the lime juice and the vodka and gave a few good shakes and poured it over ice.  Before adding the tonic, it looked more like a smoothie.

I will admit that I was starting to think I was a big nerd for being so excited that I can make cocktails with ingredients from my garden, but then I found an article at Modern Farmer that made me realize I was not alone.  You can read the article How to Grow a Cocktail here.

I intended to put both jalapenos in the recipe but after finely dicing one I realized that was plenty for this particular recipe.  Rather then just use the jalapenos as a splash of fun color, I left in half the membrane when I diced the pepper.  I did remove all the seeds because I thought they would be out of place.

Jalapeno Sausage Balls

2 C Bisquick or other biscuit dough mix
1 lb pork sausage
1 lb cheddar cheese
1 jalapeno

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  With this recipe you’re going to have to get down and dirty and stick your hands into the bowl to really get it all to mix together just right!  I added all of the above ingredients minus the cheese because we had a few people at brunch that don’t eat cheese.  After making 8 cheeseless sausage balls I mixed in a little less than the full pound of cheddar cheese.

Let me just take a minute to say, sausage balls without cheese do not look pretty or stay together well.  So if you attempt this, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

I rolled the mixture into 1″ balls and placed on an ungreased baking sheet.  The sausage creates enough grease that there is no way these will stick to the pan.  Well, okay maybe they could if you over cook them.

Place the jalapeno sausage balls about an inch apart.  I didn’t and they ended up expanding into each other so I had to separate them.

Cook these for 20-25 minutes or a little longer depending on your oven and serve.  Jalapeno Sausage Balls are great for a super bowl party, football watching  gathering, baby showers, wedding showers or really anytime.  You can even freeze them prior to cooking so that you can just pull out a few at a time if you’d prefer.  Like I said there is nothing revolutionary about this recipe but they sure were good! 

Throughout this book, Forrest discusses her relation ship with her therapist, Dr. R, her mother and all of the men in her life and how each one of them effects her emotional state.  She knows her relationships are often unhealthy but doesn’t know how to untangle herself from them.

I didn’t actually read this book, I listened to it.  Perhaps if I had read it I would have connected a bit more, but because I was listening to the book it was easy to tune out and pay attention to other things.   For instance, the great love of Forrest’s life is someone she calls DH or maybe GH?  I didn’t hear her first start talking about him and explaining who he was because I had tuned out.  Perhaps I didn’t really read this book at all and more accurately just got through it.

I did think Your Voice in My Head was Written well and if you’d like to read it you can get a copy here.

With Your Voice in My Head completed I can mark another book off my lists of 2013 reads.  And thanks to my completion of Garden Spells Last week, my list is 8 books long.  I started reading J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy last week and hope to have that book completed quickly so that I can re-read The Great Gatsby before the movie comes out on May 10th.

Just like The Peach Keeper and The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Garden Spells is full of magic and mystery. This story is about two sisters, Claire and Sydney Waverly. Claire is the older of the two sisters and inherited their grandmother’s magical gift of cooking. She knows how to use plants and flowers in her cooking to create emotions and thoughts in those eating her creations. Life is going along just fine for Claire until Tyler moves in next door and becomes smitten with her. Then her sister comes home after a 10 year absence needing a place to stay for not only her but also her daughter Bay.  As these sisters work to repair their troubled relationship they are able to learn more about themselves then they could on their own. 

Garden Spells is an easy and delightful read that you won’t be able to put down, well at least I wasn’t able to.  I was sad when it was over and am already looking forward to the next Sarah Addison Allen read!

Next up I’ve decided to finally read a book by J.K. Rowling.  Having never read any of the Harry Potter books I’m going into reading The Casual Vacancy completely blind and with expectation.

What are you reading?

Crockpot Honey Jalapeno Chicken Drumsticks

6 drumsticks
1/8 C honey
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapenos finely diced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
sprinkle of pepper
cilantro for serving

I started by measuring out the honey, soy sauce and EVOO.  Do any of y’all have an 1/8 cup measurer? I don’t so I totally had to eyeball this.  And…it’s time I let you in on my little secret.  So, you know how I adore garlic and don’t really think you can go wrong adding a little extra?  Well, I finally decided to give pre-minced garlic a try and I think I’m in love!  So easy and so fast to just measure it out and not deal with the sticky mess as a result.  I don’t know why it took me so long to discover this?!

Once I had the jalapenos diced I whisked the marinated together.

I left some of the jalapeno seeds in for spice but I didn’t leave enough.  Next time I will!

I did not get my drumsticks all the way defrosted but they were pretty much there when I started making the marinade, but since they were going in the crockpot I didn’t think it would matter.  If I’d planned better I would have let the drumsticks sit in the marinade overnight so it could really soak in.  I did my best to coat each drumstick in the marinade.  Then I set them in the bottom of the crockpot and poured in the remaining marinade.

I set the crockpot on low for 6 hours and let them cook!  Because I was home while they were cooking I rotated them every few hours so they’d cook a little more evenly.  If you are unable to turn them I recommend adding more of the liquids so that they cook best.  Because I wanted to get the skin crispy, I transfered the drumsticks to a baking dish I dusted with cooking spray.

I cooked them for about 10 minutes at 500 degrees, but next time I’d let it go a little longer.  You’ll want to be sure and keep an eye on them and rotate them so you don’t burn them.

When they were ready, I removed them from the baking dish and topped with the cilantro.

The original recipe suggested serving it with sour cream, so I decided to make a little dipping sauce with a little of the liquid the chicken was cooked in, mixed with some greek yogurt to thicken it.  These Crockpot Honey Jalapeno Chicken Drumsticks were delicious and I will most definitely be making these again!

How do you prefer your drumsticks?  Let me know if you try out this Crockpot Honey Jalapeno Chicken Drumstick recipe, I’d love to hear how it turns out for you!