Happy Thursday - Almost Friday

I got some rain!!! Did you see me jumping for joy? I did. It rained for 3 days and I guess I received about 5-6" of rain. The grass is greener and the flowers are happier. But you know what that means - WEEDS - again. I'll take the weeds over seeing the plants struggling any day.

Love the cannas. The plants get so big and the blooms are even bigger (or so it seems).

I am loving the Sun Cherry Zinnias. So far the plants are not too tall either - maybe 24-30" which is just right in my opinion.

I believe the seeds for this zinnia came from Lona. It would be Zinnia Starlight Rose.

This is a problem I have with zinnias every year. They fall over and a gust of wind comes up and over they go. I guess I could put the tomato baskets in the garden but I hate the wire cages in a flower garden. What do you do when yours fall over?

The tomato plants are loaded. Notice the extra amount of foliage on the tomato plants. The person who planted them decided that they needed a lot of tomato fertilizer. An entire bag, 1.5#, of tomato fertilizer was applied over 5 weeks. I actually thought they would die but it caused the stalks on the plants to be enormous.

Wind damage.

The cages are leaning now. Oh well we have more tomatos than will be eat at my house.

 On Saturday and Sunday it rained all day so I cooked up some good pasta salad and soup.

I added some cheese cubes to the salad and it was very good.

Cheeseburger Soup is so good. This is the first time I've made it and it won't be the last. I loved it.

Here is where I found the recipe.

http://thebetterbaker.blogspot.com/2011/03/slow-cooker-cheeseburger-soup.html

I used a little white pepper jack velveeta on the top for garnish and pickle relish and bacon. I did not cook the Weight Watchers version. I'm looking forward to this again.

Hope a nice weekend.

Apple Blueberry Brown Betty and Tequila Lime Chicken

I have been enjoying cooking on the weekends lately. This weekend I tried a recipe I printed off of one of my favorite blogs. Sue shares recipes every week and they are so yummy.

This weekend it was the Tequila Lime Chicken. I got the chicken drunk. This is not my photo nor my plate - I borrowed it from Sue - go here - http://oodlekadoodleprimitives.blogspot.com/2011/06/things-i-miss-tequila-lime-chicken.html and check out the recipe. I promise you will love it. But let me say that I altered the spice a little reducing the amount of chile powder and cumin.



I am enjoying the recipes using blueberries this year. I found the recipe for Jays Apple Berry Brown Betty in this issue of Food Network Magazine. Those hot dogs on the cover look so yummy and that probably why I picked up this issue.... oh but then again it was just time for another mag.

Jays Apple Berry Brown Betty

1 stick unsalted butter melted divided in half
4 golden delicious apples peeled and cored and cut into pieces
2 cups blackberries or blueberries (of course I used the blueberries)
1/2 c sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
2 T all purp flour
6 crushed sugar cones (ice cream sugar cones)
1/2 c packed lt brown sugar
1/2 nuts
1/2 kosher salt (I didn't use since I used salted butter)
Ice Cream or Whipped topping (optional)

Preheat oven 350. Butter a 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Toss the apples, berries, granulated sugar, 1/2 t of cinnamon and 1/4 t of nutmeg, lemon zest and juice, flour and 4 T melted butter in a large bowl. Pour half of berry mixture into the buttered casserole dish. Prepare topping - combine crushed sugar cones, brown sugar, remaining cinn and nutmeg, nuts salt and remaining butter. Put half of the topping on the berries in the pan. Add remaining apple/berries and then the remainder of the topping. Bake until the apples are soft and is brown. About 40 - 45 minutes.