Gardening

So I was going to write a post about my latest/next craft project or post some pics of our renovated bathroom(oh wait, it still needs to be painted...), but I decided to go with gardening instead.

At our house, this is how it works. For flowers: I pick them, tell Jay where they need to be planted and then occasionally water them. I feel that my involvement ends there. Our first spring here I got a bit too attached to some flowers that didn't do well, so never again! For the veggies: all I demand is that we have tomatoes. Both regular sized and cherry. And I picked out the herbs. Everything else, I leave in Jay's hands.

So first up: some of the wildflowers we planted last year....to me this whole area looks like a bunch of overgrown weeds, but at least now we have a few flowers coming up. Jay could tell you what they were, but all I know is that the first one is a daisy.

Next is the Vegetable Garden.

First up: Eggplant. Jay wants to make Eggplant Parmesan for my parents. I have no other idea what else you can even use eggplant for and I'm pretty sure he doesn't either, but oh well.

And then the Pea plants. Also has a few flowers, so they should be ready soon (or so Jay says).

And we have a watermelon (maybe more than one, I have no idea).

And the tomatoes of course!

We also have some carrots. We have cucumbers too, but I don't think they made it into the picture.

We're growing Romaine Lettuce and Broccoli in separate containers on the deck.


Here are the herbs:

First is the Lemon Balm...which Jay has used to make himself tea...

We also have Lemon Thyme, Chamomile, Oregano and Rosemary, but I'm not posting pictures of those because wow, my computer is taking forever to upload these things. So we'll save the front and side gardens for another post. So next time: Roses, Dahlias, Snapdragons, Winking Columbine and MORE!

My Ketchup Rant

I realize I haven't updated this thing for a long time (not as long as some people have gone without updating their blogs- BETH) but since I'm home sick from work, something which rarely happens, and really can't do anything but lay here in bed and move my head from one side to another trying to unclog my nose and cough up a few lungs, I figured, hey, why not?

So about this Ketchup thing. You know Ketchup. Yummy tomato product that goes well with all meat, cheese and potato products? The condiment that is officially one of my food groups? Let me give you a piece of advice about Ketchup. Don't put it in the refrigerator. I know that sometimes it says you should refrigerate it after opening, but really...don't. Cold Ketchup is disgusting. I can see how other people might not recognize it as such an important part of every meal if they are eating it cold.

When you go out to eat, and put that yummy Ketchup on your fries or your burger, guess what? It hasn't been refrigerated. And doesn't it taste good? And I'm only talking about REAL Ketchup. Heinz Ketchup. Anything else is going to taste disgusting no matter what you do with it. So go ahead, put it in the refrigerator, the freezer, the oven, or preferably, the trash can. It won't matter.

Now sometimes when I tell people about not refrigerating Ketchup, they assume I mean that I like it warm. Now, room temperature isn't warm. I don't think I'd like 'hot Ketchup.' Also, I can't be responsible for a bottle of Ketchup that has been opened and left unrefrigerated for a long period of time before being used again. In this house, we go through the biggest bottles they have pretty darn quickly. So if you only use Ketchup, say once every 6 months, I can't be blamed for any food poisoning that may occur from not keeping it in the fridge. Not that I think it would necessarily make you sick, I'm just saying don't blame me if it does. Really, just buy a small bottle and use it often.