Green Tomato Madness

A couple of days ago, I had to pick all of my green tomatoes. Nola and Brenda, as true Texans, suggested frying them. I cannot imagine trying to eat 10 lbs of fried green tomatoes. I love them, but 10 lbs - Yuck. Even I would get sick of that. Thankfully, some other Internet friends came to the rescue.

Several of you suggested letting them ripen on the window sill. Foxymoron suggest putting them in a paper bag with a ripe banana. She wasn't sure how it worked, but she read it somewhere. Kate arrived with the science behind this. Apparently, ripe fruit off gasses ethylene, which will help green fruit ripen. Go Kate, you are our genius.

Gardengirl shared this recipe for dill pickled tomatoes. I remember these from my childhood. She also suggested slicing them and sauteing them in a little olive oil and serving them with basil and Parmesan cheese. Yum.

Curmudgeon, one of our wonderful Weed Wackin Wenches, shared this recipe for tomato jam.

Cinj, suggested freezer spaghetti sauce. I have not found the recipe for that yet, but I am looking.

For the next couple of days I will be making pickles and jam.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out. Without you I would be drowning in green tomatoes. If anyone else would like to add to the tomato madness, chime in now.

Silence at Poor Richard's Almanac out did herself with six recipes. Thanks Silence

cinj posted her freezer spagetti sauce recipe today.

I made the green tomato jam and it is Monkey approved.

Thanks Meadowview Thymes

I received this award from Meadowview Thymes. She is another local north Texas garden blogger. Along with Brenda and Nola we can compare weather notes, shopping news, and look into each others' gardens through our blogs. I am not sure Aunt Debbi's Garden is Uber anything other than uber silly. Thank you Meadowview I am flattered.

Regarding the Uber award "UBER" is an acronym for 'U've Been Excellently Rewarded'. UBER is a synonym of Super. The 'UBER amazing Blog Award' is given to sites that:

1. Inspire you

2. Make you smile and laugh

3. Maybe gives amazing information

4. Is a great read

5. Has an amazing design

6. Any other reasons you can think of that makes them UBER amazing!

Below is the list of blogs I would like to pass this on to. I understand that many bloggers do not participate in awards and memes. Please just consider this my expression of appreciation and don't play if you don't want to.

Nola at Alamo North. A great blog and a new friend.

Foxymoron at This Country Life. She is an blogger from Australia writing about her life and family.

Diana at Sharing Natures Garden. Diana encouraged me to join the 29 day giving challenge.

Kathryn at Plant What Ever Brings You Joy for her great blog and all the work she did organizing and executing the Scarf Initiative.

There are many other blogs that deserve this award and I am sure it is coming around.

Now What?

We had a light freeze last night. The only plants that succumbed were the tomatoes and the squash. Everything else looks just fine including the peppers. We had to pick the green tomatoes. So now what do I do?

How To Create a Cat Magnet

1. Go shopping

2. Buy really cute velvet pants.

3. Bring purchases home and show off to husband who provided funds for fancy pants.

4. Lay pretty pants out on sofa and forget about them overnight

5. Forget to put the cat out.

6. Sleep well in your bed as cat sleeps well on new the britches

7. Wake up to find cat fur on brand new garment.

It's That Quilting Time of Year Again

It's that time of year again. There will be more pictures of quilt blocks and fewer pictures of the garden.

The new turquoise and and lime green Dresden plate blocks are for our annual family reunion. I have to have this finished by the first weekend in December. Yikes, what have I gotten myself into. This is a fun family party. Manly Man's mom is the oldest of five children. There are lots of grand kids, and lots and lots of great grand kids. The party is huge. We can't really exchange individual gifts. We used to do a kids exchange, but it got to big. Now we just bring a gift for our own children and do something like a white elephant exchange for the adults. Some of the grownup gifts have been pretty funny. One year an uncle contributed a tow chain. Another year I managed to score and old milk can. The quilts have been pretty popular. This is a way I can give quilts to this side of the family without being completely overwhelmed.

BTW, how did Thanksgiving end up next freaking week? It feels like this year is flying by.

Well hell, I have to print a correction. My 2008 mastergardener calender has an error. Thanksgiving is 11/27 DUR. I feel a little better. Thanks for catching it Nola.

Peppers a Plenty

While other garden bloggers are posting about their first freeze, first snow, and putting their gardens to bed for the winter, over here in my garden we are having a fall bumper crop of hot peppers.

There is something a little off about my chili pequeno plant. The leaves are turning black. There has not been a freeze and they look perfectly healthy. The plant is loaded with peppers. hmmmm....

Here is a picture of the peppers I picked today with the lovely bouquet of flowers Manly Man gave me for our anniversary. Those are not all the peppers. I got bored and stopped picking them. I will get back out there again tomorrow.

What to do with all these pepper? Well, I joined the 29 Day Giving Challenge. My gift today was a pint of Serrano to the neighbor who loves them. She says they won't eat the habaneros. I will make some more hot sauce and pickle some. Then I may need to put up a sign in the yard saying,

"FREE PEPPERS LOOKING FOR A GOOD HOME"

Anniversary

Eleven years ago on 11/11/97 Manly Man and I married. It has been a wonderful life and I am so blessed to have him. He gave me beautiful flowers, a card, and cloths shopping money. Woohoo. Happy Anniversary baby, I love you.