November 26, 2009

World’s Easiest Guacamole Recipe

Filed under: food — Tags: food, gardening — K @ 7:00 PM

A couple years ago I had a really bad experience making homemade salsa. To make a long story short, it was late, I burned my eyes, burned my hands, ruined 2 pairs of contacts, and had to wear glasses (which I don’t like) for a month.. I love homemade salsa, but since this incident, I’ve shied away from cutting hot or acidic foods.

Shortly after this incident, avocados and Ro-Tel were on sale. I don’t know what prompted me to check out the can because I had never used it before. A typical guacamole recipe contains tomatoes, chilies, cilantro, lime, onions, avocados, and maybe some spices like garlic, salt, and pepper. Ro-Tel Mexican has all the fix-ins for guacamole except for the avocados… and thus began my recipe experiment!

World’s Easiest Guacamole Recipe

2 avocados – peeled and mashed

1 can Ro-Tel Mexican – spoon into mashed avocados, until it tastes right to you. You can drain the lime/spice juice or add in a little or lot, depending on what you like. Mix it up.

Enjoy!

And now for the experiment part…

How to Grow an Avocado from Seed

Did you know you can take your avocado seed and grow it? Yep! Mine is currently about one foot tall and starting to get woody at the bottom of the stem. It’s taken about one year to reach this point, so it will definitely teach your kids about patience, as it did with me. I truly am an impatient gardener!

Score the seed a couple times

Insert 3 toothpicks evenly spaced around the seed

There’s a spot on the flatter side of the seed – this needs to face down

Place the seed spot-side down at the top of a glass filled with water.

Let it set. When the water gets murky, pitch it and get fresh water. (Or you can use bits of charcoal). In 2-6weeks, you’ll get a root! (Mine took about 1 month.)

At this time you can plant it in a pot and let it take off! When it reaches 1 foot, pinch it back to 6-8 inches.

If you want more information, be sure to check out the Garden Helper, who is the one who gave me the idea to try this out.

Have you planted any unusual seeds (from food or otherwise)? Did it grow?

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages. If you want to know what I’ve been up to this week, visit my front page!

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today! You can find many more recipes here:

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September 15, 2009

Visiting Hiawatha’s Market and Bass Farms

Filed under: fun — Tags: cedar rapids, gardening, random, review, sales — K @ 1:00 AM

Sunday Farmer’s Market

The concert weekend was topped off with some great time alone with Mom and Dad. After having breakfast at Perkin’s, we visited Hiawatha’s Sunday Farmer’s Market where I bought a package of beef brats. It was $8 for 2 pounds (8 brats). This isn’t much more expensive than what the regional grocer sells and it’s locally grown at Heritage Point Farm in Center Point, Iowa.

Before the crazy wind started knocking tents over, I managed to talk to one of the guys from Creative StoneWerx. They engrave collegiate symbols, names, and addresses on Indiana limestone. An Iowa State engraved stone would be a wonderful Christmas gift for D, so I got their business card.

The farmer’s market is at a park in Hiawatha. If you’re coming from Edgewood Road, turn East onto Blairs Ferry Road. Keep an eye out for signs on the left (north) side of the road.

Bass Farms

Mom and Dad have been telling me about Bass Farms. “Oh my gosh! You have to see this place!” So they drove me out there. The owner is a 24 year-old local.

What I liked: It’s all nice, new, and shiny. I like that someone is taking a risk with an operation like this near Cedar Rapids and the owner’s were quite friendly. I liked the watermelon and the green pepper I bought. The texture of the watermelon and the aroma of the pepper were unlike anything you can get at the store.

What I didn’t like: The overuse of a gas-guzzling gator to bring produce up a short distance from the field. A Gothic arch greenhouse, a brand spanking new shed, and many acres of land outside of a metropolitan area = a lot of money was sunk into this place. Premium fruits and veggies are hauled in from Chicago. “Premium” meaning tropical fruits and more cultivars of produce he already sells. The tomatoes I purchased, one from the farm and one premium, were not exciting.

Bottom line: I’m not sure yet. I hope that Cedar Rapidian’s will be open to something new like this. Organic products are still a new concept in the Midwest and Bass Farms is filling the organic produce void in the Cedar Rapids area. I’m interested in seeing how things unfold with this place and I’d love to give it a second-chance visit next year.

Bass Farms is located along Highway 30 across from Palisades-Kepler State Park.

The Mansion in the Middle of Town

Every time I’m in Cedar Rapids, I drive past an interesting home. It’s along the drive between D’s parent’s home and my parent’s home. The story goes: a man won the lottery. He built his home and then attached a Mother-in-Law’s “suite” on the right side of the house and then built his sister a home right next door. Nobody I know likes it. You can click on the photos below for a bigger version. I even took a shot of their typical neighbor’s home to show you how out of place this house really is. It looks like an office building amidst a residential area. It’s even creepier at night. They installed security lights all around the house right under the eave. There is absolutely no backyard. If I won the lottery, my house would not be entirely brick with big-box-retailer retaining wall blocks in the front, nor would it be in the middle of town in the middle of houses one-third the size. It’s sad. The short street only has about six other homes besides the mansion – two of them are for sale. My guess is that it is not because of the recession. The house has now been in build-mode for the past year. Every time I visit home, I think something will look different on it. Alas, the windows are still frosted over and no signs of life exist. At the intersection of O Avenue and Edgewood Road Northwest, go west. You can’t miss it.

If you’re around Cedar Rapids, stop at these places. I’d love to hear what you think!

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September 10, 2009

It’s Cicada-Killer-Bee Season

Filed under: life — Tags: gardening, health — K @ 3:13 PM

Now I have your attention!

They’re big and they’re scary, but are they dangerous? When I first heard of this bee quite a few years ago, a was extremely worried. Killer bees? In our neighborhood? Time to kiss my childhood goodbye and curl up inside for the rest of the summer…

A couple weeks ago, I went to help D with a project and I almost stepped on a huge bug in the grass. It was a newly molted cicada that we made friends with the previous day. He was discolored and had a white belly. I said to D, “Oh no, it looks like one of those killer bees got him.” Of course, D gave me crap for thinking that giant killer bees live in Iowa and we started talking about something else. All of a sudden something went buzzing past my face. And what do you think it was? “Hey. Hey! Look who just showed up. You know those “killer bees” I was just telling you about? Well there’s one right there.”

D freaked out and told me to get some shoes on and take Gunner inside. So what’s the deal with these bees? I went on an information hunt to find out!

Name: Sphecius speciosus
Nickname: Eastern Cicada killer (and they’re actually a wasp, not a bee)

Size: They look almost like a hummingbird when you first notice notice it. The North Carolina Extension at Forsyth County has an excellent photo comparing the sizes of a cicada killer, paper wasp, and yellow jacket. They are around two inches long. As you can see, they are really are quite large!

Lifestyle and Lifecycle: The females make their nests in the ground under sparse vegetation or bare spots in the sun. They fly close to the ground trying to find cicadas. So you should be wearing shoes outside. The males live for only two weeks while the females live for four weeks. They are most active for two weeks between July and September. The cicada-killer season is over in Iowa since it’s been getting cooler.

Do they kill? The adults don’t. The females sting the cicada which paralyzes it. She then drags the “food” back to her nest where the babies finish it off. (So they don’t kill people.)

Do they hurt people? No, if you’re not allergic and not unless you go out of your way to make the females mad. The males are very aggressive and may dive-bomb you, but they can NOT sting you. It takes a lot to get the females mad (getting tangled in clothing, touching or swatting her) but she can sting. I learned that a stinger is actually a modified female organ of some kind… weird, huh?

How bad is the sting? I can’t say because I haven’t gotten stung from one of these. But, I have read that on a scale of 1 to 4, with normal bee stings at a 2, cicada killer’s sting is a 1, in the same category as a sweat bee.

They’re everywhere! What do I do? What you don’t want to do is waste your time and money using “bombs,” yard sprays, or hiring a professional. These methods just don’t work with these wasps. Your choices are: 1) Kill by squashing/baseball bat/tennis racket them, 2) Go after each one and spray individually, 3) Flood the burrows (nests), or 4) Grow taller denser vegetation so the wasps don’t have the urge to nest in the bare spots of your yard. It’s recommended that you don’t kill them unless you have a bad infestation and it’s affecting your life.

100 female cicada-killers can wipe out 16,000 cicadas during one season. Cicadas lay their eggs under tree bark leaving the larvae to survive on tree roots until the following spring. So, try to let the wasps do what nature intended them to do.

Resources:

The North Carolina Extension at Forsyth County
Professor Chuck Holiday’s Cicada Killer page – many excellent photos
Wikipedia’s Eastern Cicada Killer page

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July 17, 2009

Don’t Throw Those Bananas Away!

Filed under: food — Tags: food, gardening, natural — K @ 8:08 PM

Most people know that you use very ripe to slightly over ripe bananas to make banana bread. D and I usually don’t finish the last banana or two in time and we were composting them because I didn’t want banana bread. I hated being wasteful so I started to save the bananas. You’ll see in the photo below that I peel the bananas and squish them into a container. I then set this container in the freezer and add more bananas when they start going down hill.

And what about those peels? I’ve been composting mine, but if you have roses, banana peels are like the elixir of life for them. Yes, if you’ve seen Seven Pounds, he’s right. Bananas have many nutrients that roses like including calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphates, and sodium. If you’ve kept a banana too long, you see how fast they get mushy and start decomposing. When buried next to roses, this fast decomposition means that the “fertilizer” is more quickly available to start working its magic.

I had to try one to make sure it tasted ok

So… I did finally make banana bread. There are so many different recipes online nowadays! I used a traditional recipe out of a cookbook. I pulled out my banana container, drained off the juice, and scooped out what I needed. (I still have 1/2 jar left after making three batches!)

What you need:

1-3/4 cups sifted flour (I ran out of white at the end and used some whole wheat flour – worked fine)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening (I also ran out of this, so I used butter – again, it worked fine)
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup mashed banana

What to do:

Mix flour, soda, cream of tartar, and salt
Cream shortening, then add sugar, then add eggs
Mash ripe bananas (2-4 bananas yield 1 cup)
Add flour, then bananas to the shortening mixture
Mix well
Pour into greased loaf pan and bake in 350 degree F oven for 1 hour or until done. I experimented with muffins – 1 batch makes 12 regular sized muffins, but you only bake them for 30 minutes.

Optional Mix-Ins:

Peanut butter
Reese’s Pieces – a Twitter buddy told me this makes it taste like a peanut butter banana sandwich, mmm!
Nuts – I added a couple handfuls of walnuts to my batches
Chocolate chips
Chopped cherries

Yield: 1 loaf or 12 muffins

Although I’m not fond of nuts, I put them in the bread because D likes them. I can’t wait to try adding Reese’s Pieces to the bread. I ended up making 2 loaves and 12 muffins, so I’m pretty set for a while! This recipe produces a nicely textured, moist bread and I enjoyed it!

So I listed a few mix-ins above. What are your favorites? What unique ingredients have you added to banana bread and was it good?

My "freezer container" still has enough for another couple batches... that's a lot of bread!

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July 7, 2009

How to Compost and What to Put in It

Filed under: DIY — Tags: gardening, home, natural — K @ 12:08 AM

Now that you have your compost bins, what do you do with it? D and I keep a small lidded trash can and fill it during the week. You could also use a bucket – our dogs became fascinated with it, so we had to use something with a lid! If it gets full we dump it on the compost. When we have time on the weekend, we flip it to incorporate the new material.

Good things to put in a compost

Fruit and vegetable peelings and leaves
tea leaves/ tea bags and coffee grounds
leaves
grass clippings
soft prunings (not the hardwood kind because it takes forever to compost)
young weeds (those with seed, or about to set seed, should be disposed of in the garbage)
cow and horse manures
ash (from open fireplaces)
hair and nails
vacuum cleaner contents (however, synthetic carpet will not break down)
shredded newspapers/paper/mail, paper towels/napkins/tissues, and cardboard
if you want to speed up the composting process, you can add a fertilizer high in nitrogen
For some interesting things to put in your compost, visit the WebEcoist’s article on composting
For 163 things you can compost, see PlanTea’s list
The below photo is what our compost bins look like before we flip them.

Do not put this stuff in a compost bin

Animal products – meat, fish, chicken, bones, dairy products & cooking oils
Non-living things such as plastics, bottle tops, food wrappers, metals etc
Diseased plants
Fruit fly infested fruit
Pet and human droppings – if you’re interested in composting this stuff, look for the Pet Poo Converter (or make a poo composter) or get a composting toilet.

Ratio for fastest composting

1 part greens to 2 parts browns
Browns are those things that are dry to the touch – crunchy autumn leaves, paper products
Greens are those things that are fresh or have a higher moisture content – grass clippings, kitchen scraps

An added bonus!

When flipping the compost, you’ll notice a lot of worms! I still get a little squeamish around them, but they do very good things for the soil. They break down the compost and then spread nutrient rich castings (worm poo) wherever they go!

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Prudent and Practical

November 26, 2009