Rosie Works In The Garden.

For the past two days, I've been working in my yard, preparing some beds for planting.

Yesterday, I worked on my potential vegetable garden on the south side of the house, in front of my herb garden. I'd already tilled the whole bed several times. Let it rain on it to get weed seedlings germinating, then tilled again. Now, what is that in the first row? Why it's manure and crushed egg shells. And I tilled all that in.

Thusly. And formed 3 separate beds in the first row. Look closely. They're there.

I planted Mr. Hawthorne's heirloom tomato seedlings in the first bed. I laid down newspapers as a mulch to cut down on my weeding.

I mulched the bed on the left with newspapers and pine needles which I have plenty of. I also planted tomato seedlings in the middle section. I'll also use the newspapers and pine needles to mulch between the rows. Recycle my newspapers and keep moisture in and weeds out. I'm nothing if not all about the Earth and being Green.

This is my garden bed in the back yard on the west side, ready for Moonure and tilling.

And more of it.

I tilled in the Moonure on the right side and formed two horizontal beds, Then I added more Moonure to the left where I'm making vertical beds.

I tilled the Moonure in and formed two vertical beds.

Then I formed 3 more horizontal beds and two vertical beds at the end which are very hard to see. I like breaking up the beds into vertical and horizontal areas instead of just long rows. It's much more visually appealing and easier to work, weed-wise. And I'm ready to plant.

Here are some Beefmaster tomatoes I bought at Kmart yesterday. Remember, I have about 60 seedlings of heirloom tomatoes growing already. I just wanted something different. Let me show you how I plant my tomato seedlings.

First I pinch off the lower feed leaves (not true leaves).

Then I pinch off the next set of leaves. I just leave the top two sets of leaves.

I open up the roots a bit.

Make a channel in my soil and sprinkle 10-10-10 in it.

And I lay the tomato in the channel lengthwise, pulling up the stem at the leaf end.

And I cover the bottom part of the stem and pile the soil up to the first set of leaves. This allows for a strong root system to develop, since roots will take off all along the buried stem.

Here are 2 Early Girl seedlings in one pot. When I buy seedlings, I always try to find multiple seedlings in one pot.

Again, pinch off the lower leaves.

And slice down between the two seedlings.

Divide the seedlings and plant. And always be sure to water well after planting.

I planted tomatoes in the first two horizontal beds on the right and assorted peppers in the first vertical bed on the left.

Here's my herb garden and 'maters on the south side looking down from the deck. Happy planting, all.

Rosie Makes Appetizers From Leftovers.

Tonight, I'm making some appetizers, just to get rid of leftovers in the fridge. What leftovers you ask? Well, I had the other half of my galette dough leftover from my Very Berry Galette. And I had the cheese filling leftover from my stuffed dates.

My ingredients: the galette dough cheese filling (Ricotta, Mascarpone, and Herbed goat cheeses with parsley) sun dried tomatoes pesto

I floured my board and rolled the dough out to about a 12-inch diameter.

I cut circles out of the dough with my biscuit cutter ...

... and sliced my sun-dried tomatoes, which I had poured boiling water over and had let sit for about 20 minutes.

First, I put a dollop of the cheese filling on each galette dough round.

Then I added the pesto.

And I topped each with a strip of sun-dried tomato.

Then I pinched up my dough to make cute little whatevers.

I sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top of each.

Here they are, waiting for the oven.

I had a small bit of dough leftover, so I rolled that out over the bits off sun-dried tomatoes.

I picked three asparagus spears out of the garden and placed them on the dough.

I rolled the dough up and drizzled olive oil over top.

Sprinkled with Parmesan.

Everything went into a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. I ended up with these cute little flavor-filled stars. I loved the flavors. The creamy cheese mixture was perfect with the basil and sun-dried tomatoes. I just love that combination. And the asparagus package was wonderful.

The only thing I'd do differently next time is add more filling. The dough was a bit overpowering. It was perfectly fine when I was making an 8-inch galette filled with overflowing fruit, but when making these smaller appetizers I needed more filler so it wouldn't be overwhelmed by the dough. I wouldn't make the small circles again. I'd make a bigger round, then lade on about 1/2 inch of the cream filling, 1/4 inch of the pesto, and I'd be good to go. As I made it, it was too much dough for too little filling. Come to think of it, when I make it again, I'll use the same fillings, but use a phyllo cup to put them in. That would be perfect. Cook and learn.

Rosie Makes Oriental Chicken Salad

I still had a lot of chicken left over from the hen I cooked last weekend when Ticky came to visit. I decided to make chicken salad to use it up, but I wanted something a little different. Feeling somewhat in an Asian mood, I thought my take on an Oriental chicken salad would be a nice change.

From top left, going pretty much clockwise, here's the cast in my culinary operetta: chicken picked off the carcass (Thanks to Mr. Hawthorne, who complains he always gets the "shit detail.") Ramen noodles pickled ginger sesame oil Teriyaki sauce sesame seeds green onions almonds celery The baked head of garlic I stuck in the cavity of the chicken when I cooked it.

First I toasted the almonds, Ramen noodles, and sesame seeds. I knew that when I poured everything in the pan I should have done the almonds and Ramen first, then add the sesame seeds. The way I did it, the sesame seeds would burn before the almonds and the Ramen toasted, so I picked out the almonds and Ramen and toasted them a bit more.

Next I took each garlic clove and squeezed out the lovely puree ...

... into the mayonnaise.

A little rice wine vinegar.

Some Teriyaki sauce.

Sesame oil.

Little bit of sugar.

Minced pickled ginger went into the mixture. Now. Listen up. I only added small amounts of the ingredients at a time. I tasted as I went along and I added more of what I thought it needed. You need to layer your flavors. Just experiment and don't think a recipe is an absolute (unless you're baking). Taste and add what flavors you want. When I got the flavors in the dressing the way I liked them I added in the rest of the ingredients.

Celery and green onions went in.

And the chicken.

Noodle/nut/sesame mixture.

Oriental chicken salad on a Triscuit.

Good eats.