Food

So last night I made chili, as it was horrible Romance movie night with a friend who can't have cow milk products or wheat. The chili turned out fabulous (of course, pshaw) and was super basic.

(I would love to have remembered to take a picture, but I didn't.)

I soaked Cannelloni beans until they were nice and plump. If I was smart, I would have cooked them now, but I forgot and I had to let the chili cook them as best as it could. I grated a HUGE zucchini that was hiding in my fridge, and used about 2 c. worth in the chili (I froze the rest). After grating the zucchini, I sprinkle salt on it to draw the water out, and then squeeze the excess liquid out of my zucchini. I tossed that straight into the crock pot. Also add in your beans, preferably cooked.

At this point I also boiled some more water and reconstituted three little chili peppers that I had. Once plump, I scraped out the seeds, chopped finely, and tossed in the crock pot.

I also tossed straight in a can of crushed tomatoes. I used about a cup or two of vegetable broth to rinse out the can and get the last little bits of tomato.

While I was getting all that set up, I chopped and fried two little peppers from my garden (yay!) and half of an onion. Once the onions were mostly translucent, I removed most of them from the pan and put them into the crock pot, and kept the rest in there to flavor the ground beef that I fried next. I had enough ground beef that it almost filled my pan, so it took a while for that to brown fully. Once it was done, I threw it in the crock and mixed it all up, trying to gauge how "chili-like" it was. It needed more liquid, so I added more vegetable broth. I also added tomato paste, salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder.

I let it cook for several hours (read: 5) and Mister bought a sheep's milk cheese that was to replace the cheddar I would have normally put on top. All in all, highly successful!

Pepper Plants

So last Farmer's Market I bought a four-pack of mixed bell pepper plants. Since most of my peas are dead and/or dying, I pulled a bunch out of one planter, and threw the peppers in. Apparently, peppers are prima donnas, and like not only well drained soil, but continuously DAMP soil. I watered them last night, and they perked right up, but when I woke up this morning, they were already dry. Sonuva...

With that in mind, I borrowed a tip from a website and put grass cuttings in the box (a.k.a. I weeded and threw the weeds around my pepper plants). I removed any seed heads, but that was the only precaution I took. I figure that they can deal with sharing the box since their new bedfellows are happily shading their soil for them.

Also, I think something was eating one of my cantaloupe plants! This is very Un Cool, and I have placed a big rock where I have my suspicions that a burrow is located. It seems like my plants are having some troubles decided to get big!

(No pictures at the moment -- too lazy to change the batteries in the camera.)