The Garden Is Alive

We finally had a weekend that I could work in the garden. One thing that I am doing differently this year is planting the vegetables closer together. Every year I plant them nice and spaced but my beds never look that full so I decided this year to try and plant closer together.

All these beans look pretty healthy and ready to start climbing their trellis. I have 4 different types of beans in this planter.

This lower bed has onions, various lettuce, broccoli, kale, cabbage and eventually carrots. The one bed up is filled with strawberries. I already see lots of berries and can't wait to eat them.

The top bed has tomatoes, peppers, beets and more onions. I also planted a couple kombucha squash; I've never had this before so hopefully I like it.

Is your garden up and running? What are you hoping to grow this year?

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Shameless TV Addiction

A couple years ago I decided that it was time to breakup with our cable company and just watch what we could get over the air. I thought that this would give us time to pick up new hobbies, but it turned out we just ended up watching Discovery all evening. As the time passed I discovered that there were a lot of shows that I really missed but even more I missed my DVR.

Brad gave me our DVR back for Christmas this past year. I actually figured it out a few days early and almost got caught watching it a couple times. My email address is tied to the account so when he was making changes I kept getting emails. I asked him about them and he told me that the little DTA boxes were misbehaving and to just ignore them - yeah right. I got home before him and instantly turned the TV to TLC (a channel we could only get if we had cable) and it came on instantly! I was working from home the week of Christmas and enjoyed being able to have cable on in the background. (I cannot work in silence and the TV options are quite limited mid-day without cable). 

I have an odd mix of TV shows that I love. 

NCIS - Seriously, Abby and McGee need to get back together. I dressed up as Abby a couple years ago for Halloween and made brad be McGee. I'm starting to think there is something between Tony and Ziva brewing now too.
Big Bang Theory - There are so many parts of this show I can relate to. Being an engineer I saw quite a few people who could be just like them during college.
Drop Dead Diva - I forget how I discovered this show; but it was definitely one I missed while cable-less. I have one season to catch up on before a new one starts in June.
Covert Affairs - Brad and I are currently going through last season before the next season starts in June. I have to admit that I was happy when Parker broke up with Auggie because he belongs with Annie.
Pretty Little Liars - Yes it is aimed at teenagers but I don't care because I love it! I read through book 8 or 9 and saw that there are more out but I haven't felt the need to read more
Burn Notice -Who doesn't love the odd family dynamic of this show?  We started watching this right before we cancelled cable then kept up with it on Netflix
Psych - I was so happy when Shawn and Juliet finally got together. While we didn't have cable we also watched this on Netflix.
CSI:Miami - Yes this was known as the worst of the CSI franchise; however, I loved it and was sad to find out that it was cancelled.

There are a bunch more shows that I record every week; however, I didn't want this list to be too long. :)

What are your favorite shows?

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Strawberry Rhubarb Tart with Margarita Glaze

The Spiked! challenge that Jamie and Carrie put on has been a lot of fun. For those of you who haven't heard about this, every other month they pick an alcohol that must be used to bake or cook. This month the chosen alcohol was Tequila. I had a lot of fun thinking about this challenge and deciding what to bake.

Some friends brought us this tequila from Mexico. I figured this would be a perfect time to use some of it.

I love Rhubarb and it is in season right now.  It is perfectly paired with Strawberries and I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Tart with Margarita Glaze.

Strawberry Rhubarb Tart with Margarita Glaze

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped rhubarb
• 2 cups chopped strawberries
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons Tequila
• 3 pie crusts (I used pre-made because I was lazy)

Glaze:

• 1 Tablespoon Corn Starch
• 1/4 cup Tequila
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

•  Combine First 5 ingredients in a mixing bowl
•  Use a cookie cutter or round object to cut out the pie crust
• Place the pie crusts into a greased muffin tin
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until the crust has baked
• Mix together all of the glaze ingredients and pour a bit into each cavity
• Add the glaze for the last 10 minutes of baking

 These little tarts popped right out of the muffin tin and looked (and tasted) delicious!

My oven started acting weird while this was in the oven so my cooking time had to be a bit longer.  Just keep an eye on the crust to see when it is completely cooked.

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DIY Decorative Mugs

My mom loves Big Bang Theory and I knew that the perfect Mother's Day gift would focus around that. I did some searching on Etsy as well as the CBS store but couldn't decide what I wanted. Eventually I decided to make my own mugs with Sheldon Quotes!

The supplies for this are simple, I ordered white mugs and ceramic paint pens off Amazon and that was all I needed! One of the great things about these pens is that if you make a mistake you can still fix them before they dry.

To make the mugs dishwasher safe, simply bake at 300 degrees for 35 minutes. I put them on a cookie sheet but this probably wasn't necessary. The pens said to wait 24 hours before baking; I kept putting it off and finally baked them about a week and a half after I first wrote on them.

Here are the final mugs. I gave them to my mom on Sunday and she loved them!

I hope you had a good Mother's Day!

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