Friday, February 17, 2012

Seed Starting Update

I have my first sprouts!

See em?
They are in there
Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts have sprouted

Yes I do realize it's really early to be starting them but the weather's been so warm, I figure spring's gonna start early and they like a little bit of frost right?  That and I'm excited to have my first garden.  Garden that I own, that is.  Well, I guess technically the bank owns it.  hrm.  I'm good at sucking the joy out of things.

These were new seeds.  Most of my seeds are from 2010 and none of them have sprouted yet.  I'm hoping it's just because these ones sprout fast and the other ones will come up in the next week or so.  Otherwise I will be sad.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Seed Starting

 
The first batch of seeds has been started!  That is my water heater.  It's the warmest place in the house.  Until the plants actually sprout, they need heat, not light.  Once they have sprouted, they will move to a shelf where I will set up flourescent lights to get some seedlings going.  

I am anticipating 8 weeks to transplant.  Last frost date here is listed as April 11-18.  Hopefully it will be earlier rather than later.  Most of the seeds are from 2010 so we'll see how they do.

The seeds are a bunch of herbs, a bunch of tomatoes, a bunch of peppers and a bunch of other stuff, don't remember what other seeds I randomly chose.   Very descriptive, I know.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Hey look!  It's another post!  This is no way guarantees future performance.  Apparently I've heard too many investment commercials.

So I guess I should provide some other updates as well.

Well.

So what do I have to update.

The year started out with a bang.  A bunch of changes going on in my life.  Really stressful start to the year at work.  A few weeks in, I was really disturbingly close to having a complete psychotic meltdown.  Some may say I wasn't just close, but I was way over that line.  Of course some would say I've never seen the right side of it.  But I'm better now.  Relatively speaking anyway.  I never claimed to be the picture of normal.

Anyway....

I am preparing to start seeds for spring.  That's all sorts of exciting.  Except that I am so indecisive  that I keep changing what I want to grow, where each plant goes, how I want to lay out the garden, etc.  You would think, considering I now have probably double the space I have had before, I would have plenty of space for everything.  But I keep adding more stuff I want to grow!  Well (theorhetically anyway) I will have more posts in the future about that.

Now... I will actually publish this without a picture because it'll never get posted if I wait until I dig up my camera, take the pictures, copy the pictures over, choose one, post it... Yes I realize in the amount of time I spent typing that out I could've done all that.

This is a pretty simple recipe.  A good way to get a nice sugar kick going.  Maybe a way to kick off my return to blogging.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
based off Alton Brown's fudge recipe.  Google it if you want that instead of my version.

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
8 oz butter
1 lb confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Coat an 8x8 pan with cooking spray or butter.  Heat peanut butter and butter in a pyrex bowl, covered, for 2 minutes in the microwave.  Stir.  Heat for another 2 minutes in the microwave.  Stir thoroughly.  Stir in confectioners sugar and vanilla until combined and mixture has a dull finish.  Stir in chocolate chips and let sit for a minute to allow them to soften.  Press mixture into the greased pan.  Chill until firm.  Cut into squares.