u/Gourmetanniemack

The thinner the better.

Looks meager, but I eat lighter these days. Gotta have pepper vinegar on cabbage and mustard on beef. All good. ❤️

Bake, boil, or crock, these ready briskets can go any way. Fella likes baked. Put water in the bottom of the dish, so no bake on mess. Since the oven was on anyway: Peel, season and cover w/foil and throw those taters in to cook. All u gotta do now, is quarter that cabbage, STEAM UNTIL JUST TENDER, and serve all with vinegar pepper sauce👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼LOVE THIS, and not just on ST. Paddy’s Day❤️❤️❤️

We have a small bed (5) tomatoes across the street. When they were babies, I protected them with covers, then bird netting around the whole bed. Second year to use this netting. Easy to store. No need to rebuy. Just roll it up.

Decided to trim up some of the leaves….I am starting to get obsessed with this practice!!
What I find is, when you cut off all the leaves just below the yellow flowers, the nutrients go into the new fruit, and not keeping the big ole leaves green.

I have HUGE tomatoes.

Cherokee Purple and Brandywine Pink from seed. I gave a bunch away, but was determined to find a place. Happy to see these hidden gems:-)

One area - fella planted 15 CP & BP babies. I counted yesterday and there are 100 tomatoes on those vines.
Not kidding.
All look pretty healthy.

Gonna can. Just a great year for gardening in East Texas🤣🤞❤️

In Texas, we can get plants in the ground by end of February. Growing from seed Cherokee Purple and Brandywine Pink are my varieties. The fruit is HUGE and the CP definitely sets fruit quicker than the BP. Down this one long row, by our path, we have 15 plants and I counted 100 tomatoes, all pretty healthy and getting big! Another thing, the birds don’t seem to notice the pink or purple color as much as the red of a regular tomato. So far, picking early and no netting. Happy gardening.

Onions, Serrano peppers, and Heirloom tomatoes, grown out back. Added garlic, salt and lime. Hot and tasty.

Wait to add your red onion til just before service. Plus parsley and red pepper flakes went in. It got eaten, that’s all I know. Dressing was mayo, buttermilk, mustard, dill, salt and pepper. Added pickle juice at the end. Needed more zip.

Neighbors plate. Really tasty dinner. Did kind of an Asian googuchang topping. Over baked tomatoes, but survived.

Seemed like a big production, but it really wasn’t. I pull out recipes from my magazines, and file (fish, chicken etc. folders). The I will flip through them and make decisions.
Didn’t have any googuchang, so used dumpling sauce and hot Calabrian chili sauce. Make it your own. The recipe guides me, but cooking is about making it your own. I grew the tomatoes and over baked them. I added some of those French fried onions on top of my grits and the crunch was great!!

Get your skillet HOT and lay down your fresh, cleaned shrimp. Layer on chopped garlic, parsley, chili powder and a bit of cayenne pepper. Add a few cubes of butter. Salt. Flip them over quickly and squeeze on one fresh lemon. It doesn’t take but 4 minutes to cook the shrimp. When all cooked up, throw in fresh crumbled feta cheese and serve over buttered noodles. All good.

This recipe called for 4# of shrimp and 10 cloves of garlic for about “6 servings”. At first I didn’t pay attention, cuz I was just happy this gal loved garlic like me, just thinking YEAH!!
After rereading, I saw my 1# of shrimp would need to be adjusted on the garlic amount. And lemon. And parsley. Plus these noodles I thought would be good were too oily once you added the sauce that came with them. Next time I would skip the sauce and just toss with butter.
I also made baked chocolate pudding, which was delish.

It may take a little longer, but I like getting my bacon crispy, all the way around a thick filet. By the time I have cooked all the sides, and throw it flat on the cast iron, it is pretty much ready after another couple of minutes. Made a store bought package of noodles, that were kinda yuck, but the steak was delicious. ❤️

Started in January with seeds ordered. One pkg of Cherokee Purple and one of Brandywine Pink. Little grow light and by the end of February, they were hardened off and a bunch shared with neighbors! We still had them planted all over; in the ground, in raised beds, this side, that side. Got the cages up, asked neighbor to plant next to her fence, started fertilizing every two weeks. Decided to categorize and write down things. We have over 150 tomatoes on the vine, on about 36 plants total😳. Last year was not that good a growing season in Texas; this year is different ❤️

https://imgur.com/a/gYojlUX
Really can’t believe the amount of tomatoes on my vines. Had to count and categorize. This is our first Cherokee Purple (w/a minor player thrown in). Enjoy your harvests❤️

A lot of my arugula bed came back on its own. It takes up too much space. Pulled it up by the roots, sorted and cut out the flowers/roots. Double washed, wrapped and delivered to neighbors. All good.

Leftover chicken was the protein. I like to sauté celery and onions to add to the broth. Debone the chicken, boil the carcass a couple of hours. Strain the bones, add the saute of vegetables too the broth. I added a few fresh mushrooms too. If u need more broth, add in some. Dumplings were 2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder and a sprinkle of salt. Cut in 3 T. of butter, then bring together with 3/4-1 cup of milk. Pat out and cut. Place in gentle simmer of broth, covered for about 15 minutes. Season with thyme, bay, S&P, a little sage. Add in leftover chicken. Taste and adjust seasonings. You could add some half and half for a creamy richness. ❤️

Two things my fella loves to cook. Stir fry and soup. Tomorrow, the leftovers from this meal will be transformed into breakfast with 2 soft eggs on it.

I trimmed these up once or twice. They are Brandywine Pink. I will trim out a few heavy leaves, to keep the air flowing, but wonder who else does the ‘Naked Vine’ trim and how high will you go?? I guess I could cut them half and half. Trim some and leave some. Measure the volume, etc.
All help appreciated ❤️

Baking my sauce instead of simmering on the stove works for me. You don’t have to worry about stirring, so the sauce doesn’t burn on the bottom, and you don’t have to change out the burnt bottom pan! I cool it down over night, then use freezer bags and a 4 cup measuring cup to bag up. Mark the gallon bag, put it inside the cup, with the edge folded over. Fill up and freeze flat for a no mess sauce ready to use!