I have to admit I stumbled upon this recipe in a rather unusual way. The DW received a text message from a relative a few weeks back congratulating me on my winning burger recipe. Great! Only there was a problem. I never entered a contest. Now I was curious: 1) How did I win a contest I didn’t enter and 2) what was the my recipe? (I was more curious to find the answer to the second question.) Well, it turned out the relative, in good fun, had submitted the recipe in my name and was happy to send me the recipe – of course, we had to try it.

Double Bacon Italian Cheeseburgers

1 lb Ground Beef
3 Slices of Bacon
3/4 C Shredded Italian Cheese
1/4 C Italian Bread Crumbs
3 Cloves Chopped Garlic
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Egg
1 Tbl Chopped Parsley
1 1/2 Tbl Dijon Mustard
Salt and Pepper

Place bacon in skillet until browned evenly. Drain. Cool and crumble into mixing bowl. Add ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, chopped garlic and garlic powder. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The Hamburger Mixture

Mix well and form into 4 thin patties. Cook on heated grill for 3 to 4 minutes per side.

Just A Few Minutes On A Hot The Grill

Mix Italian cheese, Dijon mustard and chopped parsley.

The Cheese Mixture

Divide cheese mixture between 4 patties. Return to grill until cheese is melted.

Ready For Dinner

So there it is… my first (and probably last) award winning recipe. Though I’ve been told there was no first place prize I should be expecting, I’ll be highly suspicious if this relative is driving a new car the next time we meet.

Back in May I posted a picture of a wild berry bloom. I had found a few berry plants behind the old machine shed in a cluster of weeds. I was hoping for a couple bowls full of berries to confirm that I had found a patch of blackberries. I thought the addition to the black raspberries in the timber across the road and the red raspberries we planted in the garden would be great. But, with the recent dry heat the berries didn’t make it. The plants are on rocky soil between the shed and the road ditch. In a normal year, they catch rain water as it runs off the roof of the shed, but are still well drained. On a dry year, it’s amazing there’s still green leaves.

There is a good side to this though… with it being so dry, the lawn mower hasn’t been working as much and that gave a couple new berry plants the chance to pop up in the yard about 10 feet from the original “patch.”

A New Berry Plant

Even though I haven’t been able to confirm these are blackberries yet, I plan on digging up a half dozen of these new shoots in the fall and moving them to the garden. If I’m right, I’ll have a black berry patch started in the garden. If I’m not, I’ll have a new weed in the garden to fight with.

Now that the potatoes are out of the garden for the year, I thought I’d take a quick look back at the season.

The Garden In March

The Potato Patch In May

The Pinkish Bloom Of The Reds In June

Stealing A Red Potato In Late June

Drying Potato Plants in Early July

A Small Hill Of Red Potatoes In Mid July

All The Work Pays Off – Boiled Red Potatoes With Butter and Parsley

Earlier this week I decided it was time to dig the potatoes. Actually, it wasn’t much of a decision. We had finished super early that evening thanks to a pan of lasagna my sister-in-law dropped off and Sissy was off working with her steer for the fair with my brother. (More on that to come.) This left Potato Boy and LuLu at home getting a little restless. So, I figured playing in the garden might keep them from disturbing the peace in the house. Plus, since the potatoes had started drying down – partially because they had matured and partially because of the drought we’re in – I had started seeing signs that made me nervous to leave them in the ground much longer.

A Mouse Hole Next To A Hill Of Potatoes

A Potato Attacked By A Grub

My two main concerns were a couple of mouse holes that started popping up around the potatoes and the number of grub eaten potatoes I was starting to find – I lost 90% of my potatoes (about 8 hills) 3 years ago in our small town garden to grubs – I’ve been a little gun shy since.

So, with shovel and tote in hand – and Potato Boy and LuLu close behind – we set off for the garden. (I shouldn’t need to explain that digging potatoes for Potato Boy is like the 4th of July for Captain America.)

The Greenest Of The Plants

A Small Hill Of Red Potatoes

Potato Boy and LuLu Helping Out

I’d guess with the potatoes we already ate, and the few hills I left to dig later, we’ll easily end up with over 200 pounds of potatoes – most of which are now stored away in the basement. I’m happy with that given that we’ve now been classified as a moderate drought area and I never watered the potatoes.

The russets were plenty in number but small in size. I think it was simply too dry for them. The reds where all over the place. The very worst hills had at least three ping-bong ball sized spuds. The best hills had an entire meal for five under one plant. Size ranged anywhere from larger than a baseball to marble sized. They seemed to be the grubs favorites. The Kennebecs were the most consistent producer from hill to hill with a good number of potatoes under each plant ranging in size from a marble to just under the size of a softball.

It turned out to be a good night. Potato Boy and LuLu had a blast and got a little dirty – ok, very dirty – but nothing that didn’t wash off in the tub.

A couple weeks ago, I shared pictures of what the second floor of the house looked like last year at closing. These pictures were listed as bedroom 1:

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 1

Potato Boy ended up claiming this room. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but the carpet in this room was a pretty dicey – it was well aged. So after the same drywall-texture-paint routine that we did in Sissy’s room I pulled up the carpet hoping it find a wood floor to refinish. No luck – well, not at first glance. Under the carpet was the original 6″ pine boards that had been installed when the first half of the house was built over 100 years ago. Even that would have been neat sanded and varnished, but the boards already had several coats of paint… with the most recent being a shade of aqua blue.

So what do you do? The DW and I figured we had three options 1) carpet, 2) strip the floor and refinish it, or 3) get creative. We were leaning towards carpet because we knew we didn’t have time for #2. We also didn’t know the condition of the wood flooring under the paint and didn’t want to get into a bigger mess. We were still hesitant about carpet, though, because we knew Potato Boy loved to play on a hard surface floor – his toys all just worked better for him on a hard surface.

That’s were the creative part came in. Late one night after everyone else had gone home I was standing in the doorway of the bedroom when I had an idea. I grabbed some painter’s tape and got to work – 90 minutes later (10:35 pm to be exact) I snapped these photos and sent a text message to the DW with my idea.

The View From The Closet

The View From The Doorway

We picked up the floor paint the next day and by the end of the weekend Potato Boy was ready to play ball.

Looking Down Third Base Line

Looking Down First Base Line

It was a perfect fit with his Chicago Cubs decorations. Plus, there was another positive out of this… Potato Boy is so proud to show off his floor, that he rarely leaves his toys out after playing with them. He wants to make sure a mess doesn’t hide his ball diamond from visitors.

Potato Boy’s Room

I’ve been told my next project for Potato Boy’s room is to build a loft for his bed. Sounds like a good winter time project. I guess I better add it to the list.

Prior to our unplanned “vacation” a couple weeks back, we had plans on traveling out of town for a very close friend’s wedding last weekend. Needless to say with the DW on bed rest, that wasn’t happening now. Since everyone was looking forward to it, the kiddos’ grandparents offered to take Sissy and Potato Boy so at least some of the family would be able to join the celebration.

During the course of the day, the DW received tons of texts and photos from friends at the wedding keeping her up to speed on the day. But, later that evening the focus of the messages shifted from the bride and groom to the kiddos. From the stories told, it sounds like Potato Boy owned the dance floor.

I wouldn’t have believed it if there wasn’t the video to prove it. It was even rumored he did the splits once or twice. Coming from a guy that never could dance – I’m impressed.

So, how do you come down from a night like that?

Relaxing After A Long Night

That was one wedding the kiddos will remember for a long time to come.

Early this spring my parents offered us some red raspberry shoots. They have a well established patch and in the early spring new shoots like to spread into their garden. So, one evening after work I stopped by to clean their garden of shoots – I ended up taking home seventy 8 – 10″ shoots and left behind plenty more for the tiller to deal with.

In my experience with moving raspberries, the trick is to get the plants back into the ground as quickly as possible and then give them a good drink – so that’s what I did. Then, I kinda forgot about them – that is, until Potato Boy and I were walking through the garden recently.

A Good Start For The Spring Shoots

The plants have really taken off. Of the original seventy plants, sixty-five are still still there. Most of them even have berries ripening.

Red Raspberries Will Be Ready Soon

I’m going to try to start something a little different for Tuesdays by having a recipe to share. Maybe something we just tried for the first time, a family favorite, or something stolen from the secret family cookbook – ok, there really isn’t any secret family cookbook – not because there aren’t any secret family recipes, but rather because someone just prefers to keep the best recipes in their head instead of writing them down. (If I can get that person to put them on paper, I’ll be happy to share them.)

Our salsa recipe is simple, but a favorite around our house.

Fresh Salsa

Fresh Salsa

1 24 oz can tomatoes (I used crushed tomatoes with garlic and oregano)
1 large onion, diced
1 medium jalapeno pepper, minced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
lemon juice
salt and pepper

Simply mix the tomatoes, onion, pepper and cilantro. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Chill and enjoy.

This recipe really works great as a base to be tweaked for your own tastes. Add as much or little cilantro as you like. Like it hotter? Add more jalapeno. I like buying the crushed tomatoes with garlic and oregano already added (sometimes called Italian tomatoes), otherwise you can add your own seasoning. In a couple more weeks, we’ll skip the canned tomatoes all together and just dice fresh tomatoes. I’ve even seen a version of this recipe that calls for honey. Add what you like and make it your own.

LuLu and I were playing in the yard the other night when LuLu spotted the neighbor cutting hay. She would point and announce “I see it!” each time she would see the cab and smoke stack of the tractor over the top of the corn between us and the hay field. It lasted for about 15 minutes until she was distracted by Pip and headed off to the front porch. I didn’t think much of it until next morning.

Our New Visitors

I’m guessing these guys were hanging out in the hay field. Once it was cut, they needed to find a new home. I think they’re Cucumber Beetles – at least some of them – which means I’m afraid they’re going to like their new home and have no plans on leaving any time soon.

Cucumber Beetle – Click Image For Photo Credit

True to their name, they’ve already done a number on the cucumber vines.

Beetle Damage

Besides the cucumbers vines, they found the summer squash, zucchini, and velvet leaf tasty. (No, I’m not growing velvet leaf in the garden – I’m just a tab behind on weeding and now it seems to be handy to have as a bug distraction.) They haven’t touched the tomatoes or the pepper plants yet. I’m just happy they haven’t found the kiddos pumpkin patch yet. I’m pretty sure that even Pip couldn’t guard against these intruders.

Despite their best efforts, it appears that the kiddos will not have Indian Corn to sell with their pumpkins this fall. Unfortunately, it seemed doomed from the start. The seed was poor to germinate and what did poke through the ground did so over a 2 or 3 week period. Then every time the wind would blow some of it would fall over. Now, I think it just couldn’t tolerate the hot, dry weather.

It Doesn’t Look Good For The Kiddos Corn

No Bin-Buster Here

Luckily, this wasn’t the kiddos’ main concern. The pumpkins plants are doing great!

Part Of Row 1

Part Of Row 2

I’m impressed at how well the pumpkins have done so far and how well the kiddos have taken care of them. I was afraid that three rows of plants may have been too much for them starting out, but they’ve managed to stay ahead of the weeds – which meant an early morning weeding session last week to avoid the heat.