Planting Seeds for 2015

The other day, I went to the Dollar Tree and picked up some seed packets.  Today, after I was done running errands, cleaning the house, and prepping meals for the week, I decided to do some planting.

I love the smell of fresh dirt.  Not sure why though.  I enjoyed playing in dirt when I was a kid.  Am I weird?  Or maybe every gardener loves dirt?  :)

I started with the little greenhouses I got from the dollar tree.  I put dirt in each one.  Then I had to decide what seeds I wanted where.  Decisions, decisions.....I know most people think long and hard about planting.  I like to just dive right in and see what takes and what doesn't.

I picked out the seeds I wanted in the little greenhouse containers.

Curious to what seeds from certain veggies look like?  Well I'm going to show you.  :)

Greenbeans-  How adorable are the seeds?  I've never grown beans so I'm crossing my fingers.

Sugar Snap Peas-  They look like little dried up peas.

Alaska Peas- I grew these last year with huge success.

Broccoli-  Little black seeds.

The 4 green veggies above is all I planted in the little greenhouse containers.  I might go back and get some more of these containers if they do help my seeds sprout.  I like these containers so far.

See the seeds?  I covered them with more dirt.  Gave everyone a drink of water and then put the lid on them and set them in the window.

In some plastic cups I had, I poked some holes in the bottom for drainage and then added dirt and seeds.

Squash

Zucchini

Cucumber

Marigold

Sunflower

Carrots

Cherry Toms

Here's my sunny window with the seedlings.

With daily water, love and sunshine, I should see sprouts in about a week.  So, maybe by next weekend we will see something?  Now we just have to wait.

I have more seeds I want to plant but at least I've got some started.  I also want to get my seed bank and garden book organized.  More on that later.  :)

Homemade Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Nate wanted something sweet tonight after dinner.  I told him I wanted something too.  I went to my Pinterest and looked under my baking pins to see what looked good.  We don't have Peanut butter, Jelly, fresh lemons, fresh raspberries, cream cheese or marshmallow fluff.  (Nate forgot to tell me to get PB&J from the store today).  Everything, I was finding I had to say NOPE to because I didn't have all the ingredients.  And I wasn't going to the store. haha  

Finally, I came across a recipe for Texas Sheet Cake Cookies.  They looked easy and I had everything I needed to make them.  Plus, it was chocolate on chocolate and that's a winner for us.

If you love Texas Sheet Cake, then you will love these cookies.  They are THAT good.

You will need:

Cookies:

1 stick unsalted butter (room temp)

1/3 cup white sugar

1 egg (I used farm fresh)

1 tsp homemade vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (melted)

Icing:

1 stick unsalted butter (room temp)

2 tbsp cocoa

3 tbsp milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the dough:

In a large bowl, mix your butter and white sugar until fluffy.  Then mix in the egg and vanilla until combined.  Mix in the baking powder and salt.

Slowly add the flour and mix until combined.  Dough will become thick.

Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl at 30 second intervals until the chips are melted.  I had to heat on 30 seconds 3x.  Once melted mix the chips into the cookie dough until everything is evenly mixed.  On a pam sprayed cookie sheet, drop dough onto sheet.  Bake for 7-8 minutes until cookies appear to be set.  They will be soft.  Don't over bake them.  Once you take them out put them on a cooling rack to cool.

For the icing:

In a medium sauce pan, combine butter, cocoa, and milk on medium heat until all melted together.  Remove from heat and whisk in the powdered sugar.  Pour over cookies and let the icing set before serving.  (I put some wax paper under the cooling rack to catch the icing drippings).

They look and taste just like Texas sheet cake but in cookie form.  I will make these again!  :)

French Toast

I had some leftover French Bread from dinner last night so I decided to use it up this morning and make some French Toast before I headed out to run errands.

I got out everything I needed and also grabbed some farm fresh eggs from the fridge.  My friend, Melissa gave me these farm fresh eggs from her chickens when we got together recently.  

I love these eggs.  They are so good and have such a brilliant yellow yolk.

I whisked up the eggs with a splash of unsweetened almond milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, little bit of white sugar, and my homemade vanilla extract.  I dipped each slice of bread in the egg mixtures and cooked them up.  I also took the leftover egg mixture and made scrambled french eggs.  I didn't want to waste it.  :)  They turned out delicious as well.  I put some bacon bits in the eggs.  I served the french toast with some sugar free syrup and a little bit of powdered sugar on top.

Yummy!

Homemade Lemon Butter Cookies

I felt like baking and I wanted to make something new with lemon.  I came across this blog for lemon butter cookies.  It was an easy recipe and the only thing I needed to buy was a lemon.  I got the lemon today when I made a Target Supercenter run this morning.  :)

Here's the cookies.....

You will need:

1 cup butter (2 sticks, unsalted, room temp)

2/3 cup white sugar

1 egg (I used a farm fresh egg)

2 tsp fresh lemon zest (I zested the whole lemon)

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice  (I used more than a tbs.  I also set some aside for a glaze)

2 1/2 cups flour

Powdered/Confectioners sugar

To make:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Beat your butter and sugar until it's nice and fluffy.  Beat in your egg.  Add in your zest and lemon juice and mix in.  Gradually mix in the flour.  Dough will become thick.  Pam spray a cookie sheet.  Roll dough into balls and place on cookie sheet.  Press dough ball down a little and then use a fork to press down to make cross marks.  Dust a little powdered sugar on top of each cookie and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Take each cookie and place them on a cooling rack.   Once cool dust some powdered sugar on top of each cookie.

I had some lemon juice leftover and I wanted to use it so I figured I'd make a glaze.

Lemon glaze:

Powdered/Confectioners sugar

lemon juice

yellow food coloring

I used the rest of the lemon juice and mixed in some powdered sugar until it was thick to my liking.  I also added a little yellow food coloring for a bright yellow lemony color.  I drizzled some glaze on top of a cookie, dusted some powdered sugar and tasted it.  I liked it.  The glaze just gives you a little color and a more lemony taste.  (I think I've used the word lemony three times in this post.  haha) 

The glaze will dry in about 5 minutes.

Store the cookies in tupperware.  They won't last long though.  They are very good.  The cookies are nice and soft and they have a perfect amount of lemon goodness to them.  :)

Dollar Tree Goodies

I went to the Dollar Tree today to see if they had any seed packets.  I got some seeds from the Dollar Tree last year around this time.  I saw the seeds as soon as I walked in and around to the aisle.  They were in the same place as they were last year.  I probably had a huge smile on my face as I walked right over.  I began picking out the seeds I wanted.  A lady walked past and said her husband got his seeds yesterday and planted his seedlings last night.  I told her I had good success with my seeds last year and she said she was happy to hear that and she hopes we both do this year.  :)

Here's the seed packs.  They are 4 for $1 or .25 cents each.

I got a bunch of different seeds.

Here's a picture of them in the bag after I bought them.

There was also cute little succulents.  I picked one out and decided I would put it in my kitchen window at home.  I might go back and get a few more.  They look very real.

Here's the one I got.

It's happily sitting in the kitchen window sill.  And you don't need to water it, just love it.  :)

Here's all the gardening stuff I bought today.  I got 4 seed starter greenhouses, 2 bags of soil, a notebook and a mix of seed packets.  I looked for gloves but they didn't have any of those out.  There were some terracotta pots but that's really all the other gardening stuff they have at this time.  I'll go back in a few weeks so see what other gardening things they have.

Here's the seed starter greenhouse.  Each one holds 12 seedlings.  There was a bigger one but it didn't come with a drainage tray or a dome so I got this one.  I got 4 of them so hopefully I can get a good start on my little babies.  I'm hoping to plant this weekend.

I got 2 little bags of starter mix.

Here's the seed packets I got.  Broccoli, 2 different types of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, marigolds, sunflowers, zucchini, 2 different types of yellow squash, 3 different types of peas, and carrots.  :)

I also got a notebook.  I wrote down what seed packets I bought today on the first page.

I need to go through my seed bank and see if I have any leftovers I can use this year.  :)  I know I also saved some seeds from the harvested goodies that I can replant this year.  I'll start my baby seedlings inside again this year.  My greenhouse isn't up yet and probably won't get built until Spring so I won't be able to use it till late Spring/Early Summer.  I can't wait to get that going.  :)

Birthday/Christmas Friends Gathering

Since things have finally settled a bit after the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, we planned a late Birthday/Christmas get together with our friends.  

Here's my niece, E playing in A's playroom.

The baby doll in the cart is about as big as my niece.  So funny.  haha

There was lots of toys to play with.  My husband, even played.  haha  I believe they were pretending to eat ice cream.  :)

And of course, my niece found my Toms and put them on.  She loves playing with shoes.  It makes me laugh how much bigger my feet are compared to hers.  :)

We had Sausage balls, Spaghetti, salad, bread, sodas/water and cupcakes.  K picked up cupcakes from Pearl's in Richmond.  OMG......just look at them.

I claimed the top left one as soon as I saw it.  Chocolate on Chocolate....yes please!  

It was sooooooooooo good.  We had a great time!

Birthday Party for Nephew

On January 4th, my sister and niece came up so we could go to our nephews birthday party.  My nephew turned 10.  As soon as E came in she took her shoes and socks off and went running around.  We told her we were going bye bye so she got her shoes and socks and had to put them on herself.  :)

We got to the Fredericksburg Zoo Field House and found our nephew playing soccer with his friends.  Here's my niece watching them play and making pig noses on the glass.  haha

A was there at the party looking fabulous!  :)

Finally, it was time to go to the party room.  We had pizza to eat and sodas to drink.  We also had birthday cake.  Finally it was present time.  The girls helped open and pass out gifts.

As we were leaving, E saw a carousel and wanted to ride.  We put $1 in and it took it and did nothing.  We complained and a worker said "oh check to see if it's plugged in".  It wasn't plugged in.  We tried getting our $1 back and it wouldn't give it to us.  RIP OFF!!!  We put another $1 in and it started up.  E was a little scared at first but then she was okay.  :)

We left the party and my sister wanted to go to Wegmans so we did.  My niece fell asleep on the way.  We didn't want to wake her so we let her sleep and we waited and chatted in the car.

Finally, she woke up and then was excited to go shopping.  

We walked past the bakery and saw macarons.  My sister picked up a package and said we could try some later.

Once we got home I made some manwich sliders and sweet potato fries.  My sister and niece stayed for dinner.  I'd never made sweet potato fries before.  I'm not really a sweet potato person.  But these fries were DELICIOUS!!   They weren't as crispy as I would have liked but next time I will blanch them first before baking them so they crisp up.

Here's my niece eating and watching her Curious George cartoon.

My sister also surprised me with a little silhouette canvas of my niece that she made.  I love it!!!

Oh and we tried the macarons.  Very yummy.  Nate had the lemon one.  I had the chocolate and tried the pistachio.  They are pricey ($6) but a good treat to splurge on if you love macarons.

Target Dollar Spot

I love the Target Dollar Spot.  Every now and then, I find something I have to get.  The other day, it was a pack of dinosaurs.  :)

I love dinosaurs.  And for $1, why not?

I bought the pack and opened them as soon as I got home to check them out.

I plan to use them in my container garden this year.  :)