Cucumber Ice Cream

Right now, my most prolific garden plant is the cucumber. I’ve been eating them (and drinking them) like crazy.

This means I’ve felt the need to get creative with them, so, today, I made ice cream. It’s awesome. Sweet and cucumbery with a hint of ginger and vanilla. Next time, I’ll make sure I have candied ginger in the house and I’ll throw a handful of it into the ice cream instead of the ground ginger.

Cucumber Ice Cream

2 6inch cucumbers

2TBL powdered sugar

2TBL Dark Agave Syrup

2tsp ground ginger

2C non-dairy creamer (I actually used 2C of Rich’s Non-dairy Whipped Topping, and liquid Soyatoo would work just fine too)

Blend cucumbers in food processor until you have a smooth, thick liquid. It should be 1-1.5 cups of thick liquid. Process powdered sugar, agave, and ginger until mixed well.

Fold in whipped topping. (You can whip it up a bit, which will make for an awesome fluffy ice cream)

Add to ice cream maker for 30ish minutes, or until frozen.

My Garden in Photos

My garden is growing like crazy. I picked my very first radish today, and it was beautiful and delicious.

 

Bush Delicata Squash

Radishes with tiny peppers in the center

Green Nutmeg Melon Flowers

Tomato Flower

Tomato Flower

Strawberries

Beets

Black Beauty Zucchini

Mystery Flower that just keeps growing

The First Lilies

The First Radish

I’ve started my garden!

Wooooo! I’m doing a happy spring dance as I type.

Really.

I mostly started my plants from seed. Most of the seeds I got from Cubits on Etsy. She’s great. I’ve ordered seeds from her for two years now. Check her out if you’re even remotely interested in starting plants from seed.

 

So far, I’ve planted:

Patti Pan Squash

Black Beauty Zucchini

Amish Paste Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

Italian Noir Tomatoes

Bush Delicata Squash

Chioggia Beets

Early Tall Top Beets

Mini Red Bell Peppers

Random Colored Bell Peppers (yellow, white, purple, red, and orange)

 

From Prior Years, I have:

Mystery Lettuce (It didn’t germinate last year, but it came up full-force this spring)

Strawberries (My dad keeps threatening to pull his mess of strawberries out, so I stole some for myself – they produce *amazing* berries)

Oregano (it’s out of control, personally, I think we should just pull it)

Parsley

Rosemary

 

Next to plant:

Little Finger Eggplant

Rosa Bianca Eggplant

 

I’m not growing any really big squash or melons this year, as we had a pretty dry winter, and I’m not honestly sure if we’ll have enough water for what I’ve planted.

 

The real fun began after I bought little 2″ terracotta pots and made some adorable plant markers:

These were super easy. I just used tiny terracotta pots (super cheap at craft stores), used tiny alphabet stamps to stamp the type of plant onto it (I used Patio Paint), and Modge-Podged ladybugs and butterflies onto a couple of pots. Recycle your old wire coat-hangers – straighten them out, cut them in half, then curl them into shepherd’s hooks, and hang the pots off them.

 

Do you garden? What do you use to label your plants?

New site, Bananas, Pasta, and Another cake

You may have noticed – I moved. Blogger has been making me crazy, and, I’m loving WordPress. Let me know what you think of the new blog! So far, I think I like the simplicity.

We’re ten weeks from the Last Frost, and I am itching to see some spring. Well, January certainly felt like spring, but I couldn’t plant anything. I’ve been ordering seeds like crazy. Today, an envelope from Cubits arrived in my post office box. It included butternut squash, moon and stars watermelon, moonglow tomatoes, and a surprise package of red salad bowl lettuce.

I had the privilege of making a birthday cake for an old friend’s daughter’s birthday. It was a simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting. What could go wrong?

with mini cupcakes to match:

Isn’t it cute? I’m loving the polka-dots.

Its been a while, and I have a recipe for you. Well, I sort of have two recipes for you, but to call the second one a “recipe” isn’t completely accurate.

Lemony Whole Wheat Pasta with Spinach and Chickpeas

1can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 package frozen spinach, thawed

juice 1 whole lemon

Whole Wheat Penne Pasta – amount is up to you, depending on the pasta to spinach/chickpea ratio you like

a few T grapeseed oil

Cook your pasta. Rinse and set aside. In large, deep pan, heat spinach and chickpeas through. Add lemon juice. mix well. Add pasta. Mix together. Drizzle oil over and mix well.

Eat. Its crazy-easy, and I don’t even mind coming home after a very long day of work to make it.

For dessert, I love keeping it simple, and I love eating fruit – I get my sugar fix without feeling guilty.

Slice a banana in to coins. Lay on plate. drizzle agave syrup on top. Sprinkle cinnamon over. drool. eat.