First Zucchini

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Yippee!

My first zucchini!

There's more coming of course.

Squash blossoms are so beautiful!

I got this spiral cutter to make zucchini noodles and boy does it work great.

I got it on line.  Quite inexpensive.

And I made Panko crusted, feta cheese stuffed chicken.

Delicious!

And yes, a low carb. meal.

Shirley

Happenings in the Garden

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First though, here's a picture of Dexter at his playtime.

He gets to go over to Jolene's doggie daycare and socialize with the other dogs.

He loves it.

Jolene comes and takes him for long walks at home too.

He ran around so much today she couldn't get a good picture of him that wasn't a blur!

He napped when he got home!

OK, as promised I wanted to show you how the spaghetti squash plant just keeps growing and growing!!

I hope I get more than one squash from this plant!

I have tomatoes : ))

I have a couple baby zucchini too but they were too deep to get a photo of.

Oh No!!  Somebody has been nibbling all my green beans!!

Also chomping at my swiss chard.

I haven't seen any rabbits.  Maybe the deer.

Meanwhile out front.

Here's my kitchen porch.

I've been working at weeding my little herb garden.

At least I can find the herbs now!

This is the forest of thistles I'm working my way through!

Outside the fence, the daisies are in bloom/

(along with a few thistles there too!!)

If it stays cool, I'll do more weeding tomorrow.

Shirley

I've Just Met Spaghetti Squash!

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I like all kinds of squash.

I don't know why I never tried this before.

I think I saw it on Pinterest lately and went right out and bought one.

Like they say, it's a great substitute for pasta noodles.

You cut it in half length wise.  Remove the seeds. 

Put cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes.

I think I'll try a shorter cooking time next time so it is less mushy.

It's supposed to be more like al dente pasta.

When it comes out of the oven you scrape the inside with a fork and the squash comes up like long strands that resemble noodles.

There's all kinds of things you can do with it from just butter, salt and pepper
to adding all kinds of things to it.
I just decided to put my turkey spaghetti sauce on top.
It was delicious.

I don't know why I gave myself such a little helping!  I had to go back for seconds.

By the way I have a spaghetti squash plant in my little vegetable garden and it's taking over.
This was a week ago.
It's now  HUGE!!

See, it's reaching out and trying to strangle my tomato plants!

Shirley

Fresh Organic Garden Vegetable Soup

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I bought these vegetables at the organic grocery store.  Mine aren't ready yet. 

I'm not a very good cook but I do get the urge every once in awhile.

I had the urge for real vegetable soup!

I looked at several recipes on Google and then this is what I came up with.

First I barely browned 2 cloves of garlic and a medium yellow onion.  Added a little water and sautéed a couple sliced carrots.

Then added 4 cans of regular beef broth

and

all the rest of the vegetables:

1 chopped green cabbage

1 chopped zucchini

some fresh broccoli

About a quarter of a sweet red pepper

A handful of fresh spinach chopped

and one big TBSP of tomato paste.

I added pepper but no salt as there's a lot of salt in the canned beef broth!

Toward the end I added fresh basil and oregano from my garden.

I cooked it till the carrots were not crispy.

It is really quite delicious!

And healthy.

(I suppose it would be healthier with low salt broth but probably not as tasty!))

I have a lot to freeze plus meals for the next couple days.

Yum!

Shirley

The Nastiest Weed!

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THISTLES!!!

I seem to be able to grow them really well!

Half of my front garden is filled with them

They are out of hand!!

AND THEY HURT!

I pulled 50 of them today.  (Well, 75 because I didn't count the small ones)

It hardly put a dent in them.

I decided to pull 50 every time I go out there.

Look at their pretty little flowers!

Those will soon turn into fluff balls and scatter even more seeds for MORE THISTLES!

This is the forest of thistles.  You can't even see my beautiful cone flowers that are in there someplace!

That's my herb garden on the left.

It got like this in a week!!

There's a brick path going to that white gate!!!!

Completely overgrown.

Here's what I was picking.

OMG, they are even coming through the porch!

HELP!

If anyone has a solution on how to rid myself of this awful weed, PLEASE tell me!!!!

I can't use poisons in my garden.

Shirley

Dexter's New Adventure

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My dog walker also has a doggy daycare at her home.

She lives back in the woods and the dogs have a big fenced in area to run and play.

I wanted to know how Dexter would be with other dogs.

Of course he was wonderful, friendly and playful.

I only left him there a couple hours today because I had to get home, but next week I'll take him there and leave him for the day.  He'll love that.  He didn't want to leave today!!

Good boy Dexter!

Shirley

Weeds Are Not Weeds Anymore!

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Weeds are now a treat that my girls love me to bring them.

I never go out to weed without bringing them a handful.

I got this hanging wire basket that is meant to pot a plant in but it makes the perfect

greens feeder!

I sometimes put left over scraps and lettuce and cabbage leaves from the kitchen in there 

but it's great for the weeds!

Eggo, you've got something stuck in your beak!

This is the oyster shell holder that they need for calcium to keep the egg shells nice and hard.

Whenever I crouch down or sit, they come right over to see if they can hop onto my lap!

That's Dottie and Martha.

Have a great evening.

Tomorrow Dexter goes on an adventure!!!!!!

Shirley