Recipes for a Cheapskate Gardener - Barbecued Veggies

One of the best things about gardening is being able to create your own food from scratch...I mean REALLY from scratch...having everything in your dish come from your own yard.

You don't even have to go to the supermarket...

Among other crops this year, we grew corn, summer squash, onions, tomatoes, and carrots. This is how I use them in a summer barbecue.

First, I pick the squash, onions, carrots and corn and wash them thoroughly (except the corn).

Next, it's on to the tomatoes. Same thing...wash them well and set aside for later.

Chop up the squash, carrots and onions. Chop the onions very fine.  Dice the tomatoes and set aside separately.

Get a large ziploc bag. Put the carrots, squash, and onion in it. Also drop in around 3 tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon each of kosher salt, pepper, and chile powder. Seal the bag and shake it vigorously.

Now, get a sheet of foil paper and dump the contents of your ziploc bag on it. Loosely gather up the foil paper so that everything is wrapped up. Loose is the key word here, leave some gaps for the heat and smoke to permeate.

Start your barbecue, coals on one side (or if gas, leave at least one side unlit). Put the veggies in foil on the indirect heat side. Leave with lid covered for at least 30 minutes...you can use this time to cook the meat on the barbecue too.

About 15 minutes in, I throw the corn with the husks still on on the indirect side of the grill. These should be done at the end of the original 30 minutes too...they don't take as long to cook as the carrots do.

Serve as is on a plate and sprinkle some of the diced tomatoes and parmesan cheese on the veggies. The picture at the top shows what the veggies and corn looks like with my fabulous grilled duck breast. 

Aside from the meat, this meal probably cost me less than a dime. It is also fresher and tastier than anything you can get at a supermarket or a farmers market.  Can't you just imagine how good it tastes?

-Darryl

Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick

All rights reserved

FIELDS OF DREAMS - Season Wrapup - 2012

Our Field of Dreams reports might not be complete, but they’re up-to-date, meaning that every existing Major League Baseball stadium that we’ve seen a game in has been posted. 

Meanwhile, we still have four stadiums that we either have visited but not seen a game in, or…in the case of Oakland…it’s been such a long time that the information is no longer valid. Here are those four stadiums and our limited impressions of them…

Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan – Great looking stadium in downtown Detroit. Whether that’s good news or bad news depends on your opinion of the city. There’s a kid’s play area in the outfield featuring a little Ferris wheel and the tigers on each side of the scoreboard let you know what the home team is.


Here are the stats:
Opened: 2000
Surface: grass
Construction cost: $300 million
Capacity: 45,010
Field dimensions: Left Field – 345 ft.; left center – 370; Center Field – 420 ft.; right center – 365; Right Field – 330 ft.
Home team: Detroit Tigers (American League, MLB) 2000 - present
Events attended: none, just visited the stadium when the team was away.

The View from the Former McDonald's

U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago, Illinois – A fairly unloved replacement for the legendary Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox. Steep, the upper deck is set fairly far back. The front row of the upper deck is farther away from the field than the last row of the old stadium. It’s also famous for its exploding scoreboard, which shoots off fireworks when the Sox hit a home run.

Here are the stats:
Opened: 1991
Surface: Bluegrass
Construction cost: $167 million
Capacity: 44,321
Field dimensions: Left Field – 330 ft.; left center – 375; Center Field – 400 ft.; right center – 375; Right Field – 335 ft.
Home team: Chicago White Sox (American League, MLB) 1991 - present
Events attended: none, just visited the stadium when the team was away.

Wheelchair seating is spread out, mostly in the top row of the lower deck and into the outfield. The seats we examined look like they’d be a good place to watch a game from. There’s a very good ADA information page on the team’s website, including a map of wheelchair accessible seating. It’s one of the best we’ve seen.

Transit is excellent with an adjacent, wheelchair accessible Red Line station of the Chicago L.

Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada – The first successful retractable roof stadium. Notable features include the hotel in the outfield and artificial grass that causes no small amount of consternation and injuries to visiting teams. Located right next to the CN Tower.

Here are the stats:
Opened: 1989
Surface: AstroTurf GameDay Grass
Construction cost: $570 million
Capacity: 49,539
Field dimensions: Left Field – 328 ft.; left center – 375; Center Field – 400 ft.; right center – 375; Right Field – 328 ft.
Home team: Toronto Blue Jays (American League, MLB) 1989 - present
Events attended: none, just visited the stadium when the team was away.

When we went here, we went in a side door to see if we could get access. We walked right in…no one was there and the entrance went right to the seats. This was just before 9/11 so I assume the security has improved since then. That day, though, we wandered throughout a completely deserted section along the third base line. Originally, we had planned to see a game but when we found out they charged more for wheelchair accessible seats than comparable normal seats, we declined.

According to the team web site, wheelchair seating is dispersed throughout the stadium. The team has one of the weakest ADA information sections on their site, so you’ll want to call them at 416-341-3004.

While they are improving slowly, current Toronto transit is weak in accessibility.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Bryce Edwards under CC-BY License

Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California – Actually, my wife and I saw a game here way back in the 1980’s. The stadium has undergone massive changes since then, so it wouldn’t be fair to review the stadium on such old impressions. I do remember there being very little shade, however. Oakland is a team dating back to 1901 when it started in Philadelphia. The Athletics moved here from Kansas City in 1968. The team has had some well known and controversial players such as Jose Conseco and Mark McGwire. Others to wear the A’s uniform include Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley, Catfish Hunter, and Reggie Jackson. It’s also a multipurpose stadium, shared with the NFL’s Raiders, so it has some of the largest foul ball territory in the league.

Here are the stats:
Opened: 1966
Surface: Bluegrass
Construction cost: $25.5 million
Capacity: 35,067 (artificially limited)
Field dimensions: Left Field – 330 ft.; left center – 367; Center Field – 400 ft.; right center – 367; Right Field – 330 ft.
Home team: Oakland Athletics (American League, MLB) 1968 – present, Oakland Raiders (NFL) 1966 – 1981, 1995 - present
Events attended: one

A few things stand out about the Coliseum. First, the team has trouble drawing a good crowd, even when it is playing well. I remember seeing them in the playoffs with tickets still available at the gate. To alleviate this, the top deck was covered with a tarp taking those seats away from fans and artificially limiting capacity to under 36,000. Football capacity is almost double.

A new, and in my opinion, very ugly upper deck was added to center field to accommodate Al Davis’s desire to sell more tickets to football games. This deck has become known as “Mount Davis” in his honor.

The team had a proposal to move to nearby Fremont a few years ago that fell through. Now, it is in talks with San Jose to move the team there.

Wheelchair seating is available on most levels. The team maintains a very good ADA page on their website that includes a map of wheelchair seating. Call (877) 493-BALL for tickets.

Transit is very good to the park via BART, a subway that services the station via a pedestrian bridge only open on game days.

-Darryl

Copyright 2010 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Calling All Deadheads...This Week's Gardening Chores

No, there's no Dead concert going on. I'm talking about cutting off spent rose blossoms. They look dead, hence the term "deadheading." 

Here's a bush perfect for this .  To deadhead, find the first set of leaves under the dead blossom with at least 5 leaflets. You can go a little lower too, if you'd like...to keep the shape desired, etc. Cut on a angle just above those leaves.

When there are multiple deadheads on a stem, I like to cut low enough so I can get all of them in one cut.

Why deadhead? First, it makes the bush look cleaner and nicer. Second, dead blossoms left on the plant tend to turn into seed pods (rose hips) that inhibit more blossoms from forming on the bush. When you deadhead, you cut off the hormones that tell the plant to shut down flower production...flowers then sprout from the junction of the leaflet and stem where you cut.

Being early September, this will be the last deadheading of the season. This is pretty much the same for most of the continental United States. Along with the final deadheading, we feed our roses one more time with fertilizer. 

Now, we'll just let the roses be for the rest of the year. No cutting, no feeding (continue to water as needed, though). Those rose hips that develop will help nourish the plant for the cold weather to come.

Other chores going on for the Cheapskate this weekend:

Mowing the lawn
Fertilizing the garden
Checking spray patterns on the sprinklers and drip emitters

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

For Whom the Bell Tolls...

This year's vegetable garden went like this...everything was planted in March, transplanted in April. Harvest came with summer squash first, onions and carrots next, corn, tomatoes (still going strong), and bringing up the rear are our bell peppers.

Looks like we'll have a bumper crop from our two little plants. Grown exactly like a tomato plant, except without the need for cages or stakes, they start off a little slow but when they come to life they really start production.  Look at all the flower buds on this guy.

Watered by our drip system for 10 minutes, we start with every three days at the beginning of the season, every two days with spring warms up, and everyday in the blast furnace heat of summer that we get here in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills each summer.

Fertilizing happens every 2-3 weeks. This is the fertilizer I prefer to feed with:

Now, in August and September, I can go out and pick a fresh pepper almost everyday for use in salads, side dishes, and more.

Our bell peppers are the little plants that could.

-Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved.

Kamanawanalei'U

We live at the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains just east of Los Angeles. It gets very hot here in the summer and occasionally down to about 28 degrees in winter.

Plumerias, especially white varieties, do very well here. We've tried other colors but only the white survive.

They go dormant in the cool season but grow like weeds in the warm months.

These flowers, used to make leis in Hawai'i, are beautiful. Sometimes, strong winds will break off a branch. We stick in in the ground and it grows...then we have another plumeria bush.

I only water with the same schedule as our roses, and fertilize a little when I put some on the roses too. We get bunches and bunches of beautiful, fragrant island flowers every year.

-Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Now That's a Tomato!

So, I picked up these two sweet things at the farmer's market today.Why am I showing you what I bought at the market on a gardening blog?

These dog days of late summer are when we're more into harvesting than actual gardening in our vegetable garden. Tomatoes do real well here, this year we grew Big Red and Boxcar Willie varieties and have been enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Here, take a look at these two big tomatoes on our vine...

Anyway, we may be harvesting but I'm also thinking about next year's crop. 

I want to go a little bolder, and I think these heirloom varieties I got at the market would be great. I know they'll be great on a sandwich, in a sauce, or whatever we do with them, but the real reason I got them is to scoop the seeds out and will save them to plant next year.

 

Stay tuned to see how that turns out.

-Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Herbs My Mom Likes...and Bugs She Doesn't

Ok, so I don't know if my mom would really like it but I suspect she would. Her name is Rosemary, which is also the name of this very easy to grow herb that can develop into out-of-control bushes and hedges in warm, dry climates.

Great for mixing in with a lot of different food, just chop up the leaves and sprinkle in eggs, over pasta, whatever you think would be good. Be sure to wash the leaves real good first though...

You'll notice these little balls of foamy goo developing on your Rosemary plants from time to time. It's bug loogie.

Specifically, it's a ball of foam spit out by the appropriately named spittle bug and is used by it as a protective barrier while it eats and lives on the plant. They don't really do it any harm and can be washed off easily with a spray from the hose.

You can also us pyrethrum spray (available at the link on this page), a natural daisy-based insecticide, to kill them if you want.

All in all, it's a minor but slightly gross problem that shouldn't keep you from including Rosemary in your herb garden.

-Darryl

Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

The Beauty of Butterflies

Phaleanopsis orchids are very beautiful. They're also popular, being the best seller at flower shops, drug stores, department stores, and more as quick, relatively cheap ways of buying flowers for someone who wants it to last more than a few days by buying the blooming plant instead of the cut flowers.

It is also one of the hardest orchids for a beginner to grow.

Also called the butterfly orchid, Phalies are native to southeast Asia. Think the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. That's the environment you need to try to recreate...very hot and humid.  Most people need a greenhouse for this.

We usually avoid this variety but have received a few as gifts over the years.  Mostly, after they've bloomed, they're moved to my mother-in-law's house where she has a greenhouse and they can sit there until they bloom again.

We kept one back this time, however. The plant you see on this page was given to us at Christmas time in 2011. The blooms last for weeks and at the end of February, we moved it outside. This year's mild winter meant that the plant didn't freeze so we just let it live there as the weather grew ever warmer.

At the beginning of summer, I was in for a shock as the plant developed new buds and bloomed again. We actually got a phaleanopsis orchid to bloom again out on our plant stand in the back yard.

Since the area it sits in (shade on the north side of the house) gets a daily sprinkling, the plant gets enought water and humidity. Our temperatures over the summer ranged from 90 - 110...perfect for this heat-loving plant. I guess that was just the ticket for this guy.

We've moved it inside to enjoy the blooms but will put it back outside throught the fall. Let it winter in the house and move it back out and see if we can get a repeat performance.

We'll talk about other, easier to grow orchids as we go along here but if you get one of these butterfly orchids, don't toss it out when it's done. Put it in a warm place, water once or twice a week, fertilize every month or so, and see if you can't get it to thrive too.

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

CLASSIC TRIP - Phoenix, Arizona 2001

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

In 1990, we took our first vacation with a wheelchair. Our son, Tim, was three at the time and had just graduated to a chair from a stroller. This was also a time of very limited budgets so we stuck close to home and visited Arizona.

What really stuck in our mind from that trip was the Pointe hotel. For an unbelievable $59 per night we got a beautiful 2 room suite, full breakfast, evening cocktails, and full run of the resorts many amenities. There were many swimming pools to chill out the extreme desert heat, a fantastic golf course, and even stables to go on a desert horseback ride.

Ten years later, the Pointe is again on sale. AAA members can receive a rate of $84 a night from May to September. We decide to take them up on it and see if a weekend at the Pointe is still as magical as we remember.

Friday morning: we load up the van and head out on a 6 hour drive from L.A. to Phoenix. Mostly high-speed desert freeway along the way. At 3:00, we pull into the Pointe at Squaw Peak (note: last time we stayed at the Pointe at Tapatio Cliffs...there are three Pointe resorts in the Phoenix area).

First we stand in line for 15 minutes to check in and am presented with a paper to initial saying I’ll accept a rate that is $10 more than what I had reserved. When I question this, the desk clerk tells me that is an add-on fee for local phone calls, unlimited in-room coffee, miniature golf fees, fax service, and other business office services. I tell him I’m not interested in that stuff and he crosses off the extra charge. I’m glad of that but was not happy that the bill was just presented to me as if it was already a done deal. An explanation first as to what I was initialing would be helpful...this seemed a little underhanded to me.

At this point I should also let you know that the last time we were here, the Pointes were under independent ownership. Now they are a part of Hilton Hotels.

Next...that delicious breakfast and cocktail hour? Gone. OK, the worst part’s over. Now on to our room. Before we left for it, the desk clerk apologized because of our accessible room saying it was all he had left. I directed his attention down below the counter where he could see Tim in the wheelchair and let him know it was OK...we really did want the accessible digs.

Now we drive over to our room and yes, for the most part, it is accessible with wide doors and no steps. The bathroom is huge with plenty of room to roll. There is no roll in shower but the showerhead is on a hose and there are grab bars a plenty. After unpacking, we head over to tonight’s destination, the BOB (now known as Chase Field- Ed).

A view of the BOB Chase Field

Our local Angels are in town tonight playing the Diamondbacks. We called ahead for tickets and are looking forward to the game. Our seats are in section 105 in right field. We get to the top of the section and are about to take our seats when the usher tells us we’re in the wrong place...actually, we’re in the first row. Down we go to seats that are separated from Tim Salmon standing in right field only by a chain link fence. Another chain link fence on our left is all that keeps us from going into the Angels’ bull pen. I like these seats a lot.

Front row seats at the BOB...the umbrellas in the background is where the pool is

The stadium is practically brand new. It’s also unique in that it can be used in indoor mode or, with the retractable roof engaged, outdoor. When we take our seats, the roof is closed. Then, with serious sounding chanting music (think 2001 or a religious horror movie like the Omen) the roof parts revealing the desert stars and moon.

To our right is another unique feature of the stadium. The BOB (Bank One Ballpark) Chase Field is the only major league stadium with a swimming pool and spa. For only $4800 (in 2001) per game, you and up to 34 of your friends can splash in your own pool party while watching the game. The pool even has a lift to help disabled swimmers into the drink. And, if you’re a little sneaky, you can use the pool’s locker room’s roll-in shower since the hotel doesn’t have one! (The pool locker rooms double as the accessible restrooms for regular spectators)

The Angels lose even though we cheer our hearts out (and feeling very lonely in the midst of over 40,000 Diamondback fans) but we have a great time. The staff and the fans are very friendly here.

The next morning we have breakfast at a nearby diner. Then it’s on to highlight number 2 of our trip, the Hole in the Wall River Ranch. This is the Pointe’s very own water park right across the parking lot from our room. After slathering on a generous portion of SPF 30 sunscreen, we head on in.

There are several pools and spas here but for kids and the young-at-heart, there are also a big waterslide, a miniature golf course, and our favorite, the Lazy River.

Enjoying the lazy river at the Pointe

The Lazy River, where we would spend the next several hours, is a half-mile man-made river you float around on in an inner tube. It’s fun, wet, and very relaxing. The rest of the afternoon is spent with Tim swimming around the regular pool.

Another view of the lazy river

Dinner tonight is a decent t-bone steak at the Hole in the Wall restaurant, adjacent to the River Ranch. The next morning we return for breakfast and another couple of hours of tubin’ the Lazy River before checking out and going home.

-Darryl
Copyright 2001 - Darryl Musick

Carrots...Are They Worth It?

This is the second year we tried to grow carrots. They're not hard, until it comes to harvest time.  Not real easy to know when they're ripe and the roots tend to tangle in themselves.

Carrots are a great food. Very nutritious, easy to cook, and tasty. When kids try veggies, this is one of them that they usually end up liking.

So is it worth it? Maybe is you have more room than us. On our tiny plot of land, the carrots tend to get crowded. When you pick them, there is a lot of cleaning to do...after all, the edible part is covered with dirt.

You need to take off the crown and wash the bejeebus out of them.  If you get nice and straight carrots, fine...you can easily peel them with a potato peeler. If they get all tangled up with each other, like ours do, there's not much a peeler can to. You also end up with a lot of trash.

This is about 1/3 of our harvest this year. After spending a lot of effort to clean the last of our crop, I ran it through a food processor and will freeze it so we can use it whenever we need it.

Delicious things but thinking of the work, the water, and the fertilizer that went into this...and then seeing a bag of clean, peeled, baby carrots at the store about four times as big as this for $1.26...I'm going to say it's not worth it for us to keep carrots in our garden.

Live and learn, not every crop is going to be for you.

Darryl
Copyright 2012 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved