Stealing all the good ideas

My vertical garden (taken with crummy cellphone camera)

The original from Instructables-

I was looking at my blogroll, (right side of page lower) and I noticed The Patio Farmer had a post "Instructable - Vertical Planter In A Shoe Pocket Thingie" well not wanting to miss out on a new technique, I went there and she had a link to an "INSTRUCTABLE" (on of my fave spots on the web), Anyway it was this gal who made a vertical garden out of one of those hanging shoe thingys. Not being one to miss an oppurtunity for blatant plagarism, I immediately went out to the thrift stores... Bingo the first one I stopped at had one of those "shoe thingys" for 1.99, which I greedily snatched up, went home and made my own "Vertical Garden", which has mustard greens, Turnip greens, Chard seeds, Romaine Lattuce seeds, and Nasturtium seeds. IF this works next year I will have one with shady flowers. This would be a cool idea for apartment dwellers with little or no space to garden to grow forth and grow something. And yes those are christmas lights hanging from the eaves. I am changing those out for LED christmas lights for my porch. It gets dark back there!

Editors NOTE: I found that using 16 ounce Used Coffee cups, Filled with The soil mix works better than just filling the Pockets with soil. Only a problem if you have an aversion to digging around the garbage cans at Starbucks. Of course I don't have this aversion, and proudly dig cups out of the garbage. LOL I am just po' white trash!!! Don't forget to poke a hole in the bottom of the cup!

In defense of carbon offsets

My Pick-Up displaying its carbon offset

Today Crunchy Chicken had a post about purchasing offsets for travel. She used Terrapass. There is terrapass for cars, for your home, for travel, for college dorm life, even for weddings. I am familiar with terrapass, I saw it first on Living with Ed, and I have been buying offsets from them for my cars, in particular the Suzuki and the Tacoma Pick Up for a couple of years now. I would use the bus sytem to work, but working a late shift (2- 10:30pm) makes that near impossible-So i figure if I must drive why not make some good out of it? The Suzuki is really inexpensive to drive, gets a good rating from the EPA and is very inexpensive to buy a Terrapass offset for - Under $25 annually. The truck while being more comfortable (Think A/C, CD here folks) costs a bit more for it's offset (about $75). My low prices for offsets are due to the fact I don't drive much. And I think it is important to state that if I drive, I want the most for the $$$, and using an offset at least helps give back something. Terrapass invests the money received for the offsets into "green" energy- wind farms, manure methane, etc. etc. If I am going to drive and I am, I will use a carbon offset. There are a lot of carbon offsets out there- Terrapass, Native Energy, Carbon Fund.org to name a few- Of course a lot of times, like now I choose to drive my Honda scooter to work. It is the most efficient form of travel I own. Well that is not true- I do own a bike. But that ain't happening. So I drive the scoot, and I just watch out for the bugs at night. And never smile. And hope they come out with an affordable electric car soon. And if Terrapass is good enough for Ed Begley Jr., it is good enough for me!

Edible Schoolyards

Time for a rave! The other day I was ranting about community gardens and the lack of cities to provide resources (see land) and the fact the School district doesn't seem to be able to afford landscape maintenance any more and Rick, a fellow blogger and one of my readers made a comment about Alice Waters and her "Edible Schoolyard" program. The Edible Schoolyard can be found in Berkley. Very interesting website- they have online resources for creating edible schoolyards all over the place, lesson plans too. So take a minute and take a look at Alice Waters in a "60 Minutes" interview and read the edible schoolyard website. Thanks for the great tip and link Rick! I think we need some more programs like this!


Watch CBS Videos Online

Birdhouses and Chicken poop- The Weekly Challenge Update

Busy time at Casa Del Rob- the Golden Plum tree is making me work in the hot weather, giving me pounds of fresh plums; Trying to figure out how I can do my artsy thing during the buy nothing challenge; Romeo and Sammy keep me hopping! Well onto the challenges:

Sharon's Independence Days Challenge- Year two, week 13

1. Plant something: Experimenting with mints in a hanging (topsy turvey ) planter, transplanted some india mustard to the victory garden, planted a lavendar plant there, dug up two pumpkin plants and donated to the Bias to have some pumpkins growing by Halloween/day of the dead, Planted bok choy and corn salad seeds in victory garden, at home started some bok choy plants, some lettuce plants, planted sweet potato slips that I started on window sill(a little late I know but hey they wanted to be planted!)
2. Harvest something: Plum tree is wild with plums, been picking two or three pounds every day. Arugula and mustard greens that where starting to bolt; Bought some pickling cucumbers a garden stand; borage leaves; lettuce; basil, tomatoes
3. Harvest Something From the Victory Garden for the Food bank- Fennel, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, and plums from my tree
4. Preserve something: Canned pickles; froze some basil cubes, made and froze some plum turnovers,
5. Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair or compost something): Made a birdhouse from license plates, turn and added chicken manure to compost bin, made some fresh bedding for worm bin
6. Preparation and Storage: Stored the pickles in the pantry, still working on eating last years! Obtain some large terra-cotta planters from thrift store; Bought a fancy sprouter (found on sale at the Grainery- marked down because one tier had two minute cracks - doesn't take away from performance)

7. Build Community Food Systems: Took some plums to the food bank along with the Fennel, leaf lettuce and Swiss Chard grown in the Victory Garden; Did my watering day at the community gardens, Helping to plan a garden party at the community gardens
8. Eat the Food/Cook or eat something new): Made a salad with the mustard greens, arugula, some lettuce, (new)Plum turnovers, Used basil in spaghetti sauce;


Melinda’s Growing Challenge: I have artichokes on my artichoke plant- planted some lettuce and bok choy inside to start plants, still waiting on the broccoli to make a show!

Meat Free Mondays: This Monday I ate some oatmeal for breakfast with toast and homemade raspberry jam; At lunch My mom prepared a BBQ sandwich with TVP BBQ Beef; and fresh fruit,(gotta hand it to Ma- she really takes this Meat Free Monday thing serious- Thanks Ma!); for dinner I had a Brioche Roll with peanut butter and jam, and some rye-krisp crackers with pub cheese. And plums- I had plums! Lots of plums and tomatoes

A look at some of Romeo's Puppy Bling

Prepping For Crunchys Dont buy nothing challenge starting in August- Bought some metal working tools, Bought Romeo a stainless steel Water Bottle that I could hang from his leash, bought a fancy sprouter (found on sale at the grainery- marked down because one tier had two cracks - doesn't take away from performance)

Romeo- fashion icon of the pooch world

What are all the cool green dogs wearing this year. Well here we have that Fashionista Romeo sporting his leash, accessorized with his biodegradable "Bags On Board" dispenser, his portable water bowl, a Reusable water bottle and a "chico" bag, in case His owner needs to stop at the pet store and buy treats or toys. All the dogs are wearing them, although Romeo likes to think he is a trendsetter. Hear that Blitzkrieg? How about you Angel and Polie? Tell your owners you need this stuff for good walks!
A pic of what is attached to Romeo's leash- A "Chico" bag, (for shopping) a Yellow collapsible water dish, A "Bag's on Board" dispenser and a stainless steel reusable Water bottle! Rob says carrying all that bling works great for building up his biceps!

Home Grown Movie trailer

There is a documentary coming out about one of my favorate familys, The Dervaes. It will be cool to get a close up more personal look at their life and struggles to make it on 1/5 an acre. Maybe a bit more inspiration that some more of us can do this as well! The Trailer for "Homegrown" and if your havent joined freedom gardens yet get over there

Plum Turnovers

Well the barrage of plums has started on my Golden plum tree. I don't know if plum trees are self pollinating or not, but I have 1 plum tree loaded with tons of fruit. Well maybe not tons but a lot. But you know you are about to be inundated with recipes for plums.
I have taken my first donation to the food bank, and came up with an easy recipe for plum turn overs. Alas I have no pictures, cause they went fast, but they were good... a little tart but sweet.

Rob's Plum Turnovers

1 sheet of Puff Pastry, thawed
about 1 pound of plums, sliced and pitted
3/4 cups of sugar or splenda
1 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp. water, for egg wash

Preheat oven to 400
Mix the plums, sugar/splenda, flour and lemon juice well. Spoon onto puff pastry that has been sliced to about 3" X 6" rectangles. Fold over plum mix to make a triangle. Brush the turnovers with the egg wash. Seal the puff pastry with a fork or pie crimper or use your fingers. Make sure you slice a vent on the top of the crust. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool, serve. Really good with Ice Cream.

ROB'S RANT:Why Do Cities have a problem with P-Patches?

I was taking Romeo on our daily walk around the Bias, and I had an epiphany! (Yes it happens even to old Agnostics like me) Why do Cities have a problem seeing the answers right before their eyes? What I am ranting about is P-Patches, community gardens call them what you will. I was watching the city contractors mow, and trying to fix the sprinkler systems around the new Burien Town Square Park. And then it came to me- if they would allow community garden spots in some of these areas, they could save the costs of contractors, maintenance and having something interesting growing. Contractors wouldn't be needed, maintenance would be no problem - p-patch subscribers do the maintenance, and the only cost for the city would be water.
Seems pretty simple to me- And since I am a patriotic rant here about community gardening-Why plant all those trees along the street. Now I am all for trees, this area traditionally plants Oak. elm and other trees that are susceptible to disease and generally have to be removed, but why not plant some fruit trees? And the grass strips along streets could be p-patches as well. I don't mean to get on a rant here, but it seems to me that all the city managers, mayors and collective council folks should be embracing community gardening- in public places. Saves tax dollars, helps with city budgets. And while I am at it, the schools in our area aren't taking care of the landscaping around the school yards... I say let the students put in plots and then they could raise veggies for their lunch in the cafeterias. A lot healthier than "Mystery Meat", and probably tastier too (although I have a penchant for the pizza that my grade school use to make)
Maybe they are afraid it will make the city look like Mayberry, but then whats wrong with that?
Mayberry seems like a nice place, everyone helps each other. Only problem is that vixen Aunt Bea yelling all the time- "Opie!" "Andy!" Could be worse places to live.

Gardening at the BIAS- the journey continues

Great news- our little community garden is growing! Literally- we have two more beds, and have two more planned - 1 a winter garden and the other is "El Latinos Unidos" or the united Latin garden. That will be cared for by our two newest gardners Osman, Anna (his wife) originally from Honduras, and Efrem, originally from Mexico, truly an international community garden relflecting the many cultures that make up the city of Burien!

A tomato peeping out for a look in the Victory Garden.

Of course there is a hanging tomato, too

V I C T O R Y !


One of the new beds in the community garden

And the other

I don't know what is planted in these pots: some kind of pepper I suspect, along with nastrutiums.

Inspiration

Everyonce in awhile I need inspiration from others. This video produced by CBS news, is one of those newstories that make me want to watch TV news. Featuring the Dervaes family and others in the front lawns to garden movement shows how easy it is to get rid of that lawn and put in gardens:

And for some inspiration from my garden:Spaghetti squash growing in my front yard!
Sammy's fave: catnip growing in a pot

And looky here! I can has artichoke? Yes you can!

Anyone else have some "garden inspirations"?

Loveseats and License Plates- Weekly Challenge Update

Another busy week at Rob's World. Community garden is getting going, Almost time for the first harvest/Donation to the local food bank from the "Victory Garden" - just one month and some plants and seed! Bought some raspberries at the farmers' market and made some jam and froze some raspberry Sauce- not until after eating some sauce on Ice Cream!And I rescued a loveseat from my fave dumpster, made some more license plate planters.

Sharon's Independence Days Challenge- Year two, week 12

1. Plant something: Planted my rooting tomato, Started some basil seeds, planted a sage plant in the "victory garden"
2. Harvest something: Tomatoes, basil, greens, arugula
3. Preserve something: froze some sausage biscuits to eat later, froze some raspberry sauce, canned some raspberry jam, froze some basil cubes

The loveseat i found at Mom's dumpster with some new cheap cushions from Ikea

Plant pots made from License plates

4. Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair or compost something): Found an outdoor loveseat at my favorite dumpster; made a topsy turvey planter for the tomato I rooted, made a hanging herb planter (an experiment ala the upside down tomato planters made from pop bottles) ; mad a couple of more planters out of license plates
5. Preparation and Storage: Nope
6. Build Community Food Systems: did my watering day at the community gardens, bought ½ flat of raspberries at the farmers’ market
7. Eat the Food: Ate some raspberry jam on toast, some raspberry sauce on Ice Cream
8. Cook or eat something new: Nope

Melinda’s Growing Challenge: Re-potted the tomato I rescued from community garden, Saved seeds from some chive flowers(more)

Crunchy's Buy Nothing Challenge- Ok folks I signed up for another month of buying nothing with La Crunch, LOL Wonder what she will think when I buy a new freezer? Starts August 1st

Make Up Post

No not a post about the latest in DIY make-up. That's Crunchy's domain. I am naturally beautiful. Dammit. Don't hate me because I am beautiful!
This post is a make-up for my last Meat Free Monday post, where I happily posted about the wonders of ham biscuits. So i thought I would try them with some TVP. And they where fab. And so is the new Morningstar Farms Italian Sausages. Totally meat free! Can't wait to try them on the grill. I used them because I know of no decent TVP Ham. Anyway here is the rundown.

Easy Cheesy Ham Sausage Biscuits

1 can (8 oz.) refrigerated biscuits ("Grands" works best)
1 cup of Grated Swiss or cheddar cheese (or mix them if you are adventurous)
1 Morningstar Farms Italian Sausage, removed from the casing and finely diced
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp. water
3/4 c. finely crushed cracker crumbs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Separate biscuit dough into 10 biscuits. Carefully cut the biscuits in half so that each biscuit is now open. Put on 1 tablespoon of diced "sausage". Put biscuit back together, sealing the "sausage" inside the biscuit. Dip in egg wash, then in cheese, then in cracker crumbs. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Hint- use parchment paper on your cookie sheet, since the egg was has a tendency to make the biscuit stick!

And yes I know how to make ham biscuits from scratch... and I do from time to time- this is just a quick variation. And it makes for a good brunch item.

DONT BUY NUTHIN'

Ok Ms. Crunchola is at it again. Her timing is impeccable. She picks the time of year when I need to go out and buy a new mattress to put this challenge on. Oh well I can live another month on my old broken down mattress. Screw the economy, we got another challenge on. Maybe someone will put a new tempurpedic on freecycle. Maybe pigs will fly out my butt.

Rooting a tomato

On of my hanging tomatoes had and accident at the victory garden. I brought it home and stucv it in a mason jar of water. I got some nice root growth there!

I will probably replant it, although I don't know if I will replant it upside down or not. While I was working with the tomato look who I caught doing something naughty:

THEIVERY AMONGST BLOGGERS

I stole this meme from Ms. Chicken, who stole it from Ruchi, who stole it from Beany who stole it from Meadowlark...AND SO IT GOES
A - Age: 49

B - Bed size: Full

C - Chore you hate: Cleaning the kitty's litter box

D - Dog's name: Romeo

E - Essential start your day item: Smoking a ciggy

F - Favorite color: I drive two red cars, and my Vespa is black so of
course my favorite color is Green

G - Gold or Silver or Platinum: Silver

H - Height: 5'6" But I blog much taller

I - Instruments you play: In my life- I have played piano, saxophone, ukulele, harmonica, auto harp and the zither; now I just play the radio

J - Job title: Maintenance Plumber, BAT (certified) (Backflow assembly Tester)

K - Kid(s): No thank you

L - Living arrangements: 3 bedroom "cottage"

M - Mom's name: Darlene

N - Nicknames: Let see- Rob, Robbie, Boof, Prince Valiant

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Tonsillectomy, Congestive Heart Failure

P - Pet Peeve: Too many to list, Mostly involves other drivers

Q - Quote from a movie: "I love wrong numbers" from Ruthless People

R - Right handed or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: Spoiled Only Child

T - Time you wake up: Usually by 8, sometimes 10 never as late as 12:00

U- Underwear: Boxer Briefs, when I wear underwear, which is not always.
Never wear thongs. Or jockstraps. Sleep naked.

V - Vegetable you dislike: Eggplant. or Okra.I HAVE NEVER LIKED EITHER.

W - Ways you run late: Goofing off before work

X - X-rays you've had: Chest, Knee, foot. Catheter to check my heart. Dental.

Y - Yummy food you make: Jams; soups, pumpkin creme broulee I copy any recipe I see and looks tasty

Z - Zoo favorite: not a big fan of zoos but would have to go with Woodland Park zoo in Seattle

Who's next to steal this meme?

A new chair and a license to garden- my weekly challenge update

Sharon's Independence Days Challenge- Year two, week 11

1. Plant something: A lavender plant in the community garden space; Planted Swiss Chard;
2. Harvest something: India Mustard Greens; Arugula; Strawberries, tomatoes;
3. Preserve something: was going to freeze some of the Kousa Mahshi, but we ate it all, made some more instant oatmeal and stored in the big container

4. Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair or compost something): Reupholstered a chair found next to a dumpster, found a rolling cart next to same dumpster that needs some paint and it will be turned into a bar cart with a few modifications
5. Preparation and Storage: Paid off the roofing company;
6. Build Community Food Systems: Did my watering day at the community garden, planted a Lavender plant in the Victory Garden space; bought some “Lavoosh” Squash and peaches at Farmers’ market,
7. Eat the Food (Cook or eat something new): Kousa Mahshi (Stuffed Squash with tomato Sauce);

Melinda’s Growing Challenge: Saved some seeds from the “Lavoosh” Squash I used to make Kousa Mahshi (since it was organic squash, was not afraid to save the seeds), planted some chard; got some chive seeds from chive flowers that went to seed!

Kousa Mahshi- Aunt Shirleys stuffed Squash

You mad add this to Ruchi's Healthy food Carnival at Ardous Blog.
I was at the farmers market and one of the vendors had something called Lavoosh Squash. Don't google it- it aint there. But I recognised that as what I call Aunt Shirley's Squash. And I bought some pronto. Well I finally took a crack at Aunt Shirley's Stuffed Squash reicpe, finding one that sounded simular to My auntie's. My aunt Shirley was married to a Syrian/American and learned this from his mother. I have since found out the Syrian or middle eastern name is Kousa Mahshi (Stuffed squash with tomato sauce) and believe it or not I pretty much stayed with the recipe- except I used hamburger instead of ground lamb. That is how my Aunt made it. I would imagine you could use TVP(MorningStar farms Recipe starters Crumbles, for a meat free version. Anyway the recipe is here if you like. Thanks to the good people at Big Oven.com

Some hints-

When scooping out the squash- Instead of a "Syrian munara" (if you could find one) I used a 1" spade bit and my drill motor. Y'all know how I love it when power tools and cooking mix.

Try using a pastry bag to stuff the squash with the lamb and/or hamburger mixture.

Guilty Pleasures- Part Deux

Romeo's New biodegradable plastic poop bag holder

A few posts back I wrote about a guilty pleasure- I bought a Double Gulp at 7-11- today I am continuing in the same vain. I bought a bags on board Dispenser. Bags on Board is a company that makes and sells- plastic bags. For poop. When walking your dog, proper dog owner etiquette calls for the dog owner to pick up after said canine. And believe me Romeo has to poop. A lot. (I have come down with this theory- He doesn’t go as much when I have bags on my person.

My "homemade poop bag holder- made from an old container for staples- holds 4 plastic shopping bags- probably now will be used to reuse those bags!

So I made up a bag holder myself to make sure he always has poopy bags. Now this company, Bags on Board takes my idea and runs with it! (I expect royalties gentlemen!) Only they improved on it. Their bags are Biodegradable. (Note Biodegradable except as defined by California). What that means I don’t know- Maybe Ahnuld has come up with super dog poop that won’t allow the bag to biodegrade? Maybe he has covered his Hummer with them. Anyway I have written the company and asked them How their bags biodegrade? Are they made of corn polymer or something else? I couldn't find the answer on their website. I bought the dispenser and bags from REI, a store that I trust and am a member of. So we will see- when and if I get a response for The Bramton Company, the makers of Bags on Board, I will let you know.
I know, the wise thing would be to teach Romeo to sit on the toilet, but I swear just teaching him to sit is a challenge. That and I don’t subscribe to a newspaper so what’s he supposed to do for reading while on the can? At home he goes outside and I use a pooper scooper to pick up after him and the other dog. But that pooper scooper is too much to carry around. And since I don’t want to get into confrontations with folks who bitch when they step in my dog’s crap, (see the movie- “I love you man”)
Anyway I am still excited over these bags- I know you can say reduction is better than consumption. I still say Biodegradability is better than permanence.

Community Garden gets Famous

The B-Town Blog, the local news source for Burien has finally done the enivitable- there is a picture of my Ugly mug on it. They did a story about Sustainable Burien's efforts to create a community Garden in the Bias, and there is a pic of me and my fellow gardeners there. Also if you like to some some great pics taken by SuBu Member Rebecca, She has them posted on her picasa page. The community garden is doing fine- lots of tomatoes in the victory garden, I think the fennel is ready for harvest! Of course all veggies taken from the garden (at least the victory garden) will be donated to the local food bank.

Guilty Pleasures

IT was hot yesterday- I was in a vault testing a backflow (I am a state certified "BAT"- Backflow Assembly Tester) Anyway I found myself at 7-11, and I yielded into this:
a Double Gulp of diet Dr. Pepper, You know I never hardly ever buy pop and never from 7-11; but it just sounded so good and cooling

So to cure my guilt, my Double Gulp container became this:

The lid will be thrown away, the straw will be reused, and the Double Gulp Container became a planter for impatiens
So how do you solve justify your guilty pleasures?

The Flower and Garden show is saved!

Great news for any local fans of the NW Flower and Garden show- it has been sold to O’Loughlin Trade Shows of Portland and Tacoma according to press release through the NW Flower& Garden Show website. This means that my and many others favorite Garden Party will continue in Seattle. Slated for February 3 through the 7th at The Washington State Convention And Trade Center in Seattle. Great news indeed.

3 Cheers for Betty

It seems the Queen likes fresh veggies and fruits as well as anyone. This is a great video on her new allotment at Buckingham Palace- seems that upstart US president started something. Of course, unlike Michele Obama, Betty ain't going out and digging- it would not amuse her, even if she could shed those dresses and bonnets for a nice pair of overalls and a baseball cap. Well a Robs World salute to Her majesty-Pip Pip, Cheerios and Cocoa Puffs to HRH Elizabeth! Good Show, Betty, Good Show!

Ham Biscuits- Meat Free Monday

Well today was boring... As usual Romeo and I took a walk around the B/IAS and checked on the Community gardens- then we walked over to Burien Press and even though I hadn't eaten breakfast, I remembered it was Meat Free Monday and I decided to forgo the delicious Ham Biscuit, opted for a Muffin instead. I got my coffee, my muffin and had a good start to the day. Lunch at Ma's was two vegan burger patties(don't know what kind, but they were good) and some fruit. Lunch at work I simply heated two Bavarian pretzels and had a couple of peaches, and supper at home was some pasta with a little olive oil and fresh parsley. So why title the post Ham Biscuits if it was meat free Monday? Because I found a great recipe for ham Biscuits using Canned biscuits. I aint the poppin' fresh dough boy for nuthin'. These are easy to make and require very little ham, so could probably be made using scraps of ham after a big ham dinner or a bit of prosciutto since they don't take much. While not as good as home made Ham Biscuits they are quick and satisfying. Anyway here is the recipe:

EASY HAM & CHEESE BISCUITS

1 can (8 oz.) refrigerated biscuits ("Grands" works best)
1 cup of Grated Swiss or cheddar cheese (or mix them if you are adventurous
1 cup of ham, finely diced
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp. water
3/4 c. finely crushed onion cracker crumbs or any other seasoned cracker crumbs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Separate biscuit dough into 10 biscuits. Pat or roll out each to a 4 inch circle. carefully cut the biscuits in half so that each biscuit is now open. Put on 1 tablespoon of diced ham. Put biscuit back together, sealing the ham inside the biscuit.Dip in egg wash, then in cheese, then in cracker crumbs. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Hint- use parchment paper on your cookie sheet, since the egg was has a tendency to make the biscuit stick!

G-Day Mate- Aussie Sausage Rolls

I don’t know why but I get so hungry for Australian Sausage rolls, on Sundays when the Aussie Pie Shop in Burien is closed. I have, however come up with a reasonable facsimile using puff pastry. Not as good as the Australian Pie Company, but tasty and a step up from “Pigs in a blanket”!

Australian Sausage rolls
Some Sausage- about 1 pound or two nice links (I prefer to use Italian Sausage I buy at Hey Paison in Burien)
Chopped onion, about ½ cup
1 clove of Garlic finely mashed
1 Puff Pastry Sheet
1 egg

Remove the casings on the sausage. Take out the meat and add onion, and garlic. Unwrap your puff pastry sheet, divide it into 4 sections, put about 2-3 tablespoons of the sausage mixture on one half of a section and fold over crimping the sides together. Repeat with the rest of the puff pastry. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon of water, use as an egg wash- coating each roll with a pastry brush. Place on a pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes- serve warm.

My mom and I would go to a small coffee shop Called Olive’s East at the Southcenter mall and eat these (only they were passing them off as peroshki) with a light green salad, with a great house dressing, a cup of Sumatra coffee, and topped of with a pastry for dessert. That was years ago- when I was just a boy- (The “pre”-Starbuck’s days! When I bought one at the Australian Pie Company- instant recognition!)

New old planters- The Weekly Challenge update

Sharon's Independence Days Challenge- Year two, week 10

1. Plant something: Repotted a tomato in a hanging planter to replace one that got damaged at the “Victory garden”; planted some lettuce and mesclun greens in planters
2. Harvest something: Strawberries, pea pods, lettuce, India mustard greens, Beet Greens, Arugula, Squash Blossoms, Dandelion flowers,
3. Preserve something: froze some ham biscuits that I made,
4. Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair or compost something): put some construction debris in the recycle bin – was tin flashing so it can be recycled; re-used the water from canning bath to water potted veggies; making new planters out of old license plates
5. Preparation and Storage: hired a contractor to put new roof on garage;
6. Build Community Food Systems: Planted some seeds at Subu Demo garden aka The Victory Garden; took some plants from home to put in demo garden; Did my day of watering at the demo garden; took one of my “topsy turvey” tomato plants to the demo garden;
7. Eat the Food: Salad made from India mustard, lettuce;greens, arugula with feta cheese and balsamic vinegar and olive oil, topped with pepitas; Made dandelion fritters for the fourth;
8. Cook or eat something new:

Melinda’s Growing Challenge: Repotted a tomato in a hanging planter to replace one that got damaged at the “Victory garden”; planted some lettuce and mesclun greens seeds in planters

Melinda’s buying sustainably challenge: Didn’t buy anything except food- bought some onions and some peaches at farmers’ market; Last entry on this one for awhile as I am not sure the challenge is even going on!

A new planter-

-Made from old junk- I made a planter out of two old license plates. I like the look:
My cars will live on in one form or another!