This Week at Nana's

Weather Update
May is still happening!               

Hot, hot, hot. (Buster Poindexter)

What a beautiful week of hot sun shining over us.

 

 Its time to start making the homemade ice teas.
Flavored Ice Tea Ideas

Garden Plants And Outdoors Update

Mid May and the plants have survived, frost, high winds and scorching days of heat. Recently, there is a threat of grass hoppers lurking about. They are every where in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As you walk along the back yard they jump up in droves. Its very amusing to watch the cats  having a great time catching and eating the grass hoppers. The grass hoppers have not found my little garden area...yet. Of course there is no threat of them eating the front yard since it is mostly dirt. Its getting cramped in the K9 Garden Club. I moved the tomato plants into larger containers and added the wire cones to support them as they grow. The bean plants are not growing as quickly as I had expected but they are developing new leaves each week.

Here is a tomato plant that has blossomed the first tiny yellow flowers. Very exciting.

I love fresh spinach salad. These are looking good.
Soon, I will be sharing this spinach with the neighbors. 
You really can grow spinach inside the house in planters and always have fresh salad. 
You can grow sprouts at home too. I sprout lentils. You can also sprout mung beans, sunflower seeds and chia seeds. Its cool to watch them grow into sprouts and they are delicious on salads and in pita pockets.  
How to sprout lentils video.

Here is a large green lettuce. 
Its so pretty. I hate to eat it. But it must be done.

Plenty of squash blossoms. At the right corner you can see one of the egg plants. When they flower it will be a beautiful purple blossom with a dash of yellow in the center. I grew eggplant last year and the plants took a long time to produce but each little eggplant was delicious and  worth it. I made a lot of egg plant parmigiano. Recipe here and its the best.

The strawberry plants are flowering and seem to be growing well. 
See the growth of a strawberry video.
The tiny watermelon plants are growing but they are growing sloooooooooooooow. 
Each plant has just two leaves. They really need to get growing.

How fast does a melon grow? 
This guy sure loves watermelons. 

The famous berry tree has fruited this year and is dropping berries. Today, I picked a cup of these yummy berries. Im curious to see how many I can get by the end of the week. The tree is in the neighbors yard and I can only get the ones that drop in my yard. LOL. Do you think it will be enough to bake a pie?  LOL.

Okay, I planted 4 giant boxes of wildflower seeds in the front yard but see no action going on. I'm going to assume that trying to grow flowers from seed in that front yard is impossible. Whaaaaaah!
The front yard plants that were planted in 2013 are growing pretty well. The rosemary smells amazing. The ivy plants are growing well too. I hope I can get the front yard to look presentable soon. I need more plants and grass! That's for sure.

I planted some greenery all along the picket fence last year. I also painted the fence with a fresh coat of white paint. The front fence has ivy plants growing and those were planted in 2013. I could take clipping from those ivy plants and sprout some more Ivy to add to the fence area. I wonder how long that would take to root some new ivy.  Hmmmm. 

At first glance I did read it as ASS and not ASK. 

But really they are the same. LOL

Pet Update

I made a new toy for Tuck. I kept forgetting to buy a ping pong ball at the store. Being imaginative, I put a spool in there and it floats. Its a thumbs up and he likes it. He chases it around the tank. Unfortunately, He hides when I get the camera out to video him . I wish I could get him on video playing with his toy. He chases it around. Its pretty funny to watch him. 

I hope you enjoy the video I made of me talking like a crazy lady to my pets. That's what happens to you when you adopt pets that are sooooo cute. Please excuse the accent. I sound much better in person. LOL.

No pets were harmed during the making of this video.

 
Its been pretty hot here and with the a/c not connected the baking has been limited. As you may have seen on my Facebook page, I had baked an apple pie. Its no secret that my favorite dessert is pie. Mostly, I like to bake pies for friends. I'm weird like that. I was going to bake the buttermilk pie but I had been given a giant bowl of green apples and they were starting to get soft. I know, it is unusual that people like to give me apples, but they do, along with hummus, bread and tortillas. Really, its because they know I will bake them a pie. LOL.

 Apple Pie by Grandma Ople

Ingredients:

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie 1/2 cup unsalted butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2.	Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3.	Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.