Squash, Pumpkins, and Squmpkins

I have been trying to get a post like this on my blog for probably about two weeks. Unfortunately things have been very hectic and I haven't had the chance to write it. I hope to correct that now.

I will start with the pictures from 19 September. I harvested a pumpkin and squmpkin then and planned to make a blog post, but that didn't happen.

Our zucchinis have done very well this year. We have harvested plenty for ourselves, to give away, and even sold some by the road. We didn't sell very many, but it was probably enough to cover the costs of seeds. We used a good bit during the course of the summer and now I have some in the freezer for the winter. When I free zucchini, I greatly in advance and then package it in 2 cup amounts in bags. 2 cups is the right amount for zucchini bread and also works well for many of the other recipes in which I include squash, such as soups, spaghetti sauces, and Mexican.

I don't know how well you can see it, but this picture shows a very large squash. We let this one grow large on purpose with the plan of harvesting seeds for next year. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that these seeds will actually produce zucchini, but we've decided to give it a shot. I harvested seeds by cutting it open and removing the best ones I could find. I then washed them off and spread them on newspaper to dry. I probably also could have taken the meat of the zucchini and grated and frozen it, but I decided not to.

These squmpkins are proof of how uncertain it is to collect seeds from squash for planting. They were grown from seeds that we brought home from one of my mother's squashes on our US trip last year. I had to plant about 25 seeds to get these two plants.They initially grew like a squash in one place, but later the one of them began to send out feelers like a pumpkin.

 

 

 

It was quite exciting to see what the white fruits would turn out like. We expected an oddly shaped white squash like the one that we think we got the seeds from. Instead, we appear to have gotten a white pumpkin. As you can see, when cut open, it shows stringy insides like a pumpkin. I baked it in two cut halves with the open side down, like I usually do for pumpkin. The resulting cooked pumpkin tasted like pumpkin usually does. I strained some of the extra moisture from the meat then puréed it with the staff blender. After packaging in 2 cup portions, I froze it. 

 

This type of pumpkin translates to “giant pumpkin.” They did not end up as large as I expected. I have not yet tried cutting or baking any of these. We have one that is ripe and two nice not ripe ones and one that is a little odd.

 

 

 

This is the only ripe one we have of the more classic American halloween pumpkin. My understanding from the seed packet is that they should still have a good meat for pies and other food uses. We have several in varying sizes at different points in maturity.

 

 

 

 

Because we have begun getting frost at night, I have had to harvest all the various squashes and pumpkins to prevent them from being destroyed. All are now packed in a clear tarp on the picnic table that I can open on sunny days. I hope at least some of them will ripen so I can harvest them. We also promised a white one and the ripe halloween-style one pictured above to my mother-in-law. She cans them in a Danish style that is sorta like a pickle. These two are the best in size for her to handle and use.

 

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

Oh, what a beautiful day. Oh, what a beautiful morning. Everything is going... okay.

Yes, I know that's not the proper words to the song but the proper words do not fit. But at least I'm feeling better today.

If you've been following my tweets, you know that I was down much of yesterday with a really bad migraine. DH had been up overnight because he couldn't sleep. He had gone out to the computer to check on the status of an auction on eBay. We were bidding on a new headstall for Quintas, because the pretty one that supposed to be hers I've been using on Ria because it has the bosal on. But that bosal and headstall match each other. The bosal is red and headstall has red details. They should, after all, both were bought for the same horse. What we didn't realize was that Ria would need one because she has stallion teeth.

To get back to the point, DH came back to bed after winning the auction. He woke me up because apparently I was whining, moaning, screaming, something like that in my sleep. So he asked me what was wrong, which was a migraine. Sweetheart that he is, he brought me a headache pill.

He brought me another one along with my regular painkiller before he left for work in the morning. When I first got up, my head wasn't too bad, but my hands were killing me. Sometime in the afternoon, my headache came back with a vengeance.

I took a pill and went to bed a little before three. Around quarter after, I had to run to the bathroom. I was sick. After a little while I went back to bed with my favorite bucket.

The noise was also bothering me of the traffic on the road. That I could fix with earplugs. I couldn't do anything about the blinking lights in my eyes because they were there when my eyes were closed and covered.

I guess I finally fell asleep because I don't remember anything else until DH got home. Even that I didn't hear at first because of earplugs.

When I told him about the squash situation he was mad. The first half of the squash situation is good. I put out 4 squash in the morning and by mid day two of those have been replaced by 10 kroner. When I went out to check later in the afternoon, the third was missing, but no money. I am still little bit optimistic that the person just didn't have change, so after making sure I had one in the garden for dinner tonight, I put the last one back out this morning.

Ria eats too much. She is the horse of our herd that needs the least to eat. Unfortunately, Daisy is still on the thin side. Because of an extreme lack of grass, we had to give the horses a big bale of hay. Since she's a bit of a pig, Ria stands there eating all day. Last time we were in a horse supply place, we bought her a grazing muzzle. So when DH got home last night I helped her put that on her. She handled it quite well.

So, getting back to the point of this morning, I woke up pretty much okay. My head's not too bad, but it's not great. I let the girls out right away and got a load of laundry started. After I had my glass of juice, I put my steel-toed boots on to go outside. I needed to put grazing muzzle back on Ria.

I did that without problem. However, Tracy was rubbing her head quite insistently on my rear end. I decided her fly mask was bothering her. I pulled off to find that there was a lot of hay under it and it was pretty dirty. The flies didn't seem bad, because there's a nice breeze outside. So I decided to take all the fly masks off to wash them. I took hers and Ria's and both seem relieved. Not long after I took Daisy's, she asked for it back. So Daisy is back in her fly mask.

Then I went to the garden to check on the squash. We had a new zucchini, which I need for making an omelet for dinner tonight. Oddly enough, I can't find the yellow roundish one that I had taken a picture of before. I hope it's just hiding in the leaves somewhere. The pumpkin on the giant pumpkin plant is now larger than a cantaloupe. There are also pumpkins on the other giant pumpkin plant. I'm very happy about that.

Since I have squash I need for dinner, I put the basket back out the road side. But if another one gets stolen I may have to give up this idea. I'm still hoping the person will come and leave money. Maybe they just didn't have change on them. If I knew it was someone that was starving and couldn't afford vegetables I be quite happy to give them my squash. DH thinks it's just the way people are -- that they suck.

So after that I came in with the fly masks, I got out the old dishpan and got them soak in the sink. Then I put Molly to work getting my boots off. I tried clicking and treating more often in the hopes that she would be quieter. It did seem to help a little bit, but it also annoyed her that I kept interrupting her work. However, she did her move my socks almost silently, and I clicked three times in the process.

I'm not sure how many times now change the water on the fly masks, but it seems to be getting cleaned out.

And while writing this my tea steeped (keemun with ginger). So now I'm going to have breakfast.

Photographic Garden Update

I took a lot of pictures earlier this week to update my viewers on the status of our garden. Because of the quantity I ended up with, I am not going to include them all here. Instead, check them out on my flickr, which includes descriptive blurbs.

You should be able to find 27 of them!

Zucchini Galore!

In case you haven't figured it out by now from tweets and other comments, we planted a lot of zucchini this year. I like it, DH has gotten used to my creative uses of it and loves zucchini bread, and we give some to friends. This year I am even selling some of our overstock at the roadside. (5 DKK each. sold 2 so far.)

Friday I prepared a few zucchini for freezing. I use the grater attachment to my mixer to grate it. Then I put a plastic bag in my pyrex measuring cup to measure 2C portions for freezing. 2C is the right amount for a single batch of zucchini bread (which makes 2 loaves unless I use a really big loaf pan). The portion is also great for other purposes. DH has to get the machine out and put it away, but without it I wouldn't be able to process near as much.

What do I do with all this zucchini? For one thing, I make a lot of zucchini bread. This is the recipe I use, which I got from my mother.

Zucchini Bread (Cake)

• 3 beaten eggs
• 1 C vegetable oil or apple sauce
• 2 C sugar
• 3 t vanilla
• 2 C grated zucchini
• 3 C flour
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 C soaked raisins, nuts, or coconut (optional)

Mix it all together and put into greased and floured loaf pans. Bake in a preheated over 350F or 175C for 1 hour.


I've done some experimenting with this recipe. For one thing, it is too sweet for danes. If using sweetened applesauce, I use HALF the called for sugar. Because we got a good deal on brown sugar and have lots of it (it is cheaper than white the way we got it), I use brown sugar.

Applesauce is preferred to oil for two reasons: it is healthier and the resulting bread is moister and tastes better. If you do use oil, be sure to use one that is a neutral taste. Neither olive oil or grapeseed oil is a good choice for this. Rapeseed (canola) and corn oil work fine.

Another healthiness improvement I often make is replacing part of the flour with oatmeal. This eliminates some of the wheat (I have an allergy but it isn't severe) and increases the fiber content of the cake. Replacing 1/3 of it is pretty much unnoticeable to the eater. Half works pretty well, if I remember right, but is more noticeable. I've also swapped portions out with whole wheat flour at times.

I have also baked these as cupcakes or muffins instead of loaves on several occasions. They take about 15-18 minutes in the oven that way. This is great for single portion servings, whether for visitors, a road trip, or freezing. It also eliminates the need to grease and flour, although my silicon loaf pan does that as well.

Speaking of freezing, these freeze really well. When I baked it Saturday, we kept a slightly larger loaf out for eating and froze the second smaller one. I wrapped the one to freeze in two layers of foil, labeled it with the contents and date, and put that into a plastic bag in the freezer.


Other Uses

At some point, I will be making stuffed zucchini boats for dinner. We usually use giant zucchini for this one. I will post the recipe for that at that time, because I have to make it up. I did this from memory in Danish the other day for my mother-in-law but I'd rather be making it at the time.

Zucchini and onion, seasoned with salt and pepper and optionally garlic, sauteed on a pan with olive oil is a GREAT side dish. We had that the other night with pork chops, oven-baked potato boat fries, and bernaise sauce. It is also good when you add mushrooms.

Pasta! Zucchini and other vegetables are great on pasta. I usually prefer fresh for this and will cut it into small pieces.

I add grated zucchini to all sorts of meat and one-dish meals. It is a great stretcher for the meat and a good way of getting more veggies into the diet. My burrito recipe recommends it. The thing with zucchini is that it takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it with. So it is easily disguised. Want more substance in that meat and tomato sauce for spaghetti? Throw in a bag of grated zucchini! It will mix in with the meat and your man, even if he is grumpy about veggies, is unlikely to notice!

I also use zucchini (either sliced fresh or grated frozen) in my pork chop-rice-tomato casserole. I think that was the use of the first one out of the garden this year.

Cut into sticks, zucchini goes great with carrot and celery sticks for dipping into salad dressing. I make a homemade salad dressing sometimes with sour cream, chives, parsley, and other stuff. It is great for that. You can also use it in salads either sliced or cut into half-moons or chunks.

That's all I think of for now. Feel free to contribute your own zucchini favorites in the comments!

Garden Pictures

I promised Mom pictures of the garden and thought the rest of you might enjoy them too.

We recently got a picnic table. With the gorgeous weather, we've been trying to eat outside. I can't stay sat long, but we both enjoy the fresh air. This picture was taken after we finished dinner. DH is training with the girls while I take pictures. Please excuse the white showing through the yellow on the walls. It is time to "whitewash" (only with yellow) the house so I have been scraping off the loose stuff. This is the kitchen (back) door.


The peonies are blooming. At least I think they are peonies. They don't have the ant infestation I am used to from Mom's peonies. The Danish name for them translates to "farmer's roses" or something like that.


Don't know what this one is. The flowers remind me a little of a snowball bush, but much smaller. Also DH swears it is a TREE. Ours just isn't very big yet.


These flowers come from some kind of bulb. We've actually been clearing a lot of them and other bulbs out of the flower bed to make room for herbs, but I thought I'd take a picture anyway.


This one is up in the stone bed behind the garden. When I first moved here, I'd pretty much gotten control over this bed, but with my inactivity of the past two years, it is more weeds and grass than things that belong there. We did clear a few spots this weekend and put in mounds of horse manure and planted pumpkins (the American Halloween ones)


This is looking from the stone bed out over the garden to the house. The small pins in the lower left corner are marking where pumpkin and squash have been planted. The net to the right is for the peas to support themselves on. Then you can see the entire flower bed, some of the girl's fence, the clothesline, and the picnic table.


This is the other half of the garden. Again the green net for peas. Four rows of potatoes that are doing well. The stuff closest to me is the rhubarb. We've got 3 times already this year and it is pretty much due for another cutting. The red section of building is the garage. You can see the trailer garage and the black storage shed to the right.


A plant I don't know what is. DH says it is some kind of medicinal herb, but it isn't in his herb book, so I don't know what to use and how. Anyone know? We've been using parts of the bed behind it as a compost pile for rhubarb leaves, etc.


This is the mint I use for tea and stuff. The one we think is peppermint.



I hope you enjoyed those! Feel free to post any questions you have or requests for better pictures of anything.

Overdue Update

Sorry for the extended delay updating this blog. Because it's been so long, I am not going to tell you about the rest of my visit from the Germans. Nor am I going to tell you about DH's military reunion weekend after. You're also going to have to live without the news of my weekend spent lying on my stomach after a gardening-induced backache (two weekends ago). Even though it was really fun, I'm not going to give you a big blurb on the trip to the race track with our friends down the road that have trotting horses. Only Edith would care about 20 chapters of her book that I edited. You also don't need to hear about ride this past Thursday that resulted in the current backache. No, I didn't fall off and no she didn't jump all over the place. It probably just aggravated the backache from the previous week. The weekend spent lying on the floor with my feet up on the sofa is also not very exciting. How much do you really need to know about Monday's trip to the chiropractor?

Instead I'm just going to tell you about today and not worry about all that other stuff.

Despite the continued backache, I am managing to be somewhat productive. Regular icing seems to be helping. So if I've done most of the dishes and spent a short visit with Queenie and Hopi in the pasture. The girls are managing to behave and Shawnee has not become a cliché again, like she did yesterday by chewing on my slipper.

Our garden is definitely coming along. The potatoes are growing like mad. DH planted six rows of peas. The rhubarb is overdue for its third cutting. I have to see about doing that tomorrow so we can take it to his parents after my chiropractor appointment. The giant pumpkins and regular zucchini have been moved out to the garden. The weird yellow squash thingy has come up despite our expectations to the contrary (I overwatered the dirt). The regular American aren't pumpkins are also about ready to be set outside. Today I found another empty meat tray, so I was able to start the thyme seeds that I just bought. For mom, who actually cares about this stuff and might be able to give me more information about them, it is Thymus vulgaris. The thyme I used to have died from the winter. We are hoping that we can start creating a ground cover in our flower bed with herbs. So anyone can recommend species that we appreciate it. So far, we are trying with the mint that we have and then this thyme.

We're having calzone for dinner tonight. I hope will be a right because we are using store-bought dough. It's shortening up the process a lot because I'm not up to more now. It will have fresh tomatoes, fresh oregano, ham strips, and grated cheese. Probably also other spices. Maybe a jar of mushrooms, if I feel like it.

Other than that I mostly just playing my silly horse game.

A Little of This, a Little of That, and a Lot of Pain

There is definitely plenty going on over here. DH has been off work since before Easter. I had some trouble the first few days with him wanting me to start my days earlier that my body was ready but we seem to have worked that out. Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. With everything going on is really hard to find the time and energy to blog.

I am riding approximately every other day. Where I ride depends on the weather and my mood. When it is windy, especially if the wind is towards the coast from the sea, I ride in the woods. We have had a few days that were still enough for me to ride along the coast. Those days I get Ria out in the water. I wanted to blog a lot about that but I just never seem to manage when I get in. Ria is afraid of water. She always has been fortunately, it's getting better. When we first got her she was totally paranoid to be the coast and getting her the water was impossible. She also wouldn't walk through puddles. It is something we have been working on and working on and working on. I am now able to get into the sea by myself without using my spurs. Last time we rode that direction, we crossed the stream twice and rode extensively in the water. It was a bit of a struggle because she was a little mad at me. The time before that we wrote in the woods and I made her take a path along the stream. The entire ride she was afraid I'd make her go in the water. She also been startled earlier on the ride by a duck that flew up out of the stream. She didn't do anything wrong, but she was jumpy. So when we approached the stream along the coast. She was about ready to jump out of her skin. But I let her sniff and take it easy and she crossed without problem.

I am due for a ride today, but I'm not sure I will get there.

Another project I'm working on is my secret leather project. I had to delay that for several days because of the migraine. I finally got working on it again last night and it looks great so far. But it's going to take me a lot of time to get it finished and I'm running out of time. I realized last night that this is the largest leather project I have undertaken to date. I hope my recipient will like it. Unfortunately, I think I need at least one more tool to finish it. The beveler I have is too large for some of the areas I need to work in. We'll try to get the leather store tomorrow to pick one up. I just hope that is not one of the items my mother had decided to give me for my birthday.

You see, my poor mother and I are cursed when it comes to United States postal system. Things sent from Denmark to the US generally do fine but that's the Danish postal system. Things coming to Denmark from the United States. To find unless my mother has sent them. I don't think the problem is my mother. I think we are cursed. Either that or the local post offices mom sends from totally sucks. According to the tracking information on the most recent package, it has taken a side trip to Brazil. This package contains my birthday presents from my parents, probably DH's presents from my parents, and DH's birthday present from me. This upcoming Tuesday is DH's 60th birthday.

Fortunately, I have a small item for him that I ordered from net friend in United States that actually got here. The rest will just have to wait. I really do feel bad for my mom because she is so upset about this package's side trip.

Preparing for this upcoming birthday is another thing to be keeping me busy. We're not doing anything much about it. Just going up to his parents for lunch, but I want to do a cake. A typical Danish cake is three cake layers with some kind of pudding-like cream in the middle. For my past birthday, we ended up using homemade chocolate pudding instead of the usual cake cream. So I've been speculating over what I would be making this time. I let him pick, so it turns out, we are going to have American instant pistachio pudding between one place, and American French vanilla instant pudding and other place. We'll probably have the usual crushed cookies and whiskey or cognac. I need to mix the pudding today and let sit. Then I need to build a cake tomorrow. That way we'll only need to add the whipped cream on Tuesday. The whipped cream is best fresh and everything is else is best if it's gotten to sit for a day. So I need to work on that today.

I may not have mentioned this before, but I have friends coming from Germany the end of month. I am really looking forward to the visit, but I want to get the house cleaned up a bit more before they arrive. So I've been trying to work on that what I've been able to find the energy and be up to it from the pain.

Our weather has been gorgeous. I just want to be outside all the time, but I have to accept the fact that I'm not up to it. The ground is still too cold for me to lie down on the ground. I've been trying to do some gardening, but it is very hard on my body. Yesterday I over did it once again and ended up having to crawl to something I could get up with after I fell a few times. I have been digging bulbs up that we no longer want in our main flower bed. Several of them have been spreading like mad. One we don't particularly like the flowers of. Others are just too copious and in the way. The ugly ones were not a problem because they were very shallow. The others were unfortunately about a foot deep. In the course of digging those up with a fork I ended up falling down. I spent some time on the ground digging them up the rest of the way by hand. And then managed to get back on my feet using the fork. I had stiffened up so much for my time on the ground that when I started walking in I fell. I was than without anything to use to get up. So I crawled through the recently tilled vegetable garden. We should finally be done with frost, so today I cut back the roses, lavender, and butterfly bush.

My stone bed was great a while ago but last season was wasted with my health. It is now pretty thoroughly overtaken by grass and I am not sure I will be able to reclaim it.

We are still waiting for our Shetland mare, Queenie, to foal. DH had been sure she would've had her foal this past Thursday, but there's still no sign of it. I think she's waiting for his birthday. He think she's waiting for to get warmer.

Gorgeous Weather

I managed to get up earlier today that I had been all week. I think it helped that DH brought me painkiller before he left for work. I am doing a good bit better. I am even managing to get around without crutches today.

I had planned to take it pretty easy today and mostly just play my game and do dishes. The gorgeous weather got the better of me though so I ended up doing little bit outside. The girls have been in and out of the fence all day because they love the sun.

DH planted potatoes yesterday, I think he said he set 53 of them. With the way the weather is, he will probably plant more today. He is worried that they'll come up too fast and be hit by frost, so he is covering them with a tarp after planting.

I decided to work on my herbs little bit. I promised my mother-in-law that I would try to make some plants for her. It's probably too early, but I did try a few pieces. We keep a collapsing stool hanging out in the carport so I took that so I could sit down. DH has contained most of the herbs in large pipes that has also raised their level a bit above ground.

The oregano is the only one that isn't contained yet. I can see this just starting to come up and I cleared away the old mint and other things from last year there were covering the area. I should be able to split off a small piece for her without problem.

The estragon is just starting out the bottoms. I cleared away all last year's dead stems and seeds. I try to loosen seeds up and shake them over the area in hopes that someone would come. It also should not be problem to get some of those for my mother-in-law.

There's no signs of life in the thyme and it's not looking very good. I cut that hard back and we'll just have to hope it comes.

The sage is not looking good either. I cut back the parts that really felt dead and I'll just have to see if something comes. I will also watch for to go on sale somewhere because I am afraid I will have to replace it.

There is definitely life in the curry. I cut away the deadest parts. I cut a few of the stems that had life in them and stuck them deep in the ground. If I am lucky, those will turn into plants. I left the rest uncut, so I can try again later.

My rosemary is definitely thriving. Only a little bit looked dead and I cut that away. Like with the curry, I cut a few pieces and try to set them in the ground. Let's cross our fingers that some grow.

The one chive is definitely coming in well. The other looks like it might be starting. It had gone to seed last year, so I cut away those stems.

That work was more than enough for my hip. Everything I cut away, I immediately put into a big basket, so it easier to throw out into the compost. I left my stool out because I hope to go out while DH is working the garden after he gets home.

When I came in, I decided to turn off the furnace and heat pump. I now have windows open in a few different rooms and the door open when the girls were in the fence. I also watered the plants. We really need the fresh air, so it just feels great to have it aired out.

We're just having porridge for dinner so I don't make anything in preparation. We're going to have what translates to one or porridge, which is barley based. Last night DH took a bag of my homemade applesauce out of the freezer that we will have with it. It is normally eaten with applesauce and syrup. We probably should have made this when my parents were here, because I bet my dad love it. He likes applesauce and he likes syrup so I bet he'd love the chance to eat them together. The porridge itself would be classified as a carrier product.