A Recipe and Some Gardening

Yesterday I was making a menu on the fly, since my meat options at the Farmer's Market were limited. Thanks to Pinterest and my Mom, I ended up figuring out a super-easy, and quite tasty dinner for last night (the one night that I just could not come up with a good meal for, haha).

-1 spaghetti squash, cut in half and baked at 400 for about 30 minutes

-1 8oz. jar of tomato paste

-2 pounds ground beef

-1 white onion, chopped

-3 cloves of garlic, minced

-1 tablespoon Italian season

-Salt and pepper to taste

-1 bunch Swiss chard, chopped

-1 egg, beaten

While the squash is baking, cook your ground beef with the onion and garlic. Move to a bowl using a slotted spoon and drain off the remaining drippings. Saute the chard in the same skillet in a little bit of butter. Add the tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and salt & pepper to the meat in the bowl. Add your cooked chard and the egg. (I beat my egg right in the bowl of meat.) Remove the squash from the skin, and add to the bowl. Mix well and put in a baking dish and bake for 15 minutes on 400.

 I didn't have any mozzarella cheese, but that would've made it even better. Next time. Hopefully it will be homemade mozzarella, if I remember to get rennet and citric acid next weekend!

Last weekend we bought a few bush bean plants. Zach planted them yesterday. Today he dug up a bigger garden space so that we can plant more. 

We're utilizing the area under the clothesline. It's the sunniest spot in our yard, and I should be able to dodge the plants when I'm hanging laundry.

We were surprised to find that our soil is beautiful - it's so dark and Zach said he barely needed the hoe. We came across tons of earthworms while we dug, which is quite exciting. I'm hoping that this try at a garden is successful. Our last garden was a miserable failure, and it's made me nervous to try again. But, we have a new yard, and renewed enthusiasm, so we shall see how it grows.

Since we're on the subject of the yard, here is our new gate. I'm quite proud of it. I did all of the cutting, and the overall planning. Zach contributed his muscles and know-how for assembling and hanging it. I no longer have to worry about Tony (or Jack) escaping, and the neighbors can't see right in. (I had to tell the neighbor boy to stop coming over to the gate when we were outside. It made Tony want to go out of the yard, and made me uncomfortable to have him just standing there watching us.)