Container Garden Summer Update

Here's how my not-so-little container garden is doing....

April 2011

June 2011

Dulce de Leche Frozen Yogurt Sandwiches

I am a tiny bit obsessed with sweetened condensed milk dulce de leche.  It's easy and so so yummy!!  I originally found out how to make dulce de leche through the Ravenous Couple Cooking blog: http://www.theravenouscouple.com/.  They also posted a recipe for dulce de leche ice cream but since I am slightly lactose intolerant, ice cream usually doesn't sit well with me. :-(  BUT, I can eat frozen yogurt!! Even though there is a little cream or milk added to most froyo recipes, compared to the heavy cream and milk in ice cream, I can handle some frozen yogurt!

Back to Basics: Socks

As most of you all know, I have a little obsession with urban homesteading.  Starting a container garden on my balcony, composting with worms are all in the pursuit of living off the grid, knowing where my food comes from and being a little more self-sufficient. Beyond the gardening and composting, I feel it's also important to have some other basic skills like knitting!  I'm not the best knitter.  I hate math and anything to do with numbers (I'm probably one of the few Asians who can't do math) and knitting has a lot of math and counting to deal with, but it's a challenge and I like a challenge.

Tea with a side of Composting

For the last 3 or 4 months, I've been trying my hand at composting in a bucket.  I started with some left over worm castings with dead leaves in a little red bucket.  I added some dead vegetation when I started pruning my container garden, dirt and paper products.

Well, things were going well, at first, but then it rained a lot for days on end, the bucket started getting a little stinky and attracting flies/gnats.  So I added more dirt, mixed it a bit and added holes for drainage.  I ended up having to let things dry out a bit but continued to add clippings from my garden as plants either died or I killed- like my perillas :-(  So this is how it's looking now....

Drats, Gnats!

It's been really rainy lately.  This past weekend, it finally let up and I was on my balcony making sure the plants were o.k.  Well, unfortunately, the moist soil and the warm temperatures have brought on a gnat infestation!! I spent all afternoon yesterday re-potting some of my infected plants, which were ones that were planted in Miracle Grow Organic potting soil. My radishes, lettuces and carrots- all O.K. and they were planted in a cheap Big Lots brand, called Black Magic.  This morning, I go out there and the gnats are all in my pepper plant and my parsley/marigold/thyme/nasturtium mixed planter!! I hate gnats!!

The afflicted

Vinegar and dish soap trap 

I don't mind re-potting the peppers, but my mixed planter?!..... damnit! I even used a diluted chlorine solution to drench the soil.  Apparently, the chlorine should kill the eggs. This sucks!

A Beautiful Surprise!

Got back from a week working in DC to this.....

They are gorgeous! And best of all, they were a gift given to the boyfriend who in turn gave them to me! I'm excited to learn how to care for them and hope they'll thrive. XOXO

Dulce de Leche Obsession!

I have been a little obsessed with making dulce de leche by boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk.  The recipe and instructions can be found on the Ravenous Couple blog: http://www.theravenouscouple.com/2011/03/dulce-de-leche-ice-cream.html

So, they used it to make ice cream, which sounds pretty amazing but as a person suffering from lactose intolerance, not so good. :-(  I was also curious to see if the sweetened condense milk would be different if boiled for 3 hours as opposed to 2.  Well, last night, I just couldn't let it go and had to experiment. I boiled 2 cans of sweetened condense milk, one for 2 hours and the other for 3. 

As you can see the one on the right, which was boiled for 3 hours, is a wee bit darker.  The sweetened condense milk also thickened a bit more and the flavor intensified.  It was like dulce de leche pudding!!!  SOOOOO GOOOOD!  Anyway, so if one can't make ice cream, what are you supposed to do?