Wordless Saturday : In my Garden

 Yellow

 Pink Roses

 Lavender

 Sage

 Tiger Lily

 Potato

 Basil

 Tomato

 Flat Parsley

Coriander

Peas

Blueberry

Spring is Here

It's been quite a while since I've been out to my back garden. Yup... this happens every time winter comes along and until God knows whenever. Well, "whenever" came along last weekend when I concluded that it was not that cold for me to go out and do some work on it. But then, something caught my attention...

Yes, spring is finally here...Alhamdulillah. There's still the continued freezing temperatures but, at least it's dry and bright. I have to start thinking of what to plant this year. Hmmm...I had a discussion with my beloved hubby so hopefully, when he has the time, he'll give me a hand with the digging and clearing the weeds (frustratingly, the only plant that seems to survive all year!). I'm telling you, it's not that easy to pull the weeds on your own.

I can't wait though. I've been thinking of planting some potatos, cucumbers and maybe more herbs.

Right beside the gorgeously bright daffodils, there's the parsley that I planted last summer. Amazingly, despite all the bad snowy weather, the parsley was still green and looked fresh as if nothing's happend weather-wise. Unfortunately, since taking this picture during the weekend, my kids had been begging me to play in the garden for the last few days and earlier today, just before I posted this entry, I went out and saw that my fresh green parsley was squashed and was not so fresh looking anymore. Hmmmpphhh...

Anyway, the good news is, in a few weeks time, my tulips (below) will start sprouting out and might bloom with some beautiful flowers too....if the kids don't get to them first. InshaAllah.

Hello Spring and so long Jack Frost!

Tomato Soup & Potato Kuih Keria: Fresh From the Garden

OK what did Mummy Nana cook today with all the produce  from her garden?

Other than the potatoes from my messy garden, I also have a few tomato plants. Before spring came along, I planted a few tomato seeds. It took quite sometime to grow as big as this. But my patience paid off. I now have plenty of red cherry tomatoes. I don't really like to eat them raw so, I made some soup out of them and ate it with garlic bread. It was really good and especially helpful to clear a bit of my sinuses. Eating hot soup is definitely one of the more understated remedies to make one feel a bit better.

I know there are lots of different ways to make a nice tomato soup. But I'm too lazy to log on the internet to find a really good recipe. I just used whatever ingredients I had in the kitchen instead. With utter laziness, this is how I made it:

10 Red Cherry Tomatoes
1 Carrot cut into chunks
3 sticks of Celery cut into chunks
5 Garlic cloves (crushed)
1 Chicken/Vegetable stock cube
1 cup of Water
3 tbsp Olive Oil


Method:
Put in all the ingredients except the olive oil, water and stock cube into a medium-sized casserole dish. Drizzle the olive oil and bake in a pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes (make sure all the vegetables are cooked and soft). Let it cool down for a little while and blend everything into a smooth puree. Pour the thick puree in a pot and put in the water and the stock cube. Let it boil while rememberng to stir gently and serve while it's still hot with some home made or ready made garlic bread. Mmmm....Yummy.

PS: If you don't have celery or carrots, don't worry. You can use any vegetable that you have in the fridge as long as it's around the same portion. You will be surprised and I bet that it'll still taste as nice.

 
These kuih keria were made using the potatoes from the garden. Not bad really. I just switched the main kuih keria ingredient from sweet potatoes to my own homegrown potatoes and poof! There they were, Potato Kuih Keria.

Abandoned Garden?

Ever since Ramadhan came along up until yesterday, I never had a chance to go out to my back garden and have a closer look to see what was going on with my whole setup. I know, I'm using the fasting month as an excuse but to be honest, I was just too lazy and didn't bother to go out at all, even to water my plants or do anything beneficial with them. I totally abandoned them for quite sometime.

By the time I convinced myself that my patch needed some TLC, it was starting to look like a mini jungle.

While I was in the garden, sorting out all the tangled vegetation in the patch,  I remembered that I had thrown a couple old potatos from my kitchen into the ground, right before Ramadhan. What I didn't know was, it had grown really quickly. As I wanted to clear the patch a little bit, I pulled them out and was utterly surpirsed as to what I found.......

I should have known, the Irish staple food is the good old spud and I suppose, it shouldn't be a surprise that they grow so well here. Or maybe, potatos are just so easy to grow. Come on, give it a try and let me know, OK?

Not bad results really considering that these came from a couple of almost rotten potatos.Oh, and not to forget my cherry tomatoes that I planted from seeds.

So, the next time you feel like throwing away your unused potatos, don't. Bury them in the ground. I definitely won't ever throw away any old potatoes in the kitchen from now on.

Anyway, with my new self-grown ingredients, what do you think Mummy Nana will be cooking today? I'll tell you in my next entry...

My Daughter's Sunflowers

A few months ago, when it was almost spring, I promised my daughter that we could do some gardening together. Like most kids, my kids love doing messy things. This includes gardening because they can dig the yucky, muddy soil and playe with it and of course plant some nice plants for themselves.


While my son chose to plant some peas which  he recently planted a few weeks ago, my daughter had planted a few dwarf sunflowers at the back of my small vegetable patch.

I told her that once she planted them, she had to take good care of them. Being the good little girl that she is, she's been watring them every day and has been eagerly waiting for the plant to pop out of the ground. A few weeks after planting the seeds, there was still no sign but after a few months, we saw sprouts coming from the planted spots and she jumped with joy.

With spring turning into summer, I could see the sunflowers plants growing very healthily with very big green leaves but for some odd reason there was no sign of the bright yellow flowers until recently.

So today, I'm so proud to show off my daughter's sunflowers. Isn't it nice? Of course, she couldn't have done it without my help. Ahaks!

Just an old video of Husayn in the garden

I am proud of myself!!

Two months ago, I did posted an entry about my very own green patch. I meant to have updates on this regurlarly, but somehow I just forgot to take pictures so, obviously there won't be any updates without any pics. I suppose, it's just too boring a story without the pictures!

This was taken 3 weeks ago

 However, this morning I wanted to cook something for breakfast. Actually, it was mee goreng and I was short of veggies in the fridge. So, as I had grown a few in my own garden, I thought it was about time I gave it a try.

Tadaaaaaaaaaaa..

As an update, my patch is now quite impressive...heheh sapa lagi nak puji kalau tak diri sendiri? Mak bangga!!

Apart from the few primroses, everything else is growing healthily and errr...very green. Boleh buat bisness nie... hehehe.

 

For today's breakfast, I took some of my Pak Choi from the garden. I chose the biggest one that was ready to be picked. I washed, cut and put it into my mee goreng. My husband doesn't eat Pak Choi or for that matter, any type of leafy vegetables but even he said this one tasted different. It's not bitter as other leafy vegetables. Of course it tastes good. It's 100% Organic hokay.

Today

 Sihat-sihat hokay

Do ignore my ugly kuali!

Anyone out there fancy a taste? You are more than welcome!!!

Finally... Spring is here!!!

For the last couple of days the weather been very good. Alhamdulillah. Spring is finally here in Ireland. Despite this, it's still a bit chilly but the sun shines very bright and makes my day.


Since last year, I haven't had a chance to make any real changes to my garden largely due to my pregnancy and the fact that I spent most of summer in Malaysia. So, this year, I thought I had to do something useful with the garden.

While my kids enjoyed playing/acting as Power Rangers R.P.M in our back garden, my husband and I were busy clearing a piece of my lawn with the intention of planting some nice flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs. The idea is that it's good in this recession that we're in at the moment.

But they just couldn't resist looking at my dirty hands so, they joined in to help me as well. Actually, it was probably more to play with the dirty soil that has lots of worms in it. Seriously, the worms are very BIG.

Don't mind my outfit. Just couldn't be bothered to change to a proper gardening clothes.

So here's a sneak peak from my almost-there veggie, herb and flower patch. I have few more plants in mind to grow in that small space. Just bear with me though. I'll post and update once I complete it and when it starts showing signs of growth.

Plants that are still invisible under the soil are sunflowers, chilies, tomatos, pak choi, little gem lettuce, tumeric, lilly, blueberries and a few more herbs.

Hopefully everything will grow as planned!