That’s it. We’re done. The garden was limping on as it was but this week the dogs decided to deliver the death blow. While playing in the backyard one of them ran through the netting, the other followed and decided the best place to assault each other was on top of my zucchini plant… That lasted for about 10 seconds, until about the time the two of the realized they were right next to a tomato plant. At that point the two of them began plucking cherry tomatoes right off the vine. Continue reading “Summer Garden 2014 – The End”
This probably would have been more appropriate last week. But, I’m not really big on Cinco de Mayo and margaritas are a great cocktail for any time of the year. D found this recipe and has been begging me to try it for a while now. I have to admit the mix of jalapenos and cucumbers had me intrigued… So, this weekend I made sure I had all the ingredients and go to work!
Most of the ingredients
Cucumber Jalapeno Margaritas
4 oz. tequila
1 lime
1 lemon
small cucumber
jalapeno simple syrup (see below)
Juice the lemon, lime, and cucumber. Cool the liquid in the refrigerator. Combine juice, tequila, and syrup in a large pitcher with ice. slices of cucumbers and jalapeno may be added as garnish. Serve in salt rimmed cups (margarita, martini, or whatever glasses you happen to have lying around.)
Jalapeno Simple Syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 jalapeno
Slice the jalapeno, removing seeds. Put water, sugar, and jalapeno slices into a pot. Boil the water on medium until sugar is dissolved. Simmer for about ten minutes with pot covered. Drain liquid through a fine mesh colander. Cool completely.
P.S. – if you don’t have a juicer getting liquid out of the cucumber could be a problem. I chopped it up and threw it in to the food processor and blended it into a rough paste and then put the puree into cheesecloth and squeezed the liquid out. Seemed to get the job down.
This was a surprisingly good take on the traditional margarita. D says it might just be here favorite variation so far. Her exact words were, “A plus and five gold stars.” That’s quite the endorsement and I’m inclined to agree with her. I think I like the traditional margarita a little more but this is certainly my favorite twist on the drink. The jalapeno syrup brings the heat and the cucumber brings the cool. It’s a lovely combination.
It’s been a few weeks since the garden went in, and a few since the heat wave that nearly killed it all. With everything thriving it seemed like a good idea to post an update.
Do you know what type of peppers these are? If so please let me know in the comments!
After the heatwave things actually cooled down quite a bit. Maybe too cool as out tomatoes stopped flowering and the green tomatoes just seem to be hanging out. The weather has started to warm up a little though and the two plants now seem to be budding again. Our jalapeno peppers are producing slowly as well, I think this is related to the weather as well. Our little red pepper plant is quite happy! The plant hasn’t grown any but it continues to pump out peppers at a rate of 4 or 5 a week! Everything else is slowly coming along. Beans are starting to vine, squash and eggplant are blooming, okra is doing its thing… We also planted some oregano and basil today (you can see them in the very first image.)
These tomatoes have been green for too long! I’m hoping the rising temperature turns them red!
