Making Sandwiches with Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Last month I made oven roasted tomatoes for the first time.  They are yummy!  The flavor is so concentrated and so tasty.  Yesterday I heated up some of the tomatoes over a skillet just to warm them up and put them in a turkey and goat cheese sandwich.

I grilled the sandwich because I love the taste of melted goat cheese.  Ahh, the tomatoes make it taste like summer!

See what others are making at Greenish Thumb in the Garden to Table Challenge.

How to make free compost bins!

Last week the hubs and I went to a mom and pop hardware store to look for pectin and canning lids. It's impossible to find these supplies here in Staten Island, the big box stores don't carry it. I saw a circular advertising some canning supplies as Doody Home Center, a family owned hardware / home center. I love giving business to local family businesses. When we got there, I bought canning lids, but they didn't sell pectin. (sigh)  I guess I'll have to order it online.  The trip was not a wasted one though, when we were walking to our car, I saw in the corner of my eye, that they had wooden pallets.  I looked over to the hubs and said, I wonder if we could ask them if we could have these?  He gave me this look like, "Oh no, not another one of your ideas!"  I said 2 words, "compost bin".  He just smiled and begrudgingly said "Um... Oh... okay".  LOL!  What he puts up with!  So we did, we asked the guys at the loading dock, and they said, sure, take the ones by the dumpster.  Score!!  We piled 4 pallets into our car and brought them home.  We decided to use them to make a compost bin for leaves and grass clippings. 

Okay, so the pallets were not "pretty".  They were very used and beaten up looking but who cares, it's usable and is only going to hold organic material.  The hubs helped me drill the pieces together.

He had to cut some notches in the wood to fit the drill in.

This is what it looks like done.  We didn't put a door on it yet, the last pallet we got was too short to fit as a door, so we'll have to keep an eye out for another pallet that we can get for free.  It's not the prettiest looking compost bin, but it will definitely work!!

Anniversary Gifts

Last month was my 2nd year anniversary, and the hubs surprised me with a bag of daffodil bulbs. He listens well. He knows that I've been wanting to buy bulbs for the front flower garden. I love flowers and plants as gifts, so this made me super giddy. 

Then in the mail, we received a package from White Flower Farm.  His Grammy had sent 2 Nancy Nora Peony bare roots as an anniversary gift.  It was so thoughtful of her.  Peonies are my most favorite flower.  I absolutely adore them, from the large blooms to the fragrance!  It's so wonderful. The bare roots came nicely wrapped in wet newspaper.

The bare root was a really nice size. Very large as you can see.

I am not sure where to plant these peonies yet, so I decided to plant the bare roots in containers for now.  Does anyone know if I can keep them in containers throughout the winter and plant them in the spring?  And does anyone know when I stop watering them for the winter?  Should I stop after the first snowfall?

The directions said to plant the bulb until the buds are just barely an inch under the soil.

I can't wait until the peonies start growing into a bush in the spring.  I am soooo excited!  My friend told me that bare root peonies usually take 3 years to flower.  Ugh, I can't wait that long!  As a gift to myself, I also order some Crocus Sativus from McClure and Zimmerman.  $7.95 for 12 bulbs, I thought that was a great bargain.  I ordered from them because I read on Greensparrow's blog that they were a good company to order bulbs from.  I ordered these bulbs after reading about them on Greenish Thumb.  I never knew that is where saffron comes from.  I love using saffron in cooking but I rarely buy it because it's so expensive.  How awesome that you can grow your own.  I bought a dozen bulbs to plant in the garden, I can't wait until they come up next October!  Fun!!

Halloween Treats

I haven't posted in a few days because this was a very busy weekend. We had a family party on Halloween at our house and it was so much fun. I love hosting parties, and who doesn't like Halloween? I got inspired reading this blog, JustJennRecipes and made a bunch of treats from the recipes on the blog.

I melted chocolate and made these...Chocolate covered marshmellow lollipops.  Aren't these so cute?

They were so easy to make, you just buy lollipop sticks, marshmellows, chocolate chips and sprinkles.  Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and dip the marshmellows into the chocolate until it's covered.  Add sprinkles and tada!  You are the hit of the party.  I wrapped the lollipops with plastic bags that I bought from Party City and tied it with a twist tie.  How sweet!!

Next up, I melted some caramel and made these....

Caramel apples!  Soooo good!  The caramel was more difficult to work with.  So I added a little water to the melted caramel.  I dipped the apples in it, but it dried all goopy.  The caramel kept running down the apples and onto the plate.  I have to perfect this method.

And what's a party without Cupcakes??? On the JustJennRecipes blog, she recommended taking Oreo cookies and crushing them to bits to use on top of chocolate frosting so it would look like dirt.  Then you get these gummy worms to put on top.  I just loved this "garden" look!!  Creepy and cute.

We had a feast at the party! I cooked up a storm and everyone brought a dish. So much food and treats!

For party gifts, I made homemade pickles for all the relatives to bring home. Ever since they have tried my homemade sweet dill pickles they have requested I make them for every party! What have I done?? I've created Monsters! Happy Belated Halloween everyone, hope you all had a goblin good time!