Lots o' Veggies

Didn't do a lot of stitching since my last post as I spent few more days cleaning the attic, and organizing my stash. However, we did some stashing on Thursday morning. While me and MIL were busy stashing at Hobby Lobby, hubby went at the movie store... and as expected, we didn't go home empty handed... lol

One thing I love at this time of year is being able to buy yummy fresh (as in literally fresh and newly picked) veggies at the Farmer's Market. It's been 2 weeks in a row now that me and hubby go there... and as I've told hubby, I'm in heaven again this last couple of weeks... lol I've been buying squash blossoms, "maligoso" (a kapampangan term, hubby call these veggies grass... lol), zuchinni, green beans, etc. I'm not sure if you've tried squash blossoms, but back home, it's one of my fave veggies and kinda hard to find/buy.

Maligoso (first photo: removed from stems & ready to cook)

Maligoso is like a combination of spinach and bittermelon leaves! I was already in college the first time I ate "maligoso" in Manila. One time, my aunt (I used to live with) brought a bunch from the Pampanga and I was actually surprised that these weeds are edible. Needless to say, I love it as I'm a veggy person. If I'll get to choose between veggies & meat - I will choose veggies. My aunt usually cook it with sardines (with tomato sauce, not the mackerel kind) but here in US, I put ground pork or beef instead (though I use sardines once in a while as well)... sauteed with a clove of garlic, medium onion, tomatoes, a pinch of ground black pepper & salt for seasoning... yum yum. Btw, the vendor at the Farmer's Market who sold me these are Mexicans so I asked them how they prepare theirs... which is using ground pork.

As for zuchinnis, they taste like "opo". When I want a super easy meal, I just cut one into cubes then toss them for a few minutes in a hot pan with a lil bit of vegetable oil. I prefer to prepare my food on stove top instead of baking. Most of the time, I prepare different food for hubby as I eat rice almost everyday.

Zuchinni (big and small @ 25 cents each only)

Squash blossoms, japanese eggplants, and asparagus beans

In Tagalog: bulaklak ng kalabasa, talong, and sitaw

I've been harvesting asparagus beans in the last few weeks... and in the last couple weeks that I buy squash blossoms, I always cook my own version of "pinakbet" (sauted mixed veggies, i.e. beans, eggplant, squash, spineless okra and "ampalaya"). To-date, my spineless okra in the garden are still so tiny but should be ready next weekend.

As you can see we've been harvesting on our own garden as well. I think since I started picking out my eggplants, I already got more than 10 plus the 2 I picked earlier. We got a bunch of tomatoes today and yesterday, almost a bucketful so I told hubby I should be able to "can" salsa this week. Our habanero and daredevil peppers are doing very very very good... lol I put one pepper on whatever I main dish I cook lately, which makes me eat more rice... lol Hubby loves "extra hot" salsa, so I picked a lot earlier. I make salsa in 4 categories: XX Hot, Very Hot, Mild, and Regular.

I only started "canning" by myself since last year... in my first 2 years here, I did it with MIL. I canned a whole bunch of "dill" and "sweet pickles" last year that's why we decided not to plant a lot of cucumbers this year. What we got now is just enough for salads.:)

Veggies picked from our garden today: tomatoes, eggplants, & peppers

Red potatoes from MIL's garden

Pepper plants in the garden

Look at our peppers... a lot, as in a lot... sorry for the weeds though. The last thing we wanna do lately is weeding. lol I planted 3 each of habanero & daredevil, and photos above are for one each only so imagine the other 4 plants with lots of peppers in them as well. I might try to can and freeze some of them.:)

Chinese okra (patola), asparagus beans (sitaw), and eggplant (talong)

My patola (loofa) are just about 5" long and I hope I'll be able to eat them before the deers will... lol It seems like something's eating my asparagus beans as some disappeared. On the other hand, all my eggplants are doing good as well. I planted 6 (3 of each kind) and all of them got a bunch of medium size eggplant already. One of the japanese eggplant got more than 10 tiny eggplants.

Aside from cleaning-up, stitching and finishing models, I've been busy baking since last Monday. I baked tres leches (3 milk) cake for hubby and bibingka for me last Monday, then last Thursday I baked a dozen of cornbread muffins (I stuffed them with creamy corn and cheddar cheese)... When there's just about 4 muffins left, hubby reuqested for chocolate brownies, which I baked on Friday afternoon. Everything's gone since yesterday afternoon so I asked hubby if he wants me to bake anything today, I was thinking of yellow cake but thank goodness hubby wanna rest on something sweet so I didn't do any baking anymore... lol We've been eating like a blah blah lately... lol

Tres leches cake and cheezy rice flour cake (bibingka)

Well my dears, that's what kept me busy last week. Sorry again that I can't show my completed stitching works as they're models. I started stitching a quaker sewing purse yesterday and finally finished it this afternoon... will work on the matching sewing accessories tonight to complete the set. Also last week, I finished a neck purse with matching accessory. And in between stitching models, I'm squeezing in my exchanges... plus I also started the sewing set out dear aunt asked me to do for her friend (she'll give the set as 2008 christmas gift).:)

Have a great evening everybody! Don't forget to leave me a note when you drop by!