June 21, 2020
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Garden Hitting Stride and Incorporating More Garden Produce in Breakfast

Garden Hitting Stride and Incorporating More Garden Produce in Breakfast

The garden is starting to produce with all plants getting harvestable produce. The Husky Red Cherry Tomatoes and Early Girl tomatoes have already been producing like crazy along with my mint, Swiss Chard, Sweet and Thai basil and rosemary.

Joining in producing now are raspberries, sweet peppers, Havasu peppers and Mexican Tarragon.

Joining the fun in the next days or week are squash, Serranto peppers, Habanero peppers, Yellow Pear tomatoes, and Beef Eater tomatoes.

Late to the party will be the eggplants, Big Boy tomatoes, watermelon and some items I haven’t planted yet like bush beans and mesclun mix of lettuce.

For breakfast I wanted to start thinking of different ways to incorporate my garden vegetables. Without totally breaking breakfast habits I decided to add a side of tomatoes cooked on a higher heat skillet with rosemary, tarragon mixed with olive oil topped with Parmesan cheese after cooking with a side of raspberries. I will later put squash in the mix. I still cook the veggies and herbs into my eggs when I have them as well. Now I’m not waiting until lunch or dinner to taste items from the garden.

South side of Garden
North Side of garden
Squash starting to grow.
More squash starting growth spurt.
Serranto peppers ready to break out
Nice Havasu pepper
Sweet and Purple basil that came up from prior years seeds. These aren’t the one that have been producing.
Big Boy tomatoes getting started.
You see some rosemary real close as well.
Sweet peppers giving large amounts of produce.
Breakfast with garden vegetables
Dinner last night with garden vegetables

May 30, 2020
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Garden Produce in Home Made Hamburgers

Garden Produce in Home Made Hamburgers

Here are some pictures of my garden produce I used on some hamburgers today. I used Swiss Chard, basil and tomatoes from my garden along with onions from the store. I warmed the Swiss chard, basil and onions on the grill with ground black peppers, garlic with a dash of butter then sliced the cherry tomatoes and placed them on the burger after everything is cooked.

Swiss Chard in garden.
Cherry Tomatoes on the vine.
Basil plant in garden with smaller purple basil plants coming up from seeds from past years.
Swiss Chard, basil and tomatoes from garden.
Swiss chard, basil, onions ready for the grill.
Hamburgers ready with eggs, Swiss chard, basil onions, Gouda and cheddar cheese.
About to dive into hamburgers!

May 24, 2020
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Early Morning Gardening Complete

Early Morning Gardening Complete

Did some early morning gardening keeping the grasses and weeds in check after I cleaned my grills and threw some meats on the Traeger smoker.

It’s amazing all the little grasses that come up weekly. The grass and weeds most under an inch tall mostly but after I was done today that grass and dirt intertwined in the roots was about half a 5 gallon bucket.

Anyway some items like the Thai basil bush the bees love are producing and other plants like my “husky cherry tomatoes” are thick with ready to turn red fruit.

I have gotten several sweet and purple basil sprouts from seeds mixed in the soil from when I turned and mixed the soil with my rototiller. Also getting some squash and cucumber from seed mixed in the soil from rototilling.

I kept one side of the garden for plants that run and have vines like squash, cucumbers and watermelon plus a couple of rows of peppers. The other garden has tomatoes egg plants, Swiss chard and items like that. I have spices like basil, rosemary, sage, tarragon and mint on both sides in various spots.

The side with the running vines and plants doesn’t look as developed but when they start growing they will be all over the place.

Here’s the pictures:

This side of garden has Thai basil, peppers, cucumbers, squash, watermelon and some other herbs.
Another angle of side of garden with vines that run.
This side of the garden has my tomatoes, eggplant, Swiss chard, and one lonely habanero plant along with herbs.
Another angle of tomatoes etc.

I will be adding other items as I get time and moving some of the items once they get to a certain size that came up from seeds mixed to various spots from my turning over the soil from prior years plants. I moved one plant today that had come up to close to a pepper plant that sprouted from a prior years plant.

Can’t wait to start eating from my garden again regularly!

May 22, 2020
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Quick Wood Fired Wings on Traeger

Quick Wood Fired Wings on Traeger

Had a taste for some wings and didn’t want to trust my satisfaction to a restaurant so as I normally do made my own. I didn’t do my favorite honey flavored hot wings but some garlic Parmesan.

They turned out good and I let them cook a tad bit longer than normal as I wanted the meat to come off easily but not fall off.

I put my personal rib rub I sometimes use on ribs and pork plus a garlic Parmesan sauce after taking them off the grill. Followed with a Beck’s beer and some Jim Beam neat. Turned out okay I had to slow down as I downed about 15 wings very fast.

Here’s the pictures of the process:

Mixing in oils and other liquid enhancements plus some rub.
Ready on the grill after getting the grill warm and smoking
Getting the garlic Parmesan sauce ready.
Wings ready on the grill.
Wings off grill ready for immersion on garlic Parmesan sauce.
In t the bowl awaiting garlic Parmesan sauce.
Garlic Parmesan sauce.

Well after being this I was committed to wing consumption and that was the last photo. Now posting this listening to Snakeice’s House of Beats sipping on whiskey.

May 16, 2020
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Smoked Salmon

Smoked Salmon

Well I think I have the makings of getting the smoked salmon technique down, I just need to fine tune it a bit. The part I need to fine tune is the rub and washing it fully off before drying the salmon. I did this on my Traeger Pro bbq pellet grill with applewood pellets.

The salmon was a bit salty but I found a good sweet dill sauce recipe to balance the saltiness our. This sweet dill sauce will be my go to salmon sauce as well as a good sauce for some poultry or pork dishes.

I did an Atlantic Salmon along with wild Sockeye Salmon great flavor outside of being a bit salty as I mentioned above. Next I’ll do one with less salt and properly roamed of rub before drying and one with no rub.

I’ll also start posting more of my bbq and smoked delights maybe even go back in time to posts some favorites since I did take the pictures already.

Anyway here’s the photos of my smoked salmon this past week along with photos of the process. I’ll link to the recipes later hopefully.

May 1, 2020
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Back Up and Streaming Some Nice Sounds

Back Up and Streaming Some Nice Sounds

After that brief interruption back up and streaming a lovely Gumbo mix here at Snakeice’s House of Beats.

A little John Legend, Michael Jackson, Run DMC, Sting & Shaggy, LSD, Kandace Springs, Steve Miller Band, BORNS, Smokey Robinson and so many more for you Covid-19 isolation musical enjoyment.

April 25, 2020
by dhoytt
Comments Off on California Westside Covid-19 Chilling

California Westside Covid-19 Chilling

Chilling on a beautiful California evening self-isolated in the backyard listening to Snakeice’s House of Beats.

Nice Blue Hue