What's growing in my garden

When I buy hydrangeas from the garden center, they look like this. But after a couple of years in the ground . . .

. . . they come up like this, and only have 2 or 3 blooms per bush. I'm planning on keeping the hydrangeas well-watered this summer, in hopes that will help with more blooms in future years. Do you have a knack with hydrangeas? What is your secret?

This is the area of the woodland gardens that I've been working on this spring -- lilies of the valley, hydrangeas, hostas, grape hyacinths, rhododendrons, and in fall, I'll plant a bunch of yellow daffodils under the river rock. I still have a bunch of work to do on this area, but I have ALL summer to finish digging out the salal, haul rocks, add mulch, stepping stones, etc.

Basil looks good this year. I've got it in a large trough-style planter on the deck. In my yard, basil does best in large pots on the deck.

Now lookie what I found! If the seed packet was correctly labeled, this is an itty bitty eggplant. Imagine that, here in the cool pacific northwest I have an eggplant growing!

On a whim, I planted a purple potato. They had purple seed potatoes for just a few pennies a piece at the produce stand last month. So I bought a couple of purple and a couple of Yukon Gold, to go with my regular garden potatoes.

The four strawberry beds are looking full this year. Strawberries are just beginning to ripen here. Beyond the strawberries is the raspberry hedge. Bees are busy as ever in the raspberries this week. Should be a good year for both strawberries and raspberries. And that's a good thing, because . . .

 . . . the blueberry harvest will be poor this year. Only 3 of my 8 bushes have a significant number of blossoms. Last year was a stellar year for blueberries here. Maybe the plants have gotten into an alternate bearing habit, or maybe we didn't have enough winter chill hours this year. In any case, it looks like I'll actually be buying blueberries this summer. And that's not the only fruit that isn't going to be super-productive this year.

The apple trees just have a handful of apples on each. We'll probably take a day to go apple picking at a local orchard in late summer, early fall.

My rosemary is doing very well this year. I've got the two plants in large pots on the deck. I've been taking snips for roasted rosemary potatoes this last month. Mmmm, I do love rosemary!
Can't wait to bake some rosemary bread.

And finally, some impatiens that I planted in a pot next to the kitchen door, late last week. I planted these just for smiles. I'm taking really good care of them, giving a jar of water every other day, and adding some bloom-boosting fertilizer. I'm hoping the pot will be bushy with blossoms by the 4th of July. They look like lipstick, don't they?

So now you know what's growing here, tell me, what's growing in your garden?

This and that: Prom, frugal-style and Gluten-free Brownie Bites

This . . . Prom, frugal-style

I guess they do look a bit alike.
Someone asked them the other day if they were sisters. Ya think?

I was talking with my sister on the phone the other day. She has a son and two step-sons, no daughters. Her girlfriends, who do have daughters, were telling her that prom was a huge expense these days. Dresses can run several hundred dollars. Professional hair stylists and make-up artists are hired. Jewelry and shoes are purchased just for the event. You get the picture. Anyways, my sister was asking me if prom was expensive for our two daughters. Oh, did I ever get a laugh out of that. I hadn't really thought about staying within a budget for prom. We just did prom the way we do most things, frugal-style.

So, this is prom, frugal-style.

One daughter wore a dress that she had sewn for herself last summer. She wore sandals and a pair of my pantyhose. She used a gift card (Christmas present from her brother) to buy some costume jewelry. She borrowed my electric curlers, and used a touch of her own lip gloss.

My other daughter went to Value Village (thrift shop) on 50% off day, and spent a whopping $5 for a dress. She, too, wore sandals, but chose to go bare-legged. She borrowed a bit of eye-liner, used her own mascara and lip gloss (my girls are not into make-up yet). She wore earrings that I gave to her for her birthday and a necklace that belonged to my mom as a girl.

Tickets were $25 per student. My daughters' school does prom really cool, I think. Everyone comes single, so that it doesn't feel like a couples-only thing. Then, for the price of the ticket, they provide a catered dinner, karaoke, talent competition, video dance games and dancing. It's a very fun night, and not at all pricey.

Anyway, I just had to laugh a bit, when my sister asked if prom was expensive for us. We weren't trying to do this frugally. It just turned out that way.

And that . . .

Now, for the other thing on my list today -- the recipe for Gluten-free Dark Chocolate Brownie Bites.

Basically I've just adjusted my regular brownie recipe. As these are strictly for me (sorry, I don't share my chocolate), I make them how I like them, less sweet and more chocolate. This recipe makes 12 mini-muffin size brownie bites. I've made these with both home-ground rice flour and commercial rice flour. The commercial ones are definitely smoother. But in a pinch, I'm happy to have the grain-ier home-ground ones as well. My brownie bites are not chewy, but closer to torte-like.

1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup gluten-free flour blend (brown rice flour, millet flour and xanthan or guar gum -- my blend is here, if you need an approximation, use 2 tablespoons rice flour, 2 tablespoons millet flour, 1/16th teaspoon xanthan or guar gum)
3/8 cup cocoa powder

In a small bowl, beat together egg, sugar, salt and vanilla, until light. 

Add melted butter. Continue beating until thoroughly blended.

Mix in GF flour blend and cocoa powder.

Place cupcake papers into a mini muffin tin. I also like to spray the papers with non-stick cooking spray, so that not a speck of the brownies stick to the paper (I take my chocolate seriously, and don't want any wasted). This is probably not totally necessary. But it's what I do.

We all know why we really make brownies, to eat the batter, right? Brownie batter is one of the best kitchen creations, IMO. But, unless you're going to eat all that batter today, you might as well bake some of these up.  So, scoop a spoonful of the batter into each muffin section.

I have no self-control -- I ate one right away, before I could get a picture
these are done cake-style, btw

Bake at 350 degrees F, for 12-13 minutes for gooey brownies, or 14 minutes for cake brownies. The cake brownies are still dense, due to the extra cocoa powder, not light and airy, as some cake-like brownies can be.

Store in a covered container. I've enjoyed these a week after baking, but never later than that. They don't last any longer with me around!