The start of veggie garden season

It's the beginning of the veggie season - one of my fave times of the year! I get to play with dirt and seeds :) This year will hopefully be more successful than last year. Over the winter we have done a lot with the soil in the beds to add nutrients. This year we have also gone with the tomato varieties that are more disease resistant. The heirlooms, although our preferred, suffered with the weather last year and sometimes you just have to work with what you've got!

For the tomatoes we have 'Bush Early Girl - Hybrid', Ferline F1 - Hybrid, Moravi F1 - Hybrid. We're also dabbling a little and trying Tomatillo. It's a cousin of the tomato and used a lot in Mexican cooking. We also have 2 peppers - the trusty Jalapeno that we use in everything and a new one called Aji Dulce. Our Venezuelan neighbours love this pepper but can't find it anywhere in the US so we're going to give it a go. I have not given them any guarantees just in case! The pepper is the size and colour of a habanero (a spicy pepper) but is a lot milder.

Here they are all snug with their heat mats and light.

And here they come! :)

Everything can be cooked on the BGE

I must admit that when MM first showed me the BGE I was sceptical. I thought it was just another grill, just a funny looking expensive one. But who I am to stand in the way of a man and his grill?

Well turns out, the BGE is one the best things we have ever bought. We use it easily 6 days a week come rain or shine. MM is known to frequently be out there in the dark grilling and scaring our neighbours dogs. And when the temperature drops to below zero? No problem, the BGE just keeps him warm :)

At Christmas, MM had a brain wave - why not do the Yorkshire Puddings on it! The puddings require a hot oven (500F) and the egg can easily get to that we decided to put it to the test:

Cast iron skillets are piping hot - in goes the batter! And we wait ...

Wa-la! PERFECTION!

We can now add yorkshires to the long list of what we can cook on the egg! :) And it is a long list - all the usual suspects of burgers, snags, chops etc to pizza, chili, chicken wings and sunday roasts.

My mouth is watering ...

Christmas and the Arctic Blast

Oh Chrimstas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

We went with a patriotic red, white and blue scheme - you can decide if that refers to the English, Australian or American flag! :)

We are in the midst of an "arctic blast" at the moment. It got down to 15.9F overnight last night. The last two days have been tops of 33F and tonight we have a low of 22F forcasted. Brrr!! My bird bath is looking very wintery (it's about 3feet tall so they're some grand icicles)We need the chiminea outside more than ever!

And they tell us Houston is "sub-tropical"!!