FOUR Butternut Squash!

I received a free butternut squash plant, I think it was in exchange for some purple sweet potato slips, but it might have also been from cousin Amanda. Anyway, I was still excited about container planting and wanted to try it out.

In these photos you cannot even see the pot because it's so covered by greenery, but it's right in front of the large blue container. I'd estimate the pot was approximately 5 gallon. For the hot summer months of July and August, the plant stayed in it's pot and stayed alive. Then when weather cooled in late August, it started to climb out of the pot and travel the yard. It produced FOUR butternut squash, which is awesome! I wonder if it would do more in the ground, so I might try that next year. The soil was very dry when I did the fall clean up last week and I did not keep a consistent watering schedule. They did seem to burst to life with the fall rains, as you can see with the cracking on one. Too much rain produces cracks but it wasn't quite ready to harvest. It matured nicely and is not curing in my basement. I've read that on average a plant will produce 5-6 squash, so I guess I did okay with a container.

Why I should NOT do container plants

I am not consistent at keeping a garden watered and rely mostly on rainfall. Henseforth, my container plants do not last throughout a hot summer. Here's a perfect example of zinnias planted in a container, and one in the ground:

I think the reason I put some in pots was to give the garden more dimention, and I thought I could squeeze the pots into spaces that had previously been taken by spring flowers that had yet to die back. I may have thought I'd be more proactive in watering but that was sadly not the case. When the hot dry summer finally cooled down, the in-ground zinnia bloomed to awesome beauty while the one in pot died. It was such a contrast! The heat was so tremendous, we couldn't even get sunflowers to srout and grow from seed. Marigolds refused to budge until September! I'm afraid they won't have enough time to grow flowers before Day of the Dead.

My First Basil Plant

I was given a basil plant in exchange for purple sweet potato slips. I planted it with a few purple sweet potato slips just to see what would happen. Here is how it looked in September:

I started using the basil in August and found a profound love for pesto! It's insanely good on sandwiches, pizza, and pasta. I've made 3-4 batches so far and looking forward to making more. Here is a photo of Evie helping me de-leaf the entire plant right before frost season hits:

I'll update soon on my recipes for using pesto.

Evie's Neapolitan Cookies

Evie did not get accepted into the Saturday morning art class because I signed up too late, so I decided to do a weekly art lesson with her at home. She asked if we could make cookies together and that is a form of art so we decided on baking Neapolitan cookies. I've been avoiding these for a long time because they look time consuming, but once she sets her heart on something she's bound to return to it again and again until we get it done. So I actually had the freeze dried strawberries on hand for 10 months, thinking we'd do them over last Christmas vacation. Glad to say we finally made them, and they were awesome!

We followed the receipe from Sarah Kieffer's 100 cookies book.

Plucky Purple Sweet Potatoes

It's been 8 years since we started planting purple sweet potatoes, and for the past two years I've been able to keep them in the basement until spring and have enough to replant so I can't remember where I last bought slips. I even gave away slips in the spring so hopefully others have had success. Here are photos of our slips in the spring, and fall photos of our crop as we dig them up.

As you can see, the tops of the plants got a bit frost bitten, but the purple sweet potatoes were fine. Now to let them cure up for two weeks and then it's onto to making scones and tempera!

Shopping for Contact Lenses - hint Costco was the winner

We don't carry insurance for health, vision, or dental.  All expenses are paid out of pocket which means each item is carefully considered.  

About a year ago, my oldest asked for contacts.  I told her she needed to wait until her 16th birthday and she was very prompt on reminding me of this after the school year ended.  Our beloved Walmart optician had retired so we called up the first recommended independent optician in the area and booked an appointment.  

The first fitting didn't go well and we had to delay until after our summer trip.  The 2nd fitting went super well and Charlotte was able to put the contacts in within 5 minutes.  Then came the tricky part of finding out cost for astigmatism contacts are significantly higher than regular contacts.  The prices sounded high but having no experience with this type I knew I needed to shop around.  I always ask for a written prescription to have the flexibility to order contacts for the best price.

Here is a breakdown of 4 sources:

The interesting thing is that I use 1800contacts for mine, so I originally assumed they'd have the best price, I was shocked to find Costco beat their price by $200 (after rebate).  Always shop around, and every year it can be different.  I've had years where Target had the best price, one time Walgreens had the best price.  I don't think I've ever checked Costco before, this came up after putting Charlotte's contact brand into google.

I've already bought my contacts for this year, I paid $259.96 for a years supply and got a $40 rebate.  I've just compared to Costco and I think I'll be switching my contacts to Costco as well:

1800contacts has great customer service and will replace any torn contact lens without question, but for the price difference, I'd rather go with Costco.  

I did have a little trouble getting the Costco website to take Charlotte's doctor prescription, but after a call to their online 1800 number, I was able to get it figured out.  I put in her doctor's name, the website couldn't find it, then I had to click on the "unable to find doctor" button, put in the doctor's address and phone and then the system found the doctor.  When I called, they also suggested I clear cache so that might have helped.  

Happy to have found one more reason to love Costco!

Paprika Shrimp with Avocado and Peach over Rice

I found the original recipe in Fine Cooking over 10 years ago, and it seems to have gone out of business during the Covid years.  I tried looking it up but I could only find variations with oranges.  I distinctly remember it having mango though, so here is what I've made based on memory and adjusted to my taste.

Serves 2.

Ingredients:  

• 12 jumbo shrimp
• 1/4 teaspoon Hungarian Sweet Paprika
• 1 cup brown jasmine rice
• 1 avocado diced
• 1 canned whole unsweetened peach diced (or mango approximately 1 cup frozen or fresh)
• 1/8 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• olive oil

Instructions:

Cook rice per instructions on the bag.  Plan for approximately 40 minutes of cooking time, I find brown rice takes longer, no need to start the rest until rice is done because it goes fast if you have all your ingredients ready.

Heat up an iron skillet, or whatever skillet you have, to medium temperature.  Add a drizzle of olive oil for cooking.

Coat the shrimp in the paprika and a drizzle of olive oil.

Dice avocado and peach, combine with a drizzle of olive oil and kosher salt and set aside.

Cook the shrimp for three minutes on each side, 6-7 total. 

Put brown rice in two bowls, divide the avocado/peach mixture evenly into each bowl, over the rice, then put the shrimp on top.

This also works really well with a mango, frozen or fresh but of course thaw completely, or microwave before serving so it's warm, not hot.  

Edamame out of shell works well as an added protein.