Flat Churros.

chur·ro/ˈCHo͝orō/

Noun:

A Spanish sweet snack consisting of a strip of fried dough dusted with sugar or cinnamon.

It's like a Spanish doughnut. Churros were created centuries ago by Spanish shepherds, and have since become a traditional Spanish desert. Originally, churros were about the size of a bread stick, and they were eaten plain or rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Once churros were adopted in countries outside of Spain they were upgraded with a hollow center which is filled with all kinds of fillings.

   I had a craving for churros but was far from in the mood to drive to get one. I glanced in the fridge to see if there was anything in there to satisfy my sweet tooth. I glanced at a bag of tortillas and closed the fridge. Then I remembered a comment that Kamden, my four year old son, had made the other day when I had made him and my daughter Khloe a snack. I had fried up some tortillas and sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar and Kamden said something along the lines of, "These taste like churro chips". So I grabbed the tortillas and recreated the snack.

   The one thing that is difficult for me about blogging recipes is that when I'm done plating I want to dive in, but then I remember I have to get a good picture! I was difficult getting a good shot because I wanted so badly to eat them, they smelled so good! I finally convinced myself that it was necessary that I take one bite to "show the flakiness of the chip"...ya right. I can tell you that my son was right, these do taste like churro in chip form! Try them out they are easy!

Ingredients:

1 Cup Vegetable oil

3 Tortillas

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

1/2 Cup Sugar

Directions: Heat oil over med/high heat. Cut tortillas into quarters.  Mix cinnamon and sugar in shallow dish. Once oil is heated drop two tortillas in two at a time. Heat until golden brown and turn. Once the churro is golden brown on both sides, transfer with tongs from the pan to the cinnamon sugar mixture. Coat with cinnamon sugar & serve em' hot. nom nom nom!

-GGJ

Pumpkin Progress

   I'm getting pretty confident that the pumpkin patch will be a success this year! This is a picture of the lumina  (white) pumpkins, my favorite, early this morning. I had attempted to grow pumpkins last year and I bombed the whole thing. I have been waiting a year for my chance to try again. In this mound I have five lumina pumpkin plants growing. Initially I had only planted three seeds per mound, but only one sprouted on this mound within the week to ten day time frame that they were supposed to. I gave them another week hoping that they would pop up and they never did. I was so worried because it felt like I was again going to fail my pumpkin patch this year. I was determined to succeed so I went out there and planted two more seeds where the others had not sprouted and crossed my fingers. I checked routinely, and by routinely I mean daily, for the new seeds to sprout. Within the week they did indeed popped up out of the soil and I was satisfied. 

   I visit the garden every morning first thing after I get out of bed. One morning I went out and discovered that the seeds I had planted, after the first ones had failed, were actually just then sprouting and the seeds that had sprouted the previous week were actually the seeds I thought had failed! Most likely I had planted the first seeds a bit deeper than the 1/2" I was supposed to. After all, I didn't exactly measure...I just used the old finger & knuckle measuring system. So now I have 5 plants to tend and I'm not complaining! I favor the biggest plant which was the first to sprout. It is now beginning to developin its vines and is so fun to watch grow. I will keep everyone posted as I continue to walk my pumpkin patch tight rope...hopefully this year I don't fall!

-GGJ 

Burlap Bag Potatoes

Preparations for Planting
                                     

   A few weeks ago I read an article about growing potatoes above ground in a burlap bag. I'm always looking for ways to save space in my backyard vegetable garden, so naturally I was thrilled to try this out! Conveniently I already had two coffee bean bags in the shed from my last Singh Farm compost trip! Anywho, I headed to my dry storage & was confident that somewhere in there I would find a long lost bag of potatoes with a few sprouting spuds inside. To my dismay I only had a new, non sprouting, bag of fingerling potatoes. I figured they would be eaten before they sprouted & instantly I felt defeat. I was not going to be planting any potatoes that day.

   About two weeks ago I came across a long lost bag of sprouting potatoes in the dry storage, & believe it or not it was the fingerlings from the previous paragraph! They were so cute with tiny green sprouts coming out of their eyes (yes, potatoes have eyes).
    Note: It may be strange that I'm calling these "cute", but fingerling potatoes are very small in size ("fingers") & anything of their nature, to me, is definitely "cute".  Anywho, they only had tiny, tiny, little sprouts so I set them on a windowsill for about a week. There they could soak up sun & really strengthen those bitty sprouts!

Here you can sort of see the little sprouts from the second potato from the top

                                     

   About a week later they were ready for their burlap dirt nap. I headed into the backyard with my sprouted potatoes and finally planted them in their new burlap home! I cant wait until I can dump out the bag and harvest all those cute little spuds!
http://www.sustainableeats.com/2009/04/19/planting-potatoes/
   Above is a link i found with a quick & easy guide to growing potatoes in a burlap bag. The article that I read was in a gardening magazine and I couldn't find it to share!

-GGJ