State of the Garden, Part II

So...

I haven't talked about the garden since I posted about it back on May 2nd, when it looked like this:

Why is that? Because I haven't been all that excited about the garden.

1. It is hot outside.

2. The mosquitos smile big and wide when they see me coming. I think I have what the ol' folks call "Sweet Blood". Mosquitoes like that. HUMPH.

3. I work 10, sometimes 12 hours a day. When I get home, I ain't thinking about going outside doing ANYTHING! I'm trying to get in the house, in the cool, cool air, and RELAX.

4. It is HOT outside!!!

But, one of the neighborhood crackheads locals, Mr. Thomas (seen in the photo, threatening me with a rake,*crickets*), knocked on my door one Saturday afternoon. Usually I don't open the door, and they know this. But I think he caught me coming into the house or something.

"What you want man?"
"Gimme 2 dollars, girl."
"Man, what did I tell you? I don't have cash on me." I have TRIED to explain the whole debit card phenomena to him numerous time, but he just gives me the *blank stare*. He don't seem to understand.
"I know you got some money around here somewhere!"

We argue back and forth.
Then he says...

"I was in your backyard. I see you got some good ol' beans out there!"
"No I don't."
"Yes you do."
"No I don't."
Yes you do, ol silly girl!!"
"I was just out there a couple of days ago. There were a bunch of flowers, but that's it."
"Well, you got beans, girl!!"

We walk around to the backyard, and lo and behold, I did have beans!

So, that next day, I picked them. Along with some random peppers.

This is my first harvest. HOOORAAAY. (Naw, I ain't that excited).

There were not many beans. That's alright. I HATE SNAPPING BEANS. So I washed them and snapped them.

Now, I usually cook my beans with smoked chicken and potatoes, but I was too lazy to run out to Decatur and get my smoked chicken. So, I know my baby blog sista Serenity 3-0 is a bean fiend, and cooks them with sausage and potatoes.

We had a convo about it over our daily email thread.

"S, how do you do your beans with the sausage and potatoes?"
"I just cut up my potatoes and sausage and cook them with the beans."
"What kind of sausage?"
"Beef."
"What kind of potatoes?"
"Regular potatoes."
"I know, but do you use the red small potatoes, the Idaho, the russet?"
"I don't know LadyLee, they are white."
"Well, what are the amounts that you use?"

She snapped on me after that, and I didn't ask anymore questions. She should know by now that I am inquisitive and I ask a BUNCH of questions. Baby sisters can be real bitches mean girls at times. After that, I wrote back, questioning if it was her time of the month or something. HUMPH.

I decided to bootleg it, and hope it worked out.

But here's the result:


It look good, don't it?

It WAS good!

Get a little closer!!

Yeah... that's what's hot right there. I got a little to crazy with the black pepper, but it was alllll good.

Bootleg recipe for "Serenity Beans":

3 cups of beans, snapped
1.5 cups of potatoes (use more or less if you like)
1 cup of cut of sausage
1 small onion, sliced.
3 cups of water
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the sausage and onion in water for a little while. Add the beans and potatoes and boil a little while. Add more water if necessary. Stir it up. Watch it so it will not burn!!

Yeah, I'm vague. And you know what? YOU are grown. Work it out from there.

LOL!!!

Now, all of this went down last week... Time to harvest MORE beans and peppers.

Yesterday, my coworker, ol' Mean Ass Cynthia asked if her baby Chayse could come pick some beans. Chayse planted peppers in the garden back on Memorial Day. She was a great little worker!

*LadyLee smiling real hard*

I said "Sure, of course she can come over. Anytime!!"

You know, there ain't nothing in the world like a little slave child labor.

Nothing like it.

LOL!!!