Fall harvest

My pumpkin vine is looking pretty bad after a really cold night, so I decided I'd better pick the pumpkins. I also harvested the butternut squash while I was at it.

I'll include the pics of some of the corn I harvested earlier this year. The corn, by the way, is called Mirai sweet corn. It's a variety that produces extremely sweet ears, there was much rejoicing about it's taste. I actually harvested 6 ears of corn. I would've had more, but a lot of the seeds didn't germinate. I think that's because the soil was still a little 'raw' and the seeds didn't get enough water to germinate.

Four of the six:



These three went to friends. I ate another recently.



Today's harvest:


I still have a few pumpkins on the vine that aren't quite ready yet, we'll see if they survive the weather.

Here are the current stats from the garden:
Pumpkins - 89lbs
Butternut Squash - 20.5lbs
Corn - 6 ears

Update 2010-01-01:
The weather killed off the rest of the vines, so I had 5 pumpkins and two butternut squash that didn't fully develop. I did manage to harvest 1 more 9.5lb pumpkin, bringing the total to 98.5lbs.

Ah well, the rabbits and chickens won't mind the leftovers.

My Steak Method

I posted this on Fark a bit ago, and figured since I typed it all out I might as well save it for posterity's sake.

1. The cut and quality of the meat are of significant importance. You really can't go wrong with a choice or prime T-bone. I like mine about 3/4 to 1" thick. Any bigger and it doesn't grill well.

2. It has to be room temperature before it's put on the grill. Let it sit out for 15 minutes or so before you put it on the grill.

3. Cooking time and temperature are important. I crank my grill up to high and do 3-4 minutes, flip, 3-4 minutes. That gives me a good rare-medium rare. Don't worry about any flames, it'll char the outside but won't be going for long enough to cause it to burn.

4. It has to sit for a few minutes after it's taken off the grill, the inside of the steak will cook from the heat of the outer parts. Take it off the grill, THEN get out any plates/flatware. Get your sides together, take your time, I give it 3-5 mins.

For seasoning, I use McCormic Grill Mates® Montreal Steak Seasoning. Work it on there with your hands so it sticks well, be generous but don't go overboard.

Raw steak is shitty, rare-medium rare is amazing.

S'Mars

The Smore meets the Rice Krispy Treat.

1 jar of jet puffed marshmallow creme
1 brick of graham crackers
1 cup of chocolate chips, room temp
1 stick of butter

Crush the graham crackers (a plastic bag and rolling pin work wonderfully). Mix the marshmallow creme, graham cracker crumbs, and chocolate chips. It'll be somewhat stiff, but get the mixture to be fairly homogeneous. Melt the stick of butter in a separate bowl, I nuked mine for 1 minute and it was boiling a bit when I pulled it out. Pour the hot butter into the mixture and stir, it should start to stir more easily. At this point, the result should have a texture a lot like Floam.

Put it in the fridge to solidify.

The whole process takes, literally, 5 minutes or so.

Modifications:
Try different kinds of chips, peanut butter is particularly good.

Video