Fail Gardener Update: FOOD!

This post is part of an ongoing series about the amateur gardening efforts of Second Snack. With no prior knowledge of how to do any of this, hilarity and fails will most definitely be happening. Follow along and see how this experiment turns out.

Well, the plants are definitely producing now. Last time I showed you what I called the calm before the storm. Now, we've got food coming in to the kitchen from the yard a couple of times a week. Unfortunately most of my pictures are on my phone and I'm too lazy to post those pictures but I've got two for you for this blog post.

Above is a picture of the first Sungold tomato to ripen. This is a cherry variety and is so... dang... good. The other day, I plucked this tomato from the vine, rinsed it off, and popped it in my mouth. I will remember the sensation of how that tomato tasted for a very long time. The explosion of flavor that resulted from the crush of my molars into that little tomato was intense. I stood in the kitchen with my eyes closed (how embarrassing) chewing on that tomato and yelling at Sarah, "duuuude this is so good!"

Most of my harvesting so far has been bringing in zucchini and yellow crook-neck squash. Their flavor is subtle but compared to a store-bought version, very distinct. Usually when I cook with these two vegetables after getting them from the store, their flavor pretty much blends in to whatever else they have been cooked with. The versions from the garden retain their flavor and can be identified very easily while eating. Its just amazing what flavors you can get from a home grown vegetable.

The biggest surprise to come out of the garden has been the green beans off of the six bush beans plants that I put in. Bush beans are cool plants because they aren't vines and don't require a stake or ladder to climb. Honestly, I put them in because they filled space. After everything around them grew, they've actually become quite crowded out. They're thriving despite this though. So far I've been able to harvest about three big handfuls of green beans. Enough to feed me through one meal and an awesome panko crusted snack.

The great thing about these green beans is that even after cooking completely, they retain their snappy and crunchy texture. I don't remember ever having a green bean that didn't get mushy after a good amount of time being cooked. Next year, I may have to plant more bush bean plants because so far, this might be the best treat from the garden.

LEGO Project: Garbage Truck

The LEGO Project series is a look through the Second Snack collection of LEGO sets from Thomas’ childhood as well as some modern sets. For years these LEGO bricks and pieces have been laying dormant in plastic bins but with the pooled resources of the Internet, reassembling sets is now a reality. 

So its been a while since I've share some sets from the good ole' Second Snack LEGO collection. In fact, the last time we saw some LEGO goodness was Christmas time with the Advent Calendar giveaway. I've had less time to mess around with the blog (sad face), the LEGO collection is now out in the garage of our new place so its not as easy to sit and build, and of course the gardening has taken over as my favorite hobby. But, even with that, I've actually acquired a few new sets lately.

The garbage truck was an impulse buy of about $20 at Target one day as I was picking up some supplies. It was a particularly stressful week and this garbage truck just called out to me.. "buy.. buy.. BUY!" So I did.

Over the last few years, if I ever bought new LEGO sets, they were always from the Star Wars series. While these are cool, the roots of my LEGO obsession began with the LEGO City sets. In fact, the first set I owned was a City set. On the surface, a garbage truck shouldn't be as exciting as a star fighter or a walking AT-AT but this small set is really quite good looking. I like that its so European looking. Equally interesting are the details. A rotting fish piece for the trash can thats included and a few bananas make the trash kind of fun. One sign of LEGO's move into modern times is the fact that this trash crew is an equal opportunity employment situation. We've got a man AND a woman working on the green truck. Very progressive LEGO!

Meme Monday: Every Book Nicolas Sparks Ever Wrote