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How does your Garden Grow

Inspired by friends who are starting plants early indoors, I have decided to try it for my self; I cheated I bought the tray with soil pucks, though I didn't by the ones with the plants already in them! I am tempted however who needs 30 tomato plants? Why not mix it up a little?

So I have planted peas, carrots, corn, broccoli, chives, thyme, garden beans, Brussels sprouts all from store bought seeds, then apple(I know I maybe should have started it in the fall so it would be plantable by spring), cilantro, cantaloupe, habernos, banana peppers from saved seed and then the random allspice from my spice cabinet. I will be intrigued to find out it the last germinates. I still however find the tray only half full so I am off to buy some more seeds, have a mentioned this all has to fit in my two feet by fourteen feet garden?

Why I support the Fair Tax Act.

A flat rate sales tax (between 23 and 30%) on all purchases, no income tax, no corporate tax, no need to increase minimum wage even. This is what fair tax offers us.

We complain about a deficit; we complain about taxes. In general we want to have our cake and eat it too; while we have yet to invent the regenerating cake we can at least have a feasible solution to our country's financial crisis.

There are those naysayers who think this plan will favor the rich, I disagree as do many Americans. Let me ask you these questions: Who pays more sales tax the person buying the economy style car or the one who buys the Porsche? The honest person who reports all of their annual income and misses deductions due to filing themselves or the less truthful man who pays someone to find him the loop holes and hides some of his earnings from the IRS?

Then their is privacy, no matter which pasture you graze in (read political party) you want protection and privacy. Our taxes pay for our protection, but is the cost our privacy? The IRS knows more about us than our priests,friends and family in some cases. Wouldn't you like to keep that information to yourself? Fairtax would eliminate all federal payroll tax, the IRS and the yearly gathering and turning over of what you did this year. No need to inform the government that you got married, have a domestic partnership, had children, earn a bonus or bought a house...just think about all those deductions and the information they provide.


Wait some of you cry! I can't afford that... well just for those who are citizens, there is a probate check that covers the amount of tax you would pay if you are living below the poverty level. Just think my thrifty friends, you can buy a used car with no tax, used furniture no sales tax. Don't think we forgot about business owners either, purchases for corporations are tax free. ( note sales tax will have to be paid by the consumer, when it is sold used , if it is purchased by a consumer and tax has not been paid yet) ts lowering the pricing of consumer goods. There are many many more benefits!

A world of benefits!

What down sides do you see?

Real deals and fake outs

So real homemade bacon is awesome, the guy at the butcher was right seven days is a little too long, I will try five next time now that I know what to expect. However, I wrapped some smoked little sausages in slices of my bacon and topped with agave nectar and red pepper baked and they were amazing!

Now for the fake out, someone mentioned Olive Garden today which made me want the Salad....which lead to finding recipes for the dressing, http://www.food.com/recipe/copycat-of-olive-garden-italian-salad-dressing-18840 that website is the dressing recipe I used for a guideline, I substituted peach balsamic and canola oil and tart cherry instead of lemon and though it hasn't had time for the favors to meld it is already very tasty! Can't wait to make a salad!

Bacon!

So as we speak I have my second half of the pork belly in the oven. The first on I guess turned out ok, I had the temp a few degrees lower than it should have been so it took longer to get up to temp. Maybe that had something to do with it. The only problem with this book is I am not sure what it is suppose to look like....the edges look fully cooked. I am waiting on it to cool then cut into it. I did slice a piece off prior to roasting but other than being salty, it was good.


More to come!

Charcuterie and me

So Christmas before last my amazing husband bought me a meat grinder and a book called Charcuterie. I was so excited I read much of it picked out projects and then got busy with the travel agency.....sigh....so this year my goal is to be more balanced.

In a great first attempt at this I am starting my first project out if the book. Bacon! Who doesn't love it.

This book is setup kind of like a cooking course so I am going to try and work my way through the recipes as such.

Lesson one...make a dry cure...complete
Lesson two Bacon

So far this lesson has consisted of finding a butcher that sells pork belly....the first one was asking his supervisor where to get pig stomachs.......luckily I was able to correct the request and was sent to Horst Meats which is a farm that sells such items as they butcher their own.

While waiting on my pork belly I met a nice country looking gentleman who tells me I should only cure it five days or it will be too salty, so....I think I will check it at five days and see.

I have 8 pounds of pork belly so I am going to divide it in half and doone with just the dry cure and one either maple or birch maybe maple habenero ...yummmmmm
This is is what eight pounds of pork belly skin on looks like:

Then in the bag, I used flake salt instead of regular kosher salt...hopefully it will be ok....on has maple syrup in it.

Now I have to wait and tur the bag every other day.

Buzz agent item: Crunchy Nut Cereal by Kellogg's

Most of you already know that I am a Buzz Agent, to find out more about how I get to try things for free or how to join check out my first post.

Now on to the good stuff. So my box arrived right before dinner, so for dessert we tried the Crunchy Nut Honey Roasted Flakes. Delish! Everyone in the house loved it, from the two year old to the 46 year old. After dishing out a third serving the family said they didn't think there would be any left for the morning. Well good thing there was just enough left because our sweet bug wanted it for breakfast! Needless to say I bought two more boxes yesterday. One of the flakes and one of the roasted nut and honey O's.

Things to know:

Price 3.89at Sunny way
4.00 at food lion
Both cereals hold us well in milk and almond milk, however I love to eat it dry as a snack!

The cereals seem to be somewhat healthy.

Ideas of what to make with them:

Using the crunchy nut honey roasted nut flakes I am thinking those haystack things with peanut butter!

The crunchy roasted nut and honey o's I am thinking crispy treats with marshmallows or mixing it with peanuts and white chocolate and making Crunchy Nut drops!