Did you miss the June Recipe of the Month? Don’t forget to come by and get a FREE copy of Shawnee’s 50/50 Flank Steak. I’m leaving it up for the month of July too. Quick! Fire up the grill!

Happy 4th of July!

Check out this article, “The New Frugal: Tech-savvy Coupon Clippers,” about all the new internet and mobile phone applications that offer coupons. Very exciting and interesting trend!

This just in: There is sunshine in Oregon! The kids are outside playing horseshoes on the lawn with Russell. It’s been a looooooooong winter.

I’ve received many emails recently about cooking clubs. Keep them coming! Literally within days I heard from cooking clubs in Alaska and Tennessee! I love knowing that even though these clubs live on opposite sides of the country, they are still sharing the same experiences of food and friendship. Thanks to Jodi and Christine for sharing their stories and emailing me.

Jodi, from Alaska, sent pictures even! Now in the interest of full disclosure, Jodi is my cousin. Her Dad and my Mom are siblings. She flew in for a visit last October. I think it was the first time in a decade that we’d seen one another. Our cousin Amy came too and we had a great time touring Portland and cheering Jodi on in the Portland Marathon.

Check out the pictures of Jodi and her cooking friends in Alaska! Thanks ladies, for agreeing to let me post them on my blog.

This is Jodi (above) sporting her onion goggles. Can you see the resemblance? No? Here are some clues: we’re both slaves to fashion eyewear, site our coffee makers front and center in the kitchen, and have huge plates of Pumpkin Muffins on the kitchen counter. Love it!

Here’s her cooking club! I’m hoping to meet them and lend a hand during one of their cooking sessions when I visit (hopefully next summer).

Here’s how they mark the mailbox so the club can find the right house. A pink chef’s hat–what a cute idea!

No need for coolers in Alaska!

Teamwork! Thanks again, Jod. Luv ya!

The new house is coming along. I’m finally able to carve out some time to get back to recipe development and testing. More on that later.

I finished cafe curtains for my laundry room over spring break. Each panel is of an old flower seed packet. I purchased the 12-pattern set from Crabapple Hill studios a few years ago. Included with the pattern-set were instructions for a wall hanging, which I modified to make cafe curtains instead. Here’s one of my favorite seed packets, Hollyhocks. What do you think?

Here they are together on one panel.

No doubt, it would have been cheaper to buy cafe curtains from the store. But I tried to keep my expenses down by incorporated as many used, or handed down fabrics as possible. The denim was a pair of my work jeans that had become old and ratty looking (even by today’s standards).

What I saved money-wise, I spent ten-fold in time. I’m not the world’s greatest stitcher or seamstress! But I enjoyed every minute of it. And I’m pleased with how they turned out.

Last year I had an amazing crop of Roma tomatoes. We enjoyed homegrown marinara for many months, even after the season had finished.

On the other hand, my pepper and cucumber crop was pathetic.

One the secret to my tomatoes was starting them inside on February 15th. I have one growing light that is set on a timer for 12 hours a day. It worked well, as I was able to transplant 10 of them into the garden in the middle of May.

I decided to stick with the same variety of tomato this year: Martino’s Roma, but was a week late getting hem going this year. So far so good. Here’s a picture:

If you look closely, you’ll notice newspaper pots. I start my seeds in the newspaper pots and then transplant the most healthy seedlings into standard nursery pots once they get “leggy.”

What you can’t see in the picture are my broccoli starts. I planted 3 broccoli plants near my tomato patch. According to my gardening resources, broccoli and tomatoes are NOT good companion plants. Even so they were nearby. I cut a few florets but let the broccoli plants flower. It happened the same time that the tomatoes flowered and, as a result, I had many pollinators visit our yard. I think that was another secret to my successful tomato crop. I’m repeating this pattern this year to see if I get the similar results in my new garden.