Beautiful Scenery

Since I have been kind of busy with homework I did not want to get out of the habit of posting. If you come to San Antonio and you love historic places, you definitely need to see the missions. I'm posting a couple of pics from a recent trip to see them. The missions are all in the same general area, so if you are here (advised when it is not quite this hot), make sure you save a day to take it all in. Enjoy.

Eggplant Harvest!

I have been waiting for this day for awhile now. I found these cute little plants called Fairytale eggplants. They are a miniature version of eggplant and can be harvested when the eggplants get to about 4 inches long. My plants are FULL, and several are ready to pick. Since I only have patios I'm restricted to container gardening for the most part and these fit in perfectly. I am predicting vegetable kabobs, and some Tilapia and eggplant curry in my future. Another benefit of these is that they are supposed to not have that bitter taste that eggplants can get. Enjoy the pics.

Stuffed Poblanos

Thursday I went to the Farmer's market and one of the vendors had some nice baskets of poblano peppers. These are great stuffed, so I decided instead of making traditional stuffed peppers w/bell peppers, I would use a basket of these. I made the filling the same and split the poblanos open (took out the seeds and ribs) and filled with the meat mixture. They were SO good! I'm going to add my filling recipe here just in case anyone is interested.

1 lb. lean ground beef

10 poblano peppers (you do not need to remove the stem end)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup of prepared white rice

15 oz. and 8oz. cans of tomato sauce

1 t. chopped garlic

salt and pepper to taste.

Clean the poblanos and split open on one side (careful not to cut all the way through). Remove seeds and ribs. Stuff the poblanos with the prepared meat mixture and place in a baking dish. Pour the 8oz. can of tomato sauce over the stuffed peppers (add 15oz can when combining meat and other ingredients). Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. I made this dish ahead of time and baked it when I was ready for dinner. I served it with roasted red potatoes (also from the farmer's market) coated in olive oil (salt and pepper) and with about 6 whole cloves of garlic. This cooked for the same amount of time as the peppers and came out delicious. Some slices of nice ripe tomato finished the meal (you guessed it, these were also from the farmer's market).

Save your money!

This post is not going to be how I initially imagined it. Last Thursday I went to the Ringling Bros. Circus that came to San Antonio for the week. Now, I have only been to the circus one other time in my life and I thought it would be something different and fun. Wow! When did the circus become a bad musical? The ringmaster sang throughout the whole thing and the acts were less than impressive. Apparently there are 2 different circuses now.. a red and a blue one. I don't know how this works and after what I saw I don't really care to know. I was watching the reaction of kids around me and most of them were kind of stunned and not really sure what to think. The theme appeared to be "over the top." This is one thing they definitely accomplished. At the beginning everyone came out and there were lights and singing and all kinds of activity and then it was just blah. Sorry for anyone that went and actually enjoyed it. One thing I did like was the motorcycles in the steel ball shaped cage. For an arena the size of the Alamodome they only utilized about a 1/4 of it, so there were obviously not going to be any high wire aerials, and only one entrance was open which made for big crowds getting in. For those who went with kids it must have been like an obstacle course trying to get past all the vendors with the twirly flashing lighted thingy's, and the stuffed animals. Someone told me the lighted twirly things were $25, and a snow cone in a clown mug was $9, and a program was $14. So, if the circus hasn't reached your part of the country yet and you are considering going, please do a little research and make sure that it will be worth the expense to your family....

The Farmer's Market and maybe some salsa

Last Saturday I went to the farmer's market (located behind the Pearl Brewery on the Riverwalk). As you might be able to tell from the picture, there are lots of vendors and there is live music and food, and you can even buy an orchid or some Texas meat. This particular market is held every Saturday, so if you are in the area and looking for some local grown veggies give it a try. I will post soon my attempt to make salsa. I bought a couple of baskets of tomatoes and I grow my own cilatro and jalapenos, and I have lots of onions from the last time I went. The farmer's market is held every day in a different part of the city, so if you miss it one day you can find one the next. You might be wondering what looked good.. I got lots of zucchini, some yellow squash and of course the tomatoes. There are still a few peaches here and there but I don't think they look that good this year. Wish me luck on the salsa....