The Garden: From Seeds to Starter Plants

This year we started getting our 2010 garden ready back in mid-February.  We decided to start some of the plants from the seed stage and grow them large enough to be planted in our garden a couple of months later.  By following a chart that lists the planting dates for our area, we were able to plant several types of vegetables as early as February.  There are several types of plants that we can still start from the seed stage now and have them ready to plant when we get our garden planted by the end of May.

Although there are several ways you could organize your planting process, I will share what has worked well for us.  We call it our Planting Map.

Daring Bakers: Traditional British Pudding

When I first read what this month's challenge was going to be, I thought hmmmmm...well, ok, this is a new one and something I've never made before and in some varieties, I've actually eaten. But hey, I have a soft spot in my heart for certain British folks and hey, give me that cool British accent on the right guy and it's over! You know the saying, "the way to a man's heart, is through his stomach" and if this type of guy or this type of guy could be the end result, then I say bring it on!

First let me introduce our hostess this month:

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Monday Must Have & My One-Year Blog Anniversary

It is Monday.

And being that it is Monday, it's time to feature a new Monday Must Have, since it has been a bit too long since I've had one. AND it just also happens to be the exactly one year ago today, I started Jillicious Discoveries, and I still can't believe how fast the year went. But more on that a little later.

Heavenly Cake Bakers: Whoopie Pies & Banana Cupcakes

Do you ever have the best of intentions to follow a PLAN that you've carefully thought out and scheduled accordingly? And once the PLAN is in place, have you ever had that PLAN completely fall apart or rather be replaced with a new PLAN, because LIFE happened? This is what has happened to me over the last month (some really BIG decisions regarding Jillicious Desserts moving in a new direction) and I'm in the process of finalizing these plans and will share when I know more. But more about that later and in case you noticed (or not) it's been a month since my last post, so today I'm getting back on track, at least in the blogging world.

Today's Heavenly Cake Bakers recipe is: Two Fat Cats Whoopie Pies, named after the Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland, Maine.