What’s for dinner?

If only dinner came out this good every night.

Step 1. Throw some chicken, squash, onion, asparagus, whatever on the grill.

Hot off the grill...

I had marinated the chicken in teriyaki for about an hour. Mixed in some sesame seeds.

My new santoku knife is bad ass. Almost a little too sharp. Like it would cut your finger off and you wouldn't even feel it sharp.

Combine veggies/wild rice

The final product

Plated up for my princess

So there you go.  Nothing to it.  Anytime you are wondering what to do with those random veggies just sitting in the crisper drawer of your fridge – just throw them on the grill,  add some wild  rice and chicken (or meat less for the vegetarians in your life) . Everything tastes better grilled – especially vegetables. Make sure to marinate the vegetables in olive oil, salt , pepper and fresh garlic first – you could also throw in some fresh herbs like rosemary as well (a little goes a long way).

FULL DISCLOSURE:  These veggies didn’t come from my garden.  All in good time…

Walk me out in the morning dew….

My daughter wakes up obscenely early – especially on weekends. This sets off a chain reaction. Once my dogs hear her – then they start barking to be let out. So then daddy has to go down two flights of stairs to let the dogs out.

As much as this sucks – today it paid off. When I let the dogs out I checked up on the garden and saw this really interesting “dew formation” on my plants – the water would bead up on the tips of the leaves. Since I have decided to use my garden as an excuse to indulge myself artistically – I broke out the D40 and did my thing.

Morning Dew Code Red

I really like this one.

My neighbors must think I am crazy.

The whole time I was taking pictures this classic Grateful Dead song was playing in my the back of my head -

The Grateful Dead had a few songs that can only be described as “Transcendant” – Wharf Rat, Dark Star, and of course Morning Dew come to mind.

Guerrilla Gardening? What does that even mean??

End of week one....

No I am not some commie-fascist homegrown hippie insurgent. I just thought the name “Suburban Guerrilla Garden” sounded way cooler than “Suburban Gardener”.  I had read about the vego-hipsters in the big city  “Guerrilla Gardening” for a while now – planting clandestine veggie gardens in vacant lots and other public areas and was truly inspired.

Well I admit a veggie garden in my own backyard is not quite as clandestine as I would like it to be – but I am taking it to the next level in terms of “treehuggerness”. I plan to use only what I find laying around my house to build up/maintain my garden. The wood for my two “beds” came from our old deck surface – which we resurfaced with recycled composite boards actually made from milk jugs and water bottles. So as long as I don’t find out one day that this stuff is made from carcinogenic nano polymers assembled by child slave labor in Indonesia – I figure this is a good start for my “low impact” garden.

I also plan to not buy any fertilizer (organic of course…I usually use “Earth Juice” but hopefully won’t be needing it this season). All the nutrition for my crop will come from a years worth of compost.

All of my starter containers were left overs from previous years or old coffee jugs which I plan on re-using.

And today I started to construct my “trellis system” from some old poles and weed whacker cord I found in the garage. Because my garden is only 16sqft I don’t have much room to grow “outwards”. I have to grow “upwards”. I am going to have to use creative training and trellising to maximize yields.

So there is a little insight into my master plan. Pretty rad huh?

"The Sanford and Son Square Foot Garden"

I hope my work doesn't recognize those easels.