Treasure Chest Birthday Cake

Eli turned 2 this week. Can you believe it? The kids decided they wanted to be Jake and the Never land Pirates from Disney channel, Jake (Jacob), Izzy (Daisy), and Cubby (Eli).

 So for the birthday cake I decided to build a treasure chest! This was an overwhelming task! I was worried all week but it turned out so awesome!

The top is made out of a rice crispy treat that I molded into shape and covered in chocolate. It took 3 batches! The bottom is chocolate cake and chocolate frosting! I used a 11"X15" cake pan and cut it in half and stacked it. The top is held on with 5 wooden dowels, 2 on the sides to look like the hinges, and three hidden inside the back of the cake.

Jake and the Never land Pirates Treasure Chest Cake

I piped on all the trim, I was going to use fruit leather but could not find any in yellow, but I think this turned out way better! I loaded it up with chocolate/gold coins, gold nugget chocolates, ring pops, candy necklaces, rock candy and anything else that looked like pirate loot! My MIL piped on the swords, I was not sure I could do that. And it was her idea to use a rice crispy treat for the lid!

It turned out great and was time consuming but no where near as hard as I thought it would be!

 I think everyone really enjoyed it!

Preparing for frost 10/21

Spent a good portion of the day picking all that I could before frost and pulling some tomato plants. It has taken a good portion of the day to clear two 8ft tomato beds and pick a bunch of odds and ends.

one last pile of beans will make a nice side one night this week. I thought they were done, they surprised me.

The raspberries are still going, there are several more blossoms out there. I don't know if they will make it past the frost though...

The one and only Dills Atlantic Giant, ha! It never did fully mature before the SVBs destroyed the vine. 2 more sugar pumpkins. That gives me 3 more to steam up and freeze! That is the last of them out of my garden for this year though.

Black Cherry tomatoes

small sweet peppers! Hopefully a good many will still turn! Otherwise, DH will be eating a lot of green peppers cause the kids don't like them green!

Matt's Wild Cherry. I still have not gotten all of these! I chopped off a huge portion of the plant and it is still 8 ft tall and the other "little" one, is not so little anymore!

Stole a shelf in the garage from DH. This is all the larger tomatoes. Those beds have been cleared.

Lots of work while still trying to get over being sick. Blech! Was tempting to just leave it all. But I got most of it. 

Anyone plant parsnips over winter? My mom keeps telling me that that is how my gramma grew them in MI, over the winter. Thinking about trying it. I have a box of parsnips that will be picked soon that were planted in spring. But now that I got the tomato bed cleaned out, I thought about putting some in there. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Sweet Potato Disappointment

Strep has been working it's way through our house the past couple weeks. Been too blah and too busy to get out to the garden much. But I got DH to help me dig up the sweet potatoes, which by how many vines and flowers we have had, I thought there would be plenty. My excitement was crushed when we only found 2 decent ones and only a few little ones. It was enough for one meal. Yes they were good, and my children gobbled them up, especially my son, he LOVES sweet potatoes. I think I will try planting them in one of my raised beds next year.

Also got the last two cucumbers, a very small cabbage, some broccoli sprouts, tomatoes, peppers and a few dry beans. I haven't even touched the cherry tomato plants in about 2 weeks. I think I am about to rip them all out. Frost is forecasted for one night this week, so it is probably a good time.

I do still have broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, parsnips, peas, chard, and a couple of other fall things going out there. And the garlic is in! Music garlic will be planted here soon too!

Harvest Monday 10/10/11

It's Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions!

Harvest Monday Oct 3

It's Harvest Monday, check out Daphne's Dandelions for some more great harvests.

This was my little watermelon from last week. It was little but it was good!

Been getting a decent amount of raspberries off of 3 plants, they will be winding down here pretty soon.

After not getting out to the garden this week, I had a bit of catching up to do. And I needed to get the basil cut since it is getting into the 30s here at night already! Saved another pumpkin from the borers. It is getting pretty orange though. Lots of little sweet peppers and lots of little tomatoes, I didn't even touch the big MWC though! That thing needs taming! :) A few beans dry and podded.