Carne Asada Marinade

What to do on a weekend with fantastic weather? It's time to grill. Especially time to grill using some of our own garden produce! Since it was a slow, lazy Saturday morning, I was in a quandary as to what to grill today. No plans whatsoever as to what to grill, except picking some of our homegrown poblanos. Stuffing  and then grilling them. I mentioned this on Twitter, and one of my Twitter friends mentioned Mexican. Oh yeah, what better goes with stuffed, grilled poblanos? Carne Asada. Pretty much it means, "grilled meat". You marinate that meat (usually skirt steak) in a wonderful, aromatic marinade for a couple of hours. Then flash grill (quickly sear) that piece of meat, and you're ready to enjoy some terrific Mexican food. Here's my marinade recipe.

Carne Asada Marinade

2 jalapeno peppers seeded and minced (I used 2 from my garden)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced
2 limes, juiced
1 large shallot, minced
1 teaspoon raw sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon fresh Mexican oregano, chopped (or 1/2 tsp dried)
2 tablespoons red wine (I use cabernet)
1 tablespoon tequila (optional)
1/2 cup olive oil

As you can see below, I put everything in a small container and shake it up, then pour on the meat. Refrigerate the marinating meat until it's time to grill.

Carne Asada with stuffed poblano (from my garden), refried beans, and tortillas - hot off the grill!

The peppers and tomatoes are in the ground!!

It's always exciting to get plants into the ground. My husband and I planted the peppers and tomatoes this Sunday morning. The herbs were already planted. We grew giant jalapeno, poblano, cubanelle and habanero plants from seeds. And couldn't wait to get them into the ground. 

Another view of our just planted pepper and herb patch.

Here's a closer picture of our herbs. The chives in the left hand corner have been there for 3 years now. We decided to cut down some tomato cages and place them around the chives (also the parsley and cilantro), so that the herbs don't lay on the ground. Keep them neat and tidy as well. We have thyme and rosemary behind the chives, then come parsley and cilantro in their cages. To the right from back to front, we have marjoram, tarragon, dill and basil. We've already harvested chives.And it's looking like harvest time again real soon!

The picture below show our giant jalapeno seedlings. We have a total of 14 planted. There is a very small seedling up front in the middle row. We shall see how that one grows.

The picture below shows 2 poblano plants in the back row. The next 2 rows we planted 10 cubanelle peppers. The two peppers up front are the habaneros we decided to try this year.

Against the fence of our backyard, we have a long, thin garden which we always just planted tomatoes in. We've always grown tomatoes from seed. But not this year. We ordered 3 Super Sauce Tomato plants from Burpee, which are brand new this year, and they were just delivered to us this week. Hopefully we'll have good results.

In each third of the "tomato" garden, we decided to try something new again. The Super Sauce tomatoes are supposed to grow 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide. So we only planted one tomato plant in the middle. We planted 2 cubanelle peppers towards the sides of each box. So 3 tomato plants and 6 cubanelles in the back garden. We want to see how the cubanelles grow out in full sun as well as the semi-shaded ones against the back of our house. Always experimenting, we are! We have a total of 16 cubanelle plants growing from both gardens.

Now the true growing season for us begins. Updates to follow. 

Happy gardening!

First day of indoor seed planting

Last year we bought two Burpee seed kits, containing a heating pad, a tray and a cover. We have plenty of 3" plastic cups, so used those as the planters. We were all ready to start planting our seeds for this year. We first drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of the plastic cups to allow water drainage. Then we added our dirt. Dropped one seed in each dirt-filled planter, covered it a little bit, then watered. Placed the cover on the seed tray, which was already sitting on top of the plugged-in heating pad. Ready to rock n' roll!

Here are my plants that I just seeded indoors. Two habaneros, two poblanos, 16 giant jalapenos and 16 cubanelle peppers. I can't wait to see them sprout through the dirt!

Getting ready for the 2013 gardening season!

Today is the start of my growing season! I am a little late this year. Usually I start at least 2 months ahead of time (Mother's Day planting in ground). This year, I was away for a few days in Maui and didn't want my seedlings to go without water, and perish. Which brings us to this day. My gardening day.

I'm going to do something different this year. I am buying tomato plants instead of growing them from seed. For a few years now, I keep getting blossom end rot on at least 50% of my tomatoes. It's not the soil. It's not just because roma (shape) tomatoes usually have that issue. I grew Mortgage Lifter tomatoes from seed last year and got the same problem. They were nice round tomatoes and still had the problem. So now, I will try just growing a plant and see how that turns out.

But, on the other hand, since I've never had a problem with growing peppers from seed, I am going to grow my usual jalapenos, poblanos and cubanelles, and one new one. I never grew habaneros before, but my husband wanted us to try them.

and 

As you can see, I am a Burpee fan. And yes, I did buy my tomato plants from Burpee.com - A brand new tomato plant that I can't wait to try. The SuperSauce Hybrid Tomato.   

http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/paste/tomato-supersauce-hybrid-prod003154.html

Let's see if I get blossom end rot on those suckers! I can't wait to get them in. Well, closer to Mother's Day, I hope!

More pictures to come! 

Happy growing!