Creeping Jenny

     Unfortunately for me, I work at a home improvement store. It's not that I don't like the job, or the people, or the hours. It's unfortunate because I end up spending down time making shopping lists of what we need next for the house and the yard, it's usually really bad when I go into the garden section of the store and see all of the plants and the people that come to buy them. The little old ladies are the best customers because they're experts at matching plants up for their yards and I've learned to take notes. I have also discovered that even though flowering plants are stunning when they bloom they're done for after the last flower falls off. I especially dislike roses. They can be a real pain if they get diseases or bugs. So I've learned to appreciate the succulents and accent plants that aren't fussy. I found one today that I really love

Creeping Jenny! ha ha

Sampson thinks they look fab

One of my projects, four varieties of basil. Lemon is the best so far!

My awesome humming bird feeder. I love that it's glass instead of plastic, I just hope it never breaks!



Homemade Potato Salad

One of my favvvvorite vegetables is the potato because the possiblities are endless, mashed potatoes, french fries, scalloped potatoes, baked potatoes (loaded please!) hashbrowns, ...endless They are also a great side to any meal.  For dinner the other night we grilled some thinly sliced pork cutlets in Jerk Sauce. Jerk Sauce is a Jamaican marinade that is really flavorful and usually spicy. If you've ever tried the Jamaican Jerk Sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings, you'll know what I'm talking about. But, thankfully for us, the one that we bought is very mild and slightly sweeter.  Because we live in Texas, bbq beans and homemade potato salad were the first choice for sides and they worked out great!


Ingredients:

10 medium sized pototes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 cup of mayonaise
4 tbs yellow mustard
2 hard boiled eggs
1/3 cup onion roughly chopped
1/4 cup of hamburger pickle slices, chopped
4 tbs pickle juice
2 tbs coarse black pepper
salt to taste

Feel free to tweak this as need be, I ended up adding more mayo and mustard the last time I made this!
Potatoes...lots of potatoes

Onion, Pickles and Eggs

The good stuff, just discovered Duke's Mayo recently and I'll never go back to Helmann's, RIP!

First you'll need a medium/large pot to boil the potatoes in until they are fork tender but not mushy, it will take around 10-15mins once the water is boiling. Drain the potatoes and let them cool.  In a small pot you can boil the eggs, I only used two. Set them aside to cool once they are cooked.

For the dressing use a large bowl and start with the mayo and mustard, add the salt and pepper, onions, pickles and juice. When the eggs are ready you can peel them and slice them up roughly, toss them in. The potatoes need to be room temp or cooler before you add them into the dressing, if they still aren't cool you can run them under cold water. Once they are completely cooled and drained you can add them into the dressing. It's ready to serve but if you want it cold, cold, cover and refridgerate for an hour before serving.

This was such a fast and simple potato salad recipe and it would be hard to mess it up, if you've never tried making it yourself, give it a shot! I will never be buying the ready made store stuff again! Make it the day before you're planning on serving it, the onion flavor comes out more the longer it sits and it's extra tasty the next day.