Seeds in Dirt!

 As prep I filled three window boxes with soil from the composter. Brought that in a week or so ago. This past weekend I planted some seeds in it directly - no sprouting on wet paper towels this time around. We'll see how it works. Planted three types of tomatoes - Roma, Spoon, and Cherokee Purple. Ping Tung Long, the long purple eggplants. Ground cherries. Something called orange berries. Huckleberries. Four types of hot peppers - Jalapeno, Cayenne, Serrano, and Anaheim.

I've still got one long box unplanted, I think I will stop at the hardware store and get some more tomato seeds. Need some cherry tomatoes at least. I've also gotten out the peas and zucchini which I think I can plant soon. Predictions have Thursday as the last day to have freezing temps this month. So maybe we will be good after that. I've got plenty of seeds so I will probably plant this weekend and hope for the best. 

We are underway!

New Project: Cookies - Part 3

 Today's effort was oatmeal raisin cookies. I don't particularly like oatmeal raisin cookies. I mean, who would choose oatmeal raisin over oatmeal chocolate chip? Ain't nobody! But for completeness sake, here she is. The recipe is just the recipe from the chocolate chip bag except the addition of 2 cups of oatmeal and the exclusion of chocolate chips. Plus a few raisins. I will admit I set aside a small portion of the cookie dough for this project and the rest became oatmeal chocolate chip. 

Oatmeal Raisin ( #3 )

New Project: Cookies - Part 2

 Checked off a few more boxes. If I quarter the recipe on the chocolate chips bag for Toll House Cookies, don't add nuts, and do add 1/2 cup oatmeal I get about 6 pretty darned good cookies.

Chcolate Chip Cookies ( #181 )

Also #175 - A chocolate chip cookie but with the chips picked off for some reason

Set aside half of the dough and added some cocoa powder, espresso powder, and a bit of hot water so it mixed well to get #78 - Chocolate chip mocha cookies

New Project: Cookies

 Started playing Cookie Clicker a few years ago. An idle game, very silly, but somehow at least slightly compelling. Out of this grew the notion of baking every cookie in the game. Parsing through the Cookie Clicker wiki, there are 245 different types. Not all of them are sensible or doable, I'll put the list at the end of this post.

First up, today, I did #4, Peanut Butter Cookies.

This also resulted in checking off #180, Cookie Crumbs.

The Full Cookie Clicker Cookie List

## 🍪 **Standard Cookies** (138)

1) Plain cookies

2) Sugar cookies

3) Oatmeal raisin cookies - DONE, Feb 14, 2026

4) Peanut butter cookies - DONE, Jan 18, 2026

5) Coconut cookies

6) Macadamia nut cookies

7) Almond cookies

8) Hazelnut cookies

9) Walnut cookies

10) Cashew cookies

11) White chocolate cookies

12) Milk chocolate cookies

13) Double-chip cookies

14) White chocolate macadamia nut cookies

15) All-chocolate cookies

16) Dark chocolate-coated cookies

17) White chocolate-coated cookies

18) Eclipse cookies

19) Zebra cookies

20) Snickerdoodles

21) Stroopwafels

22) Macaroons

23) Empire biscuits

24) Madeleines

25) Palmiers

26) Palets

27) Sablés

28) Gingerbread men

29) Gingerbread trees

30) Pure black chocolate cookies

31) Pure white chocolate cookies

32) Ladyfingers

33) Tuiles

34) Chocolate-stuffed biscuits

35) Checker cookies

36) Butter cookies

37) Cream cookies

38) Gingersnaps

39) Cinnamon cookies

40) Vanity cookies

41) Cigars

42) Pinwheel cookies

43) Fudge squares

44) Shortbread biscuits

45) Millionaires' shortbreads

46) Caramel cookies

47) Pecan sandies

48) Moravian spice cookies

49) Anzac biscuits

50) Buttercakes

51) Ice cream sandwiches

52) Pink biscuits

53) Whole grain cookies

54) Candy cookies

55) Big chip cookies

56) One chip cookies

57) Sprinkles cookies

58) Peanut butter blossoms

59) No-bake cookies

60) Florentines

61) Chocolate crinkles

62) Maple cookies

63) Persian rice cookies

64) Norwegian cookies

65) Crispy rice cookies

66) Ube cookies

67) Butterscotch cookies

68) Speculaas

69) Chocolate oatmeal cookies

70) Molasses cookies

71) Biscotti

72) Waffle cookies

73) Custard creams

74) Bourbon biscuits

75) Mini-cookies

76) Whoopie pies

77) Caramel wafer biscuits

78) Chocolate chip mocha cookies - DONE Feb 5, 2026

79) Earl Grey cookies

80) Chai tea cookies

81) Corn syrup cookies

82) Icebox cookies

83) Graham crackers

84) Hardtack

85) Cornflake cookies

86) Tofu cookies

87) Gluten-free cookies

88) Russian bread cookies

89) Lebkuchen

90) Aachener Printen

91) Canistrelli

92) Nice biscuits

93) French pure butter cookies

94) Petit beurre

95) Nanaimo bars

96) Berger cookies

97) Chinsuko

98) Panda koala biscuits

99) Putri salju

100) Milk cookies

101) Kruidnoten

102) Marie biscuits

103) Meringue cookies

104) Yogurt cookies

105) Thumbprint cookies

106) Pizzelle

107) Granola cookies

108) Ricotta cookies

109) Roze koeken

110) Peanut butter cup cookies

111) Sesame cookies

112) Taiyaki

113) Vanillekipferl

114) Battenberg biscuits

115) Rosette cookies

116) Gangmakers

117) Welsh cookies

118) Raspberry cheesecake cookies

119) Bokkenpootjes

120) Fat rascals

121) Ischler cookies

122) Matcha cookies

123) Dalgona cookies

124) Spicy cookies

125) Coyotas

126) Frosted sugar cookies

127) Marshmallow sandwich cookies

128) Steamed cookies / Web cookies (version dependent)

129) Havreflarn

130) Alfajores

131) Gaufrettes

132) Cookie bars

133) Snowball cookies

134) Sequilhos

135) Hazelnut swirlies

136) Spritz cookies

137) Mbatata cookies

138) Springerles

… *[138 total]* 

## 🍯 **Cookie Boxes** (41 total)

### 🫖 *Tin of British Tea Biscuits*

139) British tea biscuits

140) Chocolate british tea biscuits

141) Round british tea biscuits

142) Round chocolate british tea biscuits

143) Round british tea biscuits with heart motif

144) Round chocolate british tea biscuits with heart motif

### 🍪 *Box of Brand Biscuits*

145) Caramoas

146) Sagalongs

147) Shortfoils

148) Win mints

149) Fig gluttons

150) Loreols

151) Jaffa cakes

152) Grease’s cups

153) Digits

154) Lombardia cookies

155) Bastenaken cookies

156) Festivity loops

157) Havabreaks

158) Zilla wafers

159) Dim dams

160) Pokey

162) Nines

### 🧁 *Box of Macarons*

163) Rose macarons

164) Lemon macarons

165) Chocolate macarons

166) Pistachio macarons

167) Hazelnut macarons

168) Violet macarons

169) Caramel macarons

### 🧈 *Tin of Butter Cookies*

170) Butter knots

171) Butter slabs

172) Butter swirls

### 🍪 *Box of Maybe Cookies*

173) Cookie dough

174) Burnt cookie

175) A chocolate chip cookie but with the chips picked off for some reason - DONE Feb 5, 2026

176) Flavor text cookie

177) High-definition cookie

178) Crackers

179) Deep-fried cookie dough

## 🌟 **Legacy Cookies** (2)

180) Cookie crumbs - DONE, Jan 18, 2026

181) Chocolate chip cookie - DONE Feb 5, 2026

## 🎃 **Seasonal Cookies** (7)

182) Skull cookies

183) Ardent heart biscuits

184) Sour heart biscuits

185) Weeping heart biscuits

186) Golden heart biscuits

187) Eternal heart biscuits

188) Prism heart biscuits 

## 🌱 **Garden Cookies** (5)

189) Elderwort biscuits

190) Bakeberry cookies

191) Duketater cookies

192) Green yeast digestives

193) Wheat slims

## 🍫 **Butter Biscuits** (13)

194) Milk chocolate butter biscuit

195) Dark chocolate butter biscuit

196) White chocolate butter biscuit

197) Ruby chocolate butter biscuit

198) Lavender chocolate butter biscuit

199) Synthetic chocolate green honey butter biscuit

200) Royal raspberry chocolate butter biscuit

201) Ultra-concentrated high-energy chocolate butter biscuit 

202) Pure pitch-black chocolate butter biscuit

203) Cosmic chocolate butter biscuit

204) Butter biscuit (with butter)

205) Everybutter biscuit

206) Personal biscuit

## 🧙 **Miscellaneous Cookies** (2)

207) Dragon cookie

208) Birthday cookie

### Total Count

* Standard: **138**

* Cookie Boxes: **41**

* Legacy: **2**

* Seasonal: **7**

* Garden: **5**

* Butter Biscuits: **13**

* Miscellaneous: **2**

➡️ **Grand Total = 208 cookies** 

Ordered Seeds!

 I'm thinking this year the big improvement might be floating row covers. I think it might keep deer out? Going to try it over the strawberry patch and maybe elsewhere.

Also think I might grow in some buckets along the side of the house. Sunny and I don't think deer go there that often. 

Will start seeds in the basement shortly, maybe next weekend.

Garlic Harvest Time

 Pulled the garlic July 6th. 4.36 lbs (1977g). Then cleaned them. 3.78 lbs (1714g). 35 bulbs. 

Garlic bulbs

Flagship bulb

The biggest bulbs was 3.3 oz (94g).

Produce Incoming!

The flow of produce has begun. Had two somewhat smaller zucchini and a bunch of cherry tomatoes. I've seen some bugs on the zucchini and squashed some bug eggs. But I'm sure it's inevitable. But the zucchini still looks healthy for the moment. Need to pick the garlic but haven't yet.

Some Small Efforts

 Well, the fracking deer noshed on my Jerusalem artichokes. I mean, they left a significant amount of leaves, so I think they will recover.

Deer molested Jerusalem artichokes

Why do they eat only the things I plant? They never eat weeds. Deer, frustrating me for almost 20 years now. And no sign at all of the yams I planted there. Maybe something will sprout, or maybe that's a big failure.

Next planter up is some volunteer garlic and some kale. The kale all bolted, I didn't get much from it. I'm not too optimistic about the garlic either, but what the heck.

Next up are the potatoes. I guess 8 plants. Maybe 11? Anyway, they are doing great. Seeing some flowers.

Taters

Not too weedy despite the neglect I have offered them since planting (been sick for like a month, yuck).

Next planter is all kale, all bolted.

Final planter is full of weeds. I was thinking maybe green beans.

Rolling up the yard to the zucchini trench, things are going a bit better. Seeing zucchini flowers, and some babies.

My baby!

These zucchini are real troopers. The foliage beneath the big ol' zucchini leaves is rather thick! It vaguely leads me to wonder if the density of weeds has any impact on the ability of bugs to get in there. Probably not. It would probably be far better to clear out the weeds and the old dead leaves. It is on the to do list. The plants are looking great though, weeds and all.

Zucchini blowin' up

Tomatoes a little further up the yard are doing great. They always do great in these little cutouts attached to the deck. And enough rain that no varmints are chewing into the stems. I have sealed up the holes a bit, so maybe there are no chipmunk caves there this year.

Tomatoes

The only disappointment with the tomatoes is that almost all of them are black cherry. I mean, those are good, but so is variety. They seemed to be hit less by critters - perhaps the critters couldn't keep up with the abundance. One black cherry produces 750 million tomatoes, while I only get a few from like a mortgage lifter. And the varmints get them before I do.

One task that I did do today was to cut some cloth strips and tie up the tomatoes I put in buckets in the back yard. These guys are doing even better than the front yard ones, which is most unusual!

Back yard. No cukes here this year.

Hot peppers are growing. Leaves are getting eaten a bit. Maybe slugs? Perhaps I should put out a beer trap for them.

Basil needs to be thinned. Seems to be doing ok. Chick peas are growing nicely. Hopefully the deer never find them. I've eaten a few pea pods. Num.

Chick Peas are Fun

 Lots going on. The deer ate the peas right out of the chicken wire fenced in area. I still have a few in the back side garden, but it isn't going to be much.

Peas vining

Pea flowers

More Pea Flowers

Jerusalem Artichokes

More Jerusalem Artichoke

Chick Peas

Chick Peas

 After a soak the chick peas went into a wet paper towel for three days. Sure enough, they sprouted nicely.

Chick pea sprouts after 3 days

I planted out 36 of the seeds in 3 separate 10 gallon grow bags on Monday. No sprouts yet, but I am optimistic.

Pepper plants don't look super great, like they're struggling. I fertilized everything on Sunday. Warmer weather is on the way, so hopefully they will perk up.

Jerusalem Artichokes and Garbanzo Beans

 My Jerusalem artichokes arrived. Got them from etsy of all places. Planted them in the bed down by the end of the driveway. Only got three, they were pricy considering how easy they allegedly are to grow. Very excited to see how they do. As you can see they are roughly the size of a cat's paw. Thanks for the assistance, Marceline!

Jerusalem artichoke tubers

Also trying garbanzo beans. I purchased some dry bulk seed at Whole Foods. Plan is to soak for 8 hours, then sprout in wet paper towel for three days. By then I should have space for them set up outside.

Chick peas soaking

Rainy Days

 Been very rainy lately, so I haven't had to water much. It has been warm lately, though it's 54 F today. I've been doing garden work sporadically, mostly on the weekends when I have free time. Lots still to do, but I guess I should congratulate myself on what I've done so far. I made a list of remaining work to do last post, and since then I've planted the rest of my tomatoes in pots. There are still a few of them unplanted, mostly the smaller stragglers, maybe 5 or 6 plants. I think I'll plant those in the back side plot. A small plot currently with some peas in it. But the peas sprouted in two clumps, leaving space for a few tomatoes. I also put some tomato cages in with the peas for them to climb on. Also managed to find some Jerusalem artichokes on Etsy of all places. Today I may try to sprout some garbanzo beans. So four items checked off my to do list, not bad at all!

I decided to order some fabric grow bags to see how I like those. I basically have an unlimited supply of soil available in my backyard up by the tree line. I've dug out a rather deep hole where the compost heap is/was to fill up my various buckets. But I could easily do 50 times that much without it being noticeable. So anyway I ordered 10x 10 gallon fabric bags. Much cheaper than buckets. Haven't decided exactly where to put them, but probably some on the front porch, some on the back porch, maybe a few on the side of the house. I think I'll try to plant a variety of things and see how it goes. Beans for sure. Maybe some lettuce. Cucumbers would be nice to have.

I took a look back through previous years of the blog to see how Mays past looked. I think we're in pretty good shape this year. In a few previous years I was farther along with tomatoes and zucchini, but mostly behind where I am now.

Some pictures.

Kale in planter by the front door. Planted last year

Volunteer tomato growing the front steps

Potato bed

Potatoes!

Zucchini

Garlic

Tomatoes already flowering

Peas. Suspect I'll get some but not a bumper crop

More tomato flowers

Growth in four days. Noticeable!

A little garden work

 Today was a bit of garden work. Cleaned out some of the vine in the rock garden. Crazy, it was fine last year and now it seems overgrown. The tomatoes there were mostly deer and chipmunk food, which was disappointing. I may see if I can just grow zucchini there. Deer don't seem to prey on zucchini as much.

Also spread some diatomaceous earth around a bunch of plants. It's been very wet here, I figure slugs will be out in no time. But nothing yet. They really crippled the zucchini last year. May put out some beer to draw them in.

All the peppers are planted now. They don't seem super happy. Maybe a bit of transplant shock, oof. I've got about 6 or 7 buckets that will be home to some tomatoes.

Tomatoes do seem happy in the patio wells by the driveway. That seems to be a great spot for them.

Planted some potatoes. Dug out one of the garden beds by the driveway. Two more are empty, I'm thinking sweet potatoes and beans. Another one has garlic, doing great. The last one has kale which overwintered and seems to be perking up. Also some garlic. I have no clue if it's some extras I planted or volunteers from the year before.

TO DO LIST

• Maybe get some different tomatoes/peppers/something else from a nursey.
• Get those remaining black cherry tomatoes in buckets.
• Some more strawberries? Weed the strawberry bed. Some trellis for the peas in there.
• Trellis the other peas.
• Plant some beans
• Plant some more kale. I feel like the overwintered stuff is all bolting already
• Plant some zucchini in the rock garden.
• Turn the pizza oven base into a planter.
• Prune brush in rock garden and the old garden.
• Plant sun flowers out front
• Find Jerusalem artichokes
• Get straw for strawberries
• The asparagus is still alive! Clear out that area of the old garden.
• Plant the berries. They are off to a great start this spring, but one of the blueberries is not so happy. Better get them in the ground. But where???
• Rescue some black raspberries.
• Plant chives
• See if garbanzo beans I got will sprout

New Year in the Garden

 Just to start off, I have been making breakfast sandwiches to take to work quite regularly. For bread I use focaccia mostly, though occasionally Abreaducation white bread. Most days I grab a handful of raw or sometimes frozen spinach and cook it in a little butter until it's unfrozen/wilted. Then I crack a couple eggs in the pan and cover until it sets up a bit, then flip. After that I turn off the burner and put on two thick slices of yellow deli cheddar and cover again. This melts it nicely and doesn't overcook.

This years gardening got off to a decent start. I ordered some seeds and planted a few types of tomatoes and peppers. I figured I would start a few types, get some more seeds and start some other types. Well, it did not work out that way, so I have two types of tomato plants this year, Black Cherry and Sungold. I think I will be disappointed not to have a slicing tomato variety. And no sauce tomato either, though I could certainly make sauce from the two cherry varieties. One other benefit is that it seems like the prolific output of cherry tomatoes outpaces the chipmunks thievery. Did not get many of the sungold to come up. Only about 7 or 8 plants. But the black cherry plants went hog wild.

Black Cherry

I also tried ground cherries. But none of them sprouted. Not sure what I'm doing wrong with them. Had them one year and haven't worked out much since.

Also one variety of peppers popped up. I think it was "Highlander" a New Mexico green chile type. Got a few plants, not enough to go wild, but I'll hopefully have some.

Green Chile

Also went a little nuts on basil. I'm a bit excited about basil this year. I think I'll plant it here, there, everywhere, in the ground, in containers, all over. Be nice to make a good haul of pesto. Some are doing better than others, but they're all mostly just barely sprouted.

Basil

Current plan is buckets near the house for tomatoes. The deer don't like getting that close.

The rock garden landscaping fabric mostly held up, but it's going to take some work to get it suitable for planting. Lots of vines grow in there. I think I'll plant zucchini there, deer seem less likely to eat that.

Have some peas sprouting up. I built a small raised bed out of the posts I tore down from the fenced in garden. That's got peas and strawberries surrounded by chicken wire. Something ate some of the peas that sprouted. Deer maybe. So I put up the chicken wire and that seems to have put a stop to the predation. 

Got 8 tomatoes growing in the wells by the stairs in the front and a bunch of zucchini in the trough out front. Garlic in one of the raised beds by the driveway. Kale in another, and some kale in the little planters by the house. The kale all survived the winter, it was very impressive.

Also have some berry bushes that survived the winter in pots! Blueberries and serviceberries. Also some gooseberries that I transplanted out of the old fenced in garden before the landscapers cleared it.

So lots going on. As always, never quite get to all the things I want to do, but if I get half of the stuff I've gotten started it'll be nice.

Sandwichspace 49 - 56

Eight sandwiches, no new ground broken.

Sandwichspace 47 & 48

47

Finally scrapple hits the sandwichspace grid. For those outside PA, scrapple is a mix of blended up pig parts and cornmeal. You fry it up crispy in oil and it's crunchy, salty, and tasty. Seems like a possible good fit for this. One big downside is that you kind of have to baby it, keeping a close eye on it as it cooks. Overcooked is very crunchy but has an unpleasant burnt flavor. Undercooked will lack that nice crunch. So I don't have the energy for this in the mornings. For this sandwich I used some I cooked the night before. It was good, and crunchy, but only like a 7/10, so I think not worth the extra effort.

Appearance 5/10, not really pretty.

Flavor 6/10. Nothing to write home about.

48

Today was just a handful of fresh spinach, sauteed down, two eggs, broken in the pan and quasi-scrambled up. Three thin slices of pepper jack and focaccia bread. The only thing I did differently was heavily butter both slices of toasted focaccia. That makes it better for sure.

Appearance 7/10. How much of the appearance is just lighting?

Flavor 7/10, I was pretty hungry, and this hit the spot perfectly. How much of this rating was that it was hot off the stove instead of sitting an hour in foil? Some. Yesterday's sandwich should not have been at least a 7, but it just wasn't as good.

Sandwichspace 41 - 46

41

Shrimp! 10/26. Was really good. 7/10

Appearance 6/10

Flavor 7/10

42

Bacon, 10/30. IIRC, I enjoyed the bacon on this one.

Appearance 5/10

Flavor 5/10

43

So I went did a 24 hour sous vide cook of a 3 lb eye round of beef. Turned out very much like a nice tender roast beef.

The color in this pic is not appetizing at all! Lol. But The beef was good and I used a slab of it on my breakfast sandwich.

I mean... I guess I did. I know I did but you can't see it at all. Anyway, the roast beef slab was good and meaty and thick and a very appealing part of the sandwich. 8/10. But a lot of work for it.

Appearance 6/10

Flavor 7/10

44

Vegetarian, the meat was hardly missed.

Pepper jack and cheddar, heavy cheese presence.

Appearance 6/10

Flavor 6/10

45

Vegetarian again? Or was there a slice of sous vide chicken in there? Who can say.

46

Ok, this one is pretty. Pepper jack, no meat.

Appearance 8/10. And the photo did it justice.

Flavor 7/10. Very good. Satisfying. I am beginning to think we have a winner. I may just run it up to 49 for the 7x7 grid combined pic, then do a final one of just the winner for number 50. I may need to round it all out with brioche and scrapple, because those need to be in the running.