And The Last Winner Is…

After this past week – you can’t say we haven’t ever gave you anything.  Well… I guess some of you still can.  But still.  This whole give-away thing was a lot of fun, we are happy to have been able to do this for our readers.  We are happy that we have met so many new and nice folks that love gardening as much as us.  So what we are trying to say is…

Thank you!

Now… what you all really came back for… the last give away winner.  Let’s get to it.

The Last Winner

Jeannie from Geno’s Garden took home the final prize (for now) and from her comment – it would look like she bribed us.  But trust… that is not the case.  We never would take a bribe.  Unless it was very lucrative.  Right?  We all have a price.  ;)

Once again – we would like to thank Joe Lamp’l and we urge you to go check out his site and you can obviously buy his book… that’s legal.  Or you can find him on Twitter tweeting away.  Go follow Joe!

Green Garden Give-Away (#5): Over The Fence

Ok, this is the final give-away of the week.  This has been fun hasn’t it?  I mean who would have thought so many folks would have shown up and we would have got a chance to meet so many new gardeners & greenies!  Thanks for joining us here at Double D, we hope you stick around.  Wait…

Your not one of those people that just come around for the free stuff are you?!?

Better not be.  ;)

So if you haven’t figured it out yet, all of this is in celebration of National Gardening Month and so what better way to wrap this up than for a gardening book for experienced & n00b gardeners?  No better way.  Give-away #5 is the gardening book – Over The Fence by Joe Lamp’l.  If you don’t know Joe… you don’t know Jack.  Wait…  you know what we mean.  Joe is on Twitter for you garden twits out there.  Go follow him if you aren’t already – here.  Here is the actual book…

Over The Fence - Joe Lamp'l

Joe is an elite gardener that has started a movement and you can read all about the $25 Victory Garden on his blog (which is an awesome read).  Joe has donated this book to the contests and we are hoping we can get him to sign the copy that you will win (but that is yet confirmed).  He has been on Good Morning America a few times in the last month – and is a true advocate for home gardening.  So how cool is it to get HIS book and truly learn from a long-time gardener that has a cause!

So you know what to do… comment and you are in.  If you are on Twitter – tell everyone you know!  And even people you don’t know.  We want this to be our biggest turn out of all.  So blog about it, call your neighbors – your cousins… Grandma.  Whoever you can think of that would love a gardening book – tell ‘em.

As always, thanks to Joe Lamp’l for the contribution – and please go check out Joe Gardener and even download his free e-book in the meantime (while your waiting to win of course).  Good luck everyone!

Eating In: 2 for 1 Special (Day 13)

Sundays were meant for breakfast right?  I mean what a better day to enjoy the paper and sit and drink coffee and eat some form of breakfast.  This post is a bit different than others – because it is a two-fer.  2 meals in this post for the price of one.  Wait… not really on the price thing.  But still.  You know what we are saying.  You get 2 meals today on this post, instead of the one boring one.

So lets get on with it. 

Breakfast yesterday was a bit later than normal – almost brunch-like.  This is something we have started lately.  Eating a late breakfast and an early dinner and skipping lunch.  Cheaper.  We get more work done instead of sitting around eating.  We feel better and if we really get hungry – grab a snack or something.

So yesterday (Sunday), we put off breakfast until around 11 or so and decided we would do French toast & bacon.  We had picked up some bread from the Farmer’s Market on Saturday and so we figured we would use that for the French toast.  It is a Honey Wheat bread (with the proceeds going to the local women’s shelter), and it is awesome – so knew as French Toast it would rock the house. 

Add in some bacon, and do we really have to sell you on this meal?

French Toast (Eating AT HOME!)

Let’s run down the price & stuff real quick.  Bread was $5 a loaf (which is high, we know), but it went to the local women’s shelter – so for us that is ok.  12 slices total from the loaf – we used 4.  Quick math… it was roughly $.41 a slice (imagine using your store bought or homemade – super cheap).  $1.64 for bread.

Then the 2 eggs we used for the French toast – we will just guess-timate… $0.35.

We picked up the bacon 2 for $5 @ HEB.  So $2.50 for it.

Total for breakfast – $4.31 (w/ $1.64 of it going to charity)

Not bad for a quick & easy breakfast.  On our French toast, we put a lil vanilla in the eggs – then a lil brown sugar.. lil bit of milk to stretch it.  Then with it being a honey wheat bread – the honey explodes out of it.  Awesome. 

Neeeeeeeeext…

Shala has been wanting to do a roast for a while, we just hadn’t really thought about it.  Since we are trying to switch up our menu to keep it fresh, this weekend was a perfect time to try it.  This is a crock pot dish, so its a matter of putting everything in the crock pot and letting it sit for 6-8 hours.  So easy isn’t even the word for this one.  FREAKIN’ EASY is more like it.

Added a beef roast, half a bag of baby carrots, some sliced onion (big slices) & about 10 new potatoes (the small red ones) cut up into smaller pieces.  Add in 1/4 cup of shiraz or merlot & 3/4 cup of water.  Set it to low – and let it go.  6-8 hours.  We flipped it at one point (the roast).

Pot Roast (Beef) w/ potatoes & carrots & onions

So here is the entire menu last night…

Beef Pot Roast w/ potatoes, onions & carrots

Salad

Green Beans w/ cheese

Bread

Shala ate the green beans w/cheese, I did the salad.  And I ate the bread we bought from the Farmer’s Market with it as well.  It was awesome, we both tore it up and can’t wait to eat it again (yes, we have tons of leftovers from it).  Sandwiches anyone?!? haha

Breakdown on price.  The roast was the most expensive, obviously – I think we paid about 7 bucks total for the roast (will figure it closer when I get home).  We ate about half I would say.  So $3.50 total for the meat (since we are doing leftovers from it).

Potatoes were $2.50 for the bag – we used about a 1/4th of the bag.  So we will say – $0.75.

We had an onion from last time, and only used a lil of it.  Carrots were $1 a bag and we used half.  So $0.50 on that.

The bread once again was $0.40 a slice (two slices).  $0.80 for bread.

Green beans were $0.50 a can.  $0.50 for green beans we will add $0.20 for cheese added haha – $0.70 total for green beans & cheese.

Salad was from the AeroGarden – cha ching!

Salad from Aerogarden!

Grand total for meal – $6.25

You couldn’t pay 6.25 for a meal like this at any local place to eat.  Hell you can’t get a value meal at Whataburger for that!  Remember that these are all estimations – we try to fall on the high side, so it might even be cheaper.  And we are doing this based on 2 people.

Shala owned this meal.  It is now on our future menu – it was so good and don’t be alarmed if you cook this yourself and at first the wine is very overpowering (the smell).  About hour 6, it will begin really smelling like roast and oh man.  You might as well just leave the house because you will be walking by every 5 minutes trying to sneak a whiff!

How’s your quest going?  Anything we should know?  Anything we should be eating?  New recipes?