Can I put coffee grounds on my plants?

That's the question I was asking myself this morning. Specifically, my potted basil. A little googling found me a thorough and thoroughly tested answer -- not something you can always depend on, on the interwebs. Here's an excerpt:

Nutrient content? ...The kind of coffee grounds a typical homeowner would produce or obtain are around 1.5% Nitrogen. There’s also a lot of Magnesium and Potassium, both of which plants really like; but not a lot of phosphorus (the “fruiting and flowering nutrient”) or calcium, a mineral that many plants crave, and whose lack helps explain that recalcitrant acidity. (“Lime” is essentially calcium carbonate, and wood ashes are also very high in calcium....)  

So mix those coffee grounds in with some lime or wood ash and then into lots of shredded leaves; you’ll make a fine, high-quality compost. The only exception I can think of is our listeners out West cursed with highly alkaline soil; you could try tilling in some grounds alone and see if it moves your nasty soil towards neutral with no ill effects. 

Otherwise, we can’t recommend their raw use; the acidity could be high enough to damage even acid-loving plants.

Read the full article here.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Recipe

Looking for things to do with summer's last abundance of garden tomatoes? When you're tired of BLT's (is that possible?), this is one delicious way to serve up the same flavors with a twist.

This recipe is based on Ina Garten's (aka Barefoot Contessa) buttermilk ranch dressing. I'm not saying I could improve on her: these changes were just made to accommodate my being short on fresh basil, my husband's aversion to too much mustard flavor, and our taste for less salt in things. Also, I prefer the taste of yogurt to that of mayo, so I tweaked that proportion a bit.

I loved how it came out! I ate this salad or some variation of it for four days straight! I hope you'll love it, too.

Recipe: Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

3 green onions, white and green parts, chopped

2 T. chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed (or 2 t. dried)

2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 t. Dijon mustard

1 T. good olive oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 t. kosher salt

1 t. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 cup Greek-style yogurt

1/2 cup buttermilk, shaken

----

3 small Bibb lettuces, cut in half through the core

   (or 6 hearts of romaine, cut in half through the core, or equivalent loose-leaf chopped)

2 large ripe tomatoes, cut in large cubes, or smaller tomatoes thickly sliced

1 red onion, sliced (optional)

bacon, amount to your liking (optional, but highly recommended)

Place the green onions, basil, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Puree for 15 to 20 seconds to make a smooth mixture. Add the mayonnaise, yogurt, and buttermilk and blend until smooth. Transfer the dressing to a container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, for the flavors to develop.

Arrange the salad ingredients on salad plates and drizzle with the dressing. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper if desired, and serve.

Serves 6.

Tips for Organizing Your Fridge

Apartment Therapy recently posted an article on "How to Organize Your Refrigerator." I thought most of their tips were fairly obvious, though. ("Rearrange the shelves: Arrange them to suit how you like to keep things..." Really? Don't most people do that?)

However, there were some gems in the comments. I've collected a few here for your organizing pleasure!

"I keep a notepad on the fridge door for us to list the fridge staples as we use them up. No more memory work when I make the next grocery list. The list is already started for me." - Cathryn @ Caro Interiors. Note: Again, this may be obvious to most people, but if you're not doing it, you should. Especially in a household with more than one person, so that when the non-shopper uses the last of the soy sauce, the shopper knows to get more. We use a dry erase board. If I'm rushing out the door in a hurry and have forgotten to write the list out, I take a photo of the list with my cell phone.

"One thing I use that works very well is using a lazy Susan for jams, salsa, pickles etc." -- Dulcibella

"I have a neat trick for filling the refrigerator which also works for dishwashers. Look at the appliance product photos for the best place to put drinks, casseroles, cheese, veggies, meat, and shelf alignment. The manufacturer spends lots of time and money developing an efficient way for the appliance to work. Now everything stays well organized and seems to be in the right place, veggies not too close to the refrigeration, etc. The same can be done for filling your dishwasher [for best cleaning results]."  -- Funstraw

"You might find Fridge Binz helpful. The Container Store has some of the larger ones." -- LDYLSTAT  Note: I started doing this in my freezer a couple months ago, just using cheap bins from the dollar store. I have one for meats and fish, one for fruits and one for veggies. It's amazing how much easier that one little thing has made finding stuff in the freezer!

"I put all the salad dressings in a cardboard beer six-pack caddy (recycling!). It's handy for putting on the table and I won't buy anymore until a space opens up." -- Meecee

"Speaking of organizing condiments in leftover six-pack containers... I really geek out and match the beer brand to the condiments. For instance, I'll use a PBR box to corral ketchup, mustard, steak and barbeque sauce. For items like soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, and siracha, I'll use Tiger or Kirin. And Peroni boxes are great for jars of sundried tomatos, roasted peppers, balsamic vinegar, and pesto. It makes it easy to grab everything you need for whatever your cooking. Grilling out? Reach for the PBR box. Making stir fry, that's the Tiger box. Cooking burritos? Grab the Coronas box." -- Shannanigans  Note: If I drank beer, that is something I would totally do! Yeah, I'm geeky like that.

"This might sound like an ad but my aunt sells Tupperware brand and the Fridgesmart boxes are awesome! They come in different sizes and keep veggies fresh longer!" -- VintagePearl

"A habit [I got] from my Mother is reusing glass jars instead of buying plastic. Prechopped garlic/ginger jars are a great size for mini leftovers. Before there was green, it was called frugal." -- JSSPHAN

"I recently figured out how to keep from freezing salad in my counter-depth fridge. I keep it in a compartment in the door. If I use the one that was designed for gallon jugs of milk, I can fit the Costco sized salad box in there and it stays cold without being so close to the cold air vents that it freezes." -- EngineerChic

"I use these stacking bins in my fridge; they keep me from forgetting about items that might otherwise get pushed to the back of the fridge. I also use them in the pantry, and stack them with things like tea, onions, etc." -- Liz30

"I like to use a plastic box from the dollar store to put all of my sandwich fixins' in. It is so easy to pull the whole thing out and slide it back in in one swoop, rather than gathering up the mayo, half a tomato, head of lettuce, cheese and lunchmeat and making multiple trips to get it out and put it all away. My husband and I were just discussing starting a home salad ba: prechop all of our favorite salad toppings and put them into some kind of divided container to encourage easy, fast salad lunches." -- WonkyOne15

For several roomies sharing a fridge: "Give each roomie a different brightly-colored basket. Add a white basket for anything that is a free-for-all & ok to be shared. Of course, you must still depend on the *honor system* but I found the visual reminder meant less missing food less often. Good luck with that. (Hey, i once resorted to storing my breakfast yogurt in a small plastic toolbox & a tiny padlock. Sad but true)." -- Discerning

"My mom had a good fridge organizing plan: if anything was on the bottom shelf of the fridge, we were not allowed to use it, she was planning meals with it or it was for company. Simple rule: bottom shelf = don't even touch it." -- Therese Z

Here are some other fridge organizing resources:

Before and After: A Refrigerator Make-over at RealSimple.

Step-by-step Process to a Clean, Well-Organized Fridge at About Working Moms.

A really thorough cleaning and organizing walk-thru with lots of pics at One Good Thing by Jillee.

Happy "Sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor's porch" Day!

And what to do with said zucchini (or summer squash) if you're the lucky recipient.

Whether it was you or your neighbor who planted too much zucchini this year, here are a few recipes for using up that infamous garden bounty. (Summer squash is its yellow cousin; no significant difference in taste.)

Pizza bites. They are cute; also the perfect size to pop in your mouth whole. Easy, gluten-free appetizer or snack.

Summer squash (or zucchini) topped with sausage and cheese. A quick easy dish to prep ahead of time, and then assemble and cook in about 15 minutes.

Zucchini noodles with peanut sauce. Quick-and-easy, low carb, and tasty, too!

For those who are looking for something sweet, and aren't trying to avoid flour, here are a couple recipes for you. 

Elise's Grandma's zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting! This sounds like carrot cake -- one of the few cakes I will always be willing to blow my diet for! I haven't tried this recipe, but it's from SimplyRecipes, and every recipe I've ever tried there has been a winner. I'm sure this one is no different.

Zucchini bread. If you've never tried zucchini bread, you really must! It's a sweet quick bread (read "muffin-like"), akin to banana bread, but without the banana overtones. You really don't taste the zucchini at all; it just lends moisture to the party. The predominant flavors come from the cinnamon and sugar. And you know that can't be bad! 

       I made this recipe from AllRecipes earlier this week to take to a ladies social, because it was rated five stars after more than 3,800 reviews! And it was a hit with everyone, but it's a little sweet for me as is. If you are, like me, living a mostly sugar-free life, you might want to cut back on the sugar by 1/4 to 3/4 cup. (Here's a healthier version I haven't tried.)