Garbage Can Planter

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Last year I picked up several  metal garbage cans from a sale from an elementary school that had been closed.  I think they were about .10 each, so even if all I used them for was trash, it would be ok.  Today I finally had the time to do a quick make-over on one.  I sprayed it with Rust-oleum High Gloss Black and then used my Silhouette to cut out the house number and name.  I spent about 10 minutes on the painting and about 10 minutes on designing the house label.  After that, it was up to the Silhouette to get the job done.  The lettering is about 8 inches x 11 inches total.  Pretty quick project.

I like it so well, that I may do one for my own house.

Before:

After:

Note: I didn't fill the can directly with dirt, I just stuck the flowers that I bought in a plain plastic pot in it (the pre-done pot of flowers is from Walmart).

Rhubarb Abundance!

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I grew up in Idaho, and apparently that may have something to do with my enjoying foods that many of my friends have either never heard of or can't imagine anyone liking--rhubarb is one of those foods.  I love the tartness that this "fruit" gives to pies and cobblers.  I planted my own last year, but it was too small to harvest anything from this year.  Lucky for me, my friend had an abundance and was willing to share with me!

I already made (and ate) the rhubarb cobbler--with no pictures.  Oops.  I use Paula Deen's cobbler recipe because it always works and I've tried it with lots of different kinds of fruits.

4 C. rhubarb (or any other fruit that you love)
2 C. sugar, divided
1/2 C. water
1/2 C. butter, melted
1 1/2 C. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder (scant)
1 1/2 C. milk

Preheat the oven to 350.  On the stove in a medium saucepan mix the fruit, 1 C. sugar and the water.  Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.  While fruit is coming to a boil:  In a 3 qt baking dish, put the butter in the bottom of the dish.  In a separate mixing bowl, mix 1 C. sugar, the flour, salt, baking powder and milk together to make a batter.  Pour the batter on top of the melted butter; don't stir it.   When fruit mixture is done, spoon or carefully pour it all over the top of the batter.  Bake for about 40 minutes.  During the baking time, the butter mixes in the batter, the fruit ends up on the bottom and the batter is all golden and moist on the top.  Yum.


OK, since I had so much rhubarb I also made up some pie filling to use later.  I've done this technique before with apple and cherry pies.  Check it out here.  For this recipe, I used:

4 C. chopped fresh rhubarb
1 1/2 C. sugar
3 T. instant tapicoa

Put all ingredients in a gallon size freezer bag.  Zip it up and mix it up.  Let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes, then place the whole bag into a pie pan.  Freeze it in the pan.  Once frozen, you have a pan-shaped disc of filling mix that you can use to make a quick pie.  I usually use refrigerator pie dough, so my prep time is about 2 minutes, then let it bake for 45-60 minutes (its a long time because the filling is frozen), so you'll need to use foil to shield the edges of the crust during the long baking time.

Still MORE rhubarb?

I still had more rhubarb, but I was out of tapioca for more pie filling.  No worries, you can just chop up rhubarb and put it in freezer bags to use later in a cobbler, pie or some other treat.  I bagged it up in 4 c. packages.  Easy!