Elephant Ears, Dahlias, & a Bumble Bee Vase

I've had the same elephant ear bulbs for a number of years. The leaves are just green and not super huge. I find them a bit boring on their own.

So I always plant them with something else. This big planter combines little pom pom dahlias with the ears.


Yesterday while going to the farmer's market to buy tomatoes for my potluck contribution, I passed a garage sale. I have not gone to any sales this year. I decided to stop and take a look. I almost left with nothing, but decided at the last moment to grab a metal thing with a bumble bee on it. I really don't know what it's original purpose was, but my eyes saw a whimsical flower vase.

I think it's perfect for black-eyed Susans and a few of the other yellow flowers I have in bloom.

I just got home from our Labor day event. I am happy to say that the two appetizers I took went over well. I brought home two empty trays so I think most people liked them.
I took these ingredients:

and made bacon & herb stuffed cherry tomatoes.

They turned out very pretty. I had intended to mix yellow and red tomatoes, but I didn't like the way the yellow ones turned out, so I left them home and just took a tray full of red.
I also took a tray of BLT minis. I solved the naked pick by dressing it with a chive. The larger chives have a nice hollow center and I just cut them to size and slipped them over.
I had a lot of left over tomatoes and herbed cream cheese stuffing, so I ended up cooking all morning to use it all up. I made two pans of lasagna (one to freeze) and a big pot of chili for later.
I even strained the juice from the seed centers I removed to use in the lasagna sauce.


All in all it was a good productive day.