A Delicious Meal!

It's amazing how long it's been since I've blogged. My excuse is that I'm wedding planning and while I am cooking, I have been too busy to document it!

Tonight I got it in my head to make two new side dishes (veggies) that I had read recipes for in a food magazine that Ben's mom ordered us. They both turned out so well!

The meal:

Clockwise from the left - TJ's Harvest Grains, Sesame Ginger Broccolini, and Warm Brussels Sprout Salad

1. Trader Joe's Harvest Grains mix. Let me say that I think that it is freaking AMAZING! It has quinoa, baby garbanzos, Israeli couscous,  and two kinds of orzo (red pepper and spinach enriched). So easy to make - just cook in broth (I used veggie) for 10 minutes and voila! It's a dry good found near the soups and pastas. Definitely try it.

2. Warm brussels sprouts salad. I love brussels sprouts. I've never cooked them like this before, and really liked them prepared this way.
Recipe: 
Ingredients: Brussels sprouts, salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon, parmesan cheese.
Directions: Cut brussels sprouts into shreds. To do this, cut off the stem, halve it, then cut lengthwise so they are small strips. Heat oil on low, put BS into the oil, season with salt and pepper. Toss well and stir over heat for 10-15 minutes. Take off heat, squeeze some lemon over it, then top with a bit of parmesan cheese when you serve it warm.

3. Sesame ginger broccolini. You can also use this with broccoli or baby broccoli. It takes a little more effort than the sprouts, but is delicious!
Recipe:
Ingredients: broccolini, sesame seeds, olive oil, water, fresh ginger, garlic, soy sauce.
Directions: Toast sesame seeds first, heating over low and stirring frequently. Set aside. Cut broccolini off stalks. Heat about 2TBP of oil, then add broccolini, along with 1-2 garlic cloves and 1 piece of fresh ginger, cut into strips. Put a couple tablespoons of water in and cover. Cook for 10-12 minutes (or until desired consistency), stirring every couple minutes. Pour 1-2tsp of soy sauce in, stir and cook for about 3 more minutes. Stir in sesame seeds and serve.

4. And for dessert, apple crunch pie! I usually make this as apple crisp (no crust), but wanted to try Trader Joe's pie crusts, so I adapted it. So delicious, especially with vanilla ice cream, also from TJ's. We have had a lot of apples from going picking at Eckert's, so I've been making stuff with them.
Recipe:
Ingredients: apples (any good cooking apple - I've used jonathan, honeycrisp, and fuji), brown sugar, white sugar, lemon, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, salt, butter. Pie crust optional.
Directions:
1. Peel apples and slice into thin slices. It's hard to say how many you'll need because they vary in size so much. I usually throw them into whatever pan I am using and keep going til it reaches the top. This recipe fits a standard size pie pan or a square glass baking pan.
2. Pour apples into a bowl. Add 1TBP lemon juice, 1/4 cup white sugar, and 1/2tsp cinnamon. Toss and set aside.
3. Mix the following ingredients in a mixing bowl: 3/4 cups brown sugar, 2/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup oats, 1tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp salt, 1/4 tsp nutmeg. Add 3/4 of a stick of cold butter and mix with a mixer until it gets a crumbly texture.
4. If you're using a pie crust, put it in the pan and pour the apples in. If not, pour the apples directly into the pan. Sprinkle crumbly mixture over the apples.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 375. Check the apples to see if they are cooked. Can cover with foil or other top to help it bake through.
6. Serve warm with ice cream!

Tomatoes out the wazoo! Plus - More updates

This garden experiment has taught me some things. The biggest surprises have come with my squash plants. I have a million of them. They've all flowered. But some just haven't produced fruit, like my zucchini plant and my yellow summer squash plant. The summer squash did have several small fruits on them, which shriveled up and died. Hm. The plant next to it is thriving. Same soil, same sun. I'll have to try again next year because I think both of those varieties are kaput for me. I have a couple other squash plants that are producing fruits. The problem? I don't know what kind they are! I bought little plastic plant markers and wrote the types in Sharpie on them. The rain washed the Sharpie off somehow. So now they are mixed up and I don't know what is where. I'm pretty sure this is a butternut squash, but isn't it not supposed to come til Fall?

Maybe an acorn squash?

I guess we'll have to see as they grow!

Peppers are growing huge still and starting to get some color. Haven't eaten any yet.

Brussels sprouts are starting to come through.

And tomatoes.. TOMATOES! I have a million of them. 4 varieties- though they also got mixed up and I have to wait for them to ripen to know which is which. The cherry tomatoes are going crazy - there must be 100 fruits on there. I've already harvested about 25.

Several larger varieties too.

These will come in handy because I'm entering a salsa making competition in a couple weeks. I am practicing my recipes this week and will post them after the contest, lest someone actually looks at this and steals them! Ha! Let's just say they aren't the typical salsa.

As for my rabbit problem, problem solved! For my birthday, Ben & his dad fenced in the garden area for me. It doesn't seem right typing that because it was an ordeal that took them an entire day (or more). Ben's dad bought some fencing at a garage sale. He made the posts himself and also made this awesome gate himself!

Did I mention that the guys did this on one of the hottest days of the year? I don't know how they stood being outside from about 7:30-5:30. They were soaked with sweat and quite tired after that! I'm a lucky gal to have such nice people in my life!

Speaking of that, part of the reason I haven't blogged at all this month is that Ben & I got engaged on July 2! I'm still pinching myself when I think about what a wonderful guy my future hubby is and how lucky it is that our fates collided. We decided that we wanted to get married in the fall, and there is no way I wanted to wait until Fall 2011, so we are getting married on November 6- which happens to be the day that I posted the fateful ad that brought us together 2 years ago. I've been busy planning away. It will be a crazy couple months, but the outcome is worth it!!

The garden groweth!

The garden is doing GREAT right now. The only problem I've been having is with my broccoli and cauliflower getting eaten by bunnies, though I still have several broccoli crowns growing.

 

No brussels sprouts yet, but the plants are doing great and growing like mad. I'm just waiting for the little sprouts to start- the time is near!

The squash plants are all growing a lot too. I do have some growing already, which are a couple inches long, though most are just vining like crazy now. I expect a lot more soon.

While I don't eat pickles, I accidentally ended up with some pickling cucumbers one day, so planted them with the intention of making pickles for Ben & my sister and whoever else wants some. There are massive amounts of tiny cukes growing right now. I think I'll end up with a huge harvest of them. It's hard to see in the picture but they look really small and spiny.

 

The tomato plants are also growing at a rapid rate. You can really smell them when you are in the garden. I have 4 varieties of tomatoes growing and two varieties have small fruit on them, while the others are blooming now. See the tiny green tomatoes? Even though I don't like tomatoes, I plan on trying them from my garden.

Today I was surprised to see lots of small peppers growing. I hadn't noticed them before. This makes me happy!! I can't wait!!

The family is growing!

We got a kitty! Since I'm a dog person, never having lived with a cat, and Ben is a cat person, never having lived with a dog til my rowdy crew & I moved in with him, we got a cat for him to come home to.

His name is Fillmore. He is almost one and is the cutest little thing. Very playful! We adopted him from a rescue group. I was originally drawn to looking by a tiny gray kitten named Audrey. Then we opened the cage little Fill was in and he jumped out into my arms and snuggled! He was very playful (a must for Ben) so we discussed it and took him home as foster parents to see how things would go.

At first he was scared of the dogs (even though they largely ignored him) and hissed at them A LOT. He has come around - being much more tolerant and even following Ruby around. We officially adopted him yesterday and so now he is ours! Full house!

Sweet Potato Muffins/Cupcakes!

As I've mentioned before, reading the food blogs that I do, I often get inspired by something. One major inspiration lately has been this blog. The author fixes healthy and super creative meals for her kids. And posts cool recipes (like the samosas I made recently). When I saw these sweet potato "cupcakes," I was inspired.

Produce Stories, Parts 1 & 2

One blog that I enjoy reading is called Produce Stories.  I stumbled across it while looking for strawberry jam recipes that used agave nectar. It is what helped me make my own jam! I don't know anything about the author other than that she posts about what she buys at a farmer's market and host much it is (amongst other things). It gave me the idea that I should post my finds!

The Webster Groves Farmer's Market opened last week. I really enjoy it! It has some awesome finds. Last week, amongst other things, I bought some water lilies (that are now blooming), some homemade lip balm, and a lined produce basket (to collect my garden's harvest in!). This week, here was my take:



1 Dozen Eggs - $3
Squash (2 Italian zucchini, 2 patty pan)- $4.50
Homemade, fresh Lemon-Pepper pasta - $3.50
1/2 Pound Fiddleheads- $7
TOTAL - $18

I was REALLY excited when I saw the fiddleheads. I read about them in Sauce Magazine (a local food magazine) a couple months ago. They are locally picked - not something you grow in a garden. The guy hunts them in the "wild" then sells them. Tomorrow I'll prepare them and let you know how they are!

I also went to a local produce stand called Roger's. They have the CHEAPEST produce there! Here was my haul:

- 1 large canteloupe
- 3 ears corn
- 1 pint blueberries
- 2 peaches
- 2 avocados
- 1 large sweet potato
TOTAL: $8.28!!!!

I told you it was cheap!!

Raspberry Adventures!

Lakeview Farms, take two! After being turned away so early last Saturday and not being able to pick, I decided I would attempt to drag myself out of bed early one day this week to go try to pick again. Wednesday morning, I did just that! Anyone who knows me know that getting up at 7am is difficult. Even on a work day. But I did it!

Arriving at the farm, I noticed it wasn't too busy. Score! One cool thing about this farm is that instead of going on a picking free for all, they give you your own area to pick in. That way, no one is infringing upon your territory and they can keep track of where has been picked over so the next person who comes to pick goes in an area with riper, not yet picked berries. That's a good model in my mind!

I started picking. The pickings were great! Lots of ripe berries to choose from. I really dug in there to get good ones. Raspberry bushes are prickly so it got a bit uncomfortable, but was worth it!
In no time, I had filled up several containers.
Looking to the west, the sky was ominous. I started picking like mad, worried that the skies might unleash upon me at any minute. People started fleeing to their cars. Dangit, I was going to fill all of my containers. If I got a little wet, it wouldn't do me any harm. I finished just as the sky looked like this:
I wanted to strawberry pick, but the lady where I paid said they would probably close so I decided to leave. I ended up with 8 containers. Total cost? $15.
Yummy, yummy berries! This much would've cost $24-36 at a store! So what did I do? I turned these into this:
And this:
DELISH!

To make the jam, I used 6 containers, about 1 cup of agave nectar, juice of 1 lemon, and a squirt of honey. Used my immersion blender (what a handy tool!!) and boiled it for about 30 minutes. Then followed standard canning procedures. I saved a cup of jam to make the raspberry oatmeal bars. Here is the recipe I used. It turned out great!! And I feel good that I hand picked the raspberries at a local farm and turned it into these yummy treats. I might go again tomorrow. I'm addicted!!

Samosas!

I've become addicted to reading a couple different blogs, and a couple of them are about food. Sometimes I get ideas from blogs, or sometimes I just have an ingredient or idea and Google it and get a bunch of different recipe ideas. My two favorite food blogs are:

- Fed Up with School Lunch: A blog written by an anonymous teacher who is eating the school meal every day for a year to raise awareness for how the nutrition lacks in them. She posts pics and comments about the lunches (which look way worse than our school lunches, but ours aren't very nutritious either) and has a lot of guest bloggers. It's a fascinating topic. As I'm on a healthier kick now and really shunning artificial ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, it's amazing to see what "nutrition" is to the institution that serves kids. How something like tater tots or corn chips satisfies their requirement of a veggie for the day. Yuck!

- BentoLunch Adventures (What's for Lunch at Our House): A blog I discovered through the Fed Up blog. A mom who makes INSANELY ARTISTIC lunches for her kids. You have to see it to believe it. And it's healthy! She also posts a lot of recipes. Which brings me to...

SAMOSAS!

These Indian dumplings are yummy.. and with me being off of work this week, I was feeling rather housewife-ish. So I decided to take the recipe, tailor it to my tastes, and make samosas for dinner.

Ingredients:
2 Yukon Gold baking potatoes
Peas (frozen)
Garlic (2 cloves or so)
Onions (I don't like them, so just used about a quarter of one for flavor)
Olive Oil
Paneer (Indian Cheese)
Curry Powder
Fillo Dough

You can really put ANYTHING you want inside it. Add or subtract what you want!

Here's how I did it:
1. Peel potatoes, cut into small cubes. Boil for about 20 minutes- until soft but not falling apart. Drain.

2. Chop onions and garlic. Sautee in olive oil for about 5 minutes (until they are getting soft).

3. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of curry powder to mixture. Stir to coat.
4. Pour cooked potatoes and peas into the mixture. Stir well to coat with curry powder. Add a little more if needed. (Note, I didn't thaw the peas much. They cooked enough on the stovetop then in the oven.) Cook for 5-10 minutes to absorb flavor. Set to the side.

5. Spread fillo dough out on the counter so the longest side is at the top and bottom. Fold it over into thirds, then turn to "hotdog" position (longest side at top and bottom again).
6. Spoon some of the mixture into the bottom left corner. I added 2 cubes of paneer (which was frozen) at this point. Then fold the corner up so it's a triangle.

Note that my folded fillo is sitting on top of non folded sheets here.

7. Fold down to a triangle again. You will get basically 3 folds and then have a little left over on the end. At this point, get a little water and bush it on the remaining strip of dough. Fold over and stick to the triangle. This seals it. It took me a couple tries to get the folding part. Check out this website for better pictures and instructions.
8. Put on cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 6-8 minutes, flip over and bake on the other side for the same or until golden brown.
9. EAT! I served it with an Indian masala sauce for dipping!

Strawberry Jam Canning Session!

Saturday morning, I woke up early (7am), which is very uncharacteristic of me. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE sleep and sleeping in! Why the motivation, you ask? Strawberry picking! I decided to go to Lakeview Farms, pretty much the only place within 45 minutes where I could find (non-blackberry) berry picking. A couple girls from Yelp met me at my place at 7:30am and we headed off after enjoying some delicious bagels.

I had done extensive research on the farm before going, and decided to go that early so they wouldn't run out of berries. I also called the day before, which they said to do to make sure there was still picking. There was.

We finally were nearing the entrance and drive up, only to see a sign that says "Sorry, we are closed" in the entrance. WTF? We pulled over and called and they were already picked out! BUMMER. We had to turn around.

Now, I had my mind SET on making jam/preserves that day. So I cheated and bought some strawberries from a local produce stand and got started!

I wanted to go chemical free and sugar free, so I found a great recipe on the internet using agave nectar instead of sugar. Here is my ingredient list:

- 3lbs Strawberries
- 2-3Lemons
- 1/2 cup Agave Nectar
- Squirt of Honey
- 1 Apple



I also bought a water bath canner and many jars to preserve my stuff from this season in:



Here are the steps I took:

1. Sterilize five 1/2-pint jars by boiling them in a hot water bath for five minutes or so.
2. Wash and stem strawberries.
3. Put strawberries in a bowl.
4. Stir berries, lemon juice (start with 2 lemons, adjust to taste), agave nectar, and grated apple together in a pot over medium-high heat.
5. You can mash the mixture with a potato masher, but I decided to use my immersion blender to get it more liquified but still with some chunks.

6. Bring to a full, rolling boil and boil at least 10 minutes, or up to 15 minutes. Adjust sweetener to taste after 5 minutes and again after 10 minutes. To test for jelling, put a white plate in the freezer when you start cooking the jam; when ready to test, put a teaspoon of jam liquid on the plate, and return to freezer for one minute. You should be able to make a line in the jam with your finger that doesn't fill back in at all. Mine did after awhile but I don't mind a little liquid!
7. Remove a jar from the water, ladle hot fruit mixture into jar leaving 1/4" headspace, wipe threaded rim of jar clean, and attach lid and band. Repeat until all jars are full. I had EXACTLY enough to fill 5 half pint jars.

8. Process in a boiling water bath for 5-10 minutes. Leave undisturbed overnight or until completely cool.

9. TIP: Being a canning rookie, I wasn't sure if the seals were properly sealed when I pulled out the cans. After about 10 minutes, they all popped and were definitely concave!

New Obsession + My first Harvest!

New kitchen toys are finding their way to my cocina!

It's Ben's fault... he started it by surprising me back in March with an awesome new Kitchenaid mixer. The kind that mixes on its own, has many attachments, and has a bowl that comes with it. It's pretty much totally fabulous.

I've just added a couple more things to my kitchen repertoire. First, a food processor. My first goal: to make pesto with the abundant basil I have growing.

Second, a canning kit. Which leads me to my new obsession! CANNING! My next kitchen gadget will be a water bath canner. This weekend, I'm heading to Lakeview Farms to pick strawberries and raspberries. Then I'm having a canning party! Do I have much of an idea of what I'm doing? NOPERS! But I don't care. I'm gonna give it my best shot! Stay tuned for how it turned out...



On another note, yesterday I harvested my first item for consumption: lettuce! I made a delicious salad with it.

Home grown, organic lettuce. Plus some other stuff (not so organic or home grown!)

Paired with some Dr. Praeger's veggie burgers (the only ones that I will eat) and some Trader Joe's sweet potato fries (TO.DIE.FOR), it made the perfect warm weather meal!

These sweet potato fries are THE BOMB!

The garden is growing like mad - way bigger than in the last pictures even. I haven't complained about how much rain we've had because it's been beautiful for my garden. While weeding the other day, I realized that I have a small berry patch growing that I DIDN'T PLANT! Crazy. My squash is blossoming like mad and I even have fruit on one of the plant. Can't wait til the squash starts coming - we'll be up in our ears with it! Want some? Come on by!

Garden Update

My garden is finally in the ground!

I know it's been awhile since I updated but it's been busy. Some new things going on in my life are: my teaching assignment has changed (next year I'm at one school full time, YAY!), I started a gym regimen and got a personal trainer, and I've done a little traveling (Florida for pleasure, Columbia MO and Minneapolis for teaching related things).

Now, my energy is going towards gardening. It's been a slow go because the weather has been bad (2 weekends of tornadoes and big rains, and a couple weeks of fluctuating temperatures, some frost creating) but it looks like we're safe now!

I realized how many flower beds I have. WHOA. Lots of planting to do. I'm focusing on planting perennials in many of them for lower maintenance future Springs and then fruits and veggies in a couple places. Ben and I spent quite a bit of time raking all of the twigs and branches that fell during the winter. Ben got our new lawn mower up and running. It's awesome! It's called the Fiskars Momentum. It's made by Fiskars, which makes scissors. It's a reel mower- so not electric or gas. It appealed to us because of our "green" ideas and Ben thought he could use his muscle to propel it. He really likes it and it does a great job so far! I figure that it saves the environment and will only need some money put in each year or so to sharpen the blades, instead of the money we'd spend on gas or electric power.

My first projects were the bed in the front, in which I planted marigolds, and the large back bed by the pond. I have always wanted lilacs, so I bought two bushes to put there plus 3 little flowering bushes called magic carpet spirea.





We also have a lot of roses blooming. They were blooming when we moved in so I would imagine that they bloom all summer!



I ended up planting some of the things that I originally mentioned but the list is longer and more different! Ben's dad built me a raised bed, and I planted several things there, along with around the perimeter (he also brought his roto tiller and tilled it all!). I also expanded to inside the fence and have plans on tilling a little more later this season or maybe next year to make more space.





This is what I planted:

-Tomatoes (4 varieties)
-Green beans
-Lettuce (2 varieties)
-Broccoli
-Cauliflower
-Sweet red peppers
-Brussels sprouts
-Melon (canteloupe)
-Summer squash
-Zucchini
-Butternut squash
-Acorn squash
-Summer medley squash (comes in yellow, green, orange)
-Sweet lightening - an "in between" summer and winter squash
-Raspberries
-Strawberries (2 varieties)

I'm going to have A LOT of squash!



I also have many herbs:

-Rosemary (2 varieties)
-Mint (didn't plant it- it was there and is invading!)
-Lemon thyme
-Chives
-Sage
-Chamomile
-Oregano
-Summer Savory
-Parsley
-Basil - loads of it!
-Dill

I know I'm missing something here!

Just got a food processor and canning supplies, so I plan on being busy this summer. I will blog more as I do it- will have more time then!