Holiday Countdown

Happy Thanksgiving week! I’ve been absent from my blogging for a few weeks. It doesn’t mean we haven’t been cooking up delicious food because we have. It’s actually been a couple of things first I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year and second we’ve been busy with work, family going to pottery class, bookclub, and hanging out with a museum meet up I’ve joined; at the end of the day I’m beat. 

For those of you who do not know what NaNoWriMo is, simply its National Novel Writing Month, you write a 50,000 novel in 30 days. It has to be fiction, not published before and  you cannot write the first word before November 1st. You can ponder plot and characters beforehand but you cannot write. 

This week the holiday season kicks in and Dan and I are heading to Fargo to spend it with my Dad, his wife and her family. We’ll have a traditional turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, home made rolls, and pie. Both Dan and I are looking forward to seeing everyone.

On Friday we’ll head back home and get ready to spend time with Dan’s family. We’re going to the Bruce Monroe light show at the Arboretum and out for dinner - it’s gotten very good reviews - it should be a great time. We’ll probably spend the rest of the weekend catching our breath and then move into a fully packed December. It seems like we don’t have a free weekend from now until January. With that being said, most of it is filled with family, good friends and fun activities so no complaints here. 

As far as food goes, we’ve been cooking up all of our favorites; soup, field roast vegan sausages, roasted root veggies (complete with parsnips and turnips), of course enjoying the squash from our garden. I’ve finally found a preparation for kale that Dan likes and it’s super simple. 

1 -2 T olive oil

8 cups shredded kale

2 - 4 cloves of fresh garlic (depends on how much you like garlic)

nutmeg - to taste

crushed red pepper flakes - to taste

salt 

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the kale. If it doesn’t all fit in the pan don’t worry  as it cooks down you can continue to add it. Toss in the garlic, nutmeg, salt and crushed red pepper and heat until it is all wilted. I usually take it off the stove, cover and let it sit for a few minutes. 

I’ve also been experimenting with single crust pies. I’m a big fan of fruit pie which generally comes with a top and bottom crust. While I do love my carbs I’m trying to eliminate them as much as possible; some days are more successful than others. 

I had some apples that I mixed up with the lemon, brown sugar, cinnamon, etc. in the freezer that I was originally planning to make into a pie for movie night but things got behind and I had to use plan B - which was chocolate so there were no complaints. 

Since they were already thawed I needed to use them so I decided to make a single crust apple pie and to be honest I liked it better than the traditional 2 crust apple - more apple flavor - less crust I think it’s a winner. 

I’m thankful for all of the things in my life a loving family, talented and fun coworkers, friends and good health. Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday weekend. 

Changing of the Guard

It’s officially November, I know this because I started writing my NaNoWriMo novel. For those of you who don’t know what that is - it’s National Novel Writing Month. It occurs every November and the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, which translates to about 1700 words each day. This is my 5th attempt and I’ve finished 4 times; so far so good. Of the novels I’ve written there are 2 I’d like to go back and edit - who knows maybe publish but that is for another blog post. 

It’s also time to start prepping for winter, raking the leaves, cleaning out gutters, putting on storm windows (yes I know its an old house) and putting the gardens and flowers to bed. If you’ve been following this blog you know that 2016 will go down as one of our best harvests ever - actually I picked the last of the tomatoes off the vines last night and I noticed that I am still swimming in collard greens and kale, gotta do something about that this weekend. 

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, not too crisp, clear blue sky and some of the trees are still sporting beautiful color. After work Dan and I took a walk around the park and then hurried home so we could start mulching the leaves - OK Dan got out the mower and mulched the leaves, which put me on kitchen detail. 

I had a block of tofu, which I bought a bit ago and I was going to use it to make sofritos but I never got around to it. I found a recipe while browsing through Pinterest and I realized I had all of the ingredients - plus some additional ones, which I wanted to add. Luckily for Dan it was a curry, which is his favorite. 

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 large yellow onion, finely chopped

2 fairly large garlic cloves, center germ removed and crushed with a garlic crusher

2 tbsp ( or more! ) fresh ginger, grated

8 - 10 dried apricots, diced

4 tbsp curry powder

1 - 2 tsp numeric

2 cans coconut milk

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed - for those of you who are purists - and you know who you are - you can cook your own from scratch.

1 package of tofu, patted dry and cut into cubes

3 cups packed baby spinach

2 tsp coarse sea salt

Heat the coconut oil in a wide pot on medium heat.

Add onion, garlic, ginger and apricots and sauté for a few minutes, until the onion is translucent and soft.

Add curry powder and mix it in well with the rest of the ingredients. Allow the spices to toast for a minute without letting them stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the coconut milk and season with sea salt, mixing well.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the spinach), let it come to a boil and reduce heat to a low simmer. Heat for 5 to 8 minutes to absorb the flavors and the coconut milk has become a creamy sauce. Turn off the heat and add the spinach one cup at a time until wilted. 

Serve with basmati rice and fruit. 

Thanks for stopping by

A Southwestern Squash Song

Believe it or not we are still harvesting things out of the garden; although we are almost to the end, which makes me happy and sad. I’m happy that we’ve had such an amazing harvest and sad because it’s over; well kind of. 

Last weekend Dan and I took a lovely trip down the Mississippi to Iowa. We stayed at two lovely B & B's -one in Dubuque and one in Muscatine. We did some hiking, a little site seeing, some shopping and ate breakfast at the same table Hillary had coffee at durning her campaign - it was a great get away. Dan was a bit under the weather during the trip; suffering from a cold, which he was kind enough to share with me - well actually not but it is what it is right? 

Now we are back home and dealing with the harvest. At last count we had 4 butternut squash, 15 acorn squash, tomatoes (red and green), kale, collards and a bit of swiss chard to contend with. Dan commented that we had enough squash so that we could have it once a week until the rest of the year. I had to correct him a bit because we'll actually get into Jan and beyond. I was planning to do something with them over the weekend, but the cold that Dan so kindly shared was in full force and I didn't have the energy to do anything but lay on the couch and binge watch Blue Bloods. 

If you’ve not seen it, Blue Bloods is your basic cop show, which normally I am not a huge fan of. What I like about this show is the characters and the relationships; actually the police work is almost incidental. And then there is Tom Selleck, who is the police commissioner - still nice to look at after all these years.

Before I got sick I baked a stuffed squash that was pretty darn good. Dan topped his with Brie cheese but I left mine plain; well plain in the sense that there is no cheese or dairy in it. We’ve also subsisted on soup while blowing our noses and hacking throughout the weekend; some squash, french onion (from Panera) and a spicy black bean - which we made when we started to feel better. But back to the stuffed squash. 

I started with a medium sized acorn squash, which I put in the microwave for one minute to soften a bit. Then I cut in half, cleaned and put in a 350 degree oven to bake. 

While the squash was baking, I chopped an onion (have you ever noticed that most of our recipes start with that) and sautéed it in a bit of olive oil. I added chopped celery, shredded carrots, chopped red, yellow and green peppers (all from the garden), some finely chopped kale, some fresh tomatoes, a little frozen corn, black beans, garlic, cumin and red pepper flakes.

When the squash was done, I mashed it a little and filled the cavity with the veggie and bean mixture and then Dan added his cheese and put it back in the oven for 5 minutes until it melted. And that was dinner - and a delicious dinner it was. 

Now that we are feeling better my challenge is what to do with all those green tomatoes? Dan suggested making a chutney that could accompany the curries he so likes to make and eat. I found a recipe, which I think I give a try. I'm planning to save enough for at least one more batch of fried green tomatoes and a green tomato pie. 

If you have any favorite green tomato recipes send them my way, and as always, thanks for stopping by. 

The Cabbage Pot

Fall, my favorite time of year. The leaves are beginning to show a beautiful red, yellow and orange canopy, the morning air is crisp and cool and the mosquitos have finally left. It’s also a great time to dig out my favorite sweaters, and make soup and home made bread. 

The garden is winding down although we still have few tomatoes on the vine, about 8 squash, kale, collard greens and a couple heads of cabbage to pick. Friday was movie night with our friends Gerd and Maria and I’m always trying to find a new recipe to try on them since they are such gracious guinea pigs. To tag along to our weekend it was also the Flamingo Cup, which is an annual potluck and croquet tournament so I was looking for something that I could use for both events.

I’ll start by saying I like cabbage but it is not a go to vegetable and mainly because aside from a few things like cole slaw, marinated and curried I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve had it roasted and boiled and neither really hit the spot. Now I can see you shaking your head and saying so, why would you plant cabbage if you didn’t love it? In one word - husband.

Remember when I said we expanded the garden, well I was out of town one weekend with some girlfriends and I came home to cabbage - 4 purple heads, 4 green heads. When I inquired about the number of heads of cabbage the response was “I wanted both green and purple and they only came in 4 packs” - go figure. 

The purple got very large but the green were smaller most likely due to the amount of sun; the green got a bit overshadowed by the squash plants, which have taken over. But we did get 4 smaller cabbage; one of which I used in a soup for movie night. 

I started with a recipe on Pinterest but then noticed it had white potatoes in it and I’m not really a white potato fan - in any form. So I decided to use the recipe for proportions and cooking methods but use what I had in the fridge for ingredients. 

To a stock pot I added:

2 stalks of celery diced

4 carrots chopped 

1 large onion diced

2/3 head of green cabbage

1/2 cup brown rice

Fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme (sorry I did’t measure just tossed)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

6 cups of veggie broth

Cover, bring the soup to a boil and then simmer for about 45 - 50 minutes. When the rice is cooked and the veggies soft, add 2 cans of beans (I used navy beans), 14 ounces diced tomatoes and adjust seasonings. 

We served the soup with some fresh whole wheat bread and baked acorn squash (from the garden). The dinner got rave reviews. 

Fast forward to Saturday and the Flamingo Cup - what to make for the potluck - you guessed it more soup! We simply added more of everything to our left over soup pot, tossed in the crockpot and heated it until it was time to head to the park. 

Saturday was a beautiful Minnesota fall day; clear blue sky and warm with a tinge of crisp, it was a great day for croquet. Neither Dan nor I won one of the coveted Flamingo’s (gold, silver or bronze) but we had a great time with family and friends. And the food, as always, was awesome; calico beans, samosas, cauliflower salad soup, and dessert. The winning dessert for me this year was caramel popcorn balls - they were the best. 

We ended the day on the back deck enjoying a glass of wine and relaxing, it was a wonderful day.

An Adventure in Leftovers

The forecast is rain – again. Seems like this is the rainiest fall ever. Generally the warm and dry August days give way to brown patches in the front and back yard but not this year; it's as green as it was in spring.

Good news – we've had an amazing bounty in the garden. Bad news – the ground is saturated and people are bailing out their basements – not fun. You might recall we had water in our basement earlier in the season but this last flood go around we were dry as a bone – thanks to the landscaper who figured out how to regrade our yard and now all the water goes away from the house instead of toward it.

Last weekend Dan hosted a lovely 60^th birthday party for me – we had great food, family and a lot of fun. The weather cooperated so that we could be outside and I got to spend time with the people who really matter to me.

I did have a hand in helping Dan with the food and true to form we had too much. As a matter of fact we are finally getting to the end of the leftovers. One of the things we had too much of was grilled veggies; eggplant, zucchini, summer squash and asparagus. Don't get me wrong, I love eggplant but I get tired of eating leftovers even if they are wonderful leftovers.

On Saturday I decided that we needed to find a way to finish up the last of the roasted veggies so I decided to make soup, which just so happened to go well with the wet and cool day we were having.

I started with 2 chopped onions, and some garlic. To that I added the leftover roasted eggplant, zucchini and summer squash and 4 cups of vegetable broth and simmered until the veggies were hot, which didn't take very long since they were already cooked.

I pureed the mixture in batches in my Vitamix and for good measure I added two thai chili peppers from the garden to give it a kick; and a delicious kick it was. We served it with fresh bread and a spinach salad.

We're still pulling tomatoes out of the garden and the kale, collard greens and squash are not showing signs of giving in. I've been keeping notes on what worked and didn’t and have decided that I won't be planting carrots or eggplant again – our soil and/or conditions aren't conducive for growing them. I will however, add more broccoli and cauliflower – they were awesome. And I'll try to get the hubby to not plant so many cabbage plants – a girl can only eat so much cabbage.

If you have recipes for kale and collard greens – other than smoothies because if you know me you know I'm not drinking that stuff  - EVER, please send them my way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bottling the Summer Harvest

It's harvest season and our garden is in full swing and then some. I was calculating our expenses for August this evening and I noticed a distinct absence/shortage of purchases at our local grocery store, which is not a bad thing, in fact, it's awesome.

We've been more than knee deep – actually closer to hip deep in cauliflower, broccoli, red, yellow, orange and green peppers. We've finally finished the swiss chard but the kale and collard greens are still going strong, actually I'm not sure what to do with ALL THOSE GREENS!

Our neighbors have stopped taking our calls and barely make eye contact with us these days; I guess they are afraid I'll wander over with another load of tomatoes/cucumbers or whatever I need to get rid of - let's just say we're having an amazing garden year.

Camille is still insisting on spending her free time in the garden sleeping under the pepper and tomato plants. When she can convince us, she wanders into the far reaches of the back yard, sometimes sauntering, sometimes leaping (when the grass is wet) to the highest spot in the yard so she can survey her/lands. To be honest it's hard to deny her anything. She is old, frail and still a sweet, sweet girl – most of the time.

I started my morning around 5:45 am with Camille sitting on my head, meowing in her own special way because, well she was hungry and it is my job to crawl out of bed at whatever time she chooses to feed her (note – Dan was up and not more than 20 feet from her food bowl – obviously he has other duties).

Since I was up, awake and ready for the day I decided to make another batch of tomato sauce – so I chopped, pureed, sautéed tomatoes, onions, herbs, 2 thai chili peppers and an entire head of garlic and let it boil down into a rich, red, tomato sauce – I can't wait for chili, zoodles with tomato sauce and soups this winter –it will be awesome.

Tonight I also found myself with 10 nectarines all ripening at the same time, so I decided to make freezer jam. I first learned about freezer jam from my friend Shane. I like jam but the whole water bath thing seemed complicated. Enter freezer jam no boiling, no canning apparatus just dice the fruit and add the sugar and lemon juice and cook.

You're probably thinking wait she forgot the pectin – no, no I did not. No pectin in this recipe. The thing about pectin is that it adds a sour flavor, which then requires you to add more sugar and to be honest when you are done the jam tastes like sugar, not the fruit.

Most fruits naturally have pectin but it's added to jams and jellies to speed up the process. Truth is if  you boil the fruit longer, the natural pectin is released and you have the same result with less sugar and more fruit!

I started with about 2.5 pounds of nectarines, which I seeded and chopped. To that I added the zest and juice from ½ of a lemon and ¾ cup of sugar. The original recipe called for 2 ½ cups of sugar, which seemed like way to much and the fruit was sweet and juicy so I started with ¾ and tasted it first and it was to my taste so I left the rest out. 

As it was cooking I decided to add some spices to give it an extra kick so I included 2 tsp of nutmeg and ¾ tsp. of cinnamon. I cooked it (stirring often to prevent scorching) for about 40 minutes and then poured it into 3 jars, screwed on the lids and popped them into the freezer. 

I love the color and chunkiness of the jam and the addition of the spices will make it a perfect spread on whole grain toast on a cold winter morning. If you have any jam recipes to share, send them my way - it's like bottling summer. 

Rain; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As a gardener I'm a huge fan of rain, as a homeowner with a wet basement – not so much.

I've been remiss in not posting for the past couple of weeks, that doesn't mean we've not been cooking awesome veggie meals, it means we've been bailing water and dealing with the aftermath of a VERY WET BASEMENT. But this too shall pass – we've called landscapers to give us estimates to grade the yard and move the water away from the house, we've pulled up wet carpet and spent 5 days drying out the wood paneling in the basement – NOT FUN!

Looking forward or backward with respect to cooking experiences, we've been cooking up a storm with our garden harvest. We've harvested tomatoes by the pound, carrots, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, red, green, yellow and orange peppers, cabbage, Thai chili pepper and jalapenos. I have to say it has been our best year yet. This was last night's harvest.

For those of you wondering what we've been doing with all those veggies, well cooking of course here are a few of our favorite dinner pictures.

Here is one of my favorite dinners; roasted beets, roasted green beans from the garden, watermelon with feta and basil (from the garden) and my favorite lentil dal. 

And then there cooked up some Swiss chard with onions, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and black beans. Served with a side of tomatoes with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a few feta crumbles. 

We've also been eating a fair number of tomato, avocado and mayo sandwiches for lunch and yes dinner too. I don't have a recent photo but trust me they are happening.

Tonight I decided that the red and green peppers were on the dinner menu and decided to stuff them with lentils, quinoa, kale and tomatoes (of course). Picture on its way - hubby is having some technical difficulties.

On deck for the weekend; cauliflower, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes – did I mention we have a lot of tomatoes? I think there will need to be some tomato sauce and tomato jam making.

If you have any recipes that need tomatoes please, send them my way.

As always thanks for stopping by!