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Green Peppers + Sadness

Hey look! I grew this! We are also eating lots of fresh basil and have just started on the lettuce (I've been happily helping my landlady with her lettuce overabundance, very nice as mine is puny). I will be eating chard and kale soon and the tomatoes and zucchini are just around the corner.

The sadness is that I finally got out to the store where I like to get eggs and learned that it is apparently now illegal for stores to sell farm fresh eggs unless the farm has been inspected and approved and so on. I was so mad I actually cried a bit. It's bad enough that it's hard to get good meat and illegal to get fresh milk but I thought I would at least be able to enjoy fresh eggs. I am so tired of having a government who feels it's okay to sell us cigarettes and aspartame but heaven forbid we get some eggs with actual nutrition in them. Thanks so much, for saving me from healthy eggs. It's so hard to feed my family well. I get so very very frustrated. And I wish I didn't feel so alone about it.

Recipe | Potato Salad with Yogurt Dressing

I cannot lie, I made this off the top of my head and now I'm trying to remember it. So hopefully I get the proportions right! It would be local if it weren't for the lemon juice. Lemons kill me, why can't I get them here! Oh right, I live in Canada.

Serves 4-6 people. Ish.

Dressing:
1 cup plain yogurt
juice of one lemon
chopped fresh basil, maybe 1/4 cup. (dill would also work great)
3 Tbs whole grain mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp of paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Salad:
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 shallot, minced
1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
4 waxy potatoes, chopped and boiled with a glug of vinegar and a bit of salt (try not to over boil or they fall apart in the salad)

Mix with dressing! Eat. Mmmm. Hey look, the baby woke up. See you all later :)

Gardening | the plan

Here's my garden, and here's how it's doing so far.
*** = Thriving
** = Surviving
* = Fail

Side A = Full Sun
Side B = Lots of Sun
Side C = A very little Sun

1 - Green Pepper ***
2 - Jalapeno **
3 - Scarlet King Pepper ***
4 - Gold King Pepper ***
5 - Parsley ***
6 - Basil ***
7 - Rosemary ***
8 - Lemon Boy Tomato ***
9 - Pink Cherry Tomato ***
10 - Stupice Tomato **
11 - Marigolds ***
12 - Roses **
13 - Zucchini - ***
14 - Carrots - ***
15 - Snow Peas - ***
16 - Beans - ***
17 - Chives - **
18 - Lettuce - **
19 - Shallots - *
20 - Swiss Chard - **
21 - Kale - **
22 - Arugula/Cilantro - *
23 - Impatients - **
24 - Hosta - **

Notes:
- Side A & B have a buried soaker hose. Side C had a sprinkler hose but it was leaking into the basement. So I hand water it.

- The shallots looked awesome and then all died. No idea why.

- The lettuce next to the beans was not as happy as the other row. When I thinned I replanted some to take over the shallot spot.

- The cilantro bolted before it hit the garden. The Arugula bolted before becoming edible.

- The pot of oregano was happy until I left and it went without water for 5 days.

- The hosta was happy in the spring but angry when the hot weather came.

- A bunch of seedlings on side c were killed by rain pouring off the roof. Need to fix the eavestroughs.

Bread Fail

So I've been successfully baking bread for some time now with my vital wheat gluten method. You'd think that would be enough, but the purist in me wants to figure out how to do it without. I know it must be possible. I love the recipes I've tried from my Christmas present "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart, so I decided to steal my mom's copy of "Whole Grain Breads". She was happy enough to see it go as she hasn't been able to get his method to work. I however, am determined!

This is his basic master recipe, using my sourdough start to make the starter.
So, fail number 1. Here's what worked:
- The first proof went well, it rose nicely in the bowl.
- I achieved the best window pane ever with only 3 minutes of kneading.
- It tastes amazing!

And what didn't:
- Well it kind of puddled out instead of rising up the second time. If you ever want a yummy bread puddle, I can bake one for you.
- Maybe slightly crumbly. Or maybe my toast just broke because it was eight inches long and only one inch tall.

I think that the main problem was that the dough was way too wet, especially the sourdough portion. I will try again later this week!

Gardening | All set

So we finally got most of the garden planted today. May long weekend is when most people plant here so hopefully it's safe for my leafy little ones to be out in the dirt now. Most of the cilantro bolted before I could plant it so there's just a little scraggly one out there. Guess I'm cooking with cilantro this week!

I still need to pick up some supports for the beans and peas and I need to steal some oregano from my parents. It was great having Craig's parents here to help out and little S napped through the whole thing!

My Kitchen | Save the Produce!

Raise your hand if you forget what produce is lurking in your fridge and then it rots. So tragic. The theory is that I will always know what I have (and how much) by looking at the list on the whiteboard. We'll see if it continues to amuse me as much as it did this week.

Gardening | Greenhouse fun!

Just back from a week in Creston hanging out with the family. Good times, lots of fun food. Asparagus season is here! If you have too much asparagus (as if it's possible) check out my previous recipes for asparagus soup and asparagus fajitas. Came back to see my greens just barely up and some of my shallots poking their little heads up into the world!


So today we went to the greenhouse to get the bedding plants:
Herbs
Basil x 4
Rosemary
Chives
Parsley
Cilantro
(getting oregano from my parents)

Veggies:
3 bell peppers (red, yellow and green)
1 jalapeno pepper
1 cherry tomato
1 low acid tomato (I have another one from my aunt)

Also:
marigolds and inpatients (to sprinkle among the veggies, for funzies)

So I still need to hunt down a summer squash plant and get seeds for beans, peas and carrots. Yum.

And lilacs coming soon!

Menu Plan

Monday Quinoa Black Bean Salad (46 Whitewater Cooks)
Tuesday Schezuan Ground beef and green beans (183 New Light Cooking)
WednesdayLentil Curry Wraps (132 New Light Cooking)(Didn't get around to this last week. Had waffles that night instead)
ThursdayTabbouleh Chickpea Salad (43 Whitewater Cooks)
Friday - Salmon Casserole
Saturday Pita Pizzas
SundaySausage and Perogies

Baking Bran Muffins with dates (Erin Cooks - these are the best muffins on earth, I use plain yogurt and add chopped dried dates to them)

Best thing last week? Bombay Wraps, soooo yummy. Also the first BBQ of the season was very much enjoyed.

Gardening | A fresh start

Hmmm, I'm typing one handed while holding a baby, so please excuse any typos!

Well, it's a new house with a new yard. I will be a better gardener this year! I will not kill all the plants. I will not let the weeds turn it into a feral mess (why don't weeds need watering?). Why will I be better? Because I am not pregnant this summer (knock wood). I just need to figure out how to garden while holding a baby who refuses to be put down even to nap. Right.

So here's the tour. The flower beds haven't been properly cared for in 10 years. They are dug up now, but these are "before" pictures.


Front of the house. Something pretty will be going on by the door. I have planted lettuce, shallots, swiss chard, kale and arugula. Not sure if the shallots will be happy being planted so late, but it's worth a shot as I love shallots. This side is almost always shady.


Putting a tepee here for beans


Side of the house. The rosebushes have had a severe haircut. They have also attacked both Craig and I. Evil! This side is getting peas (on a trellis) carrots and zucchini.


And finally the back of the house. Full on sunny. Herbs and peppers and tomatoes. Also some marigolds methinks.


What are you planting this spring?

I have returned!

Did you miss me? So now that I am done being pregnant and done with the crazy first six weeks of mommyhood, I find that my thoughts turn again to food. Sooooo good to be able to eat normally again! Here are my goals for food as I get back into the swing of things:

- Menu plan. I will go shopping once a week for food. That's it, no picking up something midweek. Partly because it's easier (we live out of town, and have a baby and blah blah blah) and partly because I am trying to stick to a budget of $100 a week. That might seem like a lot still, but for me it would be a big improvement.

- Cut down on the refined food. In hopes of cutting down on the baby tummy. I let this slip with the puking and the sleeping and the not sleeping. Time to refocus.

- To keep my garden alive. I will not be a bad garden mommy like last year!

- To continue to eat as locally as I can. I've been doing well at this actually. Still not buying produce from out of country and all my meat and eggs are very local. Some of my dairy. My oats and lentils and WW flour are all from a local CSA.


So here's this weeks menu plan, even though the week is almost over. I hope these will be fun to read and give you ideas, even if you don't have my cook books.

Monday Big Barn Bowties (pg 181 Rebar)
Tuesday Bombay Rollup (Rebar)
Wednesday Hamburgers & Apples
Thursday Sushi Salad with wild BC prawns
Friday Pita Pizzas
Saturday Lentil Wraps (132 New Light Cooking)
Sunday Ratatouille (made and frozen last summer)

Oh, if you aren't a reader of my other blog...here's the adorable reason for my absence:

Hiatus

In case you had not noticed, this blog is on Hiatus. I kept thinking that next week I would have more energy surely and next week I would blog more. Next week keeps not coming. The truth is that between the fact that the baby is sucking the life out of me (adorable, right?) and I'm working full time from 1-9 most weekdays I just don't have it in me to run two blogs right now. I can barely handle one. Also, if I manage to have the energy to cook a fun meal, it has run out before I can blog about it. So here's a summer recap, and after that you should wander over to my other blog if you want updates. I'll try and make it back here...sometime.

The good:
- I froze lots of fruit this year, 25 lbs of strawberries, 30 lbs of blackberries, 3 lbs of huckleberries (although 2 of them were a gift) and about 30 lbs of peaches. I somehow missed raspberries, which is tragic.
- I canned 6 jars of peaches, 24 jars of asparagus pickles and 18 jars of asparagus broth.
- I also froze maybe 10 lbs of asparagus, 5 lbs of green beans and 10 or so lbs of summer squash.
- I made apricot jam (which turned super solid...apparently the pectin was overkill) and am going to make blackberry and strawberry.
- Next week I am going to can soup and tomato sauce with my mom.

Okay I actually feel better after typing that. I didn't do as much as I had hoped, but that's not too bad.

The bad:
- I have been eating way more processed food then I like to admit. Although I think I am past the frozen burrito stage. There has been a lot of triskets and breakfast cereal and some instant thai noodle lunches. This makes me sad but between having zero energry and needing to eat constantly to avoid puking or passing out, well...that's how it goes. I have been trying to aim for mostly healthy/whole grain. Also I have been buying bread, which makes me super sad (and also means I eat a lot less sandwiches). Not much for sweets though, I don't really crave them (apart from icecream...and chocolate milk) and store bought cake and cookies actually makes me throw up.

The ugly:
- My garden is the ugly. It has gone back to the wild. Plus the land lady doesn't water much...and not all her water hits my whole garden. I have been eating some peppers and tomatoes and zuchinni. Oh and the rosemary bush is pretty good. The rest is either dead or just so scrawny as to not yet be edible. This fills me with sadness. Maybe next year I will be able to do something once the baby is not on the inside anymore. But I didn't know I would be pregnant when I planted and I never guessed that I would be so sick and drained so...I try not to feel too guilty. Craig does sometimes still catch me staring at the planters crying "I'm a bad garden mommy!" and he tells me to stop it and come inside.

Ah well, I am not a perfect person, such is life! And that's my summer. Hope yours was full of fun in the sun and yummy in the tummy :)

Gardening | Tastes like sunshine

These are the tiny little low acid tomatoes from my Tumble Tim plant. They are sooo sweet and yummy. However they still give me heartburn...booo!

Links | Cake Wrecks

I have spent about two hours today laughing at Cake Wrecks (wow...it's my day off, okay!). She posts brutal cakes all week and then really cool ones on Sundays. It is a comedic masterpiece. My tummy hurts from the laughing (also the baby...it is aaaangry today...I keep hoping the cakes will cheer it up as well)

So when I have the baby...please no one make me this cake:


And a few more of my favourites:

Happy Mothers Day...


Cupcake Hello Kitty (which reminds me...I haven't been to Hello Kitty Hell in aaages)


Everyone's favourite literary masterpiece


A happy birthday horse head


And for the win, construction worker mermaid!

Recipe | Huckleberry Chocolate Coffee Cake

Hey all, sorry about the absence. I've mostly been eating crackers and trying not to vomit (and only sometimes succeeding). Doesn't make for great food blogging. But I made this cake last week to take camping and it turned out great so I had to share!

This is based on a great Raspberry cake recipe which I will include below. I had huckleberries however. Huckleberries grow wild around here and are easily my favourite berry. They a related to blueberries but smaller and more flavourful. Tarter and darker. So very yummy. In fact I'm not really a fan of blueberries as they mostly taste like obese bland huckleberries to me. I changed the original recipe quite a bit with what I had on hand. It was my first full cake done with whole wheat pastry flour and I was very pleased with the result. It had an excellent light texture and didn't feel in the slightest with like a health food compromise. You could also make this with blackberries I think, it has to be a tart berry to work.

Huckleberry Chocolate Coffee Cake Ingredients
2 Cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup soft butter
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1 bar dark chocolate
1 cup huckleberries (fresh or frozen)

Streusel:
1/3 quarter cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
1/4 cup slivered almonds toasted
1/4 cup coconut toasted



Directions
1. Combine ingredients for the streusel and cut up the chocolate bar into little bits.

2. Combine all batter ingredients in a bowl, beat on low for 30 seconds then on high for two minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

3. Grease a 9x9 pan and set the oven to 350.

4. In pan layer 1/2 the batter, then half the chocolate, half the berries and half the struesel. Repeat.

5) Bake for 50 minutes.

Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup soft butter
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Streusel Topping:
1/3 c flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
1/3 cup slivered almonds

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup whole raspberries

And just follow the directions as above!

I'm growing more than vegetables here...

For those of you who don't know (or haven't guessed) we are pregnant over here! I just got back from my first ultrasound and all looks well so I thought I'd let you guys in on it. I think it's about the size of that baby tomato at the moment (second tomato from my garden by the way, and first zuchinni).

Why have I been crap at posting? A) I mostly just sleep when I am home. B) Baby still hasn't caught on to this whole food thing. I can't remember the last time I was so uninterested in food. It's wierd. I don't like it. But hopefully I will be back to my foodie self in a month or so. In the meantime, bear with me please! Growing people is hard work!

My Kitchen | Updates

I am the worst food blogger ever these days, I knoooow. I do have a reason, I'll tell you guys later. But in the meantime here's some updates:

- I went to Creston last weekend to pick strawberries and picked 25 lbs! They are only 1.60 a pound at the U-pick place and you can make sure that every berry is fully ripe and not moldy. I'm definitely doing it again next year. It took me about an hour to fill a big bucket and I did it two days. One day with my cousin and her friends in the pouring rain and the next day with my gramma. They are all frozen now for shakes and fun. And jam. I meant to save some to eat fresh but I went to work and Craig misheard my directions. Thus there is a casserole dish full of the very nicest strawberries...in the freezer. Ah well.

I had been home one day and my parents raspberries started. Seriously, there were no raspberries the day before. Where is the justice!?

- My garden is healthy but not huge, I suspect this is because my upstairs neighbours care more about keeping the new grass alive then the garden. Ah well. I have one almost ripe tomato! Maybe I will eat it tomorrow.

And that is all. Exciting, eh?

Gardening | Update

Hmm...I wonder when I can eat these...I think they have to turn yellow

Lettuce! So pretty! Who needs flowers?

updated container garden (please note parsley and basil have replaced the spinach)

And apparently the basil in the garden isn't dead. Maybe I will eat some tomorrow...

Also, this plant had no leaves left. Now it has about five tiny leaves and this little pepper grows more every day. Weird. I guess cayenne likes the abuse.

Summer Squash! Coming soon! Maybe I will eat blossoms? But there only seems to ever be one at a time, and that's not really exciting.

my parsley is a bush. So of course I planted more? They came with the basil, I couldn't help it!

The healthiest pepper plant.

carrots!

swiss chard! Or beets...I can't honestly remember. (I mean the picture, I know in the garden)

Weed much? But there are so many and they are sooooo tiny. I can't be bothered at the moment.

My Kitchen | Garlic Scapes

So scapes are the green tops of garlic. Apparently you cut them off in spring so that the garlic can put all it's effort into growing the bulb. This is strange to me, but I'm certainly no garlic growing expert.

Garlic scapes are another random thing I've never eaten but with this seasonal eating thing I was very excited to give them a try. I picked up a bundle at the Nelson farmer's market last week. I love their twirly swirly ways.

I had heard that they can be pretty strong, but I didn't find that to be the case. I thought they were garlicy in a pretty mellow way. I did two meals with them, one was scapes pan fried with butter, oregano, yellow zucchini and the last of my spinach served over little cheese raviolis. It was to die for good. I also did some sort of rice concoction with chickpeas.

The scapes add a light garlicky flavour and a nice bit of colour without the bitterness you sometimes get with garlic. Some people make pesto out of them which I think would be excellent.

Go forth and experiment!

Gardening | First Harvest

Well the mountain spinach I did in the planter was a great success. It grew like crazy and was pretty tasty. Sadly it only lasted for about three meals...seems almost anticlimactic. I'm planning on buying a bunch of spinach and freezing it this year, I found I couldn't buy Canadian spinach of any kind last year and I really missed it.

The planter is now replanted with basil and parsley. They're looking a bit sad at the moment but they probably just need to get settled in.

Oh, and the whole time we ate spinach I kept saying to Craig "I grew this! It was seeds and now it is foood! I grew it all by myself!"