Zucchini Monster September 24, 2009

I almost forgot about the monster!  My sis showed up last week with a 2 foot long  monster zucchini.  Apparently, one of her drivers (waste management recycling) was giving it by a customer.  He loves zucchini but knew he wouldn’t eat the whole thing so he gave it too one of the women who works in the office.   She loves zucchini but doesn’t have a kitchen right now and knew she wouldn’t eat all of it raw.  She gave it to my sister.  Meme doesn’t think she likes zucchini at all but thought I’d want it.  I did;)

All told it was about 9 lb of zucchini.  Most of it got shredded, bagged, and frozen for later.  I make a loaf of wonderful zucchini bread (it fell but still oh so tasty)  And my total triumph, Cream of Zucchini soup (http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/soups/cream-of-zucchini-soup/)  You must make this!  I added more cayenne to it then the receipt calls for.  Also, let the veggies brown abit to deepen the flavor.  unbelievably good.

And Meme, the confirmed zucchini disliker?  She loved it and is thinking that her dislike of zucchini may be that she’s never had it cooked well!

Lasagna and rambels

We got to see the Blue Angels perform last Sunday.  Those guys are nuts but supper exciting to watch.  Meme and Jon came over and we had the best seat in the house, well, on top of it.  We actually put blankets up on the roof and watched from there.  Lot of trees that got in the way for some of it, but they did fly bys directly over the house so it evens out.  Amazing to watch.  Not going to miss the crazy traffic tho.  Stead gets supper crowed that week.

Garden is doing pretty well.  Most of it’s winding down and being put to bed.  We’ve been working on new garden beds for next year, our soil in the side yard is awful.  So we did the bale gardens this year http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/strawbales.htm  The straw from those is now being used to make our lasagna garden beds. http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/lasagnagarden.htm 

And on a related note, I made an awesome veggie lasagna for dinner the other night.  Here’s the recipe

Lasagna noodles

2 jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce

15 oz ricotta cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese, shredded (I used about a pound and a half)

Veggies!  (I use a whole bunch of spinach, without stems, a half an onion, and a large yellow squash)

1- Boil noodles according to package.  Wash and dice all veggies.  Mix ricotta, eggs, and parm completly.

2-Drain cooked noodles.  Spoon some of the sauce on the bottom of 9x 13 baking dish.  Cover bottom with noodles.  Layer, cheese mix, veggies, shredded mozzarella, and sauce.  Cover with noodels and repeat.  (this made three layers of noodels for me)

3- Top the last layer with sauce and shredded cheese

4- Cook in oven at 350 until cheese is browned and everything is bubbly and hot.

Wonderful with a leafy salad and the leftovers are great for lunch.  I’m not sure how this would work with freezing, but I’d bet it’d be wonderful.

Back at the grind May 26, 2009

So I’m getting back to work and am totally lost.  Lol.  After having an extra long weekend I can’t seem to focus properly.  But it was a very nice weekend.  Planted out a bunch of our peppers.  Still need to finish seeding the garden bed out back, plant the tomatoes, eggplants, and others.  I feel like I’m getting a slow start this year but I suppose it’s better than freezing my poor plantlings like I did last year. 🙂 

Matt’s truck is working beautifully with the new engine.  It’s good to have the truck back but paying it off it’s going to be fun.  Mums in town visiting.  It’s nice to have her.  A little odd to have someone else in the house again but it’s still good.  I’m thinking I might make black bean tacos for dinner tonight and lunches this week.  Supper easy.

Black bean and Potato tacos.

2 or 3 potatoes

1 or 2 cans of black beans (not drained)

1/2 to 1 onion, chopped

1 to 2 packets of taco seasoning

A few cups of prepared brown rice

Tortilla’s or taco shells

Cheese, Sour cream, Tomatoes, hot sauce, what ever toppings you like.

Microwave the potatoes until they’re just soft.  Let them cool abit and cut into small cubes.

Add a little oil to a pan, saute chopped onions until translucent, add cubed potato and let brown a bit.

Add black beans and taco seasoning.  Adjust the amount of liquid from the beans.  I recommend starting small and adding to get the consistency you want.

Simmer for maybe 5 min to let the flavors come together.

Serve on a hot tortilla or taco shell with a layer of rice, then taco mix, then add cheese and fixings. 

These are really easy and between the beans and rice you have a complete vegetable protein.  And it’s cheap 😉

New tree and a recipe May 4, 2009

I’ve been looking for a dwarf fruit tree for a while now.  I’ve been trying to be very logical and reasonable and pick my variety then buy.  Yah.  That fell apart on Saturday.  Matt and I were at Walmart and found a semi dwarf apricot tree for $20.  That little voice in my head said ‘this one’.  So I got it.  Turns out my little voice was right as usual.  It’s a Blenheim Apricot and apparently it’s fruit is wonderful.  I think it’s going to be in a pot for this year.  At least until I can get a spot prepared for it.  I’m planning on buying some gooseberry and current bushes too.  Planning on using them as a bit of a hedge. Have to make sure the nursery is still shipping them for this year.  Yay plants.

And now for something completely different-

Supper easy cobbler/dump cake-

2 cans of pineapple or fruit of your choice (I like 1 can of chunks and 1 of crushed pineapple)

1 box of cake mix (I’m very fond of french vanilla)

1 ish sticks of butter.

Heat oven to 350.  Pour canned fruit into a glass baking dish (maybe 8×12?  You want the fruit to be about an inch and a half to 2 inches deep).  Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the top.  Don’t break up lumps or smooth it out.  Cover the top of the cake mix with thin slices of butter.  Place in oven and cook until the top is browned and the fruit very hot.

This turns out so good.  The pineapple gets caramelized, the topping gets beautifully browned and crisp and the section where cake meets fruit is fabulously soft.

White chili March 5, 2009

I absolutely adore white chili!  Perfect recipe for a cold snowy day in March and it doesn’t take a lot of work to make.  Here’s the recipe, amounts fed 4 of us last night and Matt and I will have it for dinner tonight as well.

1lb ground turkey breast

1 onion chopped

2cans white beans- white navy or white kidney

2 small cans of diced jalapenos- you can adjust this to your hearts content.  Or use fresh ones but it wont be as spicy.

2 cubes of chicken bullion

1 large tub of sour cream

1 large bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped

Brown up the turkey (I like to get it really brown) in a stock pot.  Add onions and saute until tender.  Add in the chicken bullion, both cans of white beans (don’t drain), and the peppers.  Turn stove down and simmer till most of the liquid is gone.  Stir in sour cream and chopped cilantro.  Heat it back up but don’t let it boil again.

To make the veggitarian version, leave out turkey, saute oinons, add about half mash the white beans.  Other than that, you follow the same recipe.

 

This is killer good, takes maybe 30 to 45 minutes and is perfect with cornbread and honey or french bread.

OMG it’s nearly xmas December 12, 2008

The other day it finaly struck me that it’s the 12th of December…And I haven’t done any of the shopping part of christmas!  I always remember to start the handmade gifts nice and early.  And all of those are done,  well close:).  But I always forget about the shopping part. 

So tonight Matt and I are going to pick up a tree and deck the halls!  I think this year I actualy know where all the decorations are.  Meme and I are also making potatoe leek soup and fresh bread tonight.  My DMIL gave me the recipe for the bread she had when we were over there for supper Tuesday.    It’s already started.  Just needs an other rise then bakeing.  The recipe is writen poorly, very confusing.  If it turns out well I’ll post the reorganized recipe.

When we were cleaning up from dinner with the folks Tuesday I mentioned that I was planing to make another batch of pumpkin cholate chip cookies and use the spice mix that Aunt Lucy gave us.  DFIL started jumping up and down and makeing puppy noises at the tought of more cookies!  Well, I think I know what my holiday baking project is going to be this year.  The gift that Lucy gave us was really cool.  Handmixed spice mixes all fall kind of flavors.  Probaly the neatest thing about it was the packing mattirial.  Don’t hear that very often!  The bottles were packed with food quality bay leaves and cinnimon sticks and whole nutmeg.  Awesomeness, I was out of bay leaves too.

Our cousin Julie got her package.  I was a little worried it wouldn’t make it in time even tho it was 8-10 day shipping.  I’ve never shipped internationaly before so didn’t know what to expect.  Now I’m very glad that I individualy wraped the gifts.  She’s been opening them one a day.  Yay for the 13 days of christmas in Japan!

Tomarrow Meme and I are going to do our yearly christmas shopping blitz.  This usualy ends up being 8+ hours of silly, girly, highly caffinated fun with us totaly crashing afterwards.  I think our boys are going to go do their shopping together tomarrow too.  I know some of the things I’m looking for but alot of them will be based on what we find. 

And so the madness begins:)

Snowing?! And cookbook thoughts October 10, 2008

Well I am supper lucky.  New furnace in yesterday and today it’s snowing.  Reno weather always manages to surprise me.  My tree is still completely green and this morning its dusted with snow.  The drive into town was incredibly beautiful this morning.  Peavine mt was dusted with snow and draped with gray clouds.  The rest of the Sierras were hidden by the cloud bank rolling over them.  I think I’m ready for winter, but I’d like a bit more fall first:).

Meme and I are going to make Cream of assparugus soup tonight.  (If it comes out well I’ll post the recipe)  I found the recipe in a great 70s cookbook, Soups and Stews.   Looks like there are several tasty recipes to try.  I absolutely love old cookbooks.  The changes in what we eat and the way we think about food are so huge.  This cookbook has a 100 recipes with “50 Lavish illustrations”.  Hysterical to look at the photos after reading any of the food blogs out there.  They pretty much took pictures of the food instead of having a photo shoot with the food. Did that make sense? 

The types of things considered exotic are different.  They have a recipe for a Mexican soup that’s only for those who “really” like spicy food.  It has 1 tsp of caynan pepper and 1 de-seeded green chili.  Not spicy in my family.  In my understanding, the expansion of American food/tastes can be largely credited to Julia Child.  She introduced new food ideas.  People would make them when entertaining.  And then, of course, when the next person entertained they had to do something more exotic. Just like groups of people with similar ideas will radicalize over time by trying to out do each other.

The focus of the recipes seems different too.  This cookbook is all about “economical” and easy soups, “so that you don’t break the budget every time you contemplate cooking” and “mum can enjoy the meal she just prepared”.  Seems like many of the recipes you see now are all about being Martha-esc and creating some thing stylish.  Maybe it’s nostalgia or romancing the past, but it’s practical too.  With how crazy the economy is, cookbooks on how to make good food inexpensively are useful, important, desperately needed.  I can’t tell you the number of women that I work with who have no ability to prepare health meals for their kids on a limited budget.  No one teaches that anymore.  So my clients end up feeding their familys crap food out of boxes and going hungry at the end of the month because the budget didn’t go that far.  I’d love to see home skills/life skills/life management taught in high school like it used to be.

My thought for the day is to find joy in simplicity.