Posts Tagged ‘carrots’
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Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is here! I can’t believe that it is the end of November. I can’t believe how dark it gets so early.
And yet, I am thankful that the fall weather has been mostly wonderful. The last time I wrote, we were without power for multiple days following a freakish end-of-October snow storm that pummeled New England and left hundreds of thousands without power.
Well, the power came back for us after 3 and a half days. My parents were without power for even longer. I feel fortunate that the weather wasn’t colder or it really would have been miserable. In fact, most of November has been unseasonably warm. We’ve had multiple weekends in a row with temps in the 60s. It has been lovely.
The leaves finally had a chance to play catch-up and turn and fall from the trees. We are almost done with our raking—hopefully with the long holiday weekend upon us we’ll get a chance to finish up the yard work. I still want to do one last fertilization of our new lawn.
In the meantime, I am gearing up to make some Thanksgiving dishes for multiple feasts tomorrow. I love cooking and baking for the holidays. I find it all very creative and inspiring, especially since I haven’t done as much cooking this fall as I usually do. I have been poring over recipe books and scouring websites online for ideas. And here is what I think I will be preparing.
Honeyed Carrots and Oranges courtesy of Real Simple
I still have a bunch of carrots in the garden, but with the temps beginning to get colder, especially at night, I’m ready to harvest the lot. So I think I will make Honeyed Carrots and Oranges courtesy of Real Simple. It looks like a delightfully yummy and easy dish! I am thankful that I am still able to cook using ingredients straight from the garden!
I am also going to make some sort of casserole dish—probably a variation on the “traditional” green bean casserole that uses those fun crunchy onions. I think I’ll add some thinly sliced shallots.
I’m also making a few desserts. I have gone back and forth on what to make, but ultimately I think I will make my very favorite—Swedish Apple Pie. You can find my recipe with photos on how to make the best Swedish Apple Pie here. Instead of honeycrisp apples, I will be using a combo of Granny Smith and Cortland.
I am so looking forward to hanging out in the kitchen tonight to do some baking!
I am very thankful to be able to take some time off to celebrate Thanksgiving, and I can’t wait to see family and friends in town over the next several days. With the holiday season kicking off, it’s so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of doing and the stresses that seam to infiltrate our day-to-day. This year I’m going to take it slow and easy and relish each day. It is really such a short season after all. It’s meant to be enjoyed.
Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Tags: autumn, baking, carrots, gratitude
Posted in Cooking Adventures, The Daily Balance, The Growing Season | No Comments »
good june pickings
Friday, June 10th, 2011
We are already enjoying many treats and delights from the garden this year. Here’s a peek at the front bed, filled with lettuces, baby spinach, radishes, beets, broccoli rabe, carrots, and garlic.
We’ve been feasting radishes for a few weeks now. And the lettuces are wonderful. Fresh, tender baby romaine and an assorted mezclun mix. Mixed with baby spinach leaves, we are loving garden-fresh salads!
Lettuces on the left, baby spinach on the right.
The sugar snap peas are starting to go crazy. They are trellising away.
And now they are blooming and beginning to form actual sugar snap peas! By the end of the weekend, they will be ready to pick.
Such delightful white flowers that bloom to make way for sugar snap peas.
Meanwhile, I can’t seem to pick the cilantro fast enough.
We have been clipping cilantro to use in garden salads, a red quinoa salad that I made, in marinades for roasted chicken thighs… cannot get enough! Soon the cilantro will begin to flower, and then I will clip it all back. I will use what I can and freeze the rest to use all summer long while I plant the next round and wait for it to grow.
What’s coming next? Garlic! The scapes are about ready to burst forth from the garlic plants. Garlic scape time is the best time of year! I’d say we are about a week away.
And it just wouldn’t be right to talk about good June pickings without mentioning WEEDS.
What should I do with this bed? This is where I planted potatoes last year. But I didn’t get my act together on time this year to get starter potatoes to plant. Hmmm… I am thinking I will plant a fantastic herb garden here perhaps. Or I could use the space for flowers. Indecision. But clearly the weeds have got to go!
Weeding this bed is one of this weekend’s projects. And eating well. Weeding and eating. The perfect way to celebrate good June pickings in the garden!
Tags: baby spinach, beets, broccoli rabe, carrots, cilantro, gardening, garlic, garlic scapes, gratitude, herbs, lettuce, organic, radishes, raised garden bed, spring, sugar snap peas
Posted in The Growing Season | No Comments »
tuscan white bean with kale soup
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
As you may know, we make a gigantic batch of soup pretty much every week so that we have delicious and nutritious homemade meals ready to go for work lunches every day. This week we made a hearty Tuscan White Bean with Kale Soup.
Where did the recipe come from? I am not entirely certain. It started with my Mom I think. And from there we have sort of experimented and altered it here and there. But the basics are always the same.
The core to any good soup starts out with a base of sautéed carrots, celery, white onions, and garlic. We make huge batches of soup (10–16 big servings) so I usually begin with a dozen organic carrots peeled and chopped, at least 10 organic ribs of celery chopped, 2–3 large organic white onions chopped, and 8 or so cloves of garlic peeled and finely chopped.
These all get sautéed with extra virgin olive oil in a large stock pot for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Then I add 3 large jars (cans work, too) of diced/chopped tomatoes and 64 oz. or so of small white beans (dried or canned). If they are dried, you will want to cook them ahead of time so soften them up.
Once the tomatoes and juices and beans are added, cover your whole base with enough water to give everything breathing room and bring to a boil covered. Then simmer on low for at least 20 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, take a gigantic head of kale and chop it into bite-size pieces. I always use the kale stems, too—they give the soup a decent heft and fiber blast.
Chop off the very ends of the kale to add to your compost, and then chop up the kale stalks like you would a broccoli stalk. You can add the kale stalks right away to the simmering soup mixture to give them time to soften up a bit.
After roughly 20 minutes have passed, add the kale leaves along with your favorite pasta of choice or a red quinoa. Turn the soup back up to high, cover, and bring to a boil again.
This time we added half a bag of rotini spinach and tomato pasta that we had on hand. I broke the pasta into smaller pieces before I added it to the soup. I add the kale into the soup in handfuls, stirring it in a handful at a time.
Once you add the pasta and kale, you will need to add more water so that the pasta has room to cook and expand. I add 2 cups at a time and keep on stirring. You can make your soup more or less thick, depending on your individual taste. We like a thick, hearty soup, so I start with adding maybe 6 cups of water and stir away. I want there to be decent motion with the soup, but I want to be able to pull up a hearty scoop of veggies, beans, and pasta, too.
After you add the kale and pasta and water, then you can mess around with adding herbs. I always add a generous amount of thyme. I don’t measure it, but I would guess at least a teaspoon or two. I also add generous shakes of basil, oregano, rosemary, freshly grated black pepper and freshly grated red pepper.
Once the soup comes to a boil again, turn it back down to medium low for 12–14 minutes to give the pasta a chance to cook.
Keep an eye on your soup—if it looks too thick and you think that beans or pasta are going to get stuck on the bottom of the pot, add more water.
If you get busy and forget about the soup, that is okay, too. You can turn it down to low and let it simmer. The longer it goes, the more all the flavors have a chance to meld and blend and get to know each other.
Once the Tuscan White Bean Soup with Kale has had a chance to simmer for a while, I turn it off and take off the cover and let the soup cool. Then I ladle it out into individual pyrex serving bowls with covers for the week.
Easy to grab-and-go from the fridge for daily lunches!
P.S. If you feel compelled, you can substitute veggie broth for water. I tend to just use water because I don’t notice a huge difference. Plus, most veggie broths have a lot of added salt. Using canned or jarred tomatoes tends to add enough extra salt anyway. It is ultimately your choice though. Feel free to experiment and mess around! That is the beauty of making homemade soup!
Tags: beans, carrots, celery, garlic, kale, onions, soup, tomatoes
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spring! forward and oh, my back…
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
Spring is here! So wonderful. And oh, what a complete mess I am.
Where to begin? So I finished up watching my nephew on Sunday, and after my older sister came to pick him up, I got ambitious. Really ambitious. Apparently, decidedly overambitious which is just so typically me.
I set off to the garden store to pick up some organic compost and garden soil to amend my raised beds for the start of the growing season! Well, of course! The weather was in the upper 40s and rather delightful for the first day of Spring! I hefted big, honkin’ bags of compost and soil into the back of the car. On a whim, I decided to buy 4 blueberry bushes for the flower garden, too.
Why? Because last year I attempted to grow from seed all sort of flowers: sunflowers, asters, dahlias, and zinnias. And well, the chipmunks had other plans for me. Only the zinnias came up. And one solo dahlia.
And I just didn’t want to go through that again. So I thought, on a whim, how about blueberry bushes? Even if they don’t produce for a few years, they do flower, and it will look nice!
So 12 bags of compost and soil later, along with 3 varieties of blueberries, I returned home around noon and set out to reclaim the garden beds.
I used the pitchfork to turn the soil in 3 raised beds. I turned and I churned. Then I hauled out the bags of soil and compost and dumped several bags in the beds, making a compost/soil salad. And then I turned and churned again.
In the front squarish raised bed, I decided to throw caution to the wind and plant some late winter/early spring seeds.
I bent over in all sorts of decidedly awkward and contorted positions over my large squared bed in order to plant three rows of carrots, interspersed with radishes and beets. And then I decided to keep going. I planted baby spinach, some lettuces, broccoli rabe, cilantro, and parsley. I planted the entire square bed. Even though it is entirely early.
But I wanted to try something new and see if I really could get these supposedly hardy late Winter/early Spring veggies going.
And then! Not to forget the blueberry bushes! I churned the soil in the side garden, mixing in new organic compost and soil. And more planting: 3 varieties of blueberry bushes—northland, bluecrop, and elliot. I dug and planted 4 bushes total.
Now, the planting instructions say to give each blueberry bush close to 6 feet of space. Hah! I went with about 4 feet. We’ll see how this experiment goes. My goal is to watch these babies grow, and then use the front of the bed to plant random flower seeds. Probably more zinnias. I just love flowers to be able to cut and make bouquets—that’s my goal.
So here it was, this glorious first day of Spring. I was outside digging and planting for 6 hours. Totally in the zone. Totally content. So happy! I even hung my Spring dogwood wreath and put out my new outdoor mats.
I felt great! Accomplished! Pumped! Grateful.
Turns out I was an idiot for not being more conscious of what I was doing to my body. Gardening uses all sorts of crazy muscles. And if you haven’t been doing it for a long while, then you are in for a BIG surprise. I was rather reckless the way I was lifting and bending and squatting and stretching and reaching and whatnot.
Fast forward about 6 hours… I WAS IN PAIN.
Ridiculous, angry, mortifying, humbling pain.
I did myself in. More specifically: I did my lower back in. I did NOT sleep hardly a wink Sunday night. My back was so upset with me. I could not find a comfortable sleeping position in the slightest. My lower back right side was spasming and wrenching, and I felt miserable. I was crying out in pain.
I stayed home from work on Monday, barely able to move. No joke. It was embarrassing. How could this happen? What had I done? When did I get so OLD?
To add insult to injury (literally!), it snowed yesterday. Yeah. Snow. I was so busy diving into the garden the first chance I got, that I failed to consult the forecast. Had I bothered to check, I would have learned that at least a few inches of snow was coming.
Late morning I did finally fall sleep after strategically placing a hot water bottle up against my side as I curled into the most awkward fetal position. When I awoke, this was the scene outside:
Snow-covered lillies in the front garden.
To the left is the bed I had just planted one day before.
Yeah. Kinda funny. And kinda not.
It’s Tuesday now. The snow has pretty much melted. My back is still not too good. I returned to work today, and I’ve been very, very gentle with my back, trying to do all the right things.
I still feel really old.
The funny part about all this, is that instead of being super concerned about ME and making sure that I recover and heal my back real quick, in my mind right now I’m more concerned about whether or not my seeds will make it.
Sheesh.
Tags: baby spinach, beets, broccoli rabe, carrots, cilantro, gardening, herbs, lettuce, lillies, organic, parsley, radishes, raised garden bed, spring
Posted in The Growing Season | No Comments »
homemade egg rolls
Monday, January 3rd, 2011
Yesterday I got all wild and crazy in the kitchen as I tend to do in winter. This time I attempted my first ever batch of vegetarian egg rolls. And they came out really well for a first-timer!
First, prep the filling. Roughly chop up about 3 cups of organic green cabbage.
Next, shred 3 fat carrots.
Then, chop up a handful of green onions.
Ready to go, start by stir frying some freshly grated ginger in a little bit of organic olive oil.
Let the ginger get golden brown and then add the chopped organic green cabbage, carrots, green onions, and a large handful of bean sprouts.
After a few minutes, I added 3 tablespoons of one of my favorite sauces/marinades: Trader Joe’s Island Soyaki.
Remove the stir fry from the heat to cool before beginning to fill the egg rolls. For the roll part, I used Nasoya egg roll wraps.
To make an egg roll, lay out the wrapper on the diagonal and add a generous scoop of filling in a line along the center.
Then you wrap it up!
Once you have tucked it in, you fold in the sides—sort of like making an envelope.
One more fold over, and you are near the end.
Dab the top triangle with a little bit of water to seal onto the top of your wrap.
Lay out the 12 filled egg rolls on an olive oil coated cookie sheet (to keep the egg rolls from sticking) and brush the tops with a little organic olive oil. Then pop them into a 400°F oven for about 15 minutes to get them golden brown.
I turned up the oven to 450°F for 5 more minutes at the end to crisp them up.
They tasted wonderful! You feel like you’re eating bad-for-you egg rolls, except that the ingredients are veggie and yummy and they are baked versus fried. These would make great party appetizers, too!
I will definitely make egg rolls again and continue to experiment using different filling options. Do you make egg rolls or spring rolls? What fillings do you like to use?
Tags: bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, ginger, green onions, olive oil, vegetarian, winter
Posted in Cooking Adventures | 2 Comments »