Kinda Like a Chef

A Simple Fare

2012-01-23T21:33:00.000-08:00

True to my word, I'm trying to blog a bit more. Today I had some simple food for dinner, simple but scrumptious.

Early last year my CSA was offering an awesome deal on giant boxes of cosmetically marred but otherwise perfect organic apriums. I got a box as did my friend, Marlyn. I failed miserably at getting mine canned before they started turning, but Marlyn got her's done. She was kind enough to give me a couple jars. They've been sitting there, tempting me for months now. I kept telling myself to wait for a time when I didn't have fresh fruit available.

Apriums in honey with dill

Tonight I was looking in my depressingly empty fridge (despite the large amount of money I just spent a few days ago at the store) trying to figure out what to do for dinner. I looked in the pantry. There were those gorgeous jars of apriums. I also had a hunk of aged gouda sitting in the fridge and a bottle of chardonnay. Sounded like a good combo to me! And it was. It was actually heavenly. The apriums were super delicate, so I toasted a bit of bread to serve as a vessel for their sweet goodness. The dill gave them this very slight and extremely complimentary flavor in the background. The cheese and the wine just made it complete.

Apriums, aged gouda, La Crema chardonnay

I also had a lot of eggs, cheddar and some broccoli sitting in the fridge. Sounded like little mini broccoli quiche time to me! Took me about 5 minutes to toss together, puff pastry I already defrosted from the freezer, chopped up the broccoli and tossed in a super hot pan with some water and covered. While that was getting a quick steam I buttered a cupcake pan and squished in 9 little squares of puff pastry. Tossed the broccoli in and then poured some whipped up eggs, 1/2 and 1/2 with a bit of garlic, truffle salt and pepper. 6 of the 9 little quiches also had some cayenne pepper sprinkled on top. I topped them with a small slice of cheddar. Chucked them in the oven at 400 for 20 mins and voila. Dinner was served. With more wine, of course.

So obviously this was no fancy 6 course meal, or even one with a main course and 2 sides and a salad, just a busy mom who likes yummy food meal. Trust me, it was satisfying, easy and damn good.

It's a New Year

2012-01-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Snow!

As usual, I dropped off the face of the blogosphere, busy with life and living it.

In November, as we were about to extend our lease of the house of my dreams for another 2 years, the owners suddenly panicked, rescinded the lease extension and kicked us out instead. They wanted to remodel and sell the house immediately. I cried, begged and groveled (we'd spoken with them in the past about buying the house a couple years down the line as we were in love and they had been in agreement), asked if there was any way they would work with us to stay or for us to buy the house as-is. They refused and went from somewhat decent to the landlords from hell. We were forced to move mid-holidays. And the kicker was they made me remove my entire garden.

We searched and searched for a new, suitable home for us in Topanga, one that we could squish into and there simply was nothing. It was the holidays and Topanga is tiny with not a huge selection of rentals even at a good time of year. We had to look elsewhere. We ended up in Big Bear.

You really could make a movie out of the complete catastrophe of the situation with our landlords, husband went out of town right when our main neutral line went loose, lost appliances, smoking TV's, landlords claiming it must've been due to our new baby monitor, possible whooping cough quarantine (it wasn't), got too big of a truck that we couldn't get back off our street after we got it down to our house, then it dumped in Big Bear so after 2 days of attempting to move, we had to put our stuff in storage for a week. We finally moved the Friday before Christmas. Etc, etc, etc. It was like the friggin keystone cops. Complete insanity. And, worst part of all, for me, the first year in my life I didn't have a Christmas tree.

In the end, we made it here and are moved in. There are still boxes everywhere that I just don't feel like unpacking, but we are settled in enough.

The last several months I've also been working on establishing a little Etsy store comprised of scarves I've made, embroidered baby clothes, baby blankets, bean bag games, etc. It's a joint effort between my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and myself. That has taken a lot of my attention and between the move, losing my CSA and the store, my cooking has been seriously lacking. I feel like the worst mother, my kids have eaten far too many things from the freezer in the last two months.

My January 23rd, 2012 resolution is reestablish all my methods and ways of getting organic, local produce, grass fed and pastured meat, fresh eggs, etc. and to do a better job attempting to keep up with blogging. Not a promise by far, I don't have any real hope I'll be a better blogger this year, but I'll try!

A fellow and far superior blogger posted this great post today that made me think. Long ago I realized this blog was never going to go anywhere in terms of a job/money producing activity, I'm a terrible writer, I'm not really all that great of a cook and I just don't have the braincells right now to dedicate myself to making this blog something that someone could really use as a resource. I've always loved cooking and taking pictures of my food. I love eating and cooking healthy foods and doing as much as I can from scratch. But the reality of the situation is that right now my family and myself take up almost all of my attention and time. A while back someone had urged me to sign up for google adsense, and I realized, after reading Peter's post today that I still had those up. So I've taken them off. If I ever remember to post and you still care to read and follow me, I am honored. For now, this blog is mostly going to be my personal, food and Etsy related blatherings.

Off to snuggle with my lovebugs in front of the fire on this cold and snowy day!

Hot oak logs making us toasty!

From my driveway

What I Ate Yesterday

2011-08-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

With this most recent heat wave, my tomatoes have finally gotten with the program and started ripening. I started all my tomatoes from seed, using seeds I got for Mother's Day a few years ago. I used 5 different packets, ending up with about 45 plants. They were in these silly seed starter things (this is the first year I've done anything from seed, not counting beans and peas a 3 year old could grow) and they quickly outgrew the little space they had, not to mention I had put like 10 seeds a spot (I told you, my first time!!) and I was having trouble confronting thinning them. Eventually I transplanted some into bigger containers, I finally built some raised beds for them and slowly one or two was planted here and there. In the end I had no idea what I had planted. I lost the seed packets and the little plants had been rearranged so many times and half died, anyhow.

Now that the tomatoes are starting to ripen, I'm seeing what it is I have. It's like tomato surprise. So far it looks like I have mostly black krim and possibly some yellow brandywine? I have some bright red-orange ones, too, but I don't know what they are. I had thought I did green zebra till I found the full seed packet in my box of seeds. Either way, it's been fun to see the tomatoes change color and thankfully I love black krim, since I have a bazillion of those. I'll keep that in mind for next year!

For lunch I was finally able to enjoy a homegrown caprese salad. As usual, it was amazing. Certainly my all time favorite dish.

The cucumbers have been piling up in the fridge. I have to admit, the salad ones I grew just haven't tasted that great. They are supposed to grow to 6-8" but I've been having to harvest them at about 4" or they are bitter and even not bitter, their flavor seems off. I'll be shooting for a different variety next year. Regardless, I couldn't let all these tiny cucumbers go to waste. I peeled and sliced them and let them sit in a bowl of apple cider vinegar, water and ice. After they had soaked for an hour or two I drained them and tossed in some full fat Greek yogurt, a splash more apple cider vinegar, a pinch of salt and some dill. This was the starter for our dinner last night.

I got an organic grass-fed steak through my CSA over the weekend. I'm not sure where my head was when I did the math, but it was about $20 for a tiny 8oz steak...it turned out amazing, but still, I get far, far better deals at the farmer's market from my favorite local family farm. The steak was a small, super thick chunk of tenderloin and I'd forgotten to chuck it in the fridge to thaw till late morning, so the center was still a bit frozen. I took my cast iron skillet (how I lived without one for so many years, I really don't know), added some grapeseed oil and got it nice and hot. I seasoned the steak and tossed it on. Since it was so fat I seared each side and then simply took it off the heat and let it sit for about 10 mins. Came out perfectly.

I also had this leaning tower of potatoes that has been growing for the past many months. I have an aversion to preparing potatoes, I don't know why, but I do. I love eating them and they are simple to cook, but I never end up using them. I've been getting several in my CSA box for the last many months, equating to a large bowl and adjacent pile. I've given potatoes away, sprouted some, composted some, set some out for the neighborhood rats, but still, the pile grows. So yesterday I finally decided I'd make mashed potatoes to go with our steak. I chopped and boiled the potatoes in chicken stock till they were soft, drained and added lots of butter, parmesean cheese, some more Greek yogurt and some half and half since they seemed to sticky. And of course some fresh ground pepper and sea salt.

My husband isn't a huge fan of beets, but I love them and I had several golden beets from the garden to use, along with the greens. I decided to change it up from my usual roasted beets recipe and make a spicy beet puree. I peeled and chopped the beets up along with one small red onion. I tossed in some red chili pepper flakes, salt, pepper, olive oil and a tiny pinch of tumeric to make sure the puree kept that bright golden color of the beets. I simmered them on low till they were soft and then I pureed them with the immersion blender and served on top of the lightly sautéed greens.

A close up of the puree, the picture doesn't do the color justice

Dinner was amazing. I have to admit, it was a lot more prep work than I usually feel like doing. I'm a lazy, quick, easy cook and I hate prep. To make it easier I did all my prep ahead of time. I cleaned the kitchen around lunch time and then quickly chopped all my veggies, putting the potatoes in their pot with the stock and sticking it in the fridge. I put the oil, seasoning and chopped beets and onions in their little pot and also stuck that in the fridge. The cukes sat on the counter and the yogurt dressing was made ahead of time and sitting in a bowl in the fridge. Other than the dressing bowl, no extra dishes were dirtied and everything just had to be chucked on the stove top about 30 mins before dinner. I had a nice clean kitchen, not marred by my sloppy prep work and I could kick back and drink a beer while everything cooked.

And that is what I ate yesterday, along with some fresh baked croissants, coffee and a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Pretty lucky girl, I must say.

PS, if you've been lusting over the plates I've been using in my last couple posts (as you should be) check out the artist's etsy shop and his blog. I love the plates and have been getting good use out of them!

Summer Lovin'

2011-08-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Fresh figs make the best summer dessert, dip them in some mascarpone with a bit of brown sugar and vanilla-YUM!

I'm in love with all the amazing produce I've consumed this summer. I know some people (you know who I'm talking to) think that here in Southern California we get pretty much everything all year, but we have seasons, too. I think the fruit helps mark our seasons the best. It's peach, fig and tomato season right now. Hot, dry, summery and we have peaches and tomatoes galore. When it's cold, we have oranges and a lot of kale. We are spoiled rotten, no doubt about that, but if you eat the way I do, you love the abundance of choice that comes with summer.

Zucchini has been one of the easiest things I've grown this year. The plants are huge, with leaves well over a foot across, bigger than my pumpkin plant leaves. They steadily produce several zucchinis a week and I sure wish I'd thought ahead and made sure I had a vacuum sealer and deep freeze for all the extra zucchini. It would be nice to prepare some sautés for the winter months that I could just toss in a pan when I don't feel like cooking. Recently, one of my favorite things to do is chop a bunch of summer veggies up and toss them all in olive oil, seasonings and pop in the oven on a cookie sheet for about 20 mins at 450. I usually toss them once about mid-way. Cooking fast and hot works a lot better so you don't end up with mushy squash. That with a bit of meat or even a big caprese salad is so good and zero effort.

Roasted summer veggies (eggplant, zucchini, patty-pan squash, bell pepper, onions), pork tenderloin and my mother-in-law's amazing peach chutney.

Roasted summer veggies

My most favorite thing to eat in the summer are caprese salads, or tomato salads or whatever you want to call them. Fresh picked tomatoes and basil and sometimes some cucumbers just for fun, fresh mozzarella, bit of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and you are good to go. Super filling and incredibly delicious. Nothing better on a hot day than a huge, cold caprese salad for dinner.

Caprese salad and Italian sausage

I'm sure you can sense a theme. Easy and delicious. I don't have time to slave and more importantly, with kids to referee on a constant basis and existing in a state of continual sleep deprivation, I don't have the brain power. I just want to be able to sit down to a yummy dinner and maybe a glass of wine after a day of laundry, dishes and breaking up fights and cleaning up spilled food and all that other fun stuff that comes with kids.

Brain saver-one of my new favorite champagnes, $17 at Canyon Gourmet, dry, lightly pink, tiny bubbles and oh so tasty

Don't Be a Whiny Picky Eater, You'll Thank Me Later

2011-08-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

Produce from my CSA, the raw milk, butter and grass fed ground beef are optional add-on's from my CSA. The eggs are from my local egg lady and the jar on the left is coconut oil with some raw chocolate in the blue packages on top, both produced here in Topanga by Zenbunni.

Anyone who knew me growing up knows that I was a picky eater. I didn't like onions, cooked bell peppers, squash, eggplant, beets, peas, cooked carrots, cooked green beans, eggs, pork chops, any sea food, I wanted my steak cooked well and I only liked white chicken meat. I liked my pizza with mushrooms, olives and pepperoni and wouldn't touch it if it had other veggies. I was a meat and potatoes kind of girl and that was fine with me. As an adult I developed the habit of always ordering steak when we would go out. Always. A filet mignon. It was my favorite. Eventually I figured out that you didn't need to cook the crap out of steak and that it actually tasted a heck of a lot better the rarer it was.

Once, as a teen, I ate some leftovers from my sister's fridge. I thought it was steak or some kind of beef and mashed potatoes. It was insanely good. When I later mentioned to my sister that I'd thieved her (probably expensive) leftovers, she told me it was lamb. I was in love. I never would have tried it had I known from the start that it was a sweet little lamb, but since I knew it was good there was no going back. The fact that I loved lamb was my one up on my fellow picky eaters.

After I had the bean we joined a CSA and I was inundated with all sorts of funky looking greens and kohlrabi and squash and beets and eggplant, etc, etc. I looked for recipes for these things, once I'd identified them, and started making them. As I was paying good money for this local and fresh produce I didn't want it to go to waste and there was only so much I could justify giving away to the neighbors. I played with recipes and found that if you cooked summer squash chopped up with some mushrooms and a bit of soy sauce, garlic and oil it tasted pretty good. I also learned that you could hide summer squash in just about anything, a little Parmesan cheese went a long way with it, too. I discovered that I liked kale and loved swiss chard. I found that after eating beets enough, that earthy flavor that had always put me off grew on me and I started loving and craving the sweet earthiness that only a beet could provide. I found that you could prepare beets in savory ways, roasted with some olive oil, salt, pepper and maybe a little rosemary or whatever was out in the garden, and the saltiness was a perfect marriage with the beet's sweetness.

Home grown beets, zucchini, basil and fennel

I love how much food I know how to cook and the variety of delicious veggies I am lucky enough to enjoy year round. I wish fellow picky eaters would give the poor veggies a shot! Most of them are pretty damn good if you only find a good recipe and don't cook them till they are a pile of mush.

Caramelized onion, garlic and fennel pizza, roasted zucchini, beet and goat cheese salad

The Garden

2011-08-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

My garden has been keeping me busy these days. Several of the tomato plants are going on 7 feet tall (really should learn how to curb that, not that they aren't also hugely bushy...) and the number of fruit must be over 100, though they are all still green. The tomatillos are literally trying to take over the world. I have staked them, tied them back with twine, over and over again, and they just snake over, towering over the other plants I sadly dared to plant in their vicinity. They are climbing out of their planter reaching in to the planters several feet away trying to steal sunlight and space. I think I planted 4-5 plants in the one spot I'm mostly talking about, and they are going to have a bumper crop. Every day I can count 10-20 new tomatillos springing up on the plants.

The back of the tomatillos, spilling out of both sides of the planter

Some tomatoes, tomatillos and cucumbers

Pretty tomatillos!

A bunch of tomatoes. That one on the bottom ended up being pushed off by the others and we made fried green tomatoes with it. Yum!

More tomatoes! Remember how tiny these plants were last time I posted a pic?!

We had a pumpkin growing on the fence which we finally had to harvest. I was having a hard time supporting it and the bird netting I'd gone to after the frost cloth started giving away was cutting into the pumpkin and scarring it. It came in at 24lbs. Pretty good if I do say so myself! The whole pumpkin plant has decided it's done. I think it kind of pooped out on me while we were away in Oceanside, it was very hot and underwatered and I think it decided that meant it was done. We have one more pumpkin to harvest from the plant, but it continues to grow and mature every day. I'm guessing the second pumpkin will weigh in around 30lbs. Two pumpkins is all I need, just want them for the boys for Halloween. I don't like eating pumpkin, so it'll work out well.

The pumpkin on the fence, before harvesting

Fence pumpkin, curing in the sun on our stump

Our second pumpkin

I've lost count how many zucchinis we have harvested. I planted two plants, they are both huge but one is barely producing, while the other is in overdrive. They were planted too close together, as I thought they would climb up the fence, but pulling the pumpkin in a couple weeks should give them more room.

Pretty zucchinis! I should have taken this picture before this morning's harvest!

My cukes are also doing fantastically. I've harvested loads of pickling cukes (most of which we've eaten straight off the vine) and two salad cukes. There are about 10 salad cukes going and tons more pickling cukes. I finally managed to stow away enough pickling cukes that I can try out this recipe on a quart this afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it. I've never had traditional pickles made this way, so I hope my love of the vinegar ones doesn't get in the way of me liking these.

Cucumbers!

I planted 3 types of beans, yellow wax beans, scarlet runner beans and royal burgundy beans. The yellow wax beans were not my favorite. They were pretty and tasted okay, but they paled in comparison to the royal burgundy beans. The royal burgundy beans are a gorgeous, deep purple. Raw, they have this sweet, fresh taste that is just so good. They are bush beans and supposedly are only supposed to give one good harvest, but I have continued to harvest little piles of beans for the last couple months and there are still new ones appearing every day. They rarely make it in the house. I munch on them as I check out the rest of my garden and can easily plow through the whole pile. The scarlet runner beans are a pole bean. They have gorgeous bright red flowers and are good for attracting hummingbirds and bees. Honestly, my yard is full of both all on it's own. I've never lived in a home with so many hummingbirds. And the scarlet runner beans certainly seem to be well loved by the birds. I planted those to dry the beans. I only have 5 plants, from 5 beans I got off a friend, so most of the beans from these plants will go towards beans for seeds next year. I have a good sized bunch hanging from a beam in my ceiling, drying, and hopefully will have another bunch ready to hang when those are done.

Scarlet runner beans drying

I think I'm most excited about my eggplants. I planted these gorgeous Rosa Bianca eggplants, the pretty purple and white streaked ones. I can't wait to make a roasted veggie salad with them or my very well loved eggplant parm. And they are just so pretty. I don't think I've ever seen a blossom take so ridiculously long to open as I have with the initial blossoms on these plants. Once they opened they were these huge, gorgeous and vibrant purple flowers. After the initial flowers opened, each plant instantly popped up about 6 more. Thankfully it looks as though all the initial flowers are now slowly growing fruit inside, along with some of the smaller blossoms that came later. I think in 1-2 weeks I'll be ready to harvest my first couple eggplants.

Finally, I can see fruit!

I also have loads of herbs still going (my African blue basil is out of control), my strawberries are competing with the tomatillos on their quest to take over the world, I have loads of carrots and a pretty and quickly growing row of golden beets. My onions have been a total failure, not only have they grown excruciatingly slowly, but most of them have just gone and disappeared. I think I'll simply replant in the fall, with different seeds and hopefully more appropriate weather, and see what I get in the spring.

Our golden beets have grown so easily and quickly, definitely be planting some more soon!

I've learned a lot this summer, with my first real garden. The first thing I learned is to start seeds earlier inside, and even more importantly, to start them in bigger containers. Being a total newbie, I had no idea that keeping my plants in the seed starter containers would stunt their growth so dramatically. It's definitely a lesson learned. Additionally, I will do a combination of both heirloom and basic plants. Right now almost every single thing in my garden is an heirloom variety. While tasty and beautiful, I'm finding (obviously) that a lot of them tend to produce fruit more slowly and in smaller quantity. Not all of them, like the purple tomatillos, are doing this, but a lot are. So next year will be a mixture and we'll see how that goes. I've also learned a lot about my yard, where the sun moves to, what areas get more sun, what starts off with lots of sun and becomes shady as trees get their leaves back, etc. The sun has shifted on me once more and as the summer winds down it'll be interesting to see where I'll put my fall plants.

These guys are why I cook and garden and live the way I do. I want them to have the healthiest, freshest and best I can provide so they can grow up well and have healthy habits they will pass on to their own families.

Oceanside

2011-08-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

This post really has nothing to do with food, but I'm posting about it anyhow.

Last week we were in Oceanside. We rented a cute little apartment right on the sand (bottom level of a triplex). It was amazing. There is simply nothing like drifting off to sleep to the sound of the crashing surf. The weather was perfect and gorgeous.


My little white bean! Photo by G. Nolan

The boys loved the beach and had a blast playing in the waves and sand. I easily became sick of the incessant sand clean up, but the boys didn't mind.

We did manage to get out once to go to Pizza Port for dinner. If you haven't been and you are in the San Diego area, highly recommend. Fantastic pizza and even better beer and very family friendly. We took home a growler of the Poor Man's IPA, I wish we'd brought home more!

Pardon the cell phone pic, but it's a good one! Pizza Port, Oceanside

One of my favorite nights of the trip was when my father-in-law made his famous chicken and sadza. My kids rarely eat while we are out at other people's homes. Both boys chowed down on their Grandad's chicken and sadza, though. I love how special that meal is to my husband's family and having the whole family (or at least a good chunk of it) together for Oceanside was just awesome. The boys got more playtime with their cousins than they do the rest of the year combined.

The family after our chicken and sadza meal. Photo by G. Nolan

We also had a blast another night when my brother-in-law did a big bonfire and the kids stuffed themselves with smores...I may have had a few myself. There was even a Nolan beach race, both kids and adults combined, and one of the most gorgeous sunsets I've seen in a long time.

Daddy and the bean. Photo by G. Nolan

Bonfire night! Photo by G. Nolan

Garden and Life Update!

2011-07-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Life has been super busy here at the homestead. The summer is here and there is water to play in, summer classes to attend, extra toddlers to watch, toy rooms to purge, etc. The garden is doing amazingly well, still no tomatoes or tomatillos I can officially see yet, but I have my first artichoke coming up, my pumpkin is out of control. I've harvested zucchinis and squash blossoms and my beets are almost ready to harvest. My beans are going strong and I should have a good yield in the next day or so.

With real life so busy, I wanted to simply pop in and leave you with some new pictures of the garden and some tasty food I've been making. Hopefully I'll get some more time soon to do some real posts!

Fresh gathered fried eggs, sauteed baby scallions, watercress and tomato salad, arugula blossom

Muddy butt!

Bacon wrapped lavender chicken, roasted potatoes and sauteed collard greens

Garden fresh baby scallion and fennel pizza

Cute pixie!

Some fresh little baby eggs!

Goofball with a flower in his hair

My first artichoke!

Royal burgundy beans almost ready to harvest

A few of my tomato plants and a little eggplant

Bonus cucumber growing out of my straw bale

More tomatoes

Finally almost ready to harvest!

Plums are starting to turn!

Cuke blossom

Moles! Voles! and Gophers! Oh my!

2011-06-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to our kitty, Iris, who has been missing all week and we suspect was killed by a coyote. Wherever she is, we hope she knows how much we love and miss her.

I've always known bugs and pests are just a part of organic gardening and that's okay. I know I need to wash my arugula extra well and sort of close my eyes while I eat it, hiding all those missed aphids with fresh ground pepper. Seriously. I'd rather eat aphids than pesticide one hundred times over. I do a lot of companion planing, planting borage, marigolds and onions among my tomatoes and strawberries and chives with my carrots, carrots and parsley with my tomatoes, etc. All this is great, until bugs are the least of your worries.

Our cinder block planter as it looks today

I knew we had gophers when we started making our beds this spring. I have never had gophers before but there were the tell-tale gopher mounds and holes all over the yard and we were told there were gophers when we moved in. There was already one of those beeping gopher thingies in the yard, with a gopher mound right next to it. Clearly that wasn't doing the trick. I asked a friend what she did about gophers and she said she put a double layer of chicken wire, off-set so it make the holes smaller, under her planters. Since we were doing mostly raised beds that sounded easy enough.

We made our first bed with cinder blocks (the one you've seen loads of pictures of) and put the chicken wire in the bottom. We put all our layers of yummy goodness down and I planted. We also let the cats roam the yard to hopefully catch something other than mice. We made a few other beds doing the same thing.

A couple months ago Iris, caught what I thought was a mouse. We were watching her play with it and I suddenly realized it wasn't a mouse, but a gopher. Then I realized just how small those suckers could be. It bared it's teeth at us and hissed at us. It nipped at Iris' heels. Iris, not the best hunter, seemed shocked and offended by the fact that, unlike the mice, this gopher was actually fighting back. We quickly went to find Lily, the hard-core hunter, only to find her already busy with a mouse. So Iris was stuck dealing with her feisty gopher all on her own. At one point I checked on the status of the gopher only to find that Iris had let it dig its way to freedom! Had I any idea she would have let it go I would have grabbed the shovel and given it a good whack myself.

I've always been a peaceful person. Then I started gardening. I went from living in harmony with all the bugs and animals to having some seriously strong feelings toward caterpillars, birds and gophers, etc.

Despite the large amount of gopher activity my yard continued to see, my planters remained untouched. One day I went out and noticed my original cinder block planter suddenly looked like a rolling sea. At first I instantly thought it was a gopher who'd been running around in the dirt. Then I started noticing little dirt tunnels leading to my other planters and they too started being torn up. I realized this was no gopher, as they don't make the raised tunnels, but either a vole (vegetarian, looks like a field mouse and can have sex, gestate and pop out a litter of babies in 21 days!!!!!!! ) or a mole (insectivorous, you know those ugly guys like the one in G force...I blame the babysitter for putting that on for the boys one night when we were out). I had my fingers crossed for it to be a mole so at least it wouldn't be eating all my plants.

Tunnel under one of my planters

I sent the husband off to the nursery to buy some gopher purge and a mole trap. I planted most of the gopher purge, which sadly the mole/vole doesn't seem to mind in the slightest. I set the trap but haven't caught squat.

I have decided it is likely a mole since my original cinder block bed continues to be ravaged, but though it's unearthed an entire row of baby carrots and loads of beets and onions and such, it hasn't actually eaten any of them.

Some baby carrots uprooted by my garden mole

Yesterday I was standing by my planter and I saw the dirt move. I started freaking out, yelling at my sister to get me a stick or something to stab the sucker with, the dirt continued to move, she was too slow so I ran a few yards away and grabbed the shovel. I ran to the planter and mercilessly hacked and stabbed at my poor little row of baby golden beets where I'd seen the dirt move. Sadly my sister didn't catch what must have been a ridiculous sight on video. I completely failed to stab anything but my beets. I was repaid in the night by the mole doing the most damage to my planter than he ever has in the past. I set the trap today and I sincerely hope to get the little turd. At least then I can confirm my suspicion. I don't know how much damage a single mole can do, but my yard appears to have like 100 of them, if I'm lucky it's just one little guy doing a lot of damage.

Come on baby, catch that mole!

I loved reading this little tidbit from getridofthings.com, "Well, luckily for you there are a number of very effective mole killing traps on the market today. You have a choice between whether you want to chop the mole in half, choke the mole to death, or impale the mole like a little mole-kebab. Victor® and Nash® are perhaps two of the most popular brands of mole traps on the market. There is quite the selection of mole traps online these days." Is it bad that that made me laugh?

I will keep you updated on my mole endeavors. For now I will continue to try the trap, but at the end of summer I will take all the dirt out of the cinder block planter and put down a layer of 1/2" galvanized wiring and the stick the dirt back in. I'll have to do each planter, one by one and replace the straw bales bed with a cinder block bed.

Had to leave you with some tasty food porn! Caprese salad with some fried teeny baby scallions my helpful garden mole tossed up for me.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaack!

2011-06-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

It's been way too long for me without a proper computer. I've been dying over here. An iphone just doesn't cut it. Despite my lack of access to a computer, life has continued on. The garden has continued growing and looks nothing like the last picture I posted. The kids have grown and are ever changing. We've harvested carrots, beets, strawberries and have blooms on the squash, tomatillos and tomatoes.

I've been cooking as usual and thanks to my ever-inspiring fellow blogger at a Cook Blog I finally tried my hand at making sausage. I made it with my sister and though we botched it a million ways and didn't find casings in time, it came out fabulously. We made some spicy Italian sausage and I can't wait to make more!

So, in celebration of my return to the blogging world, I leave you with several months worth of pictures and food porn!

Fried eggs, fresh bread, thinning and baby green salad, beet chips and asparagus with parm!

English peas!

Lilacs!

Caprese salad, grass fed beef from the farmer's market, baby scallions, roasted potatoes

Mmmmmmm!

Strawberry waffles!

Smoked chicken!

Mmmmmmm! Bean soup, prosciutto and baby onions from the garden

Just like Daddy

Our first wild flower!

Playing with the smoker making mouth watering pork

Sizzling fat! Yum!

Garden greens, roasted scallions and smoked pork

Garden greens, roasted beets, and feta salad, sauteed fava beans and artichoke and cauliflower frittata

Butter fried sage chips!

This little mama hummingbird nests right above my car

Baby birds in a nest right above the bean's window

Awwwwww!

Our first tomatillo blossom

Serious thinking going on

Squash!

Squash blossom

Strawberries

So much more still left to plant!

Sigh...

2011-06-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

Computer is STILL broken...thus no posts for ages. I have a bazillion pictures, I've been cooking up a storm and my garden is out of control and I'm sad I haven't been able to post about it. This weekend I hope to get one of my computers going so I can finally do a post!

Simple Things Make Me Happy

2011-04-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

I've been getting eggs from a local lady here in Topanga recently. I love how un-uniform they are. They come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. I really can't wait to have my own chickens. It's incredible the difference in fresh eggs from healthy, happy chickens, eating a proper, pastured diet. The yolks are bigger, thicker, darker, and the whole egg just tastes better. Not to mention how pretty it is to open up my box of eggs to find blue, green, pink, white, brown eggs, some tiny, some big. I love it. I've never liked eggs that much, but I've been eating them a lot more these days. They are an easy source of protein and once I get my own chickens, will put me that much closer to being self-sustaining.

Nothing like a goat cheese, asparagus, green garlic, and baby scallion omelet, made with freshly gathered eggs, and cup of double strength black tea on a Sunday afternoon.

The weather has greatly improved in the last week and we've been spending a lot more time outside, our favorite place. The garden is growing and I've been shocked at the difference in growth rate and sturdiness between the heirloom arugula I originally planted (delicate and insanely slow growing and I lost a lot of it in the storm) and the regular ol' arugula (super fast growing, strong, huge sprouts). I finally had to confront thinning some of my rows and was rewarded with a very tasty sprout salad.

Yup, that's it...my first little garden bed, see all that green!

Some of the heirloom arugula and carrots.

Borage

Cilantro!

Dill!

Beets

I find it fascinating how even teensy tiny onion sprouts look like perfect little scallions, and they are so full of flavor!

Sprout salad! Beets, arugula, onions, parsley, hazelnut oil and tiny sprinkle of truffle salt. Full of incredible flavor, good reward for the agony of pulling up all these tiny plants!

The bean decided that his new favorite thing is playing in mud...a lot of clean up, but he loves it!

I must've gotten a splash of water on this little guy's head while watering the garden. It was funny, he just sat there and let the bean pet him, never tried to get away. Maybe he was just playing dead. Either way, the bean enjoyed it.

Our honey bee friend, hard at work pollinating our weeds.

Baby plums!

Best friends forever.

Like I said, simple things make me happy.

Fennel!

2011-04-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

I love fennel. I've been so happy to start seeing it show up in my CSA box and at the farmer's market. Last week I grabbed several small fennel bulbs at the farmer's market, with no real plan of what I wanted to do with them. I also started my fennel seeds for the garden. I can't wait till I'm growing my own fennel!

I've eaten a lot of fennel this past week. First I tossed together a super simple, fresh and tasty salad. I used my mandolin to thinly slice one fennel bulb and then I tossed in a strainer and thoroughly washed it (the fennel was dirty!). I julienned some raw celeriac I also found at the farmer's market and tossed that together. To add some color I chopped some cilantro and the fennel fronds to go in the salad. I simply dressed the salad with some hazelnut oil, the juice and zest of a very small lemon, a touch of local honey, salt and fresh ground pepper. Not my prettiest salad, but it was so good and so easy.

I've roasted a lot of fennel, it's one of my ingredients to add to a roasted root veggie dish, but I've never sauteed fennel. The other night I chopped some red spring onions and sauteed in walnut oil and then added my mandolined, extra scrubbed fennel and caramelized. I added in the greens from the spring onions, salt and pepper, a little bit of lemon juice and after I served it I topped with some fennel fronds and lemon zest. Great side to go along with the local Italian sausage I got in my CSA and some delicious ravioli. Yum!

If you can get your hands on some fennel, do it! Roasted, raw, sauteed, it's all good.

Marmalade and Other Friday Lazy Ramblings

2011-04-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

With it being citrus season and all I've been up to my ears in oranges, grapefruit and lemons. Mostly oranges. For a while the boys and I were keeping up nicely, but after a while we started getting overwhelmed and I decided it was marmalade time.

I mismashed a few recipes and decided to use pectin in case the boys didn't allow me the time to cook it down all the way. I tossed in some ground cardamom and a splash of vanilla. I added some sprigs of rosemary in a few jars just for fun. It came out really well and was soooo easy. I love eating it with some cream cheese on tasty toast. Mmmmm.

Happy Friday! These are actually from last Friday, but that's okay. We did some PJ gardening with the cats and then made our way to the farmer's market and gourmet store. I love having a partner in crime to indulge in all my tasty treats (the 1.5 year old!) he's my food bud.

Sometimes you just need to keep things simple...the other night I needed just that. I had a simple dinner of whole wheat spaghetti (I finally found my pasta maker downstairs, so next time it'll be homemade!), mushroom and tomato sauce, super spicy Italian sausage with caramelized onions and a medley of hardy winter greens. And a glass of wine, of course.

I hope everyone has a great weekend planned!

Wheeler Gorge

2011-04-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

We went camping this week. We meant to stay two nights but it ended up being a bit chillier than we anticipated and we only stayed one.

It was gorgeous. The campground was empty, we had no one around us, and we had the best spot in the place, right on the bank of the creek. It was incredibly lovely to fall asleep to the sound of rushing water. We go to bed to the sounds of a creek at home, too, but it's more of a babbling brook with hundreds of extremely loud frogs ribeting the night away. This creek was much bigger and wooshed us to sleep. Even the boys went to sleep easily.

Before bed, we made bacon wrapped hot dogs and enjoyed them with some beer and then I fell asleep while putting the boys down around 9pm. I didn't get great pictures of the hot dogs because I didn't know where the camera was and it was quite dark anyhow. But since this is supposed to be a food blog, I took a couple pics with my phone.

In the morning it was beautiful. We had brought the bean's bike and he rode that thing probably more this trip than he has since he got it at Christmas. Later we went on a fun hike to a creek where the boys splashed and had a blast and then it was time for home. Somehow we made it home less than 24 hours from when we left and we were exhausted. Such is life with kids, I think!

We will be doing a lot more camping this year and we will definitely return to Wheeler Gorge in the near future.

It's a New Day

2011-03-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

First meal I've cooked all week, freshly gathered eggs I picked up today from a local lady, wilted spinach with sauteed green garlic and fried tomatoes.

This past week has been rather cruddy with the storm and then the boys and me getting a horrible stomach bug. The weather was dreary, cold and rainy all week, I literally didn't leave the house the entire time. I was cleaning up some disgusting messes and I just wanted some sunshine and for everyone to feel better. Today the boys are all better and I'm feeling a lot better, too. I actually got to leave the house and go pick up our CSA box, along with some eggs from a local lady, some fresh baked sourdough bread and chocolate chip scones. It was weird driving down Topanga looking at all the destruction that was still left over from Sunday. I can't imagine what it must've looked like earlier in the week.

It's not sunny today. It's overcast and cold, but I feel like it's a new day, I can breath and be outside smelling the fresh air. This coming week is supposed to get up to the 80's (quite a temperature jump!) and I look forward to a fantastic week of sunshine, gardening and cooking amazing food. I have a lot of veggies left over from last week's CSA since I didn't cook at all while everyone was sick. I plan on pickling as much as I can before it goes bad. We are going to be stocked with carrot pickles for a long time.

I got to go out and check on my garden. It's doing really well. You can see green without having to squint and get within inches of the dirt. I can't wait to get everything else planted. I have so many plans for warm weather veggies. My tomato sprouts are doing really well. I have over 40 good sized plants (well, a lot more but slowly but surely I've been thinning them out) ready to plant as soon as I know the weather isn't going to get super cold again. I want to buy a few from the nursery as well, hoping to have 50 tomato plants going this summer.

I'll leave you with some pictures of some of the millions of signs of spring my yard is showing. I greatly look forward to the coming week and I'm SO glad this week of hell is finally over.

My peas are looking so happy!

Row of green onions!

Carrots!

Spinach was pretty badly beaten during the storm, but they are now sprouting their 2nd set of leaves, yay!

Spinach row

Beet row!

Carrot row

Arugula

Pretty vines going up one of the eucalyptus trees

Pretty blossoms

Can't wait till they all bloom!

Ugly fly I had to take a picture of

Almost ready to bloom!

Blooming

The first leaves on the persimmon tree

Pomegranate trees are getting leaves!

Tomatoes!

Brand new tomatillo sprouts

Spoiled Rotten

2011-03-23T14:17:00.000-07:00

Some pretty treats from the Topanga farmer's market. I just had to stage a photo!

On Friday we took a trip to our little tiny local farmer's market where I snagged up some tasty goodies. We then popped by Canyon Gourmet, as we do every Friday, to get the bean a treat and more importantly, to get me some wine! I came home with loads of Cara Cara oranges, pea tendrils, some beautiful baby red scallions, strawberries, pecan butter, baby carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, baby Persian cucumbers, fresh baked bread from the gourmet store and a lovely bottle of Chardonnay.

Baby scallions and pea tendrils, yum!

For lunch the boys and I gorged ourselves on berries, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and made honey and pecan butter sandwiches with our fresh baked bread. We followed up with oranges for dessert while we sat in the gorgeous sunshine. If only that were today!

That night I cooked up some rosemary lamb pops and sauteed the scallions, tossing the pea tendrils in at the last second so they were just gently wilted. The potatoes were roasted with more rosemary, garlic, walnut oil and truffle salt. I also roasted some baby carrots the same way. Since I felt like something cold and have been anti-lettuce recently, I julienned some of the cucumbers and tossed in hazelnut oil, fresh ground pepper and salt and plopped that on top of some sliced tomatoes. Dinner was pure heaven. For dessert I snacked on some salted dark chocolate I also grabbed at the gourmet store and enjoyed my wine in front of a fire. Spoiled rotten I tell you!

Since I took a picture of it, I'll include dinner from Monday. I made a tasty pancetta and broccoli frittata. The broccoli was from my CSA and I used some gorgeous eggs I got from a local lady. I topped the frittata with the remainder of those pretty scallions. I steamed up the artichokes from my CSA box as well and made some chips out of part of a leftover potato. I garnished the frittata with some arugula blossoms that were oh so pretty and just as tasty!

A Topanga Storm

2011-03-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday we had our first real storm here in Topanga. I've always loved storms, especially since I was raised in the city and most southern California storms posed little threat to my city life. Sure, neighbors' trees have fallen, but that's about the worst I've seen and it never happened to anyone I actually knew so it was far from my reality.

When a storm is coming I've always looked forward to it. I love the pounding rain, gnashing cold winds and the rare burst of lightning we get in Los Angeles. This past weekend was the first time I experienced a real storm in a home that could actually be effected by the flash flooding and crashing trees. This is also the first serious storm I've been through as a parent.

As I've mentioned before, our home sits right on the bank of a small seasonal creek. The house backs to a steep hill. On the left is the creek bank and the right is our yard. Just past our yard is the creek again. We are surrounded by the creek with the exception of the steep hill behind our home.

On Sunday the rains began. Los Angeles might have rainy days, but rain to us is usually what other people would consider sprinkles or drizzle. Every now and then we have real, hardcore rain. That is what we had on Sunday. It was coming down in bucketloads, and for Topanga there was a flash flood warning and subsequent flash flood.

In the morning, before I realized there was a flash flood warning I went to visit my friend down the road. When I came back I had some serious concerns about whether I should drive across the section of our road the creek actually runs across. It was well over a foot deep, it was moving extremely quickly and I only have a little Honda CRV. I decided to brave it and crossed my fingers I didn't end up floating into the creek. I didn't. This was around noon. By 1pm the fire department had come and put up police tape so no one else would be as dumb as me and drive through the now even higher creek.

Around 3pm the power went out. The kids were going stir crazy. Monkey #2 was just running through the house screaming in this manic crazy way kids sometimes do. Around 6 the power was still out. I made a pork tenderloin and some shoestring fries by candlelight (yay for ancient gas stoves that don't require any electricity!) I decided to go up the road, crossing the creek where the bridge goes over it (to the right of our house) to check in with our neighbors and bring them some super yummy caramel. When I crossed the bridge the water was about 3-4' below me. This is just a little rickety wooden bridge, no rails or anything. That was the highest I'd ever seen the creek. I visited with our neighbors for too long, about 30 mins, I knew the husband was going to be pissed. They gave me a bottle of wine to enjoy during the storm and I ran back home. When I crossed the bridge this time, the water was 6" above the bridge. Now the creek was running down the street toward the other end of the creek, in front of our house. I ran through about 6" of water the entire way back.

Making fries by candlelight, sorry for the crappy pics, we were using our cell phone and it flashed for this picture.

A good beer for a storm. Rochefort 8, a trappist beer brewed by monks since 1595

At this point a tree had fallen across our road, right where the creek hits the road, so there was no driving out, even when the creek subsided. On the other side of the creek, where we sit, it was raging and rising very quickly. A huge chunk of the hill behind out house had crashed down into the creek and we could hear trees cracking and crashing down left and right. It was scary. With night falling, the kids going nuts and our only escape route to higher neighbors already flooding, we were starting to freak out a little. We suddenly realized we should pack some emergency bags and we had to decide if we wanted to try to drive over the flooded bridge to our neighbors or not. After much creek checking and deliberation we saw the creek didn't seem to be rising anymore and decided to just wait it out. And then the power came on. I've never been so happy to have artificial light in my life. It was such a relief! Our phones finally worked and we could check in with our neighbors.

I put the kids to bed and drank some wine, tried to relax and enjoy the fire and wait out the rest of the storm.

The following day the sun came out, a friend, my husband and neighbors came together to cut down the huge oak tree that had fallen in the road. By the afternoon my husband was finally able to drive out and get us some coffee! We had been well stocked with everything we needed food-wise, except for coffee!

A morning look at the tree before it was cut apart. All the stuff in the front is debris washed against the tree by the storm.

I have more pictures and videos, but haven't had a chance to upload them yet. Yesterday and today have been spent consoling and cleaning up after a very barfy and sick little 19 month old.

I found a youtube video someone else posted of the flooding on Topanga Canyon Blvd. The road they are in front of, Highvale, is where my friend lives I had visited during the storm to swap seeds! Thank goodness the flooding didn't start while I was there! And here are some of her pictures of the aftermath.

Topanga Flash Flood Video

I don't know the people in this video, but funny enough, they live on my road, sort of...on the other side of the creek. As dorky as they sound, I bet I would have sounded even sillier in the same circumstance.

Balsamic Molasses Lemonade and Pickled Chard Stems

2011-03-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

photo by One Eleven Photography

The other day I took the bean to a toddler yoga class. He had a blast. After the class, the instructor (who is also a great friend, the beautiful Vicki Rose), told me she'd brought me a lovely bag of Meyer lemons, she knew they'd go to good use with me. I was so excited! After many more activities, I completely forgot about them and left them behind. I was so sad. The following day I had my dad and his wife over for lunch. They came bearing another unsolicited full bag of juicy lemons! I was so happy! And these ones actually made it all the way to my house!

On Monday the bean came wandering and asked for lemonade. I was about to respond that we didn't have any, but then I remembered my lovely lemons!

I decided to play with my lemonade and sweeten it with molasses and toss in a bit of vanilla and balsamic vinegar to make it more exciting. It was the ugliest lemonade you've ever seen, but it was sour, delicious and exceptionally refreshing for all this toasty weather we've been having.

I juiced the lemons, which came to about 1 quart of lemon juice. On the stove top I put about 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, about 2 tablespoon of molasses, some vanilla and some water. I heated it a little just to dissolve the molasses and then added that to the lemon juice. I decided I wanted it a bit sweeter but didn't want more molasses, since it's a pretty strong flavor. I added some raw, local honey, maybe another tablespoon? I just squirted it right in so I'm not exactly sure how much. Stirred it all up and it was divine. The bean enjoyed his out of one of my little spice jars I keep for him to drink out of and I poured mine into an icy cold ball pint jar.

Remember that tasty chard and broccoli frittata I made a while back? I saved the gorgeous chard stems and made refrigerator pickles from them. I tossed some spices in an old pickle jar (some yellow and brown mustard seed, whole cumin, green, pink and black peppercorns, a couple cloves of garlic, and some dried dill since I didn't have any fresh). On the stovetop I heated a tablespoon of raw sugar, a tablespoon of unrefined sea salt, 1 cup of water and somewhere between 1.5-1.75 cups of apple cider vinegar. Have I mentioned I really don't measure anything, ever? In the meantime I'd cut my chard stems into pieces that would fit in my jar and stuffed them all in. When the brine was boiling and the salt and sugar was dissolved I poured it directly into my jar, over the stems and put the lid on. I let it sit on the counter till it had cooled and then popped it in the fridge. They came out nice and spicy, but a bit stringy. I think next time I might quickly blanch the fatter pieces. Otherwise they are quite tasty and I'm sure I'll plow through them, stringiness and all!

In the Garden

2011-03-16T15:35:00.001-07:00

I've been working hard out in the garden the past couple weeks. We built the first raised bed with cinder blocks thinking it'd be a cheap way to go and it came with the added benefit of being able to plant in the holes of the blocks themselves. We didn't really think about the fact that each cinder block weighs over 25 stinkin' pounds.

The bean took a picture of me gardening.

One day I moved 12 of them in from our driveway, up our walkway and into our rather large yard. And then I moved them again trying to build a little bed. And I moved them again and again and again because I just couldn't get the blocks to sit right. Half the time I wasn't wearing gloves, which was really dumb. I may have calloused mommy hands from cooking, cleaning and gardening, but those blocks rubbed the skin right off the toughest parts of my hands. I still haven't finished that little bed. I was sick the day I decided to move the cinder blocks around and just moving them each, once equates to moving about 300lbs...I only weigh 110lbs! I got a good workout that day!

There are pictures of the first bed we made in this earlier blog post. It's about 8'X4.5'. I have carrots, arugula, spinach, loads of beets, green onions, sweet onions, red onions, dill, parsley and cilantro planted in that bed. Most of that was planted about 1.5 weeks ago and I now have many beet sprouts, 2 sweet onion sprouts that I can see, many arugula and spinach sprouts. I've since been told that onions and carrots can take forever to sprout and compared to everything else, that sure seems to be the truth. None of my herbs have done squat and I literally have found 1 single green onion sprout. I'm a serious micro-manager when it comes to my garden, inspecting it a million times a day for sprout progress. I suspect that when I get the rest of my beds going and stuff is really growing, I will be less anal about everything.

Spinach sprout!

Beet sprouts! Aren't they so pretty?

Sweet onion sprouts, I have a lot more now!

We built the second bed this past weekend. It's the ugliest thing you've ever seen. We used 6 bales of straw. They are huge and waste so much space, but took a fraction of the time to put together compared to the cinder blocks. My car is still full of straw, which was only a tiny bit embarrassing when I was loading my groceries on Monday and straw was flying everywhere. In the second bed I plan on putting tomatoes, some borage, sweet peppers and I think that's all that will fit. I have strawberries, eggplants, and a ridiculous amount of other things on their way from Peaceful Valley. I hope I have room for it all! I still have the little cinder block bed to finish, which I'll probably do strawberries in or maybe more tomatoes.

Over the weekend I also picked up 4 artichoke plants from a friend. I have the perfect spot to plant those over in my neighbor's plot of land. As soon as I determine what I need to do to protect against gophers/moles I'll get those in the ground.

Last week we harvested our first snow pea. The bean LOVES snow peas. We decided to weigh all the food we grow this year and keep a record.

The pea weighed 1/8th of an ounce. I made a teensy tiny sprout salad (literally ended up being one bite) with some arugula sprouts I did on cheese cloth, some arugula and carrot thinnings from the garden and a few tiny oregano sprouts I pulled. It was one whole bite. I mistakenly put a tiny drop of hazelnut oil and a teensy sprinkle of salt on the sprouts, thinking it wouldn't cover up the taste, but with so few sprouts I should have eaten them plain. It was still good, though! I didn't weigh my sprouts but I'm generously going to say they came to 1/8th of an ounce, too. We've since picked 3 more peas, so we are up to 5/8ths of an ounce for 2011! Oh yeah, baby!

My tomato sprouts are finally getting more leaves. They now each have about 4 leaves. Doing plants from seeds is all new to me this year. It requires a lot more patience than I possess, but I'm really trying to relax and just let things grow at their own pace. In the past I've only done peas and beans from seeds and purchased plants from the nursery for everything else. I'm really happy with the success I've had so far!

Happy Birthday, Mama

2011-03-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Me and my siblings, Mother's Day 2007 (I'm in the green dress)

Today is my mama's birthday. She would have been 64 years young.

Yesterday we went to my mom's favorite restaurant, Gladstone's in Malibu. It is where we used to go every year for her birthday and it's also where we spread her ashes in the ocean on Mother's Day in 2007, 2 weeks after she past away.

In addition to her ashes, we also tossed rose petals in the ocean, and poured one of Gladstone's delicious Bloody Mary's into the ocean in my mama's honor.

March 12, 2011 Gladstone's Malibu

March 12, 2011 Gladstone's Malibu

March 12, 2011 Gladstone's Malibu

My life is so much different now. When my mama passed away I was 24 and pregnant with my first child. To say I was devastated by her death would be a gross understatement. Even this year, when I had my birthday in February, exactly 1 month ago, I had a brief lapse and wondered why my mom hadn't called me yet to wish me a happy birthday. Duh.

Having kids makes me miss her all the more. I constantly want to show them off to her, tell her about the new things they are able to do, show her how cute they are, ask her what she would have done when I'm having trouble. I want to know how long she breastfed me, what kind of diapers she used, did she have trouble breastfeeding ever? I wanted her to be there when I birthed my boys. I want her to babysit my kids like she used to do for my older sisters. I want her to be there for me when I'm feeling sad and depressed. I want to show her my new home, I know she would have loved it. I want to get gardening advice from her and see how proud she would have been of me and my home and family. She always had such a green thumb.

My mom was amazing. I miss her so much and the majority of my sadness at her passing is simply my own selfishness and self pity at losing one of my favorite people in the whole world, much before I was ready to lose her. It doesn't help that I know she wasn't even remotely prepared to leave just quite yet. She was terrified of dying, and we had no idea that was what was going to happen till mere days before she was suddenly in ICU on life support. I have a lot of anger toward the many, many unorganized doctors that tended to my mom in her last months. But my anger is pointless and has accomplished absolutely nothing, other than making me terrified of ending up in the same hospital should my homebirth go awry (since that exact crappy hospital was the closest one, and also the one I was born in, following my mother's failed attempt to homebirth me way back when).

I love you mama, and miss you so, so much. I could never imagine a life without you and I still can't. I was driving in the car today and one of Chris' mix CD's came up. Suicidal Tendencies, "I Saw Your Mommy" came on. I realized how different I felt towards the song now that my mommy was gone, way before I was ready! Fuck that stupid, stupid song.

I'm not a happy camper today, worse than I have been in a long time. And that's okay. I'm allowed to be sad and cry and drink my way through today. I wanted to just drink my sorrows away when she was sick and passed away so suddenly, but I was pregnant and couldn't. Today is the one day a year I can justify wallowing in self-pity and sadness over losing one of my most favorite people.

Cheers, my wonderful Mamacita

Broccoli, Chard and Pancetta Frittata!

2011-03-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

Beautiful chard from my CSA

Yesterday was a crazy day in the land of this stay-at-home-mom. My wannabe-acrobat of an 18 month old took a couple nasty spills while I was attempting to make dinner and my 3 year old was being, well, a 3 year old.

When I don't have any real plans for dinner I love throwing together a frittata. They are easy, they please everyone and are good for any meal. That was what I was trying to do last night, but with all the ruckus I just couldn't get the food in the oven. I was also trying to make two different frittatas, a dairy free one for my husband and a creamy, cheesy one for me and the boys. I finally gave up on getting the frittatas done in time for dinner and took some of the beans we made over the weekend and threw together some bean and cheese burritos for us. We were all hungry and cranky and everyone loves bean and cheese burritos!

But doesn't this gorgeous little face make up for all that monkey-ing?!?!

After we ate I finally got to finish the frittatas! To backtrack a little, this is how I made them:

To start, I cooked up some finely chopped pancetta. This would work just as well with any sort of bacon, and really you can use as much or as little as you like! I set the pancetta on some towels to drain and then sauteed a couple spring onions, they really probably could have gone in raw, but I love how they taste slightly browned and well-cooked. I took my two baking dishes and divided the pancetta between the two. Then I chopped up all my broccoli from my CSA into bite size pieces, loaded that in the pans. Next I took my chard and smooshed as much of that in as I could fit (and really I put too much in, but it turned out just fine! I almost forgot about my onions so those went in last, on top of the chard. I took 10 eggs, some truffle salt (obviously regular salt would do the trick, but I just got some truffle salt so I've been using it in everything!), fresh ground pepper and a bit of Italian seasoning. I thought the pan I used for my husband's was so small I could use some of the egg mixture in that, then add cream to what was left and pour that into mine. I guess since his pan was deeper than I usually use, it took ALL 10 of my eggs to fill up. I only had six eggs left in my fridge (if I'd known ahead of time I would have just put 8 eggs in his and 8 in mine, oh well). So I tossed up my 6 eggs, with some parmesan cheese, the same seasoning as above and about 1/3 cup of half and half. I poured that in my frittata and it really wasn't enough, but I loaded the top of my frittata with some shredded mozzarella and popped in the oven with my fingers crossed. By the time it was done I was still full from the bean and cheese burrito so I let it cool, covered it and popped it in the fridge for today. My husband ate about 2/3rds of his and said it was fantastic.

My cheesy frittata

The husband's not so cheesy frittata

Today I finally got to taste my frittata! I cut a hunk of it out and heated it up. It was super delicious! I love making frittatas, they are great for getting rid of those greens that are starting to wilt in your fridge. You can use kale, chard, spinach, arugula, etc. and really pretty much any complimentary veggie!

We Love Beer!

2011-03-08T09:56:00.001-08:00

We love beer! We like drinking it, we like brewing it, we like sharing it.

When I first met my husband I very much disliked beer. We used to go on dates to various beer and ale festivals at Lucky Baldwins in Pasadena. Since I didn't like beer and you really can't go there and drink anything else, he hooked me on Lindemans framboise, the non-beer drinker's wimpy fruity beer (excellent over some vanilla ice cream, by the way). I would drink framboise or ciders. We went to Ireland and pub hopped and even went to the Guinness brewery. It was all wasted on me, the anti-beer person. Somewhere along the way, when I was pregnant with my first son, working summer school as an elementary school teacher, I just needed to pretend to have a drink. I found Clausthaler non-alcoholic beer in my local Trader Joe's and it tasted like real beer to me. It was enough to pretend like I was having a refreshing beer after a long day on my feet in the dead of summer, 8 months pregnant. From that moment forward, I started liking beer. It's now almost like a race to see who gets the good beer in the fridge first, me or my husband!

We have done several homebrews and I hope to do some more soon, before it gets too hot. Our good friends have an amazing homebrewing set up at their home. I wish we could afford something like it. The below pictures are all horrendous cell phone pictures I pulled off of my facebook page. It's pretty funny to see how much I like taking a photo of a tasty beer I'm drinking.

I think our most favorite breweries have to be the Lost Coast Brewery and Russian River Brewery.

From the Lost Coast I love their Downtown Brown for a good, light brown ale. Their Great White is a fantastic summer ale. It has that lovely fresh baked bread aftertaste and it's nice and refreshing for a hot day. Their Alleycat Amber ale is a great anytime beer. It's probably my favorite from them.

The Russian River Brewery does some more hardcore ales. My husband's favorite is Pliny the Elder, which can be a pain in the butt to find as it sells out incredibly quickly. My personal favorite is their Blind Pig IPA. A bit lighter than the Pliny, which is a double IPA. Either way, if you run across any beer from Russian River snatch it up because chances are it won't be there for long! You really can't go wrong with their brews.

Homebrew in progress

Testing out a homebrewed porter

Homebrewing at our friend's house
His awesome set-up
This later went on to shoot out, all over our dining room ceiling, we have video of it somewhere
Our ghetto keg chilling system for the homebrew
The tasty homebrew results with some leftover homemade eggplant parm, tell me that isn't pure heaven!!
The hubby on one of our very rare dates at 38 Degrees in Alhambra with my glass of Blind Pig IPA.
Sampling some tasty goodness

Another Blind Pig at 38 Degrees, served to me in a pint jar, love it!! I think this is how all beer should be served!

Urban Homesteading

2011-03-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

I'm urban homesteading it up today! I have coconut bread baking in the oven, though I changed it up a little. I used walnut oil instead of ghee, since I didn't have any and was too lazy to make some. I used some gorgeous fertile eggs from the farmer's market in it. I also added about 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda, based on the comments that it was super flat. It has a few minutes left to bake, but looks and smells amazing.

Well, in the end we didn't actually like it. It was a bit too dense for what I was looking for. It was the perfect size for a little peanut butter and honey sandwich for my son, though! And it was great slathered with some cultured butter and honey, but I definitely needed a glass of that raw milk to help wash it down! I'm hoping to try Nourished Kitchen's Buckwheat Sourdoughnuts next. I'm completely out of my element since I never bake at all, but buckwheat sourdoughnuts!!! Sounds so insanely good.

On Friday we did the farmer's market and also received our CSA box (sadly they changed our delivery day from Wednesday to Friday so now it's the same day as the farmer's market, erg). I love taking pictures of all our goodies, it just so gorgeous. Can you tell we love oranges? And yes, we have had tomatoes year round this year! I guess they grow them in a green house?

This past weekend I was also hard at work getting stuff planted in our first raised bed. I now have planted: carrots, arugula, beets, spinach, loads of green onions, sweet onions, red onions, dill, cilantro and parsley. I have hundreds of little tomato sprouts going, 5 different types and some oregano sprouts I threw in for kicks since I've had the little packet of seeds for about 3 years. The bean also got his little garden going. He has green onions, spinach and beets growing in his. We transplanted his two sunflower plants yesterday, they were about 6 inches tall with 4 leaves each. This morning when we went out, an evil slug was sitting there munching away, they were completely decimated. Poor guy. We'll have to try again with new seeds this weekend.

I met one of our neighbors this weekend, the one who owns the little, unused plot of land across the road from us. I mentioned how I'd been eying it, that tomatoes would grow so well there since it's so sunny. She told me to go right ahead and plant away, as long as I shared some tomatoes here and there! I'm beyond excited. I can't wait to get to work on it this weekend! They also have loads of scrap wood from the landscaping they are doing that they said I was welcome to for my chicken coops. Woo woo!

So, that's the latest and greatest here on my very own little urban homestead in Topanga. I couldn't be more in love with my new home!

Our mouse catcher, Lily.

My little pot o'honey I got in my stocking. Delicious raw honey from Spain.

A much needed glass of Bordeaux and a relaxing candle, ah...

Little Pieces of Where I Live

2011-03-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

Here are some little tidbits of our new home...

This is the side of our house, you can see the boys play room. Ignore the messy yard and the ugly baby gate, the baby gate is there is attempt to keep monkey #2 out from under the house!

Our stump!
Never-ending supply of rosemary!!
Our heavenly bamboo Aiden likes to try to eat the berries off of.
Our seasonal creek! It runs long the left side of our house and actually runs along the other side of us, as well.
The wood pile!
I'm a sucker for moss and our house has a lot of it!
The more out-going of our two kitties, Iris.
Blossoms on one of the flowering plum trees in front of our house, so gorgeous!

My Latest Addiction

2011-03-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

Oh Cara Cara oranges, where have you been all my life?

With the citrus season in full swing, we have been loading up on oranges, either at the farmer's market or from our CSA box. At the farmer's market I had been mainly purchasing blood oranges, I just love them. Recently I realized what a pain in the butt blood oranges were when you have kids. They are messy! So, a few weeks ago I randomly grabbed a few oranges that weren't blood oranges. I didn't look at what they were, but when I ate the first one I was in pure heaven. The flesh is a gorgeous pink, filled with sweet, sweet juice. There are loads of funny baby pieces on the outside portions of the orange, as well as the inside.

Later the same week I got some in my CSA box, but there was no sheet telling me what they were. Thankfully I have a super nice citrus guy at the Topanga farmer's market and he told me what I was looking for were Cara Cara oranges. I will be oh so sad when their season ends.

If you like your oranges on the sour side, these aren't for you, but if you love them sweet (funny, I'm generally anti-sweet except for when it comes to oranges!) these oranges are for you! Get them at your local farmer's market before they are gone!

It's been a while!

2011-03-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

So much has changed since I last posted! I've been a busy girl. In November we moved to a gorgeous new home in Topanga. We are so happy and busy here! My kids are now 3.5 and 1.5 years old and keep me on my toes. We also adopted 2 beautiful new cats to combat the mice we inherited with the house. They've done a mediocre job at best, but we love them anyway.

In the yard of our new home we have a persimmon tree, several pomegranate trees and a plum tree. I look forward to plum season and I hope to be able to can several jars of plum jam. We have a huge grassy yard that is fully fenced in (not something super common in Topanga). We've been hard at work clearing spots for planting veggies and flowers. Unfortunately our yard has horrible drainage. We are in the lower canyon and surrounded by the creek on both sides. I planted some peas in the ground and have been battling both the birds stealing the sprouts and monkey #2 trampling them. I planted some wild flower seeds in another spot, but I think the birds got most of them.

We are currently building our first raised bed. It's about 4.5' by 8' or something like that. We used cinder blocks, but man are those suckers heavy! We put two layers of chicken wire in the bottom to prevent the gophers from stealing our veggies and then a layer of straw, followed by a layer of composted horse poop from our neighbor (I LOVE living in Topanga!!!) and then the most divine smelling organic soil/compost combo we purchased from a dirt place. We just got our dirt delivery yesterday and the best I could do, while battling whiny and trouble-making monkeys, was 3 wheelbarrow loads. I have a lot more to do today to get the bed full so I can start planting! I have loads of seeds for carrots, onions, green onions, spinach, arugula and much more. I can't wait to get it all planted!

Yesterday was quite a day. Monkey #2 was troublesome as always, finding a very intricate escape route that took him all the way around our house, through our wood pile and past the creek bed (yikes) and was on his way up our driveway to the street when I found him. It's incredible how fast they can move! Later in the day he tried to pick up a bee and was stung. It's the first time either of my kids have been stung and I felt very unprepared first aid-wise. He's a trooper and was back to his normal mischievous self in no time flat. Shortly after the bee sting incident I found a hummingbird trapped in the boys toy room, otherwise known as the "glass room". Half the room is windows from the top to bottom, including the ceiling, so you can imagine the poor bird's confusion. It took forever to get the tiny bird to go low enough to go out the window I had removed the screen from. I wish I'd gotten some pictures, it was quite an intimate look at a hummingbird!

I've still been cooking, but not as much as I'd like and I have rarely remembered to take pictures. I have 2 unfinished posts, one on a great goat cheese and sorrel quiche and the other on roasted veggies...One of these days!

Last Friday I got the most incredible salad bag from the Vital Zuman stand at the farmer's market. I don't often buy stuff from them as their prices can be a bit steep, but I just couldn't help buying this funky bag of greens and edible blossoms. I wish they had included a little sheet explaining what each green was and which parts of the greens were ideal for eating raw. I just winged it and discarded any stems that seemed a bit tough for eating. I used all the funky greens in my salad, as well as the blossoms. It also came with a baby garlic, which I thinly sliced and a baby beet, which I microplaned. It was dressed simply with hazelnut oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt and fresh ground pepper. I served it with a huge chunk of filet mignon we got at Henry's. It was so good!

All about ME!!!

2010-10-01T13:54:00.000-07:00

I was just lamenting over the poor quality of the photos in the last many posts I've done, not to mention the infrequency of recent posts. I was thinking of all my many reasons for the above and decided to let you guys have a little insight into my day to day life and the conditions I do my cooking under!

As stated in my profile, I'm a stay-at-home mama to two incredible little men. My oldest will be 3 next week and the other is 13 months old.

My oldest just started going to preschool (less than 6 hours a week right now, spread over two days). The preschool is a co-op. That means I work in the classroom about 2 days a month in addition to holding an aide position. My aide position is room mom/hospitality aide. Basically I help the teacher by prepping projects, cutting out things the kids paint, etc. as well as help with setting up various parent/family events. Anyhow, it's turning out to be a lot more work than I anticipated! Most recently I had to cut out 30 little traffic lights...I thought I might shoot myself by the end. It took FOREVER!!
On top of my new preschool duties, I'm also trying to start my own little baby/kid clothing line, Monkeyrama. I hope to have product up on Etsy within the next couple weeks, in addition to filling at least one custom order I already received for some adorable toddler yoga outfits.

My husband routinely works long hours during the week and sometimes weekends, too.

Have I mentioned I'm a stay-at-home mama to two kids?!!?

I love to cook, but more than that, I love to eat good food. Most of the time I cook it's pretty much just for my own personal consumption. My pre-schooler is getting pickier and picker and my little one still can't eat everything I make. About half the time I prepare a plate for my husband and cover it for when he gets home. Inevitably, these are the nights he calls and says he's getting dinner and not to save him any.

Generally when I cook it's with one kid playing and the other digging in the trash, playing in the pots and pans, or in general being a complete menace. Or they are both playing and fighting over a toy. Or I walk into the dining room to find the little one walking around on the table with a huge grin on his face. Thinking of all this, I would suppose one would understand why the only picture I was able to take of my food was with my iphone. I don't even know where the Nikon is these days, let alone the cord to transfer the pics onto my computer!

I don't do complicated recipes or ones that take forever to do. I don't have the time or the energy to slave all day in the kitchen while being a ref between two very opinionated and energetic kids. But I want my food to look and taste fabulous! I hope that's what you find when you come to my blog, fairly basic or easy recipes that still result in a meal or dish that you are proud to make for your friends or, more importantly, that you would excitedly make more than once for yourself.

I love that I am lucky enough to stay home with my children, cook fabulous and healthy food, participate in a co-op nursery school, have a slightly successful tomato garden, dream about having my own chickens and selling hand-crafted baby clothes. I live a great life, I just might not get great pictures of it!

Figs!!!

2010-09-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

I am currently a complete fig addict. I will be sooo sad when the season ends. I've been eating them on bagels, dipped in mascarpone, in tarts, on pizza, plain, etc. etc.

As I kid I was always a fan of Fig Newtons. That was about the most exposure I had to figs. A couple years ago a friend (who also happens to be a chef) had a cheese plate at her party. It had all sorts of fancy cheeses, honey comb, blue cheese drizzled in honey and gorgeous halved figs. That was the first time I'd ever had a fresh fig. I was beside myself with how refreshingly delicious a plain, raw fig could be! I never knew! As the last couple years have passed I've randomly tried to obtain fresh figs only to not be able to find them (since I wasn't looking when they were in season).

A couple weeks ago I attended my very informal, extremely fun and wine-filled book club meeting at my sister's house. As an appetizer she had a giant platter of quartered figs with a bowl of whipped mascarpone, honey and vanilla. I must've eaten half the platter. The figs were from her tree in the backyard. Lo and behold, that very next week I received a ton of figs in my CSA box. I was beyond stoked (though sad to find that they weren't nearly as tasty as my sister's). At the book club there had been talk of making a tart with the figs, so that was what I did! I found a very simple recipe on line, which apparently is THE recipe since I found the identical recipe on about five different sites, each boasting it as their own. I don't know who's recipe it is, but it turned out fantastically, so here it is!

Caramelized Onion, Fig and Goat Cheese Tarts

(I went the lazy route and just used frozen puff pastry-you need one sheet, cut into fourths to make 4 tarts-but if you want to make your own, here's the recipe for the puff pastry: Puff Pastry)

Caramelized Onions

1 large onion
tablespoon of olive oil
1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

1. Peel and slice the onion thinly.
2. Heat a large sauté pan and add the olive oil and onions over a low heat.
3. Gently cook the onions without color for 10 minutes or until they’re very soft.
4. Add the brown sugar and balsamic vinegar and continue to cook over a low heat and stirring frequently for 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Once the onions are beautifully soft, ‘caramelized’ sticky and jam like, set aside to cool.
(I have to be honest, I didn't measure any of the above. I had a huge onion from my CSA box that I used. The recipe I followed called for 3 medium onions...with my one big onion I had more than enough. I just poured some olive oil and vinegar in when it was time, no measuring and did one big spoonful of brown sugar, though the recipe called for 2-3 tablespoons. I find onions tend to be quite sweet on their own, especially when coupled with balsamic AND figs.)

I split the onions into 4 equal portions and spooned into the tart shells. I pinched the edges of the puff pastry so that they sort of made a little bowl for the ingredients. Next I sliced about 2 figs (each into 4 slices) per tart and piled those in. I then crumbled goat cheese on top and popped into a preheated oven at 375 for about 25 mins, or until the puff pastry is a nice golden color.

SUPER tasty! Enjoy!!

Heirloom Tomato Salad

2010-09-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, how many of you have paid $10-$15 for a so so "heirloom tomato salad"? I know I have on a number of occasions because apparently I'm a sucker for that kinda thing.

Anyhow, the day before yesterday I was starving and I had a ton of heirloom tomatoes from one of my CSA boxes (last week I experimented with getting not one, but two!! different CSA boxes in the same week).

An heirloom tomato salad is pretty much one of the tastiest, prettiest and easiest salads you can make. Here's how I made mine:

I sliced 3 different tomatoes, about 3 thin slices of each (I saved the rest for another salad later on). I placed them on the plate, then I sliced several thin slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and placed those on the plate. Took about 8-10 smaller basil leaves and sliced thinly. I tossed those on, then sprinkled salt, pepper and a tiny bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I had some fairly tasteless but quite spicy radishes I got in my CSA box as well, I'd planned to microplane one on top just to give the salad a little kick, but I'd eaten the whole salad before I noticed the lone radish sitting on my counter, forgotten. So, that's an extra idea for you!

Roasted veggie salad!!

2010-08-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, just made up a super yummy veggie salad today. I got a spaghetti squash in my CSA box and I needed to do something with it. I'm not a huge spaghetti squash fan, but I would happily make this salad any day!

Last night I roasted a yellow and red bell pepper in the oven. To roast a pepper (WAY better than store bought) is very easy. I just stuck both peppers on a cookie sheet in the oven at 400 degrees. I turned them over after about 15 mins and then after that point I turned them a little about every 5 mins or so for about 35 mins. I then put them in a bowl and covered it in seran wrap. The condensation helps the peels come off easily. Once they were nice and cool, I peeled the peppers and removed the seeds and stems. I reserved the liquid at the bottom of the bowl and put the peeled peppers back in the bowl once done. Since I did that part last night I just recovered the bowl and put it in the fridge for today.

Next I went ahead and roasted the spaghetti squash whole (pierce it all over with a sharp knife so it doesn't explode, cook it for about an hour at 400). Cut it open, scoop out the seeds and pulp (you can save the seeds and roast them on a pan with some salt just like pumpkin seeds!). Scoop out the flesh and set aside in a bowl.

Today I took about 1/2 an eggplant, peeled and chopped into 1/2"-1/4" cubes. I also minced 2 cloves of garlic and chopped 1/2 an onion (into 1/2 chunks). I tossed all of this on a cookie sheet with olive oil and a little bit of salt and roasted at 400 degrees for maybe 30 mins, flipping everything about half way through.

While the eggplant was roasting I sauteed some mushrooms. I normally slice my mushrooms but this time I cut the shrooms up in 6ths or so, about 1/2" chunks. I like so saute my mushrooms in a bit of olive oil, soy sauce and butter.

Now for the salad. I chopped about 2/3's of the peppers I roasted last night up and tossed them on top of the spaghetti squash. I also poured some of the juice in. (I reserved the rest for some tasty Italian sausage melts I plan on making tomorrow.) Next I poured the mushrooms in, along with the juice they were sitting in. I pulled the eggplant mixture from the oven and scraped everything right into the spaghetti squash bowl. I sliced several basil leaves and added this in to mixture along with a bunch of feta and a little bit of lemon juice!

Seriously, the salad is a little bit of heaven! It was soooo good! This salad makes me look at spaghetti squash in a whole new light! And if you really don't want to do the spaghetti squash you can always sub some orzo or quinoa in there. But I think the spaghetti squash makes this veggie salad extra light and fresh. Perfect for the summer!

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
About 10 basil leaves
Feta cheese
1 spaghetti squash
1/2-1 small eggplant (peeled)
1 1/2-2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange)
About 10 white mushrooms (or your favorite kind of mushroom)
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 a large yellow onion
Soy sauce and butter for the mushrooms
1/4-1/2 of a lemon

I paired my salad with some yummy homemade pizza, YUM!!

I promise to be better!!

2010-08-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

I've been so bad! It's been forever since I've posted! And I've been cooking! I've been making cheese, and butter, and even a little baking! I recently discovered that I actually LIKE eggplant, especially farm fresh eggplant! I finally got the guts to drink raw milk-AND I liked it! I have TONS of great recipes I should have been sharing this whole time! And rhubarb! Why did I only just recently taste rhubarb for the first time??!? I've been gardening and growing gorgeous tomatoes, peas, cucumbers (well, the cucumbers haven't done so hot, I only grew 2 and now the plants are looking awfully sad), and I have about 40 green bean plants going nuts!

So, my friends, I promise to be better about posting at least once a week!
(bear with me while I try to figure out why my pictures aren't showing up correctly!)

Sliders-the right way!

2010-06-11T15:56:00.000-07:00

I never want to do burgers for a BBQ if I'm inviting friends over. There is a reason for this. I feel that hamburgers should always be done with the works. I want bacon, avocado, sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions, cheese, etc. Not just lettuce, tomatoes and pickles...in fact, I can do with those if I have the other things! And when I'm doing a BBQ, I want to make something super easy and quick that allows me to do as little work as possible!

This week I found a pack of 8 little tiny sliders at Trader Joe's, in the meat section. Last night we ate them. Soooo good! This is what we had with them:

Sadly, I couldn't find any ripe avocados, so I had to do without that. But what we did have was some delicious maple bacon. I also had some super tasty micro greens. I sauteed some white mushrooms in a bit of soy sauce, butter and olive oil. I then quickly marinated some red onion in red wine vinegar (I unfortunately didn't think to marinate them earlier) and then caramelized the onion. The meat I cooked on high with some yummy seasoning, after browning on the first side I flipped and topped with some extra sharp cheddar. I quickly browned the second side and then turned the heat off and covered (to melt the cheese).

They came out amazing. It was so quick and tasty, I think we are going to be doing these more often! I absolutely loved the micro greens, so pretty, tasty and healthy!

Unfortunately I only got a fairly poor picture of my last slider with my phone, but here it is!

Experimental Tuesday

2010-05-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

I failed at being consistent with "Experimental Fridays" so now I'm just going be experimental when I can!

Today I decided to try to put my kale to good use. I'm not a huge fan of kale, despite how healthy it is supposed to be for me. There are plenty of other greens that I really love to eat, I haven't felt the need to force feed myself one that I didn't like much. However, I get kale in my CSA box pretty much every week. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I give it away to my neighbors, and sometimes it just goes to waste and I end up tossing it.

This week it occurred to me that I could try to make chips with it. I turned my oven on to 400 and lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper. I then washed and drained my kale (something I should have done on Sunday before it even went in the fridge). I removed the stems (all the way up the leaf, so you are just left with the green part on either side). Then I tore the leaves into chip sized pieces and coated them with olive oil. I VERY lightly salted the chips and then used my microplane to grate some parmesan cheese on top. I popped the chips in the oven for 10 mins. They came out perfectly. Since it only took me about 5 mins to prep the chips my oven wasn't fully preheated to 400. For the second batch I reduced the heat to 375, repeated the 10 mins and they were perfect. So, if you fully preheat I wouldn't put the oven at more than 375 and 10 mins is the max I'd cook them at.

Even my toddler loved them. I liked them so much I had eaten 1/2 of the first batch before I remembered to take a picture!

Anyhow, these were a total hit and I'm pretty proud that I totally winged it with a green I'm not too fond of and managed to create something I love. And seriously, it took 15 mins max to make one batch of these from start to finish.

Beets, Beets and More Beets - Part Two

2010-05-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

The beets keep coming. After my last beet post I was left with 6 beets. I got my next CSA box and there were TEN beets in it! So, I've continued being inventive with my beets.

I had been considering trying to make a cake with them, figuring it might come out similar to a carrot cake. I found a carrot cake recipe online that looked pretty good. I made a few adjustments to it, and of course used beets instead of carrots. It came out incredibly well! It was quite tasty and you seriously could not taste that it was made with beets! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (you can add nutmeg, too, if you like)
3 cups grated beets
1 cup chopped walnuts (or whatever nut you prefer)

Frosting:
1/2 cup softened butter
8oz soften cream cheese
2 cups confectioners sugar (could probably use even less, I actually cut the sugar from 4 cups to 2 and it was probably even a bit sweeter than I liked, but still good)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in beets. Fold in walnuts. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.

Even the kidlet approved!

I also used some of my beets to make a roasted root veggie medley. I used this Wolfgang Puck recipe, again I changed it a bit.

I couldn't find all the veggies and some I simply didn't want to bother with (like potatoes, seemed like a waste of space when you are using such fun veggies already). Here is what I did:

I used 3 carrots, 1/2 a celery root (mine was huge), 1 head of garlic, 1 onion, 2 turnips (on the smaller side), 2 small chioggia beets, 1 large golden beet, 1 fennel bulb, olive oil, salt, pepper and about 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped. I also peeled my garlic, so it did start to fall apart a bit. I think I'd still peel it just to save everyone the hassle of having to deal with the paper skins after it's cooked. Oh, and I purposely did not use regular, purple beets as I didn't want all my veggies to be pink.

I cooked my veggies at 400 degrees for about 90 minutes, stirring every 30 mins or so. They were amazing. I think my favorite veggies were the celery root and fennel. I only got a picture of them before they went in the oven. But they sure were pretty!

This weekend I plan on trying my hand at pickling some of the beets I have remaining. It'll be my first attempt at canning. Expect more on the beet front in a week or so!

Happy cooking!

Fried Tomato and Bacon Salad

2010-05-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well, Experimental Friday came and went with zero experimenting. Life got in the way, as it often does.

My house is currently much quieter than normal with the hubby and toddler on their way to their first solo camping trip. It's very weird to have such a quiet house. I have Pandora going and of course there is still munchkin number 2, but he's pretty quiet when he's happy. It's peaceful!

On Thursday I was starving and it was about 4pm...too early for dinner, but too late for lunch. I was sorely craving a very decadent fried tomato and bacon salad I've made in the past. I got the recipe from my friend Marlyn and we'll see how my arteries thank her in a few years! I'd literally eat this salad every day if I could.

So here is how the recipe goes:

You need some sort of green, I prefer spinach as the green is going to be slightly wilted by the dressing and tomatoes and there really isn't another green I like both raw and wilted. I think I'd like it with arugula, as well, but I've only done spinach. In the pictures I'm posting here, I used Bloomsdale spinach, which is why it's so curly.

At least 2 thick slices of tomato per serving of salad (if you cut the tomatoes thinly they will just fall apart when being fried). I like to use those big, meaty, purple/green heirloom tomatoes.

Bacon-I like at least 2 slices per serving, but you could do one (really, if you are worried about the fat and all that fun stuff you shouldn't be eating this salad!). My favorite is Whole Foods' black forest bacon you can get from the butcher. When I'm curbing my Whole Paycheck addiction, my second favorite is the Trader Joe's apple smoked bacon.

And lastly, whatever vinegar and herbs you'd like to use to make a dressing. I usually just use a little apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar and some Italian seasoning. Quick, easy and tasty.

First you prep your greens (wash, drain, etc.). Then fry up the bacon and set aside to drain on some paper towels. Keep the bacon grease hot (the hotter the better) and gently slide your tomato slices in. Tomatoes are full of water, water and hot bacon grease really don't go well together, so don't cook this wearing your favorite $200 top. Wear an apron and stand back! Now just wait and let the tomatoes fry. After you feel like you've waited long enough (a minute or so), you can gently check the bottom of one, see if they are browned at all, if they are, flip and repeat! As soon as the tomatoes are cooked to your liking, remove directly onto your plate of greens (you should put each individual serving of greens on their own plate). Turn the heat off and swirl in some vinegar and herbs with the grease. Again, this is going to pop like crazy and if you've ever heated vinegar, it's a good idea to turn a fan on so you don't shrivel your nose hairs. While the dressing is still bubbling and hot, pour over the salad. Next crumble your bacon (or in my case I just chopped the bacon) on top and voila! Eat immediately, while your tomatoes are still hot!

Bacon-wrapped Hot Dogs!!

2010-05-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Sweet Lord, there is an entire event dedicated to serving the gloriously greasy bacon-wrapped hot dog!!

Do they have these everywhere? On any given night out on the town in Hollywood you can find suspicious looking vendors selling bacon-wrapped hot dogs. It's smells divine, it's cheap, and hard to resist despite the well known fact that you'll probably regret it the next morning. Most often I've encountered these little carts outside of concerts. It's late, you've been partying hard and you come out to the cold night and there they are.

The event takes place next Saturday, the 22nd, at 12pm. I hope I can make it!!! YUM!

Echo Park Lake
751 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Here is the Yelp Event.

And some tasty pictures at the LAist.

What do you want me to try?

2010-05-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Experimental Friday is tomorrow and I'd love to know if there is a recipe or crazy food idea you have that you would like me to feature on my blog tomorrow or for future Experimental Fridays. Post your idea or recipe in the comment section. I'm heading out to the store soon, so post quickly!

Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies!!

2010-05-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

Great post about baking gluten-free!

http://leitesculinaria.com/42047/writings-gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Beets, Beets and More Beets

2010-05-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

Most weeks I purchase a CSA (community supported agriculture) box from South Central Farmers. It's a huge box of organic veggies for only $15 (you can pay more if you would like to contribute more to the farm but the box is the same regardless of how much you pay). You never know exactly what is going to be in the box till you get it.

This week, along with many other veggies, my box contained 7 beets! I already had 2 in my fridge. So I have 9 beets I need to somehow plow through! The beets weren't all boring purple/red ones, there were two purple, two golden and two chioggia (candy-cane striped).

Miraculously I managed to get both kids to sleep at the same time this afternoon so I whipped out my beets to experiment with.

I have tried to make beet chips twice in the past. I burned them both times. I was following a recipe that had me cook them at 425 and they just kept burning. I decided to try again. I got a new mandolin this morning with a guard so I didn't slice my fingers off (which my old one didn't have). I sliced the purple and golden beets quite thin, but since the chioggia beet I had was so fat I had to slice it a bit thicker. I sprayed them lightly with oil and VERY sparingly salted them. You have to remember how thin they are and that they will shrink down when they cook, I learned this the hard way.

I cooked them at 375 this time and kept my eye on them constantly. I did the purple and golden beets together since they were thinner. I flipped them after about 8 mins and took them out after about 15-18 mins. I took some out sooner than others. I managed to not burn a single one! I can't imagine having the same luck if my kids were awake, though.

Then I cooked the chioggia beets. I cooked these for probably 20-25 mins. I did a full 10 mins on the first side and then flipped. I kept flipping them till they looked done. The chiogga chips came out the best. Next time I'll cut all the beets a bit thicker.

I took the remaining chunks of the golden and chioggia beets and julienned them along with a carrot (also from my CSA box). I added some sliced mint to the mix. I made a dressing with about 3/4 a tsp of horseradish mustard, 1/8 tsp of honey, a tsp of apple cider vinegar, and a tsp of olive oil. I also sprinkled the beets with salt and freshly ground pepper. Sooooooooo good!! The only reason I didn't use the purple beet, too, was because I wanted to see all the pretty colors in my salad and we all know how staining a purple beet is!

So, today was a very beety day. I'm not sure when I'll do the rest. I normally like to cut them up and roast them with some olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary, but after today I'm not sure when I'll feel like more beets!

Cooking with the Munchkin

2010-05-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

I decided to include my older munchkin in making dinner last night. This past week was exhausting, so we were making a super lazy, easy dinner: rainbow chard with Italian sausage and spaghetti.

I started off by teaching him what rainbow chard was. He thought it was pretty cool. I showed him how to take the stems off and how to wash it properly. I broke the chard up into big chunks (maybe 2 inch pieces) and let them drain in a colander.

I cut up 3 raw Italian sausages with my kitchen shears and cooked them on low till the chunks were browned on each side. This time I had some spring onions from my CSA box so I chopped one up and tossed that in, too. And I was drinking some chardonnay so I dumped a little of that in there just for kicks. I then shoved all my rainbow chard in the pan and squished it down with a heavy lid. I flipped it over a few times till it was all just wilted and all done! On the side I'd made some basic spaghetti, nothing fancy just regular dried noodles and a jar of organic sauce from Trader Joe's. I figure I can get fancy and start making my own sauce when my kids are older! I topped it all with freshly grated parmesan cheese and yum!!

I had meant to make our one little artichoke we got in our CSA box, but I never got around to it. It worked out because I was stuffed after just the spaghetti and chard! Anyhow, easy, healthier than just plain ol' spaghetti and quite tasty!

Experimental Friday

2010-05-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

Last night we visited the South Pasadena Farmer's Market. There was a new mushroom vendor called LA FungHi. They had an amazing selection of mushrooms, a vast majority of them I'd never even knew existed. The woman running the stand allowed me to sample a variety of the funkier looking ones. While there, she divulged to me that one way she loved to cook her mushrooms was to bread them using eggs and whole wheat flour and fry them in piping hot olive oil. With my love of fried foods and mushrooms I couldn't believe I had never tried this before.

In the end I couldn't decide what to get so I purchased one of their $15 mixed baskets. It is a huge amount of mushrooms!

Today I picked out a variety of mushrooms to fry up. While I love fried foods, I don't fry a lot of foods myself, so this was a major experiment for me. I coated the 'shrooms with egg and then rolled them in whole wheat flour (which I added a bit of salt and pepper to). In the meantime, I'd poured a whole lot of olive oil in a small pot and had that going on the burner. I was able to get them done in two batches. They looked amazing.

I tried the more delicate mushrooms first and was sadly very disappointed. They were kind of tasteless (mostly just tasted like fried flour) and really a waste of good mushrooms that would have been delicious sauteed, raw or roasted. Then I tried the fatter ones...

Oh. My. God. They were insanely amazing. They were juicy and luscious and dripping in flavor. All I was missing was some hot ponzu sauce to dip them in!

My next experiment was a recipe I'd received from the lovely Monika at Hipcooks. The recipe was for a savory beet and goat cheese muffin. They sounded super yummy to me, but I wasn't sure how they'd actually come out.

The basic recipe is to grate a beet, toss in some walnuts and chopped rosemary. Then gently fold with the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt). Then stir in the wet ingredients (butter, buttermilk and an egg). She also has you sprinkle Parmesan cheese in the pan before you put the muffin batter in. I then put chunks of goat cheese on the tops of each muffin. I had intended on putting goat cheese in the middle of the muffins, too, but I made these while holding a screaming baby, so that didn't work out. (Email me if you'd like the whole recipe and I'll forward the Hipcooks recipe to you).

They came out quite well and were extra tasty with more goat cheese spread on them while hot. They were even good with a bit of honey. I felt like I put a lot of beet in these muffins, but after they were cooked, you really could hardly taste them.