V is for Voyageur Toque, Viking Hat, and Veggie Gardens

Voyageur toque - Picture courtesy Smoke-Fire.com

Creating and Weeding: Originally I was going to post for "V" day about a Voyageur toque that I was planning to knit.  This was to be a donation for the annual silent auction which benefits a high-adventure camp that E is on the board of.  One of the trips they offer is in the huge voyageur canoe on Lake Superior and I thought there might be interest in a handmade voyageur hat.  Unfortunately, I did not get the project completed in time (full disclosure: I did not even start it.) for a variety of reasons/excuses.  So this post will not be about that.

Minnesota Vikings hat

My back-up idea (I may have had an inkling that I would not finish the voyageur toque) was E's Viking hat I made late last year before he went to the football game.  I have blogged this hat before, though, so that is kind of a cheater post.

I could also have written about volunteer plants but have already done that one, too.

So that leaves veggies, specifically veggie gardens.  A few years we built a small (5'x5' I think) raised bed in the backyard to grow vegetables in.  We packed in corn, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and carrots.  Most things grew well and we adjusted our planting (fewer cherry tomato plants for one thing) in the years that followed.  Last year we decided to build an additional bed to give more room for the corn and peppers specifically.  And we actually finished it!  We will plant it probably later next month, when it hopefully will be done freezing at night. 

Some people may think we are a bit crazy planting all those things in such a small space but it works.  The weeds are crowded out, it doesn't take up half the yard and other than the peppers getting shaded too much by the tomatoes which grew as tall as trees (I now know to pinch those back), everything did well.  The first year the corn turned out and we had enough.  One of the next years we kept getting summer storms with high wind, hail, etc., and the corn kept blowing down.  Then another year, the deer ate the corn.  We have since added a fence to help discourage the deer.  And now with the new bed, the corn will have more room.  Fingers crossed for our own fresh sweet corn (though last year we got plenty from our CSA)!

Here are a couple photos of the new raised bed.  I promised these last fall after we built the darn thing.  As I have said before, it is big enough to bury a body in there...


The first layer of timbers is in.  You can see the other bed on the far left.  The compost bins and huge volunteer tomatoes are also in this photo, above the new bed.

The new bed is complete! 

Body to be buried?  Nope - It's me! Just to give some perspective on the size.

Until we weed again,
Hallie

Comfort Foods, continued

The theme of comfort continues...

It snowed yesterday, about an inch or 2 but the first real snow of the season.  Thankfully it was Saturday so I could stay in and wear my PJs all day.  Wait... That is what I do during the work week too.  The difference was I didn't have to sit at my desk.  So I continued my comfort pursuits.  I finished E's Vikings hat, started the Steve Jobs biography, made two batches of soups and a casserole, gathered the ingredients for two kinds of cookies and remade the bed with clean flannel sheets and put the courderoy duvet on.  "Should" be cleaning my house but...

Eating: I've already blogged my soup recipes.  On to casseroles.  Or as we call 'em here in MN, "hotdishes".  E's favorite is Tatortot Hotdish, but I refuse to put a recipe for that here.  Everyone in the world has their own recipe (or doesn't make it) and likes it their own way.  Most other casseroles are also things like my family's "I-don't-know hot dish".  This is what Mom would make when she asked us what we wanted for supper and we would say, "I don't know.".  It varies depending on what is in the house but generally is a type of pasta ("noodles" we called them back when I was a kid) - typically macaroni or egg noodles, a can of soup - usually cream of mushroom, cream of chicken or tomato, browned ground beef, and some veggie - corn is always good but frozen mixed veggies work too.  Mix it all up and serve.

The one I made yesterday is a recipe served by a friend a year or 2 ago that I just got around to making myself for the first time.  Great use of turkey leftovers, if you have them.  You could, of course, use chicken instead.

Butternut Squash and Barley Casserole with Turkey
2 tsp olive oil
1 med green pepper, diced
1/2 C minced onion
1/2 C pearl barley, rinsed and drained
1 tsp dried sage
black pepper to taste
15 oz chicken broth
1 C cubed cooked turkey breast
2 med butternut squash (about 1.5# each), halved, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2" cubes (I hear Trader Joe's has peeled cubed squash available for purchase)
1/2 C crumbled feta

Spray 4 qt. baking dish with cooking spray.
In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over med-high.  Add pepper and onion, saute 2 minutes.  Add barley, sage, and black pepper, stir to combine well.  Add broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 45 minutes.  Add turkey and squash and continue to simmer 15 minutes more or until all broth is absorbed and the squash is tender.  If mixture seems too dry, add 1/4 C broth or water.
Heat oven to 350.  Transfer to prepared backing dish and top with cheese.  Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until cheese is golden. 4 servings

Turkey Noodle Stew - another great use of leftover turkey.  We make this one fairly often, sometimes with chicken.
2 turkey breast tenderloins (about 1/2# each) cut into 1/4" slices (or similar amount of other poultry)
1 med onion, chopped (surprisingly (haha!) this never gets added chez Anderson)
1 Tbls oil
14.5oz chicken broth
1 can condensed cream of celery (or cream of chicken) soup, undiluted
2 C frozen mixed veggies (or your favorite frozen veggies - I like green beans)
1/2 to 1 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
3 C uncooked extra wide egg noodles (guessing you could use a less-wide noodle instead!)

In a large skillet, cook turkey and onion in oil until turkey no longer pink (or just reheat leftover meat), about 6 minutes.  Combine the broth, soup, veggies, and lemon-pepper.  Add to the skillet; bring to a boil.  Stir in noodles.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until noodles and vegetables are tender.  6 servings

Reading: E bought the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.  I know, I know!  For those of you keeping score at home, that is 2 books he has purchased now in his life and in the last couple months!  Anyway, I picked it up while he was gone this weekend and started reading.  For some reason, it is really sucking me in and I stayed up too late reading on Friday night.  I am only on the part about the Apple II (those of you in my age range may be able to place a year or timeframe on that, thinking of how old you were playing Oregon Trail or Lemonade Stand), but I am really enjoying it.  Not sure I am a fan of Jobs the man, but his story is a good one.

Creating:  As promised a couple weeks ago, some photos of the hat I knit for E to wear to the game that he won tickets for.  I used Lion Brand Yarn "Hometown USA", a super bulky yarn, in New York White, Pittsburgh Yellow and (this name I just don't get) Portland Wine.  I forget how quickly super bulky on 10 1/2 needles knits up.  Done with the hat in a day, the earflaps and braids added last night.  I made my gauge swatch, measured his head to figure out how many stitches to cast on, did a couple inches of ribbing, changing color for stripes, knit until at the right height to start shaping (made him try it on many times) and then did a clean Kitchener stitch to finish off the top.  I then picked up 6 stitches on each side (trying it on to see where the ears are), purled across, decreased one stitch, knit across and decreased a stitch on the other side, purled across, decreased one and then bound off 3 stitches.  I left a long tail as part of the braid, then attached 8 other strands, braided them and knotted each end.  No horns because that would just be silly.  Skol Vikings!

Cabbage galore

Eating: I am cleaning out the fridge.  For some people that would mean that there is meal of odds and ends of leftovers - a little meatloaf, some chicken soup, a dab of mashed potatoes, a couple spoonsful of green beans - for me today it means figuring out what to do with 3 heads of cabbage, 10 parsnips, 5 turnips and a bunch of other produce just "hanging out" in the frigo.  Our CSA ended over a week ago but I still have a bunch of things that apparently store really well (when they are so fresh to begin with, even a week or more in the fridge and they are fresher than most things at the grocery store).
With the cabbage, I have chopped it all and am first making Freezer Coleslaw.  This idea came from our CSA - I had no idea you could freezer cabbage.  This is the recipe I am using. Super easy and I plan to freeze in smaller portions so I can grab some to have with meals this winter, maybe with some BBQ ribs or pulled pork.
That takes care of about 10 C of it (I have about 30 C), so the next idea is some Weight Watchers Zero Point Soup (I think it's official name is Garden Veggie Soup or something similar to that - I have always called it Zero Point Soup).  It is very tasty and a great way to eat your veggies.  Plus it is zero points (at least it was under the old points system, though, as I understand the new system, it might still be zero points because veggies are "free"), low calorie, high fiber.  And tasty.  Did I already say tasty?  This was the "0 point" item that inspired me to ask, in a WW meeting, how many servings of something zero points per serving can be eaten before you have to count a point or two.  The answer was something about thinking why you are eating 4 servings of something, even if it is zero points, yadda yadda yadda.  That's another 5 C or so used. 
Here's another soup I would like to try sometime.  Unfortunately I do not have all the ingredients on hand.  Another day, perhaps.  Internet search for recipes often turns up a bizarre assortment of things.  For example, "Vegan Smothered Cabbage" - why would I want a vegan all over my cabbage?  And the soup recipe that calls for some beef short ribs, "preferably from a jewish butcher" - guess I am out of luck on that one (I don't think I will ask the butcher at Super Target about his religious background). 
Well, enough about cabbage.

Reading:  I am still working on Treasure Island.  I have been unusually sleepy the past few nights and fall asleep while reading more often than not.  I have only been reading maybe 5 pages before this happens.  Not because I am not interested in the book.  Just excessively sleepy.  May need to try reading during the daytime more.

Creating:  Yesterday I knit up E's new Vikings hat.  I still need to do the ear flaps and braids but it is coming along nicely.  The super bulky yarn knits really quickly.  I will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to upload from the iPod. 

Weeding: First frost was Friday morning.  I discovered this Friday afternoon.  On Thursday I had the thought "I should take a picture of the compost tomato plants" because they were so huge and so heavy with fruits.  I also figured I needed to harvest a few more cherry tomatoes, if not more Lemon Boys. So Friday I went out with my camera and harvest basket (really a shallow vinyl bag), only to discover the plants were kaput and the tomatoes not looking so good (oozing a bit).  That afternoon, I battled the gnats (which apparently did NOT die with the frost) and wrestled the huge plants out and into the tarp bag to haul to the yard waste site.  Fifteen plants in there.  FIFTEEN!  And I tried to clean up as many fallen fruits as I could, but they are small and got squished.  So I fully expect more volunteers next year, not that I am complaining.  Those were truly the best tomatoes we grew this year.  They did not suffer blossom end rot or whatever it is called.  They were beautiful fruits.  And so tasty.
Now that corner of the yard just looks empty.  No more 4'x4' tomato shrub.  The end of the season is so sad.  I do still have the mums and asters lighting up the sides of the house with Viking spirit, though.  Gotta love late season blooms!

Eating:  We went to Nectar last night, just for happy hour.  If you don't know us, you may not know about Nectar though I am 99% positive everyone who reads this blog knows me and knows of our obsession for this fantastic wine bar/bistro with the chef-driven menu that changes every 2 weeks.  Anyway, it is the shrimp cakes I wanted to write about.  We have had the crab cakes in the past and they were very good.  But the shrimp cakes are even better.  I don't know how Chef Kevin makes them (will need to ask when we are there for dinner next week), but they are so full of meat and have very little filler (crumbs, etc.).  They taste absolutely divine, better than I imagined shrimp cakes could taste.  And the chili-lime cream sauce they were served with (a small amount drizzled on the plate, not an overpowering puddle of it) SO good.  A little heat, very finely chopped onions and peppers (so small and unobtrusive that E actually ate them), added just the right zip and flavor. If you ever find yourself in or near Osseo, MN, for any reason, stop by Nectar.  Tell Justin, the bartender, that you know E and order any one of the starters or entrees.  You will not be disappointed.  We never have been.

We signed up to take a cooking class.  E found a Groupon and we are going to learn 5 sauces, including Hollandaise, bechamel, and vinagrette (can't think of the other 2 right off the top of my head), and make dishes to go with them.  We are really looking forward to this class.  Sadly, it is not until December.  E swears he is not a foodie.  But he really is.  I at least admit it.

The roast chicken of last week later became chicken noodle soup.  I simmered the carcass in water (with chicken base, herbs, carrots, celery and onion) for a while until the meat literally fell off the bones.  Then chopped the chicken into bite-size pieces, added corn (which had been frozen shortly after roasting the fresh corn from the CSA), green and wax beans (also from CSA by way of the freezer) and some thick "home-style" frozen noodles (cooked according to package directions). I could have made by own noodles with my grandma's recipe but since I was cooking while also working, I opted for the easier method.  The pot of soup made several meals (we had soup 2 nights, 2 bowls each person, each night, then I had soup for lunches 3 times).  It seemed to get better each time we ate it.  Is there anything better than homemade soup when the temperature outside starts to drop?

Yesterday I mixed up some applesauce muffin batter and we had fresh-from-the-oven muffins each morning this weekend.  Here is my recipe, tweaked from a couple recipes I found on-line in various places (not giving credit for the recipes because, really, a muffin recipe is a muffin recipe and I took parts of different recipes to make this one).  A couple weeks ago I had made a small batch of applesauce with the assistance of a 4-almost-5-year-old.  I used this for the muffins.  We added streusel because we like streusel.

Applesauce Streusel Muffins
Combine: 1 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together: 2 eggs
2/3 C brown sugar

Add eggs/sugar mixture to the dry ingredients.

Stir in: 6 Tbls butter, melted
1 1/2 C applesauce

Mix just until combined.

Divide batter into 12 muffin cups (or as we did, 6 muffin cups and then store the rest of the batter in the fridge until the next day).

To make streusel topping combine these ingredients and cut butter into dry ingredients until resembles crumbs:  1/4 C brown sugar
3 Tbls flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbls butter

Top muffins with streusel and bake for 20 minutes. 

Reading:  Treasure Island is the most recent classic.  I love it.  I am all caught up in the adventure and can't wait to keep reading to find out what happens.  It is the quintessential pirate adventure book.  And who doesn't love pirates?!?

The Saturday morning bookclub (which is now going to meet Friday evenings for dinner - can we still call it "Breakfast club" just for fun?) has chosen Haunted Ground by Erin Hart for our next read.  I read this one a few years ago for the other bookclub.  It is a mystery but I actually liked it more than I thought I would.  Maybe because it takes place in Ireland and starts with finding a perfectly preserved head in a peat bog.  And who doesn't like Ireland or heads in bogs?!?

Creating: E won tickets to an upcoming Vikings game.  So naturally he will need purple hat with braids.  We went to the store last night to pick out the right yarn colors for said hat and knitting will begin shortly.  I will try to take pictures of it as it goes.  I have no pattern but he found pictures of similar hats that he likes so we will tweak and pattern as we go.  First to measure his big head...

Sorry for the long post. I had a lot of words, apparently.

Until we read/eat again,
Hallie