Nineteen for 50 - Mostly weeding and reading

Time spent in the garden increases this time of year. Maintaining the beds that we re-hauled last year, weeding and thinning plants in the other areas, installing edging and re-establishing the borders between gardens and lawn, pruning shrubs and trees, preparing the soil in the vegetable raised bed, picking out and then planting veggies. E helps with jobs requiring a shovel, edger, or any heavy lifting.  He hauls mulch, compost and dirt. He built a fortress around the veggies to help them stay out of the mouths of deer. He mows and mows, trims and waters. Much of the yard is starting to look great again, after a few years of minimal work completed in it. 

West side - cleaned up last year

Front garden by sidewalk

ground covers run amuck in the "stump garden"

Tomatoes safe from the jaws of deer

The cabin is 'under contract' so hopefully the closing and transfer to the buyers will go smoothly. There are a few things at the cabin that we'll bring home and store for now but it is for the most part cleaned out and awaiting the new owners creating their own memories there.

Work is, well, work. A lot of days I struggle to figure out how to get all the things done. Other days I say, "Screw it. I'm going outside." And then I wake up at 2am thinking about all the things that still need to get done.

I am preparing to go on a scrapbooking retreat later this week. This is about half the group that usually goes but when planning, we were still just getting first vaccines and made the decision we would feel more comfortable with a fully vaccinated group, keeping it small and paying a bit more. I usually go with this group 3 times a year and now it has been 16 months since last there.  I am slightly anxious and at the same time excited about it.  Planning what project I will work on, I decided to go way back in time and work with photos I have on hand, from high school and college days.

Since last blog post, I haven't completed any books or tried any new recipes, but do have 2 recipes and 3 books in reserve.  We had recipes last time so I'll start with the books

Books 19, 20, and 21

Book 19 was a book club pick and we'll be discussing it tonight. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was one I was only mildly interested in and didn't anticipate liking it much. It seems there was a lot of hype about this one and EVERYONE was reading it. Sometimes when things get overhyped, they greatly disappoint me, if I even end up reading them at all.  This one did not - I read it quickly and would pick it up eagerly to see what was going to happen. It is a novel that is part environmental science of the North Carolina marsh (not nearly as boring as that phrase makes it sound), part coming of age story of Kya the "Marsh Girl" (one of my favorite descriptions of her was "a tangled-haired, barefoot mussel-monger who lived in a shack") and part murder mystery of Chase - "the best quarterback this town ever saw".  It tells Kya's story chronologically, from the time she is a young girl until she is an older woman. Chase's story starts with his body being found. It was engaging and well-written, especially for an over-hyped book.  One of the lines that stood out to me (and doesn't give away any part of the story but resonated with me), after one of the characters asked if Kya could forgive him: "Why should the injured, the still bleeding, bear the onus of forgiveness?"

It took me a full 4 months to read book 20, but considering that I first remember hearing about the book (and about the subject) 30 years ago, that seems like hardly any time at all.  Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick is probably not a book you are going to read. Chaos theory is most likely not your idea of interesting reading and this book, though accessible to beginners, is not exactly a beach and margarita read. As a math major many years ago, I attended a talk on chaos (symposium? is that what they called those?). Honestly most of it went over my head. A friend who took a class on fractals mostly annoyed me by pointing out fractals and non-fractals in the cafeteria (strawberry - fractal, caf tray - not a fractal) without telling me what the heck a fractal was. A fractal is a shape that is infinitely complex - think of a hill. For you and me, a hill is relatively smooth and we can walk over little differences in terrain. For a cat or dog, there may be more differences in surface to navigate. For something smaller, say an ant, it becomes even more complex. The closer we get to the surface, the more complex it is. I only explain this because I didn't want to be like the person in the cafeteria. Probably the most familiar part of chaos theory is the Butterfly Effect.  This book told how chaos theory became to be a new science and how many different disciplines were all studying it at the same time - meteorologists, biologists studying population growth, physicists looking at turbulence, and so on. Like I say, I thought it was interesting but the audience for this one may be limited.

Finally, the most recent book finished was one I first read probably 25 years ago and it immediately went on my list of my favorite books. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood is one of her first novels, written in the '70s, and I have always struggled to describe the book and why it affected me so much. The blurb on Goodreads seems particularly misleading to me - "part detective novel, part psychological thriller".  If you are looking for either of those things, you will be sorely disappointed, I think. Certainly there is an element of mystery to it - the unnamed narrator goes with her boyfriend and another couple to an isolated cabin in Quebec to look for her father who seems to have disappeared - but that storyline seems very secondary to her introspection and to the story she is telling herself and her friends vs. her reality, her coming to terms with reality and escape back to nature through madness.  As a twenty-something, I scribbled many quotes from this book in my journal.  Re-reading it as a 50-year-old, I felt myself wanting to scribble them again and then scribble some more. I think it hit me differently than it did a quarter-century ago, but it really hit me this time too. Atwood is poet as well as a novelist and this novel definitely has a poetry to it. A few of my favorite lines:

“We battled in secret, undeclared, and after a while I no longer fought back because I never won. The only defense was flight, invisibility.”

“From any rational point of view I am absurd; but there are no longer any rational points of view.”

“'Do you love me, that's all,' he said. 'That's the only thing that matters.'

It was the language again, I couldn't use it because it wasn't mine. He must have known what he meant but it was an imprecise word; the Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them, there ought to be as many for love.”

Until we weed again,

Hallie

Fifty for 50 Tally

Books completed – 21 (5 more in progress)

Recipes tried – 20

Blog posts published– 19

Miles walked in June - 8.09

            Miles walked in May - 52.42

             Miles walked year-to-date –234.48

Scrap book pages completed –19

Hats donated – 20

Hours volunteered – 0

When Life Gives You Kale, Make Kale Chips

Eating: This blog post (it may be a series of posts, depending on what else I think of) was inspired by the bounty of kale from the CSA earlier this summer.  I had never received kale before and didn't know what to do with it.  As with everything I get in the CSA, I first try it, just a nibble to see what it tastes like - bitter, in this case.  So then I consult Big Red (aka Betty Crocker cookbook) to see what Betty has to say about it.  Her preparation suggestion is to steam it with only the water left on it after washing.  So I do this.  Then, my house smells like gym socks.  Yuck.  I try another bite and still find it bitter and not to my taste at all (and I will eat most anything).  So I stick it in the fridge, awaiting some inspiration.  Or until it gets moldy and I throw it out.  There has to be a better way, right?  Then my friend Beth told me about kale chips.  By this time, it was too late for my kale, but when I get it next year, I will be prepared.  Beth eats them like she would potato chips.

Kale Chips (recipe from FoodNetwork.com)
1 head kale, washed and thoroughly dried
2 T. olive oil
Sea salt, for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 275.  Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 20 minutes. Serve as finger food.

This got me thinking about the other things I get loads of all at once and never seem to know what to do with.  Thus the post, which could also have been titled "When life gives you radishes, grill them" or "When life gives you tomatoes, make soup." Here are some tried and true ideas for excesses of many summer veggies.

Refrigerator Pickles (for when life gives you cucumbers) Recipe from Cooks.com
6 C. thinly sliced unpared cucumbers
3 small onions, chopped
2 T. salt
1 C. vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
Combine cucumber slices and onion in ice cream pail or large (non-metal) bowl.  Mix sugar, salt and vinegar.  Pour over cucumbers.  Stir well.  Cover and refrigerate - they will be ready in 3 hours but taste even better if left overnight.  Will keep in fridge 2-3 months. (After we ate the first batch, I reused the juice and just added more cuke slices and onion to it.)

Grilled Radishes (for early summer when life gives you radishes) Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com
20 oz radishes, sliced (I always just slice enough until it looks right - you know me and measuring)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. butter, cut into small pieces
Place all ingredients in foil folded to make an envelope.  Seal around the edges.  Place on heated grill and cook until radishes are tender. 

I can only eat so many raw radishes and I add them to salads when I can, but again, can only eat so many.  The grilled radishes are really good.  Even if you think you do not like radishes, you should try them grilled or sauteed.  The flavor is much more mellow.  The other way I started eating them (after realizing I could cook them - duh!) is sliced up and sauteed with a bunch of other veggies.  For lunch on work days, I would just go to the fridge and start chopping and slicing whatever veggies I found, sometimes mixing a scrambled egg in with it for a little protein.  Good combinations with the radishes (mostly because they are ripe at the same time) included carrots, broccoli, onions, green or wax beans, summer squash or zucchini.

Speaking of zucchini, who hasn't had an abundance of zucchini at some point?!  Yikes, this stuff can sure take over your life.  Here are some of my favorite recipes using zucchini, and often also tomatoes or cherry tomatoes which are in season often at the same time.

The first one I am just going to link to here.  Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons and Parsley Brown Butter is easy and so good!  Follow the recipe exactly and you will have super tasty results. As I read some of the comments on the website, I thought, well, duh!  If you take out or substitute a bunch of stuff, of course it is not the same recipe anymore and you can't really complain that it had no flavor or wasn't very good.  That is your own fault.  Brown butter, when cooked as per instructions, has  A LOT of flavor on its own.  As I said in my review of the recipe, "I made this for dinner for a friend and myself. Super easy and very tasty, made following the recipe exactly. Use real butter (a substitute is a poor substitute in my mind, since so much flavor is from the browned butter) and use real fresh grated Parmesan (the stuff in the green can tends to be dry and sucks the flavor out of most dishes). The recipe is a terrific use of zucchini and cherry tomatoes, both of which I tend to have in over-abundance at the same time in the summer. Love it and will make it again and again."

A new zucchini recipe received from Ann at book club is also a soup.  And y'all know how I love soup!  I believe Ann got this recipe from her CSA.  It is prepared similarly to how I make my carrot soup.

Zucchini Basil Soup
2 pounds zucchini/summer squash (reminder to myself to buy a kitchen scale)
3/4 C chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 C olive oil
4 C water, divided (I don't think you need God's intervention to divide or part this amount of water)
1/3 C packed basil leaves
Julienne skin (only) from half of zucchini with slicer; toss with 1/2 tsp. salt and drain in a sieve until wilted, at least 20 minutes (note: I did not do the julienning part of this recipe at all).  Coarsely chop remaining zukes. 
Cook onion and garlic in oil in a 3-4 quart heavy saucepan over med-low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add chopped zucchini and 1 tsp salt and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes.  Add 3 C. water and simmer, partially covered, until tender, about 15 minutes.  Puree soup with basil in small batches in a blender. (Caution: only do small batches and hold onto the lid when you do this - it may explode in a hot shower of soup.  Not fun.)
Bring remaining cup water to a boil in a small saucepan and blanch julienned zucchini 1 minute.  Drain in a sieve set over a bowl (use liquid to thin soup if necessary).  Season soup with salt and pepper.  Serve in shallow bowls with julienned zucchini mounded on top (I did not do the julienned part of this.)

And of course, when life gives you tomatoes, make Chicken Pasta Fresca (or whatever this one is called) which is so tasty you will want to lick the bowl clean, or try salsa or soup.  I will post E's Blender Salsa at a later time.  I seem to have misplaced it (just had it this morning...)

Roasted Tomato Soup (This is so good I plan to make several batches and freeze them for use with grilled cheese sandwiches this winter.) - Recipe from Tyler Florence, foodnetwork.com.
2 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes (mix of any kind)
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 small yellow onions, sliced
1/2 C olive oil (I found this to be way more than I needed - drizzle to cover tomatoes, maybe about 1/4 C)
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
1 quart chicken stock
2 bay leaves
4 T. butter
1/2 C chopped fresh basil leaves (optional - I used as much basil as I could harvest off my little plant, about 1/4 C)
3/4 C heavy cream, optional (I will not add this before freezing but will stir in some cream when reheating)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Wash, core and cut the tomatoes into halves. Spread the tomatoes, garlic cloves and onions onto a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, or until caramelized.

Remove roasted tomatoes, garlic and onion from the oven and transfer to a large stock pot (I used a slotted spoon so I didn't scoop all the excess oil in as well). Add 3/4 of the chicken stock (in other words, 3 cups), bay leaves, and butter. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until liquid has reduced by a third.
Wash and dry basil leaves, if using, and add to the pot. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth (if you don't have an immersion blender, puree in small batches in a regular blender.  Remember SMALL batches, and hold on to the cover to avoid a scalding soup shower). Return soup to low heat, add cream and adjust consistency with remaining chicken stock, if necessary. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Just last night at book club, someone asked what to do with eggplant.  Ann suggested roasting it.  I suggested ratatouille.  I love it because it uses a bunch of veggies which are all ready and abundant at the same time.  Here is the easiest recipe I have for it.

Ratatouille - Recipe from Betty Crocker cookbook
1 medium eggplant, about 1 1/2 pounds, washed, pared if desired, and cut into 1/2" cubes
2 small zucchini, about 1/2 pound, washed, cut off stem and blossom end, cube or slice
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped (about 1 C)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, each cut into eighths
1/4 C olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
Cook all ingredients in large skillet (I use my wok) over medium heat 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is tender.  Serve warm or cold.  (I freeze portions of this for eating all winter long.  Also would be good over pasta.)

That is all for now.  Enjoy the bounties of the season and may we never have moldy kale again!

Until we eat again,
Hallie

J is for Jicama

Eating: Jicama is kind of a weird thing.  Pronounced "HIK -ah-mah", it's a root vegetable that looks kind of like a potato.  Some woman at a Weight Watchers meeting I was at a few years ago described its taste as "like a stale apple" but I think she is full of crap.  If I may opine.  It has a slightly sweet taste, and the crunch of a good crisp apple.  I like to eat it raw and serve with a tasty spinach dip.  Peel the thick skin off,  cut into strips and serve.  Apparently it is high in Vitamin C, and can be tasty in salads as well.  And no one ever had to go to Weight Watchers from eating too much jicama.

Here is my dip recipe.  There is a friend of mine who I think only comes to my parties and perhaps is only my friend because I serve this dip. (I may be exaggerating - she is one of my best friends and we get together many times when spinach dip is not involved.)  It can be made no-fat and tastes just as good that way.  Dip away.  And try some jicama today.

Spinach Dip
Combine in a bowl: 2 C sour cream (can also use plain yogurt), 1 package Knorr Leek Soup mix (could also use another brand but I have only ever seen this made by Knorr), 1 package frozen spinach (cook and DRAIN WELL). Can also add some chopped water chestnuts though I find them a little hard to dip. Stir well; refrigerate until serving.  Best when made the night before so the flavors have time to marry and the dry soup mix isn't crunchy. 

Until we eat again,
Hallie

H is for Honey Hoisin Pork

Eating: I didn't plan this but today's recipe happens to be what I made for Easter dinner.  Honey Hoisin Pork Tenderloin is a recipe I received a number of years ago from a friend I used to work with.  The version I have says "Adapted from CL" which I assume is Cooking Light, but I do not know that for a fact.  E and I have made this many times - it is easy and good.  Sometimes, since it is just the two of us, we make it with chops instead.  I served with brown rice as well as a long grain and wild rice blend, and some roasted spring veggies (I'll include that recipe as a bonus today.).  For dessert we had a bunny cake - Funfetti cake with home-made vanilla frosting (thank you, Betty Crocker for that recipe!).  Bonus pictures of cute cake below!

Honey Hoisin Pork Tenderloin
2 T sliced green onions
2 T hoisin sauce
2 T low-sodium soy sauce
2 T honey
1 T hot water
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed of visible fat and silverskin
1/4 t salt
cooking spray
1/2 t sesame seeds

Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl.  Pour 1/4 C of this mixture in a large zip-top plastic bag; reserve remaining mixture.  Add pork to bag; seal and marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes, turning bag occasionally.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Remove pork from bag; discard marinade.  Sprinkle pork with salt.  Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.  Coat pan with cooking spray.  Add pork; cook 2 minutes, browning on all sides.  Brush 1 T reserved honey mixture over pork; sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Place skillet in oven. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160 degrees (slightly pink) or until desired degree of doneness.

Place pork on a platter; let stand 5 minutes.  Cut pork across the grain into thin slices.  Drizzle with remaining honey mixture.

Roasted Spring Vegetables (from The Pampered Chef Celebrate! cookbook)
1 pound fresh asparagus spears
1 pound baby carrots
1 large yellow or red bell pepper
1 onion
3 T olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 t Pantry Rosemary Herb Seasoning Mix (or dried rosemary leaves, crushed)
1/4 t salt

Trim asparagus and cut into 2 1/2" pieces; set aside. Cut pepper into 1 1/2" pieces and onion into 8 wedges. Combine pepper, onion, carrots, olive oil, seasoning mix and salt in a large bowl. Toss to coat. Spread evenly on baking sheet (or Stoneware Bar Pan). Bake at 425 for 25 minutes. Add asparagus and bake additional 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender and golden. You can bake up to 2 hours ahead, let stand at room temperature then reheat in oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until warm.

I was tired and ready to be done.

naked bunny cake

 

I will not win any awards for cake frosting technique

Until we eat again,
Hallie