the neglectful gardener

I was thinking recently in the shower (where I do most of my thinking) that I am really an expert in being a sucky gardener. I love gardening, but really I should be in jail for vegetable neglect. If I wrote a book about gardening, it would be very, very short. Basically, blog post length. So, here it is. My gardening book. Enjoy!

The Neglectful Gardener: 
Growing Fresh, Organic Veggies in Spite of Yourself
by fawn pea, mediocre knitter and sucky gardener

This year was the first time I've ever had a successful winter garden, and I'm feeling pretty full of myself about it. By "successful," I mean that there's something alive and edible out there. It's a modest success, but certainly the best I've ever had. My chest gets all puffed up when I look out the window in February and see things we could eat for dinner growing in the raised beds. I believe that this modest harvest entitles me to call myself an Expert and write breezy blog posts on gardening.

So, if you want to be modestly successful and somewhat puffed up like me, I encourage you to read on to discover the secrets of successful sucky vegetable gardening. Everything I know is contained right here. Really, everything. So... here are the secrets of being a good Neglectful Gardener:

1. Make friends with really good gardeners.

There are people out there who can grow stuff like artichokes and peaches in their gardens. They know how to keep tomatoes from getting blossom end rot, and they never seem to have trouble with powdery mildew. Make friends with these people. They like to swap seeds. They like to trade stories. They will teach you everything you need to know, or failing that, they will probably have a lot of extra zuchinni to share.

2. Chat up the lady at the farmer's market who sells plants.

I know the lady at the farmer's market who sells plants, because I am very bad at growing things from seed. Every year I read the charming stories of heirloom beans and peppers and melons in the seed catalogs and fantasize wildly about the bounteous, sepia-tinted harvest soon to be filling the kitchen of my not-too-distant future. Then I forget about my seedlings. They all dry out (PATHETIC) or get eaten by caterpillars (DEPRESSING), or just never sprout in the first place (WHY???).

At this point, I used to be very tempted to go to the hardware store for cheap flats of vegetable starts. Unfortunately those industrial vegetables tend to be coddled, weak and poorly-adapted to local conditions. Instead, the lady at the farmer's market has plants that, while a bit more expensive, will actually survive neglectful gardening techniques and thrive in local conditions, putting the "cheap" vegetables to shame. Also, she knows everything there is to know about gardening. She will steer you right.

3. Make compost.

This is the easiest, most basic thing to do for your garden. Feed the dirt. Get a cute little compost bucket for your kitchen counter, and put those eggshells and veggie scraps to work for you. Steal your neighbors' leaf bags from the curb every fall and throw those in, too. And grass clippings... hoo boy!  Most garden plants strip out nutrients and life from the soil. Compost puts it back in. Compost is an absolute requirement. Some cities with composting programs (like Raleigh) let you buy a huge load of compost for next to nothing. Make compost. Make compost. Make compost.

4. Feed the bugs.

Oh my goodness bugs love gardens. They love them! Everything they want to eat is right there! Free for the taking! But we cannot put poisons on our vegetables to kill the bugs, because that is very stupid. Poisons. On our food. Stupid. So you have to feed the bugs to other bugs (and birds and toads). Grow other stuff besides vegetables. Create some habitat. Get some wildflowers going in there. Bushy things. Things with flowers. Habitat is your friend.

5. Grow stuff in the sun.

This may seem totally obvious, but I have seen a lot of people make garden beds in shady or semi-shady spots in their yard and then act all mystified when their tomato plants never make any tomatoes (okay, I have been one of those mystified people). Vegetables need a lot of sun. Don't try to grow them in the shade.

6. Make raised beds

The soil in your backyard, if it hasn't been amended with several years' worth of compost, is probably pretty barren. It may also be rocky, 90% clay (like mine), and contaminated with who-knows-what. Was your neighborhood built on old farmland that was regularly sprayed with arsenic-based pesticides? Did the previous homeowner nuke the grass regularly with Weed'n'Feed? Have lead paint chips landed all over the ground at some point? Don't know the answer to all of these questions? Building raised beds lets you start from scratch with fresh, unadulterated, compost-filled soil. They can be as simple or as elaborate as you want them to be. Just avoid treated lumber. Yes, it lasts a long time, but it also leaches horrible chemicals into your raised beds. Strong, rot-resistant woods like cedar are a much better choice. Or try recycled-plastic "lumber."

7. Pick it and eat it!

If you think it's depressing to throw away a big old container of mixed salad greens from the store because they wilted before you got a chance to eat them, imagine how horrible it is to watch beautiful food that you sweated and toiled to grow yourself rot or dry out or go to seed because you waited around too long to pick it and eat it. There just aren't enough synonyms for "tragic." Case in point: One week in January I had three adorable little white snowball heads of cauliflower in my garden. I remember fondling them and thinking what a delicious dinner they would make when they got really big and impressive. The following week it was 65 degrees and all the caterpillars woke up, and now all I have left are three cauliflower skeletons. Don't fondle the produce and make empty promises. Just pick it and eat it.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my little foray into the world of garden advice-giving. That will probably be the grand total of it, so maybe read it a second time if it seemed kind of short. Does the sum total of your gardening knowledge fit into a comment? Do share!

late fall

We escaped the hurricane that brought such terrifying storms to our coast and mountains. All we got here in central North Carolina was some much-needed rain. I feel almost guilty enjoying some beautiful fall weather while my relatives on the Jersey Shore struggle though yet another storm knocking out their power and disrupting their lives.

But Nature is glorious around us right now, so I will take her on those terms and be grateful.

The other day HWWLLB cut down all the faded, raggedy-looking summer flowers from our front yard - mostly zinnias and gomphrena - and stuffed them into the yard waste bin. The Little Pea took the nicest of them to school for their flower-arranging activity. We've got several this-might-be-the-last-bouquet bouquets of salvia and asters all over the place. Every time I pick a green pepper or a stalk of basil, I say a little thank-you for the harvest, in the recognition that this might be the last of it.

At the same time, the greens and lettuce are sweetening with every cold night. Now that it's generally too cold for insects, I don't have to worry about the caterpillars munching on my baby broccoli and cauliflower plants. All I have to do is pull the occasional weed and fantasize about the delicious meals they will make soon. We have enough fresh salad greens for a much larger family, and a nice selection of dark leafy greens to round out any meal.

I'm awful at cleaning out the garden. I cling to the memory of the summer bounty, even if it is a hazy memory of what I wanted it to be, rather than a clear picture what it actually was. Once the stalks are spent and the disheveled vines are everywhere, you could forget that the cucumbers never produced or the squash were all mutilated by vine borers. It was a glorious summer garden. Now it's spent. I hate clearing away the debris afterwards, even though I know it would mean fewer disappointments next year from over-wintering marauders.

Right now my eye is on the leafy green things, wondering which of them will be sweet and tasty and abundant enough to grace our Thanksgiving table. There will be plenty of mustard greens, Chinese cabbage, Russian kale and red sails lettuce. The tatsoi will be my own little treasure that I keep just for myself (and the Little Pea), my very favorite green and one that I never seem to be able to grow very much of. In the freezer are two big tubs of roasted pumpkin, the surprise harvest from the volunteer pie pumpkin plant that came up in the middle of a vegetable bed and braved the vine borers to give us several adorable, perfectly round, bright orange pumpkins.

Surprises, disappointments, bitter and sweet. I'm giving thanks for a little garden that helps me ride out life's storms every season.

recipe::pasta salad with roasted corn & fresh herbs

This tasty pasta salad was a Fourth of July invention that seemed worth sharing. Just about everything in it should be available at your local farmer's market right now - if not in your own garden! This is great to make while you're cooking some other things on the grill. It's also wonderful made a day ahead - the flavors intensify and meld nicely overnight in the fridge.


pasta salad with roasted corn & fresh herbs


prep time: about 20 minutes
feeds 3-5 people as a side dish (doubles easily)


1/2 lb pasta of your choice (we used tricolor fusilli)
2 ears of sweet corn, shucked & cleaned
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 of one small red onion, minced
about 1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh basil, minced
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp ground cumin seed
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your grill.

While the pasta cooks, roast the corn. Brush each ear lightly with olive oil, and then place directly on the grill. Use tongs to turn the ears frequently until they are beginning to brown lightly all over, about 5 minutes.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, drizzle on some olive oil to keep it from sticking, and put it into a bowl & into the fridge to cool.  While the pasta and the corn cool, prepare the rest of your ingredients: halve the tomatoes and mince the onion and the fresh herbs.

Mix up the dressing: in a small bowl combine 1/4 cup of olive oil, all the lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Once the corn is cool, use a knife to cut the kernels from the cob. Put the corn, onion and herbs into the bowl with the pasta. Pour over the dressing, and toss well to mix and thoroughly coat everything. If the pasta seems a bit dry, drizzle in a little more olive oil til it looks right to you.

You can serve this right away, but the longer it chills in the fridge before serving, the tastier it is!

german apple cake (don't make just one)

just one bite left

Last weekend I made eight German Apple cakes. Two for a party we were attending, four for the women's shelter, and two more for... my tummy. I did share.

Years ago, when I called my Grandmother to get the recipe, she said "Now Fawn, don't make just one of these." She would always make anywhere from two to ten, and share them with family and neighbors. They are simple and delicious, like everything my Grandmother baked.

german apple cake
(makes two 9x9 cakes)

2 cups flour, sifted
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Mix all these ingredients together and beat the batter for 2 minutes.
Then add:

3 cups apples, peeled & sliced (Stayman/Winesap are my favorite for baking)

topping:
4 tsp cinammon
2/3 cup brown sugar
Mix these together well.

Grease two 8x8 cake pans and pour in the batter. Sprinkle over with the topping and dot with butter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, til golden brown and a knife inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy munching on this tasty cake soon. It's simple enough to make a wonderful weeknight dessert surprise for your family on a dreary winter day - especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. And don't forget to share.

recipe::warm & spicy winter soup

I am a firm believer in the healing powers of home-made soup. As a vegetarian, I'm always looking for the non-meat version of the incredibly comforting chicken-noodle soup. This isn't that exactly, but it is a warm, aromatic bowl packed full of vitamin C, protein, and immune-system-boosting ingredients for a cold winter's night.

If this soup is for family dinner, serve it with salad and a crusty bread to make it snazzy - but if you're feeling under the weather, a bowl by itself is nutritionally complete and sure to warm your bones. Bonus: this recipe is also vegan and gluten-free!

warm & spicy winter soup

prep time: 20 minutes
cooking time: 1 hour
serves 4-6

ingredients

1 onion, minced
10 cloves garlic, minced
1 2-inch stick of fresh ginger, peeled & minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup dry mung beans, split peas, lentils or other quick-cooking dry bean
1/2 cup millet or quinoa
1 sweet potato, diced
3 medium carrots, diced
1 bunch of fresh greens (spinach, kale or chard work well), chopped
1 quart of vegetable stock
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt & pepper to taste

Mince the onions, garlic and ginger in the food processor or by hand. In a large soup pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Saute the onions, garlic and ginger until the onion becomes tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the curry powder and saute another minute. Pour the vegetable stock into the pot.

Rinse the beans and grains well and add them to the pot. (If you are using quinoa, soak it first and rinse it thoroughly to remove the bitter husk). Bring the pot to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer and cover the pot. Let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel the carrots and sweet potatoes and dice them. Add them to the pot, and continue to simmer, covered, until the vegetables and beans are tender (another 20-30 minutes).

Once the veggies and beans are tender, add the greens, stir them in and let the whole pot simmer until the greens are tender, another 5-6 minutes or so. Salt and pepper to taste. Before serving, add the lemon juice.

tips & variations
- Chopped frozen spinach is a fine substitute for fresh, especially when you're in a hurry.

- If you have some leftover cooked brown rice, you can add that instead of the millet or quinoa. Cooked grains should be added about the same time you add the greens.

- If you like thicker, creamier soup, try this: Just before the point when you'd add the greens, scoop about 1/3 to 1/2 of the pot of soup into the food processor and puree. Return the puree to the pot and stir it in well. Then continue with the rest of the recipe.

- If a little extra heat makes your runny nose feel better, consider adding 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or hot chili paste to the onion saute along with your curry powder. Serve with a bottle of hot sauce on the table, too.

- I like to make a big batch of soup and then freeze containers of one to two servings for another day. If you do that with this recipe, I'd suggest leaving out the greens and lemon juice. Add them instead when you defrost and re-heat the soup to get a fresher taste, brighter colors and more nutrients out of your leftovers.

I hope this helps you through your winter colds!

jalapeño-cheddar muffins

Yum. I made these for a bake sale, figuring there wouldn't be as many savory options. They were intended to be an accompaniment for beer, but I think they'd be great with a cold summer soup like gazpacho or chilled avocado soup.

jalapeño-cheddar muffins
makes about 20 muffins

ingredients
3 1/2 cups sifted flour*
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups lowfat yogurt
2 eggs, beaten
3 Tbsp milk or water
8 oz X-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 small yellow squash, grated
5 jalapeño peppers, seeded
1/4 yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

First, grate the squash. Then put the onion, garlic and peppers into the food processor and chop them very finely. Saute the onion mixture in a skillet until the onions are starting to become translucent, then add the squash. Salt and pepper lightly, and saute for about 5 minutes until the veggies are tender. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and prepare your muffin tins (you will need two).

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda together in a large bowl.
In another bowl, beat together the yogurt, eggs and milk. Mix about half of the cheese into this bowl. Make a well in the flour and pour in the liquid. Mix with a few swift strokes until the wet and dry ingredients are just barely blended. Scatter the veggie mixture into the flour, and finish blending using as few strokes as possible.

Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full. Scatter the remaining cheese over the tops of the muffins and then bake for about 20-25 minutes. The cheese will get wonderfully bubbly and just barely start to brown around the edges.


* Note on flour: I used a blend that was about 1/3 white flour and 2/3 whole wheat pastry flour, but you should use your favorite flour for savory muffins - I think wheat flour works nicely with these flavors.


a satisfied customer

mango-ginger coffee cake

This morning the Little Pea and I attended a lovely brunch for new mamas organized by our dear friend Nicole (a.k.a. Mrs. Love Party). We realized that there were a few of us with relatively new babies who could use a support group (ourselves most of all), so Nicole thoughtfully got a brunch together at her house.

I made this coffee cake, improvised because I had some over-ripe mangoes in the kitchen that needed to find their purpose in life. They served well - the coffee cake was scrumptious, and I just had to share the recipe (with a nod to Joy of Cooking for the basics)!

mango-ginger coffee cake

Bring your ingredients to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan.

Sift together:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Combine and beat well:
1 cup plain yogurt (I used whole)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp almond extract

Fruit topping:
1/3 cup candied ginger, chopped well
1 1/2 cups mango, cut into small chunks (about 2 ripe mangoes)

Streusel:
2 Tbsp whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp butter
5 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Blend these ingredients until they crumble. Mix in:
1/3 cup almonds, chopped (optional)

Add the sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture. Mix gently until just smooth. Pour into the pan and distribute the fruit mixture gently over the dough. Sprinkle the streusel over the top. Bake about 20-30 minutes.

Don't try to make this the day before (though you could certainly chop up your ingredients ahead of time if you want to) - this coffee cake is best served fresh. This was great served with a brunch frittata, fruit and hot tea (with entertainment provided by half a dozen squirmy babies). If there is any coffee cake left over, you can warm it up later for dessert with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

a quick hello

Peeping out to say hello!



I am pleased to report that there is a little knitting underway here, however slowly. I'm designing a sweet little baby cardigan (what else?) with Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed. After my fun with color knitting earlier this spring, I really wanted to put one of these stitch patterns to use in a little sweater. I like how it's coming out, and this will definitely be appearing as a Free Pattern Friday some time in the near future.

There hasn't been much time for gardening, let alone cooking, but I am really happy that I was able to make a batch of jam this week from the delicious figs on our fig tree. The tree is having a banner year this year, and it was really disturbing me to watch out the window as squirrels and mockingbirds gobbled up all the ripe figs. I can see the tree from the rocking chair where I nurse the baby - it was driving me nuts! Now that I've had a chance to gobble some of them up myself, I don't begrudge the varmints their share anymore.

Last random bit in this hello post: I have a post up today on Sew Green about my struggles with green babyhood. I'd love to hear about some of your strategies!

micro is the new green

This has been an exciting early-spring garden for me because of a new (to us) innovation: micro greens!

A few months ago during the seed swap that we had with friends, I was thinking about ways to use up old seed packets, and looking at all the expensive blends of seeds they put into the seed catalogs, and realized that I had plenty of potential custom blends of my own sitting there in the bin of old seeds.

I made a blend for micro greens with:
beets
pac choi
corn salad
zen
spinach

We also had a big packet of unopened mesclun mix from two years before. In March I got two long planters (the kind you use for window boxes), and planted each with one of the blends. These seeds are all somewhat aged, so I didn't really worry about germination rates, I just dumped them in there. They have done great!

The first time I had to thin them, we made a salad with just a few leaves of over-wintered Bibb lettuce, and a whole bunch of tasty little micro greens. They are delicious! HWWLLB, who is really not a salad-eater even on his most virtuous days, proclaimed them "much better than lettuce" and said he would happily eat them whenver I served them.

Each time we harvest them, it seems to just make more room for the left-behind greens to get a bit fluffier, but I did finally do some re-seeding last week. I plan to keep harvesting and re-seeding them til I run out of seeds. I don't know what I'll do then - though if I dig through our old-seed bin again, I bet I'll find a bunch more aging seeds that would like to become fancy salad mix.

Here's a recipe for the dressing that has become our new favorite on micro greens:

Put into a small jar:
4 Tbsp EV olive oil
2-3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/8 tsp honey
pinch of sea salt
one clove of garlic, peeled (but not chopped)

Shake well to blend contents thoroughly. Let the garlic steep in the dressing for a little while before serving. If you leave the garlic in the jar, it will just keep infusing the dressing with a stronger garlic flavor until the dressing is used up. Keep refrigerated.

And thanks to all of you for the tips on getting things finished (or not). I think I just need to accept that this is my M.O. right now. Too many things on my mind to worry about unfinished knitting. In fact, knitting is usually so therapeutic for me... I think if I forget about it for a little while, I'm going to come running back to the yarn in my hour of need anyway (and maybe get some of those wayward projects done).

quiet evening with vegetable stock

Things have been pretty hectic at work lately. It means I have been treasuring the quiet time at home all the more.

Tonight HWWLLB was out for a meeting, and I had the house to myself. Simon and I hung out in the garden for a while, just puttering a bit, knocking butterfly eggs off the baby kale leaves and that sort of thing. I harvested a nice bunch of curly Russian kale for dinner and ate it with a plate of noodles with white bean sauce. It was so simple, and very satisfying.

Once it got dark, I decided to do a little sewing, since I've had a small pile of mending waiting for me for some time. While I did that, I also put on a big pot of vegetable stock. I really like making my own vegetable stock - the kind that comes in a box is so salty and flavorless, and so expensive. I know some people think it's a pain, but I find home made vegetable stock to be really easy, particularly just letting it simmer on the stove while you do other things (like sew or read a book). The way I make it - full of colorful veggies - is much richer than clear veggie broth, and extremely nutritious. It's a great substitute for chicken or even beef broth.

Here's how I make it:

rich vegetable stock

1 big freezer bag full of vegetable trimmings
1 big stock pot full of water
salt and pepper

Whenever you're cooking and have to cut up vegetables, peel carrots, roast squash, etc, keep the trimmings. Just keep putting them into a one-gallon freezer bag until the bag is full. Some of the kinds of things you should definitely save for your veggie stock are:

onion ends and bits
carrot peels
sweet potato peels
squash skins - particularly after roasting
broccoli stems
kale and collard stems
garlic
etc.

The only things I don't like to add are potato peels and bits, because they make the stock too starchy for my taste. Traditional veggie broth recipes usually call for little more than carrots, celery and onions. Making stock this way you get an extremely nutritious, colorful broth that makes your soups much richer. You can easily water it down if you want a lighter taste.

Anyhow, once the freezer bag fills up with scraps, it's time to make stock. Dump the contents of the bag into your biggest stock pot and cover with water, leaving a couple inches of space at the top of the pot. You can throw in whatever spices you like - I always put in plenty of salt and black peppercorns, and sometimes bay leaves, juniper berries, or whatever else looks good. Cover and bring to a boil.

Once the pot is boiling, give it a good stir and turn it down to low heat to simmer, covered, for at least 1.5 hours. I usually go to 2 hours. Once that's done, scoop out all your floppy veggies and toss them into the compost. If you want a more concentrated broth to thin with water when you use it, keep simmering and cooking it down til it reaches half its volume (this will also save some space in your freezer).

When you're done simmering, let the broth cool, then strain it and place it into freezer-safe containers (I love to recycle big yogurt containers for this - one container holds 4 cups of broth, which is just right for lots of soup recipes). Label with the date and put them in the freezer til you're ready to use them.

Of course, vegetable stock is great for making soup, but I also find that rice tastes incredible cooked in it instead of water. The same is true for quinoa, cous-cous and other grains, and I'm sure they are more nutritious cooked this way, too.

thankful, and a recipe

the little squirrels are made of painted shells and lentils

I am grateful for a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends yesterday. This was the 6th year we've had a potluck at our house for anyone in town whose family is far away. It's always so much fun -- a huge feast with board games that go well into the night.

This year I got a chance to use my new little placecards - aren't they cute? They were a gift from a lovely older lady at a church auction in the spring. We don't have enough space at our table to ever use real placecards, but they were perfect for labeling everyone's potluck contributions, especially because we had both vegan and gluten-free guests this year, and the little code V's and G's made it easier for everyone.

I was too busy cooking and eating and having fun to remember to take pictures, but I did want to share a recipe with you. Making Thanksgiving dishes that everyone could enjoy was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the vegan & gluten-free challenge so much this year. I was really happy with the mashed potatoes, and they are such a cold-weather staple, I know we'll be making them again. So here's the recipe, to enjoy at your winter feasts:

garlic mashed potatoes
vegan and gluten-free

3 lbs red-skinned potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and cut into large cubes
1 head of garlic
1/2 cup vegetable broth
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven (or toaster oven) to 350.

Bring a big pot of water to a boil. While you're waiting for that, place about 6-10 cloves of peeled garlic into a very small baking dish, with enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the dish and the garlic (you can use more or less garlic, depending on how garlicky you like your potatoes). Put the garlic in the oven to roast while you're doing the rest. It should take about ten minutes, so keep an eye on the garlic to make sure it doesn't burn while you're busy with other things.

Cook the potatoes for about 5-10 minutes in the big pot, until nice and tender. Drain.

Place the potatoes in a big sturdy mixing bowl and add about half of the veggie broth. When the garlic is nicely golden, pour the garlic and its oil over the potatoes. Add salt and pepper liberally.

Get out your masher and start smashing the garlic and potatoes. If it needs more liquid, drizzle in small amounts of veggie broth - don't overdo it. Taste the potatoes and see if they need a bit more olive oil - another tablespoon or three won't hurt. Keep mashing and adding veggie broth (if needed) until your potatoes are at the consistency that you like. You can also use a hand mixer if you prefer your potatoes whipped.

Serve right away, or keep warm in the oven in a baking dish until the rest of your feast is ready.

hot morning cuppa

I am fighting off a bit of a cold. Feeling lousy always really makes me appreciate a hot cup of something nice, especially in the morning.

I like my tea piping hot, just barely cooled from the way-too-hot-to-drink stage. On a cold morning, I love to guzzle a whole cup of hot hot milky tea and feel the hot liquid warming me all the way down to my belly. Unfortunately, hot drinks don't stay that way for long in cold weather. Shari's chilly post the other day made me think about all the goofy (perhaps slightly compulsive) tricks I use to try to keep my cuppas hot.

I'm always looking for the most space-aged vacuum-sealed thermos. I always rinse my mug with hot water before I put the tea into it. I never let the tea steep without something covering the top to hold in heat. Usually it's a saucer of milk, because my hope is that the milk will warm a bit too, before I stir it in. When we go camping in cooler weather, I keep my thermos mug inside my coat whenever I'm not drinking from it. Maybe I should start doing that at home, too...

Once, my grandmother gave me this amazing little gadget: a beverage warmer. It's sort of a mini hot-plate that sits on your desk like a coaster and keeps your cup of tea or coffee nice and hot. I don't know what happened to mine, but being reminded of it today... perhaps it's time to order a new one.

Now that the weather is getting serious about it being fall, I am really interested in any other hot beverage strategies that you all have to share. In the mean time, I think it must be time for a cup of tea.

month of figs

It's fig season. Our tree grew quite a lot this year, and all the new growth is covered in beautiful little figs. I'm enjoying eating them and sharing them.

As you might already know, we've lived in this house for almost two years, and we inherited the fig tree along with it. Before us, the house was owned by the first owners, who had been here since the early 1950's. A few months ago, we came home to find this little note on our door:

"My name is L.B.
My friend live here
and died here.
If you have any
figs for sale, Please
call me I will
take as many as you
don't need, ask for
Robin. Thanks."

Since then we've been really curious about this lady with her morbidly endearing note, who clearly loved our figs in past years, and wanted to keep her connection to her old friends. All summer HWWLLB has been asking when the figs would be ready, and reminding me to call her.

Finally, we have plenty of ripe figs, so I called her and she came by yesterday to get a bagful. She had fun looking around the house and the garden, and told us stories about her dear (departed) friends, for whom she made fig jam every year for many years.

I tried my hand at making fig jam for the first time this year, too. Now fig jam on homemade bread with cream cheese is my most favorite afternoon snack.



Here's the recipe I used, from Deborah Madison's wonderful cookbook, the Savory Way:

fig jam with cardamom and rose water
makes 2 cups

2 pounds figs
1 1/2 cups sugar (I used about 2/3 of this amount)
1/3 cup rose water
1 tsp finely ground cardamom seeds

Remove those skins that come off easily and leave the rest on. Chop the figs roughly, then stir in the sugar, half the rose water, and the cardamom. Cover and allow to sit overnight. If it's hot and the figs are over-ripe, put them in the refrigerator to keep them from turning.

The next day, put them in a stainless-steel or other non-corroding saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook slowly for about 1 1/2 hours. As the jam begins to cook, check the bottom of the pot and make sure that all the sugar is broken up and dissolved; then stir occasionally as it cooks. When it has thickened, remove from the heat and add the rest of the rose water. Turn into sterilized canning jars; then immerse in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Find some more tasty fig recipes at Chocolate and Zuchinni - yum!

the last day of july

...is my last day at work for a while. Tomorrow begins my one-month sabbatical. Don't ask what I'm doing with it; I'm trying to avoid generating expectations.

The rush up to this last day at work has been horrendous; I don't recommend piling two+ months' worth of work into one month. HWWLLB and I really tried not to let my insanity ruin our home-life sanity. One of the things that was challenging but fun was trying to eat well and use the farmer's market and garden vegetables even when there seemed to be no time at all to cook, which has basically been every night this month.



One thing I discovered in the process is how much I love patty-pan squash. The variety that our CSA farmer grows is called Scallopini. They are richer-flavored and a bit meatier than your plain old yellow summer squash, and I could eat them by the pound.

My favorite way to make them is to slice them about 1/4 inch thick, and saute them in olive oil until they are tender, which doesn't take very long at all. Throw in a splash of white wine if you have some open, and toss with some sliced fresh basil leaves just before serving, with lots of salt and pepper.

To go with it, I cook up some angel hair pasta and warm up whatever leftover or frozen spaghetti sauce we have around. Eat the squash on the side and let the parmesan cheese and tomato sauce spill onto the squash slices... it's better than chicken or eggplant parmesan, I swear. The whole deal takes about ten minutes to make and is divine.

So, tomorrow the big month off starts, and I haven't figured out yet whether not-working means that I will post on this blog every day, or not post at all... I have a feeling that things will fall somewhere in between, though I know for sure that there will be a lot more knitting going on around here, and so lots more of that to share. Til then...

the tragedy of southern baptist cuisine

Y'all know I am out of town at a non-profit training this week for work. We are at a lovely little conference center tucked away in the North Carolina woods. I must say, this training is excellent. The other participants and the trainers are all fabulous people, and we're all learning a lot.

There are even other knitters here (you know how we pop out at meetings).


Shelly is knitting a hat


Jenny is knitting a shawl with locally-grown & dyed yarn


my sweater is making some good progress in this good company.

But the thing here that is not good, that is in fact very, very bad, is the food. It's helping me understand something that has been weighing on me.

When I got here, I was unhappy to find out that the conference center is owned by the North Carolina Baptist Convention. The reason this made me unhappy is that I care pretty deeply about gay rights, and the NCBC has been rather unfriendly towards gay folks in the last few years. You can read all about it some time when you feel like having your blood pressure spike.

This always really gets me upset. It's just mean. Plain old cussed mean. I have never been able to stomach the mean-spirited intolerance among some right-wing churches that leads them to turn people out for just being who they are.

After spending a few days with the NCBC, though, I have to say I finally understand it. It's the no-fiber diet. There is not one ounce of fiber in any of the food here! These poor people must have a BM on a bi-monthly basis. No wonder they're so dang mean and cranky - they must be perpetually constipated!

Really, there are 2 seasonings in the food here: sugar and salt. If it's salty, then it's butter- or meat-based. If it's sugary, then it's white flour- or milk-based. Dear heavens! The things they do to the vegetables are criminal. If a sweet potato has whipped cream and a cherry on top, I think that's a sign that somebody doesn't get the "vegetable" concept. And let me tell you, nobody around here looks very healthy.

I seriously think I started to suffer from malnutrition after a couple of days. Thank goodness one of the other students brought digestive enzymes with her -- I won't go into details, but it was a good thing.

We have been moping a lot at mealtimes, and I think the cooks noticed and took pity on the out-of-town liberals. The salad bar became a bit more colorful later in the week. Then somebody found a health food store in town and I bought some vitamins, peanut butter, granola and oranges to get me through the week. The trainers felt so bad for us that they took us out to dinner at a restaurant in the little two-horse town nearby, which lifted the general morale greatly. I almost stopped whining about the food entirely!

But I'll tell you what, I can't wait to get home to whatever HWWLLB is cooking.


All week this little guy has been meowing to come in, while silently I have been meowing to be let out.

i heart wednesday :: tofu recipe

Wednesdays are good days!

There's a new little routine forming since the downtown mid-week farmer's market opened back up earlier this spring. The market takes place from 11-2 in a park that's two blocks from my office. So around lunchtime, I stroll down there, catch up with friends and colleagues and make my purchases, always the same: lunch, flowers and berries.

Since the CSA delivery is Tuesday night, I don't ever need veggies on Wednesday, but no amount of berries from the CSA could really ever be enough, so I always buy some more on Wednesday. The flowers are for my desk at work. Here's this week's bouquet:



And Wednesday night is yoga night! What a great way to get through the middle of the week: stock up on beautiful, tasty things, catch up with friends, and then stretch and bend all the tension out in yoga class.

: : :

I mentioned tofu subs last week and a few folks were interested in tofu recipes. I love making marinated tofu and using it for all kinds of stuff, including lately subs. Here's the recipe:

marinated & grilled tofu

1 block extra-firm tofu
1 glass baking dish

marinade of your choice (here's a suggestion):
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp tamari sauce (it's just fancy soy sauce)
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp thyme (dried)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 cloves garlic, smashed
Mix the marinade ingredients in a jar & shake to blend thoroughly.

Start by pressing the tofu to remove excess water: Stick the tofu on a plate, put another plate on top, and then put something else on top of that to add a little weight without crushing it (usually a small cookbook does the trick). After 20 minutes or so, pour off the water that has been pressed out of the tofu and then cut it up into whatever shape & size pieces you like. For subs, I cut it into thick strips.

Put the tofu into the baking dish and pour on the marinade. Gently mix to make sure it all gets covered. Cover the dish with plastic wrap or something and stick it in the fridge for an hour or more to soak up the sauce. This is a great thing to do in the morning before you leave for work, to eat for dinner that night.

To cook, turn on the broiler in your oven. Pour off some of the liquid (back into the jar - you can use it again as dressing), leaving a small amount in the pan so that the tofu doesn't dry out. Uncover the dish and stick it in there to broil. You can also add chopped veggies to the pan, like thick slices of red onion, bell pepper, or tomato, to roast with the tofu. Broil for about ten minutes per side, and you're done!

You can also do these outside on the grill, but I'd still use a baking pan -- tofu tends to stick to the grill and fall to pieces. Close the cover to make sure it gets browned on top.

To make subs, be sure to roast some onions & peppers along with the tofu. Pile everything onto a toasted sub roll, add a little of that leftover marinade to juice it up, top with havarti or muenster cheese and broil for a minute or two to melt the cheese. YUM! Invite some friends over and have it tonight - it's very easy and very kid-friendly.

veggie color

Colors serve all sorts of important biological purposes. Mating, hiding, getting caught, attracting pollinators, warning off predators... in the world of garden vegetables, color means "Eat me! I'm full of cancer-fighting anti-oxidants!" (Aside: I like when vegetables use big words like anti-oxidant. I imagine them pronouncing it with an endearing speech impediment or a funny foreign accent).

HWWLLB and I certainly spend more time looking at our vegetables than we do eating them. Not to say that we don't eat them, we do, but we spend an embarassing amount of time gazing fondly at them. I can't take any credit for the delightful rainbow of plants out there; choosing and arranging have mostly been the work of the man of the house. Mainly I pick and eat them. But seeing as how we have such great colors going on out there, I'm starting to think about growing my own dyes.

Wouldn't you love to have a dress the color of this radish?



I'm eyeing the beets that are slowly coming along out there and wondering whether the trimmings from when I eat them (because I intend to gobble up every last beet myself) would produce enough dye for, say, a skein of sock yarn. Hmmm...

T, companion of Shari, brews his own beer, which is a lot like knitting one's own socks and sweaters, I think. This ingenious fellow is now growing his own barley and hops for the beer brewing, which is a lot like raising the sheep yourself (or maybe growing dye plants?). His beers are delicious, by the way, and I find T and his tasty beer quite inspiring. I like the increased integrity of the project that results when you grow constituent parts yourself - not to mention the reduced ecological footprint.

Some dye plants that are also beautiful to grow:
Beets (of course!)
Indigo
Bloodroot
Burdock
Coreopsis
Sweet woodruff
Yarrow

Some of these are plants we already grow in our yard - I've just never thought to put them to work before, besides the usual looking, smelling and tasting good. Maybe I should go find a book on dyeing with plants. Y'all let me know if you have any recommendations!


it won't dye sock yarn, but it sure makes a purty salad

what year is it?

Am I back in college?

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic this afternoon, because of my irrational excitement about Björk's having a new album out, and on top of it internet radio is playing the Smiths (I swear it's not a retro station). I've also got a big pile of school-work hanging over my head, since the summer semester has just started - it seems to have started without me. There wasn't any break between the spring and summer semesters, and I just can't seem to keep up the work pace without nice long breaks in between.

But anxiety about school-work makes me feel young as well - some sort of memory deep in the neurons. It makes me want to blow off the afternoon's work, scour the thrift shops and find some great t-shirts to modify. Warm weather is back and I feel a strong urge for some Wardrobe Refashion-ing to spruce up my closet.

I think my yoga class is also making me feel young and springy. I'd been out of the yoga routine since Christmas-time, and even before that, though I was going regularly, I suspected that the flow class I'd been attending might not have been the best for my body and its various over-age-30 aches and pains. But recently I found out about a wonderful teacher who is right in my neighborhood. She is quite talented, and specializes in bone and joint problems, and she's so close that I can even walk to class! She's fabulous, and after five weeks of classes, I feel an old yoga mojo surging in my body that I haven't felt in at least five years. Is it muscle memory?

Or maybe it's food-related: Once I was in a workshop put on by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association called "Grow your own salad bar," about growing greens in your garden, and the workshop leader said something about the way people brighten up and become more energized after eating a big plate of freshly-picked greens. At the time I was dubious, and thought he was being kind of woo-woo, but I'm starting to wonder if that's part of my feeling of physical youthfulness. Our garden is practically exploding with lettuces, and I'm eating a big salad about once a day to try to keep up with the supply.


the lettuce of youth?

Could lettuce be what's making me feel so spry? It couldn't be the Smiths...

I'll depart with a picture of the fabulous market bag that bugheart brought me last weekend... it's been my constant companion since then.

kale and a big bunch of narcissus

That's what I brought back today from the Farmers' Market. The downtown Wednesday market is back - hooray! Here's the bouquet I bought, brightening my desk at work, and making my office smell like heaven:



Until last year, we didn't really have a farmer's market in town, except that we did. We have a big giant Official State Farmer's Market with big sellers of wholesale produce, but nothing organic to speak of, and many sellers who are just peddling wholesale produce from wherever.

Last summer our Downtown Alliance coaxed a group of local organic growers to start selling at a Wednesday market in the park just 2 blocks from my office. It became a lunch-time tradition on Wednesdays to go with some friends to pick up a baguette and locally-made cheese, a tomato and some basil and lettuce and eat a little local, organic feast for lunch. How I've missed it all winter!

Today I was there bright and shiny on opening day, with my bouquet and my kale proudly in hand. HWWLLB bought some beautiful rustic bread and fresh mozarella. I can't wait til next week!



Can you stand more exciting news? Today was also our first harvest from the garden. Swiss chard! We'll have some lovely braised chard with our dinner of carrot soup tonight. I also spent about fifteen minutes picking many little green caterpillars off the broccoli (those butterflies are such traitors). I hope that birds enjoy them, they were nice and plump from feasting on my brassica.

I'm really enjoying getting to know my Sew Green compatriots. I love their posts and the incredible diversity of topics and ideas so far. Soon we'll be settling in to regular themes (I hear a rumour that water is going to be theme #1), but for now we're all over the map, and I love it. It's been great fun to spend some time on their home blogs as well, reading about the Dutch Girl's adventures with Project Runway and blurriness with Shari and Lisa.

One other thing: I love these letters between Amisha and Melissa. They have opened my eyes a little wider to the place we inhabit as well.

signs of spring

Today it smells like spring. The sky is an indecisive whirl of dazzling blue, fast-moving, heavy gray coulds, and then dazzling blue again. The wind is powerful, but the bite in it is gone. Everywhere outside it smells like wet ground, and it is a warm smell. Spring is almost here.



This little guy peeped his head out in the garden this week. It must be a teensy lettuce plant. We have peas, radishes, carrots and lettuce in the ground already, just waiting for the soil temperature to get high enough to start them growing, and we seem to be close to that magic number. Soon we'll put in broccoli - I can't wait! Broccoli out of the garden is a whole different animal from broccoli from the grocery store. I actually believed for years that I hated broccoli, and then one glorious Saturday after a trip to the farmer's market, I discovered how utterly, foolishly wrong I had been. Broccoli is tender and sweet and wonderful. But I don't need to tell you that!

Despite the vegetable garden, we are signing up for a farm share again this year. If you have been thinking about it - now is the time! CSA's fill up quickly in the late winter, so if you're thinking about it check out the links at Local Harvest and get yourself signed up for one. Many boxes of just-picked organic vegetables are waiting for you.

This warming weather put the fear-of-god into me about my sweater project. So what if the sleeves need to be knit on DPN's!!?? I have a sweater to finish before it turns ninety degrees here (which it tends to do in North Carolina about three days after you realize it's spring). I really appreciated everyone's suggestions about ways to ditch the DPN's (Magic Loop, two circulars, etc) but after much gnashing-of-teeth over size differences between Clovers and Addi Turbos (alas!) in the end I bit the bullet and just knit the other one on the DPN's. I had some conference calls this week, which always help to move the knitting forward.

So the sleeves are done. No tears or anything. I hope to find the time this weekend to push closer to the finish line (dare I hope to cross it??). It would be so lovely to wear this sweater on these blustery, indecisive days between not-quite-winter and not-quite-spring.