I thought I would share some of my favorite pumpkin posts with you here. I am getting ready to bake off pumpkins this weekend and start planning for some holiday treats for my family.
This is our second year growing pumpkins in our little backyard. One thing we learned last year is that pumpkins really need a place to stretch out and grow. They send off vine shoots and then little tendrils that wrap around things to stabilize it.
They start out green and they do not turn orange until they are grown and have been out in the sun a good long time. They do take water to maintain but that was expected. I watered them daily... and am watering daily again this year. For good healthy gourds I knock a few of the little pumpkins off so that not more than 2-3 are growing on a shoot at a time.
The best time to plant pumpkins is sometime around Father's Day in America (June 17th or so)
I have not tried it yet but I hear from culinarians that the pumpkin blossoms are good eats, too.
One would pick them and then use a light batter to bread them and fry them.
The big yellow blossoms are open and ready for pollinating in the early mornings and typically by noon they are closed up and started to wither. I seem to have a fresh dose of those blossoms every morning and the bees just swarm to them.
I love having a pumpkin patch. We are trying to have the most sincere pumpkin patch again this year. I do believe we shall make it... it is my favorite place to be as I stroll through the garden each morning to discover what new thing has happened overnight. I just wonder, though... why did I wait so long to grow a garden in the first place. It is a very rewarding hobby for me.
Sunday dinner is a big deal in our house. We eat at the church once a month and at Dan's parents at least once a month and then we have our meals at home. When I was a little girl we had traditional Sunday Dinners every week, too. We were usually one of two places... mostly at my parent's home in east Texas and sometimes at my grandparents home in Louisiana.
Sunday Dinner has always been a very big meal with a meat entree and lots of veggies, potatoes, rice and it was ALWAYS followed by some kind of dessert. When I was at my Meemaw's house dessert was most likely pie. I adore pie! The pie above is a Rhubarb/Berry Pie.
We enjoyed another Kale Salad today with avocado and lemon juice. Dan loves this one and it is SUPER HEALTHY!
I steamed broccoli today just until it was slightly softened. I love my veg with a little crunch to it.
Tilapia is a favorite in our home... and so simply made with a little lemon/olive oil vinaigrette and a bit of salt and pepper.
Gold Yukon Potatoes were boiled on the stovetop whole and
then we add a bit of real butter with salt and pepper.
We got to enjoy the Butter Bread I bought at the Middle Eastern Festival we attended.
It is sweet and so lovely with a little butter spread on top.
Another use I could see for this particular bread would be in a simple bread pudding or as French toast.
Here is that pie! So amazingly fresh with the seasonal ingredients.
I have a little more Rhubarb but my next project is using apricots from my little "orchard" in the back yard. Our two trees are LOADED this year with fruit. I am very excited about this.
I also have apricots already donated to our family by a friend, too. I will be playing with these first. They have been washed and refrigerated for some experimenting this week. I think I want to try my hand at some apricot jam this year. It has been a long time since I have canned and I have been wanting to do this with some of our garden bounty.
I love brussel sprouts. I have love, love, LOVED them since I was a little girl. I have recently discovered the delight that is quinoa in recent years. My new favorite "me" meal is brussel sprouts with black quinoa. This is a recipe we did at work.
I rinse and quartered brussel sprouts and then saute them in butter just until they start to turn a little tender. Don't overcook them to soggy... I like that little crunch texture they still have.
While I saute the brussel sprouts I cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the packaging. This particular quinoa came from Indian Harvest... a bean and grain place that is used by our local culinary school. I got this particular one as a sample from them in the mail.
Once both are cooked, I toss them together and add a little salt and pepper to taste. Very simple... very delicious. We have also made this and tossed it with a pesto sauce. Great vegan meal by itself or as a side with your favorite meat dish.
On Saturday night... last night... we had tilapia. I make tilapia quite a bit but I usually bake it with a little lemon, olive oil and lemon pepper. It is very simple to cook fish. I decided to do a little bit different style with it last night.
I put a little canola oil in my big saute pan and then dredge the fish in some flour with a little salt and pepper in it and pan sear it.
Once I finished it I cooked the squash and zucchini in that same oil with a little bit of Kosher salt.
I also made a cornbread using a white cornmeal instead of the typical yellow I usually use. ...and I threw in some green chilis just because I could. YUM!!! I roasted the asparagus in the oven while I was baking a cornbread to utilize my oven usage. I usually just wash and break off the ends and then lay out my asparagus on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a little Kosher salt on it as well. Such a simple meal but so nourishing and yummy.
The kids ended the evening with chocolate milkshakes, too. I just put ice cream, cocoa powder and milk in the blender and then just blended the heck out of it and poured it up. They love anything I make in the blender it seems... smoothies, shakes, salsa... ANYTHING! LOL
My daughter and I went to our local farmers market at Ardovino's Desert Crossing and I thought I would share some highlights...
We got there and purchased a really cool basket to gather our goodies...
We heard some music... We checked out the vendor row....
and bought some veggies....
and then packed it all home....
There will be sharing of what I make with all this over the next week.
Here is the first one... the yellow melon is called a Canary Melon and when you cut it up it is white and very sweet inside. YUM!!! I will be getting more of these in the near future.
My mom sent this in my e-mail this morning and it is going to make the list of stuff to make for this week.
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Spaghetti with summer squash and tomatoes
Kosher salt
1 zucchini, sliced in thin rounds
1 summer squash sliced into thin round
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1\2 onion finely shopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
¼ dup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
Handful of arugula leaves or spinach
¾ cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese plus
Bring large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat for the spaghetti
Preheat oven to 400 degrees combine the squash, tomatoes onion, garlic and oregano in a large bowl. Add the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and give it all a good toss. Dump that onto baking sheet and roast for 10 to 12 minutes until the squash is tender and caramelized tomatoes with pop open scrape into large pasta bowl and cover with a plate to keep everything warm.
Add spaghetti to boiling water stir cook 8 to 9 minutes until done
To finish scoop out about ¼ cup of the pasta cooking water and add to veggie mix drain spaghetti and dump into bowl of veggiesadd arugula and parmigiano and plenty of black pepper and toss.May need more salt or parmigiano
Since I am on spring break I am going to do a bit more cooking at home this week and try some new things. Among the new stuff will be cooking a duck that Dan got for us over Christmas break. We shoved it into the freezer and now have opportunity to make it this week. I am also going to be trying a new recipe from one of my new chocolate books I got recently.
I am also doing a bit of Foodie viewing, too...
See, I still live, breath, eat and sleep foodie endeavors daily... even when I am not here sharing it. LOL I promise to do better. Oh, and just so you know. My main computer is out of commission and I am using my hubster's until further notice so my time is limited online for a bit. Thanks for still reading in the midst of my crazy life. I think often of blogging here... I really do. ;)
It's like Rat and Patootie.... RatPatootie....and that does NOT sound delicious! Linguini from the movie Ratatouille.
Oh, but it was SO delicious!!! LOL
I had some things on hand. The perfect ingredients for an almost classic Ratatouille.
* eggplant * zucchini * onion * garlic * bell pepper * tomato sauce * thyme * basil * I added corn instead of yellow squash because I did not have yellow squash.
So, I chopped up some things and layered them in a casserole dish which had been sauced with a tomato sauce layer underneath the ingredients. I drizzled it with a little olive oil, covered it with parchment paper and baked it for about 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
It turned out nicely...
I plated it up and then put a little more of that tomato sauce with some spices added to finish it.
Today's smoothie is so much like drinking applesauce/peach flavored smoothie. I used...
1 medium sized banana 2 small organic gala apples cored but not peeled 1 large peach pitted but not peeled 1 Tbsp orange juice concentrate 1/2 cup apple juice 2 Romaine lettuce leaves 1 cluster of Kale leaves About 4 ice cubes
The 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge starts on Monday and this is my guide to a healthier diet which includes ideas for smoothies and ways to get more greens in my diet. I am looking forward to this very much and have been playing with smoothies over the last couple of days.
In the midst of a houseful of sick children and such this has been one of our "medicines" of choice to fight this and keep up vitamins and nutrients in children that have, otherwise, not felt like eating very much. It has helped greatly to add this to our diet already and I am feeling more focused and energetic as I go along.
I hope to keep a record of the month here along with sharing some gardening and vegetarian stuff I am doing in March. I also hope to put more culinary school stuff up but please know that it is NOT healthy stuff... it is, after all, a baking class on pies, tarts, cookies and teacakes. LOL
In addition to the green smoothie I plan on...
* Do some sort of physical activity every day for 15-30 minutes. * Add a green leafy salad to your lunch or supper. * Cut out all white sugar. (unless it is minor sampling in class which I HAVE to do but it doesn't have to be a whole cookie... it could be one little bite to make sure they turned out like they should and the recipe does not need to be adjusted) :)
There is a challenge starting on February 25th over at Sara's place (Happy Foody)
I made my first green smoothie today just to see if I was going to be able to make it through a month of this stuff. It was DELICIOUS!!!!! I mean, like, sorbet delicious!!!!! I added...
2 bananas 5 large strawberries 1 tablespoon orange juice concentrate 5 ice cubes about 2/3 cup water and 1 giant leaf of Kale
I had soup at a friend's home yesterday and it inspired me to do my own version tonight. Basically what I did...
Mirepoix (1/2 onion, 1/4 carrot, 1/4 celery - these are not measurements in cups but rather a formula for mirepoix like 2:1:1 - so if you have 1 cup onion then you have 1/2 cup carrot and 1/2 cup celery and so forth) Chopped sweet potato (5 small peeled and diced) Chopped zucchini (2 diced) Chopped acorn squash (1 peeled and diced) salt and pepper to taste nutmeg pinch curry powder to taste Garbanzo beans (about three cups) 1 small box frozen spinach Vegetable Broth (32 ounce box) Water (about 8 cups or so) Can of diced tomatoes (large can) 2 cups uncooked barley
Saute' all vegetables in olive oil. Add precooked garbanzo beans. Add broth, water, tomatoes, spinach and bring up to boiling. Add the barley and cook until plumped and ready. Serve with cornbread, herb bread or crackers. I think I might be making a carrot and herb bread tomorrow to enjoy with it for lunch. YUM!!!
I made a rather large batch. It fed 6 easily and we have lots of left over for tomorrow for lunch.
Yesterday was the first day I did all vegetarian. There has just been too much sharing of meals and Dan cooking for me to be able to do it sooner. When he cooks there is meat and I am not rocking the boat on making go even MORE out of his comfort zone by making me a separate meal. He is NOT that comfortable in the kitchen to begin with and then to have to be a short order cook and chef on top of that.... not good. So, I have politely enjoyed the bits of turkey in my veggie and barley soup and the bits of ground beef in my spaghetti sauce and such. No harm no foul.... no pun intended...
Yesterday, I had yogurt, fruit and granola for breakfast. I had black-eyed peas for lunch. Then, he asked me what I thought we should have for dinner and I politely suggested that it would be good to have some sweet potatoes my dad sent, some asparagus that needed to be eaten up before it went bad and then I did get up and move around a bit to make some sweet biscuits for dessert. Here is what we had...
I had walnuts in my potatoes and we roasted the asparagus with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt on mine.
These are the sweet biscuits.... nothing fancy but great with a cup of coffee. Just sugar, flour and butter. I used margarine instead because we were out of butter. It makes the texture a little different but they were still good and the kids ate the all up before bedtime.
I made these yesterday for lunch. We had a ton of sweet potatoes so i had a hankerin'... All I did was peel the potatoes, cut them into even size (large batonette size) then I put them into hot oil for a few minutes to blanch them. Then I pull them out, put on paper towel and cover them for about 10 minutes or so. Then I put them back in once they have softened and fry them until crispy, pull them out , put them back onto a clean paper towel to pull oil off them and then lightly salt them. That's it!
3 Serrano chiles\roasted, peeled and roughly chopped
3 Tbsps. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. Sage or cumin
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 cup vegetable broth
2 cups milk
1 lb. frozen corn, or kernels from 3 ears of corn
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
add salt to taste
Instructions Cook potatoes with bay leaf in 4 cups boiling water until just tender. Remove from heat. Drain and reserve cooking liquid. Melt butter in a heavy nonstick pan over medium heat. Add next 2 ingredients and cook 10 minutes, stirring, or until onion is soft. Remove from heat. Add flour, sage and pepper, plus a little of the potato water, and stir until well mixed. Stir in the potatoes and remaining potato water and vegetable broth, milk and corn. Return to heat and stir until soup is thickened and hot. Pour into individual serving bowls and sprinkle with cilantro.
OH.MY.GOODNESS!!!!! See these boxes? Can you see what is written on them?
They say mild, hot and medium hot.
Dan could not decide which one he wanted so he brought all three home. They are the latest shipment of Green Hatch Chilis that came in this afternoon. This is 90lbs of green chilis. A full year+ supply for lots of yummy recipes. The annual festival is tomorrow and Sunday.
My kitchen smells so amazing right now... Wanta see them???
...and here is the up-close... they have been roasted and are ready for bagging and freezing. That is what I am doing on a Friday night.
