garden – Peaceful Reader

Craft Cocktails for the end of summer

Summer Cocktails

I’ve had this checked out from our public library for a few weeks…and have yet to take the necessary time to make any of the recipes.

I love craft cocktails especially made from garden ingredients; think cucumber or rhubarb.

I wanted to make quite a few recipes from this book-that would have been a lot of cocktailing through September…I tried to pick a few of my top favorites-there were so many delicious choices though.

Bee Sting

2 ounces Barenjager honey liqueur

Champagne, prosecco, or sparking wine

Pour honey liqueur into a champagne glass or flute. Top with champagne. Serve.

This is an easy one but I love bees and this would be a great celebration cocktail!

There is a delicious recipe for Long Island Iced Tea that I would love to try because it would be far superior to the cocktail I drank in college on crazy nights. I’m interested in the homemade sour mix.

Also she talks about a Dark and Stormy and her recipe includes actual ginger slices with ginger beer-that would take it up a notch so, of course, I’m going to give that a try.

This would be perfect for a gathering of friends even in late fall:
La Dolce Vita

2 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into cubes

2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 T granulated sugar

2 cups brandy

1 t lemon juice

2 bottles of Asti Spimante, chilled

2 cups fresh tangerine juice, strained and chilled

2 cups dry lemon soda, such as San Pellegrino, chilled

1 cup homemade sour mix

Ice chunks

1 cup red/green grapes, thinly sliced

Fresh thyme and rosemary twigs for garnish

Place apples in a large bowl. Rub lemon zest into sugar until no strands remain and sprinkle onto apples. Add brandy and lemon juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours.

Stir together wine, tangerine juice, lemon soda, and sour mix in a punch or other serving bowl. Add several large pieces of ice, the apple brandy mixture, and grapes. Stir. Serve drink in ice-filled cups, adding a scoop of fruit to each. Garnish with sprigs of fresh thyme and/or rosemary and serve immediately.

Salty Lime Soda (I love limes about as much as I love lemons)

6 fresh curry leaves
2 kafir lime leaves, cut into thin ribbons
2 T granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 ozs white rum
Ice cubes
1/4 cup club soda, chilled

Toast curry leaves in a dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant and dry, shaking pan often, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a shaker. Add lime leaves, sugar, and salt and muddle. Add lime juice, rum, and ice and shake vigorously. Strain into an ice-filled glass and top with club soda.

I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to find curry or kafir lime leaves but it will be totally worth it.

Enjoy!

Signs of Spring

{new fountain addition}

It’s been a glorious weekend. We had exciting events to attend to and the weather stayed fairly nice all weekend. I have tulips popping up in my front garden that my mother and I planted late fall. I worried that the massive population of squirrels that reside in our front yard had dug up the bulbs but nope, there are 10 tulips plants springing up! Joy!

This afternoon my husband completed a fountain project that has been two summers in the making. Do-it-yourself projects often run long here but they always get finished. Tonight we dined outside and the fountain bubbled happily behind us. I love the sound of flowing water; it breaks up static energy or maybe provides good feng shui for my environment. We spend a lot of time outdoors in the spring and summer and I know this fountain will be a draw. We have a popular bird feeder that sits near the fountain and I think the birds will enjoy the fountain as much as we will. Our kitchen table sits facing a window that looks out on the back yard and the pond will be in our view. We need a few more rocks around the edge of the pond and Groovy Girl says we need more fairies. Naturally.

Cold, Cold, Cold Days…turn the oven on high and bake.

I’ve had an exciting day. Too cold for school. I don’t think the blizzard was as bad as predicted but I am not one to complain about a 3-day weekend. I had some time to myself while Groovy Girl went bowling with friends. I cleaned the house. I watched an episode of Parenthood. I read more of Cuckoo’s Calling-love it! I would have read more of Insurgent except my Kindle is acting up; I’m 52% finished and bada bing…no charge. Good thing I have plenty of “real” books around my house.

I made chocolate chip cookies with G.G. late in the day. And while the oven was on I whipped up this amazing dish with a butternut squash from my garden; it’s been in my basement pantry waiting for the perfect dish. One of my NY’s resolutions is to clean out my stacks of magazines and I found this recipe in an old November 2008 Cooking Light.

Savory Butternut Squash

2 medium peeled and cubed butternut squash
1 T olive oil
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 T. honey
1/2 tsp Madras curry powder
2 T minced fresh cilantro

Directions: Preheat oven to 500*. Toss squash cubes in oil, and season with sea salt and pepper. Place squash in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan. Bake at 500* for 10 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven; toss squash with remaining ingredients. Serve immediately. Yield: 5 cups.

My squash was smaller so I used less ingredients and after snapping a few key photos I tumbled it into a to-go container for my lunch tomorrow. Tomorrow we have a late start (so far) and already I’m looking forward to lunchtime. Last week I finished my lunchtime book, Palace Beautiful (review soon), and can’t think of what book is next on my pile.

Weekend Cooking; Deep thinking about food.

Last night my husband and I went to an unusual play at our local university. The play based on the book, The American Way of Eating, by the same title by Tracie McMillan. The book was chosen as the school’s in-depth everyone reads book choice and the theatre department head decided that in celebration of that; they should workshop it into a play. From a very unorthodox beginning the play came together and was an amazing display of team work and artistic talent plus the audience members learned a lot of interesting facts.

Even though I haven’t read the book which is about Tracie’s journey to uncover what happens to produce from field to store to restaurant I get it. I’m the proverbial choir. I shop at the farmer’s market, I don’t shop at Wal-Mart or eat at chain restaurants or fast food. I did however not know enough or think about it enough what happens in the farm fields where undocumented or immigrants work. In Iowa I am familiar with disgusting meat plants that pluck workers from other countries in order to create an “affordable” work force. It is criminal how little they are paid for a long day’s work; back-breaking work and they are afraid to stand up for better conditions for fear of losing the little income they get. The play also touched on women’s rights and how easily those in charge take advantage of them.

I don’t know how to solve it beyond talking about it, writing about it, and encouraging folks to read her book and many others with similar themes about our broken food system. We want cheap food but at what cost and on who’s back are we stepping on to get garlic at a “rock-bottom price”.

Be aware. Be thoughtful. Investigate a lot. Question more.

This post is loosely linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Candace at Beth Fish Reads. There you will find other foodies who love exploring recipes.

Other food-related news:

I created this delicious zucchini soup this past week for a quiet dinner for my husband and I. I plan to make this soup this week to use up swiss chard and zucchini. I made a mole sauce yesterday for a pumpkin enchilada dish I’m making this week for friends that I’m going to hear Bonnie Raitt with in concert. I made mini raspberry muffins for my book club kids-they asked for seconds.

Overall it has been a good food week here at our house.

And in preparation for winter I’ve been cleaning out the gardens by making two more batches of pesto with basil from my mother’s garden; it is beginning to freeze here at night and neither one of us wants to lose any basil. I think I’m also going to freeze mint leaves in cubes. I’m watching my zucchini and butternut squash plants carefully as I have several there to bring in.

Have a bountiful week!

Weekend Cooking; Garden produce

We have a beautiful garden this summer. My husband and I compost lots of kitchen scraps and we dump them into a large ball composter that looks a lot like this one. This year when we rolled it from one end of the garden to the other (it IS heavy and it takes both of us to push it around, thus moving the scraps around) we had a really nice fertile (mucky) batch of compost. My husband dug down about a foot and we layered in a batch of compost, which looks like wet dirt, and then cover that layer back up with dirt. It’s a little like burying a treasure!

We have about 5 tomato plants, three robust basil plants, one acorn squash plant, one cucumber plant, and one zucchini plant and they are all producing for us this year. I love it when I can go out and gather a small handful of tomatoes and fresh basil and then turn it into a simple and delicious lunch.

From this:

to this:

Fresh roma tomatoes, snipped basil still warm, a little mozzarella cubed, sea salt and pepper, oil drizzled plus a scoop of homemade pesto there in the corner to add even more flavor.

I found this zucchini in the garden the other day and plan to shred it and make bread with it. Anyone have a great zucchini bread recipe to share? I have one I plan to use but I always like to find new ones.

Groovy Girl was so amazed by the mammoth size of the zucchini she had to have a comparison photo. Won’t that be delicious in some bread!

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking. Click her link for many other food-related posts.

Exhausting Mother's Day events

What a day we’ve had. It began with my beautiful Groovy Girl sobbing because I woke up before her and she wanted to wake me up with breakfast in bed. She did not read my blog post from yesterday (or ever) but I did get that menu exactly sans orange juice as there was none in the refrigerator. She only made me breakfast once I convinced her that I would fall back to sleep, which I did {wink} until she left and then I read under the covers until I heard her creeping back up with the tray.

It was youth Sunday at church so both my children read and or sang and after church we headed to a rabbit show. Yes, we have one little dwarf bunny but that is a post for another day. We went just looking for ideas to build a bunny hutch for outside.

Driving home we decided to ride our bikes to a local restaurant for lunch which was so relaxing and enjoyable as we can watch the bike path traffic in a very green area. It was cool but sunny as we pedaled to and fro. We had a delicious lunch and I enjoyed a spicy Bloody Mary with my fish tacos. Perfecto.

I seriously planned on taking a little nap once we made it back up our driveway but my front garden needed weeding and my husband needed help with the mower which wouldn’t start. So I slipped on my garden shoes and it was like they had wings. For the next three hours we got a lot of yard work done. We weeded the front garden which has been a project for the last two years after we pulled up three huge {ugly} evergreen bushes. Everything I’ve planted in this front part is a perennial and are mostly flowering bushes or herbs. Last year I transplanted a rhubarb plant from the back yard to the front and it looks great.

We then rolled our compost ball over to the far side of our rectangle garden plot and my husband dug down in three feet wide trenches so we could deposit compost under good top soil. It was back-bending work as he piled the dirt back and I scooped and deposited the compost. We got the entire garden turned and our compost ball is fairly empty. Starting over fresh.

We took a small break from turning dirt to linseed oil the small free library my step-father made and gave me for Christmas. It’s been living on the floor of our living room since then and now is the time to get it outside. My husband and son have a hole already dug for it and a post ready to go in the ground. Stay tuned for more of the project later.

We’ve had a small pool awaiting us for another backyard project and we just weren’t tired out enough yet so we {all three of us} dug the hole for the plastic pool. We still need a pump to make it lively but the first step of the project is complete. Amazing how a little sunshine and fresh air will motivate us!

Enjoy the photos to prove all we accomplished.

Weekend Cooking; Salsa Olympics

Sun-kissed girl and tomatoes

We spent another weekend up at the farm with my mom. She called and said tomatoes were not selling at the farmer’s market any more and we needed to make salsa. She said this with such enthusiasm I couldn’t resist even though I had so much to do at my own home, getting ready for school. I tucked Groovy Girl into the car with the new Kindle Fire and a good book and took off for the wilds of Northeast Iowa.

We’ve prepared this same salsa for the last few years although last year my mom made it herself as we just couldn’t coordinate a time to do it together. This year my cupboard was completely bare of any salsa and I knew I couldn’t make it through the year without this particular staple to my diet.

Groovy Girl collected ALL the tomatoes for our second batch of salsa!

Friends of ours, our minister and his wife, passed this recipe on to us. They also make it every year although I think we’ve changed our version up enough that they do not taste similar anymore.

Salsa

Skin 20 cups of tomatoes. To do this you need to boil a pot of water, place tomatoes into hot water and watch for skins to start “popping.”

1 1/2 cup cornstarch
4 cups onions, chunked up
2 cups green peppers, chunked up
2 banana peppers, chopped
5 large garlic cloves, smashed
1 jalapeno, sliced
2 cups sugar
3 T. cayenne pepper
4 tsp chili powder
2 T. cumin
1 T. coriander
4 T. salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar

Once the tomato skins have popped scoop them out and run a little cold water over and peel skin back. Cut out the stem and down to get that odd white core out (about 1/4 down). Loosely chop tomatoes and add to food processor. After each batch is processed add it a large pot. (We only processed our tomatoes for about five quick spins-we wanted to it to be medium chunky) Save out two cups of processed tomatoes and add the corn starch in and stir to dissolve. After you finish processing tomatoes and they are cooking in large pot add onions, peppers, and garlic to food processor and quick pulse to combine. Again only a few pulses because you want to see small chunks of greens and yellows. Combine spices, peppers, and garlic into tomato pot. Stir to combine. This is a great time to do a taste test to see if you want to spice it up more. (The original recipe calls for more hot peppers and cayenne but I like it not as spicy because my kids eat it like this. We’ve worked hard to make it kid-friendly without compromising flavor. )
Our pot was so full we had to scoop back and forth to really mix it up. Slowly add the tomato/cornstarch mix and stir well. Cook 20-30 additional minutes.

(My grandmother’s canning pot)

Put in hot sterilized jars and seal. The tops should pop if sealed correctly. What a satisfying sound as you hear them go “pop”, “pop”, “pop” 14 different times! A glorious happy feeling.

This salsa-making session will always be remembered as our Olympics-

1. We made one batch and crazily decided “let’s do it again!”
2. The Olympics played non-stop on my mom’s kitchen television while we (I) chopped, stirred, pulsed, and poured. I’m sure I took home a medal-14 in fact!

Our goal is to include Groovy Girl a little more each year. This year about all she wanted to do was gather the tomatoes but next year she will help a little more. Eventually my mom will have taught me how to do all that fancy canning stuff on my own and Groovy Girl will by my helper. I clearly remember making jam in my grandmother’s kitchen. She sat in her green chair while my mom and I took out samples to her so she could check our progress. The cycle keeps turning.

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to read many other food-related posts.