Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts

Sunday

Spring Has Sprung or Dirt Under My Nails

 Spring has sprung.

" Spring Is Calling",  and we answered the call!

Sparky turned the soil and I planted the seeds.
There's something truly wonderful about the scent of fresh turned earth.

 
Together we covered them up. Prefect team work!
We plan to build a second box garden this year. 
But the peas are always the first thing to be planted. 

So, it's official, spring has sprung, and the peas are in!!!! 
My spring blooms  are reaching for the sunshine, look at these lovelies.

   I hear spring calling you too. Will you answer?

Happy Spring!



Friday

Comfort Food Spicy Tomato Soup

What You Need
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
4 cups roasted tomatoes (canned, jarred or made by you see recipe below)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup cream ( half n half or milk is fine too)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Fine mesh sieve or food mill
Blender
Additional, your choice of one or all :Fresh cilantro leaves, croutons and red-pepper flakes, for serving

Let’s Make It! In a saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft (about 12 minutes). Add cumin and coriander; cook, stirring, until fragrant. Add tomatoes, sugar, and 1/2 cup of cream and 1/2 cup of water water, stir well and  cook until warmed through. In batches, puree soup in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Stir in butter and season with salt and pepper. Serve soup with crusty croutons, chopped cilantro (or cilantro leaves) and red-pepper flakes.
Serves 4

Roasted Tomatoes
2 cans (28 oz. each) whole peeled tomatoes
3 garlic cloves (crushed)
3 Tbsp olive oil
Large roasting pan

Before You start: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Let’s Make it! Place tomatoes in a large roasting pan. With your hands or a large fork, roughly tear each tomato into 1-inch strips. Add garlic and drizzle oil over top. Roast until mixture thickens and holds a trail when you run a knife through it60-90 minutes) rotate the roasting pan halfway through the cooking time. Use immediately, or let cool, then refrigerate in an airtight container, up to 1 week.



Abundance

Summer is slowly coming to an end and the temperatures will hopefully be cooling down soon. We have been enjoying the abundance of fresh vegetables from our garden and strawberries too. There is nothing tastier than biting into a fresh tomato warmed by the sun. Our zucchini, green beans, scallions and brightly colored bell peppers fill our plates every day.
It is my prayer for you that each of you will always have a full plate of good things to eat.


#1 Burpless Cucumber, Hybrid Cucumber, Zucchini Bell Peppers
#2 Tomato, Purple Bell Pepper, Green Bell Pepper,
#3 Green Beans
#4 Lemon Cucumber in my husband’s hand
#5 Armenian Cucumber






Sunday

Vegetable Rainbow ( repost)

There’s a rainbow of color in your vegetable aisle! Have you noticed that bright white cauliflower now has a purple friend? Or that green peppers aren’t always green? I don’t mean yellow, or red, I mean purple!

Purple, my favorite color! Is making its way onto the produce shelves. Thanks to hybrid farming your dinner plate can look like a rainbow. Now, I don’t mind trying something different so purple cauliflower may be the next new thing on our dinner table.
Our vegetable garden has been thriving this season. We are currently overwhelmed with fresh tomatoes. No complaints, we love them even if they are just a beautiful red color. I wonder if someone will develop purple tomatoes! That would be perfectly fine with me. I’ll plant them alongside the red ones.
Our green peppers are green and that’s just fine too. But next year, I think we’ll try purple ones and maybe purple carrots too. Maybe our grandchildren will eat more vegetables if they resemble candy.
Don’t forget to stop by your local farmer’s market and help support your local farms.


Monday

Kitchen Beans

I love fresh vegetables and my husband and I both enjoy our vegetable garden. Every year we plant yummy veggies and strawberries too. This year the weather here (it was still snowing here on Friday) kept us from putting our starters in the ground.

I started plants in a little hothouse in our kitchen window. This year we are excited about adding green beans to our garden. Yes, we get excited about green beans…sigh. They grew well along with all of our other plants, and they were ready to go in the ground. But, the ground wasn’t ready.

I transplanted my starters into pots and soon, I had wonderful jungle of green in our kitchen window. Take a look at these green beans! So the next time you pick up some kitchen cut green beans from your market, remember they actually grow in the kitchen! Who knew, giggle.

Sunday

Spring Has Sprung

Spring has sprung and I couldn’t be happier. The crocus and tulips are peeking through the winter ground each one stretching to find the warmth of the sun. My window sill green house is sprouting peas ready for the first vegetable planting. My knees and back await the ache that follows a day of digging in the dirt. My smile grows with anticipation of a garden filled with a rainbow of colors. Of bees buzzing from flower to flower and happily pollinating our vegetable garden. I wait patiently for my hands to be covered with new turned soil. My senses are heightened with each birds song my joy is abundant now that Spring has sprung!!


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spring has sprung

Monday

Recession Garden


I think nothing taste better than biting into a fresh, juicy, sun warmed ,tomato picked right off of the vine. The juice and seeds run down my chin and I do a little dance maneuver to avoid having it all pool onto the front of my shirt. It tastes even better when the vine is in my own yard.
One of my favorite things (gardening) has become a necessity for many as a direct result of our current economy. The term “recession garden” has sprouted and is growing across the US. People are planting gardens in pots on balconies, amongst their flower beds, and along their fences. Even those with very limited space have vegetables growing upside down from pots hanging on hooks.
Lines to buy dirt, seeds, and seedlings are long and optimism is high as people plant vegetable and fruit gardens wherever possible. Many are planting gardens for the very first time. No, you do not need to have a green thumb to plant a garden. Mine is partially green and partially brown. But, what you do need is a little bit of money, plenty of patience, good soil, sunlight and water.
Growing organic is easy when it’s your own garden, and no need to worry about salmonella when you’re the one who planted the seeds. It is hard work and can bring on back aches and blisters. But, the end result is both frugal and delicious.
I encourage you to dig in, get dirt under your nails, and share your harvest this season.


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