O is for OCTOBER

O suns and skies and clouds of June,

And flowers of June together,

Ye cannot rival for one hour

October's bright blue weather.

I just recently read this on another blog. I think's it's the most delightful poem. I love everything about Autumn. Cooler days, sunny skies, apples and pumpkins, bonfires, the colors as trees begin to turn.  September came and went almost without notice. I hope to keep my October schedule light, so that I can make every day last as long as possible.

It's hard to believe how much time has passed since I posted on this blog.  The kitchen remodel has taken over our lives in many ways. It has made planning meals difficult and most unenjoyable. Worse than that is that nothing is where it belongs. I have storage crates and bins sitting here and there, the microwave has taken up residence on the dining room table, and there is hardly a cleared surface anywhere.  Keeping a house clean under these circumstances is pretty much impossible.  I've pretty much given up on the whole thing and have now made this my new mantra... "Perhaps Tomorrow"!!

Meanwhile, I look forward to making soup over a fire on the weekends, and revisiting some of our favorite cool weather recipes. Fortunately, I've been able to keep the stove hooked up during our kitchen project.  I'm looking forward to making bread once again. We had such a hot September this year, so now that October is here and the temperature has dropped it is nice to use the oven to take that 'cool' edge off the air!

ASIAN INSPIRED ZUCCHINI SALAD

Really lousy picture of: FRESH ZUCCHINI SALAD WITH HEIRLOOM TOMATOES



Recently I purchased a unique kitchen tool from Pampered Chef. It slices veggies into strips similar to sphagetti. I've used it on cucumbers and zucchini and I made a salad for dinner tonight using the tool on zucchini. I was watching Aarti Party, a cooking show, and she was making a zucchini ribbon salad. I don't have a mandolin that slices ribbons, but I do have this little tool so I decided to use her ingredient list and cut the zucchini into strips.  I took a picture but it turned out awful! I wish I had checked the camera before we ate the salad, because I couldn't redo the picture!! So, you will have to use your imagination a bit!

The dressing for this salad is supposed to have fish sauce but I used oyster sauce because that's what I had in the fridge. She also used lime juice but I had lemon. She used fresh chopped chilis, which I didn't have, so I used chili paste instead. I also added about a tablespoon of soy sauce and a bit of olive oil, and 2 finely grated garlic cloves.  The other ingredient she added was cilantro and I used dill from the garden. I loved the tang and heat this dressing gave off. I could have used a little more heat but Richard doesn't like much heat so I was careful not to over-do with the heat. Oh yes, I also added 2 tablespoons of brown sugar...and lovely hot/sweet/sour combination that was perfect with fresh zucchini.

I added several varieties of heirloom tomatoes and marinated it for 1/2 hour before we ate. It was DELICOUS! You might, however, get a different opinion from my husband! He's not as much of a fan of asian cuisine...me? It's my favorite! When I opened the container it was marinating in he said "WHAT?...is that SMELL?" Good grief!!! I could have said the same thing to him when he brought in the grilled burger he wanted for dinner!! I don't care much for burgers and wouldn't miss it if I never had one again!  We also had the sweet corn we bought at the farmer's market today and it was so sweet and tender!

A perfect summer dinner....in MY opinion!

TO MARKET TO MARKET



This morning we went to the Farmer's Market in downtown Toledo. We've been going on a pretty regular basis due the fact that the drought conditions we had in July greatly effected our garden!  Last year we had bumper crops so I did a lot of canning and freezing. It's a good thing, because some of the leftover canned things will take us into the late fall.  I do have some things to can from the garden and that should be enough to carry us through until the next growing season. 

For any farmer or gardener, this is normal! It's just part of the program. I keep thinking of all those who are CSA farmers. We have one down the road from us and their prouduce looks amazing, but they did some pretty heavy watering or it wouldn't have been that way!  We have a well for water supply, and with the dry conditions, you really don't know how much you can water without putting your own water supply in jeopardy. So, we water the tomatoes, and the basil, and my flowering plants. The rest depends on Mother Nature. Fortuneatly for us, She came though at the very last moment and most of the plants and veggies were rescued. The dry conditions greatly effected the yield.





While water effects the yield, CRITTERS do as well!! In the 20+ years we've lived and gardened here, we never had a rabbit, coon, deer, or woodchuck in our garden before. This year? We had deer, rabbits, coon, AND woodchuck!!! HORRORS! But, I've heard other farmers say the same thing! There is a huge woodchuck hole in the middle of the corn patch. We planted 12 , 50 ft.long rows of corn. An early variety and a late variety. The night before we harvested the early corn, the coons had cleaned us out! Not one ear left on the stalks! The later varitey we harvested last week. Normally from this amount of corn we would harvest about 8-10 bushels of corn. We'd have plenty to eat, can, and give away. This year, we didn't even have enough to fill a picnic cooler! So sad! Gladly I froze so much last year, we should be able to make it until next July!

Our tomatoes are just beginning to ripen so it won't be long until I start canning them and making marinar sauce to can. We've been out for a couple of months and I've missed it so much. The taste is so different from anything else! I still have some basil that I will be using for more pesto and basil cubes, and we have lot of peppers so it's time to make more hot pepper marmalade!  If I am going to can pickled green beans I guess I'll have to purchase them from the market because the beans didn't do well either this year. I did manage to can about 60 quarts, but our son wanted 50 quarts for his family. Sad to say, they will only be getting half that amount. As the year progesses, we'll share with them if it looks like we have extras. 



ZUCCHINI! There is such a funny story in the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , about zucchini. There is a tradition that during zucchini season, when you know people are away from home you drop off all your extra zucchinis on their porch anonymously! While I think that's funny, I would rather find someone who actually wants them and will use them. The hard thing is finding those people!!  I think I'm going to make some zucchini pickles this year. I love a good bread & butter pickle, but I'm the only one here that does so I never can them. This year, we have so many zucchini that I think I'll make one batch of pickles for me!! I love them with cottage cheese...crazy..I know!

We love our zucchini. I make the most delicious summer vegetable chowder with it, cake, muffins, bread, casseroles, and grilled! It is SO versatile! For years I have frozen it but I don't like the outcome and I always end up throwing some away the next year. That's a lot of work to go to waste, so this year I'm not planning on doing that.

Tomorrow we'll have one of our favorite zucchini dishes - calavasa. I believe that's spanish for squash. It's a spicy dish that my mother always cooked and it's served over rice. So delicious! I also have some okra from the market and I'll fry that along with some green tomatoes which I bought. The next day we'll eat the fresh beets I bought. Normally we would have beets coming out of our ears! I usually pickle at least 2 dozen pints of beets but ours didn't even grow! Not only that, we love the greens and would eat them every day for as many weeks as we could! I recently read that someone planted them in August for October harvest. I think we'll give that a try. We'll wait until a little later in the month and hopefully have some for Thanksgiving!

I'm watching Aarti Party on the Food Network and she's going to make a raw zucchini salad so I need to go and give that my full attention! It's one way I have never had it!!

A TASTE OF SUMMER SUNSHINE IN OUR MOUTHS!

RED WHITE AND BLUE ~CAPRESE SALAD

The garden is beginning to reward our hard work. I should say, Richard's hard work since he's the gardener. We are having a dry spell, in fact this past June was the driest on record! It was supposed to rain last night but it went around us instead so we will have to do some pretty agressive watering. Fortuneately for us, we have a well that supplies us with all the water we need so the vegetables are going to get a good, long drink tonight!



CAPRESE WITH FRESH PICKED BASIL AND HOMEMADE MOZARELLA

I was so excited to see how much the basil had grown this past week. I bought the ingredients I need to make pesto, and later today I'll be making big batches of pesto to freeze as well as basil cubes. For the cubes, I just run the basil in the food processor with a bit of water, pop them in an ice cube try until they are solid, then put them in a gallon sized freezer bag. I freeze about 3 bags like that to last us through until the next season. They are so easy to use for marinara or soups throughout the winter. The pesto is great on pizza, bread, and pasta.

BASIL PLANTS READY TO HARVEST

(lettuce on the right, tomatoe plants on the left)

BUT, the real pi'ece de resistance is the Caprese Salad we had for lunch today! In my opinon, it is the highlight of gardening season to be able to use fresh basil from the garden for this salad. The only drawback is that the tomatoes are not in season here yet, so I have to resort to 'on the vine' tomatoes from the grocery. They aren't anything near as tasty as the home grown tomatoes we will have in another month or so, but they were a pretty good alternative.

Now, if you are going to have a Caprese Salad, you need not only fresh basil, but fresh mozarella! I have been making mozarella cheese for several years now and it's so delicious and easy to  make. When I saw that basil this morning in the garden, I knew I wanted to make some fresh cheese to compliment it. You can see from the pictures how pretty this salad is. It's like eating a piece of summer sunshine!! It will transport you to Tuscany or Provence in an instant!

Making fresh mozarella cheese is not only easy but so much fun! It's like watching magic! The milk gradually curdles, and the cuds begin to get larger, until you have a pan full of curds and the whey sepeartes.  The whey that is left after straining off the curds is great to use in breads or pizza dough. Since we'll be having fresh pizza on the grill tomorrow, I'm going to be using the whey in the dough recipe, and I'll save the rest and freeze it for future use. It adds nutrition and flavor to the dough.  I use the same recipe for foccacia, too, and also use the why in that.

The only special equipment or ingredients needed to make the cheese is vegetable rennet, citric acid, and a thermometer. It takes 3 minutes from start to finish, so it really is easy for both the novice or the seasoned cook.

Step 1- gather the ingredients:citric acid, rennet, thermometer,salt, milk

Thoroughly mixing in the citric acid at 88 degrees

At 100 degrees the curds are ready to strain out

The final product, after kneading out all the whey .

The cheese can be stretched and made into balls or

formed into a log for easy slicing. I added kosher salt and

cracked black pepper (that's the flecks you see).

One recipe makes just a little over a pound!

MUTANT RADISH!



Can you believe the size of this radish? Some of our radishes didn't get picked at optimal size, but I have to say, even though they are very large, they are still very delicious! The one large one with the baby in the picture, however, was not edible. It had gotten 'pithy' inside. It gets soft and a bit mushy and doesn't have the usual firmness and snap when biting into a radish.

Several in this batch were as large or larger than a ping pong ball. They are quite hot but we like them that way. I had never heard of using them for a sandwich but someone mentioned that she like them that way. We've never had enough of them to use them that way until now. I have to say, it was very good! I also used fresh lettuce and arugala and just a bit of salt on the radishes and used wheat bread.

My only other comment about these radishes is that if you radishes, I hope you will find a farmer's market and get some that are FRESH. They taste nothing like the ones you get in a little plastic bag in the store!

Incidentally, we don't fertilize or use pesticides!



IN MY OPINION

ME WITH A HAPPY FACE

FOODIE POST SOON TO FOLLOW!!



I'm really exposing myself with this post. I don't know why, I just thought it was something I wanted to share. I have Mother-In-Law issues. She once asked me "don't you want/try/think about losing weight?" OMG!  What? Are you serious? Yeah, I think/ try/ AND want to lose weight. Today, and every other day of the week. FYI (this isn't a good question to ask me if you want to be my friend...lol)

So, I suppose there are others who know me personally that might actually have the same question so I decided to write a few of my feelings and opinions here. Call it risky, stupidity, whatEVer, maybe it will give you a different perspective. Maybe it will help you not to be judgemental. We all need a little understanding and tolerance toward others...no just over THIS issue, but many issues! Oh yeah, and let me say, I'm a happy person. I'm not writing this because I'm miserable or unhappy. I've always been a pretty contented, happy, out-going person. I like myself (for the most part) and have learned how to like myself.

I recently came across a book at the library and it's been so interesting to read. The title- Nourishing Traditions-the Cookbook The Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.
Quite the title, isn't it!?

This is a big, thick book filled with some of the most interesting facts and studies, as well as recipes. I haven't had time to even look at the recipes because I've been so captured by all the information in the book!

I don't think anyone I know isn't concerned about their diet. Some are trying to lose weight, some want to lower their cholesterol, others need a gluten free diet, or fat free, or vegan, or.....and the list goes on and on! I think it comes down to a desire to be healthy and live a long life. No one wants to cut their life short because of bad nutrition. At the same time, many people are taking the word of this guru or that guru and basically following the newest diet craze to hit the media! TV commercials are filled with all kinds of information and before & after pictures and success stories of Hollywood stars who have re-made their image (and incidentally, who have been paid for dieting!).

In my quest for weight loss, I have tried pretty much every diet available. I don't think I need to list them but I can assure you, if you have thought of it, I've tried it. Some of them have been quite succesful, but the end result is that EXTREME dieting MANY times does not have a lasting effect. It is proven that yo-yo dieting is worse for you and harder on your body that maintaining your weight, even if you are overweight. I'm not advocating being overweight, I'm just pointing out that it really does take a toll on your body-your health-your strength, to be extreme and not use common sense. It shows in your face and skin...it ages you. I've seen it happen in many cases.

One of the solutions that is currently quite popular by many people is weight loss surgery. I've seriously considered this. I've seen it work for people with great results. At least in the fact that they 'look' good. My whole life has been a battle of weight, so for  me, the look issue is a NON issue. I don't have to be thin to like myself. I've learned to be a happy person in a fat body. BUT, I want to be as healthy as I possibly can and so I consider all my options. I also know, personally, people who have had weight loss surgery that have not survived. I know some who have had the surgery and within a short time, have gained all the weight back and then some, leaving them worse off than before! After weighing (pun intended lol) all options, I don't think I could ever choose the surgery route.

So, all of this comes out because I've been reading some very interesting info in this book! It is probably assumed that because I'm overweight I sit around eating bon-bons and donuts every day. Guess what? Not true. Instead, my husband, skinny butt and all, has a donut ritual. He gets donuts every friday on his way to work, and sometimes on the weekend. He also has a sweet treat every evening. He has a peanut butter and jelly english muffin every day. But, he also works hard physically, which I do not and genetics come into play. He had tall slender parents. I did not.

When I started this blog, it was my intent to make a decision to change how we ate.To make conscious food decisions, and see if it made a difference in our health. Recently I had blood work done and while I'm not going to post my numbers here, let me say that my Dr. was very pleased with results. I believe it's a result of the way we have changed our diet and the foods we eat, so I wanted to share what we have done differently and also about what this book talks about.

The first thing we have done is cut back our meat consumption to at least half of what it was. When I make a batch of chili, I add more beans and half the amount of ground meat. I usually use turkey instead of beef. We eat several meatless meals a week. We have a huge garden and eat a lot of veggies. We eat seasonally as much as possible. We try to eat organic foods that are highest in pesticides. We eat more whole grains and legumes. We rarely eat out and don't eat processed foods much. You can tell from looking at the recipes I post in this blog that we don't eat celery and lettuce meals. We eat good meals, filled with a wide range of ingredients, but they are wholesome foods.

So, I think I got a little sidetracked! Back to the book! Here is an example of the info in the book. In 1960 scientists did a study at the U of M with rats. One group of rats was fed corn flakes and water, second group water and the box the cereal came in, third group water and rat food/pellets. The group that had the cornflakes all died first, with the last rat in that group dying as the first one in the box group died, leaving the scientists to prove that eating the BOX the cereal comes in is better for you than the cereal itself! So much of our food is gentically modified, fortified with this that and the other, and we have been fooled into thinking it's GOOD for us! hmmm Maybe not! We try to eat foods that have a short ingredient list, and that we actually know what the ingredients are!

From the book: Research has shown that three raw carrots eaten daily, lower blood cholesterol; and that a single carrot a day lowers the risk of lung cancer among smokers by one half! (Now, I'm not a smoker, but I know some smokers and I've shared this with them. If I did smoke, believe me, I'd be eating carrots!) Carrots are rich sources of carotenoids, B vitamins, phosphorus, calcium and iodine.

From time to time I'm going to post more from this book. It will help show why we eat the way we do and make the food choices we make. Sorry for such a long post. Maybe you were bored reading it, but this afternoon I'm going to be making a batch of arugala pesto from the garden so there will be a more FUN post with pictures coming soon!!

MEATLESS MONDAY 6.27.11

With so many options, it's hard to get bored with Meatless Monday! We are gradually finding ourselves expanding our meatless days to at least 2 more days a week. During the summer, when the heat and humidity are almost unbearable, it's much more desireable to eat a light meal. A small portion of meat or fish on the grill is also nice, but now that the garden has started to produce fresh food, our meals focus on vegetables rather than a meat portion.

COUSCOUS TIMBALE WITH FRUIT SALAD

Quinoa and couscous are favorites of mine. Fortunately the family also enjoy them depending on what I add to the dish or how it's served. My favorite is couscous, preferably whole wheat. It's so quick and easy to fix, and a very healthy dish!

In the summer when the AC is running all day, and you really don't want to add any heat to the kitchen, I sometimes resort to using the microwave to cook the couscous. It comes out light and fluffy and only takes about 3-4 minutes to cook, making it a quick fix! Couscous tastes great with just a bit of  soy sauce or with lots of veggies or other ingredients.

At the store this weekend, they had 'old' cauliflower heads for $.99. They had just a touch of brown here and there, but they were firm and overall pretty nice looking. I also found little packages with mini sweet peppers. They were yellow, orange, and red and the package had about 9 of them for $.99!!
So, with these vegetables that needed to be used as soon as possible, I cut up about 2 cups of the cauliflower, and sliced about 6 of the peppers, along with 2 minced garlic cloves. On the marked down veggie rack were packages of yellow tomatoes for $.99 as well, so I chunked up 2 large tomatoes and added these ingredients to a bit of olive oil in a saute pan.

I cooked the couscous in the microwave and set it aside to cool after I had fluffed it up a bit with a fork. Once the veggies were cooked slightly, about 5 minutes, I added about 1c. currants, 1 c. kalamta olives, juice of one lemon, lemon zest, and salt and pepper taste. After tasting it I thought it needed a little additional punch so I added in some thyme and curry powder. Perfect!! So delicious. I love the sweet little surprise the currants add to the dish!

I had planned to add chick peas to the dish but forgot to take them out of the freezer and decided that the dish really didn't need them anyway. This dish tastes great warm or at room temperature making it perfect for a hot summer day. The leftovers are tasty as lettuce wraps!

Nutritional value: When you pair chick peas with couscous you make a complete portein, just like meat. But unlike meat, it only takes 3 minutes in themicrowave to cook the cousous!
1 c. couscous per 2 c. water. Cover and microwave for 3-4 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let set.