The garden groweth!

The garden is doing GREAT right now. The only problem I've been having is with my broccoli and cauliflower getting eaten by bunnies, though I still have several broccoli crowns growing.

 

No brussels sprouts yet, but the plants are doing great and growing like mad. I'm just waiting for the little sprouts to start- the time is near!

The squash plants are all growing a lot too. I do have some growing already, which are a couple inches long, though most are just vining like crazy now. I expect a lot more soon.

While I don't eat pickles, I accidentally ended up with some pickling cucumbers one day, so planted them with the intention of making pickles for Ben & my sister and whoever else wants some. There are massive amounts of tiny cukes growing right now. I think I'll end up with a huge harvest of them. It's hard to see in the picture but they look really small and spiny.

 

The tomato plants are also growing at a rapid rate. You can really smell them when you are in the garden. I have 4 varieties of tomatoes growing and two varieties have small fruit on them, while the others are blooming now. See the tiny green tomatoes? Even though I don't like tomatoes, I plan on trying them from my garden.

Today I was surprised to see lots of small peppers growing. I hadn't noticed them before. This makes me happy!! I can't wait!!

The family is growing!

We got a kitty! Since I'm a dog person, never having lived with a cat, and Ben is a cat person, never having lived with a dog til my rowdy crew & I moved in with him, we got a cat for him to come home to.

His name is Fillmore. He is almost one and is the cutest little thing. Very playful! We adopted him from a rescue group. I was originally drawn to looking by a tiny gray kitten named Audrey. Then we opened the cage little Fill was in and he jumped out into my arms and snuggled! He was very playful (a must for Ben) so we discussed it and took him home as foster parents to see how things would go.

At first he was scared of the dogs (even though they largely ignored him) and hissed at them A LOT. He has come around - being much more tolerant and even following Ruby around. We officially adopted him yesterday and so now he is ours! Full house!

Sweet Potato Muffins/Cupcakes!

As I've mentioned before, reading the food blogs that I do, I often get inspired by something. One major inspiration lately has been this blog. The author fixes healthy and super creative meals for her kids. And posts cool recipes (like the samosas I made recently). When I saw these sweet potato "cupcakes," I was inspired.

Produce Stories, Parts 1 & 2

One blog that I enjoy reading is called Produce Stories.  I stumbled across it while looking for strawberry jam recipes that used agave nectar. It is what helped me make my own jam! I don't know anything about the author other than that she posts about what she buys at a farmer's market and host much it is (amongst other things). It gave me the idea that I should post my finds!

The Webster Groves Farmer's Market opened last week. I really enjoy it! It has some awesome finds. Last week, amongst other things, I bought some water lilies (that are now blooming), some homemade lip balm, and a lined produce basket (to collect my garden's harvest in!). This week, here was my take:



1 Dozen Eggs - $3
Squash (2 Italian zucchini, 2 patty pan)- $4.50
Homemade, fresh Lemon-Pepper pasta - $3.50
1/2 Pound Fiddleheads- $7
TOTAL - $18

I was REALLY excited when I saw the fiddleheads. I read about them in Sauce Magazine (a local food magazine) a couple months ago. They are locally picked - not something you grow in a garden. The guy hunts them in the "wild" then sells them. Tomorrow I'll prepare them and let you know how they are!

I also went to a local produce stand called Roger's. They have the CHEAPEST produce there! Here was my haul:

- 1 large canteloupe
- 3 ears corn
- 1 pint blueberries
- 2 peaches
- 2 avocados
- 1 large sweet potato
TOTAL: $8.28!!!!

I told you it was cheap!!

Raspberry Adventures!

Lakeview Farms, take two! After being turned away so early last Saturday and not being able to pick, I decided I would attempt to drag myself out of bed early one day this week to go try to pick again. Wednesday morning, I did just that! Anyone who knows me know that getting up at 7am is difficult. Even on a work day. But I did it!

Arriving at the farm, I noticed it wasn't too busy. Score! One cool thing about this farm is that instead of going on a picking free for all, they give you your own area to pick in. That way, no one is infringing upon your territory and they can keep track of where has been picked over so the next person who comes to pick goes in an area with riper, not yet picked berries. That's a good model in my mind!

I started picking. The pickings were great! Lots of ripe berries to choose from. I really dug in there to get good ones. Raspberry bushes are prickly so it got a bit uncomfortable, but was worth it!
In no time, I had filled up several containers.
Looking to the west, the sky was ominous. I started picking like mad, worried that the skies might unleash upon me at any minute. People started fleeing to their cars. Dangit, I was going to fill all of my containers. If I got a little wet, it wouldn't do me any harm. I finished just as the sky looked like this:
I wanted to strawberry pick, but the lady where I paid said they would probably close so I decided to leave. I ended up with 8 containers. Total cost? $15.
Yummy, yummy berries! This much would've cost $24-36 at a store! So what did I do? I turned these into this:
And this:
DELISH!

To make the jam, I used 6 containers, about 1 cup of agave nectar, juice of 1 lemon, and a squirt of honey. Used my immersion blender (what a handy tool!!) and boiled it for about 30 minutes. Then followed standard canning procedures. I saved a cup of jam to make the raspberry oatmeal bars. Here is the recipe I used. It turned out great!! And I feel good that I hand picked the raspberries at a local farm and turned it into these yummy treats. I might go again tomorrow. I'm addicted!!

Samosas!

I've become addicted to reading a couple different blogs, and a couple of them are about food. Sometimes I get ideas from blogs, or sometimes I just have an ingredient or idea and Google it and get a bunch of different recipe ideas. My two favorite food blogs are:

- Fed Up with School Lunch: A blog written by an anonymous teacher who is eating the school meal every day for a year to raise awareness for how the nutrition lacks in them. She posts pics and comments about the lunches (which look way worse than our school lunches, but ours aren't very nutritious either) and has a lot of guest bloggers. It's a fascinating topic. As I'm on a healthier kick now and really shunning artificial ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, it's amazing to see what "nutrition" is to the institution that serves kids. How something like tater tots or corn chips satisfies their requirement of a veggie for the day. Yuck!

- BentoLunch Adventures (What's for Lunch at Our House): A blog I discovered through the Fed Up blog. A mom who makes INSANELY ARTISTIC lunches for her kids. You have to see it to believe it. And it's healthy! She also posts a lot of recipes. Which brings me to...

SAMOSAS!

These Indian dumplings are yummy.. and with me being off of work this week, I was feeling rather housewife-ish. So I decided to take the recipe, tailor it to my tastes, and make samosas for dinner.

Ingredients:
2 Yukon Gold baking potatoes
Peas (frozen)
Garlic (2 cloves or so)
Onions (I don't like them, so just used about a quarter of one for flavor)
Olive Oil
Paneer (Indian Cheese)
Curry Powder
Fillo Dough

You can really put ANYTHING you want inside it. Add or subtract what you want!

Here's how I did it:
1. Peel potatoes, cut into small cubes. Boil for about 20 minutes- until soft but not falling apart. Drain.

2. Chop onions and garlic. Sautee in olive oil for about 5 minutes (until they are getting soft).

3. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of curry powder to mixture. Stir to coat.
4. Pour cooked potatoes and peas into the mixture. Stir well to coat with curry powder. Add a little more if needed. (Note, I didn't thaw the peas much. They cooked enough on the stovetop then in the oven.) Cook for 5-10 minutes to absorb flavor. Set to the side.

5. Spread fillo dough out on the counter so the longest side is at the top and bottom. Fold it over into thirds, then turn to "hotdog" position (longest side at top and bottom again).
6. Spoon some of the mixture into the bottom left corner. I added 2 cubes of paneer (which was frozen) at this point. Then fold the corner up so it's a triangle.

Note that my folded fillo is sitting on top of non folded sheets here.

7. Fold down to a triangle again. You will get basically 3 folds and then have a little left over on the end. At this point, get a little water and bush it on the remaining strip of dough. Fold over and stick to the triangle. This seals it. It took me a couple tries to get the folding part. Check out this website for better pictures and instructions.
8. Put on cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 6-8 minutes, flip over and bake on the other side for the same or until golden brown.
9. EAT! I served it with an Indian masala sauce for dipping!