Garden Update!

Although our food producing garden is not what we wanted this year, there's something about an overworked husband and a pregnant wife that prevents things from getting planted, we do have a few plants that have the promise of bounty.

Our raspberries have finished blooming for the spring season and there are little green raspberries forming!!



We now have a rhubarb forest growing along the garage, although it's not really red yet...does anyone know how long it takes to get red? Does it even need to be red (I've heard of green varieties)? Is it too late for rhubarb?



And our plum tree, although looking a little sickly, has green plums getting bigger for now and purple later in the summer. Does anyone know about plum trees? Ours seems to have fewer leaves this year. Does it need pruning? Fertilizer? Love?



I hope to keep this blog going now that the quarter is over...but we all know my track record...Daniel has vowed to make me keep writing ("for practice", he says).

Happy gardening!

Chick Peas and Salad Greens

It was the last week for plants from some vendors at the farmer's market! Even though I can't plant them in the garden I got these two tiny starts:



Now I will, hopefully, have my own red russian kale by summer's end and a pile of delicious and hopefully spicy salad greens.

I was also able to get pea shoots (so good fresh in salads), red mustard greens (a little bug eaten around the edges but still delicious), strawberries (those didn't last long), and my usual suspect... So delicious!!

I soaked up some garbanzo beans last week and have them stockpiled in the refrigerator in hopes that I can do minimal dinner prep this week, there's something about finals that makes me not want to do any extra work.



So, it's green salad with garbanzo beans and a simple vinaigrette (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a little mustard and salt and pepper) for dinner. Yes!

The Spiciest Chili on the Block

This quarter I took Whole Foods Production a great class that focused on utilizing whole foods to make balanced, nutrient dense, meals in about 2 hours. For a final project we had to design and execute a meal using a meat or bean and grain drawn from a hat. My group got lentils and corn. I immediately thought of a recipe I found on 101cookbooks.com for a vegetarian lentil chili that I had made once before for my family. It was a hit, so I suggested it to the group. The rest of the menu was built upon this recipe.
We added Firecracker cornbread also from 101cookbooks, rhubarb crisp, and a leafy green salad with a delicious avocado based dressing.


Rhubarb!!!


I think the meal was genius. Although the chili was a little too spicy. I ran out of store bought chili powder and used the same amount from some Ghanaian chili powder I have that packs more of a punch.

I still think the meal was perfect for late spring in the NW when some days feel like fall but there is an abundance of fresh spring greens filling the markets.

I didn't take photos of the actual meal but here's one of a reheat at home:

Ice Cream!!

I'd like to think that Ice Cream is a whole food...but sadly with so much sugar added I don't think I can go that far. I do love ice cream and I would love to really learn how to make it.
My sister makes ice cream, of course, and the flavors she comes up with are delicious. I think my favorite of last summer was the raspberry...yum! I am a sucker for berry ice creams, maybe it's the idea that I'm getting some phytochemicals with my sugar.
So, my goal this summer is to have my sister teach me how to make ice cream...what should the first flavor be? Cocoa cherry? Strawberry? Irish Car Bomb (would that even be possible)?



Ahh well, to tide me over I always have my trusty Sunday Market vendor the Whidbey Island Creamery cart, or Bluebird, or our most famous shop, Molly Moon's.

Here in Seattle we have this phenomenal ice cream shop, Molly Moons. This week I found out that this summer, Molly Moon's is taking their ice cream on the road with an ice cream truck! How amazing is that?! I have yet to lay eyes on this mythical creature but I have signed up for e-mail updates and hope to hunt it down soon.

The farmer's markets this week were a fresh veggie lover's paradise! I managed to get to two, Bellevue on Thursday and Ballard on Sunday.

At the Bellevue market I bought the most beautiful bouquet of lettuce. It was deep green and ruddy purple with two varieties mixed together. My extended family benefited from this lovely show with a tossed green salad and there was still some left over!



On Sunday I went a little wild at the Ballard Farmer's market. I bought red russian kale, a personal favorite because it's sweet enough to put on a sandwich raw but hearty enough to stand up to cooking. Then, because the Full Circle Farms booth was still running their 4 bunches for $10 deal I also bought purple radishes, white turnips, and baby bok choy. All that and I still had room, and cash, to buy some grass fed beef burgers from Skagit River Ranch and some pastured eggs from another local farm.



The burgers were cooked up right away and didn't last long enough to get a photo and none of the salads and sandwiches I made with the greens are recipe or photo worthy, but I'll work on that for next week!

The most exciting find this week were the strawberries!! I didn't get any because these were water damaged and being sold by the bucket (and I have no time for jam making right now) but it does signal that strawberry season is here!!! Woo hoo!!!