Garden Recipes

With all the things we've been harvesting from the garden, I've been researching new recipes to try and use them up. I didn't have to look much further than the Food Network website.

First, I made this delicious Sausage-Cauliflower Spaghetti. I had made this once before, but this time I got to use my very own homegrown cauliflower so it was even better. This is a kid friendly dish in my house because the kids love spaghetti and sausage so I'm only throwing in one ingredient they might not love. I just cut the cauliflower nice and tiny and hope some ends up in their mouth. D has recently decided that he does like cauliflower but I'm still working on Cali.

My next challenge was to figure out what to do with my surplus of radishes, especially since the one person who eats the most radishes had been out of town. I really don't like them much at all, but I do like growing them because they are so easy! Plus I found some really pretty mixed color ones (pictured here). The kids eat some radishes, but still we had a surplus. I thought it would be fun to try these Quick Pickled Radishes by Bobby Flay.

Here is my version of his recipe, his called for an entire quart of vinegar & 4 bunches of radishes... I didn't want that many pickled radishes.

Pickled Radishes

3/4 cup salad vinegar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tbsp pickling spice
1 clove smashed garlic per jar
Sliced red onion (optional)

Clean radishes and cut to desired size. Combine ingredients of pickling liquid in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Arrange radishes, garlic and onion in jars. Pour boiling liquid over radishes and put on lids. Allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating.*

*This is what I did, but as I re-read the recipe I see that Bobby says to pour off the liquid and serve when it is cooled. Maybe that is why mine were SO powerful by dinnertime. Funny enough, I made everyone else try them first (since I don't even like radishes) and they said "Whoa these are strong!" Well I happen to LOVE vinegar so I actually did like them! Also, the original recipe called for Champagne vinegar which I didn't find, maybe it isn't as strong as what I used.

Finally, I found a delicious new use for cabbage! I do like coleslaw, but figured by the time I bought carrots and purple cabbage to mix with my own cabbage that would defeat the purpose of using what I have available. I found a recipe for Grilled Cabbage in a Taste of Home magazine.

Here is my version...

Grilled Cabbage

2 small cabbages, washed and cut into wedges
5 strips center cut bacon
1 tbsp butter, softened
Sliced red onion, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Start cooking bacon and preheat grill. As bacon cooks, arrange cabbage wedges and sliced onion on a large sheet of foil, spread with butter, sprinkle with pepper to taste. When bacon is done place on top of cabbage and drizzle bacon grease on top. Wrap tightly in foil and place on the grill. Grill, covered, over medium heat for 20 minutes or until tender. Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape.

Dave and I really enjoyed this recipe and ate a great big helping of it. I left out the salt and reduced the butter since I added bacon. The kids nibbled the bacon but said they didn't like "cooked lettuce." Cali said she would eat cabbage if I didn't cook it next time.

Fun with Lunch & Snacks

I recently blogged about my discovery of Bento and all the impressive, inspiring lunches and snacks to be found online. Well I'm the type that once I'm inspired I want to gets started right away. Here is a progression of the lunches and snacks I've come up with since discovering how much fun I could have. Forgive the not so impressive photos, my kids love to eat and I had to just snap quick iPhone pics before they gobbled these up.

First "inspired" lunch: Trader Joe's Cinnamon Schoolbook Cookies, crinkle cut baby carrots, turkey and cheese skewers on the Wilton "Add a Message Fun Pix" I found at Hobby Lobby, and a Peep with a special note for dessert. Upon presenting this lunch I was told "You are the best mom ever. This is the best lunch ever. I love you so much." And then Cali offered me full spa services in her room after lunch to include a back rub, hairstyling, hand lotion, sparkly lip gloss, pretend makeup and pretend toe polish.

First bento style snack: Half a Cara Cara orange (pre-sliced then wrapped in Cling Wrap), baby carrots, Emeralds cocoa roasted almonds, Trader Joe's Oat n Wheat Bran Swirls, and a yogurt drink. While my easylunchboxes were on order, I was happy to find these Sterlite brand locking top containers for only $2 at the big box store. This is one of the smallest sizes and it fits a surprising amount! This was for our nature center day where they play and play as long as they don't get too hungry so I packed a healthy variety.

This is the same snack as above, you can see there is plenty of room for food and even space for an ice pack on top thanks to the domed lid. I had to think hard whether I could keep the ice pack in there though and decided against it because I figured the condensation would make the crunchy snacks soggy.

Snack: Apple, half a peanut butter and honey sandwich, Trader Joe's Oat n Wheat Bran Swirls, and a salt water taffy treat. I was excited a whole apple could fit! Note these are very small apples though not just any apple would fit.

Weekend Lunch: Crinkle cut carrots, Cara Cara orange, cheese (they each have a preference), yogurt drink, and peanut butter w/ marshmallow fluff crackers.

Snack: Strawberries in baby food box, Scrabble Jr. Cheez-Its, granola bar. The picks were an Easter clearance find. I decided my boy wouldn't mind the flowers, and he didn't. They did tell me I should've written their names and a note on the back though. Had this in the car on a busy, hot day. Should've put them in an insulated bag because the berries got too warm and "yucky" and the chocolate chips in the granolas were all melted and messy.

Lunch for D, all by his request: Shelled pistachios, Cara Cara orange, Triscuits with reduced fat cream cheese, lettuce from the neighbor's garden.

Snack: Apples, crinkle cut baby carrots, fruit leather puzzle (see below) and Trader Joe's Oat n Wheat Bran Swirls.

Fruit leather puzzles. These are Trader Joe's brand, boysenberry flavor. These came about because I didn't have any cookie cutters that were small enough to fit within one strip of the fruit leather. I placed the two strips side by side, cut the boy and girl shapes then cut the strips in half to form two separate puzzles. The kids really thought this was fun!

Pickin Peas...

and cabbage, and cauliflower, and so many radishes!

The kids look forward to picking peas every day now, sometimes before breakfast. I haven't even worried about putting a veggie on their dinner plate lately because they are always picking their own peas and eating them straight from the pods. Cali never touched peas before 2 weeks ago. We've also picked a handful of raspberries which she thought she didn't like until this week. I'm so happy the garden has inspired both of them to try new things!

We always refer to this cute book we found at the library quite awhile ago, the song is still stuck in our heads... "Pickin' peas, land on my knees..."

My rainbow of radishes, these were called Easter Egg radishes.

I was starting to doubt these were even going to form heads. It's not huge but it was starting to open so I had to pick it.

One of my favorite little garden helpers.

Waste-Free Lunches aka Bento

Since elementary school I have been concerned about the environment. I was the kid who really perked up and paid attention when they talked about recycling, planting trees, etc. It pained me to throw things in the trash unless it was absolutely necessary. I was a member of Club Earth in high school and wrote my college thesis about recycling. When we lived in TX I collected all my recyclables for about a month before driving them to the bins located on post. They piled up in my pantry and garage and filled up the back of my Trailblazer. It makes me happy to know I have influenced several friends over the years to start recycling and they now enjoy it!!

Now I have curbside recycling pickup, yay! But if you remember correctly, recycling is just one third of the triangle. There's also the equally important, "reduce" and "reuse."

Here's a catchy tune to remind you...

Recently, a mom at our favorite local nature center mentioned her son's lunchbox, I forget how we even got on the subject but I was intrigued. She explained to me that her son has a Planet Box and admitted it was on the pricey side. I could only kind of picture what she was talking about so I got home and Googled it. They are really quite cool, you can check them out at www.planetbox.com

She had a thing against plastic, but I don't necessarily, so I spent the next couple hours over the next couple days researching other lunch packing options. I quickly came across the term bento. Bento is the Japanese term for a "single-portion, home-packed meal" which are typically quite carefully and artfully prepared (wikipedia). Now most of the Moms I Googled weren't packing sushi and rice balls for their Kindergarteners but the creativity in their lunch prep was definitely impressive and bento is the inspiration. I liked both the artistic, creative fun of the lunches plus the benefit of reducing waste in the lunchroom.

I especially liked easylunchboxes.com and found tons of inspiration on her fan site. My favorites so far from that list are Another Lunch and Wendolonia. If you've never given any thought to how many plastic baggies and snack wrappers are thrown into your childrens' trash cans after lunchtime, now would be the time. There are so many fun, creative, dishwasher safe(!) options out there. Oh and that's just one reason these awesome moms are packing such fun lunches! Check them out, there is a lot to learn about health, nutrition, and the special love your child will feel opening their lunch box each day.

I did purchase the easylunchboxes and probably have used them every day since they arrived, often by the kids' request. I should add that I do not even pack school lunches... yet. I have until August for that, but we do love to have outdoor picnics and pack healthy snacks for when we're out and about. Look forward to photos of my fun lunches and snacks in my next post.

The Bigger Picture

I mentioned way back in my September and November Photo Re-Cap posts the big project that David had been working on for the kids. The project was completed in November but to this day I had never even taken pictures of the whole thing. So without further ado here is the whole thing, designed and built one step at a time by my amazing, talented, loving husband (with a little help from my own dear Dad too).

The kids absolutely love it and use it almost every day. Between the swings, the sandbox, the upper deck & bridge (which is often used as a spaceship, pirate ship, picnic area, or class room), the ball chute, the movable stepping stone path (made from slices of the pine Dad helped us cut down), the occasional visiting lizard or interesting bug... There is always something fun. I think they are incredibly lucky kids to have a Dad who would build such an awesome play place for them!

By the way, I never really know what to call this thing.. playhouse, treehouse, swingset?? Any ideas?

Also, I'm not sure why but our dog insisted on standing in front of me for every picture. I took the top picture 4 times before he moved out of the way.

Duck Derby

They have been advertising since February that our city was hosting its first-ever Duck Derby. I remember my hometown of Fairbanks dropping ducks in the river every year but I don't recall ever attending. It seemed like a fun event for the kids so even though we also had a yard sale and soccer today, we also attended the duck derby. It was definitely a fun time. There was live music, all the usual festival activities (face paint, bounce houses, wagon rides...), and of course the big duck drop. One of the other highlights for my kids was getting to hold real live snakes! Including a huge boa(?) that they said was "soooo heavy!"

Garden Grown

Sorry to leave you hanging... I got overwhelmed with the photo updates when I thought about how many photos I had from December. Not to mention, life just plain gets busy. Spring also happens to be my very favorite season and I spend every minute possible outside enjoying it... despite the fact I have really awful seasonal allergies. I did spend a solid week in complete hayfever misery before heading back to the doctor to up my allergy meds. The problem is, I do love Spring and the great outdoors so much that I just can't help myself and refuse to stay indoors hiding from the pollen. On the contrary I was outside with my hands in the dirt and my nose and eyes fully exposed to the yellow clouds of misery.

My parents were always gardeners, and I spent many an Alaskan summer day pulling weeds or picking peas... even if it was my birthday. Although I also have fond memories of being allowed to go across the street from the community gardens to the empty fields (where a mobile home park used to be) to chase baby grasshoppers and eat wild strawberries to my heart's content. Well, thanks to that upbringing and David's Dad also being a gardener, we just couldn't help ourselves. Even in our very first, newlywed, one bedroom apartment we grew some plants in pots on a workbench in our garage.

Thanks to Dave's handiwork we now have our biggest garden yet, consisting of 4 large raised beds, two rain barrels, a compost bin, and a gated fence to keep Huey out. When people ask "What do you have planted?" I just say "everything."

Technically though, since March we have planted: radishes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, onions, shallots, potatoes, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, soybeans, green beans, cabbage, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin, yellow squash, zuchinni, tomatoes, jalapeno, purple tomatillos, strawberries, several herbs.. that might be all... wait, today we planted corn.

Putting worms in the garden, shortly after the initial planting at the beginning of March.

She's got a wiggly one!

More recent garden pics, notice the hidden eggs?

Broccoli, that has all been eaten by now. You can see it newly planted in the worm pics above.

Bunches of pea pods have grown since this pic. Cali checks daily for ones that are ready. She never liked cooked peas but has now declared that these fresh ones taste like candy!!