Sunday, January 30, 2011

Being Green Isn't Easy

Kermit was so right. Sometimes being green is just not that easy. This is a picture of my compost bins.

Can barely see them, right? There are two in the foreground of the picture. I took this from the window so you can see the screen in the shot as well. In order for me to get to these bins I have to go through knee deep snow at the backside of the deck, to then go through what I think may be chest deep snow, and then clear the snow/ice from the bins to then add my 'stuff'. This truly is way too much work! But I am committed and I will do it!!! I had the thought today that it may just be easier to climb out the window I took the picture from and dump everything that way. Keep in mind that is a rose bush, with some serious thorns, in front of the window. We shall see.....

Friday, January 21, 2011

Happy Snacks

Isn't this a happy looking snack? Especially given that it is freezing out and snowing - again!
These are watermelon radishes - adequately named in my opinion. They look like miniature watermelons, right? So I marinated them in rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, minced ginger and some crushed red pepper. Measurements were all "eye-balled" a dash and pour, and pinch, you know, whatever I felt like. It tastes really good, but smells awful! I brought some to work yesterday and was told by one woman that she will tell me when she is pregnant so that I never bring it with me because the smell is so bad. Honestly, radishes do smell, even when I cut them up and add them to salads they still have that pungent smell to them. So word of advice - save the radishes for home consumption only : )
We have even more snow today - will it ever stop? I know that this is New England and winters can be brutal but enough is enough. This is exactly why I travel to Barbados twice a year - December and March. I just can't stand winter here. And to keep us warmer or to at least imagine that it is warmer here is a picture from Barbados.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili

Ok, I know it doesn't sound all that great. I was a bit hesitant too. And honestly I don't even like chili but I though I would give this one a try. I had a sweet potato the size of a child's Nerf football and really didn't know what to do with it so enter a Google search. I found the original recipe on Eating Well and doctored it a little to, of course, add more spice.
Starting with my Nerf sized-sweet potato I used three cans of black beans, two zesty chili flavored diced tomatoes and two whole chipotle peppers in adobo. All the other spices/ingredients I just doubled. I chopped the peppers, seeds and all and added to the pot in step 1. I also added way more cumin and chili powder than needed - but I like my nose to water with the heat.
This recipe made A LOT. I froze 6 cups, had about 2 cups right after it was done and still I have about 3 cups left, if not more.
I think next time some browned ground turkey, or even the Morning Star crumbles might be nice in this. I also think I will try it in the slow cooker so I don't have to stand and stir for so long.

Friday, January 14, 2011

It's been a crazy few days

We got hit pretty hard with a Nor'easter on Wednesday as you can see...
And this picture is the same view as this one

I am not a huge fan of forsythias anyway - I would prefer to dig them all up and plant witch hazel instead and this might be my chance. These suckers are pretty hardy though. They have been in this yard for 45+ years and my Dad started them with 10 itsy bitsy twigs so I think they will survive. Not that I am not sentimental and I would feel bad about pulling out something my Dad worked so hard at growing but there are others out back and on the other side of the yard so his 'gardening prowess' would still be here in the yard : )
We lost electricity yesterday and boy was it a b-o-r-i-n-g day. I forget how much stuff runs off electricity. I thought I would do some laundry - nope. Then was going to watch/do my Rodney Yee yoga DVD - nope. Then I though of going online and investigating some companion plants for brussels spouts - again nope. I ended up reading 4 magazines, 1/2 of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and organizing my pantry. Oh and of course shovel some more. Thankfully it came back on before it got dark and I could watch my Law & Order SVU. Now, on to the laundry, yoga and companion planting....

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Bahn Mi - Sharon Style

So I recently read a recipe online about making Bahn Mi (a Vietnamese sandwich) and was intrigued. I didn't have all the right ingredients so I winged it.
I used - Watermelon Radishes, Carrots, Cucumber, Mixed Greens and Tofu. The best part was the 'sauce'. I mixed together mayo and Sriracha sauce. YUM! I was seriously licking the spoon. I great mixture of creamy spices. I will be using this on every sandwich I make, regardless of what it is made of, it is that good. I used the mandolin on all the hard veggies, threw in the mixed greens and stir fried the tofu with some sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce. Stuffed it all in a bun and dinner was complete. It wasn't as great as I had imagined but it wasn't bad and it was quick and easy.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Garden Plans 2011

So nothing of interest for dinner tonight, just yesterday's leftovers - which by the way taste great reheated too! I am planning out what I want to grow this year and again it is the usual suspects: tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, and edamame for the summer crop and peas, lettuce, kale and radishes for the spring. I am thinking about growing chinese cabbage and greens, like pac choi as well. I am also going to attempt brussell sprouts this year. My swiss chard was all dug up and/or eaten by the squirrels last year so I am going to try that again too. I have done onions and potatoes in the past in the Victory Garden and would like to grow them in my yard now. I am going to use potato grow bags because I just don't have the room to grow them any where else. As for the onions I am thinking I will just plant them within my flower beds, especially around the roses in the hopes off ward off aphids. I need to figure out where all of this is going to go. Originally I wanted to plant the tomatoes among the asparagus rows but not too sure how I will be able to pull them up in the fall without pulling up the asparagus roots as well. 'They' say that those two are companion plants but truly I don't understand how that is even possible. Time to bust out the graph paper and last year's plans to make sure everything has a place and that it is all rotated properly.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Southern Cooking Meets Northern Girl

So on today's menu was pulled BBQ chicken and southern fried cabbage. I was tired of eating 'asian salad' with all the cabbage I was getting so I searched around and found this recipe. I adapted it to my taste which means I added some spice! I deleted the oil, and fried the onions in the bacon grease for a minute before adding the cabbage and while that was cooking I added in some cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes. Mmm... much better. I also only used 1/2 a head of cabbage and doubled the bacon because bacon makes everything better : ) This is the result.

Slow cooked BBQ chicken is pretty self explanatory but I added in some McCormick Grill Mates Chipotle Pepper marinade to the mix to add, of course, spice! The end result - yum!
I have a bunch of frozen beans from last years harvest so I am looking around for some ideas for a casserole. I'm thinking the beans, some rice, cream of mushroom soup and some chicken. I think it may look like throw up but at least taste good. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

I'm baackkkk!

Oh dear, I am a terrible blogger. I haven't updated this since July : (

I hope everyone had a great last half of 2010 and that your 2011 is starting off with a bang. So, again this year I am making the resolution to update regularly (I promise).

The two gardens last year were just way to much work and the excessive dry summer we had made it even harder. The Victory Garden house is now officially up for sale. Depending on how you look at this it is either good news or bad news. Good news in that I will have more time to blog; bad news that I won't have enough land to grow everything I want. Two sides to every coin, I guess. They are asking $379k for the house, down from $425k. But it still needs about $200k worth of work and that is if you are doing it yourself. I don't think it is going to sell, but I will play it safe and stay out of the yard. Tom and I were busted by the bank appraiser when we were cleaning up the yard last year. Not that the man was concerned, he totally understood why we did it, but I don't want to take any chances this summer.

So in addition to sharing my gardening trials and tribulations I am also going to start sharing my successes and failures in the kitchen. All of my produce is either home grown or delivered via Boston Organics so it does still fall into the organic category : ) And believe me I have had some colossal failures this year. Can you say Butternut Squash?

So the new year is here and many more posts are coming - organics honor.

And just one last thing
Happy (belated) holidays from Max and Freddie