The post searching for a title

Oh yeah, the blog, forgot about you.

We've been ridiculously busy trying to install our patio, working full time (driving 45+ minutes each way sucks), and setting up the new business (herbal-symphony.com).

The patio is the latest time thief. Our landscaper installed the crushed rock, sand, and leveled the patio area so it was nicely prepared for us to lay the pavers ourselves. Much of labor day weekend was spent doing just that, with the help of our friend Tim who came for a visit from Cleveland, and Chris's brother Mark. We got close to halfway done and Tim and I were very sunburned. Last weekend the two of us got a bit farther, but we still have quite a ways to go. With all of our design changes, we ended up with 800 square feet for the patio! It's looking great and will be a wonderful retreat when the rest of our vision comes to fruition. More to come.

For some reason I'm most inspired to blog after I pick up our garden share (even if it's been 2 months since I've posted). Today we got lots of heirloom tomatoes, "gigante" kohlrabi, which, even though I picked out the smallest one, is the size of cantelope, beets (again), leeks, squash, collard greens, eggplant... Also carrots for about the 5th or 6th week in a row. I was so excited that first week for the carrots, but now they're piling up in the fridge even though I try to use some just about every day now. Going to try carrot halwa tonight, which I've always loved indian restaurants but have never made myself. Yum.

If you look at that link, it's for Manjula's Kitchen. We're totally loving her recipes lately. They're simple, delicious, and I love learning through observation. She's the Indian grandmother I never had, haha.

I've made black eyed pea salad just about every week for us to take for lunch since sometime in August. It's very bright and fresh. Delicious. I think it started when we had mint from the farm and didn't know what to do with it. I've since bought a mint plant specifically for this recipe, and despite how fast mint grows, it can't really keep up.

We went to Chris's grandparents (aka "the lake") last Sunday to celebrate his grandpa's birthday. Was great weather for chatting on the deck. Chris's uncle and brothers put the boat away for the season, so I guess there will be no more rides on the lake til next year. :( His grandma was given a whole bunch of garlic from their neighbor's garden, and we cleaned the equivalent of probably 10 or 12 heads of garlic (most of the cloves are really small- Chris said they look like pine nuts). I put a whole bunch in a container of olive oil in the fridge. And I've used probably a bulb or two worth in cooking this week. Good stuff.

Out of curiousity, does anyone other than Phil read this? I love that you do Phil, just wondering if I have a one person audience. I guess only those who have RSS or some sort of notification set up would know when I post since it's so infrequent.

The nights are getting noticeably shorter but the weather has been absolutely beautiful lately. Hoping it stays cool so we can get a lot done on the patio Saturday.

Anyway, to the halwa and the roasting squash I have in the oven. Til next time.

Weekend Cooking Inspiration

We made several new dishes Sunday. Chris had been wanting to try the vegan corned beef recipe he found a long time ago, so it finally happened. It turned out decently, although I think we're used to heavier spicing, so probably would double or use 1.5 times if we make it again. Not bad for a first attempt at "fake meat". We also hadn't had indian in many weeks, so I was thrilled that Chris was inspired to make Seitan Vindaloo. We used very little seitan (the vegan corned beef worked well) and lots of potato, and tweaked the amount of sugar and replaced the white wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar. Serendipitously, the sauce was really reminiscent of the vindaloo from our favorite indian restaurant in college. It never ceases to amaze me how often the use of animal products is often not the determining factor in recreating (or creating!) a dish. Needless to say, we had no leftovers.

He also made cajun chickpea cakes and I made asparagus sauteed in olive oil with sliced red onion and borsari seasoned salt for dinner. Delicious. Speaking of asparagus, we got our measly 'tasting' of 5 spears in our garden share this week. I was really excited to have asparagus, but incredibly disappointed with the amount. And that's all we'll get in the CSA this year. So I bought some at the store, too and cooked it all together. I do think the few pieces from the farm were the bites that stood out and tasted amazing though. We've always wanted to grow asparagus but it doesn't bear until the 2nd year. Hopefully next year we'll plant some.

We also had rhubarb from the farm for the 2nd week in a row so I decided I needed to find a recipe to try it out. The only thing I'd ever heard of making with rhubarb is strawberry rhubarb pie. I didn't have strawberries, nor was I interested in a pie or anything else with cups of sugar. Thank you internet for recipe ideas. So I made an apple rhubarb compote which had some sugar, but seemed better than a lot of what I found. I pureed it and it reminded me of a strawberry applesauce. Again, no leftovers, ha. So I'll either make that again with the 2nd bundle of rhubarb- or I also found recipes for muffins, a lentil-rhubarb soup, and rhubarb salsa.

Next I need to use the bunches of bok choy we've gotten two weeks in a row. The radishes, baby beet greens, chives, and lettuce have been nice for salads. Finally had a baked potato with the fresh chives last week, too. What will this week bring?

Home grown

I'm eating turnip greens I sauteed in olive oil with a garlic and lemon pepper seasoning and crushed red pepper. Pretty good. Topped with chives from the garden share, too. We also got red romaine, spinach, dandelion greens, mizuna (which I'd never heard of but now love), mint, and dill. I'll probably be eating more of these greens than Chris, but hopefully asparagus and some other things he loves will be in soon.

Chris has been making an amazing tomatillo salsa recipe from Rick Bayless. It's nice and spicy with arbol chilies and garlic. I think he made the 5th batch today since he first tried it 2 weeks ago.

I'm taking a break from painting the half bath downstairs. It's a deep purple-pink. Looks nicer than it sounds, haha.

Going to plant the few vegetable plants I got this week in containers since we weren't able to prepare a garden this year. But we have a huge patio tomato plant, an heirloom beaver dam pepper, cherry pepper, tabasco pepper, and italian cubanelle peppers. Can you tell we like peppers? These are all varieties that are hard to find in the store so it'll be nice to have them home grown.

I'm also soaking raw cashews and flax seeds I'll be using in my first attempt at raw bread made in my food dehydrator. Phew, busy day.

Good Intentions

I had wanted to create a food blog or blog for so long but didn't know what exactly to do. Like many things in my life, my lack of direction and specific goals led to inaction. I decided right now, as I'm trying to do in many areas of my life slowly but surely, that it would be better to do something, no matter how little, than nothing. So, I'm blogging again. Will I keep it up? We shall see.

We started this with a food angle, so I felt I could only post when I had pictures and stories about new and exciting things we had made in the kitchen. But I'm going to post more now. Often about food, since it's something I have passion for. Woah, I have passion? It's the thing I admire most about other people, because I often feel so boring, so unadventerous, blase, dull. But yes, I would say food is a passion of mine. How cool.

Anyway, my point is I often intend to post here and have perfectly edited pictures in a perfectly phrased post. But blogs are supposed to be off-the-cuff and whatever comes to mind, right? So, dear readers (all 2 or 3 of you?), you'll hear more of my thoughts- often about food- and far fewer pretty pictures. Maybe the more often I write the more I'll be inspired.

I'm very excited that tomorrow is the first pickup for our CSA garden subscription! Should be lots of green leafy things which will be great to add to my nearly empty refrigerator.

Thinking about it now, I have lots of food related ramblings I could go on about, but I'll save the material for another day.