Sieglinde Potatoes

Speaking of Sieglinde potatoes - we've had this dinner a couple times in the last two weeks.  Roasted Sieglindes, roasted asparagus...

and crispy fried tofu (grated extra-firm tofu fried with garlic, oregano, nutritional yeast, pepper and braggs sprinkled on it) on fresh greens topped with our favourite dressing.

  So good.  We hadn't had this tofu salad for at least a year and I realized that I missed it.  This is something that even people who are pretty sure they won't like tofu usually like.

Delicious!

Gardening

I picked our first goodness from the garden in town the other day - no, not anything I'd planted, it was a volunteer head lettuce that had come from seed from last year.  At any rate, it was lovely to have some fresh greens of our own.

My little salad garden here is coming along nicely as well and we can start harvesting some of the greens.

The peas are coming up nicely as well and I look forward to this wall being covered in peas for E to snack on.

My town garden is slowly starting to look like a garden. I always love to take photos of a garden when it is planted and then at times throughout the season.  It never, ever ceases to amaze me how things grow and the abundance we get from the ground.  In a very short time I won't be able to get through these pathways without brushing tomato plants loaded with tomatoes.  It truly is magical what can come from some seed and a patch of dirt.  I love this quote from Thoreau -
Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

I too always expect wonders from seeds and I am never let down, I think seeds are truly magical.  Although I am perhaps just the teensiest bit let down about how my tomatoes and cukes look so far this year.  We've had very wet, cold weather so far this year compared to what we are used to and my warm crop veg are really showing their displeasure.  I've started giving them some nettle fertilizer in the hopes they will perk up a bit so we'll see, I think they'll start growing with enthusiasm as soon as it gets warmer.  Until then...no photos of the tomatoes! ;-)  Cold weather crops, like these cabbages, are quite happy though.

I'm also very excited that I was able to get some Sieglende seed potatoes at the Farmers Market last weekend.  I had already planted the rest of my potatoes but once we'd been introduced to the Sieglinde variety by a good-food-loving friend (via the Jamie Oliver roasted veg recipe), I knew I had to grow some.  They are E's favourite potato variety now.  My potatoes are planted in cages made from wire and I will just keep throwing more leaves on top as the plants grow (instead of hilling them with dirt).  It is a pretty good space saving way to grow them.

And, I've also been having a bit of fun with "honey holes" and planting squash and potatoes down on the front bank of this property.  I like to try to plant food wherever I can (no sense in limiting myself to a "proper" vegetable garden). ;-)  I always think that the worst that can happen is that things don't grow but...might as well try.  Right!?!  So these squash (as well as some pumpkins, potatoes and tomatoes) have been given a home on a bank in the hopes that their vines will grow down the bank and supply us with lots of squash to fill our coldroom.

They also have a lovely view of the lake so hopefully that will encourage them to grow even more.

I hope your garden is coming along too!

Nettle Walk, Nettle Smoothie and Nettle Ice Cubes

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with some friends up in the hills by our last home.  I wanted to find some young nettle to pick and since everything is at least 6 weeks to 2 months behind up there I figured it might be a good time.  We went to where I had found some last year while I was hiking with my Dad and there it was just waiting to be harvested. 

There were sweet little yellow violets.

There were trillium (in white and purple).

And, most importantly, there was lots of nettle - young, tender delicious nettle whereas down here it has all gone to seed.  We all picked some before  heading off for a bit of a hike.

And then I couldn't resist picking a bit more.  I had in mind to try grinding some in my Vita-mix and then freezing it in ice cubes because I wanted to take some to my folks for their smoothies.

I blended it with a tiny bit of water (just enough to get the blender to blend) and then poured it into ice cubes trays and froze it overnight.

I tested one of the cubes out in our smoothie this morning and it worked so well I plan to go pick lots more and make a supply to last my own family through the winter as well.  It will be such a nice way to get some nettle into our smoothies when there is no longer fresh nettle available.

I set this batch aside to dry for infusions (all kinds of nettle love here as well as how I make infusions) and with that and the nettle a dear friend brought me  I should have enough now to last through the year.

Hopefully on the next trip up to get more fresh nettle to blend we'll be lucky enough to find some Shaggy Manes too.

Chocolate Energy Orbs

I'm always trying to come up with different healthy, portable snacks for our family.  We've all loved the energy orbs(method for making them linked there) I've made for years and so, for something a little different, I thought I'd try making a variation of them with chocolate.  After all, isn't everything better with chocolate?!?

I ground my chosen dried fruits and nuts in the Vitamix, this time I used dates, raw cashews and some dried apricots (I  had already soaked the apricots in water for a bit to soften them up).  Then I melted some dark chocolate with a little orange juice (I love the flavour of orange with dates).  I meant to add a little coconut oil at this point but somehow I forgot...I'll blame it on the smell of melting chocolate distracting me. ;-)  Once the chocolate was melted I mixed it in with my fruit and nut mixture and then put it in the fridge to chill for a bit.  Once chilled I took spoon fulls of the mixture and rolled it into balls then rolled it in coconut.  I keep them in the freezer (all the better to make sure we don't eat them up in the first day) and they are ready to go on a hike whenever we are.  Delicious!



Quinoa Cakes and Mushroom Ragout

Last week I made the quinoa cakes I was wanting to try.  When I saw the recipe I had never heard of quinoa cakes but after googling it I see there are all kinds of variations so we will be trying this out in a few different ways.

 

Once breaded and chilled they crisp up nicely in a cast iron fry pan.

I decided to serve them with the mushroom ragout recipe from Joy of Cooking : All About Vegetarian cookbook (these mushrooms are delicious on soft polenta and I thought they might be nice with the quinoa cakes too).

I carefully finished cooking the cakes and carefully put them on our plates with some mushrooms on the side.  Once at the table I sat down and watch in amazement as my husband calmly m a s h e d his cakes up, mixed them with the mushrooms and contentedly ate it all up.  E did the same.  Next time W and I will get nicely shaped cakes and they will get quinoa scramble!

Still, they were eaten up with no complaints about quinoa so that is a good sign.  I think next time I will try making them with some spinach, scallions, garlic and feta mixed in.  I could see these being good in pitas in place of falafel too.

This is a photo of the mushroom ragout over some polenta that W made, this was serious comfort food to me.  If you love mushrooms then this recipe is a must try.

Priorities

Another weekend, another hike.  This time of year weekends often include lots of hiking time for our family (it's nice to get out there hiking before the full, dry heat of summer hits) but this year we've decided that we really will make sure our priorities are our priorities. 

We love time outdoors and so we are scheduling it in just the same way we schedule work hours in - it is a priority in our lives and we are determined to treat it as such.  This weekend's hike had us hiking along a trail we went to for my Mother's Day hike last year - a beautiful spot.

We enjoyed our hike, the boys enjoyed having a friend along, there was time for a packed lunch, flower photos and, once we were out of the park, there were roadside spots for rosebud collecting (I collect these every year and this ritual is such a simple blessing to me).

 

Every time I go for a hike I feel so grateful to live in this area, there are so many beautiful places to hike that are easy to access. 

On this hike (which has a very steep climb for the first while) we saw some members of the local naturalist club out on a bird count.  These women always inspire and impress me - some of them are 30 years older than I am and I love to see how fit they are.  They are also gracious outdoors people and always take time to engage my boys on the trail and encourage them. 



Once we got home we decided a home baked treat was in order and, since it is rhubarb season, rhubarb cake seemed a good choice...especially with whipped cream!



We also enjoyed a delicious fresh salad with dinner, not from my garden yet but from a beautiful garden I've been noticing for the past few months whenever we are in town.  It is a home on a city lot  that seems completely filled with beds of greens.  It looks beautiful - like a living quilt(you can see what I mean if you click on that link and see the blog header photo).  When I first saw it I felt sure that someone must be running a market garden there and I was very curious.

I LOVE seeing whole yards used to grow food.  And, from my understanding, the greens are then brought to our farmers market by bike.  I love being able to tell my boys about people like this - very inspiring.  We bought some of his greens at the market this weekend and they are fantastic.

Blackberry Muffins

We love blueberry muffins in our house but blueberries tend to get used up quite quickly (no matter how many pounds we pick and freeze - why is that?!?) so now we are onto wild blackberries.  They make delicious muffins (and frozen yogurt and smoothies and fruit crisp and...).

I thought I would look for a new recipe and came across this one, it sounded delicious!  I started out intending to mostly follow the recipe but that didn't last very long.   I had some plain yogurt to use up so I wanted to use that instead of the sourcream and milk and I wanted to use coconut oil instead of butter (not that I don't Love butter).  I also didn't want to use that much sugar - I like my muffins to be just sweet.  So here is what I ended up using.

2 1/2 cups flour (I used a combination of spelt and whole wheat)

1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup plain organic yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
1 very ripe banana - mashed well (this adds sweetness and lets me add less sugar)
6 Tbsp melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups frozen blackberries


Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a standard 12 muffin pan.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, mash the banana until smooth then add  eggs, yogurt, sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla.  Mix.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix together with a few light strokes, just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the berries. Don't overmix. The batter won't be smooth.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake 17-20 minutes. This is very yummy so I suggest doubling the recipe - I did! ;-)