Perfect Summer Time Meal

Sweet Italian Sausage on the Grill with Fried Onions





Minus the bun...and minus the ketchup, this is what was for dinner last night. Nothing to making the meal either.

Slice open any sausage of your choice, place face down on a hot grill, and cook 'til done. Onions and peppers can be sliced, wrapped in tin foil and also thrown on the grill to cook (takes much less time to cook than the sausage). Or they can be pan fried. Once lightly browned, veggies are done! Finish cooking sausage and add onions, mustard, and horse radish to top (or as dippers on the side). We added some cooked spinach and macaroni and cheese for sides.

Perfect summer meal...

Slipping Behind ...Whip It Up Week #1

Arugula Pesto

(with sauted zucchinis sprinkled with fresh tomatoes, all over angel hair Pasta)

This was the ingredient list and the listed method -

Ingredients

2 cups of packed arugula leaves
1/2 cup of walnuts
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/2 garlic clove peeled and minced

Method

1 Brown 6 garlic cloves with their peels on in a skillet over medium high heat until the garlic is lightly browned in places, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan, cool, and remove the skins.

2 Toast the nuts in a pan over medium heat until lightly brown, or heat in a microwave on high heat for a minute or two until you get that roasted flavor. In our microwave it takes 2 minutes.

3a Food processor method (the fast way): Combine the arugula, walnuts, roasted and raw garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

3b Mortar and pestle method (photo pictures pesto produced this way): Combine the nuts and garlic in a mortar. With the pestle, grind until smooth. Add the cheese and olive oil, grind again until smooth. Finely chop the arugula and add it to the mortar. Grind up with the other ingredients until smooth.

Because the pesto is so dependent on the individual ingredients, and the strength of the ingredients depends on the season or variety, test it and add more of the ingredients to taste.

4 Mix with freshly prepared pasta of your choice. You may need to add a little bit of water or more olive oil to mix the pesto more evenly with the pasta.

Makes enough pesto sauce for an ample serving of pasta for four people

I have to admit I am not one for staying in the lines, nor for following recipes by rout. One may argue that I am asking for trouble as someone went through the process and got good results already, why try changing it up? But for me, cooking is about improvising. There are times where I am prepped and ready with everything for one particular recipe, but most of the times, I'm not. So I walk to the pantry and see what I do have and how it might work in the recipe in place of something I don't have.

For this recipe I had to substitute almonds for the walnuts, which I wouldn't suggest. Almonds are a bit too mild to fully compliment and add to this blend of flavors the way walnuts or pine nuts would. Sticking to pine or walnuts would be best. Also, I did a combination of the food processor method with my own blender method. My food processor is smaller, so I couldn't make the entire batch in one go. In a blender it's possible, but it is slooooow going. My blender is not exactly new, but I think all blenders would have trouble grinding that many arugula leaves at once.

Overall, this was a dee-lish dish and I give it 4 cups out of 5 cups.

Thank you again to RA and friends for giving everyone a reason to cook and write this summer.

Summer's Divine Desserts

Step 1 - Put two scoops of this into a bowl:





Step 2 - Pour a little of this over the top:



Step 3 - Either crumble this on top or eat as a side:










Step 4 - Enjoy

A Brand New Day

Today's Smoothie - Carrot/Ginger/Mango

Ingredients:
1 cup carrot juice (buy or get from a juicer, I'm so luck Jason has one!)
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1 cup mango chunks
4 ice cubes
pinch of salt

1/2 cup shredded kale

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender, and puree until smooth. Serve immediately.

Yields: two tall smoothies

I need to eat more vegetables in my diet. I do eat about 2 portions for dinner most nights, but that is not enough, so I needed to come up with alternatives on how to get more veggies. At first I was going to commit to adding a smoothie a day to my diet for the next month, but I have to be honest with myself - I lack follow through on such commitments. The first day I miss, I'll feel like a failure and want to stop. Instead, I've decided to make smoothies as often as I can for the next month, aiming for every day but not beating myself up psychologically if I do not. So each time I make a new recipe, I'll share it. This morning's smoothie was DEE-licious! Upon first reading the recipe and seeing Kale as an additive, I immediately thought, Gross. How wrong I was and I am glad I was. Kale adds protein and minerals to the sugary goodness of the mangoes and honey. At first I was trying to make a traditional Carrot Ginger smoothie, but it morphed into a new idea. I'll probably make the traditional one next.

There has finally been some gardening of sorts growing in my activities. I attended the Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN) sponsored meeting of the Community Garden Council last Thursday night. If I can't dig into the dirt of a plot, I'll dig in the Community Garden planning plot instead, just to stay connected and involved. There were five other people there, a very motley crew if ever there was one. A married couple sat to my right, the husband going by the name "Angel" though his sign in spot on the sheet was filled with something much more normal, like Ronald. This man interested me from the moment he started talking because never before had I met someone who was so like the manager from The Office (Brit version) in appearance and awkwardness.

A woman named Pat was the organizer of this meeting, but was quickly usurped by another woman who came in late. Pat was of the soft spoken, meeker varieties that this other get-down-to-business, brusque talking woman was not in support of. She didn't want to waste any time until it came time to brain storm ideas for a session she might write up, then she was all about tangents and ideas and thinking.

Over all, the meeting was probably viewed as productive in the minds of those who regularly attend these meetings. To me, a first time participant and being able to stay for only one hour, I felt a little frustrated, but could see future opportunities if I continued with this group. The agenda said "discussion of March Garden Meet Up workshop" and "future Council event in April", both vague and broad topics, so my hour commitment seemed long enough for a meeting of this type. My expectations, no, more like my hopes were to meet other youngish gardeners and garden related people who were making the lively community garden system of Boston work. The reality was five middle aged to older people slogging through the nitty gritty details of already planned happenings. If I can stick with this though, I see myself bringing a new perspective to the group, having a say in what and how the resources for the gardens are handled, and broadening the scope of this council to be more than just behind-the curtain-people to fully involved and interactive with the Community Garden members. I'll just have to remind myself over and over that this will all take a looooong time and a loooooot of patience. This is my motto - Peace is Every Step.

While there, I met one of the garden coordinators from JP, how convenient! She recognized my name immediately from the consistent emails I have been sending to any coordinator in the JP area. Upon learning of my plot-less-ness, she eagerly scribbled her personal email on my notepad as I left and told me to write her again. Of course I did the very next day and learned I am at the TOP of her garden's wait list, so I will know by the end of March if I will have a garden! These were the types of connections I hoped to make through the BNAN and the Garden Council and not just to further my own goals and aims, but to be able to know how to do that for others in my situation as well. It doesn't hurt to be connected to the Wizard, after all.

Here is my seed wish list, all from High Mowing Organic Seeds -

Provider bush snap beans
Shirofumi edamame beans
Danvers carrots (though I've had two years of growing 3 carrots out of a plot of tons of seeds!!!!!)
Lemon cucumbers (the BEST cucumbers I've ever eaten and if you haven't tried one, please do!)
Astro Arugula
Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress (I kid you not, that's its name)
Champion collard greens
Red Sails lettuce
Salad Bowl lettuce
Pirat lettuce (it comes up out of the ground saying, Arrgh,I'm lettuce!)
Mini Purplette onions
Mammoth Melting snow peas
Baby pam pumpkins
Crimson Sprinter tomatoes (early season)
Cosmonaut Volkov tomatoes (main season)
Joan, a rutabaga (yum!)
Golden Globe turnips
and possibly some winter squashes, but those are undetermined as of yet


As a small side note, I posted new paper at my etsy shop called Where the Green Fern Grows and it was immediately bought up! It is still showing there because it has become part of a custom order I am making, but I wanted people to see it...it's lovely. In my mind I was thinking of the forest, the ground, and the landscape and how I could transmit that into a natural white, to off white paper. What you see is the outcome.

Free Association

Some random thoughts from my day so far -

1. Please visit my post from December 4th again to see the new and wonderful addition.

2. Jason and I have been playing more scrabble recently. Usually I excel at scrabble. Jason does ok, but he's so slow that in a rush to keep up, he doesn't do as well. Now that he and I have been playing and I've worked on curbing my "anger issues" and impatience, he can take his time and he is KILLING ME! I've played scrabble for a long time and only scored a handful of BINGOS. (aside - why is it not called a SCRABBLE when you use all your tiles?) So few that I've recorded each one in which ever journal I am currently writing. Jason has gotten scrabbles EVERY game we've played for the past 5 or 6 games. Last night he had the audacity to get TWO! And his scores are getting closer and closer to 400 (to my measly 200 something). As an English major, as a lover of books and words, as someone who claims to do crosswords without mistakes, this is a huge blow to my ego...and I'm not taking it well.

3. Before we played scrabble, I was sitting watching Scrubs, the musical episode and working on my cross stitch project (I've got the bird and one tree done, doot doot) when my phone rang. The number showed as restricted so I knew it was my mom. I picked up and it was my mom, my brother John, and his son (my nephew) Riley.

They were all singing Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer together and needed my help for the last lines. Not only that, but I could hear Riley playing my piano (aka banging on it), something I taught him to do when he was a wee little sprout. I thought my whole self would bust at the perfectness of this phone call...the only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been if I were there with them too. Picture this little guy with a cute little chipmunk voice singing with my mom's off key Mommas-and-the Poppas sounding voice, and my brother's low off key support...

The way this little kid brings out my undying and unfaltering love is still amazing and incredible to me.

4. I started watching Half Nelson last night. Not done yet, but already it has me thinking. If you don't know the premise, here it is in a nutshell with no spoilers - A young teacher is found smoking crack by one of his students. Imagine this happening to you. The girl is portraying a13 year old who's mom is an EMT and works a lot, her brothers in jail, and she kind of has to make her own way. Then for her to discover her history teacher/basketball coach is smoking crack, whoa. It got me pondering how some kids can hold adults on pedestals, some demonize adults, but mostly, they are looked to as guides and teachers. How would this affect a kids' world? Has anything like this ever happened to you? When did you first see an adult as a "real person" and not just an authority figure?

5. One more week-end before I am off to NH for the family holiday celebrating to begin! So one more week-end to squeeze in more holiday cheer with a card writing session and a cookie baking marathon on Saturday. Here's one recipe I am SO making -

Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean Cookies

2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons freshly ground espresso powder
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking soda
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
3/4 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
1/2 cup natural cocoa or cacao powder (Scharffen B or Dagoba), not dutched

1 cup organic unsalted butter, room temperature (soft to the touch)
2 cups fine-grained natural granulated sugar (evaporated cane sugar) – for example, I love alter-eco brand, OR do 1 1/2 cups sugar + 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 large organic eggs
3 teaspoons high-quality vanilla extract

3/4 cup cup organic semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 ounces chocolate covered espresso beans

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Assemble dry ingredients: In a medium bowl whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cacao powder. Set aside.

Assemble the wet ingredients: In a big bowl or with an electric mixer beat the butter until it is fluffy and lightens a bit in color. Now beat in the sugar – it should have a thick frosting-like consistency. Mix in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first egg gets incorporated before adding the next. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice as well. Add the vanilla and mix until it is incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients: Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix in about four waves. Stir a bit between each addition until the flour is just incorporated. You could add all the flour at once, but it tends to explode up and out of the mixing bowl and all over me every time I do that. At this point you should have a moist, brown dough that is uniform in color. Stir in the espresso beans and chocolate chips by hand and mix only until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Drop the cookies onto baking sheets: I like to make these cookies medium in size (they are rich!) - and use roughly one heaping tablespoons of dough for each one. I leave the dough balls rough and raggy looking - I never roll them into perfect balls or anything like that - this way each cookie will have a bit of unique personality.

Place the cookies in the oven: Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes on the middle rack. You don't want to over bake these cookies at all or they will really dry out. If anything, under bake them just a bit. When they are done, pull them out to cool.

Tip: If you don't want to bake all the cookies at one once you can freeze some of the dough for quick cookies later. Instead of placing the cookies in the oven put the cookie dough balls into a freezer-quality plastic bag and toss them in the freezer. You can bake straight from the freezer at a later date, up the baking time by a couple minutes to compensate for the frozen dough.

Big Batch: 2-3 dozen chunky, medium cookies.

Only With Friends

Here are the promised pictures from my girlfriend week-end. This shot is (from left to right) Megan the English teacher, Jon Kleist the StoneWall Kitchen IT guy, and Christine Kleist...I'm not sure her title exactly, but I know it has to do with helping people with special needs find jobs. Christine and Jon started dating sophomore year and he was a permanent part of our group ever since. This was the first night together, before we hit the beer, and kept it classy with $10 wine. We all brought tapas plates to share for a meal. I brought pumpkin squash soup, not really tapas but totally TAP ASS AWESOME!

Here's my recipe -

roast 1 pumpkin (chopped)
roast 1 squash (chopped)
fry some onions with cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg (to taste and smell preference)
put all into a soup pan with 1-2 cups water/vegetable broth
heat until begins to slightly bubble
put half of the mixture into a food processor then return to pot

Voila, soup! (for fun you could also add a little cayenne pepper for the sweet hot compliment)



This is me on our way to the craft fair, lunch, and the ocean. As you can see, it is pouring out side thanks to good ol' Hurricane Noel. But because of the hurricane, the beach was an amazing sight to see with huge waves.



The new edition in this photo is Laurie. She looks ever so thrilled to have to go stand in the rain for a photo.

From the local artisan craft fair I found a nice gift for Jason's parents - can you guess which it is...

On our way home from the fair, we stopped at a famous little diner, the Maine Diner. This was taken by our waitress, Nanette, who called everyone sweetie and doted on us like we were all her children. The food was yummy.

Christine and Jon are new home owners so they have to deal with getting sweaty, smelly little children knocking on their door trying to sell them something. Christine, ever the sweet one who will be a great mom some day, bought some chocolate peanut butter cushions that were ever so yummy to snack on after our tasty lunch.

Finally, all class and swank aside, we busted out the drinking games. We were all a bit rusty and didn't go too crazy but we managed to squeeze in a game of up and down the river and F*** the Dealer. I know, we are true ladies.

Ok, I'm bored with this post now. Because of this NaBloPoMo deal, I felt compelled to write something today. I didn't have a chance to really think though - today at work was really busy and then I had to leave early for a dentist appointment. Some people have blogs to update people about their lives and while I see some of that happening in mine, that is not my major goal. Writing a post like this just does not excite me and I am too...busy to flush out anymore about it.

Argh, blast NaBloPoMo! We'll see how long I last...