Posted in garden, tagged arugula, cabbage, carrots, kale, spinach, winter on December 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Celery root, carrots and red cabbage. Bonus points for spotting the sunchoke!
Yes, you read that right! Very excited to get a few things out of the garden yesterday and even more excited that there is more to come!
Lots of beautiful kale!
A bit of spinach.
Arugula.
Posted in menus, tagged arugula, corn, string beans, tomatoes, zucchini on September 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »
What should I say about tonight’s menu?
“Most of the things were from our garden. It was delicious! Especially the corn. It was straight from the garden. You picked it and then you cooked it.” – Sofie
“We had our own roasted string beans and they were very good. They were delicious. We roasted them with garlic.” – Olivia
“I also liked the zucchini. We didn’t get a lot of zucchinis this summer. But we’re getting more now.” – Sofie
“It was all from our garden, except the salt and pepper, the cheese and the butter and the olive oil.” – Olivia
Once again, nothing complicated, just fresh vegetables. I roast the string beans with olive oil and peeled garlic cloves until they are slightly caramelized. Sprinkle with salt and serve. The zucchini is sautéed with onions and topped with cheese. The tomatoes are sliced and dressed with a bit of olive oil and salt. The corn is steamed until barely done. The salad is just mixed baby arugula, lettuce, spinach, mustard and mizuna. I topped it with the tomatoes.
First corn of the season and it was so good! Not the starchy, heavy stuff I bought at the farmer’s market a month ago. This was real sweetcorn, just ripe, juicy and sweet.
THIS is why I have a garden…
Tomatoes and corn. The rest is just filler.
Posted in menus, recipes, tagged arugula, lamb's quarters, recipes, salad, zucchini on July 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »
We were half way through dinner before I realized it’s Monday!
Mixed Salad: lettuce°, arugula*, lamb’s quarters*, carrot°, tomato°, chick peas
Pasta° with zucchini* sauce
Like most gardeners who plant zucchini, I have loads and loads of it towards the end of the summer. We haven’t harvested much yet, but more is on the way. I started using it in pasta sauce a couple years ago to use it up and it has become one of the girls’ favorites.
Zucchini Sauce
1 or 2 cups shredded zucchini
onion finely diced or garlic minced, to taste
cream (I use soy cream)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
optional: other herbs of choice, grated parmesan
Sautee onion, zucchini and garlic. Add herbs if using, salt and pepper to taste. Add in as much cream as desired. I probably use a quarter cup or so, just enough to make it look like a cream sauce! I suppose you would’t need to use it all if you don’t wish to. Let it simmer a little while. Add parmesan at the end if you wish (I do). Serve on top of pasta or rice.
With more zucchini on its way, look for more zucchini recipes soon, including zucchini muffins and lemon zucchini.
Posted in menus, tagged arugula, garden, mustard greens, recipes, salad, salad dressing on May 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »
We’ve been eating greens!
From left to right, that’s leaf lettuce, a spinach leaf, arugula, Chinese mustard greens and mizuna. I mostly planted arugula – lots of arugula!
I planted polycultures this year and so far, so good! They certainly look beautiful!
The garden is full of greens and we’ve had them lots of ways this week, so I thought I’d share them all.
grape and greens salad* with honey mustard dressing and sesame seeds
omelette with arugula*
boiled potatoes° with a mixture chopped greens*, garlic, olive oil and salt on top
pasta° with goat cheese° and greens*
more salad*, this time with nettle* pesto dressing
more salad*, with kohlrabi° and radishes°
What’s your favorite way to eat fresh greens? I am open to new ideas!
Recipe for Honey Mustard Dressing
Mix about 1/2 cup of oil with a touch of vinegar, ground dried mandarin peel, teaspoon of mustard and dandelion (or regular) honey to taste.
Posted in menus, tagged arugula, cheese, mustard greens, nettles on April 30, 2012| 6 Comments »
I used to have a colleague who would sign her emails with a catchy little alliterative phrase like, “Marvelous Monday,” or Terrific Tuesday.” I thought it was kind of cute and sweet, but some of my colleagues would just roll their eyes… So, at the risk of annoying any readers out there, I am launching a regular feature with an alliterative name…Monday Menus.
I notice lots of bloggers do it. I’ve seen Frugal Fridays, Wordless Wednesdays, Meatless Mondays… I thought it might encourage me to post more regularly. I didn’t want to steal anyone else’s idea and I have found that lots of people wonder what we eat since we are a vegetarian family (yes, even the Czech mate – he’s a rare one!). So, once a week I will post a menu selected from the week’s many meals.
I do actually plan out the week’s menus ahead of time, much to the Czech mate’s amusement (reference Czech film, Pelišky), partly to make the shopping list and partly so I don’t have to think about it every day when I come home from work. And when it’s in writing on the refrigerator door the girls seem to accept that it is not up for discussion and we can just get to work on making it.
Added interest – let’s see how much really is local, seasonal or grown ourselves.
Enough gabbing – what did we have for dinner tonight?
Vegetable plate of carrot sticks°, cucumber sticks and radishes°
Spring dip (tvaroh°, chives*, garlic, oregano*, salt, pepper)
Romaine lettuce, arugula* and mustard greens*
Cherry tomato salad
Chick peas, plain and with wild nettle* pesto
Bread°
Feta cheese (the excuse for calling it Greek night)
For dessert, rhubarb* streusel cake and ice cream.
°from farmer’s market
*from our garden
The girls would like to let you know that it was yummy .
What did you have for dinner tonight?
Posted in garden, tagged arugula, corn salad, garden, rosemary, sage, winter on January 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Fresh salad for dinner last night. In January!
Corn salad looking green and yummy!
LOTS of arugula!
I should have taken a photo of the salad itself looking all yummy with feta and chick peas and tomato on top of those lovely greens, but I was too hungry and ate it right away 😉
A couple more garden photos of my fresh herb supply:
Sage
Rosemary
Going outside to harvest it.
Yesterday's sunset
Of course it’s like 4:30 in the afternoon, still way too early for sunset to my mind, but thankfully days are getting noticeably longer!
Anything to eat in your garden?
sittingonpumpkins 