Dinner with Deb

Two lovely ladies joining me
for a meal! What could be better?

This baby is bringing out in me a desire for friends and home. . .and food! That's a lot of fun! We got to enjoy a weekday dinner with our wonderful friend, Deb. I don't know why, but having friends over for dinner on weeknights is such a fun thing - maybe because it feels a little naughty (friends on school nights was a big 'no-no' in my childhood home).

We had a really yummy, but super simple meal of pasta with chunky vegetable sauce, salad, and garlic bread, heavy on the garlic. I did make the salad dressing myself, but following the recipe made a very thick (thick like pudding) dressing that I really had to doctor up to make it applicable to a salad.

Michele made the salad - so good!
And, yes, those are more of our
volunteer tomatoes!

The pasta sauce was actually made in response to a comment Michele made when we had the Tomato Venus Soup I shared the recipe for last week: "Yum, this would be good over pasta!" At the time, I thought that although it was a kinda thick soup it was far too soupy for a pasta sauce, but the idea stuck with me. To make it more sauce-appropriate, I chunky-cut a bunch of veggies (carrots, zucchini, broccoli, green peppers, red onion, and pretty much anything else I had in the crisper) and sauteed them up, then I went pretty much along with the recipe for the soup - just didn't garnish it with butter or sour cream at the end. It turned out really good and was an excellent way to clean out those last bits of half-used veggies in the fridge!


I really love this chunky sauce! And it's really pretty, too!



Tomatoes and Other Yummies: Recipes Galore

I have a few more recipes to share from my recent abundance of tomatoes. Actually we've only had a moderate number of tomatoes, but they've been SO good that I've been building meals around them and it seems for the last few weeks, every meal has been tomato-heavy. I hope you enjoy these yummies.

from Cooking Like a Goddess (my favorite cookbook):

Tomato Venus Soup - can be served warm or cold
1 Qt can of crushed tomatoes
3-4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup oil-packed sundried tomatoes, drained and chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion (I had used 1/2 a Vidalia onion in another recipe, so I substituted that for the red onion and it was DELICIOUS!!)
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil, or 1 tbsp dried
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp melted butter (optional and only if the soup will be served warm)
sour cream as topping (optional)
I also added a dash or two of cayenne (of course!)

In a bowl if serving chilled or in a saucepan if serving warm, combine all ingredients down through the black pepper. If you are serving warm, simmer for about 10 minutes, then, if desired (oh, you desire, it's so good!) add 1-2 tbsp of melted butter. Warm or cold, it's yummy to top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and basil leaves.

Tomato Venus Soup

I paired this soup with the following salad:
from new vegetarian cuisine (another favorite cookbook):

Cherry Tomato Gazpacho Salad (using those lovely volunteer tomatoes from my garden!)
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup peeled, seeded, and diced cucumbers
1/2 cup diced zucchini
1/2 cup diced sweet red peppers
1/4 cup chopped Vidalia onions
2 tbsp red wine vinegar (I used balsamic since I didn't have red wine vinegar)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp minced shallots
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp finely minced jalapeno peppers
1/4 tsp Mrs. Dash
1 cup of garlic croutons

In a bowl, mix together everything from tomatoes down through onions. In a seperate small bowl, whisk together every else except the croutons. Pour sauce over salad and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Divvy up and top each serving with croutons. Yummy!!

Cherry Tomato Gazpacho Salad

Later in the week we enjoyed the following:
also from new vegetarian cuisine:

Mexican Stuffed Potatoes
1 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup drained canned Mexican-style corn
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (I left this out since Michele and I are not fans of cilantro)
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp minced red onions (again, I still had some Vidalia left over, so I used that)
2 tbsp minced scallions
I also added diced zucchini since I had some and thought, "why not?!"
1/2 tsp ground cumin (I really hate cumin, so I left it out. Used my customary dash or two of cayenne instead.)
2 large baked potatoes, warmed (I used this technique to bake my potatoes)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream (optional)

In a bowl, mix everything from the beans down through the cumin. Cover and refrigerate for at least one houe. Split the potatoes lengthwise and top with the salsa. Cover with cheddar cheese and pop in the microwave or oven to melt. Michele and I never pass up an excuse to have sour cream so we added a lovely dollop to the top of each. Also, I quadrupled the recipe to make enough for the week and baked 10 potatoes and just stored it all in the fridge. The longer the salsa mixture sits the more intense the flavors (i.e. the yummier it gets!!)

Mexican Stuffed Potatoes

Exciting Changes

Everything is so exciting right now. So much is up in the air, or rather, so much is to come that right now could be an impatient time of waiting, waiting, waiting for me, but it's not. Our friend Sue was over for dinner last night and the three of us discussed how impatient I normally am and I was thinking about that this morning. I really am VERY impatient, but with this whole journey to our baby's arrival, I just feel super excited. I think it's because every day is full of something fun and new, some exciting change. And since I'm finally feeling most excellent, I get to enjoy them all.

Here are a few things I've enjoyed over the past few weeks:

Me - I'm really enjoying the changes with my body as our baby grows. I had a hard time with this in the beginning, I think because I was SO sick, but now, it's just thrilling to experience how my body is creating everything our little miracle needs.

16 Weeks - Heading off to my first
prenatal yoga class. Oh how I LOVE yoga!!

17 weeks wearing what has turned out to be my FAVORITE
pregnancy outfit to date!
Comfy, comfy, comfy, all my favorite colors, and a citrus-fruit
covered skirt! Who could ask for more!?

Our home - I've always been a collector of things, so I thought the drive the purge would really freak me out ("Oh no! Where is all my stuff!"), but it's been really great! I love seeing my house more organized and weeding out the un-needed that has just been taking up space. I also LOVE having a reason to re-paint or paint rooms! Decorating my home has always been one of my favorite things, so taking this perfect opportunity to redo a few rooms has been a joy!

Michele prepping and priming our new living room for paint.
She is helpfully assisted by the lovely BethAnn who does not
like her picture taken, but was a huge help in getting this room ready!

Friends - We've always been surrounded by loving people, but with the baby coming, love has just been overflowing! We're so grateful to all our wonderful friends for the calls, Facebook messages, visits, dinners, and especially for the painting and reorganizing assistance! It's really all been such a wonderful blessing!

The meal we're about to serve our dear friend Sue (who also hates her picture taken)
after she spent the morning putting the first coat of paint on our baby's room.
Mexican Stuffed Baked Potatoes (recipe in a post to follow)

Zucchini Cupcakes

Zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting - I'm sure my
icing piping skills will improve with practice!

I've never made cupcakes before that I can remember. I've only actually made cake a few times. So, I wanted to try making cupcakes for our church's anniversary picnic tomorrow. I also wanted to use something in my garden to make them - enter the zucchini cupcake. I just used that zucchini cake recipe I made for the Squash You Very Much dinner, but I tripled the recipe. I had no idea how many cupcakes that would make, so I ended up with 70! Oh well, they are really yummy so any not enjoyed at the picnic can be taken to church on Sunday for after-service socializing. And since I really like trying lots of new things all at once, I wanted to trying piping on the frosting (my friend Karen does that and it just looks divine!) After a bit of trial and error and a LOT of mess - i.e. icing on the floor, counters, hands, feet, and most body parts in between! - they turned out pretty good looking - and they taste just awesome! If you remember from the dinner party post, the recipe calls for raisins in the cake, but I substituted craisins. Well this time, I used half craisins and half dried apricots - oh heaven!

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Making vanilla ice cream for the first time

I'm not sure how I keep forgetting, but since April, I have been making ice cream about once a week (I don't eat the whole quart in a week. I have about 6 in the freezer at a time so I can choose from a variety). Small batches of creamy dreamy ice cream. Oh, it's been so fun! Michele and I made vanilla together when we first got the ice cream maker - it was wonderful. We even made some the morning of my birthday brunch to have atop the blueberry stuffed french toast - so decadent!

Yummy bowls of vanilla - Michele's fave!

My favorite flavor so far is sweet potato. I know it's a bit unusual and not at all a standard flavor, but it tastes amazing! It tastes simply like sweet potato, but icy cold. It even retains its sweet potato texture. Michele does not at all enjoy the sweet potato - in fact of all the flavors we and I have made, she really only likes the vanilla.

Jack Fruit ice cream

Tied for favorite in the exotic ice cream category is Jack Fruit! I brought a bunch of Jack Fruit home with me from Georgia and used most of it to make the most amazing ice cream I've ever had. Since Jack Fruit has flavors of several other fruits, Jack Fruit ice cream has a flavor that is uncatagorizable. Michele actually conceeds that Jack Fruit ice cream is very good, but she doesn't like the aftertaste. I admit that it does indeed have an aftertaste, but to me its like getting to enjoy the deliciousness twice!

Sweet potato &
chocolate chocolate chip sweet potato

And because I am me, I am going to make carrot ice cream as soon as my carrots are ready to harvest. I've found several recipes online (I guess carrot is a popular Thai ice cream flavor), but I'm not quite happy with any of them. I think I will make up my own recipe: Carrot ice cream with crystalized ginger chunks. I imagine it will taste like ginger glazed carrots (but cold.) I'll keep you posted. And now I think I will have my after dinner bowl of ice cream - Jack Fruit tonight!

A Squash You Very Much Dinner

I wanted to have Deb over for dinner to thank her for caring for my garden during my Georgian vacation. I thought it would be lovely to feed her the very items she'd been caring for (which is a concept unique to garden-sitting and would be not at all appropriate for baby-, house-, dog-, or cat-sitting.) Unfortunately (or fortunately since everything was DELICIOUS) the only thing ripe, ready, and meal worthy was summer squash - zucchini and yellow squash. Well, that and pickling cucumbers, lettuce, and basil, but that doesn't really make a meal, does it? I had my doubts about making a meal out of squash, but it was really fun!

This was as delicious as it is pretty!

We enjoyed a Marinated Squash Salad - which I did serve on a bed of lettuce from the garden. This salad was SO good and refreshing, not to mention colorful!

Blossoms patiently waiting
in my messy fridge

Our entree was as fancy as can be with a Squash Blossom Frittata. Squash blossoms are best picked at dawn, so I arose from my bed this morning and dashed outside to pick these lovelies, then stored them in a glass of cold water in the fridge to keep until dinnertime. The frittata itself came together in a jiffy and was simply delicious!

Here it is while it's still cooking and before it is

topped with the cheese. I used both female

and male blossoms (the females are attached

to the tops of the two baby squash in the center.)

And here it is topped with asiago
cheese after a few minutes
under the broiler. YUM!!

This was so good! Oh, so good!

Now, I was at a bit of a loss about dessert. Since I'd hit on a theme, I didn't want to stray from it, so I googled "squash desserts" and got about a million hits! Whodathunkit?? I decided to try Zucchini Cake. I thought the green of the zucchini would look pretty against the white(ish) cake. For the same reason I used craisins instead of the golden raisins the recipe called for (color, color, color). The cake is like a light, fluffy cake version of its denser cousin, zucchini bread. The cream cheese icing lets the enjoyer know that it is closely tied to sister dessert, carrot cake. Zucchini cake is the less sweet, less dense sibling.

Deb, I and the garden thank you VERY much!

Featured Square(s) Weeks Three and Four: Zucchini, Yellow Squash, and Cucumbers

The past two weeks I have been amazed by the zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumber in the garden - both in the square foot garden and in my traditional bed (I had too many things to plant, so I did a traditional bed as well.) I think it is the gorgeous squash blossoms. Last year, we got our first blossom in July or August and we only got two zucchini - we had no cucumbers at all! This year, everything is in bloom and it's so lovely!

Week Two Featured Square: Leaf Lettuce

This is my favorite square this week because, besides the rotten strawberry that Michele "ate", this is the first food I've enjoyed from the garden. I worked at home yesterday and at lunchtime skipped out to the backyard, picked a few leaves of lettuce and some basil, added some blueberries leftover from the french toast, and had a YUMMY salad! Oh how I love eating from the garden!

Michele's Birthday Weekend - Part Two: Gardening Edition

All week I've been excited to give Michele one particular, extra special birthday present: the first fruit from our garden! I've been watching and praying over this strawberry, hoping that no one (read: squirrel, bird, ground hog, rabbit, mouse, etc) ate it, and that it keep growing and and be ready for picking when Michele got home. I thought it would be the perfect present for her. And it was! She was so excited to see the very first edible thing (besides basil) in our garden. We weren't sure, though, if it was really ready to pick, so we just visited it a few times yesterday and marveled over it. Then, yesterday evening, we decided it looked ready. I picked it and presented it to Michele - oh, the perfect strawberry! She took a bite and . . . immediately spit it out! It's really too bad that it was thoroughly rotten inside! Well, as they say, it is the thought that counts, right?

Michele's Birthday Weekend - Part One

Michele and I have birthdays very close together, so we're having another bunch of fun to celebrate her 38th birthday! Her actual birthday was Friday, but she got stuck in New Jersey and didn't make it home until today. That, however, didn't stop us from having a ball! I made her a surprise brunch for this morning - I had tried this recipe for the first time for my birthday brunch and Michele loved it so much I wanted to make it for her as well: Overnight Blueberry French Toast. The logistics of getting the french toast in the oven and letting it bake at the same time I needed to go and pick up Michele was a bit tricky, but I just threw it in, drove like a fiend, picked her up, told her I left the kettle on so that she wouldn't be suspicious about my hurry, and made it home just in time to uncover the casserole and let it bake and brown for 20 more minutes! She was very surprised and happy and the french toast was DELICIOUS!!

We've spent the rest of the day just relaxing together. It was so very nice and so very different from my birthday, that's why we work so well together. I love to pack activity into every minute, while Michele loves to relax, have an iced coffee, and spend hours reading at our favorite coffee shop. It's a lovely change of pace for me and it's exactly what she wanted for her birthday, which made the day just perfect!

The Best Weekend Ever, Part 2

Oh boy, has this weekend been amazing so far - and there are still two days left in it for me!

So, where did I leave off? Friday morning. OK, so I planned to fill the boxes, add the grid, and plant on Friday, but blending the five different composts and then mixing the compost with the peat moss and vermiculate took forever! By the time I was done and realize that I needed just a bit more, it was time to pick up Michele.

Off to the truck stop I went and then we came home and, while Michele took a nap, I mixed up the last batch of "soil" and topped off the boxes. Michele then helped me tack on the grids and the boxes were done! Aren't they pretty? At that point, I only had the seeds I planned to plant and didn't really have time to go buy seedlings, so we called it a very productive day.

Saturday morning we went to the public market (a farmer's market type establishment here in Rochester - very cool) and got about a million seedlings and a flat of the prettiest marigolds (which happen to be my favorite flower tied with tulip). We still didn't have time to plant anything on Saturday because I had a date planned with my very favorite friend, Deb: lunch and a show. We saw the best show, Five Course Love, and I highly recommend it!

Bright and early Sunday morning found Michele and I planting the seeds and seedlings. Oh, so wonderful. We planted tomatoes galore, cucumbers - three kinds, melons, lettuce, strawberries, beets, potatoes - red and white, broccoli, cauliflower, white, purple, and green beans, red, green, and orange peppers, orange watermelon (strangely no red), onions, chives, corn, squash - yellow and zucchini, and, of course, carrots! We planted the expected orange carrot. Plus, I got a pack of seeds that shows a picture of purple, red, and white carrots, but in actuality the carrots will be salmon, white, and yellow (no clue why the purple, white, and red picture is on the front.) [And, inquiring minds: it is believed that the first domestic carrots where purple (5000 years ago)! Orange carrots are pretty "new." There are still purple, red, white, yellow, etc. carrots around, but just salmon, yellow, orange, and white in my garden!]

After planting, Michele and I met our lovely friends Tina, Kathryn, and "baby" Ada for my favorite breakfast at IHOP, after which Michele jumped for joy at the prospect of heading home to more gardening! Much fun was had by all!

Now, tomorrow, my actual birthday will be even more extra special. We're having a barbecue and guess what's going on the grill? If you guessed carrots, which will become carrot dogs, you guessed right, but more on that tomorrow!

Carrot Creative

OK, well, I am clearly not the only one "crazy" about carrots. This video is awesome - it show a man making and then PLAYING (quite well) a carrot clarinet! TOO COOL! I think I may need to try this, too! This link was sent from one of my favorite coworkers, John, who has an awesome photography blog, A Second Look (though, sadly, I haven't seen any carrot photos on his blog. More's the pity!)


Also from John comes this link to Flute 'n' Veg. Oh, what I wouldn't do to be one of the Flute 'n' Veg musicians! I can play the violin, do you think I could make a carrot violin??

And, last, but not least, in case you missed it, I wanted to share Teresa's cleverness that she left in yesterday's post's comments:
"A museum devoted to carrots?! Are you sure YOU are not the proprietor or should I say "carrator" (as in curator)." LOL!! TOO funny!

Amd, on a completely unrelated note, voting started on my Etsy team's first monthly challenge. I'd love it if you'd head over to that blog and vote for your favorite entry!

Carrot Dogs - OH YEAH!!

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this, but I REALLY LIKE CARROTS. Well, today I was perusing my friend Carol's facebook page and she was saying one of the reasons she likes Rochester is "homemade Mac and Cheese Hot Dog with bacon, next to the Farmer's Market where you can also eat Carrot Dogs." Most of the text was just 1s and 0s to me once I saw "Carrot Dogs." I had to find out more, so I went to The World Carrot Museum, which has a page dedicated to Carrot Dogs on their site - which you should totally visit, it's SO interesting! I'm definitely trying these, so, anyone visiting me this summer for a cookout be forewarned: that's probably not a beef, pork, turkey, or tofu dog on your bun! (That wasn't at all meant to sound as dirty as it sounds!)

Yellow, Orange, and Green Attraction

OK, I just noticed, after Teresa's comment on yesterday's post, that I have pretty monochromatic palatte: most of the food in that picture is orange/yellow! So, I started thinking about everything else I eat and it's true. The bulk of my favorite foods are yellow, orange, or green (with a little red thrown in occassionally), which just happen to be my three favorite colors. There has to be a psychological link to explain my attraction to things that are yellow, orange, or green. And as I write this I look down and notice I have on a yellow shirt, green sweater, and orange sneakers - I'm sensing a pattern here!

Is There Such a Thing as Over-Organized?

I truly enjoy being organized to within an inch of my life. So much so that every Sunday I take an hour from my relaxation regime to make my lunches for the next week. I've always liked eating the same lunch everyday- in fact, if I change my routine to eat out or for some event, the day feels off and I feel hungry and unsatisfied - strange, I know! - and when I switch from my winter lunch to my spring/summer/fall lunch I have about a two week adjustment period to look forward to. Well, today as I was lining up the components of my next five lunches, I realized how pretty (and slightly crazy) it looked, so I decided to share it with you.

My body likes to be fed every two hours without fail or will make it's displeasure known, so I start my day with a smoothie (frozen strawberries, 1/2 a banana, strawberry soy yoghurt, 3 scoops of protien power, and Mango V8 Fusion). Then, I have a mid-morning snack of 10 baby carrots, which I quarter longways, dipped in spicy chipotle hummus. About two hours later, I have a salad. I have nothing against lettuce, but it plays a distant second fiddle to the rest of the goodies I put in my salad: shredded carrots (are you surprised?), scallions, apple, zesty sprouts, radishes, and red peppers. I put all those goodies in five individual containers and then as I'm packing each morning, I top off the container with romaine lettuce, spinach, and craisins. I don't add them until the morning because lettuce and spinach wilt and craisins bloat if they are added in advance. I take a little container of dressing and bag of crumbled baked tofu to top the salad just before I feast. About two hours after my salad, I have a cup of butternut squash soup - sometime I go a little crazy and have red pepper soup or spinach soup - I'm living on the edge! My late afternoon/pre-dinner snack is a cup of milk and a Kashi granola bar. Dinner can be whatever I want it to be, but I also make dinner for the week on Sunday and then divide it into five equal portions, and freeze any extra.

I get that it might sound a teensy bit controlling and a tiny bit, hmmm, let's say "over-organized," but it really saves me a lot of time and thought in the morning. That and arranging all five of my outfits and underclothes for the week, but I won't go into that.

Foolish Endeavors

I believe I have mentioned a time or two that I play football with friends from work on Thursdays. Well, tonight I made a beautiful touchdown - and also twisted my ankle, bent my fingernail, and subsequently my finger, all the way back, pulled myriad muscles, permanently agitated several areas of my spine, and probably jarred something loose in my skull. And why do I play, you may ask. Well, because it is great fun, great exercise, and a great way to work out work-related angst. Also, because we go to my favorite hot dog place afterwards - they have about 30 styles of hot dogs on the menu and will make any one vegetarian - plus they have THE BEST pickles and strawberry rhubarb pie! I always get the Veggie Mongrel hot dog which has sauerkraut, relish, onions, sweet peppers, mustard, ketchup, melted cheese, and veggie chili on it - yum!! So, though I will not be able to walk tomorrow, the touchdown and hot dog, with pickle, fries, and pie, made the effort more than worth it.