Seeds

I decided to start my garden from seeds this year - no seedlings or small plants or big plants or anything that is already up and growing. Just seeds. Round, long, short, skinny, curled, purple, green, brown, hard, soft, blue, oval, square seeds.

After reading a bunch of books about container gardening, Zone 10 (where we live), soil qualities, and sun, shade, and water requirements I settled on a mix of flowers, herbs, and vegetables for this year.

What can you look forward to seeing pictures of in the future, you ask?  Well, here's the list (in no particular order) that I finally settled on after much researching:

• Cilantro
• Echinacea (purple coneflower)
• Cornflower (dwarf, blue)
• Calendula officinalis (pot marigold)
• Dwarf nasturtium (jewel mix) 
• Carrots (little fingers) 
• Radish (cherry belle) 
• Sweet Pea (bijou) 
• Swiss chard (ruby red) 
• Sunflower (dwarf, sunspot)

As of this afternoon (3/14/10 at 4 pm pacific time) everything is in a container, patted down, watered and reaping the benefits of a warm sunny afternoon. Let the countdown begin to see what comes up first!!!

Nutella

Nutella came to me through fate. We were sitting on the couch late on a Sunday afternoon. I was reading the newspaper, Will was doing work, and the Olympics were on TV in the background. I had just finished checking email and scrolling through a couple cooking blogs I like to follow when Will mentioned having nutella at breakfast that morning.
After his bike ride there was homemade nutella on the tables at the cafe where he had breakfast. He said it was really good. He wondered how hard it would be to make it. No more then 20 minutes earlier I had scrolled by a recipe for nutella on one of the blogs I follow and thought it looked tasty. Who doesn't love nuts and chocolate?!?! We decided it was fate and we had to make our own nutella.  (Sorry Dad, this recipe is not for you, it's all about hazelnuts.)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup hazelnuts
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 5 Tbs agave nectar
• 1 Tbs vanilla extract
• 1 Tbs hazelnut oil
• a pinch of sea salt

Directions:

1. Roast the nuts for 10 min at 350 deg - flip at least once during roasting process
2. After roasting rub off the skins from the nuts
3. Place the nuts in a food processor and run for 3-5 min - until smooth
4. Add all the additional ingredients and run until well combined and smooth
5. Store in the refrigerator
6. Spread on toasted bread and enjoy!

The art of procrastination and green soup

I have been procrastinating. I have been procrastinating doing my taxes. I have been putting off renewing my CPR card. I have been avoiding the recertification process for my Advanced Cardiac Life Support certification. I have been working my around to cleaning the toilets (really, I have). I have taken the long road to dusting and folding laundry and washing the windows.

With all of this procrastinating what I am to do?

Well, the only answer that made sense to me was: Make more green soup!

Green soup is fun. I have become a recent convert to the world of Luvmysplitpeasoup. So, when I found another recipe for green soup I figured why not try it out! When I started thinking about it there is a real lack of tasty green soups... there are numerous red and yellow and tan-colored tasty dishes, but not a whole lot of deliciousness in the green-hued-soup category.

Green Soup (isn't the name original?!?!)

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 2 large yellow sweet onions, chopped
• 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 cups of water
• 2 tsp dry sage
• 1 large bunch of fresh kale
• 1 large bunch of fresh chard
• 6 peeled cloves of garlic 
• Freshly ground salt and pepper (to taste) 

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onions - cook until the onions are brown and soft (approximately 30-40 min). Stir frequently. 
2. While the onions are cooking, place 4 cups of water, the salt, sage and sweet potatoes in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer partially covered for 15 minutes. 
3. While the onions and sweet potatoes are coming along, wash the kale and chard. Cut away all tough stems and chop the remaining leaves. Add the kale, chard, garlic and remaining 2 cups of water to the sweet potatoes. Continue to simmer partially covered for 15 more minutes. 
4. Next add the onions to the sweet potatoes. If you have a hand-held immersion blender, blend the soup until it is pureed. If you do not have a hand-held, transfer the soup in batches to a blender and blend until pureed (be careful of air bubbles - the soup is HOT). 
5. Serve immediately. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
6. Optional - drizzle olive oil over the top. 

Happy green soup and happy procrastinating!!

I heart purses

This last week I decided to venture into a new world of art (and in this case, crafts). I decided to make myself a new purse.

First, I picked out a rich, reddish-burgundy wool yarn that I used to knit the body of the purse. The color reminds me of a dark merlot wine that has been poured into a glass and held up to the light; there are hints of light red, dark red and black depending on how the light is shining.

I finished the knitting, then went searching for handles. I ended up liking a pair of 10 inch black bamboo circulars; they work well as a handle and are also large enough to go over my shoulder (versatility!). After folding my knit piece in half and binding the sides I wrapped the upper edges over the handles and fastened them.

Finally I had the joy of hunting through the stacks of vintage silk fabrics at a local fabric shop (F&S Fabrics on Pico) until I found one with the colors I wanted; in this case I was looking for reds and blacks. I don't know what it is about being surrounded by beautiful fabrics with deep colors and exotic patterns, but I absolutely love it! The fabric that is laying behind the purse is the left over remnant from what is now the lining. I even went so far as to fashion a little pocket in the lining for keys or a cellphone.

While I have never been much of a "purse person" I can now see the draw. I had such fun picking out the different materials, then hand-crafting everything together. I am looking forward to taking my purse on it's first outdoor excursion. I hope it holds up well. Who knows, this may be the beginning of a whole new creative line... (watch out gucci, coach, chanel...) :)

New beginnings

It's time to start thinking about planting again. In Los Angeles the last spring frost is generally in February and after that plants can start going in the ground outside (or the container pots filled with "ground"). I know I did not have the best of luck last year; actually lets be honest I had abysmal luck with my plants, but it is time to try again.

The final count was 13%. What does this "13%" mean? Well it means 13% of the plants I tried to grow last year survived. Two hardy souls made it through out of the 15 I brought home. They are Adromischus maculatus (aka Space Rocks) and Aeonium arboreum atropurpureum (aka Zwartzkop). Both are settled happily into their respective homes on the outdoor deck and seem to be thriving despite my best intentions!

This year I have decided to do things differently. I am researching which plants I am going to buy prior to going to the store (in fact I may just do it all from seed and skip the seedling part). Last year I showed up at the nursery, wandered around looking for things I liked, then planted them. Obviously that was not a good way to start (13%!). I am also going to find out more about container gardening; some plants like it, some do not, I think I should figure out which is which. As this year's adventures in growing progress I will keep you all posted.

But for now, enjoy the pictures of the two plants that survived (despite all the odds)!

Quinoa Deliciousness

I am not sure what to call this recipe other than "Quinoa Yummy-yummy-good" (aka deliciousness). A few weeks ago I made this for a side-dish at a dinner party we attended. I received lots of requests for the recipe, so I figured I would post it here. I have also made this in the past and paired it with a spinach salad and it has stood up beautifully as the main course.

Quinoa-yummmy!

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs canola oil
• 1 large yellow onion (I like walla walla sweets)
• 2 cups quinoa (rinsed)
• 4 cups boiling water
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 cup carrot juice
• 2 cups peas (frozen or fresh)
• 6 sliced green onions (white and green parts)
• 1 cup roasted, chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a medium-sized pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for 4-5 minutes (until the onion starts to soften).
2. Stir in the quinoa, 1 tsp of curry powder, 1/4 tsp of salt and cook for 2 minutes - stirring frequently.
3. Add the 4 cups of boiling water, lower the heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
4. In the meantime, use a small saucepan to heat the carrot juice, peas, 1 tsp curry powder, 1/4 tsp salt for 5 min over medium heat. Add the green onions and pecans - heat for 5 more minutes.
5. Stir the heated carrot mixture into the quinoa - mix thourougly.
6. Eat and enjoy!

Sometimes I think cooking is as much about making something beautiful, as it is about making it delicious. I LOVE the color the carrot juice lends to this recipe - it makes the quinoa a brilliant orange jewel tone. Last time I made this I reserved some of the slices of green onion to sprinkle on top with each serving - they looked stunning against the orange and browns of the quinoa and pecans. Enjoy the beauty and tastiness of this dish. :)

Stuff I overheard in the office today

I wanted to give you a little taste of my average day. Here are a few things I overheard while I was working at the office today:

"Is there anything exciting happening with you bowel movements today?"

"There are a lot of hot people in here. Could you please come and do something about it?"

"So tell me a little more about the green stuff that's coming out..."

Just a typical day in my world - Enjoy!!