Garden Update

A few updated pictures of the garden. Things are growing (even if I don't remember what they are)!

News

The good news: Things are growing!!!!!

The bad news: I do not remember what I planted in each pot.

Tea (in memoriam)

You were dying and you offered me tea.
You were living and you offered me tea.
You were sitting on your bed, curled in a ball, in pain, and you looked up to offer me tea.
You boiled water and walked slowly back to your bed.
I was witness to your struggle.
You offered me tea.

You lost twenty pounds your body did not have to lose and offered me tea.
You watched cancer eat you from the inside out and you offered me tea.
You could not eat anything and you offered me tea. 
You felt your body betray you and you fought for your dignity.
I was witness to your battle. 
You offered me tea.

You grew so weak you could not lift a ceramic mug.
Your best friend bought you a plastic cup so you could drink tea.
You told me your fears and we cried, together.
You were gracious and beautiful and you offered me tea.
I was witness to your life.
Thank you for the gift of knowing you.
Thank you for the tea.

Is that an alien in the vegetable section?

I was at the grocery store last week when I came upon what I am calling "the coolest looking vegetable I have seen in a store".  Here's a picture:

Do you know what it is?  It's celery root! Also known as celeriac. And it's totally cool.

I bought one, mostly because I had never seen one before, brought it home, set it on the countertop, then tried to figure out what to do with it for dinner. It turns out there aren't a whole lot of recipes out there in the world for celery root...

Here's what I ended up creating:

Creamy mashed celery root

Ingredients: 

• 1 celery root
• 1 Tbs butter 
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil to preferred consistency
• Pinch of dried parsley

Directions: 

1. Remove the tops from the root, wash and set aside. 
2. Peel the root and chop into 1 inch pieces.
3. Bring a pot of water to boil, add the root pieces and the washed tops. Boil for approximately 30 minutes or until the root pieces are tender. 
4. Drain the root pieces and tops - discard the tops. 
5. Place the root pieces in a bowl (make sure it's a bowl you can use a hand mixer or blender in). Add the butter and a small amount of oil. 
6. Blend for approximately one minute - add additional oil to increase creaminess and continue to blend to desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
7. Serve warm and sprinkle with parsley. 

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!!