Must learn

So I’ve vowed I must learn how to embroider. I have sweet images filling my head of our future kids having framed art on the wall that’s been hand embroidered. I might be the only person alive thinking about these things.

 

But here’s what I’d love to embroider. Have any of you read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson? It’s one of my all-time favorite books and sheer poetry when talking about family.

“I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you.”

I’m not even a mom yet and this part always makes me cry.

Or I picture this, with a sweet outline of a child in a yellow rain coat:

“Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water.”

Or this:

“… but it’s your existence I love you for, mainly. Existence seems to me now the most remarkable thing that could ever be imagined.”

Or lastly, this, which also makes me cry. Truth be known, my husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for quite some time and it’s been a long, difficult road. So this quote also makes me a bit teary-eyed:

“You see how it is godlike to love the being of someone. Your existence is a delight to us. I hope you never have to long for a child as I did, but oh, what a splendid thing it has been that you came finally, and what a blessing to enjoy you now …”

OK, enough sap for today. But stay tuned for future embroidery projects, assuming my hands are able to pull this out. And dear readers, you should definitely read this book, if you are so inclined.

Low carb (but tasty, I swear) lasagna

So part of this ‘eating better, budgeting more, cleaning more, being an adult’ crap has included eating less carbs recently. Glorious, glorious carbs.

One thing that had been missing from our diet was Italian food, since there are so many carbs involved in delicious pasta. One night, when watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay, he was making (or the competitor was making? I don’t know. My mind doesn’t work) lasagna with zucchini as noodles.

Now lets pause a minute. You’re probably wondering, how can zucchini taste as good as noodles? But I swear, you really won’t miss it. And it’s fairly easy.

What you need: 3 large zucchinis, or 5 medium-sized zucchinis

2 jars chunky garden pasta sauce (or homemade pasta sauce if you’re a better person than me)

1 large container part-skim ricotta cheese

1 egg

1 package 2% mozzarella cheese

1 package sliced mushrooms

1 onion, diced

Basil, oregano, rosemary, cracked pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste

1 pound ground turkey

2 tbsp EVOO

Peel zucchini, and slice zucchini length-wise into long, skinny (about pasta thickness) strips. (Reserve any remaining ends/green parts/bad cuts) Salt the zucchini strips and toss in strainer, let sit for 1 hour. Then rinse and pat dry.

Warm pan with EVOO, and fry ground turkey until cooked through. Place into bowl. In same pan (reserving some of the grease), stir diced onions and sliced mushrooms into pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, remove in same bowl as meat. Pour in 2 jars of spaghetti sauce, stir. Dice any remaining zucchini that is not in strips and mix with sauce. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano and rosemary to taste.

Mix container of ricotta with egg, garlic powder, and a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg (sounds weird, but trust me, delicious). Mix 1/4 of package of shredded mozzarella in with cheese mixture.

Grease a 9X13 pan. Layer 1/3 of sauce/meat mixture across the bottom. Top with zucchini ‘noodles’. Spread with 1/2 ricotta mixture. Top with 1/3 sauce. Top with zucchini ‘noodles’, spread with 1/2 ricotta mixture, top with remaining sauce, then sprinkle remaining package of mozzarella on top.

 

Wrap with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees, then uncover and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Let stand for 10-15 minutes then cut and serve.

 

Healthy fajitas

I love, love, love Mexican food. Mexican food and eating healthy, don’t usually go hand in hand. But we recently made some super tasty fajitas that came with no guilt by using some simple substitutions.

Instead of sour cream, Greek yogurt.
Instead of flour tortillas, corn tortillas.
Instead of chicken or beef, shrimp.
No rice or beans. (this was a sad loss)
2% milk shredded cheese instead of normal shredded cheese
Slices of avocado instead of guacamole

Fajita filling made out of: Shrimp, onions, red and yellow peppers, and tons of sliced mushrooms, sauteed in olive oil/sesame oil, covered in lots of black pepper, a bit of salt, some garlic powder, and heavily doused in Mama’s Spice (A great spice mix from New Mexico).

Topped with chopped tomatoes, slices of avocado, and a bit of salsa.

Depending on how much you pile on top of the fajitas, each fajita is roughly 200-250 calories.

Pumpkin blueberry oats

If the recipes in this blog start to lean toward healthy, don’t be surprised. I’m finally on board with trying to lose weight, which is good but it’s no fun.

However, my friend Melinda at work introduced me to steel cut oats and they’re so good. Not to mention, better for me than my favorite Captain Crunch. I’ve been making a large batch every weekend and divvying out for the mornings for the week. Every batch has been good, but this last batch was the best. Steel cut oats are chewier than regular oatmeal, which is good, but combining the two makes the best of both worlds. Slightly softer than steel cut oats, slightly chewier than regular oatmeal. Plus it’s all kinds of healthy – fiber, protein, vitamins from the pumpkin and blueberries …

Ingredients:

1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup rolled oats
2 cups water
1 cup milk
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 cup pumpkin
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/8 cup golden raisins
1/8 cup dried currants
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp molasses

In a large sauce pan, put 1 cup steel cut oats and 2 cups water. Stir and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat to medium and let simmer. Stir occasionally. Cook for 10 minutes. Then stir in rolled oats, milk, pumpkin, Greek yogurt, nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar, honey, molasses, salt, currants, raisins. Continue stirring for 8 minutes, then stir in 1 cup blueberries. Gently stir for remaining 2 minutes, then oatmeal will be complete.

Makes 5-8 servings, depending on your desired serving size. Parcel out into small containers and refrigerate until you are ready to eat. It will stay good for up to two weeks. When ready to eat, heat for 1-2 minutes in the microwave, stir and enjoy.

Making a wish list

My husband and I have been working on creating wish lists for each other for future gift buying situations, and also just for fun. (There’s not much budget for actual shopping, so it’s fun to dream)

My wish list has some of the usual suspects for a girl … purses, jewelry, perfume. But also some unusual items:

A pretty compost pail ... the fact that we're not already composting shames me

Le Creuset stock pot in Caribbean blue. I would just leave it on my counter. I can't stop looking at it.

A food processor ... in aqua preferably. 🙂

And the several years from now wish. How dreamy is this greenhouse? Now imagine it with a vintage chandelier in it, overstuffed chair with ottoman, small bookshelf, a million candles, and tons of flowering plants. Heaven.

New song obsession: The Garden

 

As if the warm weather weren’t enough to tempt me to be working in the garden, I heard this amazing song on KXCV’s amazing Rhythm and Roots program two weeks ago and it’s been on constant repeat.

Check out Ruth Moody’s The Garden CD if you get a chance, it’s amazing, bluegrassy goodness.

And the beautiful lyrics of The Garden:

O light shine down on me
You know what I need
Shine down on me
Shine down on the garden

Sweet earth alive under me
You know what I need
Cradle me like a seed
As I lay in the garden

O wise and beautiful tree
Standing high over me
Oh the things you have seen
Tell me your story in the garden
Tell it to me in the garden

And tell me
How long have we slept
How long have we wept
There’s work to be done

Sky above
so vast and so deep
You know what I need
Rain down on me
Rain down on the garden

O light surrounding me
Sweet mystery
In everything I see
Come and find me in the garden

And tell me
How long have we slept
How long have we wept
There is work to be done
In the garden

 

*Dreamy sigh*

The ultimate in gourmet: Hamburger pizza

Hamburger pizza is one of those things that both shouldn’t be good and should be amazing, all at the same time. And also, having recently posted a recipe for bosco sticks – I realize I need to up the ante on the grownup-ness of my cooking. Ha.

This pizza is loosely based off pizzas from two of my favorite restaurants in our area: The Tap Room in St. Joseph has an amazing barbecue brisket pizza with barbecue sauce and pickles, and the Hangar dine-in movie theatre in Maryville’s hamburger pizza.

The latter sounds almost disgusting, doesn’t it? Hamburgers are good, pizza is good – but together? It should be disgusting, but it’s delicious – and a great, kid-friendly food.

I kind of forgot to take a photo before I sliced into it - so here's the pizza with 1/3 eaten 🙂

So when we read the description in the menu, we weren’t sure. Special sauce, cheddar cheese, crumbled burgers, pickles, onions. Uh, did that just say special sauce? However everything we had from the Hangar was delicious, so we decided it was worth a try. Oh boy, it was amazing. So we set about to recreate it one day when we had leftover burgers, and it tasted damn close at a fraction of the cost of going out to eat.

Here’s what you need. The dough (again with the bread machine):

Layer in bread pan (or use any pizza dough recipe you prefer, or buy premade crusts):

1 cup beer
1 tbsp shortening
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp pasta sprinkle (or use 1/2 tsp dried basil and 1/2 tsp oregano)
3 cups white flour
1.25 tsp yeast

Run on dough setting until cycle is through. Remove dough from bread machine and add a bit of flour as needed. Knead dough on bottom of a well greased roasting pan, dough should stretch most of the way (it rises as it bakes, so thin is OK). Brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter.

Meanwhile:

For sauce on pizza, mix:
1 tablespoon spicy mustard
1.5 tablespoon mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
3 tablespoons ketchup.
Spread on bottom of pizza. (If this doesn’t appeal to you, you could also use barbecue sauce, ranch dressing – anything that you would like on top of a burger)

Toppings:
1/2 pound cooked ground beef, turkey or bison, or 1/2 pound crumbled burgers.
1/2 cup diced onions
About 1/4 block of muenster cheese, cut into thin slices
1 cup shredded cheddar jack cheese (or just cheddar)
1/3 cup diced pickles (I used my homemade pickles, which are similar to a thick-cut bread and butter pickle. If using thinner store-bought pickles, layer under cheese instead of on top)

Crumble 1/2 pound of precooked burger meat leftover from burgers (we actually used bison burgers), or cook 1/2 pound of burger and crumble. Layer on top of sauce.
Next, layer 1/2 cup of diced onions on top of meat.
Then, layer muenster cheese on top of onions.
Then, layer shredded cheese.
Then, top with pickles.

Bake at 400 degrees until crust is golden brown and cheese has turned slightly golden, or about 30 minutes (start checking after 20 minutes to ensure desired doneness).

Serves 4-8, especially if served with side dishes. Enjoy!

Garden plans for spring

Valentine bush bean

Orange banana tomato

It always happens. February rolls around and I can’t wait to get my hands in the garden. (Come 110 degree weather in July, this feeling fades fast.)

Most of the garden is filled with perennial flowers, a lot of which are native species. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for improvisation from year to year, but I always find ways to sneak in some herbs and veggies. (All photos from rareseeds.com, my favorite place to order seeds from)

Plans for this spring:

Green onions

Amarillo (yellow) carrots

Cosmic purple carrots

Snow white carrots

Regular orange carrots

Rosemary

Cilantro

Thyme

Genovese basil

SIam queen thai basil

Black cherry tomato

Slo-bolt cilantro

Cosmic purple carrots

Dragon tongue bush bean

Frosted queen mix bachelor's button (I know, not a vegetable)

Green grape tomato - super excited to try this

Green zebra tomatoes - a yearly favorite

Illini gold

Jujube cherry tomato

Lemon cuke cucumber

Lilliput mix - zinnia

Riesentraube tomato

Royalty purple pod bush bean - another yearly favorite. Turns green when cooked, great taste, prolific grower.

Sungold select

Violet jasper

Green onion potato bread – easier

A few posts ago I gave you a recipe to make with leftover mashed potatoes. This recipe is almost as good – and just uses potato flakes.

For the bread machine version, layer the following into the bread machine pan:

2/3 cup mashed potato flakes (I used the extra butter kind, any kind work)

1.5 cups water, or 1 cup water, 1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons oil (I used Tuscan herb olive oil)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic

1/3 cup diced fresh green onions

4.25 cups flour

1.25 tsp yeast

Bake on normal bread setting. When finished, place on cutting board and rub all over with butter. This makes a small, dense, delicious and filling loaf.

In honor of Valentine’s Day

To the man who puts up with my longing for babydoll sheep, the fabric scraps all over the living room, the longing for freeze-ice popsicles in the middle of February, and the million summer trips to garden stores … happy Valentine’s Day. You make our life a much more relaxed, happy existence. You are a loyal friend and I am glad you are mine.

Pablo Neruda, XVII:

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours.