Panko Promises

Isn't this BEAUTIFUL?!?!

This has panko breadcrumbs in it, which I’ve never used before and Holy Cookbook!  They.are.amazing.  Panko, where have you been all my life?  Now I want to look for recipes that use it and eat them EVERY DAY!

So easy too!  I got the original recipe from the September 2011 issue of Real Simple but tweaked it a bit for ease and budget.

Step 1:  Take out 1 cup of frozen peas to start thawing.  If you spread them out on a plate they will defrost faster than a small cup or bowl.

Step 2:  Toss ½ cup of Panko breadcrumbs with a teaspoon of lemon zest and 1 Tbsp of EEVO, dash of salt & pepper.  Mix it well and then put it in the oven at 350 for 4 minutes, stir around a bit, and then another 4 minutes.

Step 2: Start cooking a box of linguine.  When you drain it, reserve about a cup of the liquid.  You won’t need this much but good to have just in case.

Step 3:  Sautee ½ to 1 lb of little scallops in EEVO.  Season as you go with a dash of salt & pepper.  These will cook REALLY fast.  The key to shellfish is not to overcook them, and these don’t turn like shrimp so you want to be careful not to overdo it.

Step 4.  Get a pot or a large saucepan (see pic below) and 3-4 TBsp of unsalted butter.  Melt and stir constantly until golden.  This is going to be your sauce.  Toss in the pasta, peas (if they aren’t done defrosting, you can stick them in the pasta water for a minute or two), scallops, a handful of chopped parsley,  a bit more salt to taste, about ¼ cup of the pasta water.  You might want to add more of the water depending on preference.  Remember the breadcrumbs?  Toss them in last, stir the pasta around a bit.  Feel free to drizzle in some more EEVO if you want.  Done!

It sounds like a lot reading this but really it’s not.  It was easy, fast and SO DELICIOUS.  It tasted like a restaurant meal.  I served it in the final post I cooked it in, family style.  Serve with a nice chilled Sauvignon Blanc (Australia makes some fantastic ones).

Self Pointing the Avocado

I just avocado’d myself…

If you are confused by that opening, I’m referring to a rather brilliant and hilarious piece written by HuffPuff blogger Glennon Melton.  While I highly recommend reading it for yourself here, the basic gist is a mother recognizing that when people do seemingly amazing things for their children, they actually aren’t doing it to spite you.  They really are doing it for their children (at least in most cases).  So just chill out, we all have our virtues and faults as parents.

Yesterday I had an avocado moment, but ironically, it was for doing something good for my own child.  Picture this – art class for 2-5 year olds.  Lots of red clay, lots of mess, lots of fun – genuinely good times.  In the middle of it all, there was a break that involved reading a story and … Snack Time.  I dread public Snack Times.  This is purely self-imposed because I’m rather strict about what my child eats.  Call me crazy, but I don’t need my Toddler Tornado to transition from a whirling dervish into a F5.  I also want her to maintain some semblance of lifelong health.  So I fight to keep sugar at a minimum and no processed phoods (phood = phony food), among other things.  But Snack Time seem to have been created specifically for the purpose of defying my food ideals.

And yes, there it was… fruit punch and…wait for it.. peanut butter crackers.

Ok I love peanut butter and I have no objections for it for my own child.  But my first thought was, “Are you people insane?!  Peanut butter is like playing Russian roulette with children these days.”  Then I sat fascinated, waiting for the first parent to freak out.

No one did.  Every child sat there eating quite gleefully.  Even the peanut butter.  The one parent that was silently freaking out?  ME…because I had brought my child’s own snack. 

When asked if my Tornado wanted a snack, I heard myself babbling incoherently, “Oh no thanks, I brought her own snack.  Because… because… ha ha ha, yeah I’m ‘that’ parent.  That one people dread.  Ha ha ha….”  * voice trails off *

Here I was, judging myself for bring a healthy snack for my own child. To be fair, a friend of mine brought a snack for her child too so I wasn’t totally alone here.  She just had the gumption not to apologize for it.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how often I’m apologizing for looking out for my child’s health.  Look, I’m not the perfect parent.  I’m failing gloriously in other areas, but when it comes to her health, I’m doing pretty well, and I should never apologize for it.  But with all the “mommy wars” pacifism going on (which has some excellent points to be made) I’m realizing that those of us who are working hard at being the very best parent we can be can be just as easily made the villain.  We feel constantly feel the need to justify ourselves for actually doing something GOOD for our children.  In fact, we probably judge ourselves harder than anyone else.

So yeah, I’m bringing my own snack for child events so she doesn’t eat phood and who knows what else…you gotta problem with that?  ;-) 

Pssst…it was a really yummy snack by the way… I liked it too.  You can find it here.  I made it with honey.  Without the chocolate <wink>.

Do-Over

Can we have a do-over?

I’m a hopeless blogger who goes through spurts of industry before life takes over. Oh well. Once more unto the breach dear friends!

There have been a LOT of changes since I last blogged. Baby #2 (another girl), we are now sans chickens OR pets of any kind. The only other time in my life where I’ve not had an animal of some sort was the year and a half I lived in the dorms at college. I confess it’s actually really nice. Children are basically like high-maintenance pets so they are enough for now. Someday I’ll have dogs and chickens (and who knows what else) again, but it’s just not the season for it in life, and I’m actually ok with that. My mother would be proud ;-) Maybe now I can actually start some herb gardens without chickens or dogs trying to destroy everything I attempt to grow!

Farmers Market Day! All this for $10, check it out!
 

 I’m especially thrilled over these pears. If I tried to eat all local I would rarely get to eat any fruit beyond melons, citrus, and tomatoes. So these are especially treasured. I forgot the name but they are a pretty hard, crisp pear without a lot of sweetness when raw, but once cooked the sweetness comes forth. They’ll be put into Monday’s oatmeal bake.  YUM!

January Sum-Up!

With all the daily mundane routines eating away the vast majority of my time, it's nice to take a moment to look back on the month and see what's been accomplished.


In the garden:
·Laid the foundation for a new herb bed
·Planted a mint bed under the orange tree
·Planted seeds for some veggies that hopefully will be coming up soon
·Brought my chickens back to a more nourished, happy state
·Gradually bringing to life in my imagination (first step to reality) a bee yard in the back corner.


In the house:
·Have about half the house under control now on a daily basis. No small feat!
·While not complete just yet, my goal is by the end of the month (woops! tomorrow!) to have all the Christmas decorations put away


My 52 Week Mini-Challenges have REALLY helped me feel like I’ve taken steps towards taking care of myself on a personal level! Some permanent changes I’ve made:
·I’ve cut way back on my coffee (from 4-5 cups a day to 2) which is healthier AND saving me money! I’ve only made 2 runs to Starbucks this month!
·Fast food elimination! I’ve not had fast food ONCE this month!!!
·I’ve upped my water intake from practically zilch to 48 oz a day
·I’m not exercising every day but I’m trying. I’m generally more active on a daily basis than I was. My flexibility is definitely better with my daily stretching.
·My face is much better now do to making sure to wash and moisturize it daily

Along the way I’ve been able to embark on some fun projects such as starting a batch of culinary orange extract, a new batch of vanilla extract, etc. I really wanted to make some orange marmalade from my oranges but… jelly making and babies don’t mix so well. At least not right now. That’s ok… I’d rather have the baby ;-)

There! I feel better and more accomplished just by writing this out. There is still SO MUCH I want to do, it’s easy to feel impatient or frustrated when time or finances hinder the process, so it’s important to see how far I’ve come rather than where I want to go.

I'm not adding a new Mini Challenge this week. I want to use this week to cement the good habits, wrap up projects, and think about what I want to accomplish in February!

Better go hustle!

Volunteers!

NOW it's getting to be a bit ridiculous! I was outside looking for something and suddenly though it might be where the chicken coop used to be (I move it around periodically until I establish a more permanent arrangement). I go out there and see this (doesn't show up too well in this shot):




That's just one but there are volunteer tomatoes everywhere around the old chicken location! Four total! I know what happened, the chickens get veggie scraps and some tom. seeds sprouted up in the rich "leftovers" the chickens so graciously donated. Unlike in the garden where I can narrow down what sort of tomato plants sprouted up there, here I have NO idea. Could have been from a wormy garden tomato, could be from the farmer's market, could be from the store. I have no clue. I'm definitely not pulling them up though, not now at least. I'll just leave them happy where they are (they aren't in the way of anything at the moment) and let nature do it's thing and have fun with it. Just watch... I'll harvest pounds of tomatoes from them and none from the garden.

Now onto my agenda on this blustery “spring” day in January:
·Zest a ton of fresh oranges to make dried orange peel powder
·Start some orange extract
·Start some new vanilla extract
·Maybe start some vanilla sugar
·Finish off the Memorial Herb Bed and start some plantings there (will post pictures soon).
·MAYBE clean up the front stoop and put some fresh pretty potted things there…it’s looking very grim with the plant mummies from last summer sitting there.
·Plant some seeds… not sure what yet.

Ok I might not be able to get all that done today… let’s aim for this as a weekend goal ;-)

Good Grief!

It looks like the Lone Tomato has friends!

There is another tomato plant popping up, several little fuzzy heads of carrots, and something else that I'm not sure about. It could be a weed but I'm going to delay in pulling it up for a while yet. There are not other weeds in the area that looks like this so it might be a "real" plant.

I'm simultaneously pleased, baffled, and vaguely annoyed. I'm very excited to see things growing but baffled/annoyed they are doing it now and not when I planted them. Whaaaat's up with that?

I know, I know...it's all good. But it doesn't go far in TEACHING me anything. Other than the fact that gardens grow in their own good time.

One thing I DO know, the garden soil is doing ok...I had thought I needed to give it something magical but apparently not. So planting is officially on the agenda for this week.



I just hope what I plant now won't wait til January of '13 to show up.

It's the Lone Tomato!!!

Thus far I have proven to be a pathetic gardener.



I realize part of this is simply the learning process. But seriously.



On my first attempt (spring of ’10) I buried my seeds far too deeply into the soil. I thought I was protecting them from birds but in reality, I was keeping sunshine from them (good analogy to parenting actually… but I digress…).

That fall I was busy planning my wedding.



My next attempt was spring of ’11. I don’t know what happened that time. I planted my beautiful little heirloom seeds and… nothing. The few tomato seedlings I planted did “ok” but never could be called thriving. Most of my toms were wormy before I ever got to them.

That fall I was busy with a newborn. We move quickly around here.



Now I’m facing spring of ’12. Will this be the year? I’m trying to juggle a household, a new baby, a stack of reading material, and a deep DEEP desire for a successful garden. I’ve prepped two new herb beds the last few months, with plans for future beds down the road (right now I’m focusing more on cooking herbs but I very much want to grow medicinal herbs as well, and the sooner the better). I've actually managed to do fairly well with herbs so far. I’ll have to start over with my blackberries as the terrible drought last year did them in at last, despite my best efforts, so those need to be replaced. My grapevines… well… the jury is out on those. My potted dwarf apricot might be dead. Or might just not have leaves.

On the bright side my potted Meyer Lemon and Mexican Lime trees are doing very well. I’m trying to decide whether I want to leave them in pots or plant them this spring. I have other tree plans as well.

Today I went out to water what is alive (or hoped to be alive) and decided to quickly turn up my current little garden bed by hand. I attacked a few weeds and turned soil and suddenly came across something amazing:





A lone little tomato plant from a seed tossed last year? The year before? I have no idea what kind it is. But it’s a gift. And hopefully an omen.

Here’s to the 2012 growing season!!!!