gardens

It’s In My Blood

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My great-grandfather, Hans Jacob Untersee, arrived in The United States from Bern, Switzerland on June 8, 1922.  Upon his arrival, he made his way to northern Illinois  to find work so that he could send for his wife and children, who still remained in Switzerland.  It was in northern Illinois that he established himself as a successful cheese maker, and was able to save enough money so that his family could join him in America.

Ever since my youth, I have been drawn to all aspects of my heritage.  I love connecting to my ancestors, whether it is admiring old photographs, thinking of my grandfather while in my garden, or cooking family heirloom recipes.

About three years ago I stumbled upon Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and I must admit that that read greatly impacted my life.  Her discussion of food as a connection to our ancestry drew me in like I never thought possible.  It was while reading this book that I began to think of my Great Grandpa Untersee.  He was a cheese maker by trade, why couldn’t I become a hobby cheese maker?

I used Barbra Kingsolver’s references in the back of her piece, and found Ricki Carroll’s website.  I never looked back.

Yesterday we decided it had been far too long since we had made cheese, so we ventured to our local, natural grocer where we are able to purchase milk from a local source.  We then busted out our New English Cheesemaking Supply Company cheese kit and got to work.

Here we are making a batch of ricotta cheese:

And here we are making mozzarella:

Hopefully Great Grandpa Untersee was looking down on us yesterday and smiling.

Spring Soup

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Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have a bit of a crush on Jamie Oliver.  In fact, this year our Thanksgiving meal featured all dishes we gathered from various Jamie Oliver cookbooks.  I am just in love with his fresh approach to food, and that is why I find myself constantly reaching for one of his recipes time and time again when it comes to feeding my family.

My all time favorite cookbook of his is Jamie at Home:  Cook Your Way to the Good Life.  The cookbook is broken down by season, and also explains how he grows the many vegetables highlighted in the recipes.

Yesterday, when I looked out my kitchen window and saw all of those asparagus sprouts reaching out from beneath the soil, I knew it was time for my favorite spring soup.  The recipe below is an adaptation of a recipe from Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver.

1 1/2 lbs. asparagus (chopped)

2 white or yellow onions (chopped)

2 leeks (chopped)

2 celery stalks (chopped)

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 lb fresh spinach

3 quarts stock (You can use any stock of your choice here, depending on your preference.  The soup I made last night featured pork stock.)

salt and pepper to taste

Put the olive oil in a large stock pot and heat over medium to high heat.  Then add your onions, leeks, and celery.  Cook until the veggies are tender, but not browning.  Add the chopped asparagus and spinach.  Stir a bit more until the asparagus is warmed and the spinach begins to wilt.  Then add your stock, cover the pot and turn down the heat.  Let the mixture simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Take the lid off and run an immersion blender through the soup.  Salt and pepper to taste.

I normally then poach some fresh eggs and add those to the soup once it has been dished up.

Enjoy!

 

Planning

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Yesterday we enjoyed a fabulous day of gardening!  We mapped out our 2012 garden beds, read a little bit about companion planting, and got our hands dirty.  All the makings of a great day!

Here are some of our go-to books for gardening:

Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte

Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Anna Kruger

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! by Carleen Madigan

And if you are wondering about the girls’ sun dresses…I made them last summer from a pattern from Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week!

 

This Week

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This week I will remember…

~eating fresh asparagus from our garden…in March!

~listening to local farmers speak so passionately about being stewards of the land.

~tiny hands cutting fruits and vegetables.

~sweating, while in a sleeveless shirt, pulling weeds in my garden…again, in March!

~bird song drifting through my windows.

~raspberry green sun tea.

~eating outdoors for the majority of our meals this week.

~sharing a meal with my family at an amazing restaurant that serves delicious local food. Yum!

~searching for a great new read.

~my girls, sitting in their own petite rocking chairs, reading books for over an hour.

~exciting new changes coming about for our family.

I hope all of you had a great week!  Enjoy your weekend!

Completely

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Yesterday we embarked upon a new adventure in our household:  the girls made dinner!  From start to finish (with a little help from Mom with some knife skills and boiling water), they created and prepared our entire evening meal.

The three of us girls went to our local natural foods store and I told them they could pick out anything they wanted to use in their dishes for dinner.  What seemed like a very random combination of items to me, ended up turning out just great!  Yet another example of what goes on in those little minds of theirs.

On my two-year old chef’s menu was a fruit salad with watermelon, kiwi, apples and blueberries with a homemade raspberry lime dressing (recipe courtesy of her big sis).

And on my five-year old chef’s menu was a spinach salad with apples and kiwi and a homemade raspberry lime dressing.  (She created the recipe for this dressing completely on her own.  In the store she told me she needed to buy limes to use as the acid with the olive oil in her dressing.  A smart cookie this one is!)  And the main course was her all time favorite:  angel hair pasta with pasture butter sauce.

Rhubarb Goodness

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As the rhubarb in my garden continues to flourish (despite the fact that it is only mid-March), I was reminded that I still have a bit of rhubarb frozen in my freezer from last spring.  Last night I decided to make my all-time favorite rhubarb dish with some of last spring’s left overs.

This is an old recipe of my mom’s.  I believe it is adapted from a recipe taken from a church cookbook of some kind, and it is just the most yummy dish imaginable!

Rhubarb Squares

2 cups flour

1 cup butter (softened)

1/2 cup sugar

Blend well and press into an ungreased 9 X13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

While that is baking, mix

2 eggs (beaten)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 salt

3-4 cups chopped rhubarb (depending on your love of rhubarb)

Once the crust is done baking, spoon this mixture on to the crust.  Bake for another 35 -40 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this delicious early spring treat!

Industrious Minds

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It never ceases to amaze me what games and activities my girls come up with when left completely alone, without any direct instruction from adults. From imaginary play, to art, to “work,” their minds are constantly striving to create new worlds, new projects, new concepts.

Yesterday I made it my goal to not get bogged down with the items on my to-do list, and instead to silently observe my little ones throughout the day. It was astonishing what those girls accomplished when their minds were able to run free!

“I want to make my own thing!”

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These are the words that ring throughout our home at least three times a week.  My girls just love to cook and/or bake “their own thing” and yesterday was quite the large step for my oldest daughter.

In the past, she had been content to mix random ingredients together, put it in our counter top convection oven (with Mommy’s help of course), and eat her creations.  Now with that said, she has done quite a bit of experimenting with various flavors and has come up with some delicious combinations, but the creations were random none the less.  But yesterday she said to me, “Mommy, I want to make my own thing, and I want it to be an actual recipe.”

So I decided, why not throw caution to the wind and let her completely take over the kitchen.  With a little bit of my help reading the measurements, she made cut out sugar cookies completely on her own!

Now the crowning moment of this adventure was when it came to the topping for these cookies.  My little five-year old gazed up at me and said, “Mommy I think I am going to sprinkle a little sugar, cinnamon and rosemary  from our garden on top of the cookies.  That way we don’t have to use food coloring or sprinkles with the yucky chemicals.”  (Oh she had just made her mama’s day with that one!) And an fyi…the cinnamon and rosemary combination is one of those flavor combos she came up with during her previous food experiments.  And let me tell you, it is really delicious!

Once she was done with her sprinkles, she sat back, looked approving at her creations and said, “Perfect.  It’s just like Jamie Oliver’s pumpkin muffins when he sprinkles lavender flowers on top for sprinkles!”  (My how this little one impressed me yesterday!)