This is how we do frozen dinners!

Check out Bridgit's Cherry Pie. The UP shifted away while baking.

It has been a good week, partly because we have had four pies. Bridgit made this wonderful Cherry Pie as well as a Peach Pie. I made a Cherry/Mulberry/Blueberry Pie. My mother made a Lemon-Meringue Pie. With the exception of the lemon all the fruit was from Michigan.

thinned carrots

I always feel bad when thinning carrots. It is like killing your children. I know that if I don’t thin then they won’t grow as big or nicely, but pulling out a perfectly good vegetable seems wrong. The first thinning isn’t to bad, but in the second you start to get something the looks like a carrot. What we do is pull the larger carrots and eat them, and let the smaller ones keep growing. Most of the ones pictured are 2-4 inches long. These are all the Danvers variety. I cut the tops (and sometimes the bottoms because they can be stringy), wash them and use them like baby carrots (because they are). The tops get put back in the garden as mulch.

Sprouted Bean

Our beans are about 3 inches tall and we planted them only a week ago. Want to know the trick? Pre-Sprout them.

You will need:

• Canning Jar and ring
• mesh onion or orange bag
• some bean seeds

1. Cut a piece of the bag big enough to cover the jar and the ring to keep it in place.
2. Put your seeds in the jar. Your jar should be less than 1/4 full of seeds, so get a larger jar if you need.
3. Fill jar with water and set on counter for 24 hours.
4. After waiting 24 hours drain beans, and rinse. Keep away from light. Cover with towel, or put them in the cupboard.
5. Three times a day give the beans a good rinse.
6. After about 5 days plant them. A few more is OK too.
7. Put the roots down and be gentle with them. If there are Cotyledon or real leaves allow them to stick out of the ground. The more developed the more you can leave sticking out.

Bean Cotyledon

Now you just have to wait for the plants to grow, climb, grow some more, flower, and then start harvesting beans. Another advantage is knowing right away how many will come up. In a couple days they will be out of the ground and any missing ones can be replaced. You can also stagger a small second batch by 4-ish days to fill in any gaps.

Photos by Elle-Epp and BlueRidgeKitties available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license

It all started last week when I decided to make this wonderful gabanzo bean salad (with a double quantity of finely chopped arugala instead of  herb,s because that’s what I had) for a lovely little Easter Monday dinner with friends. I cooked up a lot of beans. I made a lot of salad. I ate the leftovers with lettuce, vinaigrette and blue cheese for lunch the next day. I ate plain beans, greens, vinegarette and blue cheese then next day, and today. And I want more. Now. But alas, there are no cooked beans in the house. Maybe tomorrow?

The Vinaigrette (check out my very specific recipes)

I’m sure there are a lot of dressings that would be good on this, but I’m partial to this one: equal parts white wine vinegar & good olive oil, a fair spoonful of mustard (perhaps this amazing tarragon-dijon that ended up in my Easter basket via Everyday Wines Marquette), and a pinch of salt. Shake to blend.

Yummy Lunch Salad

• 1 cup (ish) garbanzo beans (if using canned, omit the salt from the vinaigrette)
• several large handfuls of lettuce (from the garden!!!)
• 2-3 Tbsp blue cheese, crumbled (if gluten free is important to you, please check the cheese)
• 2-3 Tbsp vinaigrette (see above)

Layer the container with the beans and dressing on the bottom, cheese and lettuce on top. Store in fridge until ready to eat (or until the appointed time comes, depending on your place of employment). Hold the container’s lid securely, flip upside-down and do a little shake-dance, because you’re about to have a great lunch. Return to upright. Enjoy!

It’s hard to see the spinkles in this photo, but they’re there, I swear. The kids are super excited about them.

*We’ve been out of vanilla for a while, so I keep subbing in various zests. These cookies are lovely with orange, but I’d bet they’d be great with lemon, almond or vanilla.

Chewy Oatmeal Cutouts from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking via Shiny Cooking

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temp
• 2 Tsp orange zest (or lemon, or vanilla extract, or 1/2 tsp almond extract)1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 c (10 oz)flour (could probably replace more of it with whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup (2 1/4 oz) of regular or white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats (4 oz) lightly ground in the blender (blending makes the cookies much easier to cut and give them a finer texture)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/ tsp salt
• egg white for egg wash, if desired

Cream butter, sugar and zest (if using) until light and fluffy, scraping down occasionally to make sure butter and sugar are fully incorporated (3 min.). Beat in extract (if using) eggs one at a time (1 min.) again, scraping down for full incorporation.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and beat at a low speed until dough forms a ball. Press dough into 2 disks, wrap in a cereal bag (or cellophane or whatnot)  and refrigerate at least a half hour, 1 or more is better. Preheat oven to 350*. Roll out one disk a scant 1/4 inch thick and cut into desired shapes. Transfer cookies to baking sheets (I put silpat on mine, but I’m not sure it’s necessary). If desired, whisk egg white with 1 tsp of water. Brush a thin coat of egg wash on the cookies and decorate as desired (SPRINKLES!!!!). Bake for 9-11 minutes. Gather scraps and re-refridgerate. Repeat rolling process for second disk. Re-roll scraps, and repeat cut-out process, or cut into diamonds. Remember, rolling cookie dough more than twice may result in tough cookies.

Our tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant, and cabbage are all popping up, reaching for the flourscent lights, and the garlic in the garden is peaking out from the leaf cover. We are getting ready to plant our potatoes, peas, and onions in the upcoming weeks.

Last year we had a great time and grew a ton of food (more accurately about a quarter ton). I attempted to weigh and keep track of how much, but after a while it just gets old. According to my notes from last year we stopped counting at 132 lbs of tomatoes, 32lbs of watermellon, 20lbs of eggplant, 8 ice cube trays of basil pesto, 35lbs of cucumbers, 18lbs of green beans. And the list goes on.

Our seed order this year is: (bold denotes a new variety or veggie for us)

• Provider Bush Green Bean
• Rattlesnake Pole Bean
• Multicolored Pole Bean Mix
• Midnight Black Turtle Bean
• Fleet Bicolor Sweet Corn
• Sugar Ann Snap Pea
• Sweet Dakota Rose Watermelon
• Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
• Red Cored Chantenay Carrot
• Danvers Carrot
• Early Wonder Tall Top Beet
• Cracoviensis Lettuce
• Strela Green Lettuce
• Green Deer Tongue Lettuce OG
• Broad-Leaved Sorrel
• Limba Broccoli
• Winterbor Kale
• Black Prince Tomato
• Goldie Tomato
• Opalka Paste Tomato
• Speckled Roman Paste Tomato
• Cilantro
• Danish Ballhead Cabbage

There are also a bunch that we have saved or left over seeds (this is by no means a comprehensive list)

• Red Russian Kale
• Dino Kale
• Arugula
• Random Greens
• Swallow Eggplant
• Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
• Uncle Davids Dakota Dessert Squash
• Cascadia Snap Peas
• Spring Treat Yellow Sweet Corn
• Arava Cantaloupe
• Suhyo Long Cucumber
• Gentry Summer Squash
• Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
• Cherry Belle Radish
• Cross Country Pickling Cucumber

We also have 4 varieties of Potatoes, red and yellow onions, and 75 cloves of garlic in the ground from the fall (each clove develops into a head). Also something exciting is that we should be able to harvest some of our asparagus this year and maybe have some cherries from our tree and bushes.

We are excited, but we also need to get cracking at some of the preserved food from last year. It is easy to get into the mindset of saving and to save them for “later”. Next thing you know you are picking some and still have a bunch frozen or canned from last year.

We only have a couple months until strawberries are ready. We still have a bunch in the freezer. What should I make?

Reading a recipe for “Chewy Walnut Trail Bars” on another blog I felt invigorated to try again, so I checked out a few other new recipes, and decided on my tweaks. 3 batches later**, I feel very confident of what has become our go-to granola bar. This recipe is definitely not too sweet, and, if you have a food processor, very easy to make. It’s still a little crumbly (I’ve been meaning to add an egg to the goo, but haven’t yet [editor's note: tried the egg and the bars become cakey... not what I was looking for]), a little bit spicy, and has plenty of room for improvisation.

I’d like to make a version replacing all the nuts with seeds (maybe a few more oats) for my little friend who can’t do the nut thing. I’m also thinking about an oat free version for my family and friends who can’t do gluten. *And of course, you mix up the fruit, seeds, nuts and chocolate as you please. Cherries are my favorite, but they’re pretty pricey as dried fruit goes (the subtitle of this blog does include the word frugal). I usually go for golden raisins, but for some reason in this case I like black raisins better. I can imagine chopped apricots and some pistachios would be lovely, maybe with a 1/4 tsp of cardamom. Replacing some of the seeds with some coconut would also be nice (perhaps replace ¼cup of the nuts with 1/3 cup coconut).

Mostly, I like the trick of the pulverized dates: super sweet and super sticky all in one place. My third time making it, I made a double batch so we could have some extra to give to a friend who will hopefully be in labor any time now. She’s had them a few times at our house and she’s a big fan. They really seem like a perfect pregnancy/labor food**.

(**Since writing this a month ago [oops!] we have made MANY more batches, including some for more for our super-mom friend, as that baby a took while to decide it was time to come out.)

Cook House Granola Bars

(liberally adapted from http://www.walnutinfo.com/public/recipeInfo.aspx?id=14 via DinnerwithJulie)

Preheat oven to 325*. Line a small jelly roll pan (mine is about 9×15, but I have found I like to use my large cake pan better) with parchment, greased aluminum foil, or a sheet of silpat.

In the food processor, pulse several times until there’s a mix of large chunks and some nut meal/flour:

• 1 ½ cups nuts (I’ve done almond/walnut mix and almonds by themselves)

In a medium mixing bowl mix together:

• Nuts from processor
• 3 cups oats (not instant)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ginger
• ½ tsp kosher salt (¼ tsp table salt)
• 1 tsp baking soda

Stir in:

• *1 cup sunflower seeds (pumpkin seeds/pepitas would certainly be welcome)
• *¼ cup sesame seeds
• *½ cup chocolate chips
• *½ cup dried cherries

In food processor pulse until finely chopped:

• ½ cup pitted dates, packed

While running pour in and process until smooth:

• ½ cup of neutral oil (canola, etc.) (1/4 cup apple sauce and 1/4 cup oil work ok, but not great, here)
• 1 tbl water (only if not using apple sauce)

While running pour in and process until smooth:

• ½ cup honey (use the oil measuring cup so it doesn’t stick)

Fold date mixture into oat mixture, stir until evenly distributed. Pat firmly into pan, making sure the mixture is level. Bake until golden, 25-28 min. Some say cool completely before cutting, others say cut while barely warm. Keep for 2 weeks (only if hidden!) in an airtight container or in the freezer for several months.

If you do an experiment (on cutting temperature or otherwise), let me know how it goes!

Moroccan Vegetable Stew

Serve with brown rice, millet or cous-cous (not GF). The vegetable suggestions (especially the quantities) are suggestions, really. But do be sure to include something orange (carrot, sweet potato, winter squash cubes), and make the pieces small enough for a comfortable bite.

Ingredients:

• Oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp curry powder (or 1 tsp turmeric, 1/4 tsp ea. ginger, garlic, mustard, coriander seed)
• 1 15 oz can garbanzo beans (or 2 cups cooked)
• 1 14 oz can diced or crushed tomatoes (or 2-3 cups chopped fresh tomatoes)
• 2 lg carrots, sliced fairly thick on the diagonal
• 1 medium zucchini quartered lengthwise and sliced (I often sub green beans, and in the summer, I use both)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 c. golden raisins
• salt & pepper to taste

Heat a large skillet on medium high heat. Add oil to enough for a thin film. Add onion and a little salt and sauté until the onions have gained a little color. Add spices and stir for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add garbanzo beans, tomatoes and carrots. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally and cook until carrots are mostly tender, about 5 min. Lid if necessary. Add zucchini (and/or green beans), garlic and raisins and cook for about 5 min until zucchini is tender. Season to taste & serve over grain or potato of choice. Enjoy.