Botanical Garden

It is day #2 of my mom's visit, and we decided to go visit the botanical garden. It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect to go walking around. It was however not the perfect day to go there because they had a charity fundraising walk-a-thon type event going on and it was a madhouse there. We walked around and looked at all the tulips, lilacs, cherry trees, dogwoods, azaleas and it was beautiful.

We got back to a vegetable garden demonstration area where people were working outside. One of the ladies asked me if I would like to have some of the flower plants, because they were getting ready to till up an old neglected bed to plant some vegetables. May as well ask me if I still want to keep breathing! So they dug us up some day lilies, poppies, oxalis and sweet william and put them in plastic grocery bags to carry out.

In case you didn't know, the soil in Alabama is clay. Heavy, dense clay that turns hard as a rock when it is dry like it has been. When they dug up the plants there was a substantial amount of dirt on them. We picked up the bags and started walking back to take them to the car. Before too long it felt like my arms were getting pulled off. The handles on the bags started stretching. We made it to a park bench and sat down to rest. We started off again and made it a little farther and the handles on the bags started breaking. We stopped at another more secluded park bench and decided that something had to be done. So we pulled out the clumps and started knocking off big clods of dirt to lighten up the loads.

We finally made it out, although there was a brief period of time where I was afraid we were going to get tackled as we left since it looked like we were carrying ill-gotten gains. We went out to eat afterwards and then went home. We stopped by the quilt shop and both left with more fabric than we needed to. Tomorrow: On to the nursery and pond store!

More Springtime Goodness

Yet another beautiful spring day today. It was actually 86 degrees yesterday and felt about like summer. Today it was a bit overcast and looked almost like it would rain. Almost. It's actually a bit on the dry side right now and we really could use some rain. I had to water today and I don't like to do that with water straight from the faucet. The water here really smells like chlorine, and when I take a bath it smells almost like a swimming pool. I ran some in a watering can today so it can sit overnight and some of it can evaporate out.

The grass got cut today for the second time and is starting to green up. There are weeds growing all in the sod and we're probably going to have to get it treated. Our previous lawn was a collection of weeds with a few sprigs of grass in it, so it'd be nice to have something that was mostly grass.

Tulip Hageri

Spring is definately here and we've been doing a lot of gardening this weekend. Got things planted and beds moved around. I am definately worn out and ready to go back to work so that I can rest.

My baby, you've found him!

I am extremely happy today and all is right with the world. My computer dieded and it had to go into the repair center. It's been gone over a MONTH. I have been lost and wandering without it and hubby and I have been unhappily sharing his. I basically got back a new computer because they replaced the hard drive, motherboard, video card, both DVD drives and part of the chassis.

But now here it is, back in my house and squeaky clean, woohoo! I don't want to put anything on it now because it's so empty. ;)

Hopeless

Since I've been spending a ton more money on books than I'd like to lately, I decided to get started going back to the library more often. That way I can read to my heart's content and not have to pay anything (unless I'm late taking them back!). You know that sounds really good in theory, but there are two evils at work here: previewing books that I like and the Amazon Marketplace where I can have access to thousands and thousands of used bookstores across the country. Case in point:

I've always been a sucker for regional cookbooks, and have always tried to find one for each area that I have lived in. I've been stumped on a regional cookbook for Minnesota. When I was at the library on Sunday I came across this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Savoring-Seasons-Northern-Heartland-Dooley/dp/0816645744/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7914975-6964722?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174358824&sr=8-1
The book is great, it has a lot of commentary and history on the region in it, and some downright tasty (though not healthy!) recipes. So of course I had to buy it. I've found myself prowling around the AM several times in the past few days and I think I'm going to have to start blocking the site now.

My problem is that even though I am telling myself that I really don't NEED anymore books I can complete the transaction in less than two minutes so there isn't time for the buyer's remorse to kick in. Normally when I go to a real book store I will pick up an interesting book, decide to buy it, carry it around for about 5 minutes and then put it back. Just the act of making the decision to buy it makes me feel better, and the hassle of having to actually go check out makes it not worth it. I hope that I don't have to make the library off limits like the bookstores are now. :)

Score 1 for the hometeam!

Or Me 1 - Feral Yeast 0

Second attempt for a rematch and it was much more successful than the last. The main reason is that I decided to use sourdough, which I've had better luck with in the past than straight yeast breads. I had some leftover pumpkin from making some pumpkin oatmeal cookies and wanted to find a recipe to use it. So I found a pumpkin dinner roll recipe online and used a sourdough recipe conversion spreadsheet to remake the recipe. I attempted it starting last night and these were the results today. Here's the recipe that I used:

Sourdough Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

1 c. sourdough starter

3/4 c. milk (or soy milk)

4-5 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

6 Tbs. canola oil

1 c. canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/3 c. brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/8 tsp. allspice

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Combine starter, milk, 2 c. flour, canola oil, pumpkin, brown sugar and spices in a large bowl and mix well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave to sit for about 24 hours. Remove plastic wrap and stir spond. Combine remaining flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add flour mixture to sponge and stir until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Turn dough out and knead 3-4 minutes, adding flour only to keep from sticking.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Divide dough into 24 equal portions and roll them into balls. Place several inches apart on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 15 minutes. Brush tops with milk and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

For some reason I was thinking that the rolls would come out pretty sweet and I wasn't thinking they would be a good dinner roll. They aren't though, they are just right. Really rich tasting with a subtle spicy taste. I plan on trying them again for holiday rolls this fall. :) They turned out slightly heavy and I'm thinking it's because I didn't use bread flour or maybe needed to knead it longer. I'll have to do some tweaking to make it better.

Crepe Murder

I'm so happy today because I can finally start talking about gardening again. Since moving into our new house last fall there wasn't much to talk about. There didn't seem much use in getting started on anything with winter right around the corner, and there was so many other things to do. But today is another matter all together.

The sun is shining very brightly outside, but the air is still really chilly. The birds are singing and the wind is blowing in the trees. One of the projects that has been on my radar lately is pruning our crepe myrtle trees. For those who don't know what a crepe myrtle is - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepe_myrtle Part of the deal with the new housing development were two trees in the front yard. The ones that were there had been planted in the middle of the drought and looked dead, so I asked for them to be replaced. I asked for crepe myrtles if possible. When I was growing up, we had two of them that my grandmother had planted growing in front of the house and I thought it would be nice if I had some again. I was reading an article in Southern Living that was trying to prevent people from committing Crepe Murder by beheading their trees in the mistaken belief that it would give the tree a beautiful form.

So with my newly acquired pruning tools I set forth to do battle with my own. For the most part it was pretty straightforward, but one of my trees has a split in the main trunk. I'm going to have to figure out what I need to do with it so I can get started with retraining it if necessary.

I've also been poring through gardening magazines and trying to figure out what I want to plant where. I have made enormous lists of what I want to plant and have to keep pruning it back. Cost is a constraint in this because we need to get a fence put up in the back yard first before we do anything else.

Jezebel Bites

Tonight I tinkered around with a couple of recipes that I have been holding on to. This is an adaptation of a couple of Cooking Light recipes. It's something that I wanted to use as an appetizer. I liked the way that it turned out and plan on making it again. I would post pictures but they didn't turn out very photogenic so I'll have to make them again sometime.

Jezebel Bites

1 Tbs. butter or margarine
1 shallot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 c. boiling water
1/4 c. dried apricots, chopped
2/3 c. pineapple preserves
1/3 c. red pepper jelly
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. prepared horseradish
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. hot sauce of your choice (I like Texas Pete)
1/2 tsp. crushed chile pepper

Phyllo Dough, thawed
Olive Oil Cooking Spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring water to a boil and pour over apricots, set aside for 10 minutes. Heat a small saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic, and saute for 5 minutes or so, until garlic begins to brown but is not burned. Drain apricots and put in a medium sized bowl. Add shallot mixture and remaining ingredients except for Phyllo and cooking spray. Stir well until combined.

At this point it would be fine to serve with cooked meat if you indulge in it, especially ham.

If you want to try the Jezebel Bites, taked thawed phyllo sheets and cut them in half. Lay out a sheet, spray it with olive oil for three layers. Place a spoonful of the sauce in it and roll it up like a flag. Sorry, that's the best instructions that I can come up with, I'm not that creative tonight. ;)

Place on a cookie sheet and spray tops with cooking spray. Bake in a 400 degree oven for around 11 minutes or until browned and crunchy.

Gnat

I have developed the attention span of a gnat. I keep so busy with work that I drift from one thing to another when I get home because I'm mentally worn out. I'm hoping that when spring comes and I can start working on my garden that it'll get me settled in again, but I'm not so sure it will work. One of my main pleasures in life before was reading. I could sit and read a book for long periods of time over the course of weeks. Now I start the first few chapters and then don't pick it up for a month or two. So I've discovered something that I previously was not so fond of - short stories and essays. I'm currently reading two collections - "Cornbread Nation I" and "A Naturalist Buys An Old Farm". Cornbread Nation is a collection of essays on southern cooking written by various people. A Naturalist Buys An Old Farm is a collection of the writings of Edwin Way Teale about a farm that he bought with his wife in Connecticut. I like it because I can just dip into them now and then depending on my mood and I don't feel like I've missed anything or forgotten anything. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to settle down into a good book, but for now I have something to keep my attention.

Havoc

Hockey has always been my favorite sport to watch (probably because I hate most other sports). Having lived in the frozen north for quite a few years, I developed an appreciation for the game. Hockey fans living in the South were out of luck until the spread that's happened lately. And now I'm living in a town that has its own team, yay! :) My company helped sponser Military Appreciation Night, and tonight was the game. I got free tickets so we went. It was a great time, I really enjoyed it. Even the husband enjoyed the game. I definately plan on attending some more of them. We are going to get a hotel downtown next time so that we don't have to drive home afterwords. Should be an enjoyable evening. :)

Hedgehog Principle

I don't know if any of you have read the book "Good to Great", but it's a business book that discusses how being good makes some companies not strive to be great. What the author believes seperates the good from the great is that the great ones have a Hedgehog Principle, or a core business that they stick to and do well at. Okay, that's really paraphrasing it down but that's what stuck with me and I forgot everything else. The reason for this rambling is to illustrate that cookies are my Hedgehog Principle. I used to suck at making them, but since I got my new oven and baking sheets I can't get enough of baking them. So after my recent yeast defeat I decided to go back to my strong ability to redeem myself.

Cookies had fallen out of my favor because all of my co-workers seem to have gone on diets. I usually pawn off...er.. share cookies with co-workers because with just two of us at home we don't need to eat whole batches. But now I have a new victim..er.. friend to share with. So I decided to do some baking tonight. One of my recent sources for inspiration is the Baking Sheet blog - http://www.bakingsheet.blogspot.com/. There was a cookie recipe that interested me there, but seemed to need tweaking - http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com/2005/12/maple-pecan-oatmeal-cookies.html. So here is my tweaked version. They came out really good. They weren't overly sweet or spiced and I liked them. We'll see how they go over tomorrow. :)

Here are the changes I made: added 1/4 tsp. cloves because to me oatmeal cookies HAVE to have cloves in them, 1 tsp. maple extract (the more mapley the better), 1/2 tsp. vanilla, I used half maple syrup and half brown rice syrup for the 1/3 c. maple syrup because I ran out of maple (brown rice syrup has a neat caramely flavor), and used pecan meal because I don't like nuts in cookies.

Maple Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
1 c. all-purpose flour
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ c. butter, softened
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. maple syrup
1 egg or egg replacer
1 tsp. maple extract
½ tsp. vanilla
1 c. rolled oats
½ c. pecan meal

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and brown sugar together in a large bowl. Beat in maple syrup, egg replacer, maple extract and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture and oats, adding pecan meal at the last minute. Stir only until just combined. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 9-12 minutes, until set and golden brown around the edges.

Yeast Bread 1, Home Team 0

I have gotten to the point where almost everything that I cook turns out good. I can't remember the last time that I made something that was totally inedible. One of the challenges that I have always had is that I have never been able to make any yeast-raised baked goods. I've decided that I'm going to change this tradition, and this weekend was to be the beginning of it.

The first recipe that I aimed to try was this: http://www.gumbopages.com/food/dessert/king-cake.html. I have read about King Cakes before and really wanted to try one. So I found the recipe and bought the things I needed. With a confident air after my baking successes with cookies at Christmas, I set forth to do battle with yeast breads. Needless to say that it turned out to be a complete and utter failure. :( I think I may have lost track counting cups of flour, because the dough turned out REALLY dry. I mean really dry. I made a valiant effort to save it, but it came out dense and heavy and ended up in the garbage can. I still had a bowl of cream cheese filling, and decided that I'd try to salvage it by making it into frosting for a carrot cake.

I've never actually made a carrot cake before, but I have recipes and some old carrots that needed to be used. I got it mixed up and put in the oven to bake. I shouldn't have been very surprised to see that the carrot cake was also a flop. Didn't rise and was really oily. At this point I gave up and left the kitchen. Sometimes it's better to quit while you're ahead and try again another day.

You may have won this battle Yeast Bread, but I'll win the campaign.

Sn0000000w!

We finally got our first snow of the winter yesterday. It's a scary proposition driving in winter conditions in the South. Not because I don't know how to drive in it (I lived in Minnesota), but because the rest of the people around here don't. Thankfully I made it safely back and forth to work for yesterday and today though it got hairy a few times. I'm definately ready for spring, and thanks to the groundhog it'll be coming soon. :)

Aloo Gobi

I finally got around to making this, I've been meaning to for a while. The recipe can be found here: http://www.pakupaku.info/indian/aloo_gobi.shtml. It turned out really good, though I had a ginger root that was woodier than what it should have been. I used a whole jalapeno rather than 1/4 of one and it came out just right for my spiciness level. I also used chopped up onion and garlic in it instead of the hing powder (forgot to get it while I was at the Indian store), and I can't feature making anything savory without garlic and onions.

It was a very quiet weekend, after my shopping yesterday I was happy to stay home today. We did go out and get groceries, but other than that we didn't go anywhere. I'm not especially looking forward to work this week, but it always seems to go by really fast so at least that's a good thing. :)

Swan Dive Into The Fabric Stash

I haven't worked on quilting since I moved down here. It's been so hectic and I've just existed. But I have been feeling some stirrings of normalcy, and today I ventured into the fabric store for the first time since we got here. I am still working on quilting the kaleidoscope quilt in the picture above but I am starting on a game plan for a new one. It is a major commitment to me to pick out the fabric and pattern for a new one, almost on par with getting married. ;) Because I do everything by hand, it takes me years to finish one once I get it started. And that's just small ones I've made. I intend to do a queen sized one for our bedroom. So I've had out my stacks of quilting magazines and books, trying to find my prince charming of a pattern. I picked out some nice fabrics while I was there. I also ventured downtown to find the Indian store to pick up some spices. I'm planning on making aloo gobi tomorrow, we'll see how it turns out.

Geek in the Kitchen

I would say that I have quite a few cookbooks. Okay, I have LOTS of cookbooks. The problem is that when I want to try to figure out stuff to make, I get daunted by the selection and end up making the same old stuff. So in a flash of brilliance (and computer nerdiness), I decided to make a recipe index. Basically I am taking one cookbook at a time and going through the whole thing, noting which recipes I want to try. I'm then entering them into a spreadsheet with categories divided by tab, the recipe name, the cookbook title and the page that it appears on. That way if I decide I want to bake cookies, I can go to the cookies tab. If I want to find main courses to make for dinner, I can go to that tab. Let's just say that I have quite a way to go on this, but the challenge is fun. And hopefully it will help me tame my cookbook library. :)

Mungo Guisado

We bought a new cookbook for Filipino recipes. We had one already, but it didn't have all of the recipes that we wanted to make. So we picked out this one - Memories of Philippine Kitchens. I made the first recipe out of it tonight, Mungo Guisado. It is a stew made out of mung beans, with tomatoes and onions. It is traditionally seasoned with pork or shrimp, but I didn't use any meat in it. It's a pretty healthy dish, and very filling.

I especially wanted to make something like this, because my husband is sick. He has a sinus infection and isn't feeling well. Since this is flavorful without being strong and spicy it worked well. It also didn't take that long to make, hands on time was probably around 10 minutes.

Land of the Big Red Hog

I finally made a trip home to visit my family in Arkansas this weekend. I've been putting it off for a while because I've been working so much lately. So since this is the last long weekend that we're going to have for a while, I figured we'd just make it work. Needless to say, this has been one of the absolute worst weekends for traveling that there could be.

It started raining as soon as we hit the Alabama/Mississippi border and hasn't stopped yet. It was cold and the low-lying areas were filled with water. We had a decent hotel room with good amenities so we were pretty happy. I didn't stay at my mother's house, we stayed in a town a bit away. We got there at lunchtime on Saturday, and my mom and step-dad came to have dinner with us that night. The next day my mom and I went to visit my grandpa in the nursing home. It was pretty sad, because he isn't very mentally alert anymore, and it wasn't a good time to visit him.

We left out first thing this morning and it was still raining, though at least it didn't freeze. We were definately very glad to make it home, so much so that we didn't want to leave to go get groceries. So I decided to make a pot of soup that was inspired by watching Iron Chef this weekend, where the challenge ingredient was frozen green peas. So here is my recipe, that is a bit of a spicier take on their version. It is really easy to make, and cooked in about 15 minutes.

Green Pea Soup

1 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 c. onion, chopped
4 c. broth
1 (1 Lb) bag frozen peas
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1/2 tsp. smoked spanish paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Saute onion for about 5 minutes, or until tender and just starting to brown at the edges. Add the remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer 10 minutes. Either puree the soup with an immersion blender, or in a regular blender.
***
My soup came out pretty brothy, it wasn't thick. If you like it thicker, you could either add some white sauce to make a cream of pea soup, or thicken it with more peas. I like it thinner myself, but it's personal taste. :)

G'Day Mate!

That's right, I've been filling up on more ANZAC Biscuits. ;) I had a craving for them today, and made some when I got home. I broke my pledge today, that I would try to take my lunch to work every day. In actuality, I did get up and pack up my lunch, but I ended up leaving it on the kitchen table. :( It was some quinoa salad, very tasty I might add, and I would have preferred it to the Chinese food that I ended up getting instead. Maybe one of these days I'll actually remember my lunch before I leave the house, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Hubby had a good supper made when I got home, curried fried rice and a cucumber/tomato salad.

Now that I have changed my hours to 7 am and don't have to be up so early, I start getting super-sleepy around 8 at night. Go figure :) I couldn't get to sleep when I was getting up at 5, but now that I'm getting up earlier I can't stay awake.

Bleh

So we get to spend the first weekend of the new year sick :) Both of us have sore throats and stuffy noses, so it's a good weekend to just stay put. In order to try to make us feel better, I wanted to make a pot of soup. I have been sorting through my recipes to put them into a new binder cookbook, and came across one that I hadn't made in a long time. I found the original recipe in the Dairy Hollowhouse Cookbook, but it was pretty time intensive to make it. So I filed it away and never made it again. This time I decided to adapt it to ingredients that made it faster and easier to make. I added a few tweaks of my own, and it came out really good. It was bright and perky without being too spicy for queasy tummies to handle. I think that this is going to be one that I make pretty often now. I also found the secret to getting my bean hating husband to eat them - he doesn't mind small ones. Bigger ones like kidney and pinto are a problem, but he doesn't mind black beans and great northern ones. I think I can accomodate that. :)

Ozark Style Tuscan Bean Soup
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
6 c. stock
2 small tomatoes, chopped (or 1 (14.5 oz) can)
1 (14.5 oz) can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
2 c. cabbage, cut into fine ribbons
1 tsp. thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbs. honey, or to taste (to cut acidity from lemon)

Heat oil in a stockpot over medium low heat. Add onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent, about 6 minutes. Add stock and stir in tomatoes, beans, jalapeno, cabbage, and thyme. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to low. Cook 30 minutes or until everything is tender. Turn off heat, stir in lemon, honey and parsley to combine.