EASTER BASKETS

Easter Baskets and Herb garden planted very early April 2012.   What a wonderful thing to have flowers this early and a tomato plant growing so proudly.  Roma tomatoes are great sliced on toasted baguette rounds.  The herbs (basil, thyme, chives) are so expensive to purchase at the grocery.  These are things I did not know how to use, really until recently.  As much as I've cooked and loved to experiment, I just had no idea about what to do with fresh herbs.   At the end of my life, I will be just about ready to live a full and productive life the way I have always dreamed.  I could even live 10 more lives as I learn all the time what is worth saving and what is useless and empty.  Mostly it's the children,  precious relationships, and the beauty of nature and animals which are worth saving.  If I could do something else now, it would be to raise my own hens.  That's just one of the things I would love to do.  Life is so short.  It forces us to adjust and change our expectations.  Even though I will not likely raise chickens,  I just keep dreaming what it would be like.  

Every spring is a new beginning.  Today is Easter.  I know Jesus created all of this beauty for me and for each of us.   Happy Easter to my children and grandchildren.  Happy Easter to my precious friends and to each of my readers.  Live each day in beauty and gratitude.

PESTO

For years I have shunned pesto.  I didn't know what it was.  It just sounded nasty.  Why I decided to try it now, at age 65,  is a mystery, but one day I bought a small jar.  It cost over $4 for enough to spread on a piece of toast, but knew I could figure out how to make it.  The grocery sells little baguettes for a dollar.  I bought a baguette, pesto, and a few roma tomatoes.  At home I sliced the baguette, toasted it and spread it with a little pesto.  I laid a slice of tomato on top, added some sprinkles of romano cheese and drizzed it with extra virgin olive oil.  OH MY GOSH!!  It was incredible!

I knew there was a reason I bought and kept that small food chopper/processor (at Walmart for $10).  It's been waiting in my cupboard for just this moment.   Off to the store, I bought a sprig of basil for almost $3, pine nuts sold in a tiny jar for $4, garlic cloves already peeled and stored in a jar, a carton of shredded romano and a big bottle of extra virgin olive oil.  Even with the the fresh ingredients the result was still no more than a small jar to pesto.

Yesterday I made a batch of spaghetti, drizzled it with olive oil and tossed in a tablespoon of pesto.  WOW!  I knew I needed more than I could afford to buy at the grocery.  Basil growers are making a fortune.   $3 a sprig?   Olive oil is such a great replacement for butter on toast.  Six months ago I would have gone home and eaten butter anyway (just because).  But butter does not taste like it did years ago.  I don't know what they do to it but it does not taste like butter should taste.  I am lactose intolerant and finally am tired of the consequences of butter.  Tomato sauces from jars are full of preservatives.  65 year old tummies don't like acids.  Home grown tomatoes are so much gentler.  All pasta does not have to be smothered in tomato sauce.  My next challenge is to learn to make a great sauce with home grown low acid tomatoes and home grown herbs.  Spaghetti does not have to cause indigestion.

Yesterday, the first of April, was hot and sunny.  I went out to the shed, drug in a copper tub and planted it full of herbs.  No more $3 sprigs of basil.  I found much less expensive pine nuts and learned that one can make pesto with almonds.  I found a coupon for romano and know there is another type of cheese I can use (Martha Stewart).  I planted a roma tomato.  Those plants may need a little extra protection, but it's been a very warm spring.  Before summer is over, I will be a Pestonista.

Try some freshly sliced roma tomato on toasted french bread with pesto.  Crunchy sea salt is a good way to top this off although not necessary.  Your blood sugar won't spike, you won't have saturated fats to worry about, you'll have your antioxidants and it's delicious.  I'm looking forward to learning additional ingredients and new ways to use this delicious condiment.   Good eating.

PESTO    (in a food processor)
Pine nuts
Fresh basil
A couple of garlic cloves
Romano cheese
Extra Virgin olive oil.
Blend to a fine paste.

Orlynn's Fresh peach pie

I found some Georgia peaches, which are always the best for pie and eating.  Thanks Georgia. This morning I made Grandma Lynn's fresh peach pie and remembered all the delicious summers when she was with us at the lake house.  This is so delicious I must share it with all of you.

Orlynn Anderson's Fresh Peach Pie.

Peel about six fresh Georgia peaches. Cut into slices and then into chunks. Add a little sugar. Refrigerate

Bake a pie crust.  I use the refrigerated Walmart brand which I find to taste better than my own.

Cool the pie crust.  Melt about 3/4 bag of marshmallows / 2 Tablspoons butter.  Watch carefully so it does not burn.  Use low heat and stir.  Take off of heat as soon as melted.  Add 1 teasp. vanilla.

Whip up a small carton of whipped cream.  Stir in the marshmallow mix.  Put peaches in the crust. 

Pour the mixture over the peaches and refrigerate until set.  Oh, my.  It is so delicious!

By the way, Walmart refrigerated pie crust comes 2 to a box.  You need to make sure it is well stretched out over the pie pan and pricked with many holes or it will shrink.  I press the edges with a fork.  This means you COULD make 2 peach pies at a time.  You'll be glad you decided to do that.

Look at these tomato seeds now!

Those tiny seeds have grown into something amazing.  There are, however fewer fruits showing up than I would like.  This may be because I have two in each pot.  Time to prune or set out in the garden.  My fear is that the groundhog (grrrrroundhog) will eat the fruit.  He's eaten almost all of the buds off of my roses.  I called the Orkin guy but he charges $45 to set a trap and $75 more if he gets the groundhog.  No Way!  I will try putting a fence around each rose bush.  That pesky old groundhog needs to go eat something else.  Maybe if I put corn out for him on the other side of the yard...........?  Here you see two of the colors.  I also planted peach and red.  All of them are climbing rose bushes and are doing well in spite of Mr Groundhog.

Just Imagine!

Look closely.  It is NOT a bedbug.  It's a tomato seed; an heirloom tomato seed ordered from an heirloom vegetable seed catalog.  Now I am not a survivalist by nature, but it is a bit unnerving to think that most of our seeds and vegetable gardens are hybridized.  They will not reproduce good fruit.  If anything happened to the grocery stores, if fuel became so expensive that we could not afford to buy groceries, if we were left having to grow our own food, it would benefit us to have seeds we could then save from year to year.    I planted one seed in each little valley in a clear plastic egg carton which forms a small greenhouse when closed.  That little greenhouse is basking in the sunshine on the south porch.


What really struck me about the seed is this.  It is a picture of resurrection.  It's an empty shell full of tomato DNA.  Unless it is buried in the dark dirt, it will never come to life.  Given a choice, I expect it would decline being sown.  Who would say yes to a dark grave?  But.  Unless this tiny seed is baptized by dirt, it will be blown away like chaff.  That seed has to trust the Master Gardener.  The seed has no idea what it will become if it trusts the Master Gardener.  The Gardener knows but could never explain it to a seed.  The seed does not have that much of an imagination.  A tall green vine?  Red tomatoes that could feed a family?  What the heck does that mean?  The Gardener knows.  He designed the seed, the vine, the tomato, the sunshine, rain and the dirt, fertilizer, and farmer.   Is that not amazing?  I think so.

The World's BEST Bleu Cheese Dressing

Okay.  This is for Julia, who loves to cook.  This is also for John, who loves bleu cheese dressing, and for Joseph who so graciously asks me for recipes.  Thank you my dears.  A long time ago, there was a restaurant in Minneapolis which served and sold the best bleu cheese dressing.  Today I bought some MAYTAG bleu cheese ($12) and whipped up a pint of dressing.  Combine a carton of sour cream, a small jar of mayonnaise and the bleu cheese crumbled.  Add a teaspoon of horseradish.  That's it.  Let it sit for 24 hours to combine flavors.  Serve with a crisp salad which contains big chunks of all kinds of fresh veggies and maybe even black olives and walnuts, dried raisins or dried cranberries.  You can cut up some grilled chicken or steak as well.  Good steak crusted with bleu cheese is to die for.  Excuse me, Julia for I know you are (or were) a vegan.  Sometimes I add crisp bacon crumbles to the salad.  Sometimes I add greek olives.  Once in awhile I make a salad and add baby spinach but usually I like to cut up fresh endive or hearts of romaine.  Darker lettuces are healthier.  I like organic best.  A great addition is clementine chunks (mandarin oranges).  Sometimes I cook up some black quinoa and sprinkle that in.  I suppose the list is endless.

Here's something to eat with the salad.

Today I saw a television chef put four eggs in a skillet, cook them a bit and add a bunch of cooked spaghetti.  He tossed that until the egg was coating the spaghetti and was cooked, then sprinkled it liberally with grated parmesan. Yum.  Protein and carbs with cheese!  A little oregano might have been fitting.  A nice baguette and a glass of wine and dinner would have been complete.

Enjoy

Make Something Of It

Yesterday I knew spring was in the air.  I had a sudden urge to make a sundress.  Some things we cannot control, but we can prepare.  My brother John graciously agreed to go with me to a small quilt shop to find fabric.  There we learned that fabric in quilt shops comes in 108" bolts rather than 36" or 45". This was great because this little sundress has no seam down the front.  The fabric is cotton but looks like batik.  It's simple and beautiful.  The dress pattern has a flow that will make wearing it that much more fun.  Even though my machine is packed away somewhere in a box in the garage, I can stitch this by hand as my great grandmother did when she made dresses years ago in Scotland.  Everything was made by hand.  There's not much else to do in January/February.  Of course John is planning the next phase of the flower gardens.  He tends to the birds and educates me about the species which show up in our front yard.  To digress, we had 3 varieties of woodpeckers, cardinals and nuthatches yesterday, all feeding at the same time.  John is determined to make sure they are all healthy through the winter.  He's a sort of St Francis of Westcott.   Below you will see the material and dress pattern.  You can imagine what I will be doing this snowy Saturday.