New Garden Pictures

This is an italian sweet red pepper... Here is my newest garden box. Del built it for my fall crop. Behind it you can see my giant rosemary, chard, green beans, zucchini, and cucumbers.
Sugar pumpkin vine...
Zucchini and cukes...

Sunflower Pictures

Looking up into a giant sunflower... Lovely red sunflowers...

Even More Garden Pictures

Here are some cherry tomatoes ripening on their vine... Below is a shot of a gorgeous plot in the garden (not mine!). Those are beans in the foreground and the low dark leaves in the background are probably kale.
Here is my pride and joy, my first head of broccoli. These little plants struggled so badly at first that I didn't expect any to survive at all.
And here is another shot of one of my neighbor's plots (same one as before). His corn is so great!
Here are 4 heads of lettuce grown by yours truly. The red lettuce tasted the best.

Homemade Tahini

I never even thought about making homemade tahini until I needed it for a recipe and the brand I usually buy was in the middle of a recall (salmonella! Fun!). So I found this recipe on http://www.about.com/ and it took 15 minutes and tastes EXACTLY the same and for a lot less money. The store bought brand is between $3.50 and $5 a jar...mine cost about $1.50 to make. For anyone out there who doesn't know what the hell tahini is, it is a sesame seed paste (comparable to peanut butter) used in lots of middle eastern dishes. I use it in hummus, falafel, and the yummy tofu burgers that I'm going to be making tomorrow. Here is the recipe, for anyone who is interested...(I promised I'd start including recipes, didn't I?)


INGREDIENTS:
5 cups sesame seeds
1 1/2 cups olive oil or vegetable oil

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350. Toast sesame seeds for 5-10 minutes, shaking the seeds frequently with a spatula. Do not allow to brown. Cool for 20 minutes. Pour sesame seeds into food processor and add oil.
Blend for 2 minutes. Check for consistency. The goal is a thick, yet pourable texture. Add more oil and blend until desired consistency. Yield: 4 cups

Storing Tahini: Tahini should be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container. It will keep for up to 3 months.

Gotta love poetry class...

A Feminist Looks At Baking

The sweet yeasty aroma
has been singing their song
long before I pull the loaves
from my oven.
A simple process to create
something so sublime.

First wake the yeast
with sugar and warm water.
Then tumble in flour and salt.
Dough blooms joyfully
under deliberate hands,
becoming soft and smooth.

After the first and second rise,
the dough is stretched and shaped
and placed into the hot oven
where the yeast will take one last valiant breath
before finally succumbing to the heat.

Baking is a lost art.
If not lost than losing.
Knowledge swept away to an undisclosed location.
Strangled in the night
along with homemade pickles and
the family farm.

Kitchen bound women in the forties and fifties
may have seen their
very freedom presenting itself
with the advent of sliced, white bread.
And I can't blame them.
I would have skipped right alongside them
to the nearest Piggly-Wiggly,
tossed my apron string oppression into the air
and sang

"Hallelujah!"

The simple act of baking
is so weighted with meaning.
The bread, a fragrant melody,
a creation of crumb and crust
with the taste of a thousand harvests.

No one knew what they might give up by forgetting.

Simplest Buttermilk Biscuits adapted from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe

These biscuits are quick, easy and tasty.

Yield: 8 to 10 medium sized biscuits (I make them large so I usually get 6 or 7)
Preparation Time: 15 minuts, plus 12-15 minuts to bake

Ingredients:
nonstick spray
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
2/3 cup cold buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly spray a baking tray with nonstick spray.

2. Place the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and optional sugar in a medium sized bowl and give a stir to combine everything together.

3. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix into the dry ingredients with your fingers. When the butter is sufficiently cut in the mixture will resemble a coarse meal.

4. Add the buttermilk and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture holds together.

5. On a floured surface, roll or pat the dough into an 8 inch surface, 3/4 inch thick. Cut free-form biscuits with a knife or, to be more traditional, with a glass. I like to use a glass with a 2 and 1/2 inch rim.

6. Bake in the center of the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until deep golden brown on the bottom and light golden brown on top. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes before serving (if you can wait that long).

A little poetry to mix things up...

Thoughts On Narcissism

Apples lined up,
gleaming in rows,
bygone stars in a wax museum,
believably authentic to the ignorant eye.
There are oranges
shipped 3000 miles from Florida.
dimpled little navels,
sweet tangerines,
sunning themselves in the fluorescent lights,
blissfully unaware that the truck that brought them
was belching toxic fumes along the way.
Ahh, but wait.
Leave that air-conditioned tomb.

With just the slightest bit of care and effort and sacrifice
(however un-American that may be)
you could stop trampling and destroying.
Learn the way, back
to the things we used to know
just 50 years ago,
before refrigerated box cars
and the blatant squandering of our resources.

And now for the typical response:
Why does it matter?
Why should I have to wait to have what I want, when I want it?
I am most important.
I am the dominant species.
The earth will repeatedly crack itself open like an egg
to give me whatever I hunger for.

These are the thoughts
that plant themselves in my mind
as I bury my hands in the soil
of my garden, struggling
to make sense
of this world,
too consumed with convenience
to care.

-SMS

Beautiful Bathtub

Time for recipes

When I originally started this blog I planned on posting recipes to go with all my food pictures but school has a way of being all-consuming. So, I just want to say that I'm going to try to make a real effort to post the recipe with the photo from now on. I just returned home this afternoon from a great weekend on the coast. The weather was surprisingly warm and there wasn't even a strong wind down by the ocean! (which is nothing short of a miracle here in the NW) Above are a few pictures of the bathtub. Isn't it so creative and surreal? The plants are right above the tub.

Good Luck at Goodwill

I had great luck at Goodwill yesterday with Del. I found this paper cutter for $6.99 which is great because I'd been planning to buy a brand new one to use for making cards.It's so cool and looks just like the ones I used to use in my high school art classes. Below is a large 3.5X5 ft canvas that has already been used for something but now has been painted over so it's ready for me to paint on! I'm not concerned with it not being perfect because it will be great to practice on something that didn't cost $50+ at the craft store. It only cost me $12.

Another Great Thrift Store Find...

Lemon-Glazed Rosemary/Lavender Raisin Buns

I found this great recipe in Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe. The smell and taste of the rosemary and lavender together is intoxicating. And don't forget all the sweet lemony goodness! :)

Lettuce and Spinach and Peas, Oh My!

After a week of moping around my apartment with a cold I finally made it out into the sun today for a few minutes. Above are my spinach plants and below are peas on the outside and two rows of lettuce on the inside. All my veggies look so healthy and happy! These pictures don't do them justice.

Wow these bagels are AWESOME!

Because of the slightly complicated process (boiling and then baking), I haven't tried to make bagels for at least 3 or 4 years. I'm so glad I gave them another try. This recipe (which I got off of Allrecipes) is incredible. They are soft on the inside and perfectly chewy on the outside. My only regret is not doubling or tripling the recipe to begin with and freezing the extra bagels.

Mmmm enchiladas

Here's a photo of the tasty chicken enchiladas I made for dinner tonight.

Easter Eggs

I created this egg under the guidance of my friend DeAnn who led everyone in making authentic Ukranian Eggs. I'm not sure how authentic mine is, it looks more like a Hippy Egg but I'm okay with that.

Half-Baked!?

Here's my partially baked focaccia crust, ready to be smothered in saucy cheesy goodness. I keep trying to curb all my carb intake but can't you see? Everything wonderful starts with flour and yeast! (or goes well with it)

Ready to go in the oven

BBQ Chicken Pizza Black Olive, Mushroom, and Onion Pizza

Baked and Fabulous Pizza

Oh yeah, look at these babies...they are so lovely and tasted even better!

Will Sheila ever learn?

Here's Sheila eyeballing my freshly baked focaccia bread...

A muumuu no more

So, I found a gigantic muumuu at Goodwill for $5 and thought it would make a great summery skirt so here it is! It turned out great considering that I am an awful seamstress. I generally pull out the sewing machine every so often for about one miserable hour and then stop just short of smashing the machine onto the concrete outside. So, I'm super proud of myself right now. From far away you can't even see the completely uneven stitches! Yay! Maybe Janome and I can be friends one day after all!

Tortilla Press

I made this fancy shmancy torilla press this weekend with Del's help! I have made flour tortillas several times and rolled them out with a rolling pin, but I found this design in a book for making corn tortillas and thought it would be a fun project. I would like to paint it at some point. We also made the first of 3 trellises for the garden...pictures to come soon! My peas, lettuce, and spinach have all sprouted. I look forward to seeing if I can keep them alive long enough to eat them!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Here it is: proof that I don't live on carbs alone! Mmmm cream of broccoli soup with garlicky whole grain croutons.

It looks like a different garden...

Don't our raised beds look great? We decided to wait on the wooden border until we can get the wood a bit cheaper (possibly for free). Del was smart enough to think to climb up on a rickety ladder and take a few photos from above the garden. Doesn't it look awesome? I'm so excited I can barely stand it. So, this evening I planted seeds for Dakota Peas, Bloomsdale Savoy Spinach, Organic Golden Swiss Chard (YUM!), Organic Victoria Butterhead Lettuce and a few seeds of a blend of lettuces. I bought all my seeds this year from Territorial Seed Company, which is a local Oregon seed company. Here's the website if anyone is interested: www.territorial-seed.com

Almost ready to plant...

Del came out to the garden with me yesterday and we really got a lot done. We are going to build a border around it tomorrow and I should be ready to plant peas, spinach, lettuce and possibly radishes after we finish building. We are also going to build a few trellises, which we calculated are VASTLY cheaper to build than to buy already made. So hopefully I'll have some more good pictures to post after tomorrow.

JennaSue is my favorite farmgirl

So, I got a lot done in the garden today in just over an hour with my friend Jenna. It was nice to have help and it was a gorgeous day to be working outside. Having someone to talk to makes the work easier. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures but I will definitly get some new ones up next week. Hopefully I will be able to put a border around the whole plot this weekend with Del's help (if the weather is agreeable).
While I'm out there working I can almost imagine that I'm on my own land miles from the city. One day I will be!

I'm noticing a trend...

I think I'm going overboard a bit with all the baking! It's so funny, I never really used to bake but for the last 2 months that's all I've done. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I'm just so excited to have all the bread turn out so good. I used to only be ok at baking but lately I've done really well. The only baked good I've bought in the last 2 months was one bag of bagels from TJ's. I've baked bread 5 or 6 times, made tortillas three times and baked lots of combinations of bran and berry muffins. They next two things I want to try are pita bread and bagels, both of which I've made before with so-so results.
I went over to the garden after struggling through the longest math test ever at school today! It wasn't that hard, just excruciatingly looonngg. This garden is kicking my ass! Its not that big but the weeds are never ending! I've got close to a third weeded now. When I went by today I ran into gardener who was already planting her peas! I should probably get started planting too. Apparently I have some rhubarb growing. That's what I was told it was. And nearly a dozen little weed choked strawberry plants.
And a blister and a backache and several slugs have been murdered. Ah, its a gardener's life for me.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Tonight I went over to my friend Millie's house and baked 3 loaves of cinnamon raisin bread. I can't wait to eat a pb&j made with it. Yum!

"Cheeseburger Buns"

So, I found this recipe on Allrecipes, an ok website to get recipes from. (It would be a way better website if they would ever get around to posting the recipes I've submitted!) Anyway, these are like "hot-pockets" only better because they are homemade. They took forever though. They are filled with ground beef , sauteed onions and cheddar cheese. I filled a couple with ham and cheese and thought they turned out even tastier.

Y porque estoy loca sobre cocina casera...

Tonight I also baked my bread for the next week or two. Its a whole wheat bread filled with pumpkin seeds, ground flax seeds and sunflower seeds. Yum! So that was a night well spent. I love taking at least one or two nights out of my week and just concentrate on creating something wholesome and deliciously homemade. It's soul-soothing.

Moosewood Cookbooks

Have I mentioned how much I love Moosewood cookbooks? And Mollie Katsen? I love her too. Her cookbooks are so simple and unpretentious. Sunlight Cafe is my favorite which is strange because I've always prefered to cook late afternoon and evening types of meals and this cookbook is full of breakfast and brunch dishes. It makes me want to subsist entirely on muffins and granola.

So tonight I tried out a recipe called Savory Dill Ricotta Muffins. They turned out pretty tasty but I probably wouldn't make them all the time because they didn't stand out really. Here's a photo.

My favorite food writer...

My favorite food writer is Laurie Colwin. I plan on eventually reading all of her "non-food" novels, but until then I highly recommend her to anyone else who, like me, loves to read and really loves to read about food. She is excellent. Unfortunately she's also dead, which makes me quite sad because I would have happily read every food book she ever wrote for all of eternity (she's that good). But hey, don't take my word for it: Her two food books are Home Cooking, A Writer in the Kitchen, and More Home Cooking, A Writer Returns to the Kitchen.

And after nearly 3 hours of back-breaking labor...

After being hunched over for so long I managed to pull a muscle in my right leg and spent the following 2 days limping. I'm a wuss.

Here are some photos of my first garden

This year I finally signed up for my very own community garden plot. For about $50 I am now the proud renter of a 20x20 foot garden.

Above is a shot of the garden before I started weeding. I'm happy that someone else left a huge rosemary plant (which I used to make the loaf of rosemary bread from my previous bread)

a tasty rosemary baguette baked by yours truly, wrapped in paper and tied with a lovely red ribbon

a blog about food and life

I plan on creating a blog with a focus on simple living as something for us all to explore as a lifestyle choice, a political statement, something necessary, something beautiful. I love cooking wholesome meals and crafting something out of nothing. I want to create a place to share recipes, ideas, and life skills. So here it is: Sentient Beans.
Peace.