Me and Mom, the Origianl Type-A

It's late and I've been making marinara sauce since about 10 am this morning - I'm about 13 hours in and will probably hit 14 total. But, I am almost done, just about 30 minutes more to boil down the last stockpot full of sauce to the right thickness, then it is ladeled into jars through the funnel, lids are put on, rings are screwed on and tightened and the jars go into the canning bath for about 25 minutes...this process I have repeated over and over again today. I bought three 20 lb. boxes of roma tomatoes from the couple that runs my favorite farm stand. They drive over to eastern Washington weekley to pick up produce. Last week I put in my order for the roma tomatoes and sure to their word, they had them ready for me to pick up on Wednesday morning. I gave the tomatoes a couple of days to ripen further, which made today my long day of sauce making in the kitchen. The thing about making marinara sauce is that it's lots of work all at once and then long waits. I try to use the long waits efficiently to have everything ready to go for the next round, onions chopped in the food processor, tomatoes cleaned, trimmed and ready to go through the food processer. But sometimes there's nothing really to do but wait while the sauce is boiling down. So today I've had the luxury of getting a few things done for my online job, but I've also been browsing facebook and internet news sights quite a bit. I don't normally get this much time online to just goof off, and to be honest, I'm glad. If I didn't have the tomato sauce to show for my time today, I'd feel a bit like a loser. I'm no Type-A, but I am also not really one for wasting large amounts of time, I like to be productive. I'm more a Type-B that has Type-A tendencies and I likes to surround myself with Type-A's, the husband for instance is a Type-A, as are several of the friends I've been closest to over the years. I like the influence that Type-A's have on me. The original Type-A in my life is my mom. She was queen of getting up early, even on the weekend. I remember many times as a child, waking up to the sound of the vacuum running in the hall outside my bedroom. She liked a clean house and never went to bed with dishes in the sink - something that I probably won't be able to say tonight, but now that I'm grown up, I generally feel the same way about going to bed with a clean kitchen. She would have liked for me to keep my bedroom cleaner as I was growing up, and I think it would have made her happy if I'd made my bed every morning - as a kid I did so sporadically, but this was a habit I didn't firmly form until my freshman year of college in the dorms. Luckily the bed-making habit was firmly in place before I got married, the husband is very faithful about tasks like this, for the most part he tolerates my "free-spirtedness", but it helps that I have a few standards.Well, like I said, I've had some time on my hands here and there today, so I decided to share a picture my mom sent me as an email attachment recently. She took an picture of the two of us - I don't know when it was taken, sometime probably in the last 5 years - and she photoshopped the heck out of it. That's another thing my mom likes to do, make adjustments to photos, it's kind of become her hobby. She's a good person, my mom, she's quirky and thoughtful and nice. Now it's time to get back to that marinara sauce!

Pumpkins, Zucchini and Squash

Last year I attempted to grow pumpkins, actually I attempted to grow them the year before that too, but last year I actually got a little pumpkin on a vine whereas the year before I had stunted little plants that barely started to vine let alone set fruit. So back to that one little pumpkin from last year...I think I killed it with love. I checked on it daily and even put a paper plate under it like I'd read somewhere to keep it from sitting in wet dirt and rotting. Well, that little pumpkin was discovered detached and withered looking one day. It made me sad, I didn't like to think about it and I didn't want to talk about it when the husband brought it up, he knew I was excited about it, I'd made him check it out any time he was anywhere near my garden. Fortunately, this year I've got lots of pumpkins, they are growing wonderfully. Why is this? It's got to be that they like growing in the designer soil in the raised bed. I've also given them a natural fertilizer called "Bio-Fish", twice, once when I put the starts in the ground and again right before I watered recently. My plans for those pumpkins? Pie and decoration. We may even carve a few this year - if the s-son is in the mood, he's turning 13 later this month, so it can be tough to predict what he's still into and what he's outgrown. By the way, the two little pumpkins in the picture below were vine rejects, they were detached when I found them, believe it or not, they were actually further along in their growth when I found them than my one little pathetic pumpkin from last year. I've got more squash right now than I am prepared to deal with. I'll confess that I've been taking the bigger zucchini, splitting it open and giving it to my chickens. I figure if they eat it then I eventually do benefit from growing it. The bigger zucchini doesn't taste as good to me as it does when it's small - of course it's my fault that so much has grown big because I didn't get out early enough to pick it. I do love the odd things that can sometimes happen when growing vegetables. Like these conjoined crookness squash - love them! They are currently taking up space on my coutertop because I like to look at them.Another oddity, the two zucchini's below were grown from seeds that came from the same pack.I suppose it's not a long stretch that I'd be such a geek when it comes to pumpkins and squash, I am the lady who regularly takes pictures of her chickens and their eggs. Honestly though, when I look at the gorgeous golden stripes of the crookneck squash in the picture below, I'm kind of amazed that I started the seed that grew into the vine that set the flower that was polinated by a bee and then grew into that squash. I'm okay with being a gardening geek, I can own that.

Mmmmm...Raspberry Sauce

I can't remember if it was an experiment or a mistake, but last summer I made and canned raspberry sauce for the first time. When I make jam, I don't use pectin, just sugar and a longer boiling time, so it could be that I'd set out to make jam and just didn't boil the fruit down for long enough. I honestly don't know. But, experiment or mistake, I loved the raspberry sauce I made, it was delicious over waffles, french toast, ice cream, chocolate cake and brownies, and most of all, over creme brulee. I was on the look out this summer for when the raspberries would show up at the farm stands. While out in the La Conner area about two weeks ago I found a stand selling half flats for just $6, so I bought two. The berries sat in our extra 'fridge for about a week, partially due to procrastination, but mostly due to work obligations and the short get-a-way trip the husband and I took to Victoria. I did finally get around to turning those lovely berries into sauce and canning it. I ended up with 11 half pint jars of sauce and one partial jar that I refrigerated instead of canning. I had a jar from last summer open, and decided to do a side by side taste test. It reminded me of a part-time job I used to have at a winery when I lived in California, in our staff meetings, we sometimes did side-by-side tastings of the same wine but different vintages. So I'm going to give it my best "wine-speak" review, here goes: The 2009 vintage raspberry sauce was tart and short to start, it was reminiscent of meyer lemons and jasmine. It's finish was smooth, sweet, and light. The 2010 vintage raspberry sauce is sweet and more full bodied from start to finish, it reminds me of honey, and nectarines with the slight spice of nutmeg. Neither sauce had strong tannins, even though the seeds were left in the sauce (I like them and don't strain them out). The 2009 is a developed sauce whose flavors have had time to mingle, the 2010, though young, drinks well now and will only continue to improve.Now, don't you think I need to be a dessert sauce sommelier and get paid lots of money to tell people what they are tasting and what it would be good with? New career direction maybe? Naw, I'll just stick with spending my days in a classroom teaching math and in my free time I'll enjoy my homemade raspberry sauce.Speaking of which, only a few more days until I'm back to work full-time. I think having an untraditional year this last school year has made me feel a bit anxious about going back to full-time brick and mortar work. I'm excited and looking forward to the year, I just don't always adjust to change as gracefully as I could. I need to work on that.

Potato Harvest

Not really having much experience with potato growing, we've been pretty much winging it this year. I planted two large containers with five starter potatoes each back in (I think) April. I followed the advice of many, many people and slowly added dirt to the containers a few inches at a time as the potato plants grew.

We decided to "harvest" one container to check the progress of the potatoes. There wasn't an overwhelmingly huge amount of potatoes, but we did get more than a few meals worth out of that container. Again, not having much experience, I don't know if this is an expected amount, or if we would have had more if we'd waited longer. The plants were pretty much dried out and no longer green on top, I think I'd heard that when a potato plant starts to flower that it is done setting potatoes and when it dries out then those potatoes are done growing. This may or may not be true, I haven't done my homework yet.

We still have the other container to harvest, probably sometime in the next month or so. Maybe this will give me a better idea of what to do next year. By the way, the pile of rocks in the picture above has nothing to do with potatoes...but it is a project that I'll have to get to when the weather cools off. We collected those rocks from the area on our property where the husband had dug ditches for the utility lines to be worked on and connected for the building project he just finished. The rocks are disaster if run over by our riding lawn mower, so because we had to go through and pick them up, we collected them in the bucket of his tractor and he dumped them into my garden. It looks messy now, but they'll look great added onto the rock border that I started in my garden earlier this year. I like free resources, all these rocks have required is a bit of sweat. I've heard before that Irish soil is pretty rocky, and since this post is about potatoes, maybe the rock tangent isn't so off after all!

See you soon!

More Pesto Here We Go!

So...I started 36 basil plants from seed this spring. I transplanted them to one of my raised beds in May. I was worried at the time that they'd make it because even though the weather was great when I put them in the ground, the temperatures dipped low a few times in the couple of weeks that followed. I also learned a lesson in applying fertilizers. I overdid it a bit, when I put the starts in the ground I added a side dressing of "Bio-Fish" fertilizer which is made by a company called Down to Earth. It's a great fertilizer, but in moderation. I burned the plants a bit by using too much.

The damage was obviously not lasting, these plants came back very strong.

I've already done a thorough picking of the plants twice and made batches of pesto with the harvest...but it's been almost two weeks since the the last picking and the plants have loved the watering and sunshine . As you can see from the picture above, some of the plants were going to start to flower and bolt if they didn't get some attention.

So I went out and spent about 45 minutes filling my basket up. It was the most I've picked at any time. I knew that I'd be doing this, so I'd made sure a couple of days ago that I still had everything needed in my kitchen to make pesto.

First I started with the fresh garlic, peeling isn't my most favorite chore, but I think it tastes better than the pre-peeled kind that you can buy in bulk or the chopped stuff that comes in a jar. Even though it's a bit of a task, it's worth it.

Hazelnuts - though I would probably prefer pinenuts, they are too expensive to buy for the mass amount of pesto I've been making, hazelnuts are a good and more affordable substitute. I've actually considered using walnuts as well.

For the first couple of batches I used shredded parmesan, but this time around, I had picked up a blend of shaved hard cheeses at Trader Joe's.

Then there was the olive oil. The thing about it is, I don't really measure any of this out, I like to make my pesto in a more casual way. If it looks like it is going to need more oil to get the texture I want, I add more, or if it doesn't taste "smooth" enough, I add more cheese or nuts. It may mean that one batch is slightly different than the next, but I like variety so that doesn't bother me.

With the first batch I froze the pesto in a muffin tin, though I liked the amount that each muffin cup held, it was pretty difficult to get the frozen pesto out. When loosening it up with a butterknife didn't work, I ended up turning the pan over and running warm water over the back to make the individual pesto portions come out. It was messy so I decided after that to use small party cups instead. I fill each cup about half way, covered them with wrap and into the freezer they go. Once they are frozen I'll pop them out of the cups and store the frozen pieces together in a freezer bag. I think I've got about 20 dinner-sized portions stored now. From the looks of it, there's going to be plenty more to come before the basil is done for the season. I'm excited that there will be lots of pesto flavored dinners to come this winter, it's one of my favorites! This is also a much more affordable way to get pesto, I wouldn't be willing to spend the money to buy this much pesto from a grocery market. I also love it that I know exactly what went into making it, there are no mystery ingredients. A taste of summer basil during our cold Pacific Northwest winters is going to be pretty great!

A Few Garden Update Pictures

With the new raised beds, the garden is full and thriving right now, I some times can't believe how much is growing and how well it is all growing! If I wasn't before, I am now a huge advocate of raised beds for growing veggies. The weeding has been pretty minimal the crop yield has been fantastic!

A tomato ripening on the vine in the sunshine.

A few zucchini still on the vine, we've already been enjoying zucchini here and there at dinner time.

I'm not sure why, but this year my broccoli seems to be a bit behind, but it's coming in now!

I've tried for years to grow pumpkins, but this is the furthest I have ever come with that.

Here's another little pumpkin that is growing in.

Like the pumpkins, I have had bad luck with corn in the past, but things are looking better this year here too.

This is my first attempt at growing eggplant, I'm sooooo excited to have a few blossoms, I've been dreaming about roasted eggplant on pizza!

So that's it for now...happy weekend and happy growing!

Today's Berry Haul

Here's what the husband picked from the garden today...yum! I'm thinking I'm going to put the blueberries and raspberries into a batch of scones and some of the strawberries will be eaten fresh (some already were) and the rest are going to be frozen for later.

Gotta love the "free" berries!

4th of July

The strawberries were picked from our garden, but the blueberries weren't - mine aren't quite ripe yet. We're off to celebrate Independence Day at a friend's house on a lake. As expected, it doesn't look much like summer here today - it's always said that summer in the Pacific Northwest doesn't start until July 5th...but hey, at least we've got lots of strawberries!

Happy Independence Day!

Dinner Beach Picnic

You may recall how I shared that on my birthday last month, the husband and I went for a nice walk on the beach. It was that night that I made a summer's resolution to spend more time there. It's only about a ten minute drive from where we live and it's beautiful. It was especially beautiful this past Friday evening. We went there to enjoy a picnic dinner. We had about half a mile of beach all to ourselves. It wasn't too cold or too windy, in fact wonder of wonders it may have even been a bit on the warm side...not something we can usually say. Bambino was along for the trip and had a blast chasing his ball all over the beach - and eventually into the water - this was the first time he's ever swam at the beach. It was also fun to use my new (to me) picnic basket and picnic quilt...finds from a local vintage shop. We all had a good time, there will be more picnics at the beach to come this summer.

Dinner Out

Recently the husband and I enjoyed a nice night out, just the two of us. The driving force behind our date was to use a restaurant gift certificate that was gifted to us several months ago. The restaurant is on Chuckanut Drive which goes along the water, looking out at the San Juan Islands. The best time of year to make the drive is the summer, and even though it's been a bit of a rainy start to summer around here, the evening that we had our reservations was the perfect summer evening - gorgeous!

We left early enough that we weren't in a huge rush, we were able to stop and enjoy the views.

Dinner was okay, though not really spectacular. I would have probably been a bit disappointed if the majority of our check hadn't been covered by a gift certificate. We probably won't be back there on our own dollar. But it was still fun to have a night out. The view really was the best thing about the restaurant, it was gorgeous. We had a great table right by a window looking out at the water. Besides, even for a less than fantastic meal, it is still fun to put on a cute pair of sparkeley flats.

Over-priced mediocre meal: not really my thing.

Dinner shared with my best friend and a beautiful view: yes please, anytime!

A Summer Berry Preview

May has flown by much quicker than I can get my mind around...sometimes it seems like time is moving much too quickly. Though I'm a bit overwhelmed to be so close to June, I am excited to have summer right around the corner. In this corner of the Pacific Northwest everyone always says that summer actually starts on July 5th. This year I'm especially excited about the fresh berries I'm going to be picking in my garden. The blueberry plant above is new this year, but it's already looking like it is going to be one of my favorites, it is chalk full of berries that are getting more purplish blue in color everyday. Also, my strawberry beds are looking gorgeous. I have to admit that it was super annoying to have my chickens invade the strawberry bed at the end of the season last fall, they picked over it with their maurrading little beaks. I remember thinking that they were probably ruining the plants. Since then they've been moved and no longer have access to my strawberry plants or any of the raised beds in my garden for that matter. But, I think the um, fertilizing that they did while they were invading last fall was actually a good thing. I can't believe how healthy, huge and green those plants look! The berries we have are June bearing and ever-bearing varieties, so there should be lots of strawberries to enjoy!

Well, that's it for now, I hope your weekend has been sweet and restful so far!