Arepas – Cornmeal Patties | GOYA® Venezuelan & Colombian Cuisine
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Last Wednesday of April, part one
"Tulips Resisting the Cold"
"Potted herbs with a Blanket"
"Who Requested This Weather?" I have so much to write about today, so I'm going to have to break it down into a couple of entries. Spring/Winter weather changes, creative project for Tristan, and the dinner I cooked on Sunday; I still have to take a picture of Tristan wearing his new sweater so that I can put that post together but that's for another time.
It started snowing yesterday morning, after a light rain and slight hail decided to fall first. I stood in the kitchen, looking out the window by the back door, watching it come down. Little did I know, it would keep snowing right into mid-day today. Now, its moving over into a small patch of rain, and according to the weather man, who is never truly right anyway, its supposed to stop and start warming back up between late tonight and into tomorrow. Global warming? Climate change? Human kind messing with the planet? Lots of possibilities....
"The cure for boredom is curiousity. There is no cure for curiousity." ~Dorothy Parker 1893-1967
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Earth Day 2010
Earth Day 2010....celebrated at our home by gardening more this morning. My Glory of the Snows are about to their lifetime, and all other flowers are in bloom or coming up to bloom later this season and into the summer months. Scattering of lettuce and greens seeds, cleaning areas out to let flowers and herbs grow...yarrow, dandelion greens, plantain leaves, and sorting through the massive tangled roots of flowers that have been here long since we've come but due to neglect, bulbs have formed root systems and need to be thinned out severly. I love the colors when the flowers bloom but I don't need massive groves of these beauties; they also multiply, anyway. Share, share, share.....
The other element of today's posting is what is for dinner tonight.
Traditional Hummus
Coconut Curry Hummus*
Black Bean Hummus*
Braised Chicken with Crushed Wheat Stuffing
Steamed Brown Rice
Focus is on the hummus for today. I love the stuff, especially when its made that day. Well, its a hummus making factory here in my kitchen today. The traditional is very basic: chickpeas-canned or dry to cook, your choice; salt to taste, 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped; lemon juice and tahini (ground sesame seed paste, found in the health section of some markets or located with the peanut butter at others). Combine ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Serve at room temperature. That's the basic; here comes the good stuff.
Coconut Curry Hummus
-2 15oz. cans chickpeas (or dry if you have the time to cook ahead of time)
-4 Tbsp tahini
-Juice of 1 lemon
-3 lg. garlic cloves, minced
-1/4 c. water
-1 tsp. sea salt
-1 Tbsp. black pepper
-1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped (you can use dried, just half the measurement)
-1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped (same rules apply for dried herb)
-3-5 dashes paprika
-7-8 Tbsp. red curry paste (international section of market or make your own, I do)
-1/2 c. coconut milk (international section of market)
-1/2 c. coconut shavings (baking aisle)
-2 dashes olive oil
In a food processor or blender, puree all ingredients until smooth. Pour into a serving dish with olive oil and enjoy!
Black Bean Hummus
-16 oz. dry black beans, cooked, drained
-4 Tbsp. olive oil
-Juice of 1 lemon
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-Sea salt
-1 tsp. cumin
-Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
-Tahini, to taste
Combine the black beans, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, cumin, pepper, and tahini in a food processor container; process until smooth. Serve at room temperature.
Yum! If concerned about how your traditional hummus is going to turn out, jot down the ingredients, making reference to the recipes added here today for measurements and directions, and go for it. Getting the consistency just right is the essence of the whole experience; don't sweat it, just try it. So, in honor of a very special mother today, take time to smell the flowers, savor the sounds of the birds calling to each other, enjoy the making of and eventually eating of a home cooked meal, and take five minutes of your day to research something in regards to earth conservation, green energy, wildlife conservation, sustainable living practices, etc....just five minutes, really. You'd be surprised what you might find. ~Mom
Growing Pains
-" ...the most important event in a woman's life is the birth of a child...In this period, she learns the discipline of sacrifice: her body, her time, her nutrients, her psyche, her knowledge, her skills, her social life, her economic abilities, her relationships, and her spiritual knowledge and values are called into service for her children. This passage, ambivilent at best, pushes her to reach far beyond whatever limits she thought she labored within, making her stronger." Paula Gunn Allen
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday Creative Project
"I thought I moved these..."
"Pollinator Attraction Planting"
"Creative Project"
"My Little Gardener"
Gardening today, and it has gone well. I finally got all three of my raised beds moved, and can concentrate on working in and around them as the season unfolds. Now is a time for planting seeds, starting seedlings, taking inventory of my seed collection to see what else I'm missing for seeds and plants, track the lunar calendar to keep track of the right times to plant, keep the squirrels at bay so they don't end up in my soup pot-although, its been years since I've had squirrel for dinner, and to enjoy the season as it comes along.
It amazes me that even though I moved bulbs and plants, somehow they seem to pop up in the places I've moved them from. Roots? Perhaps, and something I'm not too concerned about. Move them again and again until all are moved, I suppose. I love letting some things grow and go where they will, as it creates color to appreciate for the time we have it; its when it gets out of control that I have to take a step back to access the situation of moving or totally taking out and giving away just to get rid of it. Looking for a plant/seed swap....
It was supposed to rain this afternoon; my plans to clean the house, work on tonight's dinner, and the seemingly never-ending sweater project to finish are still being carried through but augh! Who wants to be inside on a day like this? I love days when the sun shines all day; makes me want to hire a housekeeper just for those days....yeah right, like that's going to happen. Right now, I'm focused on prepping dinner and cleaning the kitchen to start with. I'll move around the rest of the house, along with shutting down the garden project and cleaning off the back porch to move into the late afternoon and early evening.
Tristan and I put together a pollinator planting box; he made the box @ one of the kids' building workshops we take him to on Saturday mornings. I thought it was a cute building project and to use the project for a school project was great. We planted sunflowers, marigolds, moonflowers, and morning glories to attract butterflies, bees, hummingbirds to pollinate our gardens for this year. I still have seeds left over that I will start and transplant as we garden along. Next week may be an art project but if its this nice again next Wednesday, we'll be utilizing the back porch for our creative time. ~Mom
Efficiency
-"I don't know everything. I just do everything." ~Toni Morrison
Monday, April 19, 2010
What's for Dinner
The Bavarian Gastronomic Express blew through my kitchen last night; actually, I had planned this "all day" eating frenzy about a week ago and after shopping, prepping, and waiting to taste authentic German food in my own kitchen, my alarm at 6 am yesterday morning didn't make me jump out of bed like Julia Childs-have you seen the movie, Julie & Julia, yet? Oh, please do; we pulled it up through Netflix to watch here at home, and I really liked it. No, no food blogging for me; just the occasional dinner entry and if I do a creative project with Tristan's learning that pertains to food. Three blog pages are enough for me, really.
The Cooking of Germany, Nika Standen Hazelton & the editors of Time Life Books. Good book, and I've delved into some of the other "Foods of the World" cookbooks for exploring recipes and twitching in the afterglow if the meal was a hit-you know, the well planned meals that make you as tired as post turkey dinners on a Sunday with a ton of relatives, or the holiday meals that bring old recipes and dysfunctional families together? No relatives this time, just three adults and one toddler who can put the food away like a beaver building a dam. Yes, my boy can eat, of which I'm very happy for. On to the "five meal" Sunday....
Breakfast #1 (yes, I said it) 7 am
-Mixed Berry Muffins
-Apple Raisin Cinnamon Muffins
-Coffee
Breakfast #2 9 am
-Sausages with bread & gravy
-Coffee
Midday Meal 2 pm
-Braised Stuffed Beef Rolls
-Hot Potato Salad w/ Bacon
-Red Cabbage w/ Apples
Afternoon Break 4 pm
-Sugar-crumb Cake
-Tea
Dinner 7 pm
-Farina Dumplings
-Steamed Bratwurst in Sour Cream Sauce
Mind you, I'm only listing the meals throughout the day; skimming over the recipes, it would take me a couple of hours to write out the measurements and instructions to put together the recipes. And after all the eating that went on here yesterday, its a wonder any of us crawled out of bed this morning to function for the day. Just reading about eating five times a day was like a small challenge but when it came to the actual event, wow. Eating I've got down, and the cooking and prepping just goes with the territory. What tired me out was the feeling of constantly being in the kitchen to turn another burner on, empty another pot, cut this up, cook another half pound of bacon...yes, lots of yummy artery clogging pig protein. I remember eating a lot of potatoes when I was growing up, especially whenever we went to visit my mother parents and have dinner with them. Believe it or not, I always thought that only poor people ate tons of potatoes, pork, and greens from the local meadows. Maybe we didn't always have money for things that entice children because of what someone else may have but poor we were not. Rich in heritage, even if we didn't know, much less talk about it. Amazing what memories food will push to the surface while you're prepping, cooking, eating, and recovering....
I would say the best part of this cooking/eating experience was that it made me realize that I know how to cook most of this without the book but its always good to reference just to make sure you didn't forget something or change it in any way that you can't identify it later on when you attempt to replicate the recipes. I know what I'm putting in for a request for a Christmas gift this year-cookbooks. Definitely have to have German cookbook (no, believe it I don't have one!) and not sure what other literary collections of edibles I would be interested in but hey, time will come to figure that out at another time. I love to cook around the world, so its not like I don't have a book I don't use. ~Mom
God
-"God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things." ~Pablo Picasso
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