My Green Fork

This Week's Moment

2011-06-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

This Week's Moment

2011-06-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

{this moment} - "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see." Inspired by SouleMama.

This Week's Moment

2011-05-06T16:37:00.003-07:00

Today I watched a young couple walk with their little boy on the beach. They were all holding hands, walking by the water, with their son swinging in the middle. They were smiling and laughing. It was like the afternoon storm paused just so that they could have that moment. I wanted to take a picture to share with You. To show You how beautiful life can be. But that was their moment, not mine. I am happy to have been a small part of the landscape of their beautiful moment. Thank you for sharing it with me.

This Week's Moment

2011-05-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

This Week's Moment

2011-04-22T06:04:00.001-07:00

This Week's Moment

2011-04-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

Super Fudge Brownies

2011-04-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

If you are a chocolate lover try these.

Preheat Oven: 325

Ingredients:

One stick melted butter
1/4c vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4c sugar
3/4c dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 tsp vailla
3/4c All Purpous Flour
1/2 to 3/4 or a 12oz bag of dark dark chocolate chips
1c walnuts

Directions:

Combine sugar, cocoa powder and flour in a large mixing bowl. Stir in eggs, vanilla, butter, and oil and mix until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Bake in an 8in round or 8x8in square nonstick baking pan.

Bake: 30-35min until tooth pick comes out of the center almost clean and allow to cool completely before cutting. Enjoy!

Climbing in Cochise Stronghold

2011-03-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

I just returned home from an adventure climbing in Cochise Stronghold with a NOLS alumni trip. I met some truly amazing people and got to spend time in one of the most beautiful places. I never thought I would like the desert as much as I did, but I fell in love. We had 5 days of amazing weather, which was a welcome break from winter. I gained a lot of valuable climbing experience and cannot wait to out and climb more this summer. If you like to climb then I would highly recommend Cochise Stronghold, AZ as a destination. In addition to several fun multi-pitch days there are lots of great single pitch days to be had and good camping and running too. Excellent place for an adventurous vacation!

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips!

2011-02-24T09:27:00.001-08:00

I LOVE cookies but peanut butter have never been my favorite variety. Mostly because I like cookies that are cooked on the outside and still soft and chewy in the middle. Usually peanut butter cookies are flat, until now. I have finally mastered the peanut butter cookie. As usual I added chocolate because, lets face it, everything is better with a little chocolate. So if you are in the mood for some easy, yummy peanut butter cookies give these a try. The trick it using honey roasted and plain peanut butter. I like the natural kind that you mash your self at the store. Also, for the cookies to keep their shape while baking and not turn into flat biscuits chill the dough in the fridge for a few hours of overnight before baking.

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 c honey roasted peanut butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt until smooth
- Stir in peanut butter a little at a time and combine until smooth
- Slowly mix in flour
- Add chocolate chips
- Chill dough in the fridge for several hours or overnight
- Shape into balls about the size of gulf balls
- Bake for about 12min
- Enjoy!

This Week's Moment

2011-02-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

One Moment

2011-01-24T16:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes life is hard and it is so easy to forget how blessed I am. It is easy to take things for granted. All of the moments that are beautiful can get smothered by focusing on the times that are difficult. So it is important for me to take time. Time for solitude, quiet, and reflection. Time to appreciate a beautiful moment in a difficult time. Time to remember how beautiful life is and can be if you let it. Time to appreciate my place. Time to be grateful. Time to remember that I need to be able to hold on as well as to let go. If I can step back and take a moment I can see all of the beauty.

This Week's Moment

2011-01-17T08:55:00.001-08:00

AL's Butternut Squash Soup

2011-01-08T15:00:00.001-08:00

My dear friend Ann Lee is an amazing cook, and New Year’s was no exception. She is also the most generous person I know. She opened her home to celebrate the New Year with friends and made many delicious dishes. Among them was her butternut squash soup and it is the best I have ever had. I cannot think of a better way to bring in the New Year then with friends, food, and fun. Thank you Ann Lee for being such an amazing person and friend. I am looking forward to many adventures with you this year, both outside and in the kitchen!

Ingredients:

EVOO

1small onion chopped

1 piece (2inches) peeled fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves chopped

2 3/4lbs small butternut squash peeled, seeds removed, cut 3/4" cubes

1/4c fresh orange juice

S/P

Directions:

Sauté onion in EVOO until fragrant (2 min). Add ginger, garlic, squash. Cook, stir occasionally 6-8 min. Stir in 4c veggie broth, bring to boil, reduce heat. Simmer 20 min.

Purée soup on 2 batches. Stir in oj and salt.

Helpful Hit:

Pealing and cubing a butternut squash can be a very labor intensive task. To save your self great time and frustration roast the squash first and the skin will come right off. Place your squash on a baking sheet in the oven at 420 degrees for 20+min (depending on how big the squash is). When it is ready the skin will get a toasted feel to it and when you poke it the squash will be very soft. You will be able to cut it in half and scoop the meat right out.

This Week's Moment

2011-01-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

Maude's Fresh Apple Cake

2011-01-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is most delicious apple cake I have ever had and it's completely dairy free! This is a great dessert and a fantastic breakfast the next morning. A good friend and amazing cook shared this with us all at our New Year's celebration, huge hit. She says it is easy to make so I will have to get her to share some baking tips with us.

This Week's Moment

2010-12-31T08:59:00.001-08:00

New Year Star Sugar Cookies

2010-12-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

New Year Star Sugar Cookies

No better way to kick off the new year then with good friends and good food. So for this New Year celebration I have made some sugar cookies with butter cream frosting, delicious. I am still working on the resolutions but for now just fun.

Ingredients For the Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Baking Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Roll out dough on floured surface 1/2 inch thick. When they are rolled a little thick it will give you a softer cookie. It you prefer a crispier sugar cookie roll them about 1/4in. Cut into shapes with the cookie cutter of your choice. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets or baking stone if you have one.
Bake about 7 minutes. Cool completely.

Tips:
*When they are done cooking then the center of the cookie will not look greasy like melted butter.
*If you want soft cookies do not let them brown at all in the oven.
*Cookies keep baking a little when you pull them out of the oven.
* Key to having sugar cookies keep their shape while baking and not melting / flattening out is to keep the dough cold. As you are rolling them if it taking a while pull half the dough out of the fridge and work with that while leaving the other half in to stay cold then when you are ready pull the second half out.

Butter Cream Frosting Ingredients

One stick soft butter
3 3/4C powder sugar
5 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
about 4 Tbsp cream cheese (optional but gives a really nice texture and less buttery flavor)

Directions
Blend until smooth, eat a few spoon fulls just, wait to ice cookies until they are completely cool and enjoy!

Yosemite!

2010-11-24T20:12:00.000-08:00

I am so far behind that I don't know where to begin.... so for now just a few pics of my most recent adventure to Yosemite. A few days of running and a few days of learning and meeting some amazing people. More on Honduras soon.

Shoulder to Shoulder - Day 5

2010-09-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

I am completely exhausted. I helped with taking overnight call on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning. On Tuesday we woke up at 4:30 to hike up to the cell phone tower. The view was amazing. We got poured on during the walk back which was actually nice. Taking call was good. A woman came in at 11:30 in labor. She did not have the baby until about 6am. So we were up all night with her. At one point I fell asleep on the dining room floor for 20min. Then after the baby was born, a little boy, we had breakfast and got ready for the day. I was able to observe Dr. Rubin in the clinic. It was women’s health day so he taught me how to do ultrasounds on pregnant women. It was really interesting. Mostly in the clinic and in the field it seems like we see a lot of hygiene related problems (cuts or bug bites that get infected, fungal infections, things like that) and many pregnant women. They have very large families here. The men do not want the women on birth control. Some of the women sneak and get it but mostly they just keep having babies. The woman that came in was last night 43 year old, delivered her 9^th baby, and will probably have two or three more babies before menopause. So after learning ultrasound and lunch we went to deliver stove-building parts to families who have not been able to afford them. It was a great, long, exhausting day. I had dinner at about hour 40 of being awake and passed out at 8pm.

Thanks to Dr. Ta I was able to assist in my first delivery! The mom was so amazing.
Dr. Ta with mom and baby Welcome rain shower

After sleeping really hard last night I woke up this morning at 5:30 to jog with one of the other girls. It was nice but very humid. We got back just in time for breakfast. After eating three of us went in the Chiquita truck (a big moving truck) to deliver more stove building supplies to San Antonio. The drive was quite an adventure. The road here are more like ATV trails and some sections of just rock mountain face, it would be a blast to have a mountain bike here. One section of road was so rough and steep it took us three tries to get up after rolling backwards down. It is amazing, I was laughing so hard I almost wet myself! During the drive we would spot little houses high in the mountains. Many people live two hours walk from anything, probably why their general population is so much healthier then ours. We got home from stove supply delivery, had lunch, a little nap, and then I helped in the children’s library a little and observed in the clinic for about an hour. We had an amazing dinner, tortillas filled with cheese, pico, and steamed broccoli. Now I am exhausted and ready for bed

The Goods...

2010-08-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Shoulder to Shoulder - Day 4

2010-08-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today we got up at 4:30 to hike up to the cell phone tower. We were hoping to see the sunrise but there were too many rain clouds and on the hike up we got dumped on. Seriously dumped on, which was actually a little refreshing. It is pretty hot and humid here. After the hike we had a quick breakfast and then loaded up the supplies and drove the trucks to La Montana for a CHI. The Driving is quite an adventure. The roads are like something I would mountain bike on at home. Very steep, narrow, large, loose boulders. We road standing and hanging on in the back of the S2S trucks. It is funny, people always are surprised that you have to self fund your own volunteer trip (or find donations) but now I understand exactly why. The maintenance of the transportation alone is a huge expense. They have to replace the tires and various other parts on the vehicles very frequently. And who else would pay for this? The local people can hardly pay for their own food let alone medical visits. If it were not for donations, grant funding, a few amazing local doctors and nurses, and self funded volunteers then the families would probably just go without medical aid.

So today we went to a school. We saw all of the school children as well as several other local children that are younger then school age and live close enough for the mothers to walk them in. These mothers are amazing. They will walk for hours through the mountains with several very young children just for a chance to see the doctors. At the school we set up stations for measuring blood iron, height and weight, dental education, vision testing, de-worming medicine and pharmacy, and doctor consults. One mother walked with 4 girls. One is 11, one 6 and is deaf, one 3 that had a head injury which left her with partial left side paralysis, and one 11 month old nursing. And there was not the same element of self pity that you see in the US, it seemed like the attitude was just life is hard.

After the CHI a small group of us did home visits. We went to two houses of families that could not make it to the school. The first had a 10 year old girl who had a stroke when she was 5 that left her with both legs and her left arm paralyzed. They live, literally, on the side of a mountain so the little girl rarely can leave the house because she is not mobile. She had a wheel chair that had been fashioned out of a plastic yard chair and bike wheels. But really the chair just gets her around the one room house because the only access to their house is a rocky, steep, single track trail. I could not help but think that if she were in the US then access to physical therapy would be able to help her, maybe even learn to walk with some type of crutches, and completely change her life.

The second house was an eighty five year old couple. They were amazing. The type of older people that you know would have amazing life stories to share. They were about eighty five, and I say about because they were only able to guess at their own ages. The husband was on the side of the mountain picking corn when a cow knocked him down and his knee was bothering him. She had some general knee pain as well. We talked with them for a while and gave them some anti-inflammatory. I loved this couple.

On the drive home we had a little gravel road collapsing under us incident. With some strategic rock placement and pushing were were able to get the truck out of the ditch and back on the "road."
We decided to finish up an exciting day with a little hike on the way home to see the view of Santa Lucia below. It was beautiful.

Shoulder to Shoulder - Day 3

2010-07-28T13:24:00.001-07:00

Today we woke up early and had our first CHI (Child Health Initiative) in Concepion. The CHI, a field-based screening and preventative medicine program, during which we would conduct physical exams and have the opportunity to provide greatly needed medications such as Albendazol for parasites and antibiotics. We divided into several stations: height and weight, hematocrit, dental education, dental exam, vision testing, physical exams, and pharmacy. I worked with three others in the pharmacy which I thought would be much easier then it was. Most children just needed the anti-parasite medication, which apparently tastes terriable. There was lots of crying and lots of gagging. In the end we were able to get most of it down. But the children were amazing. Many were underweight, most had rotten teeth, and almost all did not have shoes. Despite everything they all smiled so much and seemed so happy. No matter how much they were poked and prodded they would smile and thank us. The poorer the child the less they seemed to cry, even when getting their finger pricked they all had an 'I've seen worse' attitude. They were so beautiful. After the CHI we regrouped to talk about how it went and figure out what we could do better next time. Then we loaded up the bus and finished the final leg of our drive to the clinic in Santa Lucia where we will base out of for the remainder of our trip.

The drive was probably only about 60miles but took us about 3 hours. It was beautiful, so remote and undisturbed. The roads were more like what we, in North Carolina, would call ATV trails. It was pretty fun traveling. I was very impressed with the drivers.

Some pictures of the Santa Lucia clinic and dorm.
When we arrived a group of us set out for a walk to explore the town.
These two were quite the pair standing guard. The poor dogs here are so malnourished, but feeding dogs has to take a back seat to trying to feed people. My dogs at home are so spoiled.
The kids we met in the street were pretty excited about their barrel of water and LOVED having their picture taken. Every time a photo was snapped they ran over to see the digital image. They were so precious.

After our walk around town the ladies of the kitchen were kind enough to give us our first tortilla making lesson. I am not sure how much of a help we were but we sure had fun.

In The Garden

2010-07-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

Walking around in the garden right now is like a scavenger hunt. It has gotten so big that if I do not look carefully I will not find all of the hidden little veggies. Today was a good hunt. We have so many peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers that I am struggling to keep up. This is by far the healthiest I have ever eaten and at this rate we will have plenty stored for the winter. I am working on canning tomato sauce and freezing veggies and the man has been pickling all of the cucumbers, maybe I can get him to share his recipe (it is fantastic).

Shoulder to Shoulder - Day 1&2

2010-07-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

Shoulder to Shoulder: Day 1 & 2

I left my house at 4am to begin my journey to Honduras. My flight left Asheville, NC at 6am, connected through Atlanta, GA and landed in San Pedro Sula around 12pm. My flight was mostly full of mission and volunteer groups. When I landed I felt a bit lost. I was one of the few people in my group that traveled down alone and did not know anyone else on the trip. I eventually found the rest of my group because there were pretty easy to pick out with their 23 gallon rubbermaid checked bags full of medical supplies. We loaded up the bus and were on our way to La Esperanza were we spent the night. This part of the drive went pretty quickly because it was mostly on well maintained paved and packed dirt roads. The mountains that we drove through were truly breathtaking. Honduras is much more green then I expected. I sat with a 3rd year medical student who is taking the summer off between 3rd and 4th year of school to get her MPh at Harvard. She was fantastic. Everyone that I have met so far has been wonderful, which has really eased the stress of coming on this adventure alone.
After spending the night in La Esperanza when we woke up in the morning a couple of us wandered around the town before breakfast. For breakfast we had a typical Honduran plate of refried beans, homemade tortillas, eggs, fried plantain, and sliced avocado. It was delicious. We loaded back in the bus and drove to Concepion, Intibuca Honduras where Shoulder to Shoulder has just held the grand opening of a new medical clinic. This part of the drive was a little slower going. When we left La Esperanza the roads immediately turned from packed dirt to loose rock and boulder. It was pretty exciting driving. We arrived, unloaded the bus, and then helped unpack a trailer of stove building supplies that would be delivered to families in the surrounding area later in the week. Then we walked around town and hung out with some of the kids that were playing in the town center.

By the end of the day I was completely exhausted. I went to take a shower but unfortunately I was a little too late. In order to conserve water we all were to take "military showers," jump in the water to rinse off, turn the water off, soap up, turn water back on rinse off, and so on. I made it to the fully soap up step only to turn the water back on only to discover that there was none left. I stood in the shower for a while trying to decide what to do next. I ended up ringing the soap out of my hair over the sink. Lesson learned: don't shower last and do not use lots of shampoo! A group of us girls set up our sleeping pads in one of the consult rooms in the new clinic and we all passed out very early.

Shoulder to Shoulder / Honbro a Hombro

2010-07-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone. I have been out of town for the past two weeks working with Shoulder to Shoulder (Hombro a Hombro), a non-profit NGO that is dedicated to helping the poor in rural Honduras. Hombro a Hombro represents a collaboration between several academic programs in the US and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, the City of Cincinnati, the Ministry of Health of Honduras, and the Community Health Board in Santa Lucia, Intibuca. Through the dedication of these organizations, volunteers, and generous donations Hombro a Hombro has been able to build and staff several medical facilities and offer many services to various communities in the Intibuca department of Honduras including the following:

Two Honbro a Honbro Medical Centers In Santa Lucia and Concepcion
Medical Facilities staffed and supplied by StoS / HaH. These are staffed by Honduran health care providers and offer non emergency primary care in locations closer to where people live.

San Jose, Santa Lucia
Santa Rita, Santa Lucia
San Antonio, San Antonio
San Juan, San Antonio
Santa Teresa, San Antonio
Magdalena

Dormitory
Oral Health Program
Nutrition Program
Water
Education
Women's Health
Medical Information System
Brigades

This is a short list of the programs and services that Hombro a Hombro offers. For a more complete list and descriptions please visit the Shoulder to Shoulder website.

I returned from my adventures with Shoulder to Shoulder late Saturday night. Because of the limited internet availability I was not able to download and post photos and updates to my blog. While I was in Honduras I kept a journal and am now excited to share my experience with you all. My plan is to post my daily journal entries over the next two weeks. Shoulder to Shoulder is an amazing organization that does incredible work and has made a huge impact on the health care provided in the surrounding communities and in turn the quality of life of the local people. It will be difficult to put into words all that I experienced and learned over the course of my two weeks with Hombro a Hombro but I will try. Mostly I am grateful for the opportunity to join the brigade and meet many inspiring people along the way. If you have time following along for the next few days, share your thoughts, and visit the Shoulder to Shoulder website.

Honduras map with me pointing out our location in the lower south-west corner bordering El Salvador.

Zucchini Bread

2010-07-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

What better way to eat your vegetables then in sweet, yummy bread form with the option of chocolate? Our neighbors at Sleepy Hollow Farm have some of the biggest, most beautiful zucchini I have ever seen. Perfect for bread baking.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1c vegetable oil
2c sugar
2c grated zucchini
3 tsp vanilla extract
3c flour
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Optional:

1/2 c chopped walnuts
1 c chocolate chips
1 Tbsp orange zest

Directions:
Heat oven to 350. Grease two bread pans. Stir together dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt). Now you can mix by hand or use a hand mixer to add the eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla. Then stir in zucchini until well combined. Divide badder into bread pans and bake for 60-70min until a cake tested or tooth pick comes out of the loaf cleanly.

Landscape No. 2

2010-06-30T15:36:00.001-07:00

We are making progress in our landscaping effort. I finally got all of the grass dug up and the stones for walking path to the fence gate laid. My sweet sweet husband built me a strawberry box and I have started filling it. On the other side of the stones my hope if to have a mix of different, low maintenance, wild flowers. I am looking forward to grass growing between the stones so that the dogs stop bringing mud into the house. I also planted lavender, rosemary, and sage in the small section that is surrounded by stones, hopefully they will survive through the winter and be back next summer. On the back of the fence I am hoping to plant blackberries and raspberries to grow up the fence wire. Our lower yard is big and sunny. This is where the puppies spend most of their time. I was thinking of planting some apple and pear trees. I will keep you posted.

A Garden Update

2010-06-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

The picture above shows our gardens growth over the last few months. I have been amazed at how much our three little beds have been able to contain. We are already eating squash, cucumbers, lettuce and a few green peppers and raspberries now and then. We have a bunch of green tomatoes that will be ready soon as well as corn, hot peppers, potatoes, and blackberries. The spring spoiled us a bit with rain every day. The last two weeks have been really hot and dry. It seems like people all around us are getting epic rain storms but it just does not make it over the mountain to us, I guess that is always the case. Hopefully this evening will bring some of that rain the weather man has been promising us. Regardless our little space is progressing nicely and what we are not growing we are finding at the local markets. The Bryson City market on Fridays and the Sylva market on Saturday have been fantastic!

Indian Spinach & Chickpeas

2010-06-27T06:19:00.000-07:00

My husband and I love Indian food. Unfortunately our small mountain town only has 3 places to eat and an Indian restaurant is not one of them. Whenever we make it to Asheville, the nearest city we try to grab a meal at Mela, one of my favorites. But, in the mean time I am trying to add a few Indian recipes to the mix. I found a couple of fantastic books by Madhur Jaffrey that I am excited to start looking through but for now here is my first attempt at Indian cuisine, turned out pretty yummy.

Indian Spinach & Chickpeas

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
Salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp grated ginger
1c golden raisins
1 cup Greek plain yogurt
3/4 cup half-and-half
1 zucchini, chopped into cubes
1 bunch of dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, or collards), chopped
2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
10oz couscous

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, zucchini, golden raisins, greens and saute until tender. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Add spices and cook until fragrant. Add yogurt, half-and-half and chickpeas. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until heated through. Serve over couscous.

This week's moment

2010-06-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Landscaping No. 1

2010-06-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

I moved into my house when I was 19 years old and any form of lawn care was the furthest thing from my mind. When my husband and I started dating, about four years ago, he helped me put in my first little vegetable patch and I was hooked. This year we really expanded, putting in the raised beds that I have been showing you. But, until recently, our landscaping has been somewhat hindered by the fact that our three wonderful dogs have had complete freedom to roam and are all far too enthusiastic about doing their own digging and landscaping. Not any more. We have finally, after many years of talking about it, fenced in our yard. It is truly life changing. Not only do we not have to go and find them or worry about what they are doing, we can finally do some much needed landscaping. The picture above is the early stages of our work. My husband put in the stone walk in the dog run and we are planning on filling the spaces between the stones with grass. In the area between the drive way and the fence we are digging up the grass, planting flowers and building a strawberry box.

The puppies were a little upset when they were banished from yard work.
Magnolia tree in full bloom attracting lots of bees to pollinate.
So far we have planted two butterfly bushes and an Annabelle Hydrangea. I have been told that the Annabelle Hydrangea likes being in the shade so I am a little worried about the chosen location. The Shamrocks are also coming out and I love them, they are such pretty little plants. My goal is to keep the landscape edible herbs and flowering perennials. I want to try to keep it as low maintenance as possible. A wise lady once told me that if it has a will to survive then it will.

This week's moment

2010-06-19T19:01:00.001-07:00

Vegetable Pasta with Lemon-Basil Dressing

2010-06-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

I love this meal. Fast, fresh, simple, full of flavor and really healthy.

Lemon-Basil Dressing

juice and zest of 1 or 2 lemons, depending on how strong you want the lemon flavor
2+ cloves garlic
fist full of fresh basil
1/3c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt to taste
1/4tsp crushed red pepper, optional if you want a little heat

Combine all ingredients in mini food processor and pulse until well combined.

Vegetable Pasta with Lemon-Basil Dressing

1c broccoli chopped
1 can black beans
3/4 to 1c cherry tomatoes, halved
1 pound pasta of choice
1 recipe lemon - basil dressing
1/2 to 1c Lima beans
2+ cloves garlic
Parmesan
Lemon - Basil Dressing

Cook pasta according to package instructions. I like to season the water with salt first, bring it to a rolling boil, and then drop in the pasta. When the pasta is ready place it in a large serving bowl or platter. Pour the lemon - basil dressing over the pasta and gently fold the pasta to coat with the dressing. I like to use tongs so I can pick up the pasta and fold it over, it seems to be the best tool for mixing the pasta. Next pour all the veggies in the bowl and toss them with the pasta. Before serving top with Parmesan.

Garden Progress

2010-06-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

Another busy week. Sadly I do not have a lot of time to write but I at least wanted to share some pictures of the garden progress. These pictures are a week late, again, so there is more growth then the pictures show. We are making great progress. There have been a few bumps but nothing major. First, as I showed in the last garden update, the slugs were enjoying our plants a little too much but the the beer proved to be much more tempting option for them. It has been a great means of control. Currently we are fighting the first signs of tomato blight, which seems to be a very common problem in WNC, so if anyone has any cleaver solutions we would love the input before it gets bad and we loose plants. Other then that all is well in the garden. For some reason when I uploaded the pictures they do not look as clear on the web as they do in iPhoto, or maybe that is my blurry eyes from staring at the screen for too long...

This week's moment

2010-06-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

Beer for Slugs

2010-06-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

When the slugs started to eat your pepper plants offer them a little beer! Any type will do, they just can't resist.

I wanted to post this garden update over a week and a half ago but sometimes life has other plans. So finally here is a little garden update. Since these pictures the garden has gotten even bigger with more little veggies starting to make an appearance.

Strawberry Jam for Brooke

2010-06-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

I love fresh strawberries. They take me back to summers when I was little girl playing outside with my sister. We would rise with the sun, eat as quickly as we could and then it was off for adventures, usually staying outside until we were forced to return indoors at the call of dinner. My sister and I were not the dresses and dolls kind of girls growing up. We were more the climbing trees and scraped knees type. We spent a large portion of our childhood in a house surrounded by woods. In the summer time we would spend entire days playing outside and eating fresh berries that we would pick. On more than one occasion my mother would dress us up for an event and then tell us to behave while she was getting ready. When she finally would call us to leave she was usually not very excited to find the two of us covered in bright pink berry juice from grinning sticky face to shoeless toes. So making strawberry jam from fresh, local berries always makes me smile with fond memories of growing up with my little sister.

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients:
3pounds fresh strawberries
1c sugar
Juice of one large lemon

Wash and cut the stems off the strawberries. Then cut then in half (or if they are really big maybe cut them into thirds) and place them in a large sauce pan with or pot. Pour the sugar over the berries and stir to coat. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours.
Place over medium heat and gradually bring strawberries to a boil. Pour in lemon juice. Cook at a high temperature and stir until mixture becomes thick, this will take 15 to 20min. It will look like jam when it is ready. Take off of the heat and allow to sit uncovered for about 12hours (or start eating by the spoon full like I did).

This week's moment

2010-05-29T14:54:00.001-07:00

Favorite Trail Mix

2010-05-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite trail mix. It is a great snack for around the house or when you are on the go. If I am in for a really long day then I might sneak a little chocolate in the mix but usually I enjoy it just fine without, one of the rare times you will ever hear that from me.

1 - 12oz package of Craisins
1 - 15oz box of Golden Raisins
1 - 16oz jar of dry roasted, unslated peanuts

Lemon-Dill Potato Salad

2010-05-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight we get to go to a cookout at a friends house. What would a summer cookout be without a side of potato salad? Here is my twist on the summer cookout potato salad:

Lemon-Dill Potato Salad

Ingredients:

3lbs potato, cubed and boiled
1c mayo
zest and juice of one large lemon
hand full (2-3Tbsp) dill
4Tbsp white wine vinegar
1tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 celery ribs
2-3 hard boiled eggs
6 pickles - the type of pickles that should go into a potato salad is a hotly contested subject in our house hold. The Boss is a firm believer in the sweet pickle. I, on the other hand, am 100% loyal to the kosher dill variety. For this recipe the lemon - dill flavor works best if you stick with the dill pickle, I think.

this week's moment

2010-05-21T14:53:00.001-07:00

Bryson City Farmer's Market

2010-05-17T13:09:00.000-07:00

The Bryson City Farmer's Market kicked off on Friday May 7th. I missed the first week but was able to go out last Friday and see what the local foodies had to offer. It is impressive to see how many local growers we have here in western NC. It seems like the more I search around the more I find and my trips to the grocery store become fewer and far between. Even though it is still very early in the season there was plenty to choose from. Of course I stopped by the tent of my friends from Sleepy Hollow Farm , as well as met several other local growers. As the summer progresses there will be even more produce but I was able to pick up some delicious honey, jam, leafy greens, eggs, trout, and beautiful flowers. If you are around town on Fridays this summer from 9am-1pm stop by and check out all of the fantastic food.
The Balltown Bee Farm, located right here in Bryson City, has lots to offer, including a couple of varieties of delicious honey. They are incredibly friendly and were more than happy to answer all of my questions about their bees and farm.
Just as I was getting ready to leave, Shelton Family Farm pulled up with a van full of fresh picked strawberries, which I could not resist. Throughout the summer the Shelton Family has a variety of beautiful produce. They offer the option of purchasing a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box early in the season or just picking up what you need at the farmer's market.

this week's moment

2010-05-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

Red Cabbage Slaw & Black Bean Tacos

2010-05-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of the fastest, most simple meals I have ever made. It is a perfect lite summer meal that is still filling. Even if you do not want to make the tacos the red cabbage slaw is an excellent side salad. Let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

- Corn Tortillas
- Feta

For the Red Cabbage Slaw:

1/2 head red cabbage, finely shredded
1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup freshly squeeze orange juice
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4c lime juice
1/2c chopped peanuts

For the Black Beans:
2 cans or 2 c black beans
EVOO
Garlic Salt
Chili powder
Onion Powder
Crushed Red Pepper

For the Red Cabbage Slaw:
Combine honey, rice wine vinegar, orange juice, oil, black pepper, and lime juice. Stir well. Next mix in the rest of the ingredients coating well with the dressing. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature for about 30min.

For the Black Beans:
Place EVOO in a skillet over medium heat. Add black beans and warm them in the skillet coating them lightly in EVOO. Then add the spices and stir to coat. For the spices add a little at a time to taste.

Build your tacos and top with a little feta. Bon Appetit!

this week's moment

2010-05-07T13:09:00.001-07:00

A Short Pause

2010-05-04T05:20:00.001-07:00

Today I took a pause to wander around my yard. All of the flowers are out and I wanted to make sure that I took a moment to slow down and enjoy them. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the tasks of my day that I don't take time to stop and look around and enjoy how beautiful everything is. I want to make time to pause, even if it is just for a few moments.

Lucky Girl

2010-05-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

I am a lucky girl. I have such an amazing family, which I am grateful for everyday. They all made my birthday such a wonderful, special day. The man baked me a cake. His first cake ever and it was fantastic. Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing, all from scratch. Then over the weekend my family came to town for a visit. Now that my brother, sister and I are all out of the house and living lives that take us in very different directions it seems so rare that we are all available to be in the same place and the same time. Maybe it is just me getting older but the time that we get to spend together just seems to go by much to quickly. I find myself wanting to linger and make each moment last. I hope that we can always make time to slow down and celebrate with each other. Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes.

this week's moment

2010-04-30T09:10:00.001-07:00

Kale and Basil Pesto

2010-04-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

Basil is one of my favorite herbs, it reminds me of summer. I try to use it whenever I can, especially when I can walk outside and pick it. So I could not resist adding it to the mix and keeping a hit of that traditional pesto flavor. I served the pesto over handmade roasted tomato fettucini from The Pasta Wench. It was delicious. Honestly her pasta is so good I could eat it plain, strait from the pot, but it was even more delicious with the pesto sauce. This is another recipe inspired by Farm+House+Table. I really like the vegetarian meal list on their site. They are very creative. Here is my version of a Kale and Basil Pesto, I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients
- 3 cloves garlic, or more if you like garlic as much as I do
- 1/3c pecans, toasted
- 1/2c grated Parmesan
- 1/3c extra virgin olive oil
- 2/3c cottage cheese or Greek yogurt
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1 Bunch fresh Kale
- 1 fist full of fresh basil

Toast the pecans in the oven. Then combine the kale, basil, garlic and pecans in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse several times until kale is well chopped. Add Parmesan cheese and puree until blended. Next drizzle in the olive oil, while the food processor is still on, until the mixture becomes the consistency of a thick pesto sauce. Add in cottage cheese and begin to season with salt and pepper to taste.

Garden Update

2010-04-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

Spring in western NC is always a little unpredictable. The first part of April was beautiful. We had a few weeks of consistently warm, sunny weather. This was followed by several days of rain and then cold frosty nights. Nevertheless, our plants seem to have survived the sudden changes unscathed and our garden is coming along nicely. On my last trip to Sleepy Hollow Farm I came home with several varieties of tomato, zucchini, and cucumber plants. We got those in the ground and are looking forward to filling the rest of our beds.

We also finally got a rain barrel to collect water for the garden. I found a really reasonably priced, locally made one at Earth Fare last week. Over the last couple of days I started to get really stressed out about all the missed rain collecting opportunities, so yesterday during a sunny break in the storm I decided it was a perfect time to connect the gutter to the barrel. As soon as I got the pipe disconnected from the gutter the sky opened up. It was like standing under a small waterfall. Still determined to collect water I stayed outside only to realize that even with the ladder I was not tall enough to reach the rain gutter. In the end with a little help from my man everything was connected. Water quickly began to stream out of the pipe we used. I am still pretty shocked at how much water actually passes through the rain gutters and can be stored. I really had no idea.

Visit to Sleepy Hollow Farm

2010-04-27T12:10:00.001-07:00

You know you are in good hands when a farmer calls his hens by name. The man and I have been buying eggs and vegetables from Sleepy Hollow Farm for about a year now. I don't think I will ever be able to go back to grocery store eggs again. As a consumer it is important to me to know that people take pride in the products that they sell, that someone puts their name on it and believes in what they do. When you visit a small farm that is what you get, people who love their animals and care about the food they are selling you. When I visit Joan and Mike, owners of Sleepy Hollow Farm, they talk to me, answer my questions, teach me about gardening, and let me visit the ladies (the chickens). Their garden is immaculate and their birds are beautiful. This trip I came home with 3 dozen brown eggs, spinach, lettuce mix, radishes, and tomato, squash, and zucchini plants for my garden. It was most excellent. If you are around Bryson City, NC stop by their farm, visit their ladies, pick some veggies with them, and leave knowing that the food that you are your family will be eating is healthy and was grown with pride. They will also be at the Bryson City Farmer's Market on Friday mornings throughout the summer.

To see more pictures of my visit to Sleepy Hollow Farm visit my photo album.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Brownies

2010-04-25T16:08:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to pay attention to what I eat. Part of my effort has included cutting most sugar out of my daily diet. I say most because I believe in balance. Every now and then a girl needs a little chocolate. Lets face it, if I completely tried to cut all deserts out of my diet it would probably take a little over a week for me to end up sitting on the kitchen floor eating an entire cake on my own. So for the past 2 months I have been letting myself have desert once a week. This gives me something to look forward to. When I am disciplined during the week and resist the urge to eat sweets I feel like I am earning my weekend desert at which point I get to go big and not feel guilty. These brownies were inspired during a bike ride on Sunday afternoon where I road a little to far with no snacks. During one particularly hard hill climb my boss happened to drive by cheering. Luckly his sweet little girl was nice enough to share her organic gummy fish with me. Seriously those fish saved me. Needless to say I was thinking about my end of the week desert the entire way home. So here is my weekend, no guilt, go big desert:

Dark Chocolate Cherry Brownies with Walnuts

Preheat Oven: 350

Ingredients:
- 1/2 c butter
- 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 c sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2/3 c all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 c chopped walnuts (optional)
- 1 c frozen, fresh or dried cherries (if you use dried then about 20min before you start to mix soak them in water so they rehydrate)
- 1/2 to 3/4 c dark chocolate chips (the quantity depends on how much you love chocolate)

Directions:
- Grease you baking pan (either 8x8x2" or 9x9x2")
- In a medium pan melt butter and unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool
- Stir sugar into cooled chocolate and butter
- Add the eggs one at a time beating until combined then stir in vanilla
- In a separate bowl combine flour and baking soda
- Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture and stir until combined
- Fold in nuts, dark chocolate chips, and cherries

Bake about 30-35min (until a cake tester or toothpick goes into and comes out of the brownies cleanly)

This week's moment

2010-04-23T12:31:00.001-07:00

Kale & Cannelini Bean Ragout

2010-04-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

After a long, eventful day I needed something quick and easy to throw together for dinner. Usually soup is a good choice when I don't have a lot of time or just want to throw things in a pot and let it do its thing while I go and do mine. It is also great when you have veggies sitting around that need to be used. This soup was inspired by a recipe I came across on the Farm+House+Table site. Those ladies have a fantastic collection of vegetarian recipes. I made a few adjustments based on what we had in our pantry. Soup is a great opportunity to be creative with your cooking. I usually wander around the kitchen and throw things in as I go.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
4 1 1/2-inch-thick slices ciabatta bread, crusts removed, each slice quartered
chopped fresh herbs
3 garlic cloves (plus one if you love garlic), finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 bunch kale, coarsely chopped
2 c vegetable stock
1 14 1/2-ounce can whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands
1 c cooked cannellini beans
1c cooked lentils
1 yellow onion
1/4 c dry white wine
parmesan

Directions:

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add bread and 1 teaspoon herbs; cook until bread is golden on both sides, turning with tongs, about 2 minutes total. Transfer croutons to bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Add remaining 4 Tbsp oil and onion to the same pot and cook until translucent.
Add the garlic, and crushed red pepper to the pot; sauté over medium heat for about 30 seconds.
Deglaze the pan with the white wine for about a minute.
Add kale and stock; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until kale wilts, about 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes with juice, beans, lentils, and remaining herbs.
Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper. Ladle ragout into shallow bowls. Top with croutons, a sprinkle of parmesan, and serve.

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

2010-04-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

Practice has taught me that making buttermilk biscuits is more about technique than ingredients. Yes, you need to know what to put into your mixing bowl but most recipes are pretty similar. I think I have tried almost all of them. Yet achieving that perfect buttermilk biscuit texture and consistency has always been just out of my reach, until now. I have finally figured out how to make the delicious, golden, fluffy biscuits I have been dreaming of. These are the lessons that I have learned through my many attempts at achieving the perfect buttermilk biscuit consistency and texture:

Handle the dough as little as possible, over handling makes tough biscuits
You want to keep the ingredients cold so mix quickly!
Using a food processor allows you to work quickly and avoid over mixing (but can definitely be done by hand which is some times more fun anyway, especially if you are mixing with kids)
While you are mixing the dry ingredients keep the butter in the fridge to keep it cold for as long as possible
Using a rolling pin to flatten over works the dough so just pat out with our hands - part of the fun of cooking is playing with your food
If you like crusty biscuits then space them about 1" apart, they will not rise as much as biscuits that are put closer together
You can freeze the cut biscuit dough for up to one month uncooked then when you are ready to cook place frozen biscuits in oven at 450 for 20min

Now that I have shared all that I know about biscuit making technique here is the recipe that I have found works best:

Ingredients:

2cups all purpose flour (white lily is a good one for biscuit making)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into small chunks and kept cold
3/4cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450
Combing dry ingredients in a bowl or food processor
Cut butter into flour until it looks like course meal (you can use your hands or if you are working with a food processor then pulse a few times until reaches the right consistency)
Add the buttermilk and mix until just combined, if the mixture is dry then add a little more buttermilk, you want it to be a little sticky
Turn the dough onto a floured surface
Gently pat the dough out until it is about 3/4" thick
Use a round cutter or pint glass to cut out the biscuits
gently knead scraps together and form into a biscuit
Bake for 10-12min

Bon Appetit!

This week's moment

2010-04-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

Veggie and Tofu Tacos

2010-04-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

This is one of our favorites. It is really simple and fast but still delicious. The fun thing about this meal is that every time we make it its a little different depending on what we happen to have in our pantry. I like recipes like that, no rules, just use what you like.

What we like to use:
- Extra Firm Tofu
- Taco seasoning packet
- Black Beans
- Homemade Guacamole (avocado, lime juice, EVOO, salt, garlic, red onion)
- Spinach
- Tomato
- Feta Goat Cheese (or what ever cheese you happen to have)
- Salsa
- Yellow or Red Pepper
- Frozen Corn
- Garlic
- Red onion
- Corn tortillas

Directions:
- Cooking the tofu properly is the key to enjoying tofu meals. It really needs to be browned well. So heat EVOO is a large skillet that will accommodate all of your ingredients as you add them.
- Cut the tofu into 1/2" to 1" squares and place in hot skillet
- Do not stir or flip until the tofu have had time to turn golden in the olive oil
- Make sure to brown all of the sides of the tofu squares
- Once the tofu has browned to you liking add the taco seasoning according to the directions on the packet, usually you stir the seasoning in water then pour over you meat or tofu then let it cook down
- after the water / seasoning mix has reduced to about half add the black beans to the skillet
- once the beans have warmed and absorbed some of the seasoning add in the veggies of your choice
- Allow so simmer over low to medium heat so the flavors have time to marry and the veggies soften a little
- Warm your tortillas in the toaster for about 20sec to soften, pay close attention because when they start to soften they fall down and you do not want to burn them
- Fill your tortillas with with the tofu and veggies then top with some cheese, guacamole, and salsa
- Enjoy!

Acheville Farmer's Market

2010-04-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

Today was the first Saturday of the Asheville City Farmer's Market. I have been looking forward to the market season because it means spring is in full swing and summer is just around the corner. I convinced my mother in-law, which really did not require much because she appreciates good food as much as I do, to make a little trip to Asheville with me to meet the farmers and check out the early season produce. Usually during the growing season I shop at the markets in Sylva and Bryson City because they are much closer to my house but it was a treat to spend a day in the big city. I am constantly amazed by how many food producers we have in western NC. I was able to sample local goat cheese, meat, veggies, homemade pasta, and pastries. Because it is so early several sellers also had vegetable plants available for anyone who would like to start their own garden. I was also given an early birthday present from my grandparents in-law who bought me a fig tree and pineapple sage (which actually smells just like pineapple). I cannot wait for our first figs to come in. It was really amazing to see so many people excited enough about fresh organic food to get to the market by 8am on a Saturday morning. Here are just a few of the items available:

Meat from Hickory Nut Gap Meats: You can order or visit their farm store some time and see the animals.
Pasta from Pasta Wench: visit them online and try for yourself, really yummy.
Goat cheese from Spinning Spider Creamery: you can one day ship from their online store or pick some up at various locations in Asheville including Earth Fare, Greenlife, and several others.
After walking around and sampling everything we made our way to Tupelo Honey Cafe for breakfast where there is usually a line but well worth the wait. Everything was delicious. It was a perfect day of food.

Happy Chickens at Sleepy Hollow Farm

2010-04-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

Apparently you do not need hormones to make giant eggs, just really happy, healthy chickens. I am lucky enough to live down the road from some of the most beautiful chickens and an amazing organic gardening couple. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of cooking with or eating farm fresh eggs I encourage you to find your nearest organic egg farmer. You will notice the difference from store bought, mass produced eggs the moment you crack one open and see the beautiful, full, orange yolk. Organic eggs really do taste better too. Additionally visiting a farm will give you the opportunity to see the chickens, meet the farmers, and really know how the animals that you are consuming (or consuming products from) are treated. This afternoon I road my bike up to my neighbors at Sleepy Hollow Farm to visit "the ladies" (the chickens) and pick up my weekly eggs. I just wanted to share with you how amazing they are. They were so big that we could only fit 11 in the jumbo egg container and I had to tape it shut. Needless to say the bike ride home was a little nerve racking. But the eggs all made it home in one piece. Sleepy Hollow Farm will be at the Bryson City farmer's market on Fridays this summer. If you are in the neighborhood stop by, say hello, and grab some eggs and veggies from them. Soon I hope to post some pictures of the ladies for you all.

Zucchini Gratin

2010-04-12T08:52:00.001-07:00

When it comes to food the power of suggestion beats me every time. More often then not a beautiful food photo is what first inspires me to try out a new recipe. Usually once I have seen a delicious looking picture I cannot get whatever it is out of my head and must taste it. Yes, I am a food advertisers dream. Recently I saw a picture of this Zucchini Gratin dish on another food blog (Bless Her Heart) and thought it looked delicious. I will admit that I really like roasted vegetables, especially when they are smothered in cheese. So when my mother in -law asked us to bring something as a side for dinner I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to test out the recipe. The basic recipe I used can be found at finecooking.com (follow this link). The only adjustment I made was that I really wanted a little bit of a creamy texture. So I made a garlic-lemon cream sauce to drizzle over the gratin last, just before I put it in the oven. I highly recommend trying this recipe out.

Additional Cream Sauce:
- One Tbsp butter melted in a small sauce pan
- One clove minced garlic, simmered in the butter
- 1 to 2 Tbsp cream added to the garlic
- Juice from one lemon

Our Garden - Part 1

2010-04-11T15:59:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite parts of spring is planting our garden. In the past we have had only one bed and a couple of small containers, so we have been limited to growing just a few things. This year we really want to try to grow more of our own food, given the space that we have, and then try to supplement with the local farmer's markets. Hopefully in the long run this will save money (and we will not end up with $10 tomatoes), give us more say in the production of foods we consume, and reduce the amount of packaging we use in purchased foods. So we built 3 new raised beds in our yard and still have the old bed. We spent one day building and digging, and two days moving dirt. Today we finally put seeds into the ground. In the first bed we planted spinach, collards, lettuce, and cabbage. We will keep you all posted on our progress and the yummy things we cook over the summer with our veggies.

Bed 1:
- Spinach
- Collards
- Lettuce
- Cabbage

Bed 2:
-Kohlrabi
- Zucchini
- Squash
- Eggplant
- Jalapenos
- Banana Peppers

Bed 3:
- Bell Peppers (Yellow, Orange, Red, Green)
- Tomatoes

Easter Fun

2010-04-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter weekend. After my knee surgery it was so nice to finally spin on my bike. We set a nice easy pace and made time to visit with some of the locals, goats that is! Then we headed up to my in-laws for a lovely Easter dinner. I am so lucky. My in-laws are amazing! I really enjoy hanging out with them and man can my mother in-law cook!

Local Bike Event: 4/11 Knobscorcher

2010-04-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

The Knobscorcher MTB race will be held this Sunday on the Tsali trails in Bryson City, NC (for trail maps and info click here). This race is SERC #3 (South Eastern Regional Championship Series/ AMBC / Southern Classic Series / US Cup Qualifier). This race is always fun and exciting with events for all ages and still levels! For race information including the race flier and schedule click here.

4/17 - Dillsboro Appalachian Growers Fair

2010-04-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 17, 2010 10:00 am-5:00 pm, Monteith Park in Dillsbor

"A unique fair celebrating farmers and growers at Monteith Park. There will be an open-air plant and produce market, seed exchange, horticultural demonstrations and educational programs of interest to the hobby gardener, grower and farmer. There will be plenty of music, local food, and activities for kids. This all-day event is a fund-raiser for the Monteith Farmstead Restoration Project, our community effort restoring the historic Monteith farmhouse as the Appalachian Women's Museum." For information check out the Visit Dillsboro website.

Local Event: 4/8 Tuck River Watershed

2010-04-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, April 8 at 5:30pm The Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River is hosting a Pizza Party at Mad Batter in Cullowhee! This event will be a great opportunity to learn about our local watershed and what we can do to help improve the water quality. The event tickets are $15. There will be a sampling of beer donated by Tuckaseegee Brewing (you can bring your own as well) and live music by the Dan River Drifters. This will be a great way to kick off your summer river season! So come out and show your support. Hope to see you there.

Plain Old Bread

2010-04-03T15:42:00.001-07:00

I will admit to being a little bit of a bread snob. I get mildly offended at the products that I find in the grocery store posing as bread. Just the thought of fresh bread coming out of the oven - the smell, the texture, the taste - makes my mouth water. Three summers ago I became slightly fixated on learning how to make my own bread. Every day it was a new loaf full of possibilities. The nice thing is that it is so simple: flour, water, yeast. And there are so many ways to be creative. The process is not that difficult either: mix, knead, wait, bake and ta-da you have your bread. I am a huge fan of mixing by hand although occasionally using a mixer is nice too. I have never used a bread machine and I probably never will. I would feel cheated out of the experience of baking the bread and would not feel like it was my own. If you are at all interested in baking your own bread there are two books I highly recommend: "Bread Alone" and "Tassajara Bread Book." Both are fantastic and well worth the investment. Here is a very simple bread recipe that I first started with and still use regularly. Once you feel like you have gotten the hang of it you should play with the ingredients. I like to mix wheat and unbleached white flour at different ratios. If I want a hint of sweet I add honey, never sugar. Occasionally a little EVOO is nice too, or some sunflower seeds or garlic. The possibilities are endless. Because the basic ingredients are so few and simple go ahead and splurge on a nice bag of flour. Here is a very simple bread recipe that I first started with and still use regularly. Once you feel like you have gotten the hang of it you should play with the ingredients. I like to mix wheat and unbleached white flour at different ratios. If I want a hint of sweet I add honey, never sugar. Occasionally a little EVOO is nice too, or some sunflower seeds or garlic. The possibilities are endless. Because the basic ingredients are so few and simple go ahead and splurge on a nice bag of flour. Yes, there is a lot of waiting during bread making so grab a book, go for a jog or jump on your bike, have a beer or glass of wine. Just relax and bake.

Plain Old Bread

Ingredients:
- One packet active dry yeast
- 2 1/4 Cup warm Water
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 6-7 Cup flour

Directions:
- In a large mixing bowl combine water and yeast. Allow to sit for about 5min
- Add about half the flour and stir until combined then stir in the salt
- Gradually mix in the rest of the flour. This will get increasing difficult and you will eventually need to mix by hand, or if you are using a mixer switch from the paddle attachment to the bread hook.
- Dump your dough onto a well floured, clean, dry surface and knead it by pushing down and forward with the heel of your hand and then pulling back from the top. Fold the dough over on its self. Repeat until it becomes smooth and elastic.
- Put a little EVOO into your mixing bowl and place your dough back in the bowl rolling it around in the EVOO to coat. Then cover with a wet towel or plastic wrap.
- Let the dough rise in a warm, draft free place for 3+ hours (you can even leave it over night or while you are at work this will give it a nice sour dough flavor).
- Deflate the dough with your fist by pushing in the middle then allow to rest for 30min.
- Shape your loaves. You can make 2 smaller loaves or one big. You can use a bread pan or shape on a stone or baking sheet that you have sprinkled with corn meal. (I love my baking stone and highly recommend getting one.)
- Let the loaves "proof" by allowing them to rise a little after you have shaped them: 30+min
- Heat your oven to 450F
- Bake at 450F for about 20min the loaves will look golden.
- Reduce heat to 400F and bake for 20 more minutes.
- Allow 15min to cool.
- Taste!

Welcome Home Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-04-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

I think that after a long weekend alone on the road the hubby deserves a cookie! So some surprise - welcome home baking is in order. Really I will take any excuse to bake. Oatmeal - chocolate chip are my specialty. For some reason everything that I bake tends toward being extra large, my cookies are no exception, but really what is so bad about an oversized chocolate chip cookie! Thomas was pleasantly surprised, the only problem was not eating them all before he got here.

My Marinara Sauce

2010-04-03T15:11:00.001-07:00

I started making my own marinara sauce the first summer we had a garden and ended up with so many tomatoes we did not know what to do. This recipe continues to evolve over time, mostly because I never write it down, a habit I am slowly trying to break. So here goes my first attempt at documenting something that I create. I think that sauces need to be flavored slowly as you go to fit your flavor preferences.

Ingredients:
- 1.5 pounds of ripe tomatoes (roasted)
- 2 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1/4 Cup dry white wine
- 2 Tbsp soft garlic cheese spread
- EVOO
- 2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- Handful of chopped fresh Basil

Roasting the tomatoes:
Preheat oven to 420. Place the tomatoes in a baking dish with the stems cut out. Heavily drizzle the tomatoes with EVOO. Bake for about 40-45min. Remove from the oven and pour a little of the tomato water out of the baking dish.

The Sauce:
- There are several ways to liquify your roasted tomatoes. You can use a food processor, a blender, or one of my personal favorites a submersion blender. After you have reduced the tomatoes to the consistency and texture that you like add them to a large pot over low heat.
- In a small skillet simmer the onions in EVOO until they are transparent then add the garlic and crushed red pepper. Allow the garlic to cook for about 1min then add the white wine to deglaze the skillet. Let sit for a couple of minutes to simmer and reduce.
- Pour the contents of the skillet into the pot with the tomatoes. Add the rest of the ingredients (salt, balsamic vinegar, basil, and cheese) and now start to taste and adjust. I usually add more garlic and hot peppers from the garden if we have them. Stir and allow to sit over heat for a little bit for the flavors marry. Hopefully I remembered everything, let me know what you think. Bon apetit!

Spring for WNC

2010-04-03T15:10:00.001-07:00

After what seemed like a never ending winter, spring has finally hit the mountains of western North Carolina. I love this time of year. The smell of the air, playing outside in the sun, the fresh flowers and mostly the beginning of gardening season! I am trying not to "count my chickens before they hatch" but I have already planned several summer menus using veggies from my own yard and the local farmer's markets. Today Barley (the big white dog) and I dug in the compost finding beautiful rich soil and come of the biggest worms I have ever seen. Then I made some pasta sauce using my last can of tomatoes from last summer. It is going to be a fantastic spring and summer: food, friends and many outside adventures!

For the Love of Food

2010-04-03T15:09:00.001-07:00

I love food. I am not so much into quantity but quality. Exploring local food options has become an obsession of mine. Any time we are planning a trip I immediately research the food scene of our destination. So for my first post I want to share one of my all time favorite places to eat. It happens to be in my home town, lucky me. Guadalupe Cafe in Sylva, NC is a tapas and wine restaurant (with an excellent beer selection) featuring Caribbean influenced menu. One of the things that I love the most about this local eatery is that they understand how important it is to support the local community by way of buying from local farmers, including delicious local goat cheese, as well as featuring local artists around the cafe. My favorite is the build your own burrito. Mine is: greens, goat cheese and avocado. Yes, always the same, I just love it so much. Next time you are exploring the beautiful mountains of western NC you should stop by. Bon appetit!