Life is in the Details

Today's Harvest

There's something magical about sun-warmed tomatoes from the garden. I'm going to enjoy every bit of these beauties.

Today's Harvest

There's something magical about sun-warmed tomatoes from the garden. I'm going to enjoy every bit of these beauties.

Newly Potted

I just finished up planting some succulents to stash around here. I cant get enough of these lately. These make me happy...and that's the idea. Tucked away, quietly doing their own thing, you might forget they are there because they aren't demanding your attention. Just when you 'round a corner, you see them, and bam... You can't help but smile! The shapes, textures, and colors add a nice variety and simplicity to our happy home. I have three more to plant but could only find two of these awesome silver beaded pots so I'm now on the lookout for another simple-yet-eye-catching planter.

Starting another starter

You don't even want to know how gross my neglected sourdough starter had become sitting in the back of my refrigerator for too many months. The start date on it was 2-10-11 and i remember baking a bunch of loaves with it but what's missing the "neglected since..." date. I'll spare you the details and any photos. But there was mold. Ewww! Ick!

Suffice to say, I'm starting a new starter this morning using the Tartine method. If all goes well, in two weeks I'll have a good sourdough culture from which I'll bake.

The bowl on the right is the rosemary no-knead dough that I'll bake off this morning in a cast-iron pot for a nice, crusty loaf to serve alongside my famous black bean soup tonight. Although I'm sad that baseball practice will likely be cancelled tonight due to the rain, I'm delighted that the four of us will be gathered around the dinner table together instead of what normally happens when baseball and dance fall on the same night (2 of us eat early and go off to the game; 2 of us eat late after dance, a tag-team sort of affair that I'm content to break with tonight). I'm ready for our summer schedule already!

Another advantage to the rain: the seeds & seedlings (sunburst and Peter Pan pattypan squash, Zephyr and other summer squashes, cucumbers, hearts of gold cantaloupe, lavender, jalapeños) that we planted over the weekend need to be watered as well. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

Happy Monday!

Look at how my babies have grown

I planted seeds in this garden flat the exact morning just an hour or two before I herniated a disc in my back. These seedlings are the fruits (and vegetables and flowers) of my labor.

These have grown very well so far and now it's time to transition them to larger containers (okay, a little past due) filled with nutrient rich soil and in a few weeks they will be planted out in the garden.

Happy Friday everyone! Wishing you a fun-filled weekend!

Heirloom tomatoes... I miss you already. I will be thinking of you often until we meet again next summer!

Random bits of life (in garden and at table)

I've had some photos that I wanted to post so here are a few that I had been hanging onto. They are random and not at all connected, except that they are a part of documenting the everyday stuff of life.

I slow-roasted a bunch of San Marzano tomatoes from the garden with olive oil, thyme, salt, and pepper and after they cooled I froze them so that I have to add to pizzas, soups, and bruschetta when the cold weather comes.

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Our rose bush was a constant source of awe.

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Triple chocolate chunk cookies were a fun dessert and one that we ended up having on Rosh Hashanah too. Once we had to cancell our plans of hosting friends over at our place for dinner because I was sick, I knew I was abandoning plans of making an apple or honey cake (as is traditional for this holiday) because my family would much prefer chocolate cookies (or brownies)! LOL! I happened to have some frozen triple chocolate chunk cookie dough in the freezer for a time just like this when I had no time and only felt like laying in bed! 

 

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A delicious use of some leftovers. Tacos are my favorite for that. Here is Tlayuda (black bean paste made with black beans, onions, garlic, cumin), guacamole, grilled corn, and sauteed green beans (the latter two from a previous summer dinner). 

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Daily bread. Still trying to come up with a healthy recipe that isn't challah but so far no luck. The family much prefers the ~75% whole wheat challah that I make. But you know me... I'll keep trying!!

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One of the true wonders of my summer is that for the first time I grew beans. Not green fillet, purple string, or yellow wax beans but bean beans. The kind that you buy in the store as dried beans. Those little European Soldier beans to the left of the cookbook are my bean babies!! I haven't cooked them up yet as I just want to look at them a bit longer. 

I haven't cooked from this cookbook much but it's a delightful read with lovely notes on gardening as well as ideas on using the garden harvest and a good amount of photos.

August Break: 8-15

This bounty awaited me in the garden when we arrived home from vacation.

(Not pictured are lots of tomatoes that were way past their prime.)

Today: food shopping and lunch at Indian buffet (because it's Monday, of course!!), and I've already schedule physicals for the kids and myself and also the 90,000 mile (!!!) maintenance for my car.

 

Garlic Harvest

From the garden:

After rubbing off the dirt. Ready to go:

These photos are a part of August Break. Read more and feel free to join in.

Small Garden Harvest

This photo is a part of August Break. Read more and feel free to join in.