Saturday, July 27, 2013

Saturday's Harvest

It's the end of July and my garden is not a bed of weeds! Hurrah!!!

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Today I harvested:
  • all of my manoa lettuce--8oz worth. Not bad for the weed whisperer
  • 4oz of swiss chard--they are still going strong 
  • 2oz of assorted herbs--flat leaf parsley, basil and mint
  • pulled some carrot to test to see how they are doing. 
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And I planted:
  • row of manoa lettuce
  • row of beet--one more try
In my kitchen, I'm rooting some thai basil from some cutting from the restaurant. I hope to pot them tomorrow. I'm trying to root some celery, doesn't look too great. 
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Oh!I forgot I got 8oz. of tomatoes on Friday.
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Friday, July 19, 2013

My Garden, My Breakfast

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So it's terribly hot and humid out and I think my garden is only thing that is enjoying it. I'm getting tomatoes, lettuce (manoa), flat leaf parsley and swiss chard. My beets not so good but I'm eating the greens. Waiting for my carrots. I just put in some scallions and will adding some thai basil, more lettuce seeds and beets seed soon.

As for my breakfast, I've been trying to cut down my carbs fro the last several months. I decided my breakfast this morning would be a salad with lettuce and swiss chard from my garden. Yum!
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My breakfast salad with leftover salmon from dinner last night, red pepper, my homemade salsa  and harrisa and splash of balsamic dressing. Maybe next time I'll add a fried egg. My love of harrisa has been a slow rise but I'm definitely on bandwagon now. I love it in my salad.

Did I share last week's farmers market goodies.
My farmers market goodies
4 white peaches for some white peach cupcakes [as soon as the heat goes away] and 3 round squash to be stuffed with ground chicken and today's harvest of swiss chard. I'll try and get some picture of the process. 

Oh yeah! WG bought more strawberries. Yes, 8 more lbs. The only thing I'm thinking of is ice cream at the moment. I just don't want to turn on the oven. I hope it ends soon.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

My Summer Vacation--Part 2: Rocky Mountain National Park

I think I keep this short and sweet. We have a fun time RMNP. Altitude was intense, that's why we end up at the Cub Lake trail. But wasn't disappointed. At the end of trail a beautiful lake with duckling swimming by and tons of dragonflies.

Here's a links to the RMNP sest in flickr:

Trail Ridge Road:  
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princesshotflash/sets/72157634490340982/

Old Fall River Road:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princesshotflash/sets/72157634635813915/

Cub Lake Trail
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princesshotflash/sets/72157634597678224/

Okay, okay. One little story to make you laugh.

WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN ON TRAIL RIDGE ROAD
Yes, WG donned the crazy costume for pictures.

Let me set the scene, the parking area was packed, both sides of the road. I could only hope that the parking area would clear out soon so people would stare. In the background, I could hear screaming and laughing from a group of Chinese tourists who were across the road.

So WG gets all dressed up and crosses the road to poise on the stone wall. There was a car parked right next to where he was going to poise. WG said take a lot of pictures from all angles as he readies he's mask. Right then the driver of the car walks up to get in and does a double take at WG. He looked very confused.

But right at the exact moment the crazy tourists decide to cross the road--did I mention their inappropriate hiking outfits--tight high black patent leather stilettos boots with short shorts--screaming and laughing and stopping traffic. That enough time to distract the driver and for me to get all the pictures I could to make the lone ranger happy.

That poor driver. He must think he maybe getting a little light headed from altitude because all the asians he's encountering in the park are dressed for costume party.

Here's the Lone Ranger on Trail Ridge Road. High-Ho, Silver! Away!
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Strawberries, strawberries and more strawberries

I bought 2lbs for the restaurant and 2lbs for home on Wednesday. I'd mentioned on vacation if WG saw fruit that looked good and at a good price to buy some and I'd make something with them. The last resort being jam. Well, I guess that really stuck in his mind. He calls me on Friday and said "you bought strawberries?!" I guess he was looking in the refrigerator and noticed the strawberries. "I just bought 4 (2lbs) containers." said with a bit of a panic in voice.

So guess what I'm doing this weekend. Making jam (4lbs), sorbet (2lbs) and hand pies (.5lb) and the rest just to eat [for my breakfast and WG dinner--he's been eating fruit for dinner for months] or I could make some strawberry ice cream for home . . .hmmm


He's a couple of picture of the fruits of my labor. 

Strawberries jamming
4lbs of strawberries jamming = 4 pints and 1 half pint of jam 

2lbs of strawberries = very intense cooling experience
Strawberry hand pies
.5lb of strawberries = 7 hand pies waiting for the oven

Saturday, July 13, 2013

My Summer Vacation--Part 1: South Dakota

Mount Rushmore from viewing platform
This is a little teaser of the our vacation. I'm usually crappy at getting my photos from vacation up in the timely fashion. Before I get tied down with the craziness of my life, I've decided to at least get one leg of the vacation done. Not even back a week and I have something up on my blog. Now that's a record.

This year's summer vacation was out west to Colorado and South Dakota. To start the festivities, WG had a fashion show of his outfits for the the trip.

Lone Ranger
as the Lone Ranger
Custer
as General Custer
Yes, he did bring all the accessories including the mask, badge, and gun belt. The only thing that didn't make it was the big Custer hat. He replaced it with a smaller version. I posted these pictures on FB and cause a little bit of commotion amongst my friends. I guess people didn't know what a nut he is.


Thursday, July 11, 2013

Tomorrow's Lunch and beyond

I've been really good at bring my lunch and sometimes breakfast to work most days. And with my new eating routine, I've been trying to cook healthier. I've been wanting to make Curried Lentils and Sweet Potatoes from smittenkitchen.com for a while. Probably would have been better to make it when the weather was cooler. But making it now, I have the swiss chard from my garden.

As always at the beginning of a new recipe, I always think I have all the ingredients. This time I checked before and even went out to get what I was missing. Oh well, I guess I still have vacation brain.

Not enough sweet potato--added 1 regular potato
Forgot the curry powder from the restaurant--used the vindaloo powder instead and eliminated the jalapeno, thought it would be spicy enough
No cilantro--used flat leaf parsley from my garden instead
Too lazy to go out and get tamari almonds--use this savory nut topping that I picked and TJ's to try. Can't remember where I read about but at least I get to use it.

I didn't cook it as long as the recipe said because I used small lentil and they cooked up much quicker. I think I could have added a little more vindaloo powder but I think I should wait to see what how the taste develops when I eat it for lunch.

It makes enough for at least 6 servings. I packed away 2 serving in the freezer. 1 for lunch today, 1 my nephew at for his dinner last night and 2 more for the next two day's lunches. I hope I don't get too sick of it by then. Next up is on my savory cooking list: Portuguese sausage empanadas/hand pies with the last of the Portuguese sausage from Hawaii. Here's a couple of pictures. I never remember to get pictures of the ingredients and the beginning steps.


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Cooking lentils and potatoes with spices and broth


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Chopped swiss chard from my garden


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Loved the color when I added the swiss chard

Monday, July 8, 2013

While I was away

My tomato plant gave me 2 ripe tomatoes. One was eaten by something.

I also made a makeshift rigging of my tomato plant. This weekend I hope to put together something better. Got a bunch of green tomatoes waiting to ripen.