Gardening
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Showing Up
What do you do when something you love that’s creative, that normally gives you energy, purpose, enjoyment, instead just drags you down? Even though it’s late summer, a gorgeous one, and the garden and farmers’ markets are bursting with fresh deliciousness, I have to admit, I’m in a cooking funk. For someone who loves to cook and loves food with a passion, this does not feel good. I even went to the library with the kids this week and checked out a bunch of cookbooks hoping to get inspired and I felt blah about all of them, just like I’m feeling blah about my kitchen and cooking these days.…
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Making Homemade Syrups
There’s so much I want to write about right now, so many things happening in the garden, some good, some weird. So many delicious things I’ve been eating and drinking, some gorgeous cookbooks I’ve been having fun with, writing deadlines from goals I set for myself that I’ve been trying to meet while my two mini-dictators still insist on me actually paying every single second of my attention to them, and weird, weird computer photo issues driving me insane. But since we are having another gorgeous weekend here (I’m pretty sure I’m bragging at this point), let’s combine the garden, food & drinks, and cookbooks together, and make some homemade syrups…
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Pickled Sugar Snap Peas
For the last few years we’ve grown sugar snap peas in our garden. Before I grew these little crispy gems, I hardly ever ate them; they just weren’t on my radar. I actually started planting them with the kids when they were really little because the seeds are so much fun to start indoors between two damp paper towels on a cookie sheet. They sprout quickly and they love, love, love our damp chilly springs. For five seasons in a row now they have been the very first thing I’ve planted in the ground in late February or March. They’ve fed my need to garden even before it’s really gardening…
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Chive Vinaigrette
A month or so ago I made some Infused Chive Blossom Vinegar. I let it sit for almost two weeks, then strained the chive blossoms out of it, and was left with this beautiful, purple, oniony scented vinegar. At first I wasn’t sure I liked the scent. It’s such a gorgeous color that I wanted the smell to match that beauty. But then I started pulling out all my vinegars, the white wine, champagne, apple cider, and smelling them. Vinegar isn’t necessarily the best smell in the world, is it? But oh what the right amount of vinegar does for a recipe, how it pickles things, the way it can –…
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Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles
Yay! The school year is over. Finally!!! It was a rough one for us and right now I’m just glad summer vacation is here. And it’s hot here, people, am I right? Not blisteringly hot, not sweltering Midwest hot and sticky, just hot enough that the grass around us is starting to dry out and lose it’s emerald green quality for the summer, hot enough that when Jasper sprays me with his squirt gun it feels great, perfectly hot enough for popsicles!! We have had so many strawberries this year, like bowls full every morning for weeks. I almost can’t keep up, it’s almost too many! It seems absolutely crazy…
