Good Food = Good Health

 I originally posted this on my other blog, http://spiralway.blogspot.com 

Thought those of you who follow me here might enjoy the article. Sorry it has been so long since I posted here. Perhaps this winter I will get back to writing about my Urban Plot. Enjoy! 

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
~Hippocrates

     It has been a long journey to cut out processed food from my family's diet, but these days we rarely give in to convenience foods. I find that if I keep plenty of healthy handy snacks available, it is easier to avoid grabbing just whatever! Making homemade granola snack bars is fast becoming a weekly activity for me. These bars make a great grab-and-go breakfast or snack. I especially love knowing exactly what is in them. I find that making food from scratch is empowering! Cutting out the processed, convience foods and making things from scratch with good quality food stuff is the best way to take charge of your healht.  Knowing what you are putting in your body is the first step. You truly are what you eat!

    Here is my granola snack bar recipe.The time involved in making these bars is minimal and does not require baking. It is a flexible enough recipe that you can adjust to suit your taste and diet requirements. Makes a thick dense snack bar that is filling and satisfying. Enjoy! 

Power Packed Snack Bars 
4 cups of "good stuff" (nuts, seeds, dried fruit, coconut, oats, grains, etc)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 - 1/2 cup honey or molasses or mixture
1/3 - 1/2 cup nut butter (sunflower, almond, peanut, cashew or sesame)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted nuts or seeds)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
(I also add some adaptogen and immune boosting powdered herbs 1/2 tsp) 

Mix nut butter, coconut oil, and honey in a pan. Warm on medium heat until melted. Add vanilla, cinnamon, salt, cinnamon and herbs. Stir until mixed well. Remove from heat and stir in the "good stuff" by the cupful and mix well. If using chocolate chips mix in at the end once the mixture cools a bit. Press into an 8" x 8" pan, lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate until firm. Cut into bars or squares. Store in the fridge. They will become softer at room temperature.
The "good stuff" in my most recent batch is dried apricots, dates, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, currants, pumpkin seeds, granola, coconut. Yum!

 "Health requires healthy food."
~Roger Williams

Feed Your Roots

I wanted to share with you a blog that I enjoy. Feed Your Roots is written by Penina Bareket, of Asheville, NC. It is filled with great recipes to help you change the way you eat.
 
You can follow Penina on Twitter.  @PBareket


Enjoy.

An Old-timey Christmas at our House

Christmas morning dawned and our excited 8 year old could barely contain herself.  What did Santa bring and where do we start? Stockings, always the place to begin while Mom and Dad drink their coffee! 3 years ago, I made us all matching stockings from an old knitting pattern. I kept some of the graphics but created new designs to suit each of us. The stockings each had an orange and Rebecca got a pomegranate, which she SO wanted. There were other little goodies in the stockings too. What a festive bunch of paper tearing and ohs and ahs.. Even before the stockings were done, Rebecca declared this "The Best Christmas Ever!"
This year most of the presents I gave were hand-crafted.  I made Rebecca a pair of knitted fingerless mittens, knitted and felted wool and mohair slipper boots and a kitchen apron made of muslin and printed fabric trim with a pocket. I made David a new pair of wool socks and fingerless mittens designed to keep his hands warm while playing the fiddle in cold weather at outdoor festivals. There is something really special about making a gift for someone. The energy that is knitted in with every stitch, the love that is incorporated in the  design and the good wishes that are wrapped in for eternity make the gift a lasting reminder of your feelings. I like that.
It was a morning spent opening presents and playing with our new treasures and enjoying each other's company.

Once the meal preparations were well underway, David made us a Christmas Day Bonfire in the yard. It served as a gathering place as our guests arrived for dinner, bits of snow remaining after our big storm last week..and Rebecca's snowman slowly disappearing....

Our Christmas meal was most amazing. It took all day to prepare.. well, the preparations began the day before,  got the turkey in brine and assembled the ingredients for our feast, planning and all that...
We had a beautiful, moist and tender turkey complete with all the trimmings: stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, divine gravy, spinach salad, cranberry relish, cranberry sauce, wild rice with shitake mushrooms, pumpkin soup, homemade sourdough bread...YUM! Not as many of the ingredients were from the garden as I would have liked.. but we used onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sage, and apples from the garden.
For Christmas Dessert, I made the Sweet Potato Pie again and it was fabulous. I forgot to put the sugar in the filling.. so it was not as sweet as last time.. but really nice. The sweet potatoes have plenty of sweetness in them and the recipe does not call for very much sugar, so it all worked out. We also made some homemade whipped cream for the top. WOW.  As you can see from the photo, I decorated the pie with dried apple rings and raisins. It was a lovely and impressive presentation.
All in all it was a fabulous day, simple and joyful, filled with love and laughter and friends, and a minimal amount of commercialism.

Inspired Sweet Potato Pie

Wow!  I think I have managed to invent the world's best ever Sweet Potato Pie. A while ago I posted my Coconut Pumpkin Pie Recipe. I used it to create this new pie.
Imagine Candied Sweet Potatoes with dried Apples and Raisins. We had that for Thanksgiving Dinner. Sweet Potatoes from the garden and dried apples from my neighbor's tree with butter, brown sugar, raisins, and orange peel. They were fabulous but I made a lot and we had left-overs for a while.
When we tired of the Thanksgiving left-overs, I made a "Thanksgiving Left-over Soup". First step was to make bone broth with the bones. Then I added Turkey, pureed sweet potatoes, mushroom gravy, broccoli, and mushrooms. The soup was served over the left-over stuffing. It was like Thanksgiving dinner all over again in a soup. Oh yeah and we had homemade cranberry sauce with it too!
Anyway, when I pureed the sweet potatoes it got me to thinking about how I could substitute them for the pumpkin puree in my Coconut Pumpkin Pie Recipe... Inspiration!

Inspired Sweet Potato Pie 

~Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

~Cover the following with water in a pot on the stovetop and cook until tender.

4 medium Sweet Potatoes skin on, scrubbed and cut onto chunks

1/4 cup  Raisins

1/4 cup chopped Dried Apples

~Drain Sweet Potatoes and allow to cool. Puree in food processor with

2 Tablespoons Butter

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 teaspoon Orange Peel

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger

1/4 teaspoon Cloves

1 can Coconut Milk

2 eggs

~Pour into Pie Shell. I used my recipe for Coconut Almond Pie Crust. And I decorated the top with a dried apple and raisins in a sunburst pattern. Pretty!

~Bake pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 40 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

~Serve at room temperature. YUM!

 We went to a Christmas Party/Potluck/Music Jam this weekend and brought this beautiful pie as our potluck contribution. IT was a big success. Give it a try. I am looking forward to making it aan for Christmas Dinner! YUM.

Using My Bounty of Homegrown Pumpkins

For our Thanksgiving Feast, I made a most wonderful Pumpkin Pie using my homegrown pumpkins. It was a big hit at both of our dinners! These pumpkins were volunteers this year. After removing the seeds and other "waste" from the pumpkins, I spread it on the garden bed destined for next year's Volunteer pumpkin patch. The seeds are covered with a layer of soil and mulched with straw. When the weather is right in the Spring, the process will begin again. I love the circular pattern of nature. When we allow it to, Nature provides all we need...
Here are the recipes for both the Coconut Almond Crust and the Coconut Pumpkin Pie Filling. Enjoy!

Coconut Almond Pie Crust

Makes 1 pie crust

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
3/4 cup almond meal

~Dry mix coconut and almond meal together.

3 tablespoons butter

~Cut in the butter with a pastry blender.
~Press mixture into an 8 or 9-inch pie plate.
~Bake at 325*F (160*C) for 15 minutes or until golden.
~Allow to cool before adding filling.

Coconut Pumpkin Pie Filling

~Preheat oven to 425°F.


~Makes 1 pie. 

1 1/2-2 cups pumpkin puree
1 can  Coconut Milk

2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup sugar


1/2 tsp. salt


1 tsp. cinnamon


1/2 tsp. ground ginger


1/4 tsp. ground cloves

~In a large bowl, mix pumpkin puree, Coconut Milk 
and eggs.
~Add salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves and mix well.

~Pour mixture into unbaked regular pie shell or use Coconut Almond Pie Crust. YUM!
~Bake pie at 425°F for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350°F and continue to bake for 30-40 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

Ginger Pecan Scones

Ginger Pecan Scones 

Pre-heat oven 425 degrees.

Mix together the following...

1 1/2 cups flour (for GF-I used 1/2 cup Buckweat Flour and 1 cup GF flour mix)

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking powder

Cut in butter until the texture of coarse meal.

1/4 cup butter

Add in the following...

1/3 cup chopped crystalized ginger

1/3 cup chopped pecans

In a separate bowl beat together...

1 egg

2 Tablespoons of milk

NOTE: When doing Gluten-Free Baking, it is important to wait to mix wet and dry ingredients together until the oven is ready and the pan is prepped. Once the wet and dry are mixed together you want to get it in the oven as quickly as possible. 

Mix wet and dry together until a soft dough forms.

Turn out onto lightly floured board and shape into a flat round about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into wedges and bake on greased sheet for 12-15 minutes. 

I like to put the finished scones in a basket lined with a dishtowel or cloth napkin. Nothing like reaching in for a warm scone. YUM!

Time to make from start to finish.. about 20 minutes. Actual hands on time.. about 5 minutes. You can find 5 minutes for fresh scones! 

Baking Bread on a Rainy Day

I simply adore homemade bread.. who would not! Fresh out of the oven, hot and steamy, butter melting into the airy spaces. Yum! To me homemade bread is an expression of HOME...that warm, cozy place that lives inside each of us, filled with love.

As a child my Mom made bread for our family. I remember helping her knead and shape. What Fun! She let us kids each make our own loaf. We got to do the kneading of our own bread and shaping too... So exciting to watch it grow, punching it down and growing again! These little loaves where baked in custard cups. That evening, we would have our own loaf for dinner, hot with butter melting. Oh so proud to be eating something we had made ourselves!

When I went to college, I think that what I missed most was hot, homemade bread. The dining hall just couldn't even come close! After my first year, I moved off campus into a house with a kitchen and began the process of learning to make bread on my own. Mom always made it look easy.. but it took years to really get it right.. over the years housemates and friends have enjoyed my endeavors...

Between working and raising a kid, I got out of the habit of making bread. Too busy... but craving that homemade taste, I found bakery breads that came close.. our local healthy grocer bakes a Whole Wheat Walnut Bread that I LOVE! But the price is now well over $5/loaf. Well worth it but money is tight and I can make alot of bread with $5 worth of Organic Flours!

I made my first loaf 3 weeks ago and have make a loaf each week since. I pulled out an old recipe and have been working with it.. refining it to make a good loaf for sandwiches for Rebecca's lunch box.
Once you get a routine going.. it really is not time consuming to make your own bread. NO machine necessary. Last night I got the dough started just before I put dinner on the table. It did the first rise while we ate dinner. After the kitchen was cleaned up from dinner, I did the next step-shaping the loaf.  Set the timer for 15 minutes, put my feet up and relaxed. When the timer went off, I started the pre-heat for the oven and put my feet up again. When the oven signaled that it was at temperature, I put the loaf in and set the timer again... Relaxed some more, listened to the rain... and waited until the timer went off. Took the bread out and could not wait until it cooled... so I cut off a slab and spread it with butter... Yum, the best yet!
Last night's flour mix included wheat, flax meal, corn meal and millet flours with pecans.

Here is the recipe:

One Single Loaf 

Mix the following in a bowl.  

2 cups hot water

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Sugar

1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt

Sprinkle over the top of above mixture

 1 package of yeast 

Wait a few minutes to let the yeast proof. When the yeast is bubbly, add the following half a cup at a time and mix well. 

4 cups flour (mix of wheat, white and others)

1/3-2/3 cup of nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Mix in each half cup until most of the flour is in. It will become harder to mix with a spoon, time to knead in the last flour. Turn it out on a lightly floured board, or knead in your bowl until the dough is smooth and elastic and even a bit sticky. Do not work it until it is dry or you will have a very dense and crumbly loaf.

Work the dough into a ball, put back in the bowl and oil the ball. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until double (about 35 minutes). Punch down and knead again adding as little flour as possible. Place dough in greased loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise again for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, start to pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. When the oven is ready, remove the plastic wrap from your pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

Give it a try... be amazed by your own homemade bread! Enjoy. 

GF Ravioli Trials

My guy is gluten intolerant along with many other food allergies, so cooking around our house can be a bit of a challenge! Although, I've got to say that any cook loves a good challenge and I enjoy the constraints that David's diet put on my meal plans.  His allergies narrow down the endless possibilities and keep me in thinking mode.
I am Italian and David spent a year studying in Italy when he was in college... we LOVE Italian food in our house. Buying pasta can be tricky when one is gluten-free! We have found one that we all like, Bionaturae.. it is potato, soy and rice and comes pretty close to regular pasta... but they only make the most common shapes: spaghetti, elbows, fusilli, and penne... so if you want anything else, you are on your own!
I have been experimenting for a while with pasta.. without too much success. The ravioli came out pretty good... a bit dense and not at all like a gluten dough, but tasty nevertheless. 

I used an all-purpose mix of GF flours with some extra rice flour, eggs, and water. I mixed the dough in the food processor. Then rolled the dough out on a rice floured board until it was as thin as I dared.
The filling was made of fresh pesto from the garden, walnuts and Manchego Cheese (sheep milk cheese from Spain.. David is also allergic to cow dairy).

The tops were added after a thin film of water was painted around the edge to help make to two pieces of dough stick to each other when pressed gently together.
After the ravioli was cooked in boiling water briefly... we topped them with fresh from the garden tomato sauce with fresh herbs straight out of the garden (oregano, basil, garlic). A simple sauce to compliment the flavors of the filling which was very rich.

The finished product was a bit heavy, definitely filling, but really tasty.

After this ravioli project, I bought a pasta maker.  It did NOT make this GF pasta maker happy at all. It was SO much trouble, not at all helpful so I brought it back to the store the next day. Next time, I'll just do it myself!

I love that our garden provides us with such wonderful healthful food and as the economy continues to slide, I know that my family will be well-fed, both with produce straight out of the garden and with the foods that I have put up (canned, frozen and dried) for the winter. Knowing where our food comes from is important to me. Healthy food that comes with a story, our story.  Life really IS good! 

Newfangled Corn Dodgers WOW Family

Yes indeed. My family was WOWed by my latest version of the old corn dodger recipe! The new dodgers were a big hit... even if I do say so myself.
I mused in my last post about some additions I might make next time...
Well, next time came and I added...
Minced red onion
Chunks of freshly harvested Shitake Mushrooms
Minced Garlic
All mixed in with the previously posted recipe.
They were SO good that I could have made a meal of them alone!
Give it a try.
YUM!

What are Corn Dodgers??

Don't you just LOVE the name? I recently posted that I was making Corn Dodgers to go with our stew one night.. and then came the question.. what are corn dodgers..
So here you go...
A corndodger, or just dodger, is a ball of cornmeal (and sometimes flour), water (or milk), oil (or lard) and usually sugar. This is deep fried (like a hushpuppy), or baked. They are also known as Johnny Cakes and seem to come out of the Colonial Era.

"In the book George Washington's Breakfast, author Jean Fritz tells us that George Washington ate Johnny cakes every day."

"Johnny Cakes can be cooked on a hot buttered griddle, baked in the oven, or cooked on a clean, buttered hoe."

“The universal food of the people of Texas, both rich and poor, seems to be corn-dodger and fried bacon.”
Frederick Law Olmstead 'A Journey Through Texas' (1856)

“Her corn-cake, in all its varieties of hoe-cake, dodgers, muffins and other species too numerous to mention, was a sublime mystery to all less practised compounders.” Harriet Beecher Stowe, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852)

My corn dodger recipe is adapted from the Joy of Cooking. David is allergic to wheat and gluten as well as eggs so this recipe works for him. It is also quick and can be made while dinner is simmering. We first encountered corn dodgers when David and I were invited to dinner at a friend's house. They worked hard to come up with some sort of bread or biscuit to go with the simple soup that they were serving that David would be able to eat. They were fabulous! So we started making them too. Rebecca likes to help form the dodgers. Last weekend she had a sleepover here with a friend and I had both girls helping.. it was fun.
We love them!

Corn Dodgers

Preheat oven to 400. Grease cookie sheet.

Mix together the dry ingredients:
1 cup of corn meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar

Mix together the wet ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
(optional 1 beaten egg...egg is not in the old recipes)
as substitute for egg,
I use 1 Tablespoon Flax meal steeped in 3 Tablespoons boiling water
then pulsed in the food processor.

Mix together wet and dry until blended.
Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

These come out almost crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. We eat them plain though you could be decadent and add butter.. Yum...
Last time I made corn dodgers, I included minced parsley and mushrooms. After dropping them on the cookie sheet, I flattened them a bit with my hand. They looked more like cookies. Flattening them served to up the crispy character and keep the inside soft. They were fritter-like. Oh they were good... next time I will also add a bit of minced onion... I think that will be good! oooh and maybe some garlic!

Road Food.... Yikes!

Well Rebecca and I spent a week at a dance camp after Christmas and let me tell you.. I just know too much about food.. Usually I relish to opportunity to have a week off from cooking and thinking about what to cook and having someone else deal with all of that and serve me and clean up afterwards... BUT it seems that is not the case anymore!
After reading Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, I have dramatically changed the way that I shop for food. I pay even closer attention to the labels, what the ingredients are and where the food comes from. I buy less and less processed products... Fresh food plus staples. We make most stuff from scratch. Eat food grown in our garden and buy local whenever possible. Often, I opt out of buying something because it was grown too far way or is too processed or has too many additives. I shop with a list of which vegetables and fruit have lower rates of pesticide residue. I buy organic whenever I can. I also shop with my "The Better World Shopping Guide" and make choices knowing that every dollar I spend is a vote for the business and farming practices followed by the companies that I chose to buy from.
So to spend a week eating food service fare, I had to change my food focus. Usually, I love to eat. I live to eat! I love food and the process of making food, growing food and the stories that the food brings to the table. But for the week at camp, I had to simply eat to live. It was just fuel. But really not the best quality of fuel.
We had lots of noodle dishes sometimes a pasta dish with a side of pasta. Yikes! Very little fresh vegetables (well there was fresh broccoli one day and that was really it). The fruit was fruit salad out of a can with lots of syrup. The first night.. dessert was green jello with large marshmellows. Amazing! I would have given my kingdom for a piece of fresh fruit! I ate what I could... but dreamed of my own cooking!
But I guess the real question is how do you eat well when you are on the road?? As far as I can tell, the best solution is to bring your own food. I find that packing from home for the trip is easy enough... but then the way home is harder to manage...
When packing your own food is not possible what do you do? I say it has to be a matter of picking the lesser of the evils! Choose the fresh vegetables and fruits and stay away from the more processed foods.
Ah... it is good to be home. Tonight's dinner: home made turkey stew with home made corn dodgers on the side! Homemade apple sauce.
Yum!

Silent but Busy!

Dear Readers,
I have been silent for quite some time... it has been a crazy few weeks full of all sorts of hustle and bustle. My silence here has certainly not been because I had nothing to say... quite the contrary.... just that there is SO much to say and there has been SO little time to stop and write! Between the holidays, travel, and big changes at home...

So the BIG NEWS is that David and I are now engaged! Woohoo! After 6 years as a single mama and 45+ years of waiting for the right one to come along... here HE is! Rebecca adores him and life is SO good. Really worth the wait! I must say that it is the easiest relationship ever and just gets better all of the time. Yay!

So now we are in the process of selling David's home on the other side of town. Then we will all move into my little house at the garden. It will be SO good to live back at the garden and not be commuting anymore! I SO look forward to being on site and the great time that will be saved from the travel back and forth.. also looking forward to the more integrated life that we will be able to live all in one place! Cooking and gardening and doing the usual household chores.... an inter-planting of work, so to speak!

My Fresh Start produce business is coming along. I have about 20 families on my weekly email list with 3-8 orders per week. It is what I can manage for now. As the Spring and Summer season comes on I expect that it will become twice a week email with more orders! Right now the winter options are limited to fresh greens and mesclun mix salad greens as well as some fresh herbs.

My row covers are working well! I currently have six covers up and have plans for more. I am using the French Chenille Style of row cover written about in Elliot Coleman's book, The Four-Season Harvest and by our friends at Shibaguyz . I had read the book and seen to information on row covers but it was not until the Shibaguyz posted about their experience making these row covers that I promptly followed suit! Thanks for the inspiration! I promise to write more about the process and include how-to pictures!

We are getting a storage building built at the garden to serve as storage and a woodworking shop for David.. But wouldn't you know it... the ideal place for the building is were my mountainous mulch piles have been for the last few years. So for the last 3 days we have been moving the mulch. Who needs a membership to the gym? My body hurts in places that I didn't think that it was possible to hurt! And I am not done yet.. David helped for the first day until his asthma started up thanks to the molds in the pile.. I took over after that! But I am almost done.. one more day! One of the side benefits of this little project is that now the mulch is closer to the garden and will save steps later. I also managed to get the wide row of berries mulched and the herb garden paths too!

There of course is more... but It is time to cook dinner. Chicken Risotto with mushrooms and onions and a salad of freshly picked (an hour ago) mesclun mix with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar (or vinegar of your choice)
2-3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 garlic clove (finely minced or pressed)
salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste

What to do with all of those greens

My winter greens are starting to really come in now. Swiss Chard, Spinach, kale, collards. Yum! But what to do with them all. I am always looking for new ways to prepare the feast. Greens can be picked fresh all year round so I see no need to try freezing or canning them. Besides they are best fresh picked right out of the garden! Here is a recipe that I found and adapted to suit my family and they loved it! Give it a try.

Greens with Toasted Pine Nuts and Raisins
Serves 6
2 1/2 pounds of greens
(spinach, kale, chard, collards, others) either mixed or one kind
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 small onions sliced
1-2 cloves of minced garlic (optional)
4 tablespoons of raisins
(or dried cranberries or blueberries), plumped in hot water and drained
4 tablespoons of pine nuts, toasted
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Fresh pick and rinse greens well. Saute in a large pan with only the rinse water that still clings to the greens. Cook over medium heat, turn frequently until wilted. Drain and set greens aside.
Add olive oil to the empty pan. Saute the onions and garlic over medium heat until tender (about 8 minutes). Add the greens, raisins and pine nuts. Saute briefly to warm and bring the flavors together. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.

With the leftovers, I made the most fantastic frittata topped with cheddar cheese! Warm the oven to about 350. Scramble 2 or 3 eggs. Put the left over greens in an iron skillet that has been lightly oiled. Pour in the scrambled eggs. Top with grated cheese. Bake until the eggs are cooked. ENJOY..

YUM!

A Celebration of Rainbow Swiss Chard

Today's post is a celebration of Rainbow Swiss Chard. Why eat boring food when you can eat a rainbow imbued with liquid sunshine!

~from a seed catalog description....

A beautiful chard, its colors are brilliant (pink, yellow, orange, red and white). This chard originated in Australia. Very mild, ornamental, and tasty. Great for market growers and specialty markets. Pretty enough to plant in the flower garden, so delicious, one of our favorite greens! Can be sown any time up to late summer for fall use; often overwinters except in very cold-winter areas.

But what is this stuff called "Chard"? and where does it come from? And what the heck do you do with it?

Swiss Chard, the beta vulgaris Cicla group, is actually a close cousin of the beet and also goes by the name "spinach beet." The rainbow variety of Swiss chard, often known as "bright lights" comes with stems in a wide range of bright colors including magenta, orange, red, purple, and golden yellow.

Cooks prize Swiss chard for its colorful veins and ribs. The contrast of the vibrant red, orange, yellow, and white stalks against deep dark green leaves make for a strikingly beautiful presentation. And chard not only looks fantastic but it has a mild delicate flavor that is sweeter, and more refined then other greens. Swiss chard can be used as a substitute for spinach in recipes, or stands alone nicely as a side dish.

One cup of cooked chard provides the following vitamins, minerals and nutritional components shown below as percentage of USRDA.

Vitamin K:	300%
Vitamin A:	100%
Vitamin C:	52%
Magnesium:	37%
Manganese:	29%
Potassium:	27%
Iron:	22%
Vitamin E:	16%
Fiber:	14%

So again I say, "Why eat boring food when you can eat a rainbow imbued with liquid sunshine!" Try some today!

Garden Fresh Roasted Veggies

Here is an amazingly simple yet wonderful garden fresh dish shown here before cooking. It has a beautiful variety of colors! My High School Home Economics Teacher would be SO proud. Beets, Carrots, Onions, Garlic, Potatoes (red, russet, blue), tossed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and topped with fresh parsley and sprigs of rosemary.
Bake uncovered in the oven at 350 or so... oven setting can be more or less depending on what else you are cooking in the oven at the same time... consider a cover for a bit if you are cooking at a higher heat. Bake until the veggies are done.
Local and Fresh... it can't be beat!

First Pesto of the Season

This week I made two small batches of Pesto. The Basil is coming in and we LOVE Pesto in our family, with an Italian name like "Molaro" it is practically required!
I grow the Basil Variety called Sweet Genovese. This is the third year in a row that I have gotten this seed from Cook's Garden and I have been very happy with the results.
Last year we also grew a Lemon Basil variety.. but were not as pleased with it for Pesto or tomato sauces. So halfway through the season we just started ignoring it. Let it flower and just forgot about it.. Well this year we are overrun with Lemon Basil and we have learned to cook with it. The lemon basil is nice in Thai and Indian cooking..
But the lesson here for me is that it is easy to have basil reseed itself! I never knew this because I am so obsessive about heading the basil to let it bush and keep producing new leaves. So this year.. I will allow some of the Genovese to flower and go to seed so I will have self-seeded Basil next year! And I will save seed to get some started too.. just in-case this variety is not as good about reseeding itself. I'll let you know.

So.. PESTO..

My Recipe..
~A colander full of freshly picked basil leaves washed, de-stemmed and dried in a salad spinner
~1/4- 1/3 cup of nuts (I have used pine nuts, toasted almonds, cashews, walnuts, toasted sunflower seeds... depends on what you like and what you have on hand)
~1/4 - 1/3 cup of grated cheese (parmesan or romano)
~3-8 cloves of garlic (depends on your love of garlic~)
~enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil to make it the "right" consistency

Zip it all up in a food processor and freeze as quickly as possible.
When I make Pesto, I put the finished product in Ice Cube Trays and freeze for a few hours before I put the cubes in a zip-lock bag. The quicker you can get them into the zip-lock.. the greener the pesto will stay.. Keep them open to the air and they will turn a dark almost black green on the outside.
These Pesto Cubes make a great addition to soups, stews and sauces. Add a cube or two depending on your personal tastes.
If you are making pasta take a few cubes out the thaw before you start the pasta water, then toss with the pasta after it has been drained.
YUM!