There is no picture here because, for whatever reason, the fresh, local, and healthy meals I make photograph terribly and look like mush. Although, the dish T piled up last night for dinner looked lovely – his quirk about not liking foods to mix actually makes for a photogenic plate. Piles of quinoa, roasted zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and a beet (all from the garden!) and a sprinkle of goat cheese. Yum. I declared it a successful Meatless Monday and was very proud that so much of our dinner had been provided by our hard work in the yard. T even surprised himself by enjoying our veggie dinner as much as he did.
How large of a garden does one need to produce enough vegetables for canning and preserving? I had visions of pickling all our lemon cucumbers, but they aren’t as prolific as I imagined and we eat them as fast as they ripen. I have 6 tomato plants, half cherry tomatoes, and we eat those too quickly as well. I wanted to make tomato sauce! Garlicky pickled green beans sounded good, too, but the green beans are long gone. Ah well, at least we’re enjoying them as they come.
I have started brewing kombucha. It’s quite interesting and I’m enjoying it. Green tea makes a smoother drink than black tea, but the only green tea I have is the one with rice and popcorn. It sits for 5 days, then I put it into a bottle and it sits for 2 days (to carbonate) and then into the fridge. I start a new batch when the bottle goes into the fridge and it all makes a well-timed cycle. I had the hardest time finding a SCOBY starter (I don’t know how people justify charging $10 for one!) so I threw in a bottle of GT’s Kombucha with some sugared tea and 2 weeks later I had a nice SCOBY on top. Then I had 2 in the bottle, so one is now in the fridge. I’m not really sure what to do with it. I’ve heard that you can dry it out and it makes nice dog treats?
T and I had a good sit-down conversation about the chicken coop and what it represented as to the added house projects and his not feeling adequately appreciated for all the hard work he did for the kitchen (seriously, he did so much and worked so hard and probably saved us thousands of dollars because we didn’t have to hire someone else) and at the end I understood how he felt. Every now and then, it’s good to stop and really talk about the state of the union. Two days later, a book on keeping chickens and building a coop arrived from Amazon.com. But the bathroom still needs to get finished before any of that can be planned.
My mom was sent these mochi puff crackers from Hawaii. They’re called Kinako Mochi Puffs or Funwari Meiji (based on my internet searching) but I can’t find them here (they’re from the Hawaii Marukai, and I checked ours). The closest I found was a Kinako Mochi Senbei, which is a flat rectangular craker dusted in kinako powder. It kind of all melts in your mouth and is lovely to eat.
Happy summering, people! There are so many things we want to do this summer and I hope we find time for it all.
Right before our wedding, I noticed there were beautiful blue eggs in this bird house we hung from our patio. When we got back from our honeymoon, I found these cute little chicks sticking their heads out and peeping. After a few days, they were all gone! They didn’t look all that feathered to me, but I also didn’t find any of them in the yard, so I’m hoping they all flew the nest okay!
They look all cute and cuddly… and then someone starts to get smushed:
That’s my Cassie-bear! She’s just a cutie (and also my favorite, totally not a secret).
Three Dog Kitchen 