Garden Update 7/23/09

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Finally! My summer plot in the community garden is starting to really blossom. Now that all of the rain has subsided, my plants are soaking in the sun and growing. The kids and I took off to the gardens early this morning. We watered and harvested!! Another batch of chamomile to dry, 2 tomatillos, 1 zuchinni, 2 padron peppers and beans! This may very well be the beginning of harvesting during the month of August and into the Fall! Nehemiah helped me water in the community plot and pick beans. Zekie did what he does best, EAT! We all had a great morning and before we left my parents home, we stole some Spanish Tortas and ate them on the walk home.

Tomatillo Plants


My Brussel Sprouts are finally growing!

Zinnia’s, Geraniums, Chamomile, Marigolds, Eggplants and Squash

The zinnia’s and chamomile really light up my garden!


Nehe helping me harvest chamomile

Zekie eating our first harvested zuchinni

Padron peppers ready for picking!!

Beautiful beans


Eggplant, Spanish Heirloom

My boys!!


Fresh Tomatillo/Cilantro Salsa

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Ever since visiting Rick Bayless’s restaurant La Frontera Grill, Gabe and I are hooked on this Fresh Tomatillo/Cilantro salsa. It’s unbelievable! The freshness of the tomatillos and cilantro are complemented by the bite of the white onion, garlic and jalapeno. Besides how amazing this salsa is, it’s unbelievably easy to make! All you do is mix and blend. After trying this, you’ll probably agree with me that you’ll never buy green salsa in a jar again! I can’t wait to start harvesting my own tomatillos from my garden!

Rick Bayless’s Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients

  • 4 medium (about 8 ounces total) tomatillos, husked, rinsed and quartered
  • 1 large garlic clove, peeled and quartered
  • jalapeno pepper to taste (I used only a small piece of a pepper. Be careful as a little bit can go a long way!)
  • 1/2 to 2/3 cup (loosely packed) roughly chopped cilantro
  • Salt to taste
  • White onion diced to garnish
  1. Combine the tomatillos, garlic, chile and cilantro in a food processor or blender. Add 1/4 cup water and a generous 1/2 teaspoon salt. Process to a coarse puree; if using a blender, begin blending on low, at first pulsing to get the mixture moving evenly through the blender blades.
  2. Pour into a salsa dish and thin with a little more water if necessary to give the salsa an easily spoonable consistency.
  3. Taste and season with additional salt if you think necessary.
  4. Serve within an hour.

Homemade Whey and Cream Cheese/Greek Yogurt

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Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey,

In our day in age, curds and whey brings memories of a nursery rhyme rather than cultured dairy. Curds and whey are the bi-product of fermenting dairy products. In our past, it was a means of preserving dairy. Today most people buy their dairy in the forms of milk, yogurt, cream cheeses, ricotta and sour cream. We don’t really stop to think how they’re made.
What is fermentation?
Fermentation is a chemical change brought on by the action of microscopic yeast, molds and bacteria. The souring of milk, the rising of dough and the conversion of sugar to alcohol are examples of fermentaion.

I make my own homemade yogurt. Yogurt is made by heating milk to 110 degrees adding a culture of live bacteria and letting it sit out (ferment) for 12 hours. To me it was so cool to smell the milk and actually having it smell like yogurt after sitting out for such a long time. Our generation is so used to buying everything at the store without realizing that even these dairy products can be made at home.

I’ve recently started making my own lacto-fermented veggies and fruits and soaking my whole wheat flours. Whey is an excellent starter culture for this and the cream cheese, a by-product, is much healthier than the commercial variety. Since I already have so much yogurt all the time, I decided to start saving the whey for fermenting my veggies and soaking my grains. I’ve been using the cream cheese or Greek Yogurt as a yummy spread on toast and am looking forward to making my first batch of tzatziki sauce for homemade Gyros!

Below is a recipe on how to seperate the curds and whey using yogurt.

Homemade Whey & Cream Cheese/Greek Yogurt

  • 1 quart of homemade yogurt or 1 large container of store bought plain yogurt
  • Line a large strainer over a bowl with a clean cotton tea towel. Pour in the yogurt, cover and let stand at room temperature for several hours.
  • The whey will run into the bowl and the milk solids will stay in the strainer.
  • Store whey in a mason jar and the cream cheese in a covered glass container.
  • Refrigerated, the cream cheese keeps for about 1 month and the whey for about 6 months

Monday’s with Mami – Fresh from the Garden BBQ

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As usual Friday and Saturday’s are super busy in my household. On Friday night I finished a cake for a girl at my church. Yet another hobby of mine.



I learned how to decorate cakes this past winter. My sister had alway’s wanted to learn so I tagged along. Together we took 3 Wilton classes at our local hobby store and I actually ended up teaching myself quite a bit by digging into online tutorials. I love YouTube!! I had fun with this cake and am feeling super comfortable using fondant. I’d really like to start making some 3d figurines as they do in Europe! I Don’t know if I’ll ever have time for that though, lol!!

Saturday was filled with a baby shower, grocery shopping, and softball games. My hubby’s team may have won their league! He was pretty pumped about it.

Sunday, sweet glorious Sunday. I’ve been trying to make a point of relaxing on the Lord’s day. My 3 year old son and I had a mommy, Son-day! We had so much fun sneaking in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, gummy worms and juice boxes to watch Transformers on the big screen! The big TV as he calls it :) He picked the movie and fell asleep half way through. As usual after the show we ended up in my garden at my parents home. My garden is doing amazing and my beans are producing beautiful colors of purple and yellow pods. They are amazingly crunchy and sweet! I love to eat them right off the plant.


5pm rolled around and my mom and I had no dinner plans. So.. we looked at what was growing, what we had fresh from the farmers markets and made delicious fresh and healthy vegetable mixes. It doesn’t take a recipe to enjoy fresh vegetables from the garden. If you have Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Onions, Garlic and Herbs, you’re good to go!

So we made Fresh from the Garden,

Beet and Bean Salad Aliñado

Ingredients

  • 5-6 beets, cut into quarters
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup EVOO
  • 1 medium onion finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves finely diced
  • 2 fresh sprigs of Thyme

  • Dash of Oregano, Rosemary, and Tumeric
    (You can use any dried or fresh herbs you may have according to your tastes!)
  • Handful of fresh Green Beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
  1. In a pot of boiling water, boil the beets for 20 – 30 minutes or until tender.
  2. Once the beets are tender, remove from water and dice them into smaller pieces.
  3. In a large bowl add the beets, balsamic vinegar, EVOO, onion, garlic, green beans, and herbs.
  4. Mix thoroughly and chill before serving.


Grilled Yellow Squash and Onions


Ingredients

  • 1 large yellow squash
  • 1 large white onion
  • 1/4 cup EVOO
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  1. Slice the yellow squash and onions
  2. In a bowl, add the squash, onions, EVOO, salt and pepper and mix through.
  3. Grill

Super easy sides of veggies fresh from the garden! How are your garden’s producing? If you have any fresh and easy veggie garden recipes, feel free to share!!

Wholesome Sweeteners Giveaway Winners!

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I want to thank Wholesome Sweeteners for supplying their products for this awesome giveaway and to all my readers that have participated.

What I did was count the comments starting at the top from 1 to 29 and plugged that into random.org.


The winners are of the 3 Wholesome Sweeteners Giveaway packages including Organic Raw Honey, Organic Turbinado Raw Cane Sugar and Fair Trade Raw Cane sugar from Malawi are…

  1. Number 21 – Jessica
  2. Number 18 – Amy
  3. Number 3 – Janis@earthlink


But Wait!! That’s not it!!

The reason I had asked what your favorite sweeteners to try out would be is because I wanted to share the sweets that Wholesome Sweeteners sent me. So, from the responses above I would like to give…

  • stephchows – 12oz package of Organic Zero and a box of 35 individual packets of Organic Zero.
  • buffmuffy – 16oz package of Organic Sucanata
  • EricG – 23.5 oz bottle of Organic Blue Agave and Organic Raw Blue Agave

Thanks so much for participating and I’m already looking forward to another giveaway in the future! To all people mentioned here, please email me your address so I can ship out some packages. diana@phileodesign.com

One Lovely Blog Award

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One of the greatest things about blogging is the many people throughout our world that I’ve had the priviledge to get to know and become friends with. One of these lovely ladies is Jenny from Hummingbird Appetite. She is such a sweet gal and has given me my first Lovely Blog Award!

Thank you Jenny!! What I love about this award is that there are no rules! It just came from someone who wanted to make me smile, and thank you Jenny, you’ve certainly accomplished that! I know there are no rules but I in turn wanted to lift someone else’s spirits who resides in my favorite place in the world. Liz, from La Cuisine, Quelle Aventure! You’d think France right? No, she’s actually from Spain!! Liz, is a talented teenager who loves to cook and speaks THREE languages! Spanish, French and English. She posts in all three languages! I know!! She’s a gem, so make sure and check this gal out!

Today is my last day for the Wholesome Sweeteners Giveaway! So if you havn’t already, you have until 12 noon today to leave me a comment! Good Luck!!