Posts by Liz

Twenty pounds of cherries

This morning, I bought 20 pounds of sweet cherries.

I have plans for these cherries.

I will freeze some, I will freeze cherry-basil syrup, I will make some cherry-basil frozen yogurt.

I will eat some of them fresh on this chocolate mousse.

This is just not any old chocolate mousse. This is Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse. This is so simple to make. The only “trick” to this chocolate mousse is that the cashews…YES, cashews!!! – need to be soaked for 6 hours. Other than, that…put all in the food processor and process until emulsified into mousse. For the record, I have not a thing against the heavy cream that is typically used to make a mousse. I LOVE heavy cream. But this version??? – it hits a bit higher on the nutrition chart and sacrifices NOT A THING, i.e. NOTHING… flavor-wise.

Top with fresh cherries, or rapsberries or whatever your chocolate-loving heart desires.

YUM.

*** I used Hershey’s Dark Cocoa in place of the raw cocoa….thus losing my place in the “raw vegan” society. Oh, well.

Eating from the garden: week 11

Raspberries!!! So good right off the bush and into my mouth!

There was a pint of raspberries in week 11’s garden bounty. I ate a few or so as I was washing them. I had a few in my before bedtime cereal and in my “get some food in my stomach” first thing in the morning cereal. And I grabbed a few every time I opened the frig.

And then there were none.

Sad, but true.

Elsewise, I continued as I have been: chard and kale and mushrooms sauteed on pizza, in scrambled eggs, over rice. Carrots and peas in pasta salad. Cilantro whizzed with tomatoes and green onions into pico de gallo. Basil whizzed with a bit of olive oil and frozen for winter pesto or ???. I shared some greens and carrots with my good neighbors and that was week 11 from the garden.

Other than food…a very full week which included motorhome maintenance (A/C and install of a new on board surge guard), dental surgery (canine tooth is gone and titanium implant in place awaiting healing and a brand new toof :)! ) and preparation for an assault on thistles, St. John’s Wort and a few other noxious weeds that have sprouted in unusual abundance in the woods :( …. AND a VERY full work schedule. All in all, a good and busy week. Bear, Bob and I are very much looking forward to a bit of relaxing this weekend after some necessary chores tomorrow (Saturday) – hopefully concluded by early afternoon.

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend to all of you from all of us.

But, what to me my love, what to me???

Yea, yea…the herbs go with my eyes…but…I notice there’s no catnip in there???

***Bob is not actually interested in catnip. My tuxedo cat, Gus (departed 8/14/2005) LOVED catnip…or more acurately, he went berserk over it and I think for him, it was a hallucinogen. Bob…no interest or reaction :)!

Another foray into gardening

There was a time when I planned to turn Beardog Hill into an herb garden. ( Herb Garden, Part 1 )

But, that was before it was Beardog Hill and since Bear has taken as much of a liking to it as Karl did… well, I think it will stay Beardog Hill! (Bear on Beardog Hill)

At my Swan River Road house, there was a gorgeous herb garden right in front of the front porch.

Sage, chives, mint…. I was spoiled by being able to skinkle down the front porch steps and nip off a few fresh herbs when I wanted.

The fresh basil and cilantro from Swallow Crest Farm have renewed my want of my own fresh herbs. Although I’ve been buying the live basil and fresh parsley and rosemary…the grocery store “fresh” herbs do NOT have the intense flavor that the basil and cilantro fresh out of the ground have.

So, this morning, needing nothing from the regular grocery, I whistled Bear to the Jeep and off we went to Hooper’s Nursery to see about some herbs.

Hoopers is loverly!! The day was beautiful. At 10:30 a.m. this Saturday morning, there were more employees than customers and I had a chance to speak to several and ask all of my questions.

The Hooper’s folks are as wonderful as their grounds are beautiful and I came home with…

Chives, rosemary, sweet basil and regular basil, parsley and lavender. Cilantro, peppermint and spearment will be ready next weekend.

My plan/hope is for container herbs…transportable container herbs that can go in the motorhome as well as into the house for winter.

We shall see.

My thumb’s greenness has not been tested for some time.

But all of the children have new homes in new pots with good soil. A red flyer wagon is on its way to allow moving the little ‘uns to and fro in and out of the sun as needed.

Whoo!!… After all of that…

I put my feet up and poured a glass of my favorite summer wine: Paradise dry pear wine from Ten Spoon Winery in Missoula, Montana. I am not normally a fan of non-grape wine and definitely not of sweet wines, but I love pears and it said “dry” so I tried it a bit ago. While a wee bit sweeter than my normal Chardonnay, it is still a dry, crisp wine with just a hint of pear. Well chilled, it is a refreshing sip on a hot day and it is from Montana :)!

‘gator dog and pizza on the grill

It is hot.

Well, for a Montanan, it is hot.

And for a Montana Beardog, it is VERY hot.

And a little more humid than is normal. And it makes us yawn…

And then it makes us roll on our back…

A beardog, rolling on his back in the grass…grunting and snorting…

I call him “Alligator Dog”…

“grumph…urg…phhtt”

It’s an alligator daaawwwgg!

And it feels so good.

‘gator dog

Yep!

And bringing up the rear of this post…a pizza on the grill that did not make the cut for the “Eating from the garden post”… lunch….some chard mushroom mix…

A hunk of my refigerator dough.

Lunch pizza. On the grill.

*** P.S. I write this post at 8:30ish p.m. I picked up my CSA share earlier…: week 11. It included a pint of RED RASPBERRIES!!! Hoo rah.

Eating from the garden: Week 10

Swallow Crest Farm, my CSA source, has fully recovered from the hailstorm damage of several weeks ago as evidenced by this week’s bounty of salad greens, kale, chard, baby carrots, peas, basil, cilantro and cauliflower! I bought only a red pepper and mushrooms from the produce section of the grocery this week!

I found a recipe for a chard and mushroom popover, made with gluten free garbanzo free flour. I downsized the recipe for my 5 inch mini deep pie dish, subbed gruyere for the provolone in the recipe and had a Sunday breakfast treat extraordinare!

Next time, I will add red pepper and kalamata olives as well but no complaints for this first round.

This week’s pasta salad used the garden peas, red pepper, olives, monterey jack and a dressing made with pesto (using the garden basil), a little mayo and some pickle juice.

The chard was beautiful and tender. Several times during the week, I gave a couple of leaves a chiffonade and sauteed them lightly with a few mushrooms.

I used some of the chard, mushroom mix with leftover ribeye, baked potato and some sweet onion to make a breakfast hash – a poached egg, bagel bun with goat cheese and my own citrus marmalade made for a darn hearty breakfast that held me until mid-afternoon one day.

My real experiment of the week was curry-cauliflower pickles. So pretty in the jars and they turned out sweet-HOT and crunchy. Seriously good alongside a hamburger sandich on English muffin bread (yes, MY english muffin bread!) and a slice of havarti.

Eating from the garden: week 10 – delicious!