Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

Mother’s Day weekend by bike

This year, we moved our Mother’s Day celebrations to Saturday to accommodate some Sunday gardening.  We enjoyed beautiful weather (sunny and 60s) all weekend long.

We started with a bike trip to Tower Grove Farmers’ Market.  Given the size of our garden, farmers’ market trips are fairly rare for us these days, more so for Matthew and Gabriel, who usually spend Saturdays at the garden, so being there as a family, soaking up all of the beauty that is local, small-scale produce, was a real treat!

We purchased asparagus and rhubarb in quantities to freeze, and then I headed to the playground with Sir, while Matthew biked a little farther for some goodness from La Pastisserie Chouquette: a bourbon pecan sticky bun and an almond and cheese-filled [pastry] pillow, shared three ways.

On our way home, we chose “the road less traveled [by bicyclists],” continuing south on Kingshighway (a major north-south arterial in StL, two lanes each direction with a center turn lane) for most of our return trip, rather than diverting to smaller neighborhood streets after using the bigger road for a short stretch, as is our habit.

It’s not what I’d do every time, but for duo biking, it worked like a charm, and was much more pleasant than our route on the way there.  Plenty of space for us and other road users, two stops at stop lights as compared to over ten stop signs . . .  what’s not to love?

As we neared our turn, we heard a honk (the only honk we received in over a mile).  I would have thought nothing of it, shrugging it off as a the proverbial “territorial barking dog motorist,” but the man pulled up next to us with his window down and very sincerely praised our good work “claiming the lane.”  Talk about a great end to a lovely bike outing!!!

After a low-key afternoon (and blanching and freezing the asparagus), Matthew made a special dinner — spanikopita, using pie crust (super light and flaky thanks to his pastry chef skills!) instead of phyllo dough.

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I enjoyed some solo time on actual Mother’s Day, which included two more bike rides.  I once again had a nice interaction with a motorist, when, stopped at a light in the through lane, the woman in the minivan in the right turn only lane next to me rolled down her window and very politely said that she just realized she was in the wrong lane and could she get in front of me.  Why, yes, and thank you for asking!

‘Twas a weekend of abundant good, weather, good spirits, and biking!  Hope your weekend was lovely as well.

Friday facts

First up, if you haven’t already, check out Her Green Life’s snazzy new Facebook page.  I’ve resisted creating one for awhile, but I decided to give it a trial run, as another way for you to stay up-to-date on posts here.  Simply “Like” the page to stay in the loop!

Employment, or lack thereof
I’ve now been unemployed for over nine months.  Unlike the results of nine months of pregnancy, nothing special happens after nine months of being unemployed.  However, if we did have a fourth family member, we would qualify for food stamps on our one-job income.  Interesting, no?  (But definitely NOT incentive to have another child!)

That said, I have a job interview on Monday — fingers crossed!

Sir’s summer
Regardless of what happens with the interview, Sir will resume part-time child care starting sometime in June.  It’s something I’ve been pondering for awhile.  It should be good for his social development and my sanity.  The hardest part for me is giving up control of nap time, meals, etc.

Prior to that, Sir will travel with Baba (grandma) to Florida.  It’s bittersweet because I’ll miss his first time in the ocean, but it means I’ll have over a week child-free!  Look for some long-overdue posts that I’ve been meaning to write.

In the garden
The cooler, rainy spring means slow growth for most everything.  Our pea plants (snow and sugar snap) are quite stunted, and, in general, most everything (other than the weeds) is behind given the cooler, rainy spring.

However, after a crazy weeknight gardening blitz, we have seventy, yes, 7-0, tomato plants in the ground.  Grow, babies, grow!

Two-wheeled report
And, last, but certainly not least, sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll be embarking on an exciting bike-related project, as well as a new phase in my bike-commuting journey.  Stay tuned!

Broiled asparagus

During the summer between my junior and senior years of college, I worked as a live-in nanny for a family in New Jersey.  Food-wise, it was a summer of firsts for me.  I’d never been big on seafood (perhaps rightfully so, having grown up in the Midwest), but in those months living on the East Coast, I enjoyed trying scallops and various types of fish.

My seafood eating days were short lived, as I became a vegetarian and stopped eating meat and seafood entirely a few months into my senior year of college.  However, not all was lost from that summer, food-inspiration-wise, as the family I worked for introduced me to the joy of broiled (or grilled) asparagus.

While enjoyable (if not overcooked), steamed or boiled asparagus doesn’t hold a candle to the broiled version.  I’ve used this preparation for every single stalk of our delicious, if modest, asparagus harvest this year (minus those stalks nibbled raw).  Sir usually devours his portion and begs for more from our plates.

Asparagus is in-season NOW, so head to the nearest farmers’ market this weekend, and enjoy some fresh, locally grown goodness!

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Broiled Asparagus

Ingredients
5-8 asparagus spears per person
Olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper, garlic powder (optional)

Directions
Break off bottom half-inch of asparagus stalks and discard.  Place clean, dry asparagus in a single layer on a broiler tray.  Preheat broiler.

Brush asparagus stalks with generous olive oil, then sprinkle lightly with sea salt and other seasonings, if desired.

Cook under hot broiler for 10-12 minutes, stirring once to turn the stalks.  Serve immediately.

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Toaster oven vs. Oven vs. Grill
If you’re preparing 1-3 servings, a toaster oven is the perfect tool.  It heats up quickly without heating the entire house.  A counter-top grill functions similarly.  For a larger crowd, fire up the broiler in your regular oven.

A hot grill produces a similar effect to the broiler, with the addition of a smoky flavor. We don’t use the grill all that often, and it’s not worth firing it up just to cook asparagus.  If you’re grilling other food anyway, this is a great option — just toss the spears directly on the grill (perpendicular to the grates so the spears don’t fall into the fire).

Bed bugs: False alarm?

A friend reminded me yesterday that I kind-of left things hanging on the bed bug front.  When I last wrote, we had found an unknown insect on our wall and were waiting for the exterminator to come take a look at our place.

We determined, and the exterminator confirmed, that the insect we found on our wall was, in fact, not a bed bug.  It looked like nothing quite so much as a large tick, although what a tick was doing hanging out on our dining room wall, I don’t know.

Anyhow, the exterminator came and did a fairly thorough visual inspection of our mattress and foundation, and a more cursory inspection of the rest of the apartment, and found nothing — no bed bugs or signs thereof.  As a precaution, he put dust mite covers (which apparently also keep bed bugs in or out) on both our mattress and foundation, and left two traps near the bed.

That was almost two weeks ago, and so far nothing in our traps (or in those in the downstairs apartment).  The exterminator also found no bugs or blood stains downstairs.  He did find what he claimed were bed bug molts, but no one else actually saw the evidence, and I have my suspicions.

We’re also had a few more conversations with our downstairs neighbors, and, unless there is something they are not telling us, it seems like the case for bed bugs is VERY circumstantial, with nothing more than a few bug bites that could have just as easily come from mosquitoes or spiders, and the exterminator’s claim of bed bug molts.

I’ve noticed several occasions recently where their bedroom window was open several inches without the screen in place, and mosquitoes have been alive and well here since early March, so mosquito bites seem quite plausible.  (Bats entering the apartment also seems quite plausible, but, hey, at least they’d eat the mosquitoes, right?)

If our neighbors took any trips or brought something suspicious into the building recently to make them suspect bed bugs, they have not shared that information with us, so from my point of view, it seems we may have had a false alarm.

On the other hand, bed bugs can be anywhere, as evidenced by my friend’s story of a library in a small town in Iowa, where her brother-in-law is a librarian, that treats all returned library books with some kind of UV treatment for bed bugs.

Anyway, the claim downstairs is enough to disturb our peace of mind, and we’re considering paying for a bed bug sniffing dog to check the place, though even that would probably not tell us anything with 100% certainty . . . .

Weekend by bike

I spent Friday night and Saturday co-teaching CyclingSavvy.  Given the wet forecast, Saturday’s on-bike sessions seemed touch-and-go for awhile, but in the end we had a [mostly] dry, if chilly, day.

By chilly, I mean I was wearing three layers on bottom and four on top and fighting not to shiver constantly (in retrospect, they were rather light layers).

Having learned from our test ride how exhausting biking to the class location, riding the route, and then biking home could be, I planned a multimodal trip, hopping on Metro (with my bike on the bus’s rack) to start the day, shaving three miles off my total.

Despite a bit of ambivalence about heading out on a chilly damp Saturday (I was already planning a day of hibernating and baking if we canceled class), once we got going, I couldn’t have been happier.  We had a great class, and both the parking lot session and the road tour went very well.

Demonstrating the danger of a door zone bike lane
Demonstrating the danger of a door zone bike lane

I planned to use the same bike-bus strategy on my way home, and I arrived at the bus stop, at what I thought was almost exactly the time the bus would arrive, so looking forward to loading my bike on the bus and sitting down for ten minutes.

As I biked the last couple of blocks to the bus stop, I realized I was warm for the first time all day.  As in, too warm.  After I arrived at the bus stop and ascertained that the bus’s arrival was not imminent, I set out to remove some layers.

Unfortunately, my sexy striptease as I removed my rain pants to reveal my cycling tights was hampered by the fact that I had not first removed my ankle bands.  Striptease fail.

For better or worse, I soon realized that I’d looked at the time incorrectly, and I’d be waiting awhile for that comfy bus seat.  As much as I was ready to collapse, the idea of actually being underway and [maybe] getting home sooner than I would if I waited for the bus won.

I hopped back on the bike for the final three miles.  I arrived feeling mentally invigorated, but physically exhausted, like my [then] upcoming birthday that ends in a zero was 9-0 or perhaps even 1-0-0.

My do-nothing plans for Sunday were somewhat foiled due to a lack of milk and sugar.  After hearing Matthew debate making the less-than-a-mile-away grocery run by car, I sucked it up, put on my rain gear, and biked to the store.

Fortunately, the rest of the day was lower key, and did, indeed, involve baking, and eating the delicious results — zucchini bread and chocolate heaven cake with dreamsicle butter cream frosting.