Category Archives: Food

Blueberry boy

So, I did it.  I sucked it up and went blueberry picking with my toddler.

The night before, I posted this to Facebook:

Torn about taking G blueberry picking tomorrow. It would be easier w/o him, and I wouldn’t have to worry about nap timing if I leave him behind. Someone tell me it will be okay if I take him?

I was really on the fence.  I liked the idea of sharing the experience with him, but I was fairly sure I would accomplish more without him, and I really don’t like messing with nap time.  Some things are sacrosanct, and nap and bed times fall into that category around here!  And I could always take him next summer, right?

But I was going to have my MIL along to help, so I went for it.  Unfortunately, I didn’t plan well, so Tuesday morning found me madly running around the house, trying to get our lunch packed, self dressed, potty and some toys packed . . . . I really almost called the whole thing off then and there, and the first five minutes in the car, on the way to meet my MIL were no better.  Whiny toddler, still-stressed and frazzled mama — not a pretty picture.  I forced myself to take a few deep breaths and just drive.

Anyway, my game plan was to start early and tire the little Pookle out enough during the morning that he would nap in the car on the way back (car napping = often not his strong suit).

The blueberry patch was already hopping by the time we arrived (and unfortunately, already fairly picked over — there were, technically, plenty of blueberries out there, but at this stage, it took longer to pick a given amount).

As expected, Gabriel went right to work, picking and eating blueberries.  I love that my not-quite 3-year-old totally knows how to identify ripe berries.

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My goals for the morning were to pick 5-6 gallons of blueberries and keep G from turning into a blueberry, a la Violet Beauregard in Willy Wonka.

Turns out the second was more of a success than the first.  After about twenty minutes of Sir eating everything he picked (and asking for contributions from us), I stumbled across “construction site blueberry picking.”

My big bucket was the dump truck, and Sir’s little bucket was the backhoe scoop.  His mission was to fill the backhoe scoop with berries, and dump them into the dump truck.  This game yielded almost an hour of picking and [mostly] not eating!

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In the end, given the not-so-great picking conditions, my MIL and I, combined, only picked about 4.5 gallons of berries.  She’s planning a trip to Wisconsin and hopes to find more berries there, so she very generously gave all her pickings to us.  Still short of my goal, but not bad!

My nap plan sort-of worked: within 5 minutes of leaving the blueberry farm, G was snoring in the backseat.  However, I made my plan thinking that the farm was about 90 minutes from home, instead of the 50 minutes it actually is (I was aware of the corrected driving time, and thus reduced nap time, going into it).  I knew he would almost certainly wake up when we exited the interstate, but I wasn’t willing to drive extra just to extend the nap.  A 35-minute nap is NOT ideal, but better than nothing!

Recent eats and recipe: Lentil Fennel Soup

The garden is bountiful these days: loads of red and black raspberries, bunches of greens, big bulbs of fennel, and sweet, crunchy sugar snap peas.

I love eating the sugar snap peas as-is (and so does Sir), but we have enough that I felt like experimenting, so I tried this sugar snap salad recipe.  Fortunately, I had grabbed some mint from my MIL’s yard, so I was good to go (I didn’t have shallots, so I just substituted some onion).  It was a snap to make and tasty, too!

Next up, marinated fennel.  I started this on the same afternoon that I made the pea salad, planning to give the fennel a nice long marinade before using it for the next day’s dinner.  It just so happened that the fennel marinade in the recipe I wanted to try was almost identical to the dressing for the pea salad, so I just made extra and tossed it on the fennel.

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The next night, the marinated fennel paired with fresh mozzarella and grilled bread for a satisfying, summery sandwich (recipe here), shown above in a deconstructed, bread salad version that I tossed together for a picnic dinner later in the week.

We’re awash in fennel right now, so I created a lentil soup recipe to make use of the fennel, as well as some greens.

LENTIL FENNEL SOUP WITH WILD RICE
Recipe by Melissa

Ingredients

One large bulb of fennel
1-2 T. butter1-2 T. olive oil
Chopped garlic scapes or minced garlic
Oregano (dried or fresh)
1/4 t. tumeric
1/2 t. onion powder
1 t. salt
1 c. dry lentils
1/2 c. wild rice
3-4 c. loosely packed fresh spinach, washed and chopped

Directions

Cover wild rice with 2 c. water.  Bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer for 60 minutes.

Cook lentils in 4-5 cups water.  The extra cooking water will become part of the broth for the soup.  Once at a boil, simmer for about 15 minutes until tender, but not mushy.

Meanwhile, quarter fennel (discarding tough core, if present), then chop into bite size pieces.  Sauté fennel in butter and olive oil, with a bit of salt, about 10 minutes over medium heat.  Add the garlic or scapes and sauté an additional minutes, then turn off heat.

Puree about 1/3 of the cooked lentils and 1/3 of the cooked fennel with some of the extra lentil “broth.”  Combine puree and all remaining ingredients in a large pan.  Check salt and seasoning level, and adjust as desired.  Simmer 2-3 minutes to wilt spinach.

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This was good the first night, but, as is the way of soups and stews, it tasted even better for lunch two days later, after the flavors had time to meld.

 

Linguini with rhubarb and carmelized onions

I visited my family in Iowa over Memorial Day weekend, and, upon arrival, I discovered a treasure trove of magazines.  I’m a closet magazine junkie — I love reading books, but there’s just something about sitting and flipping through a magazine that feels fun and indulgent.

I don’t subscribe to any magazines myself, between the environmental and monetary costs.  I could get more magazines from the library, but I don’t.  Anyhow, I indulged in magazine fest while at home: Self, Health, Parents, and Better Homes and Gardens.  (My mom sent some back to StL with me, so the mag-fest continues!)

The May issue of BHG had a whole section of rhubarb recipes, including several savory dishes, and the rhubarb linguini caught my eye.  Once back in StL, I was on garden duty while my boys and MIL were in Florida, and, lo and behold, we had rhubarb to harvest.

I started out by more or less following the recipe as printed.  My garden harvest also included a ton of greens, so I made a side of sauteed spinach with carmelized onions to go with my pasta.  Turns out that was an good move, as the sweetness of the carmelized onions was just what this recipe needed to balance out the tart rhubarb!

It’s been for. ev. er. since I’ve posted a recipe.  Sorry about that, and here you go!

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LINGUINI WITH RHUBARB AND CARMELIZED ONIONS

Recipe by Melissa, adapted from BHG May 2014
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
12 oz. whole wheat linguini
2 c. thinly sliced onion
4 c. loosely packed spinach or kale
3 c. 1/4-inch thick slices rhubarb
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
4-6 oz. freshly grated Parmesean cheese
1 T. dried parsley
chopped fresh parsley

Directions
Carmelize the onions.  While the onions cook, start working on the other steps.

Wash and chop the spinach.  If you haven’t already chopped the rhubarb, chop the rhubarb.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  While waiting for the water to boil, grate the cheese and chop the garlic.

Cook the pasta according to package directions for al dente noodles.  One minute before the pasta is finished, remove one cup of pasta cooking water and reserve.  Toss the chopped rhubarb in the pot with the pasta, cook one more minute, and drain.

Sauté the garlic in olive oil in the hot, now-empty pasta pan.  Add spinach and carmelized onions.  Add the pasta and rhubarb.

Lower the heat, and add the cheese, dried parsley, and reserved pasta water.  Mix until well combined.  Turn heat to medium, and cook, stirring constantly, for two minutes.

Garnish with fresh parsley and freshly ground black pepper to serve.

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This was tasty the first night, but I think it tasted better the second time around, after the rhubarb mellowed a bit and the flavors had a chance to mingle.

 

 

Strawberry freezer jam: More fruit, less sugar

I have fond memories of helping my mom make freezer jam from berries we grew or bought, including strawberries, black raspberries, and red raspberries.

My MIL makes lovely cooked jams/jellies/preserves, but I wanted to carry on my family’s tradition, so a few years ago, with a bumper crop of red raspberries, I bought some Sure Jell (fruit pectin) and started jamming.

Rewind!  Did that recipe call for three cups of crushed raspberries and over FIVE cups of sugar?!?  I wasn’t making berry jam, I was making berry-flavored sugar goo.  Okay in small quantities, I guess, but not something I really want to consume frequently.

Unfortunately, traditional fruit pectin, like Sure Jell, relies on the sugar to work.  If you reduce the sugar when using Sure Jell, you’ll get a runny, improperly jelled jam or jelly, also no good.

A little hunting led me to Pomona’s Universal Pectin.  This pectin is activated by calcium, so you can use much less sugar, but still have well-jelled jam.

We have lots of strawberries coming in now, so I took advantage of the opportunity to try my first batch of freezer jam with Pomona’s pectin.

Here’s a comparison of fruit and sugar need to make five cups of jam with the two types of pectin*:

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That means that the fruit:sugar ratio is 4:1, or four times as much fruit as sugar, using Pomona’s Pectin, but a frightening 1:2, or twice as much sugar as fruit, when using Sure Jell.

I carefully followed the package instructions for freezer jam that came with the Pomona’s pectin, and I’m happy to report that I have almost six cups of lovely strawberry freezer jam, with 1/4 the sugar (compared to making jam with Sure Jell).

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Pomona’s Pectin is noticeably more expensive than other fruit pectins (and less widely available — check with your local health food store or WF; I’m pretty sure Local Harvest Grocery carries it, for StL folks), but it’s worth it to have a final product that is healthier and filled mostly with fruit rather than mostly with sugar!  I’m looking forward to testing it with raspberries in a few more weeks.

UPDATE (5/29/14): I went back and sampled some jam after twelve hours in the freezer.  Compared to the Sure Jell recipe, the jam made with Pomona’s froze a lot harder (i.e., more difficult to get out of the jar).  Scientifically, this makes sense: sugar lowers the freezing point, so the higher sugar Sure Jell jam freezes less hard than the lower sugar Pomona’s jam.  I think it’s worth the trade-off for a healthier jam, but I wanted to give a heads-up.

* The instructions with the Pomona pectin gave a range of sugar, from 3/4 c. to 2 c. to use for this amount of fruit.  I stuck to the lower end of that range, using perhaps a slightly generous cup of sugar.

 

Garden update: May 2014

The cold winter and chilly start to spring delayed some things in the garden, but never fear — gardening is happening!

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The garlic survived the cold winter, and is growing well.  The spring crops (beets, carrots, peas, cruciferous, greens, onions) are growing, but slowly.  If we continue to have a hot May, the spinach and many of the cruciferous veggies may bolt before yielding much.

Most of the summer harvest crops are in the ground: tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, green beans, and squash.  We are still babying the eggplant seedlings here, in pots, trying to get them large enough to stay ahead of the flea beetles.  And we’re awaiting our shipment of sweet potato slips, but those can go in the ground any time now.

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Just a few quick pics — if you want the “fancy” version of the spring garden tour, see this post from two years ago.

We went from a few weeks of small asparagus and arugula harvests, to this past weekend, when Matthew returned home with the asparagus, plus bags of kale, collards, and rapa (another green you cook), AND over five pounds of arugula (most of which he sold to Local Harvest).

The strawberries are set, and some are starting to blush.  If Sir is lucky, some will ripen before he leaves for Florida next week.  If the birds decide to share, it looks like we might have a decent harvest of tart cherries this spring, as well.

How does your garden grow?  What crop are you particularly excited about this year?